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Thursday Afternoon Roundup

2009-07-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

CA-3

Richer Than The Average Bera
The Hotline
Thursday, July 23, 2009

Dr. Ami Bera (D) "was the surprise fundraiser," "changing the landscape" of the primary as the "surprise front-runner." Elk Grove City Councilman Gary Davis (D) "began the race as something of an early favorite..." (The Hotline) subs req

CA-10:

Buchanan gets EMILY's List Endorsement

EMILY’s List, the largest national advocacy and fundraising organization for pro-choice Democratic women running for elected office endorsed Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, in the 10th Congressional District race.

As the only woman running in the race, the endorsement is not a surprise, but what Emily's list will bring is that extra financial push down the all important home-stretch.

It's beginning to look more and more like she is running the best campaign - hitting the ground hard. She is apparently near 55K doors knocked. I don't see any other campaign having that type of presence on the ground - very important in such a low-turnout election.

CA-45

NRCC adds Mary Bono-Mack to Patriot Program

With Steve Pougnet raising some serious coinage, the NRCC had to put her on their Patriot Program for vulnerable Republican incumbents.

From Roll Call:

According to an NRCC official, the 15 new program members will compete for 10 spots on the next scheduled “Patriot Day” — a single-day fundraising blitz that brought in almost $100,000 in contributions for each of the 10 original Patriot program members when it debuted in June.

Keep an eye out and see if she gets on the "Patriot Day list" - if she doesn't is it a reflection of GOP Activist/Tea Bagger anger over her vote for the Cap and Trade bill?

CA-48: Campbell Jumps the Shark?

2009-07-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

John Campbell gets utterly owned by Tweety, err Chris Matthews on Hardball this evening. Campbell apparently isn't ready for prime time and looks to be challenging Dana Rohrabacher for the title of wingnuttiest Congressman from Orange County.

In a district that Obama did carry (barely), what a great way to fire up your opponent's base and show the DTS voters what a nutjob you truly are.

Update:

These are the people that John Campbell wants to identify himself with.

CA-33: Democratic Primary Challenger

2009-07-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

As was reported in this afternoon's House Race Hotline incumbent Diane Watson looks to be facing a serious primary challenger in Felton Newell.

Newell has a polished web site, but in this district I don't think that's what will make the difference. What will is if Watson retires, and judging by the $27,000 she raised last quarter and only $17,711.66 COH maybe she is. (BTW - Watson paid over 1/3 of the money raised in Q2 quarter to her fundraiser and accounting firm and has debt. Maybe it's time to look for a new fundraiser.)

Newell certainly brings a lot to the table - worked in the Clinton administration, was a student of President Obama's at the University of Chicago Law School and left his corporate law job to work in the LA City Prosecutors office.

After reading that bio maybe Newell knows something we don't: Watson is going to retire. It just seems too convenient otherwise as Rep. Watson from what I can tell hasn't done anything to warrant a primary challenge .

CA-3: Bera fundraising juggernaut!?

2009-07-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

As we are compiling the Q2 totals for the CA House races we're tracking, of the officially filed reports (only 2 so far - everyone else is apparently hiding their cards until the 7/15 deadline) but even with just 2, Bera's stands out - $288,390.

I had read that he said he was going to mine the Indian-American community and looking at the reporting data, Bera wasn't kidding. Lots of family and Californian Indian-Americans. So his low-hanging fruit has given him the start up funds to run a serious primary election.

Supposedly the D-trip told him if he raised XXXX amount they would clear the field. It's doesn't work that way exactly - if he gave them a commitment for a blank check as a self-funder, then that changes the equation. Nonetheless his Q2 amount will definitely raise eyebrows amongst the DC crowd.

Of his numbers 97.5% came from itemized contributions, meaning amounts $200 and above. He double-maxed to his campaign for $4800. His reported expenses were only $1510.12 - his campaign probably did what most do, pay out vendors on the 1st to pump up the COH numbers, but even then if say 30K in start-up costs, still over $250K COH.

Finally in the checking the itemized contributions, my hunch was correct: Bera has a ton of double-maxed donations. Probably 40% fall in that category. What this means if my FEC knowledge is right is that Bera can spend that entire amount in the primary, but if he loses he has to refund his contributors their general election contribution.

Can't wait to see what school-voucher supporter Gary Davis has to report.

