One of the many flaws of California's term limits law is that it creates needless conflict and enmity between would-be allies each vying to do their part to make the State a better place, as each candidate is forced to abandon a job they have just barely learned, to campaign for a different job. Conflicts arise in this perpetual game of musical chairs, accountability is minimal, and activists are left in a jam deciding whom to support.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in AD-35, where Assemblymember Pedro Nava has been termed out, forcing a run at the Attorney General job. The power vacuum left by Nava's absence has opened the field for two impressive candidates, both of whom are well-liked in the district: Susan Jordan, Mr. Nava's wife and co-founder of the California Coastal Protection Network (CCPN) and Vote The Coast, and Das Williams, Santa Barbara City Councilman and longtime community activist through CAUSE as their legislative analyst. Williams also serves as a national board member of the National Organization for Women, and is on the Peabody Charter School Board.
Most activists here in the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas know each of these individuals well, and have worked with them on multiple issues. As the race intensifies, it is painful for many to make a choice between them, and many have avoided doing so to date. I personally have endorsed Mr. Williams, having worked with him on a number of different issues here already in less than a year of local activism, while my contact with Ms. Jordan has been more limited. Each candidate has amassed a long list of endorsers (in-fighting remains about who exactly has endorsed whom at this point, adding to the confusion), and a large number remain on the fence. Ms. Jordan's biggest ally, obviously, is Assemblymember Nava; Mr. Williams, however, counters with the almost equally hard-hitting support of Hannah-Beth Jackson, whom he served as Chief of Staff in the SD-19 2008 election.
On a personal level, there is already significant rancor between the two sides: while both have promised a positive campaign, and neither candidate has made overt attacks on the other, various operatives have been busy attempting to earn support with some negative charges. Williams is extremely active in the community and had expected to be next in line for the spot; his backers have hinted at nepotism between Nava and Jordan; Jordan backers paint Das as overly ambitious and opportunistic because Williams previously ran unsuccessfully for Supervisor, because of his comparative youth at 34 years of age, and because many say that Williams had told them earlier in the year that he would not run for the seat. Williams is in his second term on the Santa Barbara City Council, and will be termed out--needlessly adding increased stakes under the guise of "reform" through term limits.
Also an issue in the race is the vaunted PXP drilling at Tranquillon Ridge: during the early days of the proposed deal, Williams backed a variety of local environmental organizations in supporting the deal. Jordan and Nava were opposed, due to precedent and the belief, later reinforced by various agencies, that the deal's sunset provision would be unenforceable. The deal eventually became the famous statewide issue it is today, and it is sure to be a major attack avenue against Mr. Williams by Ms. Jordan.
To date, the race is playing out similar to the Clinton-Obama primary war in a battle between youth/change and experience/responsibility--but with an added wrinkle. While Mr. Williams is young, he also boasts greater experience in elected office, particularly in the field of balancing budgets, an issue particularly crucial to Assembly candidates. Mr. Williams has repeatedly referenced Santa Barbara's continued balanced budgets as proof of his ability to make difficult budget choices in a progressive fashion in a tough economic environment, and contrasted his record in Santa Barbara with that of the legislature in Sacramento (somewhat unfairly, as the SB city council is not hamstrung by a 2/3 rule). Ms. Jordan, meanwhile, will be running ostensibly (and probably unfairly) to the left of Mr. Williams on environmental issues, will be leveraging her longstanding statewide activism, and will portray herself as something of an outsider to the political process despite her connection with Mr. Nava, while attempting to frame Mr. Williams as a career politician.
It is in this somewhat unpleasant context that the Williams campaign released their surprisingly strong fundraising numbers yesterday evening (the Jordan campaign released its own press release this afternoon.) While it was expected that Ms. Jordan would outraise Mr. Williams due to greater large-scale institutional support and an earlier head start (including a high-profile fundraiser at the home of Pierce Brosnan), the campaigns are essentiallyeven in terms of fundraising, with each campaign spinning the numbers as coming out in their favor: the Williams campaign is emphasizing Jordan's $12,000 loan to her own campaign to even up the numbers, while the Jordan campaign is emphasizing its $10,000 advantage in cash on hand.
