I Tried to Ban Police Money from the Fresno Democratic Party. Now They Want to Remove Me.

A personal statement from Emily Cameron, member of the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee.

This afternoon at 2:10 p.m. I received a direct message on Twitter from GV Wire “reporter” David Taub, informing me that the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee’s Executive Board voted last night to initiate removal proceedings against me and it would appear on the September 2 agenda before the larger body. I was already aware that the FCDCC executive board was going to vote on this issue last night at their 5:30 p.m. meeting in closed executive session — meaning nobody but the executive board members themselves would be allowed to listen in or speak. As of 4:03 p.m. today, August 20th, the FCDCC Executive Board has not notified me of this decision nor the allegations against me that would justify removal for cause.

Let me be clear: I have not done anything worthy of removal and I personally feel this action is being taken against me as retribution for making two attempts at banning police contributions from the Fresno County Democratic Party. I fully believe that had I stayed silent in the face of this injustice, nobody would try to remove me from this position. I am also known as the creator of whotakescopmoney.com which shows various elected officials and political entities’ donations from police. My position on police contributions remains the same: I do not believe anyone can truly support Black Lives Matter while accepting donations from law enforcement organizations. I also do not believe it is possible to support immigrants while accepting donations from law enforcement organizations. (You can read here about the law enforcement donation drama in the Fresno County Democratic Party.)

I think it is very fascinating that a reporter for GV Wire was notified of an action that occurred less than 24 hours ago during a confidential executive session.

I blocked David Taub, by the way.

On Tuesday at 2:44 p.m., David Taub messaged me that he heard there would be an “upheaval” on the Central Committee, and I did not know what he was talking about. I then got a message from a bizarre anonymous Twitter account called FresnoEmily — my Twitter handle is emilyfresno.

The FresnoEmily account told me to check the executive board agenda at 6:11 p.m.; I then asked David Taub if that was him messaging me anonymously, and then I told him he must have been telling someone else that I did not know what he was talking about regarding an “upheaval” — that’s why you see his message above claiming he protects his sources.

I am very concerned that removal proceedings for the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee are essentially being filtered through the right-wing news outlet GV Wire, which is owned by Granville Homes/Darius Assemi. Granville Homes is a very powerful real estate developer and property management company that decided they needed to also become a news outlet. Granville Homes frequenly reports on politics and has hosted city council candidate forums before. Somehow, it is rarely mentioned that Granville and their owners/partners/etc are major donors to various political candidates and elected officials in the Central Valley — including candidates endorsed by police associations.

I hope that my fellow Democratic Central Committee members will see this for what it is: an unnecessary political attack on an outspoken activist. If Democrats want “party unity” in November, kicking out the lone socialist from leadership is not the way to go about it. This action will send a message to every leftist, socialist, progressive and so forth that the Democratic Party is hostile to change and social movements. I encourage Fresno County Democratic Central Committee members to think about what type of party we want to be and how it will look to boot out a young, LGBTQ+, disabled Ecuadorian-American woman who wants justice for people killed by police.