(Welcome to Rep. Lois Capps - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
By Rep. Lois Capps
Dear Calitics community:
After following your smart takes on California and national politics, I thought it was time I joined the conversation. Here's my first post -- an update on my congressional campaign.
First, thank you for many years of support. Without the help of grassroots activists, I never would have been elected to Congress. And I never would have been able to write the Nurse Reinvestment Act to address our nationwide nursing shortage, help get Health Insurance Reform enacted, protect our coastline from more offshore drilling, vote against the Iraq war, stand up for a woman's right to choose and provide more opportunity for the middle class. I'm proud of my record and can keep going, but my message today is about politics.
This election is different.
There has been a lot of discussion here about the redistricting commission and their new maps.
The new, final map makes my 24th district the toughest Democratic seat to defend in California. No other congressional district has lost as many registered Democrats as mine. For the past ten years, my district had an 18% Democratic registration advantage. Now the seat has only 3% more Democrats than Republicans.
I am proud to announce that last night, the Ventura County Central Committee became the first committee nationwide to approve the FireDogLake resolution only supporting such healthcare reform as contains at least the choice of a robust public option. Robert Cruickshank's Central Committee in Monterey had the resolution on the agenda, but did not get to it before the scheduled adjournment.
This is part of a national effort to get Democratic clubs and central committees nationwide to adopt similar resolutions over the coming month, and forward them on to Congressmembers whose districts are geographically aligned with the county/club making the endorsement. My brother and fellow Calitician Dante Atkins helped rewrite the language of the resolution so that it fit with California resolution rules.
If you are a member of a Democratic or progressive club--or, better yet, a member of your Central Committee--I highly encourage you to submit the same or very similar resolution to your local club/committee as well, in order to leverage maximum pressure on your representatives.
The text of the resolution adopted by the VCDCC was as follows:
WHEREAS, the heath care system of the United States is in crisis, with almost fifty million Americans lacking any health insurance, tens of millions more lacking adequate coverage, and millions more who do have private coverage paying increasingly unaffordable premiums, resulting in inadequate access to care and premature death, illness, or financial ruin for millions of Americans; and
WHEREAS, public polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans want health care reform to offer the choice of a robust public option similar to Medicare in order to, in the words of President Obama, "keep the insurance companies honest," while co-ops or so-called "triggers" are inadequate in and of themselves to address the health care crisis by creating significant competition for the medical insurance industry; and
WHEREAS, Republicans and their allies in the health insurance industry have organized and funded groups of extremists to disrupt efforts on the part of the Democratic majority and administration to reasonably discuss the issue with the American people, and have demonstrated an utter unwillingness to compromise in any way to pass meaningful health care reform;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee urges Democratic members of Congress to vote for only such healthcare reform proposals as contain at least the choice for a robust public plan at all stages of the legislative process including conference and reconciliation, and encourages Democratic legislators to use any available parliamentary means to pass such reform;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee shall send a copy of this resolution to all members of Congress who represent at least a part of the geographic region of which this Committee is the officially sanctioned body of the Democratic Party.
The resolution will be forwarded on to Elton Gallegly and to Lois Capps. Capps has not signed the FDL pledge even though she represents a D+10 district; FDL is also placing phone pressure on 106 Democratic representatives in such districts to encourage them to sign the pledge for a public option.
The California Majority Report-infused "American Leadership Project," the pro-Hillary Clinton 527 that apparently thinks they can take credit for the Texas primary victory because they ran one ad the day before the election, has a new ad up in Indiana aimed at no-information voters:
Really, we're going down the "Obama has no substance" road? REALLY?
Come closer, Jason Kinney. Here's Barack Obama's website. There's an entire section with his position on issues! There are white papers galore! And he's even explained those proposals in speeches! And in newspapers! And leading economists preferred them! Imagine that! You don't have to rely on opinion editorialists (that's who the ad quotes) anymore!
(By the way, if you want to use David Ignatius' boneheaded intellect as a selling point, go ahead. Really makes you look smart.)
The Obama campaign has just announced they've filed an FEC complaint against the American Leadership Project, the 527 group founded by some big Hillary Clinton donors and pro-Hillary unions, on the grounds that they have failed to properly register as a political committee and to obey spending and donation limits in their founding mission of spending on behalf of Hillary Clinton.
"The group isn't making any bones about their purpose here," said Obama campaign chief counsel Bob Bauer on a conference call with reporters, "which makes their legal position hopelessly defective."
You're all making California proud. Go get 'em!
UPDATE: Superdelegate and Congresswoman Lois Capps, of CA-23, just endorsed Obama. The Illinois Senator won CA-23 in the primary.
Woohoo! Jerry did it! Jerry McNerney has managed to become the most un-progressive Democrat of the entire California congressional delegation. For those keeping score at home, Jerry's 82.45 was about a half point lower than the next CA Dem, Jim Costa, that progressive stalwart, at 82.97. And for all the talk of Harman changing her ways, she's still worse than even Joe Baca, almost 7 points worse from a very safe Dem seat.
For all of you CA-45 fans, "moderate" Mary Bono came in with a stellar 4.42 Chips are Down score. So, for all the bluster of the SCHIP vote, she's still dancing the same jig as the rest of her party.
On thing must be said, the Speaker has done an excellent job at preserving unity amongst the caucus. Whether that means she's being too incremental and/or ineffective, or just laying down the law is the big question. The reason her approval rating, and the Congress in general, is down has a whole lot to do with the fact that little has changed on the Iraq front. So, would it be better to have a speaker who is more willing to take risks? Perhaps, but the impediment of the president always lingers over her head, veto pen in hand. So, whether the unity is really there, is an open question. Full data over the flip.
(I was working on a similar post, but I'll still post my own, with all CA data and some other miscellany. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The problem with most scorecards is that they are written by lobbyists concerned with always getting the votes of potential supporters. Thus, there is an equal weighting while in the real world not all votes are equal. In fact, regardless of everything else, some votes are dealbreakers and when they show up on scorecards as one of 12 votes or something, it looks silly. However, Progressive Punch has a new "when the chips are down" scorecard. After the flip is the ratings of CA's congressional delegation, in descending order.
I'm guessing that at tonight's Calitics' Actblue Celebrations there will be a lot of discussion about the votes to condemn MoveOn. The CA delegation split 50-50 in the senate and 16 yea and 17 nay in the house -- wedged successfully by the GOP in half. After the flip is the scorecard.
...who just signed on to a letter to the President vowing not to appropriate any more money to the Iraq debacle for anything other than a fully funded withdrawal. Kudos to these 12:
Lynn Woolsey
Barbara Lee
Maxine Waters
Ellen Tauscher
Diane Watson
Bob Filner
Hilda Solis
Grace Napolitano
Linda Sanchez
Mike Honda
Pete Stark
Lois Capps