The full text of the competing press releases follows below the fold:
In a stunning but not too surprising revelation, Josh Richman of the Oakland Tribune is reporting that Don Perata transferred $1.5 million from his PAC to his legal defense fund - one day after the election. Instead of using that money to help defeat Prop 11, which narrowly won, or to help elect more Democrats to the state senate - such as Hannah-Beth Jackson, who lost by 1,200 votes - he took it for himself, leaving California Democrats and the state itself worse off.
Contributors to Don Perata's political action committee this year might have thought their money would bankroll the attempted recall of state Sen. Jeff Denham or opposition to a legislative redistricting reform measure.
But one day after Election Day and with only a few weeks left as state Senate President Pro Tem, the Oakland Democrat moved $1.5 million from Leadership California into his own legal defense fund, formed to counter a years-long FBI corruption probe.
This sum dwarfs the California Democratic Party's $450,000 contribution to Perata's legal fund over the past year, which had caused an outcry from some party activists. It also dwarfs the $555,000 Perata had moved from his Taxpayers for Perata committee - ostensibly created for a 2010 Board of Equalization run - into his legal defense fund in several chunks since 2005.
The transferred amount is more than the entire $1.4 million the committee had raised in this year's first nine months, and more than half of the $2.7 million it had on hand as of Sept. 30.
Jason Kinney, Perata's spokesman, is quoted as saying there was nothing illegal here. Even if that is true, it's beside the point - $1.5 million is a huge sum of money that should have been spent on winning the 2008 election, not pocketed by a termed-out legislator.
Our own David Dayen is quoted in the article making that very point with forceful eloquence:
David Dayen, an elected Democratic State Central Committee member from Santa Monica, blogged angrily this summer about his party's contribution to Perata's legal defense fund, contending the money would've been better spent on legislative races. The same goes for Leadership California's money, he said Wednesday; despite a Democratic presidential candidate carrying California by the largest margin since 1936, Democrats netted only three more Assembly seats and none in the state Senate.
"Every time I asked the California Democratic Party about getting more active and involved in local elections, they said the state Senate and the Assembly control those races ... and we don't have a lot of flexibility. So Perata, at that time, and Nunez or Bass had the authority to run those elections," Dayen said. "Now we see what happens when you vest power in these closed loops - suddenly self-interest becomes more important than the good of the party."
He believes this is why Perata didn't step aside as Pro Tem earlier, as Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez relinquished his post to Karen Bass in May: "Darrell Steinberg was sitting there ready to go ... and we were all like, 'What the hell is going on?'
"We speculated it had to be that he still needed the leverage to make the calls to raise money for himself."
David makes a key point here - this is not just about how Perata screwed California Democrats. It's about what he called "closed loops" and a party leadership hostile to open accounting. This should become a rallying cry for all Democrats to demand more accountability from their leaders, and a greater commitment to winning elections as opposed to pocketing those funds for your own uses.
Many in the Democratic grassroots, including a large number of CDP delegates, want to build a better, more successful party, using the disappointing results on the state level as a motivating force to produce change. That is made easier by Perata's long overdue exit from the Legislature. But this should serve as a wake-up call for the CDP as a whole, which must take a strong stand against this kind of action and take whatever steps are within their power to prevent it from happening again.
The protracted count is finally over, and it appears that Hannah-Beth Jackson's outsize effort to defeat Phony Tony Strickland has come up just short. With only a few hundred ballots left to count, Strickland currently maintains a 903 vote lead out of 414,587 ballots cast. That margin is .2%: well within the margin necessary for a mandatory recount request by the Jackson campaign. Unfortunately, as the pro-Strickland blog Policy Report correctly notes, such a recount effort would almost certainly be insufficient to net Hannah-Beth the votes she would need to overtake Strickland's lead, even were the final votes to close the gap to 700 or 800:
According to some experts, a recount of all 400,000+ ballots might yield a variance of 150 votes in one direction or the other at great cost. Gaining 800 votes in an election of this size is next to impossible.
With the latest totals showing Strickland hanging on to the lead by a little over 900 votes, Jackson said a victory was not mathematically possible.
"I'm disappointed, but I think that it's pretty clear at this point in time, we're not going to be able to catch up," she said.
Strickland is due to be sworn in Monday in Sacramento. He will represent voters in most of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties as well as the northwest corner of Los Angeles County, including Santa Clarita and Stevenson Ranch.
