Why won't Jerry Brown just announce that he is running for Governor? Why won't he campaign? Why is he letting Meg Whitman get so far ahead of things in this campaign? Does he just assume he has it "in the bag?"
In last week's post progressive voters on strike? Santa Barbara blogger Retired UC Santa Barbara Professor of sociology and renowned social activist, Richard Flacks looks at recent polls showing Democratic voters to be unenthusiastic about voting while Republican voters are highly motivated. Professor Flacks writes,
I wanted to share a couple of thoughts with Calitics readers about my experience running for chair of the California Democratic Party.
First, I really did mean it in my speech on Saturday when I said most of the good ideas were on the floor of the convention. Of the 12 points I presented in that speech, a couple were mine. A few came from things I heard at central committee meetings or regional events I attended across the state during the campaign. In some cases, they were things political friends of mine suggested, or even stuff I read on blogs and listservs. One friend of mine at the convention called it crowdsourscing, another fellow said it was the essence of democracy, and a third observed that that's what representatives are supposed to do--listen to their constituents. Of course they're all right. But the point is, all you have to do is show up and listen. We have a lot of bright, experienced people in the Democratic Party in California. They have a lot to teach us.
The other thing people kept telling me is that I was so brave to do this. Anybody who knows me can tell you I'm not an inherently brave person. Foolhardy on occasion perhaps. But I was so nervous on Saturday that my son had to type the changes to my speech because my hands were shaking. What motivated me was the belief that what I was doing was important, and that's not much different than most of the people who do extraordinary things in our party every day.
Los Angeles relies on coal-fired power plants more than almost any other large city in the country. More than 75% of the electricity DWP generates comes fossil fuels, most of that from coal.
Measure B, the "Green Energy/Good Jobs" ballot initiative promises to generate 400 megawatts of solar power by 2014, save lives by improving air quality (or at least keeping it from getting worse), create thousands of good-paying union jobs and make Los Angeles the solar capital of the United States, all while only costing rate payers an additional $1 a month.
The measure is just one component of a massive three-part plan called Solar LA. The program's goal is to create a 1.3 gigawatt solar network of residential, commercial and municipally-owned solar energy systems.
According to the literature, Solar LA:
....is simply the largest solar plan undertaken by any single city in the world - with the municpally-owned portion of the plan alone representing more solar capacity than in all of California today. By 2020, the plan will lower carbon emissions in Los Angeles and increase the City's solar portfolio by nearly 100- fold."
Measure B is the third part of this program - the municipally-owned part. What it proposes to do is to build and install thousands of solar panels on city-owned buildings and municipal properties such parking lots, parks, schools, etc. all over Los Angeles.
Sounds pretty good, right? As someone who believes in solar power and who's pro-union (in fact, both my husband and I are union members), I know it sounded great to me. We desperately need a comprehensive solar program. The sooner the better.
But the more research I did, the more I began to question if Measure B will be able to deliver on it's promises. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that if passed, Measure B will likely do the opposite, and will instead actually undermine the city's solar energy efforts.
(Good question! Post them in the comments. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
I was browsing online looking around for where all the election night gatherings are going to be, and thought I'd pose the question to the group here - where will you be hanging out on Election Night after the polls close at 8pm?
I remember in 1992 they had a big party in San Francisco, since that was the year Clinton won California, and Sens. Boxer and Feinstein won too...so post some parties here!
PRESIDENT \ V.P. - BARACK OBAMA \ Joe Biden
This will be a close race! Phone-banking to swing states-including Colorado-continues at your local Obama or United Democratic Campaign headquarters. Go to http://my.barackobama.com/page... to find the Obama office near you.
U.S. Congress - C.D. #s 1-53 - Vote for the Democrat in your district!
IF you live in one of these two districts, please volunteer/contribute to your candidate's campaign:
~ C.D. #4 - Charlie Brown [www.charliebrownforcongress.org] - This district is our best chance to turn a red district blue in California this year. He is running against Tom McClintock, the most ideologically conservative legislator in the state and a carpetbagger from Southern California. Charlie Brown, he's "a good man."
~ C.D. #11 - Jerry McNerney [www.jerrymcnerney.org] - The Democrats, with tremendous grassroots activism, took this seat two years ago, but the Republicans are spending huge amounts of money to take it back. Let's make sure we send Mr. McNerney, a leader in renewable energy, back to Congress.
