By Steven T. Jones
So the Bay Area’s best and brightest liberals continue to leave the Democratic Party in frustration, the most recent being gubernational candidate, author, and anti-death penalty activist Barbara Becnel, who fought for years to help redeem and save Tookie Williams, who Californians executed last year. When she switched from Dem to Green last week — with Green gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo at her side — she blasted the leaders of her old party for “allowing race and class bias to dishonor the Democratic Party.” Becnel, a black woman, is part of a trend of people of color jumping ship because the Democrats have failed to take strong and principled stands against war, capital punishment, and a range of other economic and social justice issues. She said the party “has transformed itself from Dixiecrats to Richiecrats — money counts, equal treatment does not.”