The outcome has been in doubt since the Nov. 4 election, but by Wednesday both candidates agreed that Strickland had won.
Well, this has been a tight race for a long time, but at this point I think there have been quite a few people that were writing this off. Well, as of 7:06 this evening, Alyson Huber holds a lead of 531 votes. That's about .3% for you folks looking to see if we'll get to the .5% automatic recount. If this holds up, the Central Valley will have themselves a fine Assemblywoman next week.
You can find this info at the SoS's "close election" page. On the disappointing side, Hannah-Beth Jackson remains 1717 votes behind and Charlie Brown is 1578 votes back.
UPDATE: AD-10, Meet your new Assemblywoman, Alyson Huber. I've heard from somebody close to the Speaker that there are relatively few votes remaining. Alyson Huber will be sworn into the Assembly next week.
(good part about this is that we're under the mandatory recount window of .5% right now. - promoted by Dante Atkins (hekebolos))
There's good news and bad news, and then some possibly good news again, and then some possibly bad news again. The good news: latest vote counts have cut Strickland's lead in half, down to just under 1,300 votes. The bad news: the votes out of Santa Barbara County, Jackson's strongest base, are pretty much all counted. It's all up to the provisionals coming out of Ventura County now; if they trend Strickland as the rest of Ventura's votes have--or even just 50-50--Strickland will eke this one out.
The possibly good news: provisional ballots are usually new voters, and those are quite likely new Democratic voters who might be expected to trend our way contra the overall County trend. The possibly bad news: those new Democratic voters often have a tendency to vote for the top of the ticket only, failing to vote for Democrats downballot.
What will end up happening? It's anybody's guess. The VC Star has more:
Elections officials in Ventura County began processing provisional ballots this week but are not expected to release the first results from those ballots until Monday.
In votes tallied thus far, Strickland has about a 5 percentage lead in the Ventura County portion of the district. Jackson would have to at least reverse that advantage among provisional ballots - perhaps unlikely, but something political observers say is possible given that many such ballots are cast by newly registered voters, who this year were predominantly Democrats.
With 401,864 votes now tabulated, Strickland leads by about one-third of a percentage point.
Looks like we're in a for ride. As painful as the wait is, though, it's good to know that the democratic process is being respected. Better to get the right result with a wait, than the wrong result too quickly.
Huge news in the continued counting of Charlie Brown's race against Tom McClintock. The latest round of counting has Brown within 329 votes as the provisionals, which tend to favor Democrats, get counted in the larger counties in the district.
Charlie Brown (Dem) 170,168 49.9%
Tom McClintock (Rep) 170,497 50.1%
There are still tens of thousands of votes left to count, and there's a virtual assurance of at least a partial recount. Tom McClintock has been sending his list these smug reports of the day's counting, telling them how everything's looking great. I haven't seen an update from him in a couple days. Probably because this is shaping up as a replay of the 2002 State Controller race, when the late provisionals put Steve Westly over the top in his race against... Tom McClintock.
Extended races like this cost money to maintain staff and pay lawyers. You can help Charlie out at the Calitics ActBlue page.
...meanwhile, Hannah-Beth Jackson is moving closer in SD-19. That race is down to 1,283 votes.
"We're not claiming victory, but we just think it's mathematically impossible for (Brown) to win," said Bill George, spokesman for McClintock.
George said the thousands of Placer County votes tallied Friday stretched McClintock's lead from barely 300 votes to 1,793, with only about 4,500 more votes to count in the nine-county district.
Brown spokesman Todd Stenhouse said Brown would not concede, noting that thousands more votes remain to be counted, most of which are provisional ballots that "have been breaking very, very strongly for Charlie."
"We remain committed to the same goals that we've been committed to all along and that is that every vote is counted in this historic election," Stenhouse said.
As TINS posted yesterday, Hannah-Beth Jackson has now fallen behind in the latest count of her race in SD-19, and according to local reports the remaining votes to be counted are mainly in Strickland-friendly areas. This one looks grim. At this hour Strickland leads by 1,560 votes, and it's actually outside of the 1/2 of 1% required for a partial recount.
