The Courage Campaign (where I am employed) launched a video tonight that is getting covered by a number of political bloggers. It's a cheeky piece that aims to get Kim Kardashian to support the Millionaires Tax of 2012, a ballot initiative recently unveiled by the Restoring California Coalition, which includes Courage, the California Federation of Teachers, and California Calls.
We thought the public would find it curious that millionaires like Kim -- who made more than $12 million in 2010 -- only paid 1% more in income taxes than a middle class Californian. So, we made this video to explain the situation. It's just the sort of fun video that can educate people who aren't politically engaged how much is at stake next November. In our focus groups, independent voters tended to think of celebrities (rather than CEOs, bankers, or Silicon Valley execs) when asked who should pay more in taxes. By the way, our initiative actually polls at 67%, the highest support our pollster has ever seen or a tax measure. More on that here.
We're going to start a campaign to get Kim to endorse the Millionaires Tax of 2012. If she gets on board, we'll reach people who never would have learned about the ballot measure otherwise. But most importantly, we have to show people why it's time for people like Kim to pay their fair share. See the full video by clicking below:
I was going through some old posts on CALITICS this morning, after reading up on the latest on the push by McClintock and Dan Logue to repeal AB32, and came across this gem from former Calitics contributor/writer David Dayen.
CA-04: Grand Dragons For McClintock
by: David Dayen
Fri Oct 10, 2008 at 13:00:00 PM PDT
Perennial candidate Tom McClintock is a beloved figure on the far right. We just didn't know how far.
It turns out that in 2003, when McClintock was running for his eleventy-teenth political office in the California governor recall election, he was endorsed by none other than the KKK.
Dateline: September 27, 2003
Ku Klux Klan Announces support for Tom McClintock
The Imperial Klans of America, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (IKA) have announced their full support for Tom
McClintock's bid for the governorship of California. Their support is announced in what they term "the
lesser of all evil candidates."
When interviewed, Mr. Chris Johnson (Grand Dragon or State Director of the IKA's California chapter) had this to say regarding the announcement, "While Mr. McClintock is not the perfect candidate for California Governor, we have more in common with his ideology than any of the other candidates. We are in congruence with his stand on illegal aliens infecting our land and his courage in standing up to the invasion." Mr. Johnson went on to say that, "Mr. McClintock echoes our anti-abortion stand, and our opposition to oppressive taxation."
I guess the McClintock campaign can spin this by saying that at least the KKK called him evil, even if he was the lesser of all the rest?
Here's the thing: organizations can choose to endorse anybody they want, and the candidates have no control over that. But McClintock never said a peep five years ago when he got this endorsement. And there's a Chris Johnson on McClintock's donor list from that 2003 gubernatorial race. Chris Johnson is obviously a common name, and the donation is $100, so take it with a grain of salt. But certainly, McClintock needs to answer the question of why he never rejected the endorsement and why they never sought out and returned money that would even have the appearance of coming from the Klan.
Verafirma, a company that was set up to allow signature gathering via the iPhone and similar Apple Devices, was dealt a blow in court.
A San Mateo judge has rejected an initiative petition signature captured using an iPhone touch screen, dealing a setback to the technology's proponents, who say it could help low-cost, grassroots initiative campaigns qualify for the ballot.
In line with a tentative ruling issued last month, San Mateo Superior Court Judge George Miram ruled that the initiative petition signature submitted by a founder of Verafirma does not meet the requirements for petition signatures set out in the state's election code.(SacBee)
The firm, including Democratic consultant Jude Barry, was also working with a union busting initiative (that has since fizzled out) for their first test. But it looks like both sides of this dispute don't think it is over quite yet:
Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who filed an argument in support of rejecting the signature, welcomed the judge's ruling.
"The court was very clear and its ruling coincides with what I've said from the beginning. The law requires original initiative petitions containing original signatures on them to be submitted to elections officials, not virtual petitions with copies of signatures," she said in a statement.
