UPDATE: Another Member of California's African American Caucus Drops His Endorsement Of Betsy Butler For SD-26 Race

Assemblymember Isadore Hall (D-Compton) announced today he would rescind his endorsement of Betsy Butler in her race to replace Ted Lieu in California Senate District 26.

In a press release, Hall cited Butler's treatment of former opponent Autumn Burke as his primary reason for pulling his endorsement. “I was deeply disappointed by Betsy Butler’s attempt to block Assembly candidate Autumn Burke from receiving the endorsement of the California Democratic Party at the pre-endorsement conference last month,” said Hall.  “Although I respect Betsy and have always enjoyed a good working relationship with her, I can no longer support her campaign for State Senate.”

As we reported on Friday, Butler issued a press release in February claiming the endorsement of a number of African-American electeds, some of which she apparently never had - including those of Assemblymembers Steve Bradford and Chris Holden.

UPDATE: 

Assemblymember Chris Holden just issued a press release also clarifying his endorsement regarding Betsy Butler's candidacy in the SD-26 race.

Like Assemblymember Hall,  Holden cited Butler’s bid to seek the Democratic Party’s endorsement for both the Senate seat and the 62nd district Assembly seat, which prevented other Democrats in the 62nd district from having a legitimate shot at receiving the party’s nod, as the reason for withdrawing his support.

“Your actions have barred any candidate from having the California Democratic party’s endorsement for the June primary. As such, I will be withdrawing my support for your State Senate race.”

Holden said the public announcement of his withdrawal was needed in light of the Butler campaign’s refusal to acknowledge a letter he sent the campaign stating he would no longer endorse the candidate and their continued use of his name in their communications.

SD26 Candidate Betsy Butler Misrepresents Endorsements From California's African American Caucus

In an effort to bolster her support amongst African American voters in California's Senate District 26, freshly-announced candidate Betsy Butler touted endorsements from an impressive number of SoCal's African American Caucus.

"She has a wide range of support from elected and community leaders," her February 12 press release touted. "including.... Assemblymembers Steve Bradford, Isadore Hall, Chris Holden, Reggie Jones-Sawyer and Shirley Weber."

The only problem? At least in the case of Chris Holden, and most likely Steve Bradford, those endorsements were either never given, or were pulled after Butler refused to recuse herself from the California Democratic Party's AD62 endorsement process when she withdrew from that race to run for Ted Lieu's state Senate seat.

By keeping her name in hat for the AD62 CADEM endorsement even though she was no longer running for that seat, Butler effectively blocked the front-running African-American candidate, Autumn Burke, from receiving the party's blessing.

According to my sources, it was a move seen as needlessly insensitive and divisive, and a number of African American electeds pulled their endorsements as a result.

I have written confirmation that Chris Holden's office will be issuing a correction to the Sacramento Bee's "Morning Report" tomorrow. Sources close to Bradford say he has also withdrawn his endorsement.