Hannah-Beth Jackson (Dem) 186,071 49.7%
Tony Strickland (Rep) 187,631 50.3%
The other two races we're monitoring are actually in better shape than Hannah-Beth's. In AD-10, the latest numbers from the Secretary of State show Jack Sieglock leading Alyson Huber by just 506 votes.
Alyson L. Huber (Dem) 80,507 46.4%
Jack Sieglock (Rep) 81,013 46.8%
This is currently inside recount territory. According to Randy Bayne, the remaining ballots left to count are mainly in Sacramento and San Joaquin Counties. The ballot count is done in Amador County and mostly done in El Dorado County. With some luck, the Sacramento County ballots will swing for Huber; she beat Sieglock 52-41 there. Sieglock won San Joaquin County 51-42.
In CA-04, Charlie Brown is within 569 votes of Tom McClintock.
Charlie Brown (Dem) 168,378 49.9%
Tom McClintock (Rep) 168,947 50.1%
The question is how many ballots are left in Nevada County, where Brown won big. According to the unprocessed ballot report, there are still 10,000 left up there, but I think that's outdated information. It's probably more like 5,000, if not less. Still, we are well within the .5% required for a partial recount. So that's where that's likely to be headed regardless of what happens with the final numbers.
Again, counts and recounts cost money, so if you can chip in a couple bucks for these Democrats at the Calitics ActBlue page, I'm sure they'd be grateful.
UPDATE: I just learned that Hannah-Beth Jackson had to evacuate her house today, owing to the Montecito fire. Hopefully everything will work out OK.
(sometimes, close recount elections don't go our way. - promoted by Dante Atkins (hekebolos))
It is with a heavy heart that I report the news that things aren't looking good in the Jackson-Strickland race in SD-19. Strickland has retaken a lead in the provisional and absentee counts that he is unlikely to relinquish barring a small miracle, as favorable Santa Barbara County is nearly entirely counted, leaving pro-Strickland Ventura County and the pro-Strickland sliver of L.A. County to probably pad his lead. The Santa Barbara Independent has more:
Tony Strickland surged to a 1,560 vote lead over Hannah-Beth Jackson Wednesday, on the strength of newly counted ballots in Ventura County. Santa Barbara county's registrar also reported counting new ballots, which favored the Democrat, but not by nearly enough to make up for the Republican's strength in Ventura.
It is the first significant lead for either candidate in the closely-contested 19th state senate district since Election Day, and puts Strickland in a commanding position, as counting continues in three counties with portions of the sprawling district.
The overall tally now stands at:
Strickland 187,631 (50.20)
Jackson 186,071 (49.79)
Everyone should bookmark this site monitoring the close races that haven't been called in California. There are four such races within 2% at the moment. There's Prop. 11, which is trending toward passage with a 131,000 vote lead. There's SD-19, which has some breathing room now, as Hannah-Beth Jackson leads by 1,203 votes.
And then there are the two Sacramento-area races. Alyson Huber's race in AD-10 has really tightened up. She now trails Jack Sieglock by just 319 votes out of 154,000 counted. That is well within the 1/2 of 1% territory that would trigger an automatic recount. Which brings up an interesting question which perhaps some election junkie could answer. The Secretary of State certifies the count on December 2. But the new legislature is sworn in on December 1. If there's a race with no clear winner at that point, what happens?
Finally, we have CA-04, the race between Charlie Brown and Tom McClintock. This has bounced around a bit, but we're now looking at an 889 vote lead for McClintock. There are anywhere between 48,000 and 55,000 votes left to count, based on this chart (which you can also bookmark) of unprocessed ballots. This race also appeared headed to a recount, and if you believe this Daily Kos diarist, Brown has a good shot at making up ground, because there are so many outstanding votes in Nevada County, where Brown did best.
We know these counts and recounts are expensive, and now two groups have stepped up with their support of Charlie while we sort this out. Wes Clark sent an email to his list today:
Our friend Charlie Brown needs our help. The margin in California's 4th Congressional District is razor thin, and they're still counting votes. After more than 300,000 ballots were cast in CA-04, the race is tied. The current difference stands at less than half of 1% (less than 500 votes).
With 40,000 vote-by-mail and provisional ballots still to be counted, the race is way too close to call. That's why it's critical for us to make sure all the votes are counted in CA-04.
