Cross-posted from the CA League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) blog,Groundswell.
By Mike Young and Beth Gunston
Late Wednesday, CLCV-endorsed candidate Assemblymember Bill Monning was greeted with some fantastic news: Senator Sam Blakeslee announced that he will not seek re-election. Despite being the incumbent, Blakeslee decided that defending his seat would not be worth the effort since decennial redistricting shifted this coastal district to a new 16% Democratic registration advantage. If that were not insurmountable enough, much of the new district that stretches from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obespo overlaps areas that Monning currently represents in the Assembly.
In 2010, it was largely argued that Blakeslee only won his race against Democrat candidate and environmental champion John Laird because then-Governor Schwarzenegger made that contest a special election where Democratic voters tend to have extremely low turnout. Whether that's true or not, Blakeslee felt he had no viable chance this time around. Without a serious primary challenger and with the incumbent ducking out, Monning is in a great position to essentially walk into the seat. This will be a big pick-up for the environment. Monning (100% CLCV score) will be a much needed breath of fresh air from Blakeslee (21% CLCV score), especially in the Senate where environmental priorities have had a much more difficult time passing. Monning is well regarded for his environmental health work around toxics and pesticides, and has been specifically outspoken about the recent introduction of methyl iodide in the state.
But while Monning’s expected win is a great for the environment, it's time to look this gift horse in the mouth. With little hope of a contender to pit against Monning, the polluter interests that helped Blakeslee win in 2010 will likely now spend their money to defeat a more vulnerable target: state Senator Fran Pavley. Pavley, an environmental leader who authored California's landmark global warming laws, has a much more difficult race this year as redistricting has put her in a Senate seat against Tony Strickland with a very narrow registration advantage. In 2008, despite his 2% record on the environment including countless votes against bills to increase renewable energy, Strickland reinvented himself as a renewable energy expert and narrowly won his current Senate seat. With environmental advocates just one seat away from a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate and environmental champion Fran Pavley potentially being ousted, you can bet big polluters will spend more heavily on this race than any others.
So while the prospects for Bill Monning look fantastic, the consequence may be that we will need to work even harder to protect Fran Pavley. Still, much can change between now and Election Day, and nobody quite knows how the top two primary system will change the political landscape. All we know for sure is that in 2012 we must remain vigilant and work towards electing an environmental majority in the Senate. That way we’ll be more likely to pass bold environmental laws along with a balanced budget, taxes, and fees to keep our state moving forward in the years to come.
Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star focuses on a statement from Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval in today's must-read column:
One thing that hasn't changed in Nevada is that its Republican politicians continue to be fiscal conservatives. But if GOP lawmakers from California were to return to Reno this year to pick up any lessons, they might be surprised at one thing they'd learn.
They'd find out that the state's constitutional amendment, passed in 1994, that requires any tax increases be approved by a two-thirds vote of legislators includes a provision that gives ultimate authority to voters. To place a tax increase proposal on the ballot, it says, shall require only a simple majority vote of lawmakers.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, who promised during his campaign to oppose any tax increases, appears to also believe that a public vote on taxes ought to carry more weight than his own opinion.
Asked whether he would sign a bill to put a tax increase on the ballot, Sandoval this week told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, "We'll cross that bridge when it comes, but I've always been supportive of people's right to vote."(Ventura County Star)
Now, let's say this first, Brian Sandoval is nobody's moderate. He's a pretty right-wing governor, and hardly somebody that you could really call anything other than anti-tax/anti-goverment.
But, in the system we have out west, governments frequently defer (for better or worse) to the people. Perhaps Tony Strickland and his TeaParty Caucus should consider the fact that despite what Grover Norquist is telling them, a vote for Brown's budget package will increase no taxes. That's up to the people, and unless Tony and the Gang don't trust the people, he should get moving on that pronto.
Back in 2008, Tony Strickland ran something of an interesting campaign to defeat Hannah-Beth Jackson. He ran as a neo-environmentalist. His mail was all about Green energy, and how he has quite the record in developing said energy.
Of course, you'd have to consider some pretty dirty energy to be "clean" to buy that. However, Strickland snuck through by a few thousand votes as enough people bought the hype.
Now, fast forward to today, and it's all being run over again. This time it is Sam Blakeslee, the man who has consistently taken Big Oil dollars trying to make himself all clean and green. It's a tough task to be sure.