CA-10: Buchanan 20K Doors Knocked?!

2009-07-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

Joan Buchanan's blog notes that her campaign has knocked on 20K doors thus far.

From her blog:

We knocked on our 20,000th door in the campaign over the weekend. We are so excited to have such committed volunteers out walking precincts every weekend for Joan. Watch the video of our team celebrating the 20,000th door being knocked here!

Cutting the turf for walkers in such a low turnout election isn't terribly hard, but getting the volunteers to canvass them is. Her coming off a targeted Assembly race last cycle is looking more and more advantageous to her efforts. The only campaign I can see matching this at this point is possibly DeSaulnier.

Video below:

CA-10: Special Election Date Set

2009-07-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

From cbs5.com

Schwarzenegger had 14 days after Tauscher's confirmation to set a date for the special election, which will fill the seat of the representative of California's 10th Congressional District for the rest of a two-year term that will end in 2011.

The election must be held between 112 and 126 days after the governor's proclamation, according to Contra Costa County Assistant County Registrar Candy Lopez.

So, on Friday, Gov. Schwarzeneggar announced the date of the special election to replace Ellen Tauscher in California's 10th congressional district by issuing the following proclamation

SPECIAL ELECTION PROCLAMATION
BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim and order that a special election shall be held on the 3rd day of November, 2009 within the 10th Congressional District of the State to fill the vacancy in the office of Member of Congress from said district resulting from the resignation of Ellen O. Tauscher.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 3rd day of July, 2009.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor of California

The primary will be held on September 1st and if no candidate receives 50%+1 of the vote...which isn't going to happen...then the top vote getters from each party will move on to the special election to be held November 3rd.

Tuesday CA House Race Roundup

2009-06-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

CA-50

New Democratic Primary Candidate

A colleague of mine in DC forwarded me an email from the Tracy Emblem campaign. According to the campaign email she works as an appellate attorney in North San Diego.

It looks like she has made some early moves in forming a serious campaign operation. Busby has a sizable email list and has to be considered the front-runner at this point.

The intriguing part of the email though was the early endorsement of her campaign from the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, UA Local 230. Their PAC maxed out to her campaign for the primary - so perhaps those in DC are open to backing someone else outside of Busby who has had 3 runs at that seat.

Emblem has brought on Ken Christensen out of DC, and he knows the COPE Directors and how to navigate that system, so she is definitely serious about trying to snag that CA Labor Federation Endorsement. This looks to be shaping up as a real interesting primary battle.

CA-10

Hotline: Cheaper By the Dozen:

With 11 candidates already to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-10), mortgage officer/ Danville Planning Commis. Tiffany Attwood (D), the "self-described 'soccer mom'" said 6/15 that "she'll make it a dozen." Attwood: "I know it sounds cliched, but I want to make a difference. I really want to help those people. I have some big ideas and I want to see people feel like we really can get out of this." She "not[ed] her work in home mortgages and how her family situation has put the economic crisis into perspective." Josh Richman - Oakland Tribune Political Blotter

Go and read her website. She says she is a Dem but reading her positions, especially health care I dunno. Perhaps it's just poor messaging, but I'm probably being too generous.

Garamendi Campaign: Laws? We don't obey no stinkin' laws!

A pattern of flaunting laws (or general incompetence) is fast becoming commonplace on the Garamendi campaign. First Babaloo mentioned Garamendi violating California's robocall law and now it appears he hired someone to plaster eastern Contra Costa County with his yard signs.

From Lisa V:

Oakley city offices are fielding complaints from residents who said the Gararmendi campaign failed to obtain permission to place the signs on their properties.
(Political Blotter 6/18)

I can't wait to see the July 15th FEC report to find out how much Garamendi paid to have someone put up yard signs. Shows serious lack of ground troops. I bet he's regretting dropping out of the gubernatorial campaign now that Tony V. isn't going to run.

New Staff Hire for DeSauliner - Tauscher for Congress 2.0?

DeSauliner snagged the mastermind behind Steve Filson's primary campaign in '06, Katie Merrill as their Communications Director. Merrill hails from Tauscher's campaign organization and does a lot of East Bay/CoCo work. She's pricey - as I recall she charged Filson 5K/month for a part-time general consulting gig in the fall of '05. DeSauliner is a nice guy so here's hoping he's not going the route of Filson; being bled to death by excessive consultant overhead.