Charlie's opponent, Tom McClintock, has hired an election attorney and brought in a team of lawyers to "watch" the locations where absentee and provisional ballots are being counted. McClintock's team is doing everything they can to challenge the votes of thousands of people who faithfully cast their ballots.
Charlie needs our help to fight back.
And DFA has done the same:
In 2000, we lost the election when the Bush campaign beat us in the legal and media fight that followed. In 2004, we had to force a recount in the Washington State Governor's race and we won because you delivered the resources to make it happen.
We need to raise at least $40,000 by Monday to back up these races with the resources they need right now.
In 2004, we raised over $250,000 for the Washington State recount. This year, we need $40,000 right now to keep the GOP dirty tricks at bay and make sure every vote is counted fairly.
DFA's Grassroots All-Star Charlie Brown needs resources to fend off a team of Republican lawyers who, as I write this message, are challenging every Democratic ballot before the FIRST count has even been completed. Charlie is down by less than 500 votes with over 15,000 votes still to be counted. He needs our help to make sure every vote is counted.
(Note: it's now 889 votes with over 48,000 votes left to be counted)
with only 12 precincts in Ventura County left to count, Hannah-Beth Jackson has a lead on Tony Strickland of just 386 votes out of over 300,000 cast.
Ventura County has gone for Strickland very slightly, but which way those 12 precincts lean is a crapshoot. This one will go to a recount and to provisionals.
(This is a big fight, but there are others across the state. Stay for Change! - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Over 14,000 new voters registered this year at UC Santa Barbara and Hannah-Beth Jackson came to rally them to support her today. Hannah-Beth Jackson is running for California State Senate against 6 million dollars worth of lies. That's how much her opponent Tony Strickland is spending to try to win this Senate seat. Hannah Beth reminded students today of her commitment to education and the environment. The student vote is important in this race because Hannah-Beth Jackson's opponent is running defamatory ads against Hannah-Beth as well as trying to convince voters that he is an environmentalist. It makes you wonder, can six million dollars really convince voters that he is an environmentalist, when in reality Tony Strickland voted against every pro-environment bill every introduced into the Assembly?
Bettina Duval is the founder of CALIFORNIA LIST, a network to elect Democratic women to California state government.
Despite the failure of Senate Democrats to legitimately contest the 2 seats necessary to gain a 2/3 majority, the one seat that is up for grabs, SD-19, is getting a lot of attention. From Capitol Weekly:
If the Capitol looks a bit deserted this week, there's a good reason: Some 200 staff workers have headed into the Ventura area for the hottest legislative battle of the year, pitting two former Assembly members for the Senate seat held by Tom McClintock, who is running for Congress.
Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Tony Strickland are neck-and-neck in the 19th Senate District, a Republican stronghold that has experienced a recent surge in Democratic registrations. Political pros say the race is too close to call, and Senate leaders this week began pouring personnel into the zone to buttress the local campaigns. (Capitol Weekly 10/31/08)
Ooh, you can bet there will be fun times in Ventura County this weekend! I mean what can possibly be more fun than 200 legislative staffers. Partying, knocking on some doors, you know general mayhem.
Hey I know somebody who is a fan of general mayhem. Yes Tony Strickland, I'm looking at you, Mr. Sly Trickster.
• John Myers recaps the latest expenditure figures in the top legislative races. Unsuprisingly, the lone Senate race was the costliest race so far. Currently over $8.5 Million has been forked over for little ol' SD-19. The split between the two parties is pretty close on that one, but the biggest spender so far, according to the FPPC, is Californians for Jobs and Education. The Chamber of Commerce provides most of that money. In the Assembly, AD-80 is the most expensive race at almost $6 million. Manuel Perez is the preferred beneficiary of a bunch of that IE money, mostly from teachers and service employees.
• A coalition led by Change To Win has sent a letter to Arnold Schwarzenegger asking that he assign nonessential public employees to help at the polls on Election Day to facilitate the expected high turnout and long lines. You can read the letter, which is quite good, at the link.
• The Governor formed a commission to study the tax structure. The idea was first put forth by Speaker Karen Bass, but this commission better do its job in, well, how's a week sound? Now, hop to it.
• Some athletes not to idolize: Jeff Kent (Dodgers) gave $15K to Yes on 8, and Philip Rivers (Chargers) gave $10 K to Yes on 4.