Barry said the company plans to appeal the ruling. "We know this is a temporary setback, but we've always felt that this was the beginning not the end of a legal process that we would have to go to," he said.(SacBee)
I actually think we need to have a more regulated initiative process. While Barry argues that this software would democratize the process, I'm not so sure that a) we need more initiatives or b) that this doesn't just save the PG&E's of the world a million bucks. Even with this software, it is still a big challenge to gather a million signatures. You will still need at least a million dollars to do it. I guess this brings the cost down from corporate and tech billionaire area down to the merely very wealthy area.
I'm with our Secretary of State here, let's hold off on this. We need to reform the whole initiative process so that we don't have corporations outright buying legislation (see Prop 16) and don't have people voting to remove fundamental rights (see Prop 8).
The following was originally written and published for Nevada County residents but applies, in large part, to every county Logue and McClintock represent. Republished with the approval of the author.
Why are our elected representatives attacking our health in Nevada County? This is probably the first question you have to ask yourself to understand why our Assemblyman, Dan Logue, and our Congressman, Tom McClintock, are behind the fight against California's Assembly Bill 32 (passed in 2006). Assembly Bill 32, signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, is a major initiative by the Air Resources Board for reducing California's greenhouse gasses by 30% to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below that by 2050. Make no mistake about it; AB 32 is landmark clean air legislation that will soon make a big difference in the air we breathe in Nevada County.
To fight this good legislation, Logue and McClintock tried to launch an initiative against it by calling it a "jobs" bill but were stopped from this title by Attorney General Jerry Brown, who made it very clear that it was a "pollution bill." (Although there is no real proof that jobs will be lost under AB32, it is clearly understood that jobs will be created in the new "green" industries that will be generated by the new law.) Unfortunately, the initiative process supported by Logue and McClintock to kill or stymie the 2006 clean energy and air pollution law is continuing. Dan Logue claimed no knowledge of funding for the initiative but it is now known that the Valero Energy Corporation and the Tesoro Energy Corporation, both headquartered in Texas, are behind Logue and McClintock's attempt. Valero and Tesoro are the major contributors to the initiative and have donated large sums of money to their efforts. And, supposedly by trying to keep the donations secret, they may have violated state campaign laws.
If, out of some prurient curiosity, you ever wondered how an insurance executive lives, check out the house Mercury Insurance CEO Gabe Tirador bought soon after taking over the reins in 2007 (and about a year before laying off 363 employees). Of course, CEO's houses are bubkis compared with the Chairmen. That's where the real square footage is. Mercury's founding Chairman lives in a Los Angeles palace, also pictured at our new StopTheSurcharge.org website, which pulls back the veil on these executives and their effort to add a new surcharge to California car insurance premiums for anyone who didn't have auto insurance at some point in the past five years. Even if they didn't have a car!
The site will keep updated tabs on Mercury's attempt to raise car insurance rates as well as the goings-on of these executives who are, not surprisingly, completely out of touch with what it means to be dealing with the economic realities of most Californians. There is info on how this initiative is scrooging soliders as well as info on the front groups Mercury is deploying to pitch their scam.
And you can be sure there is more to come, since we're dealing with an insurance company described by state regulators this way:
Mercury's lengthy history of serious misconduct, and its attitude - contempt towards and/or abuse of its customers, the Commissioner, its competition, and the Superior Court - are all relevant to determining the penalty needed to best ensure the protection of the public from future violations and wrongdoing...
Among Department [of Insurance] staff, consumer attorneys, and consumer victims of its bad faith, Mercury has a deserved reputation for abusing its customers and intentionally violating the law with arrogance and indifference.*
*The statement came in a brief submitted by the Department of Insurance in February 2009 in response to a motion by Mercury to exclude evidence of the company's past conduct. See key pages from that brief here. See, particularly, page 4.
November's California Bar Journal, the newspaper sent from the State Bar every month to all California lawyers, off-ledes with a story entitled "Chief justice: Initiative process has led to dysfunctional state."
The Journal referred to Chief Justice George's remarks as "unusually blunt." George's remarks seemed to indicate he thought reform was important. George is a Republican and was nominated by Governor Wilson for the Chief's position. George also suggested that money, not merit, had more to do with initiatives passing.
George's remarks may seem to some to have a tinge of "sour grapes" because he was the author of 2008's landmark In re Marriage case that legalized marriage equality in California, only to have it reversed by the voters in November.