CA-44

Hotline:Hard Drive's Fired Up And He's Rarin' To Go

Real estate broker Chris Riggs (R) launched his Facebook and Twitter accounts last week and debuted his Web site 6/14 as he plans to challenge Rep. Ken Calvert (R) -- Riggs has been "hammering on the ethics of land deals Calvert has profited from" and has also hired strategist Jeff Evans to aide his camp. Riggs: "The hope is to receive many small donations from across the country. This race will be a litmus test to see if all the millions of 'tea party' attendees across America are really serious about electing officials that run on a limited government, tax lowering platform, as this will be a perfect opportunity to pick off a big tax-and-spend incumbent" (Wisckol, "Total Buzz," Orange County Register, 6/16).

CA-11

Master of Disaster

Hotline's lead blurb today in their House Call mentions Vineyard owner/San Joaquin Co. Farm Bureau dir. Brad Goehring (R) announced 6/22 he'll run against Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA 11) (Stockton Record).

Carl Fogliani, who managed that trainwreck of a campaign, Richard Pombo's 2006 whooping is the new Campaign Manager for Goehring. Judging by Goehring's campaign website, Fogliani still hasn't learned much about the Internets. Matt Ortega in his blog describes the site as "fantastically bad" and it is (read Matt's review here). Maybe Fogliani is trying to break his '06 record of replacing the Pombo campaign website 3x's in an election. If so he's off to a great start.

More Republican's for McNerney

JM's doing good. Just got two San Joaquin County Supervisors to endorse: Steve Bestolarides and Larry Ruhstaller. Their offices are non-partisan, but those are still high-profile Republican office holders. It's a very early endorsement. Those guys must not want to run for the state legislature as by endorsing McNerney pretty much kills those aspirations as the knuckle-dragger's that comprise the activist base of the GOP have long memories. Read Lisa V. for more details.

Kyl Has Placed Hold On Tauscher Confirmation

2009-06-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

Way back in April, I wrote a post about Sen. Jon Kyl’s plan to place a hold on Ellen Tauscher’s confirmation to the position of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.

Well, it looks like Kyl’s threat was far from idle. That hold was placed sometime last week, although there seems to be a lot of confusion as to whether Kyl put a hold on just Tauscher and one other nominee or whether it’s a blanket hold on all State Department nominees. The precise reason for the hold seems unclear as well.

Here’s what The Cable is reporting about Kyl’s action:

A Congressional source says that Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) put a hold on all State Department nominees earlier this week because he is not satisifed with the information he has been receiving from the administration on the progress of arms control negotiations with Russia. […]

Senate Foreign Relations Committe staffers claimed to be in the dark about any blanket hold. They noted that some nominees had been confirmed just this week. […]

They said only two nominees were put on hold from going to a unanimous consent Senate floor vote: Rep. Ellen Tauscher, the nominee for under secretary of state for arms control and international security, and Kurt Campbell, the nominee to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

But a second Hill source who did not want to be identified said it was his understanding that all State nominees were currently on hold by Kyl, and that the chairman of the SFRC, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the State Department, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) were trying to resolve the matter. A third Hill source also said it was his understanding all State nominees were currently under a blanket hold from Kyl.

The State Department said it couldn't immediately provide an answer.

So that’s one explanation for the hold.

Of course, back in April, the reason being given was a little different:

Tauscher has made it very clear she is skeptical of the Groundbased Midcourse anti-missile system and wants to see much more system testing done. Kyl is one of the system's biggest boosters on the Hill.

But now, in addition to the two reasons that have been floated by Kyl's office, The Cable mentions a third, different possibility for why the hold on Tauscher’s nomination could be extended as part of a larger Republican strategy:

Meantime, another source says Republicans are threatening to put appointments for the entire administration on hold due to their ire over the scheduling of Obama's Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor for a July hearing.

And as I’m sure you know, until that hold is removed, there’s no official Congressional race in CA-10. Get ready for a lot more candidate forums. Sigh.

CA-11: GOP Challenger

2009-06-18T10:01:00.001-07:00

(cross-posted at Progressive Sundae)

I was skimming Roll Call's Shop Talk that get's emailed to me once a week (cause I'm cool like that) and typically it's just ex-hill staffers bragging about their new consulting firm, or new clients etc.