There were two major debates held this month between IndependentGreenRepublican Tony Strickland and Hannah-Beth Jackson: the first was put on by the right-wing Ventura County Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 3rd at Ventura College, and the second by the significantly more friendly Ventura County League of Women Voters on Oct. 10th at Cal Lutheran in Oxnard.
Both debates were supposed to have been shown live on local CAPS-TV here in Ventura County (and I was going to liveblog them), but were for technical reasons not broadcast or streamed live at the time. The debates have finally been put in the can to air repeatedly here in Ventura County regularly until election day. Fortunately, we live in the Internet age, and CAPS-TV has done us the service (finally!) of putting the debates on their website.
They've been encoded as WMV files, and thus cannot be embedded here. If you're interested in watching, please click on the following links:
I haven't heard anything earth-shattering so far in listening to the debates, but I highly recommend that anyone interested in the race listen and highlight anything newsworthy they may see now that the debates are finally available to all.
In the meantime, I'll have a photodiary up within a few days about canvassing this last Sunday for Hannah-Beth in Thousand Oaks. Pretty good results, and there's good reason to feel confident about this race.
(Another piece from blogger thereisnospoon, who lives in the district and is serving as our Ventura County correspondent. - promoted by Dante Atkins (hekebolos))
The Strickland campaign is really outdoing itself at this point, and reinforcing Hannah-Beth Jackson's arguments against him all at the same time. No sooner does Hannah-Beth's latest mailer (a copy of which I got in my mailbox yesterday) come out attacking Strickland for his big money contributors in the oil, tobacco, pharmaceutical and other industries, than Tony tries to pull off yet another fraud on voters with the hidden help of those same industries in whose pocket he resides.
Apparently, voters all across the 19th District started receiving mysterious robocalls from a group called "Californians for Jobs & Education". The calls, of which there are as yet no transcripts available, are in support of Tony Strickland. Below is what a quick google search of this outfit brings up, via Election Track:
• CA-03: Bill Durston, who is showing lots of strength in his race against Dan Lungren, has earned the support of the Alliance of Retired Americans, a 3.5 million-member group of retirees. Clearly this came on the heels of Durston's strong support for a not-for-profit health care system:
Dr. Durston has also been a strong proponent of universal health care. "It's always been my philosophy that access to necessary medical care is a basic human right, not a privilege based on one's ability to pay. We're the only western industrialized country in the world that doesn't have some form of universal health care, yet we pay twice as much per capita as the other countries for medical care."
Durston is starting to get some major attention after that last poll. Expect him to attack Lungren on his vote for the bailout over the next 27 days.
• CA-04: Lots going on here. After vowing to shut down his account for 2010 statewide races, professional politician Tom McClintock just couldn't close the door.
But four weeks before the Nov. 4 election, McClintock's account remains open and active, as the Thousand Oaks lawmaker has doled out thousands of dollars to fellow Republicans in the last week.
McClintock made $3,600 donations, the maximum allowed under state law, to a trio of Republican candidates for the Legislature: Senate candidates Tony Strickland and Greg Aghazarian and Assembly hopeful Jack Sieglock.
His Democratic opponent, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brown, made hay of McClintock's multiple accounts over the summer, calling him a career politician in search of a job.
"What office are you running for?" Brown said in a July statement.
I just find it interesting that Republicans are that worried about Jack Sieglock. Go Alyson Huber! Of course, the other half of this is that McClintock is a huge hypocrite, but you knew that.
In other news, Charlie Brown has a new ad out comparing professional politician McClintock to his record of service. Truth Fights Back, John Kerry's group, is getting Charlie's back over that ridiculous anti-military smear of McClintock's. Brown also signed the Children's Defense Council's Pledge to ensure affordable health care for every child and every pregnant woman. I very much liked this strong take in the press release:
"Tom McClintock gets free healthcare, a free car, free gas, and tax free per diems he's not entitled to, yet has voted to restrict the ability of Californians to see a doctor of their choice and fought against helping our most vulnerable citizens access meaningful healthcare coverage," said Retired USAF Lt. Col. Charlie Brown "His record of inaction has not only helped drive up the cost of healthcare for every Californian, it's illustrative of a career politician hypocrite who would rather serve himself, than solve problems."
