Asm. Hector De La Torre: No More Large Cash Payments to Candidate Coffers

Assemblyman (5.00 / 1)

Don Perata took his own money that was already put into his campaign account and transferred it into his legal defense fund.  This bylaw change may deal with the Nunez situation, but it seems like fighting the last war.  The problem, of course, is the hands-off attitude of the CDP with respect to these candidate accounts, allowing legislative leaders to control the money pot for initiative and legislative elections, relinquishing accountability over that money.  Come up with a solution to that.

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by: David Dayen @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 17:52:42 PM UTC

Don't forget the county accounts... (0.00 / 0)

...that's where a whole lot of the shell game resides, for better or for worse. Just take a gander on the SoS's site, do a FPPC search, and look at some of last year's higher profile Assembly races.

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by: SPD @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 20:14:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Interesting email (0.00 / 0)

I received this email over the weekend, and while he/she should have signed it(and shown more tact), it does raise some interesting questions:

Dear Fellow Delegates,
              I've been involved in the California Democratic Party for over 20 years, and never have I been more disappointed in our party's leadership than after reading this statement calling for reform from long time CDP officios Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley.

        With reelection less a month away, Rooker and Bradley have joined forces to convince us that the Party is broken and they have a new plan to fix it. The only problem is they have been in the CDP's leadership for more years than a Bush has lived in the White House. Reelecting these two is akin to rehiring Donald Rumsfeld to fix Iraq, or hiring Bernie Madoff to handle your finances. Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley may be very nice people personally, but their many, many years of leading the California Democratic Party has been filled with mismanagement at best, and missed opportunities to capitalize on this historic time for the Democratic Party.

We Delegates to the State Convention need to ask these "reformers" some serious questions.

Where were Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley when Fabian Nunez stole millions of dollars from the party's coffers for his future political ambitions?

Where were Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley this past November when viable Senate and Assembly candidates in the Central Valley and Inland Empire, who's success could have given us a 2/3 majority,  couldn't even get a returned phone call?

Where were Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley when all our momentum fighting Prop 8 died on the vine in the face of unanswered attacks on Californians basic civil rights?

Where were Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley when The CA Democratic Party was the only state party in the nation unable to capitalize on Barack Obama's presidential run, and the best environment for electing Democrats in the last 50 years?

Where were Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley when us in the grassroots repeatedly asked for financial reports on the Party's finances, both before and after they did nothing to stop Nunez from taking millions of our hard earned campaign reserves that should have been spent electing Democrats as intended?

Where have Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley been for the last 10 years?

              I urge every Democrat to ask Rooker and Bradley these questions during their "Damage Control Wrapped in Reform Tour" coming to Sacramento.

              For Alex Rooker and Eric Bradley to grab hold of the Change mantra now is an insult to us in the grassroots who have worked so hard over the years to  mold a California Democratic Party built on effectiveness, transparency,  and results. They have proven time and time again that they cannot be trusted to lead our party into the future.

              While I admire Rooker and Bradley for acknowledging serious mistakes made during their tenure, and I believe them when they say they want to do things differently if given 3rd and 4th chances. Sadly, like this past Novembers CDP door hangers, it's just too late.  

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by: CV Sam @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 18:11:47 PM UTC

Anonymous Screeds (3.00 / 1)

Re-posting that spam doesn't make it true.

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by: Andmaude @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 20:01:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

and is poor tactics as well (5.00 / 1)

However, Asm De la Torre as well as Alex and Eric should acknowledge that the Resolution is purely symbolic since YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE RULES BY RESOLUTION!  

JHotchkiss2
"Be yourself, everyone else is taken."Oscar Wilde

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by: Siftingthrough @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 20:32:55 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Doesn't make it false, either (4.00 / 1)

every one of those questions represents a critique of the incumbents that they should be willing to answer, not just dismiss with handwaving about "anonymity".

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by: jsw @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 21:19:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Zombie-like threads... (0.00 / 0)

This doesn't seem to want to die, does it now?

Ugh, this belated zeal for reform is so transparent - "wow, did you know that there's financial problems within the CDP!"

"Maybe we should start talking about it for the last two weeks before the state convention!"

What's more, an obvious elephant in the room is being profoundly ignored. As its not clear whether this resolution (or the new bylaw secret sauce) will pass, or how it would work in practice, shouldn't this last-minute rhetorical hullabaloo be seen as a preemptive attack on Chair Burton?

[Or it could also easily be seen as a scenario where the old powers-that-be propose new rules to constrain the behavior of the new powers-that-be, to compensate for the negligence and abuses of the old powers-that-be. To atone for sins of the past regime, by placing restrictions on the next regime. Or at least be seen as attempting to...]

Say, who did De La Torre originally back in the race for chair?  Was it Rooker or Burton? You don't say! Maybe her supporters might want to enhance her standing relative to the incoming chair? You think?

Maybe someone running for statewide office in 2010 might want to attract a whole bunch of statewide attention? No kidding!

Maybe there's even regional (North/South) tension in the CDP - you don't say!

Cripes, how naïve do they make us out for?

This is all so transparent and banal...and yet premised upon fundamental issues of grassroots accountability and professional competence at the same time.

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by: SPD @ Mon Apr 13, 2009 at 21:15:32 PM UTC