Prominent Santa Barbara County Democrat Daraka Larimore-Hall has lost his re-election bid for vice chairman of the California Democratic Party.
Larimore-Hall placed second, earning 1,004 votes, or 34.6% of the vote. David Campos, an attorney and former member of the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors, won the seat with 1,898 votes, or 65.4%.
Larimore-Hall, who grew up on Santa Barbara’s Westside in the Ladera apartments, is credited with infusing sweeping power into the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party in the early 2000s.
A former chairman of the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party, Larimore-Hall ushered in a new era of young, progressive leaders who created a new power base. Only a handful of Democratic elected officials have won office in the past 20 years without the endorsement of the Democratic Party.
Larimore-Hall told Noozhawk that he “pissed off some powerful people, that’s the bottom line.”
He started out with support among party leaders and activists but became a controversial figure after he filed a complaint in November 2019 accusing then-statewide party chairman Eric Bauman of sexual misconduct and harassment. Larimore-Hall sought Bauman’s removal. The complaint prompted a larger investigation by the Los Angeles Times, and Bauman eventually resigned.
Along the way, however, Larimore-Hall lost favor.
He said the “cover-up related to former Chair Bauman” and ongoing “structural racism and a power grab by legislative leaders” diminished his influence.
“I always tried to speak truth to power,” Larimore-Hall said. “That has a price in politics.”
He also posted a response on his Facebook page.
“Well, I lost, along with the others up against the chair’s openly secret slate,” Larimore-Hall wrote. “I have tried to do a bunch of things while retaining the majority I had at the start of my term: be absolutely and openly progressive and social democratic in my policy positions, hold the new Bernie left accountable for its own behavior, stand up for the Party organization against the power of elected officials, and help the Party reform. At the beginning, I did this balancing act with a good relationship with the Chair and the Legislative leadership.”
Larimore-Hall added: “What a silly idea it was to attempt transformation without either a well organized base or structural power tied to the office.”
He said he will continue to work for party reform.
“If I have any predictions, it is that the new administration will pour cold water on real reform by talking about what a great team they are, and create more symbolic positions that will quench our thirst for representation without distributing power,” Larimore-Hall wrote.
Larimore-Hall sought the chair’s position in 2019 but lost to Rusty Hicks.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