Earlier this year, McClintock authored SB 1669, which would have made it easier for health insurance companies to deny the health claims of Californians on the basis of pre-existing condition. In fact, SB 1669 would have extended the period that insurers could look back in your medical history from 12 months to 10 years.
"Tom McClintock's idea of healthcare reform is writing a law that says if you have a medical problem, you can't get healthcare coverage," Brown said. "This misguided bill could have literally cost millions of Californians who have battled and overcome ailments ranging from diabetes, to mild cardiac conditions or cancer their lives. It was so misguided, it never came up for a floor vote and not a single healthcare organization or institution signed on to support it.
Also, Mcjoan at the Great Orange Satan had a good piece based on some of her time in the district recently. This is big:
The campaign has seven offices across the nine counties in the huge district, one of the most beautiful in the country, spanning the Sierras. With four regional field directors, seven organizers and 25 paid canvassers, the campaign has knocked on more than 120,000 doors and made over 300,000 phone calls. Hundreds of new Democrats have been registered. This is the kind of retail politics that allows Democrats to win in Republican districts, in fact it's about the only way to run successfully in a tough district. McClintock, by contrast, has basically no field operation.
That ground game is going to win it for Charlie.
• CA-11: Continuing his quest to be the most overhyped Republican challenger this cycle, Dean Andal continues to dodge the question of whether or not he supported the Paulson bailout plan. He literally has no idea how to handle it, preferring to hide behind the idea that it would be inappropriate to comment because he's not in office. Yeah, uh, that's kind of the point. You say how you would be different from the current office-holder as a means to get the job. What a loser.
Prince criticized Lewis' use of earmarks, the pet projects that lawmakers attach to spending bills, in some cases without a vote.
"Jerry Lewis is totally void of morality when it comes to earmarks," he said, pointing to Lewis' ties to Bill Lowery, a longtime friend and lobbyist. "When I'm congressman, the mayor of Beaumont and the mayor of Apple Valley can pick up the phone and call me for help. They don't have to call a lobbyist who happens to be my best friend."
One thing that Prince would be better advised to focus on is that his district has one of the highest rates of foreclosures in the entire country. The highest? CA-45, where Mary Bono-Mack is facing affordable housing expert Julie Bornstein. If there was ever a reason to create a single-issue candidacy, this is it, and for Bornstein, who has an easier time of it with a less partisan electorate, that could be a real opening in the final month.
• SD-19: Calitics Match candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson is attacking Tony Strickland for greenwashing his environmental credentials in a very, shall we say, familiar way:
Of course, I'm happy to have provided the template for calling out Strickland on this nonsense. There are in addition lots of IE attacks in this race as it nears the home stretch.
So we raised nearly $3,000 in about two days, and combined with our $2,500 in matching funds we contributed around $5,500 to five great candidates: Charlie Brown (CA-04), Debbie Cook (CA-46), Hannah-Beth Jackson (SD-19), Alyson Huber (AD-10), and Manuel Perez (AD-80).
Great work, everyone. Thanks so much for participating. You rock.
OK, we're over $2,600, but we still need to get $500 per candidate to reach our matching goal. Thanks so much, everyone. If you want great Democrats like Hilda Solis in Washington and in Sacramento, please do what you can to help us out.
The most remarkable quote of the week came from a backbencher Yacht Party Republican named Mark Wyland, commenting on the historically late state budget. If the California Democratic Party had a locker room, this would be serious bulletin-board material:
Voters are unlikely to punish lawmakers for the budget delay in any substantive way on Nov. 4 unless it's to pass a ballot measure that would change how political districts are drawn, said state Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad).
"My experience with voters is that they really don't care how long it takes to get a budget," Wyland said, following his participation in a panel discussion at an event on reforming state government.
According to Wyland, prolonged budget stalemates like this year's sometimes encourage voters to keep their incumbents. Because districts are usually heavily skewed in registration to one party or another, he said, sitting legislators are more likely to hear encouragement for their party's ideological position than disfavor.
And voting against the party - in Wyland's example, for tax raises or to reinstate the unpopular vehicle-license fee - is an invitation to face a primary challenge in the next election cycle, he said.
This is the calcified opinion from the Yacht Party, and why they'll never be moved from their ideological perches. They believe that they have more to fear from internal challenges on the grounds of insufficient fealty to failed conservative policies than from the consequences of those policies. And there's a lot of evidence on their side, although not as much as they think.