I believe in democracy. I am both an upper- and lower- case 'd' democrat. This means I don't believe in rule by royalty. Just the same, it also means I do not believe in rule by the mob. These are not the same.
In particular it relates to the process by which laws are made. Democracy means people have the final power, but it is tempered by the wisdom of millenia to go through the process of elective assemblies. When even our state constitution can be amended by only a majority of voters who vote on a certain day-and it has been shown that even our most sacred rights, such as equal protection are subject to this-without much more deliberation than provocative television ads, it is not democracy, it is ochlocracy, mob rule.
This is not to suggest that our representative assemblies in this state are not also disfunctional and broken. But in my opinion, they need reform, not abolition.
Dems dont understand unwritten scripts
Every Dem in the Legislature should be given a book on tape of the Political Mind by George Lakoff, and a copy of his commentary yesterday at Kos.
the electorate was NOT saying cut cut cut, we were saying majority rule is the way to go.
I voted all NO, and I have voted for a gooper only once in my lifetime, and he was a personal friend.
They should immediately stop negotiating with the governor and other Republicans on how to destroy even more of what makes our state human. The Democrats, as a whole body, not just the leadership, should assert their majority, decide for themselves how they want to deal with the shortfall, and then invite the defeated Republicans publicly to join them and take their proposals to the public, first organizing serious grassroots support.
What is the point of doing this if the Democrats still don't have the 2/3 votes to pass a budget bill? The point is drama! Most Californians are not aware of the minority rule situation. This could dramatize it and place the blame where it belongs. Drama matters. There might still be a later compromise. But the drama would set the stage for a 2010 ballot initiative.
The Democratic leadership should immediately take the initiative on a 2010 ballot measure, a supremely simple one-sentence measure. It would go something like this:
All budgetary and revenue issues shall be decided by a majority vote in both houses of the legislature.
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign and this post is part of a live series from the No on 8 SF offices)
This morning Speaker Nancy Pelosi came by the San Francisco No on Prop 8 offices to surprise several hundred volunteers who were for training. She stopped at the office after church and her good friend Phyllis Lyon was with her. The two (and Del) go way back to the days when Pelosi was a young up and coming San Francisco politician and are close to this day. I am still trying to track down a great picture someone showed me of Pelosi giving Phyllis a big kiss on the cheek.
Pelosi recalled the time she called Del Martin and it took a few minutes for Del to figure out who was calling. She repeated that it was Nancy a few times, but Del said "I'm sorry, I don't know who this is." Pelosi finally said "Del, it's the speaker.", which prompted a big "Oooh, hi Nancy."
Unfortunately, it was hard to hear the rest of the Speaker's remarks. She didn't have a mic and I was towards the back. Heather Cronk from NOI is out here volunteering and captured it all on her flip camera. It is hard to hear and a bit shaky. Flip it for the video and more pictures.
Volunteers are here for the final training of the evening. They are signing up for shifts on election day at voting locations all over the Bay Area. Thousands have come through this office over the weekend. The same scene is repeating at offices across the state.
Staffers are busy allocating literature for election day, having to re-calibrate their estimates given the flood of volunteers coming into the offices. The staff is a mix of Californians and out of state veterans of the MA marriage fight and other GLTB battles. They have been sleeping (a little) on futons and couches and everyone is a little in awe of the scale of this campaign. For some of the staff this is officially "vacation" time as they have taken a leave from their day jobs to join the campaign trail.
Speaking of staff, the Oakland team organizing the African-American literature drop returned recently, exhausted but with smiles on their faces. They had a great turnout and covered a ton of turf.
On the more good news front, the campus program continues to expand. There are GOTV activities on 167 campuses across the state, from small rural community colleges to the big UCs. That is a lot logistics to sort out to get literature to all of those locations, but that is a great problem to have.
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign and this post is part of a series live from the No on 8 SF offices)
Yesterday, the No on Prop 8 campaign had Interfaith Call to Action Services all over the state. Over 2,000 attended one of three masses in LA, San Diego, or San Francisco. Mayor Newsom attended the SF event at Glide Memorial Church. Many parishioners wept as Reverend Dorsey Blake spoke about our country's painful history of discrimination and connected it to the discrimination on the ballot on Tuesday.