California State Senate:
~ S.D. #3 - Mark Leno
~ S.D. #5 - Lois Wolk [www.loiswolk.com] - This is an open seat that we must keep in the Democratic column.
~ S.D. #7 - Mark DeSaulnier
~ S.D. #9 - Loni Hancock - Since I live in this district, I will take this opportunity to say that we are very fortunate to have Loni representing Oakland and other East Bay communities in the St. Senate. Among her accomplishments, she was successful this year in getting passed and signed into law a 'Clean Money' pilot program.
~ S.D. #11 - Joe Simitian
~ S.D. #19 - Hannah-Beth Jackson [www.jackson4senate.com] - This district is our best hope at picking up a Democratic seat in the St. Senate. Please do what you can to help her win against a very conservative opponent who is misleading voters about his own record.
~ S.D. #23 - Fran Pavley
~ S.D. #27 - Alan Lowenthal
~ S.D. #39 - Christine Kehoe
California State Assembly - A.D. #s 1-80 - Vote for the Democrat in your district! IF you live or work in one of the following districts, please volunteer/contribute to your candidate's campaign. These are expected to be very close races.
~ A.D. #10 - Alyson Huber - www.alysonhuber.com
~ A.D. #15 - Joan Buchanan - www.joanbuchanan.com - If you live in the Bay Area and want to help the Democrats gain seats in our state legislature, please contact the Buchanan campaign and help in any way possible. 925-806-0560 ~ A.D. #26 - John Eisenhut - www.johneisenhut.com
~ A.D. #65 - Carl Wood - www.wood4assembly.org
~ A.D. #78 - Marty Block - www.martyblock.com
~ A.D. #80 - Manuel V. Perez - www.manuelperezforassembly.com
LOCAL RACES:
Oakland City Council (at-large seat) - REBECCA KAPLAN -
Rebecca is exactly the type of person we need on the Oakland City Council. She is smart, progressive, experienced and accomplished. She will shake things up on the city council and move it in a more progress-oriented direction. She is a former civil rights attorney, policy advocate, environmental activist, and yes, a 'community organizer'. She understands the array of issues facing Oakland residents and will work hard to make Oakland a more safe and livable city. She is well-known for being able to work with a broad cross-section of people and personalities. Currently, she's an elected member of the A/C Transit Board of Directors. She is endorsed by the Alameda County Democratic Party, the MGO Democratic Club, the Sierra Club, East Bay Young Dems, Assembly Member Sandre Swanson, Supervisors Keith Carson and Nate Miley, and a wide array of organizations, elected officials and community leaders. www.kaplanforoakland.org
Mayor, City of Berkeley - TOM BATES - Mayor Bates has shown leadership and brought people together to get things done in Berkeley. He's endorsed by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the Sierra Club, and a broad range of organizations, public officials and community leaders. See www.tombates.org/index.htm for details on his priorities.
Judge - Superior Court (Alameda County seat #9) - DENNIS HAYASHI -
Dennis, a public interest attorney, is highly qualified to be a superior court judge. He is a former attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, and was director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President Clinton. He was also the director of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. We desperately need more public interest attorneys as judges. He is endorsed by the Sierra Club, the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club, former Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and numerous state and local elected officials, as well as several judges. Dennis will make a superb Superior Court judge. www.dennishayashi.com
San Francisco County Supervisors:
District #1 - ERIC MAR - Eric is an elected member of the S.F. Board of Education, a civil rights attorney, college lecturer, and long-time progressive political activist. He's been recognized for his civic involvement, leadership, and passionate advocate for human and civil rights. He is committed to working at City Hall and in the Richmond district for working families, thriving neighborhoods, and responsive local government. To volunteer on his campaign, go to www.ericmar.com.
District #3 - DAVID CHIU (rank #1) - As a former civil rights attorney, counsel to a U.S. Senate subcommittee, neighborhood activist and leader, former deputy district attorney, member of San Francisco's Small Business Commission, affordable housing advocate, and Democratic Party activist, David has the breadth and depth of experience to be an excellent supervisor-responsive, innovative, smart ideas. http://votedavidchiu.org TONY GANTNER (rank #2) - Experienced neighborhood and environmental activist, Tony would also be a good Supervisor.
