County liberals' day in the sun

Liberals in Sonoma County on Wednesday found themselves in what many described as an unusual place: out of the political wilderness and in step with the nation's politics for the first time in more than a decade.

"These are exciting times, we all feel that just about anything is possible," said Alice Chan of Sebastopol, a member of the Progressive Democrats of Sonoma County and the Sonoma County Democratic Party.

"I think that there's some tremendous opportunities for us here," said Marty Bennett, a Santa Rosa Junior College historian active in the North Bay's labor, environmental and living-wage movements.

"I think there's real opportunity for us to connect on the local level with what's going on at the national level," Bennett said, citing issues ranging from creating well-paying "green jobs" to stronger labor laws to a nationwide public works plan.

For local Democrats, the political vista now extends like a straight blue line through a Democratic majority in Congress to President Barack Obama in the White House.

"The people I work for in the 6th Congressional District can see their priorities as a possibility now," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who chairs the House Progressive Caucus.

That's a promise of political relevance local Democrats haven't enjoyed since Bill Clinton's 1992 election gave them a short-lived control of Congress and the White House for the first time since 1980.

Riding high on those newly lifted hopes, local Democrats on Wednesday said their goals reflect a national consensus expressed in Tuesday's voting.

Almost to a person, they want:

An economic stimulus plan, hinged on a large federal investment in public works -- akin to the New Deal programs launched during the Great Depression.

Health-care reform that limits costs and extends insurance to 48 million Americans without it.

Withdrawal from Iraq.

An energy plan that emphasizes developing alternative sources over fossil fuels.

"It's my expectation that he will achieve those things," said Stephen Gale, chair of the Sonoma County Democratic Party.

"Personally, I think that the first focus is very likely to be implementing a tax decrease for the middle class and creating an economic jump start for the middle class, and I think that bodes well for Sonoma County," Gale said.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said reviving the economy "is the number one thing we have to be dealing with."

"The stimulus that makes the most sense," he said, "is one that focuses on capital projects. We have a lot of projects that are ready to go today, all we need to do is write the check."

Close behind, he said, should be health care reform, which could return money to Americans' pockets by lowering costs.

Some observers and activists cautioned -- if for very different reasons -- against too much optimism.

"What you see in Sonoma County is a vote of hope, a vote of possibility, a vote for what a President Obama could or should do," said Dave McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist.

"What Woolsey and Thompson and other politicos in Washington are faced with is what's possible. And that's a far cry from what could or should happen," McCuan said.

Without a filibuster-proof majority -- something Democrats didn't achieve Tuesday -- Obama may be hampered in achieving ambitious long-term reforms in areas such as health care or energy policy, he said.

Obama, McCuan said, will have to "do something serious, that shows results fast and won't saddle you like health care reform," a challenge President Clinton took on in his first term and failed dramatically at.

For other liberals, Obama's election, while bringing a welcome change from the Bush administration, still falls short.

"I do not think we can have meaningful change within our current two-party system," said Susan Lamont, president of the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County.

"The Democratic Party is a master at accepting the votes of progressives and liberals and then marginalizing their issues," Lamont said.

"I worry that people within our community will become complacent, that there will be a tendency to cut Obama a lot of slack and wait and see where he goes," Lamont said.

Likewise, Laura Gonzalez of Santa Rosa, a middle-school teacher and vice chairwoman of the Sonoma County Latino Democratic Club, said progressives will have to keep the pressure on to get what they want.

"We have to keep Obama on the hot seat, because he'll be hampered by having to placate different interests," she said.

Beyond an economic stimulus plan that focuses on the middle class, Gonzalez said, she most wants Obama to act to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

About 255 prisoners, suspected of terrorism, are now held in the prison under largely secret conditions that human rights activists have said are inhumane and in violation of U.S. and international law.

"It puts a stain on the United States, on our conscience, that we are engaging in things that are clearly against the Constitution," Gonzalez said.

Such hopes are the stuff that progressives such as Woolsey, for one, have staked their turf on. On Wednesday, sounding a note of political caution, she said she and other progressives have their work cut out for them.

"Barack Obama did not run as a progressive, he did not run as a liberal, he ran as a very centrist guy," she said.

The job of progressive Democrats, Woolsey said, "is to continually remind the president-elect where his base is."