The No on 8 campaign is fighting back today against our opponent's targeting of African American voters with misinformation about Barack Obama's position on Prop 8. Volunteers are passing out a new flyer in heavily African-American precincts and churches. Flier is below the fold along with more pictures.
LA City Council President Eric Garcetti and actor Martin Sheen were on-hand in LA,and SD Mayor Sanders led a candlelight vigil in the hours after the service in San Diego.
Today, same-sex couples, many of them accompanied by straight friends, neighbors and co-workers will go "Door-to-Door Against Discrimination" in over 20 cities to urge fellow voters to defeat the unfair initiative on Tuesday.
This happening right now in Chula Vista, Fresno, La Verne, Livermore, Marin, Palm Springs, Pasadena, Sacramento, San Bruno, the San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, San Jose, and Tracy.
One couple went door-to-door today and left copies of a personal letter at over 200 homes in their neighborhood. Here's part of their report: "Actually we got around twenty calls to our home ranging from "Thanks for doing this," "You really didn't think we would vote yes, did you?" to "You shouldn't have used your phone number or address. It was brave of you."
Yes, he went there at an official Sacramento Yes on 8 rally yesterday. This is Brad Dacus, an official Prop 8 spokesperson speaking. He is the President of the Pacific Justice Institute, a religious-right lawyers 501c3 organization.
Here is the transcript:
"There was another time in history when people, when the bell tolled. And the question was whether or not they were going to hear it. The time was during Nazi Germany with Adolf Hitler. You see he brought crowds of clergy together to assure them that he was going to look after the church.
And one of the members, bold and courageous, Reverend Niemand (sp?) made his way to the front and (inaudible) said "Hitler, we are not concerned about the church. Jesus Christ will take care of the church.
We are concerned about the soul of Germany." Embarrassed and chagrined, his peers quickly shuffled him to the back.
And as they did Adolf Hitler said, "The soul of Germany, you can leave that to me." And they did, and because they did bombs did not only fall upon the nation of Germany, but also upon the church and their testimony to this very day.
Let us not make that mistake folks. Let us hear the bell! Vote on Proposition 8!"
Dacus is the guy who was the chief architect of the movement to get an opt-out law for parents to take their child out of any school activity that violates their religious or moral beliefs. Like say if a charter school asks the parents if they want to take their kids on a field trip to celebrate their teacher getting married. You know, the one they are conveniently forgetting about and then lying in their ads about education and teh children.
The best way you can answer back to Dacus is to get out this weekend and election day and volunteer for the No on 8 campaign. There is a special netroots volunteer sign-up form. Fill it out and tell them you came from Calitics.
The campaign for Prop 4 launched some new videos today. Well, kind of. You see, these are pretty much the same ads that we saw against Prop 85 in 2006. I suppose there is one side benefit when one group is repeatedly targeted for action by initiative: pre-made ads.
I thought the bubble burst ad was pretty strong during the 2006 cycle, and I'll stick to that statement today. And props out to Assemblywoman, City Councilwoman, Senator Supervisor Gloria Molina for recording the ad against No on 4. One of the reasons this is always so close, is that the traditional Democratic foundation can break apart on these issues. Having a powerful Latina stand up to Prop 4 (in English and Spanish) is more important than the traditional head shot ad may seem at first.
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
Yes, you read that headline correct. I told ya that the Mormons and others were flooding the Yes on 8 campaign's coffers with donations. We may have beaten them up on the air, but they have more cash to spend on their buy. The two recent polls taken after the ads have hit the airwaves show that we are losing ground. So, Brian is right to say "complacency is our worst enemy".
So here is what we have to do folks, there is something every one of you can do. It will take all of us to win this thing.
Contribute to the campaign using the Calitics ActBlue page. If you have the cash to give big give big. If you only have $5 or $10, give what you can. Yes, your money will be spent on TV ads, but unfortunately that is the way we win elections here in California.
Talk to your friends and family about Prop. 8. Lot's of people are still confused that supporting marriage equality means voting No. To that end, the Courage Campaign has created what the Politiker is calling"the most humorous TV ad of the fall election season". They like it, we think it's pretty funny, but watch it for yourself.