District #4 - CARMEN CHU - She's moderate-to-conservative by San Francisco standards, but this is the Sunset district and her principal opponent is even more conservative.
District #5 - ROSS MIRKARIMI - Ross has been a very good supervisor for this district and he deserves reelection. He reaches out to groups of people in his district and strives to develop and support innovative and compassionate ideas and proposals.
District #7 - SEAN ELSBERND - Has only token opposition and will be reelected easily in this relatively moderate-to-conservative district.
District #9 - no recommendation - Many good progressive candidates in this district, including David Campos and Mark Sanchez.
District #11 - JULIO RAMOS (rank #1) - Julio is an attorney, elected member of the San Francisco Community College Bd. of Trustees, an experienced trial lawyer, and former Coro Fellow. I've known Julio for nearly 10 years and I'm confident that he would be an excellent county supervisor. He's progressive, compassionate, and is committed to focusing his energy on crime prevention, services to seniors, helping at-risk youth, improving neighborhoods and creating clean streets, and expanding educational opportunities for local residents. www.julioramos.org
JOHN AVALOS (rank #2) - Former supervisorial aide, Avalos would also be a good county supervisor.
BART Bd. of Directors
Tom Radulovich (district 9) - Smart environmental leader. He's been a very good BART director.
A.C. Transit Bd. of Directors
Chris Peeples (at-large)
Greg Harper (ward 2)
East Bay Municipal Utility District Bd. of Directors
Doug Linney (ward 5) - Environmental leader on the EBMUD Board. Certainly deserves reelection.
East Bay Regional Parks District Bd. of Directors
Norman LaForce (ward 1) - Norman has shown important leadership as a long-time advocate for parks. He is currently the chapter chair of the Sierra Club and an experienced attorney for environmental causes. He will be an excellent EBRPD board member.
Trustee, Peralta Community College District
Marlon McWilson (area 2)
San Francisco Community College District -
Several good candidates. I recommend the following four candidates:
Natalie Berg
Milton Marks
Chris Jackson
Rodel Rodis
San Francisco Board of Education:
Several good candidates. I recommend the following four candidates:
Norman Yee
Sandra L. Fewer
Kimberly Wicoff
Jill Wynns
City Council, Daly City - Judith Christensen - She's a teacher, is supported by the environmental community, and she's been a breath of fresh air on a stale city council. She deserves re-election.
Mayor, City of Fremont - Gus Morrison - Former Mayor Morrison would do a far better job as mayor once again than either the incumbent or his other opponent. Vote to put Gus back in the Mayor's office.
City Council, Orinda - Victoria Smith - She's done a good job on the Orinda City Council and deserves re-election. Go to www.voteforvictoria.com for more information.
Mayor, City of Sacramento - Heather Fargo - Mayor Fargo is running against a former Pro Basketball player who has no experience in government. Her opponent is being put forth as a candidate by development interests who do not like Ms. Fargo's policies. She'll do a better job than her challenger. Vote to re-elect her. For info on her priorities, experience and endorsements, or to volunteer, go to www.fargoformayor.com
Los Angeles County Bd. of Supervisors (2nd district) - Mark Ridley-Thomas -
Ridley-Thomas is the more progressive of the two candidates. He is a former L.A. City Councilman and a current State Senator. We will miss him in Sacramento, but he will make an excellent County Supervisor. He is endorsed by the L.A. County Democratic Party, Sierra Club, Members of Congress Jane Harmon, Brad Sherman, Howard Berman, Hilda Solis, Planned Parenthood, and dozens of other elected officials and community leaders. Go to www.ridley-thomas.com to learn more.
Santa Clara County Bd. of Supervisors (2nd district) - Richard Hobbs - Endorsed by the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters and the local Sierra Club chapter. That's good enough for me.
(Some good contenders in there... - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
One Voice PAC is an organization I created to help bring progressive change to Washington, and one of our top priorities this year is helping elect progressive candidates to Congress who will challenge the status quo.
Last month, we introduced an initial slate of endorsed candidates: Darcy Burner (WA-8), Andre Carson (IN-7), Joe Garcia (FL-25), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH-15), Ashwin Madia (MN-3), Dan Seals (IL-10), and Carol Shea-Porter (NH-1).