This one though had some local news:

The Winding Rivera. The California consulting firm Gilliard, Blanning, Wysocki & Associates has promoted Cristina Rivera to lead their new political action committee fundraising division.

Rivera comes from California Republican Party and worked on the effort to recall then-Gov. Gray Davis (D).

GBWA consults with several Congressional clients, and Rivera said she is handling district fundraising for businessman Jon Del Arroz in California’s 11th district.

So who is Jon Del Arroz? Well first off he apparently he has some problems with the truth.

Using the Google, one of the first hits besides his campaign site was The Huffington Post's Fundrace. On his website he says that he is a lifelong resident of the 11th District. Problem is Fundrace has him making a $500 contribution to Ron Paul's presidential bid in 2007 at his residence in LaFayette, well within Ellen Tauscher's district.

Perhaps he's moved into the 11th since then, but lying about being a lifelong resident it isn't a great way to kick off your campaign.

More to come...

CA-10: Garamendi Placing Illegal Robocalls

2009-06-15T12:48:00.000-07:00

If you live in CA-10, you may have gotten a robocall from John Garamendi over the weekend telling you about his candidacy and encouraging you to visit his website www.Garamendi.org. The only problem is that these annoying political robocalls are illegal in California. Our state laws specifically prohibit robocalls unless the call is announced by a live operator who requests your permission to continue.

Here’s what the California Public Utilities Code has to say on the subject:

2874. (a) Whenever telephone calls are placed through the use of an automatic dialing-announcing device, the device may be operated only after an unrecorded, natural voice announcement has been made to the person called by the person calling. The announcement shall do all of the following:

(1) State the nature of the call and the name, address, and telephone number of the business or organization being represented, if any.

(2) Inquire as to whether the person called consents to hear the prerecorded message of the person calling.

Garamendi’s robocall had no live voice at the beginning, and no request for consent was made. And the PUC has made it very clear in a FAQ sheet (PDF) that this law explicitly extends to political campaigns:

3. What about the robocalls I get around election time about political candidates or other election issues?

Political candidates or others supporting candidates or ballot issues also must follow the law and about using Robocalls, which is found in the California Public Utilities Code,
Sections 2871-2876.

So what can you do if you receive an annoying robocall from a candidate? Well, you have three options:

1) You can ignore them (or blog about them);

2) You can follow the PUC advice from its FAQ sheet and file a complaint with your local carrier; or

3) You can notify the National Political Do Not Call Registry through their website at StopPoliticalCalls.org and hope that they are successful in bringing your complaint before the California PUC.

In the meantime, speaking as a resident of CA-10, it sure would be nice if the other candidates in the race made the decision to abide by California law and take a pledge that they will not engage in placing these annoying and illegal calls.

About Us

2008-01-01T03:17:00.000-08:00

We've all heard the saying before... "As California goes, so goes the Nation."

Is it because we are the world’s 10th largest economy? Or the world’s 5th largest supplier of food and agricultural commodities? Could it be because California makes up 12% of the US population and we are responsible for 13% of the nation’s GDP? Or is it just the inherent spirit of innovation amongst those of us who call the Golden State our home?

Time after time, Californians have shown our country the way forward, and to some degree, all of these factors have contributed in helping us lead the way. California commands a great deal of influence over the direction of our country for another important reason...

Of 435 members in the US House of Representatives, 53 Congress members represent the residents of the State of California.

But exactly who are the people that represent us on the national level? How can Californians help them fight on behalf of the issues that affect us? Or how can we hold them accountable when they are indifferent to our concerns? And what can we do to help elect more and better Democratic members to represent California in Congress?

At California Represent! we hope to help you find the answers to those questions. Our entire focus will be on the California House delegation. If members from our state are pushing good legislation, we’ll do our best to help them. If they’re backing bad legislation, we’ll organize to oppose them. And we’ll be looking to improve the quality of our representation by bringing you all the news on targeted Congressional elections every two years.

Through it all, we hope that you’ll be able to find out a lot more about the job our state’s representatives are doing in Washington, DC on our behalf. They say knowledge is power. Our goal at California Represent! is to empower all Californians so that together we can demand excellence from our representatives.

Contact Us

2008-01-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

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2008-01-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

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2008-01-01T01:39:00.000-08:00

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