It is aimed at straight people, using a privacy, "get the government out of my pants" argument. The undecided electorate is quirky. Some of your friends will be swayed by talk about fundamental rights being taken away. Others with a more libertarian streak may like the video. Tailor your discussion to your friends.
Oh and keep an eye out for a new ad from the No on 8 campaign that should hit the airwaves shortly.
We can win this historic fight, but we gotta buckle down and do the hard work and contribute what we can.
Check the flip for an email I got from a Yes on 8 person who for some reason thinks I know where the lost in China lawns signs are.
This past weekend the Yes on 8 campaign had talked up passing out ONE MILLION lawn signs. It was going to be their big splash event, something big and bold to get a bunch of earned media.
To counter that push, the No on 8, Equality for All campaign organized a bunch of visibility events for the media and to raise the public face/profile of the campaign. Then shuttled the the volunteers back inside to do the work that will bring this election home: calling undecided voters.
But a funny thing happened.... There were no lawn signs, no big events from the Yes side.
I started hearing rumors that they had trouble with their vendor. It turns out they were stuck in China. Yes, China. Here is an email from a one Gena Downey, producer of the cult hit Mormon film (I'm joking about the cult and hit thing) God's Army.
The YES on Prop 8 yard signs have been delayed in route from China. We expect to distribute them within the next two weeks. I will email you as soon as they arrive so we can make sure you have one immediately. In the interim, please continue to take note of any friends or family who would like one as well.
So, the Yes campaign, rather than purchasing some good old fashioned union made in America lawn signs, they went to some cut rate producer in China who blew the delivery date by at least three weeks. What, they couldn't afford traditional American signs?
That seems to have worked out well. Why does the Yes on 8 campaign hate America?
Donate via the Calitics ActBlue page, so we can make up ground on the Yes campaign, which is beating us, the $100k from Speilberg to the No on 8 notwithstanding.
Meanwhile a friend emailed Gina to inquire about the signs and she responded back excitedly. I guess she hasn't figured it out that her email has been forwarded around.
The signs are not in yet. They are coming in from China and have been delayed but as soon as they arrive I will have them at my place in Burbank. That's great news and I can get them up to you as soon as they land. Wow, so good to hear this!
State law mandates that every initiative that is going to appear on the ballot must have a legislative hearing sometime before Election Day. On Tuesday in Sacramento, Proposition 4 - "Sarah's Law" - or Parental Notification for the third time - was heard by a joint Assembly-Senate health committee.
In a packed hearing room, opponents, including Planned Parenthood, the California Medical Association, the California Teachers Association, and other organizations representing nearly one million Californians watched as Assemblymember Dave Jones pinned the initiative's author Katy Short to the wall, asking her question after question about the deceptive nature of Prop. 4. "Isn't it true there is no Sarah? Isn't it true she was a married woman? Isn't it true nothing in Prop 4 would have applied to Sarah?" Katy Short could do nothing but resort to slamming the California Legislature.
When the opponents of Prop. 4 took the field, a doctor who treats teenagers, a representative from the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood President Kathy Kneer, turned the discussion to the dangerous effect of Prop. 4 on California's teens and why voters should reject it for the third time. Following the scheduled testimony, when chair Assemblymember Mervyn Dymally asked for public comment, only a handful of supporters went to the microphone, whereas opponents lined up around the room, representing hundreds of coalition groups opposed to Prop. 4. It was no contest.
The good guys won, hands down. But one side note - an anti-choice fixture in the capitol, Albin Rhomberg, began to take individual pictures of opponents as they lined up at the microphone. This is something he has done for years to scare Pro-Choice activists. Chairman Dymally told him to sit down and stop taking photos.... But this is the kind of campaign from the proponent that we are all up against. For more info about how you can help defeat prop 4 and how to help, visit http://www.noonprop4.org.
The newest major donor to the No on Prop 8: Equality for All campaign is one Brad Pitt. It comes at a key time in fundraising over the initiative that would take away the right for gays and lesbians to get married. The Yes side is seeing a major surge in donations, flooding into their coffers. In fact, they are out raising us right now, Brad Pitt's donation included.