In addition to our initial slate, we're asking the progressive community to tell us which challenger we should support next. We accepted nominations last week, and now we're holding a vote on 10 Congressional challengers -- including 4 Californians:
As voters in the United States are entertained either by the minutia of electoral politics anticipating the next gaffe by Sarah Palin or the latest frivolous update on the artificial and superficial lives of magazine-created celebrities, people in Africa are suffering from a myriad of crises for which the Western World is largely responsible and which we now ignore at our own peril. Both the media and the two candidates for president ignore Africa because the public has not been stirred by enlightened discourse on events on that continent.
Dr. Bill Durston (a Combat Vietnam Veteran and Emergency Room Doctor) is the Progressive Democratic candidate for the California 3rd Congressional District.
Dr. Bill Durston is running as the Democratic candidate for House of Representatives in California's 3rd Congressional District to give voters a choice for change.
Bill is running against an incumbent career politician who is in virtual lock-step with the Bush Administration. Dr. Bill Durston stands in marked contrast as a challenger with combat-tested courage(PDF File), unquestionable integrity, proven leadership, and a vision for a better future.
Bill Durston has just released a two-part campaign ads as part of valiant effort to help us achieve the goals of electing MORE and BETTER Democrats. I urge you to please SUPPORT BILL DURSTON FOR CONGRESS.
For our economy to be strong, we must have a strong work force, and for our work force to be strong, we must have strong organized labor. Marta Jorgensen believes this, and it shows in her support for legislation like the increase in the federal minimum wage and the major union organization bill that were passed into law last year.
The union organization bill amended the National Labor Relations Act to allow workers to choose to organize a labor union and outline a time frame for bargaining without requiring a vote if they so wish, as well as to penalize employers who attempt to influence the formation of a union. As a result, labor unions can fight for their workers' rights more efficiently and more effectively. Marta Jorgensen is a firm supporter of this law.
A living minimum wage and more efficient union organization are two important pieces in Jorgensen's comprehensive platform, called E-Revolution. Along with calls to change energy, environmental, and education policy, E-Revolution demands reform in American economic policy to secure a better, more stable economic future. Aside from working to make wages more livable and labor unions more effective, Jorgensen proposes the creation of millions of new jobs in fields like alternative energy as well as plans to safeguard our future from the perils of global warming.
By contrast, longtime Republican incumbent Elton Gallegly voted against both the minimum wage increase and the union organization bill. With his votes last year and his long history of opposition to minimum wage increases and other labor issues, Gallegly has repeatedly demonstrated that his priorities do not lie with the nation's working men and women. While there were enough voices of reason in Congress to pass the federal minimum wage increase and the union organization bill despite Gallegly's opposition, we cannot trust that this will remain the case in the future.
Marta Jorgensen knows that American workers must be able not just to work, but to live She knows that they must be able to organize and orchestrate their power, and that when they work together they can achieve anything. She understands that American workers must be able to work in our economy and, at the same time, that the American economy must also work for our workers. We must have Marta Jorgensen's sensible pro-labor voice in Congress next year.
To learn more about Marta Jorgensen's plans and her ambitious E-Revolution platform, visit her website at JorgensenForCongress.com today.
To Marta Jorgensen, protecting against discrimination of all kinds is paramount, and where vestiges of discrimination still remain in our society, she supports Congressional efforts to weed them out. One such effort was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, designed to overcome pay discrimination once and for all; unlike longtime Republican incumbent Elton Gallegly, who voted against the bill, Marta Jorgensen strongly supports it.
The Fair Pay Act was a response to a misguided Supreme Court decision that struck a major blow to gender and racial equality in this country. In Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tires, the Court held that Goodyear was protected from Ledbetter's gender pay discrimination claim solely because its initial decision to discriminate occurred more than 180 days before the claim and even though Ledbetter was not aware of it until many years later. The Fair Pay Act would have removed this 180-day loophole.
Unfortunately, the bill was not received as well as Marta Jorgensen feels it should have been. It passed the House by a surprisingly slim 225-199 vote count thanks to the embarrassing efforts of Republicans like Elton Gallegly, who spoke and voted against the bill. When the legislation made its way to the Senate this year, the Republicans would not even let it be considered on the floor. Like Elton Gallegly, John McCain opposed it.
Had Marta Jorgensen represented California's 24th Congressional District instead of Elton Gallegly, she would have campaigned for and voted for the Fair Pay Act. To her, protecting women and minorities from discrimination is an extremely important issue, one of morality as well as of legality. She believes in her heart that everyone should receive equal pay for equal work, and she believes that the Constitution demands that the law follow suit.