But CalBuzz goes ahead and punches the holes out of that story:
The blunt truth of the matter, however, may be found in 1) the lavish oil industry contributions shoveled into committees that have forked out more than $1 million to back Blakeslee's play in the 15th State Senate district and 2) the photograph posted at the top of this story, which shows exactly where the San Luis Obispo GOP assemblyman stood on offshore oil drilling in California - before that whole Gulf of Mexico thing made it really, really unfashionable. (CalBuzz)
As John Laird pointed out about his election, this truly is critical. We'll likely see Laird and Blakeslee in the runoff, but this is where we must start to tell Central Coast voters the real story. Fortunately, the CDP has gotten a virtual phone bank system up and running, so now's the time. The election is Tuesday, let's push John Laird over the top. Heck, maybe we can even avoid that runoff...
Back in 1998, fresh from his first election to the Assembly, he helped depose the guy who got him there, Rod Pacheco. I guess if it worked for him once, Strickland figured why not do it again when he was central to deposing Dave Cogdill:
Next week marks the 10th anniversary of former Riverside County legislator Rod Pacheco's unceremonious ouster as Assembly GOP leader.
Pacheco, now the county DA, was the last county lawmaker to lead any legislative caucus until restive Senate Republicans installed state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta as minority leader during last month's budget standoff.
At the center of both moves was Ventura County lawmaker Tony Strickland. (Press-Enterprise 3/30/09)
And guess what, Strickland got a promotion to assistant minority leader out of the coup. Works out well for the hoops-shooting Senator from Ventura. It appears that Strickland is trying to angle for the minority leader gig when Sen. Hollingsworth is termed out in 2010. But, the fight between Runner will be a brutal one. Both are extremely ambitious, and extremely out of touch with the political views of the majority of the state.
Tim Herdt over at the VC Star's 95 Percent Accurate* is a veritable fountain of information today. This time he brings us news about our favorite new state senator, "Phony" Tony Strickland. As readers may recall, Tony Strickland ran a bogus campaign claiming to be an alternative energy entrepreneur though his alternative energy company has yet to secure a contract, and his voting record has been a boon to oil companies and other polluting industries who richly rewarded him with a major infusion of campaign contributions.
Fresh off winning by a sliver of a percentage point by pretending to be an "independent" with "green" credentials, Tony Strickland is already causing trouble. In a move that will surprise absolutely no one but the moderate voters unfortunate enough to get suckered by Strickland's con artistry, Strickland is already carrying water for his friends in the extremist RepublicanYacht Party.
After a few failed attempts at a vote on the most recent majority vote package, the Governor is threatening a veto if he doesn't get some "stimulus." By way of explaining what the Governor's words really mean, please just replace the word "stimulus" with "screw California's workers." After all, it's not like Schwarzenegger thinks we can give some sort of tax break or anything, no he's talking about cutting overtime to employees, allowing shorter breaks, and generally taking a machete to worker's rights in this state. So, you know, we'll be "stimulated."
Both houses of the Legislature attempted to get a vote done last night, but that was pushed back to this morning:
Both houses of the Legislature were to convene this evening to vote on a new Democratic budget plan that raises taxes without two-thirds votes but the sessions were delayed as legislative leaders negotiated for a signature from Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger reportedly was demanding concessions from Democrats on regulatory and labor laws that business groups have been demanding - changes that the Democrats' allies in labor and environmental groups strongly oppose. (SacBee 12/17/08
This really is a strange situation, the Governor knows that he has a bit of leverage on this with the Legislative Republicans out of the picture, so he's back to his right-wingish self. Attacking labor and quietly expanding the Chamber of Commerce's stranglehold over the Horseshoe, he really is getting a knack for this. And yet, the situation is such that negotiation on these terms is mandatory, despite the fact that Arnold's ridiculous "Car Tax" BS caused all of this. Shock Doctrine anyone?
Meanwhile, Tony Strickland, showing his true stripes, has got the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's, and other assorted rightwingers all ready for a lawsuit against the proposed deal. If you happen to be in the Capitol, check out their presser this morning at 10 in Room 4203. If this gets a signature, we will surely see a lawsuit about 3 seconds afterwards. And no amount of Arnold cozying up to Jon Coupal on Prop 11 will avoid that.