The Mormon church is getting heavily involved in the campaign. It looks like about 35% of contributions to the other side have come in from Mormons, or at least that is what they are claiming over at this Mormons for 8 website. A high percentage of the large checks are coming from Utah.
Here is the question: is a religious institution trying to buy this election and change the California Constitution?
They aren't just donating. They are fueling their GOTV activites. Mormons have been invading neighborhoods en mass. They are not using walk lists, but rather descend in large groups to knock doors and try and pass out the million yard signs they think is going to win them this election. It's flat out creepy. It freaks out entire communities and usually the No on 8 campaign hears within a few minutes where the Mormons have decided to invade on any given day.
Look, I don't have anything specific against Mormons. It's just that when a specific religious institution decides to play a large role in a political battle, it weirds me out. Separation of chuch and state....
I know many of you have seen the polls and think we are going to win the battle over fundamental rights here in California. But I have news from you. The other side is winning the fundraising battle. They are energized with volunteers and are counting on a sort of Bradley effect to put them over the top. This is from an email from Dale Bankhead, the campaign manager for No on 8 (flip it):
No, not dead, just delayed. They kept pushing their luck on turning in the signatures and now have conceded that they will not make the June ballot. (Got this via email, but Meyer's blog has technical problems, will update with link later)
The initiative to change how California's Electoral College votes are awarded in the race for the White House will not appear on the June statewide ballot, according to campaign officials.
In a brief statement e-mailed to reporters this afternoon, the California Counts political team said they are now shooting for the November ballot after being unable to gather enough signatures in time for this week's drop-dead June deadline.
"Due to the tight calendar we are operating under and the challenge of raising money and gathering signatures during the Holiday season," says the statement, "we understand that submitting signatures and having them counted in time to make the June ballot, is no longer a realistic goal."
They are now shooting for the November ballot. However, like Meyers notes that there are two major problems with that strategy. 1) The turnout will not be as favorable for the Republicans as it would have been in June. 2) If it were to pass there would be a court challenge over whether it would count for the election occurring on the same day.
We have killed it twice now and we will for a third time if necessary.
[UPDATE] 3:20 pm Here is the SacBee breaking story that has a crucial piece of information:
California Counts has until Feb. 4 to submit their signatures, a deadline representing six months after the initiative was approved for circulation. Gilliard's statement said his group had collected more than 500,000 signatures; political strategists believe they need about 700,000 to ensure they have enough valid ones to meet a state threshold.
"CalCounts will continue with its fundraising and signature drive because we believe Californians deserve the right to vote on this important initiative to reform the Electoral College and to make our state count again in presidential elections," Gilliard said in the statement.
There has been a lot of confusion over when the dirty tricksters needed to turn in their signatures. The hard deadline was Feb 5th, but that is also when they need to be certified by, so they obviously had to turn them in before then. The County Registrars need time to do the random counts and if that failed, to do a full count.
They are busy preparing for the primary, thus can't be devoting a lot of resources to a count. The dirty tricksters pushed it so far that it is now impossible to get certified in time for the June primary. But if they get the 200,000 more in by February, it will make the November ballot.
(full disclosure: I work for Courage Campaign, which is working on defeating the dirty trick)
The state campaign finance disclosure laws say that you have to report your contributions within 10 days of receiving them. The relatively short turn around means that we know what kind of money the dirty tricksters have and where it is coming from. Though they have been swearing up and down they have $3 million to get this on the ballot, the initial round of contributions only adds up to about $539,000 in the last two weeks. That is nowhere near enough money to get it on, though they could have cash rolling in over the next few days. John Meyers has the names.
So who are some of the donors? The larger contributions come from people like Glen Holden, an insurance investor and former ambassador to Jamaica under the first President George Bush; Duane Roberts, an Orange County businessman who's also given money this year to GOP presidential contenders Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain; money manager Robert Day, listed on Forbes' 2006 list of "The World's Richest People"; venture capitalist Floyd Kvamme, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; Jerrold Perenchio, former CEO of Univision who's also been a financial backer of Governor Schwarzenegger; and Bill Leonard, an elected member of the California Board of Equalization and former Assembly GOP leader.