Fair pay for women and minorities is not only a moral and legal issue to her, however. In line with her bold E-Revolution campaign platform is the idea that we must strengthen our sagging economy by making ourselves as competitive as possible, and equal pay for equal work is an important way to help achieve this. By fairly rewarding the most capable people regardless of sex, race, national origin, or any other factor unrelated to work product, we can ensure that qualified women and minorities will remain in our workforce and be motivated to be as productive as they can be. At the same time, we can also ensure that the inefficiencies created by paying more money to less qualified men will finally be removed.
Our district needs someone willing to stand up for equality, willing to work against discrimination, and willing to vote for what is right.
The E-Revolution From The Jorgensen For Congress Campaign
Building A New Energy, Economic, Environmental, Educational Future
For Our Country and Our Planet
Democratic candidate for California's 24th Congressional District, Marta Jorgensen has formulated a bold new campaign platform called E-Revolution. She believes this platform, so named for its focus on the strong and productive reform of federal energy, economic, environmental, and educational policies as well as on citizen engagement, is necessary for the United States to compete and survive in the new millennium.
The first pillar of E-Revolution is energy reform. As our older energy sources continue to pollute our environment, make us dependent on foreign governments, and slowly get used up, we must adopt clean, independent, and renewable forms of alternative energy like solar power, wind power, tidal power, geothermal power, and biofuels.
Countries like Denmark, which already gets 25% of its energy from wind power, and Germany, which expects to get 45% of its power from renewable energy sources by 2030, have already recognized the dangers of an addiction to oil and coal. But Marta Jorgensen believes that the United States can meet this challenge head on; we can take back the mantle of energy pioneer we once held by supporting these new technologies with tax breaks and federal mandates.
The second pillar of this platform, economic reform, seeks to return the American economy to the robust strength it once had and to create new Green and higher paying jobs for American workers. This can be done by steering our economy toward alternative energy sources, by making our economy more efficient, by working to overcome global warming, and by creating more favorable trade agreements.
While the American oil and coal industries are losing jobs, renewable alternative energies can create and support millions of new jobs. According to studies, wind power can account for nearly 350,000 jobs, solar power for over 260,000 jobs and $45 billion in economic investment, tidal power for thousands of jobs per plant, geothermal energy for over 20,000 jobs; and biofuel for over 200,000 jobs. California is the natural home for many of these industries, and with them our state's economy, already one of the largest in the world, will surely grow even larger.
We can also make our economy more efficient. For example, one study found that an increase in fuel efficiency standards starting in 2001 could have saved drivers in upstate New York more than $2.4 billion in gas by 2012; the savings for California, with its much bigger economy and many more residents, could have been astronomical. Calling for stricter fuel efficiency standards and supporting the creation of new cars with alternative forms of power like electricity, hydrogen, or fuel cells can make our economy more efficient and each of us better off.
Switching to alternative energies and making our economy more efficient as well as working to reduce pollution and instituting a carbon tax will have the additional and very important effect of helping to ward off the effects of climate change. The costs of untreated global warming is an increase in wildfires, water conservation, public health, agriculture, and flooding could be incalculable; if we take steps now to mitigate those effects, we will be able to sustain and grow our economy far into the future.
In addition, we can take steps to keep our thriving international trade alive and growing while fixing bad trade agreements so that our only exports are American products, not American jobs. We can also address the issue of our crumbling dollar by reducing the federal deficit and paying down the federal debt. These policies form an important part of Marta Jorgensen's platform.
Such sweeping economic reform may sound difficult, but it is nowhere near as hard as keeping our economy beholden to the old energy sources, old technologies, and bad trade agreements that have made our economy so weak. But America is no weakling, and Marta Jorgensen believes that we are strong enough and motivated enough to do what we must to secure success for our economy.
The third pillar of change in E-Revolution, environmental reform, is closely related to Jorgensen's call for both energy and economic reform. We face serious peril from the effects of global warming, including a catastrophic rise in sea level, widespread drought, and myriad extinctions in plant and animal species all over the planet, effects that will change our world for the worse. But Marta Jorgensen thinks we can change the world for the better; Marta Jorgensen has a plan.