UPDATE: Shane Goldmacher is reporting that Speaker Bass thinks the Governor will sign the bill as revised. The bill includes some, but not all, of the Governor's "stimulus" ideas.
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.
(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.
(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)
(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.
I recently found these images on myspace, in an album of "dirty political tricks" from a random user in Kansas. From what I can gather the photos were from a book entitled "Dirty Political Tricks". Recognize that smile? Well, that's none other than SD-19 Candidate Tony Strickland. It's pretty hard to miss that smirk, but if you doubt it, compare the up-close picture over the flip with his photos on the web.
So, as far as I can tell, here's story. If anybody has corrections, let me know. Bob Larkin is a Republican who has run a couple of times for the Assembly. He ran against Tom McClintock in 1996 (Results here). Young Tony Strickland, a McClintock acolyte, didn't appreciate that. So he stole Larkin's signs, and posted negative bumper stickers on others.
Isn't that cute? You have to wonder how a man who has such open contempt for (small d) democracy will behave in the Senate. Well, we need only look to how he fought partisan battles rather than producing results in the Assembly.
By the way, Larkin has some dirt from back in his campaign against Audra Strickland in 2006:
California Financial Campaign Disclosures have shown that Audra and Tony Strickland have been profiting for personal use over $150,000.00 from political action committees and their own campaigns to pay for personal expenses. Tony Strickland's campaign committee actually paid Audra Strickland's Company $120,000.00. (source: California Secretary of State)
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:
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:
• CA-11: Apparently trying to win some kind of award for the worst attack website in history, Jon Fleischman of the Flash Report (a terribly designed website in its own right) has put together One Term Is Enough, in all of its way-too-large masthead, ridiculously-spare with no action items or columns, design out of Quark X-Press glory. Man, that's ugly. And I think the focus on Jerry McNerney's earmarks, given the summer of scandal that Dean Andal has lived through which is entirely about a construction contract with a community college (if he was in Congress, that would be, basically, an earmark), is kind of silly. Meanwhile, McNerney is up with his first ad of the cycle, focusing on his work on behalf of troops and veterans.
• AD-80: As soyinkafan noted, Manuel Perez and Gary Jeandron had a debate where Jeandron stated his support for a tax increase in Imperial County. That's not likely to help him with the conservative base, but clearly Jeandron understands that he has to move to left if he has any chance to win this seat. The Palm Springs Desert Sun has a debate report here.
• SD-19: Tony Strickland's latest endorsement is Erin Brockovich, of all people. However, this could be less of a reach across the aisle as it appears.
Ventura County Star columnist Timm Herdt got Strickland's Democratic opponent Hannah-Beth Jackson on the phone, who said she was "a little surprised" by Brockovich backing her opponent.
While Brockovich says she is a Democrat in the ad, she writes on her blog that she's ready to leave the party and become an independent.
"I am ready to turn because both parties are acting foolish and judgmental and attacking," she writes.
She also has kind words for GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
"I am proud to be a member of the same Strong Woman's Club that Sarah Palin is in." Brockovich writes.
• AD-15: As has been noted, Joan Buchanan released her first campaign ad of the cycle. Her opponent Abram Wilson responded with his own ad, also biographical in nature, and his campaign has questioned the Buchanan spot and her commitment to fiscal responsibility. I suppose signing a "no-tax" pledge is the height of responsibility, then.
• AD-30: We were all expecting it, and now Nicole Parra has officially endorsed Republican Danny Gilmore in the election to replace her. This is a family fight moved into the political sphere - the Parra-Florez feud is well-known.
Parra's support of Danny Gilmore angered Democratic Party leaders, but comes as no surprise because she has been praising Gilmore for months.
"I will endorse Danny Gilmore in the near future and I will campaign for him and do commercials," Parra said in an interview. Gilmore, a retired California Highway Patrol officer from Hanford, is running against Democrat Fran Florez, mother of state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, a longtime Parra rival.
• LA Board of Supes: Turns out that not only is Bernard Parks turning to Republicans to help him get elected over progressive State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, but for ten years he was a member of the American Independent Party (!).
According to voter registration forms certified by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder:
Bernard Parks left the Democratic Party and registered as an American Independent on February 12, 1992 - just in time to miss the opportunity to vote for President Bill Clinton.
He registered again as an American Independent on August 9, 1996.
President George Bush was elected in November 2000 - but Parks still wouldn't become a Democrat for nearly a year and a half.