I am sure Lehane and company with their oppo-research team are digging into these guys. We already know about Issa.
And as publicly reported before, seed money has also been contributed by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) -- from both his own checkbook ($50,000) and from his campaign account ($9,500).
The last one is interesting, though not surprising. I say interesting because I am wondering where they are getting the money from.
The single largest contribution so far to the campaign known as California Counts: $80,000 from the California Republican Party.
The California Republican Party is bankrupt, so where did they find the cash for this? And is someone using the CRP as a way to funnel money into the campaign, without having their name disclosed.
(full disclosure: I'm working for Courage Campaign)
While Giuliani's minions scramble around gathering signatures (holler in the comments if you have seen signature gatherers), Courage Campaign is ramping up again to beat the dirty trick initiative AGAIN. We had pivoted on to Blackwater and are now waging two big battles at once: making sure the Republicans don't steal the White House and keeping Blackwater from opening a mercenary training base in Potrero.
These battles take resources and by that I mean money. We are dedicated to running a new style campaign, for and by the netroots. Where these guys are getting million dollar checks from big funders, we are running hard on ActBlue. We have set a goal of 1,000 contributions on ActBlue all time for No Dirty Tricks. We knew it would be a reach. We started the day at 619 donors and we are now at 820 donors. Can you help us reach our goal? You can contribute via the Calitics ActBlue page.
Below the fold is the email we sent to Courage Campaign members today. On Halloween we will have a surprise from Courage friend and dirty trick foe Bradley Whitford.
UNITE-HERE and their allies in the race track community and others submitted what appears to be enough signatures to get four initiatives on the ballot to repeal the gaming compacts with four tribes that were approved by Arnold and the legislature. However, the tribes under the auspices of their new coalition "Coalition to Protect California's Budget and Economy" are challenging the signature submission process in court. They are now trying to claim that they did not submit them in time and that the Secretary of State has been misinterpreting the state constitution for the past decade. John Meyers:
The language at issue is found in Article II, Section 9: A referendum measure may be proposed by presenting to the Secretary of State, within 90 days after the enactment date of the statute, a petition certified to have been signed by electors equal in number to 5 percent of the votes for all candidates for Governor at the last gubernatorial election, asking that the statute or part of it be submitted to the electors.
With that in mind, did the 433,971 signatures have to be certified within 90 days? Or did they merely have to be gathered within 90 days?
Secretary Bowen, using guidelines established by her predecessors, said that it's the latter, that the 90 days only refers to the gathering and submitting of signatures. And that's consistent with a bench ruling by a state judge in 1998 about how the referendum process works (ironically, a case that also revolved around Indian gaming).
But the new legal challenge argues that the constitution intends for the entire process to be over in the 90 days. And if that's true, then there will be no referendums on the ballot; local elections officials have not yet sent their final tabulations to Bowen's office.
The tribes have hired Roger Salazar, spokesman for the CDP and co-founder of CMR as their press flack. His quotes and their strategy on the flip.
Never mind the partisanship behind Republican lawyer Tom Hiltachk's so-called Presidential Election Reform Act, an initiative that seeks to peel off about twenty of California's electoral votes to Republican presidential candidates in 2008 and indefinitely into the future. Let's just consider the question, does the US Constitution permit a state to determine via a ballot initiative how to cast its electoral votes?
The site will keep updated tabs on Mercury's attempt to raise car insurance rates as well as the goings-on of these executives who are, not surprisingly, completely out of touch with what it means to be dealing with the economic realities of most Californians. There is info on how this initiative is 
This morning Speaker Nancy Pelosi came by the San Francisco No on Prop 8 offices to surprise several hundred volunteers who were for training. She stopped at the office after church and her good friend Phyllis Lyon was with her. The two (and Del) go way back to the days when Pelosi was a young up and coming San Francisco politician and are close to this day. I am still trying to track down a great picture someone showed me of Pelosi giving Phyllis a big kiss on the cheek.
The No on 8 campaign is fighting back today against our opponent's targeting of African American voters with misinformation about Barack Obama's position on Prop 8. Volunteers are passing out a new flyer in heavily African-American precincts and churches. Flier is below the fold along with more pictures.