First, she calls for freezing carbon emissions and instituting a carbon tax, which will go a long way to reduce any further impact we might have on the atmosphere. But we also need to further reduce our creation of greenhouse gases by instituting a moratorium on coal plants not outfitted with carbon capture features, calling for the replacement of inefficient incandescent light bulbs, and building a more efficient electrical grid. In concert, these changes will drastically reduce our negative impact on the environment.
Of course, while we in the United States bear well more than our fair share of responsibility for global warming, we cannot address this problem alone. That is why Marta Jorgensen will call for a new and stronger global treaty, more effective than the Kyoto Protocol and with a closer compliance date, and she will do all she can to make sure that this time, we sign on and we stay on.
The final pillar of E-Revolution, educational reform, centers on the need to teach our children how to succeed in an E-Revolution world. We need programs to teach them how to work on a wind farm, how to design a better solar panel, and how to build a more efficient energy grid. We need to make sure that they know how important our environment is what they can do as individuals to make sure we maintain it. In short, we need comprehensive environmental education, and we need to do it on the national level.
The four pillars of E-Revolution are closely related; if one of them fails, the success of the whole project would be cast into doubt. Without energy reform to create new jobs in alternative energies and to make the economy more efficient, true economic reform is impossible, and without a switch to cleaner energy sources, true environmental reform is impossible. Without economic reform to create and maintain alternative energies, true energy reform is impossible, and without a more sustainable economy, true environmental reform is impossible. Without environmental reform to wean us off our addiction to fossil fuels, true energy reform is impossible, and without an environmental policy that seeks to overcome the problems of global warming, true economic reform is impossible. And unless we have educational reform to teach our children how to thrive in this new world, all the gains of the rest of the project will be for naught.
We need to make E-Revolution a reality; we need to elect Marta Jorgensen.
Please support Marta Jorgensen's campaign to unseat Republican Elton Gallegly in California's 24th Congressional District.
For more information, visit her website at: www.jorgensenforcongress.com.
This may be one of the strangest tales I have ever brought to the table, Gentle Reader, and yet one of the most fundamental in describing the birth of our Bill of Rights...and most especially the Fourth Amendment.
As many of you know, the new FISA compromise may or may not allow warrantless wiretapping of American citizens on a wholesale scale.
Something you may not know is that a similar debate raged in England (centered around the right of Government to seize the papers of whomever they chose, and use the papers as evidence against those persons) during the reign of King George III-or that it involved scandalous sexual behavior, Benjamin Franklin, the 18th Century version of blogging, and two men who decided to take on the corruption of the Crown...and won.
And because of all that, we have a Fourth Amendment today.
Ready for a tale of liberty and ribaldry?
Then let's plunge right in, shall we?
Hi...This is Marta Jorgensen. As you know, I have won the Democratic Primary in the 24th District in our fair state of California. I am a long time blogger and grassroots organizer, the last project being the Draft Gore Ballot Drive. I know the power of the Netroots, respect the activist community, share your passion, your committment to the pressing issues of our time. I am grateful for the support you gave during our campaign.
I pledge to lay down the gauntlet to our present district leadership, the Republicans in office and Congressman Gallegly.
Let's do this together, reinvigorate the people and their involvement in the process and bring it home in November!
For what they are worth, here are my personal recommendations for the June 3rd California ballot. I do spend quite a bit of time reviewing competitive races before making my recommendations.
Feel free to comment, agree, disagree, forward, or ignore. But please Vote on Tuesday (polls open 7a.m.-8p.m.) or vote-by-mail if you already have an absentee ballot.
I have been holding off writing to Susan Davis, my local superdelegate, but after what Hillary Clinton said yesterday, I finally had to let it out. Here is the text of my letter to Rep. Davis:
May 24, 2008
Susan Davis for Congress
PO Box 84049
San Diego, CA 92138 Via Facsimile
Re: Superdelagate Endorsement
Dear Congresswoman Davis:
I write to you as my member of Congress and as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention. I strongly suggest that you endorse a candidate for President of the United States now.
It is my understanding that there are three positions that you and the other superdelegates have taken in this election: those who have endorsed a candidate; those who have declared their intention to vote for the winner of the most pledged delegates; and those who have made no endorsement. It appears you fall into the third group.