But the most glaring point made in this statement is one of contempt. It shows contempt for voters to act in the best interest of an ideology than in the best interest of the state. It shows contempt for voters to hold the budget hostage, causing extreme hardship in the lives of state employees, community health centers, policemen and firefighters, and public schools, and expect nobody to notice. It shows contempt for voters to use the tyranny of the minority to advance a cause completely at odds with the prevailing opinion of the state. Real people were affected and harmed by this budget, and all of us will be in the future as the bills of conservative borrow-and-spend economics and systematic destruction of government come due.
And the thing is, Wyland is relying on a failed model. Demographic shifts and a reckoning of the failure of conservatism has made no district safe. Indeed Californians can punish Yacht Party Republicans for their intransigence and obstructionism. There are a number of races at the federal and state level where Democrats have more than a chance to unseat Republicans and turn seats blue. In fact, with some luck and proper resources we can get very close to that 2/3 majority needed to pass budgets and fix the structural revenue deficit. That's where you come in.
The Calitics Editorial Board has identified five seats which strike a balance between winnable races and progressive leadership. We've decided to start a major fundraising push for these five candidates between now and the end of the quarterly reporting requirement on September 30. That gives us only a few days, but here's the kicker - Calitics will match every donation made to these candidates up to $500 each, for a grand total of a $2,500 candidate match.
Charlie Brown (CA-04): A recent Research 2000 poll showed Brown leading perennial candidate Tom McClintock 46-41 in this deep red district. Brown, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel, nearly defeated indicted Congressman John Doolittle in 2006 and has shown tremendous leadership on veteran's issues and the FISA fight before even coming to Congress. He's a better Democrat we can all be proud of.
Debbie Cook (CA-46): Running in a tough district against certifiably crazy Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Debbie Cook is running with an unabashedly progressive message. The Mayor of Huntington Beach, Cook is an expert on peak oil and energy issues, and would instantly be one of the most knowledgeable voices in the Congress on how to move toward a post-carbon future. She also believes in ending the Iraq occupation responsibly and achieving the goal of quality and affordable health care for all.
Hannah-Beth Jackson (SD-19): A former Assemblywoman and creator of Speak Out California, a blog and resource for Golden State progressives, Hannah-Beth Jackson has proven her progressive bona fides time and again. Running in rapidly changing Ventura County against the former state director of the Club for Growth, Tony Strickland, Jackson can prove that even Tom McClintock's old seat is not safe from the progressive wave. She would lead in the State Senate on issues of economic justice and the environment.
Alyson Huber (AD-10): AD-10 is another district where the demographics are changing, and Alyson Huber is perfectly suited to take advantage of this and turn the seat blue. Huber, an attorney and working mother, is focused on increasing access to health care and education for all Californians. She would help tremendously in bringing us closer to that needed 2/3 majority.
Manuel Perez (AD-80): A transformative leader, Manuel Perez is ready to take that leadership to Sacramento. Part of a growing group of Hispanic-Americans in the Coachella Valley who are leading a major progressive challenge to the typical politics of the region, Manuel has created community health clinics, served on the Coachella School Board as a trustee, taught classes, and organized his community to fight for change. He is uniquely suited to take his varied experience and lead in the State Legislature.
The time is tight, but we need to make Mark Wyland and the Yacht Party Republicans he represents cry. Please contribute to our Calitics Match fundraising effort before Tuesday!
As David Dayen noted on the frontpage, Hannah-Beth Jackson has a new ad on the air discussing her role in protecting schoolchildren from toxic pesticides; I live in downtown Ventura and have seen the aid on my TV several times already. It's an excellent piece of political communication, showing her bipartisan credentials in a race where both candidates are desperately vying for the middle ground, and illustrating the contrast between her concern for everyday families and Tony Strickland's evident lack thereof.
But the ad, good as it is, doesn't tell the whole story. For a little background, let's go way back in the time machine to the year 2000, when a group of children were blithely making their way onto school grounds for a day of classes at Mound Elementary School in Ventura, naively under the assumption that they could trust the air they breathe. Because surely there must have been a law preventing toxic chemicals from being spewed into the air right next to a school, right? Boy, were they wrong:
