According to the group's website, the organization, which coordinates the activities of Democratic clubs statewide, is the only one of its kind in the United States.
[2] After Cranston, its founding President, CDC has also been headed by Joseph Wyatt, Tom Carvey, Simon Casady, Gerald Hill, John L. Burton (former State Senate President Pro Tem and Congressman, and former Chair of the official California Democratic Party organization), Nathan Holden, Wallace Albertson, Lia Triff Belli, Robert W. Farran, African-American leader Quincy Beaver, State Party Secretary Jim Clarke, DNC member Chris Stampolis, Henry Vandermeir, Emilie Gatfield, Hilary Crosby, and since November 2019, Iyad Afalqa, who is the Chair Emeritus of the CDP Arab American Caucus.
President John F. Kennedy said: "I have always regarded the California Democratic Council as one of the United States’ most important centers of citizen participation in politics.
In 1964, CDC endorsed the US Senate candidacy of its founding father, Alan Cranston, but he lost the Democratic nomination to former Kennedy Press Secretary Pierre Salinger - who was later defeated by George Murphy, the Republican nominee, in the General election.
Cranston's sister later concluded that this rift with the Democratic leadership marked the beginning of CDC's decline.