Category Archives: Los Angeles Area

CA-Gov: Themes of the Day: Angelides: I’m progressive, Arnold: I’m an incumbent

On the first day after the primary, the two gubenatorial candidates struck different chords.  For his part, Phil Angelides stuck to his principles that he ran on during the primary.

On his first day as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Phil Angelides made it clear Wednesday he wasn’t about to move to the political center in his bid to defeat Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Angelides…sounded the same core Democratic ideas he used to defeat moderate Steve Westly in Tuesday’s primary. He stood by his plan to raise taxes on upper-income earners and corporations to pay for schools. He pledged to work for universal health care and cut university tuition. (SacBee 6/8/06)

So, Arnold responds with his own thoroughly considered plans for his next term.  Ok, I couldn’t keep that going.  The truth: Arnold’s response basically consisted of: I’m the incumbent, and you’re not…nany, nany, boo-boo.

“The other side is talking about the future. We are building the future,” Schwarzenegger told a crowd of 200 people on the banks of the Sacramento River at Redding’s Turtle Bay Exploration Park. “The other side is talking about solving all the problems California has. We are solving the problems.” (SacBee 6/8/06)

And when asked about health care, does he give the voters any real answers? No, he responds by saying that they will know all his plans in the next State of the State Speech, which, of course, is after the election.  That’s great Arnold.  Yeah, we don’t need to know your ideas, we’ll just trust you to think of something really wonderful after the election.  That worked really well for us last time.  I mean you came up with all those good ideas, like say…all those great special election props that went so well for you.  No thanks.

We need real answers for the very real questions facing the state, not some promises to come up with something good.

CA-41: Jerry Lewis better hope orange is his color

It’s piling on time for Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands).  There are subpoenas flying in the multitude of investigations into several earmarks.  We’ve written about Lewis’ ethics problems in the past (here and here), but it seems now that the Feds might be closing in on there man.  The noose is tightening on ol’ Jerry.:

Riverside County and the Cal State Bernardino Foundation have been subpoenaed in the federal investigation into the ties between Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and a Washington, D.C., lobbyist, it was reported Saturday.
That’s in addition to subpoenas of San Bernardino County and Redlands, Calif., that were confirmed earlier this week. The subpoenas are asking for records of contacts between the recipients and Lewis and Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton, & White, which employs former Rep. Bill Lowery, R-Calif.
Lowery is a close friend of Lewis’ whose firm’s clients include a number of municipalities, businesses and agencies in or around Lewis’ inland Southern California district. Some aides to Lewis at the House Appropriations Committee, which he chairs, have also gone to work at the firm, which helps clients get federal dollars “earmarked” for projects.(AP 6/3/06)

Now, I understand that in the rush to earmark that there will be some deals that look questionable.  (Of course one way to completely get rid of these shady deals would be complete public financing of campaigns)  However, during the 12 years that the GOP has been in control of the House, the corruption and quid pro quo arrangements of the Representatives has been despicable.  But, don’t worry, Jerry Lewis welcomes you to look at his record.  But be careful, your eyes might burn…

“I encourage a thorough review of any project I have helped secure for my constituents,” the statement said. “Throughout my career, I have also made every effort to meet the highest ethical standards, and I am absolutely certain that any review of my work will confirm this.”

AD-41: Ventura County legislator wannabes in a dogfight

Being that the districts are so gerrymandered, there are several open seats that are, for all intents and purposes, being decided in the primary.  One of these Assembly seats is the 41st District.  It is currently held by Fran Pavely, who is being termed out.  The fight to replace her is being contested by four decently funded candidates and a fifth (O’Brien) who is trying to run on a shoestring.  They are:

Julia Brownley
Barry Groverman
Kelly Hayes-Raitt
Jonathan Levey
Shawn Casey O’Brien

The Ventura County Star has published a nice little recap of the district:

If this were a war, there would be four fronts, forming a horseshoe around the Santa Monica Mountains. The army that can take one, fight to a draw in another and keep its casualties to a minimum in the other two will win.

In fact, it’s a political campaign. But the same battle strategies apply in the 41st Assembly District’s Democratic primary. … One front is Santa Monica-Malibu, home to about 30 percent of likely voters. Another is Oxnard-Port Hueneme, home to 20 percent. Along the Highway 101 corridor just south of the county line is the Agoura Hills-Westlake Village-Calabasas front, with 12 percent. Nearly all the rest are farther down the road on the Woodland Hills-Encino-Tarzana front.

Four distinct communities, five separate candidates. A variety of battle plans. (Ventura C-S 5/24/06) 

Pavley has endorsed Bronwley, but first brother-in-law Santa Monica City Councilman Bobby Shriver has endorsed Calabassas mayor Groverman.  This one should come down to the wire.  For more on this race, I would suggest keeping an eye on Tim Herdt’s blog at the County Star.

Howard Dean thinks the OC is a fine place to party build

Gov. Dean paid a visit to the OC, where the Republicans get more mone than any other county in America.  He’s directly challenging the Republican Party’s ATM.

“I can’t think of a better place to build (the party) than Orange County,” Dean said in a phone interview shortly before the Democratic Foundation of Orange County event, which was closed to the press.

“(The county) has a reputation of being conservative, but even conservatives don’t like corruption. So some people might consider us. … We have a chance if we stand up and say what we believe.” (OC Register 5/9/06)

Steve Young, CA-48

Tomorrow is election day in Orange County. Make sure you remind any friends to vote for Steve.  There is a Republican, John Campbell, and a 3rd party challenger from the right, Jim Gilchrist.  Gilchrist is a crazy immigration guy.  I think he helped found the Minutemen or something like that.  Anyway, it might pull enough support from Campbell to let Steve slip through.  For those of you who don’t know the whole story, check out this dKos FP story.

