*** Full Scorecard available at www.lcv.org/scorecard ***
Today, the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) joined the national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) in releasing the 2009 National Environmental Scorecard, revealing scores for the California delegation in the first session of the 111th Congress. For 30 years, the National Environmental Scorecard issued by LCV has been the nationally accepted yardstick used to rate members of Congress on environmental, public health and energy issues.
"We applaud those members of the California delegation who fought in 2009 to bring clean energy jobs to the state and reduce our national dependence on foreign oil, particularly Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and the 23 members of the House of Representatives who received a perfect score for their environmental votes," said CLCV CEO Warner Chabot. "The 2009 Scorecard clearly exposes numerous other legislators for their terrible voting record and willingness to put corporate polluters and other special interests ahead of a cleaner, more secure energy future for California."
The 2009 Scorecard includes 11 Senate and 13 House votes dominated by clean energy and climate change but also encompassing other environmental issues such as public lands, water and wildlife conservation. In California, 23 House members and both Senators earned a perfect 100 percent score in 2009, while nine House members received an abysmal 0 percent. The average score in 2009 for California members of the House was 63 percent.
"The 2009 National Environmental Scorecard illustrates the extent to which the Obama administration and the 111th Congress began to move our nation towards a clean energy future that will create new jobs, make America more energy independent and curb global warming pollution," said LCV President Gene Karpinski. "However, it also makes clear that there is still much work to be done, first and foremost to finish the work started in the House by swiftly passing a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill in the Senate."
I have a request to our friends in the netroots: remind anyone you know who lives in the 10th Congressional District, a Northern California district that includes portions of Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda, and Sacramento counties, to vote on Tuesday, November 3rd.
Here is my first attempt at redistricting California for 2010. I gave myself an extra challenge of keeping the representatives' residences in their respective districts save of course McClintock, and assuming Garamendi wins CA-10.
For the demographics, I noticed that even in obviously heavy Hispanic areas, the "Hispanic" percentage was ridiculously low, while the "Other" category was more representative of the Hispanic population, so for "Hispanic" I will use the "Hispanic" and "other" numbers.
Later on I will attempt redistricting the State Senate and Assembly. I know there is a panel that will draw the state legislative districts, but I still intend to give a shot at these maps.
Crossposted from the Courage Campaign blog. I do some work for the Courage Campaign.
Earlier this week the mood was grim as most observers expected House Democrats would fold, not stand, on telecom immunity, the protection of rights, the rule of law, and the Constitution. But today they chose to do the right thing and, by a vote of 213-197-1, the House rejected telecom immunity and warrantless surveillance. Many of the Blue Dogs who had earlier signed a letter insisting on immunity instead voted to strip it from the bill. The bill will now return to the US Senate, which must decide whether to continue to carry water for the Bush Administration, or join the House in rejecting immunity and embracing the Constitution.
It's hard not to believe that there's not at least some significant sea change reflected by this. They have seen that they can defy the President even on matters of Terrorism, and the sky doesn't fall in on them. Quite the opposite: an outspoken opponent of telecom amnesty, warrantless eavesdropping and the Iraq War was just elected to the House from Denny Hastert's bright red district, and before that, Donna Edwards ousted long-time incumbent Al Wynn by accusing him of being excessively complicit with the Bush agenda.
Virtually every one I know who has expended lots of efforts and energy on these FISA and telecom issues has assumed from the start -- for reasons that are all too well-known -- that we would lose. And we still might. But it's hard to deny that the behavior we're seeing from House Democrats is substantially improved, quite commendably so, as compared to the last year and even before that. It's very rare when there are meaningful victories and I think it's important to acknowledge when they happen.
The key to victory appears to have been sustained pressure on not just the Blue Dogs, but the Democratic caucus as a whole, to reject immunity and expansion of Bush's powers. Greenwald points to the "highly successful" effort to target six of the freshmen Dems as one of the reasons we won the vote today. Joan McCarter (aka "mcjoan") points to Ed Fallon's strong primary challenge to Iowa Democrat Leonard Boswell as helping push Boswell into opposing immunity. And Greenwald mentioned above the victories of Donna Edwards and Bill Foster, both of whom took strong, progressive stands against immunity, as helping convince Democrats that opposing Bush's power grab is an electoral winner.
The bill returns to the US Senate, where it is up to Dianne Feinstein and other Democrats to stand with their fellow Democrats in the House against immunity and warrantless wiretapping. Whether California's Senator joins with the Speaker from California to block immunity remains to be seen.
Among the California Democrats who voted against immunity were Joe Baca and Jerry McNerney. Bob Filner voted against the revised bill, perhaps opposing it from the left as Kucinich did. (Any thoughts or explanations as to Filner's reasoning would be welcome in the comments.)
Mary Bozo...er...Bono, Sometimes Congresswoman in the CA-45, has apparently missed some more votes on the floor of the House of Representatives. Guess that she was too busy getting support from Connie Mack, R-FL, to vote on these important bills.\
I just received this summary from Jim Reynolds, political activist involved in the Desert Stonewall Democrats. The information that Jim provided is originally from The Nation.
On Wednesday the House passed this $51.2 billion bill to fund the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development for the 2008 fiscal year.
The House approved legislation to grant the Department of Defense four months' worth of emergency funding for the War in Iraq, under the condition that troop redeployment begins 30 days following the bill's enactment.
There are no Senate seats up in California in 2008, and no statewide offices up for election, so the biggest seats outside of the Presidency will be in the House of Representatives. While we're 18 months out, I thought I'd give a snapshot of what races are most inviting for a Democratic pickup.
I'm going to concern myself solely with pickup opportunities, because the only realistic possibility of a GOP pickup is in CA-11, and I'm confident that Jerry McNerney and his grassroots army can handle whatever's thrown at him, plus he'll have the power of incumbency and the focus of the CDP. There may be some retirements that would make things interesting (Lantos, Stark, Woolsey), but those are very blue areas. So let's look at the best opportunities to add to the Democratic majority:
(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and
(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.
Just 2 Democrats voted against it (Jim Marshall - GA and Gene Taylor - MS) and 17 Republicans voted for the resolution, not one of whom was from California. TPM has the count. Sure it's non-binding, sure it's symbolic but the fact is, when given the chance to take a stand, every single California Republican in the House voted to support Bush's war escalation. Let's make sure voters don't forget it.