Recent developments in the presidential campaign have, in my view, made it absolutely necessary that you and the other superdelegates declare your intention as soon as possible. Specifically, Senator Clinton's remarks about her staying in the race, juxtaposed with a reference to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968, are simply beyond the level of decency I expect from a Democratic candidate. Further, any attempt on her part to explain them as a mistake are unconvincing to say the least; as she has made such a comment on at least one other occasion in March to a Time magazine editor.
I want to say that I will respect your decision as to whom you will support; the party rules have reposed such discretion in you and your conscience, and I will leave it to you to exercise such discretion whether or not I agree with you. However, the Democratic Party can no longer wait and watch as this internecine battle winds down. In order for Senator Clinton to win the pledged delegates, she would have to win well over 100% of those delegates to be awarded in the remaining primary contests and caucuses.
I have supported you in Congress since you got there, but I feel that I am witness to a disturbing lack of alacrity on your part for both your Congressional and political duties. I have been rather unimpressed with your legislative accomplishments with regard to the core duties and powers of Congress as set forth in Article I of the U.S. Constitution. Let me point out, for example, that you were on the Veterans' Subcommittee for years while conditions deteriorated at Walter Reed and other VA hospitals, yet I am unaware of any statement from you regarding those conditions until they became public in late 2006. Walter Reed Hospital is only a short distance from Capitol Hill. Based on the conditions I saw in the news, they should have been obvious to anyone who had visited the place. I would think that you even more than others, being that your husband was a military physician, would have made an effort to visit that hospital.
Further, I note that going into the second primary election this year, you do not have a functioning campaign website. The page asks viewers to "bear with you" while it is being updated. I must ask: what is the holdup?
This is a disturbing trend. Now, as the Democratic Party needs unity, and Senator Clinton seems bent on destroying it, you again "sit on the sidelines."
It is time for the party to begin to move on to the general election. John McCain is being given a "free ride" to do as he pleases, in spite of his daily gaffes, flip-flops, and shockingly bad positions, such as his cowardly abdication of any leadership on the new G.I. Bill. He says he opposes the Webb bill, but would rather be fundraising rather than vote either for or against it. The Democrats simply cannot let him get away with it any longer.
I urge you to do the simplest of things, even though it will take courage. Please publically endorse a presidential candidate now.
XPosted 5/23/2008 1:14 AM PDT on MyDesert.com in Blog by BluePalmSpringsBoyz
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 440 has endorsed Pettis in his race to replace Bonnie Garcia. IBEW Local 440 has long been active in Coachella Valley politics and Progressive Democratic circles.
Chuck McDaniel, an IBEW Local 440 leader and activist, had previously endorsed Pettis for the 80th AD. McDaniel is also Vice-President of the newly formed Desert Hot Springs Democratic Club and is a member of the Riverside County Democratic Central Committee.
Garcia is termed out and cannot run for re-election.
(I was happy to co-host this event last night. After a day where there was a lot of sturm und drang among the grassroots, what I remember about this week is the incredible events I've been fortunate enough to witness, both with Tim Goodrich and last night with Darcy Burner. The grassroots is strong when we are all working for incredible candidates who can bring about progressive change. - promoted by David Dayen)
I met Darcy Burner for the second time last night.
It was pretty exciting, meeting a future president. If you have to ask why I would say that, why, then, you haven't had the pleasure of meeting Darcy Burner.
(Welcome Marta Jorgenson to Calitics. - promoted by David Dayen)
Hi, my name is Marta Jorgensen and I'm running...
Today, I am championing my candidacy for Congress to all of you here at Calitics, because it is time the citizens of California's 24th Congressional District had someone to fight for them, not for lobbyists and special interests. My opponent, Elton Gallegly - R, has a long history of ignoring the views and concerns of the people in our district, and I've decided that enough is enough.
Congratulations to Hillary Clinton for winning New Hampshire. But there is much more at stake to this horse race than the skim surface of the campaign mechanics the mainstream media tells.
Though Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire, her back door dealings have already seem to have secured her a position in the White House, barely trying.
Just like the general election where the electoral college is the only vote that matters, the primaries have a similar system that parallels the electoral college in process. It's call the delegates and superdelegates.
Here's an explanation of what they are and how they're selected. They aren't voted for at all:
Clinton's campaign co-chair is Terri McAuliffe, who works and is very influential in the DNC. He was able to lock all of the DNC for Hillary anyways. What is your opinion of this?