Live results

Bush Visits California: Terminator Becomes Invisible Man

Alphaliberal.comPresident Bush was in Southern California recently to raise more money for the culture of corruption that has infested the American government. Not only is Bush in one bluest of blue states trying to advance goals that most Californians find offensive, but he has snarled traffic on the 405 freeway making it very difficult for alot of Californians to get to work.

Republican Governor Schwarzenegger will not take part in the events. Aides say Schwarzenegger is too busy campaigning for next month’s ballot initiatives. The Governor’s campaign expressed disappointment that Bush would travel to the state to raise millions of dollars just a few weeks before the special election.

It is unfortunate that the Governor is distancing himself from Bush. This is the same tactic he used to win the recall election. In reality his actions have shown him to be a Bush-clone at best and a parrot of the GOP’s corrupt agenda at worst.

A major reason Schwarzenegger succeeded in the recall election is that he seemed to be different. He seemed to be a Republican that Democrats and Independants could support (or at least not actively oppose). He claimed he had no hard feelings toward gays, was pro-choice, supported working folk, and wanted to reform government in a good way. That is the image he is desperately trying to maintain by distancing himself from Bush. Instead, through his actions, we now know who the real Governator is, and that is why his approval rating keeps dropping.

Alphaliberal.comThe real Arnold is aligned with the anti-gay movement (he vetoed the recent gay marriage bill). The real Arnold is helping advance the anti-choice movement (his special election includes illegal restrictions on a woman’s right to choose). The real Arnold, like all other Republicans, is an anti-worker, union-buster (he has taken on the “speical interest” teachers, firefighters, police, and the like, and now seeks to silence them with Proposition 75).

The real Arnold, despite being once an undocumented immigrant himself, supports anti-immigrant policies (he pays lip service to the minutemen militia who continue to harrass Latinos). The real Arnold has the same illegitimate goals as Tom DeLay, (by trying to change redistricting to elect more conservatives to office). The real Arnold is ready, willing, and able to bow to the mantle of the corporate greed, (the same forces that brought us the energy de-regulation distaster and the associated mythical blackouts and huge power bills).

Hopefully voters in California won’t be fooled twice. The terminator has turned into the invisible man now that Bush is here because he is hoping to make us think there is a big difference between him and Bush. There is not.

Talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words. The Gropenator is 100%l liberal-populist in his talk, but in reality he is a right-wing conservative corporatist of the worst kind –just like Bush and DeLay. Hopefully his dissapearing act will not fool Californians again because when it comes to being the different kind of politician that this Californian hoped he was, Schwarzenneger is all talk and no action.

Alpha Liberal: Recommended Diaries

Balletshooz blogs at Alpha Liberal: Blogs, News, and Opinion.

LA AIDS Walk

I just wanted to plug the  LA AIDS Walk on Sunday, Oct. 16 for all of you LA people.  I know there are several here.  I volunteer for the Walks in NYC, SF, and LA, so I’ll be there bright and early.

I wanted to post this so you have enough time to raise lots of money!  You can sign up and collect donations online, so no bringing some stupid form to work.

And if you’re going to be there, shoot me an email.  I’d like to say hi to some of the cool Calitics readers.

LA Sheriff’s Deptartment dumping the homeless in downtown LA

The LA Sherriff’s Department has been repeatedly accused of dropping mentally ill and other homeless on to the streets of downtown LA.  This behavior has now been reported by a LAPD officer, Capt. Andrew Smith, in the LA Times:

The [LA County Sheriff] cruiser, he said, turned south on San Pedro, then west on 7th Street to San Julian Street. There, Smith watched in disbelief as two deputies “pulled over, took a guy in handcuffs out of the car. They took off the cuffs and handed him a bag,” Smith said.

The captain and his partner immediately got out of their car and questioned the man and the deputies. Smith said the deputies told him that the man had been released from the Men’s Central Jail and was standing outside on the street when a supervisor ordered them to take the man to a downtown mission.

“But there was no mission nearby,” Smith said. “Only a line of guys sitting on milk crates.”

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Smith said the man had a long history of arrests in the Lakewood area as well as Long Beach, where he lived. He said Harris told him he had not asked to be dropped off and had no connection to downtown Los Angeles. Smith also said the man told him he suffered from bipolar disorder.

To the captain, the incident reaffirmed what he believes has been going on downtown for years. Other police agencies, Smith said, and even some hospitals, “are dumping homeless, drunks, narcotic addicts and the criminal population into the downtown area…. We’re fed up with it,” he said.

So, instead of treating these people, who have a history of mental illness and criminality, with respect and caution, they are dumping them with a sandwich and a milk crate.  Not only is this dangerous (dumping potential criminals onto the street), this treats these people like human garbage to be left at the dump.  The cuts in state and local budgets to homeless and mental health programs are coming home to roost.

Coastal Commission Rules on Malibu Beach Access

Today’s LA Times has an article about the CA Coastal Commission’s ruling preventing a Malibu homeowner’s association from posting signs or patrolling public access to Broad Beach.

According to Sara Wan, a Coastal Commissioner:

“I think the results are to be expected,” she said after the vote. “The law’s very clear about the public right to access beaches. The fact that they’re fighting it tells me that if the commission didn’t [issue the order], you’d see signs up again, maybe not tomorrow but it might be five years from now.”

This diary’s really just a test of the system, etc, see how things look and feel.

Plus, the issue is I think important – public beach access rights must be preserved. The Malibu homeowners could not possibly be more wrong.