California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, center, and Congressman Adam Schiff at the Veterans Day Ceremony at McCambridge Park War Memorial in Burbank on Monday November 12, 2012.

California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, center, and Congressman Adam Schiff at the Veterans Day Ceremony at McCambridge Park War Memorial in Burbank on Monday November 12, 2012. (Tim Berger/Staff photographer / January 16, 2013)

January 16, 2013 | 9:45 a.m.
A vote on delegates to the Democratic State Convention has led to some acrimony, with the head of the Burbank teachers union accusing Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silverlake) of using heavy-handed tactics to win.

A slate of candidates endorsed by Gatto to serve as delegates from his Assembly district to the convention won Monday after the leader of a competing slate of candidates was a no-show.

Lori Adams, president of the Burbank Teachers Assn. and one of the candidates on the competing slate, cried foul. "There was no need to use the intimidation and threats that you used toward the leader of our slate and endorsed school board candidate, Steve Ferguson, in order to eliminate our slate altogether," Adams wrote in a letter to Gatto. "I find this action to be contrary to our democratic principles."

Continue readning >>

-- Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times