Parks was fired as Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department on April 9, 2002. Shortly thereafter, he began to prepare to run for Los Angeles City Council, and re-registered as a Democrat on May 30, 2002. Less than a year later, he was elected to the City Council.
That is very strange, especially for an African-American to sign up with a party which is the legacy of George Wallace.
Here it is, our 7000th Diary. Wow! So, Open thread time:
• Joan Buchanan (AD-15) has a TV ad. Check it out:
• Shockingly, Tony Strickland is getting dirty in SD-19 against Hannah-Beth Jackson. He put out a mailer against Hannah-Beth's non-existent negative mailers saying he doesn't care. Put this together with his massive tobacco and oil company donations, and the push polls he has been doing, and you have one of the more disgusting campaigns we've seen for a while. He should be ashamed of the crap that's coming out of his campaign, but what do you expect from the former California director of Club for Growth?
• Dan Walters writes today about the prison crisis, which is not improving magically through lawmakers' collective decision to ignore it. J. Clark Kelso is extremely likely, in my opinion, to get the $8 billion he's seeking from a judge to fix the prison healthcare system, so just tack that on to next year's budget.
• Late Friday, unemployment statistics for August were released, and we're up to 7.7%, the third-highest in the nation (only Rhode Island and Michigan are worse). That's over two percentage points up from just a year ago.
• Karl Rove is coming to San Bernardino to headline a fundraiser with the local GOP. This is kind of perfect, since the San Bernardino Republican Party is kind of a criminal enterprise in its own right, too.
• Hey, big news from Gray Davis: he doesn't like the recall process! But, seriously, he makes decent points about good governance, which this state seems to think is a quaint process.
The most hotly anticipated State Senate election this year is in the 19th District covering Santa Barbara and Ventura County, between Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Tony Strickland. Though the two are almost polar opposites, the chunk of the district in Santa Barbara, where residents have long memories about the 1969 oil spill, makes it impossible for Republicans to win with their "Drill Now" message on energy. So Tony Strickland opted to run some ads that Al Gore might have run were he to be contesting in the district, highlighting renewable energy through wind, solar, algae, tidal and other forms. This is completely at odds with Strickland's doctrinaire Republican record, with votes against green building standards, minimum renewable energy standards, and even fuel-efficient tires. Strickland has taken money from Big Oil and stood with global warming denialists in the recent past. It's incongruous for him to carry a pro-environment message.
So I hooked up with the Courage Campaign and the California League of Conservation Voters to put together a little video highlighting this incongruity.
What's interesting is that the Courage Campaign's Web tool invited those supporters who received their email blast to spread the word, and they were so successful, both online political reporters at the Ventura County Star, the region's biggest newspaper, covered the video. More important, the Jackson campaign has been energized to fight back against some of Strickland allies' misleading ads on taxes, and in doing so buttresses the outside groups' take about Strickland's terrible environmental record.
So progressive groups are ensuring that Strickland gets away with nothing in this race, and in turn the Jackson campaign is fighting back as well and counter-punching swiftly and effectively. This is a growing success story in the 19th.
Tony Strickland has quite the history with the Club for Growth, a radical anti-government organization. The Club has a history of challenging moderate Republicans in federal and state elections throughout the nation. Strickland has been president of the California branch and is still fiercely loyal to the Club and its tactics. Unsurprisingly there are some Republicans who are a little less than thrilled with their nominee.
So, in the wake of the threat-induced "Democrats for Dreier", we have the "Moderate Republicans for Jackson." Of course, Hannah-Beth didn't use threats of withholding money from parts of the district to get these people to sign on to her campaign. You can check the details here. It lists some of their grievances with the former Assemblyman, beginning with the Club for Growth:
Moderate Republicans for Jackson was formed out of concern that Strickland is a man who is far removed from the beliefs and ethical standards held by the majority of people in our neighborhoods. Tony Strickland is an extremist. He was the founding president of the California Club for Growth, part of the ultra right-wing National Club for Growth which has made it a mission to destroy the political careers of moderate Republicans.
They go on to mention a laundry list of problems they have with Tony. From his accepting $85K in tobacco money for this campaign to his abysmal voting record on the environment.
Hannah-Beth Jackson has a long road until the general election, but this can't hurt. You can find her on the Calitics ActBlue Page. Full release over the flip.
