Party unity may be a tougher sell than some leaders had hoped, if California's delegate breakfast Monday was a harbinger of things to come: Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders booed and heckled nearly every speaker at the mention of the Clinton-Kaine ticket.
The breakfast, which featured speeches from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, East Bay Rep. Barbara Lee and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and others, was surprisingly raucous. Even Lee, a progressive who made it a point not to endorse this year until the primary between Sanders and Clinton was over, was the target of jeers.
But Pelosi wasn't fazed, noting she was a Jerry Brown delegate in 1976 when she and others thought they could take the nomination from Jimmy Carter.
"This is nothing new. People get excited about the campaigns that they are in, and it doesn't turn off the day the determination is made," she said. "You know what? It's the Democratic Party. We have never been a monolith. We have always tried to reach consensus, but unanimity ... is just an impossibility for any party."
Debra Mayes, a Sanders delegate from Los Angeles and a poll worker in the June primary, said she and other Sanders supporters are unhappy with the way the election went. She was among the people chanting "count our votes" as Padilla spoke. She said voter education was almost "nonexistent" -- for example, independent voters didn't understand that they needed to request a Democratic ballot. She added that poll workers in Los Angeles County were improperly trained, and that she witnessed multiple voters being forced to cast a provisional ballot even though they didn't ask to be absentee voters.