It appears that Gil Cedillo has decided to forgo his well thought out scheme to seek his final two years in the Assembly by challenging Speaker John Perez in AD-46, and will instead run for Kevin De Leon's open seat in AD-45. I just got a notification 5 minutes ago on Facebook that the group "Gil Cedillo for Congress" has changed its name to "Gil Cedillo for State Assembly." From the group description:
"I am proud to announce my intent to run for the 45th California State Assembly District. As your representative I will work to create a competitive workforce, secure access to affordable health care, increase services to veterans and their families, and invest in public safety and transportation. Thank you for your support"
One would have to assume that Gil Cedillo would be a prohibitive favorite based on name recognition, if the 45th isn't his home district. But we'll have to see what other challengers emerge in this open seat.
Back when John Perez was just starting to take command of the Speaker race, Sen. Gil Cedillo was threatening to run in the primary against him. He never really gave any clear reasons for doing so, just that he had another 2 years left in the Assembly under term limits. Oh, and he had a poll showing that he could win. But, you know how polls go, when a sitting Assembly speaker is challenged, there might be some money flowing to the race.
So, conveniently enough for Cedillo, Asm. Kevin DeLeon has announced that he will be vacating his Assembly seat and running for Cedillo's senate seat.
"It has been and continues to be an honor to serve the communities of our region as a member of the Assembly," De León said, "Today, I am announcing my strong desire to continue that work by running for the California State Senate. Now more than ever we need legislators who are dedicated to protecting vital public services, education, and public safety. These are extraordinarily difficult times and I will work tirelessly for the constituents of the 22nd Senate District." (Capitol Weekly)
This situation is probably the best for all concerned, except that DeLeon doesn't get to become Speaker. At any rate, DeLeon had only one Assembly term left, we get a four year Speaker, and avoid a nasty primary fight.
Because I believe that John Perez' sexual orientation is playing a role in the ongoing fight over who becomes the next Speaker of the Assembly here in California between the aforementioned Perez and Kevin De Leon. As I'm sure we're all aware, the election of John Perez to the post would make him California's first ever openly gay Speaker. And based on the words coming out of Karen Bass' mouth, it sounds like it should be a done deal, given the fact that the choice of the majority caucus is usually confirmed without issue and Perez supposedly is the choice of the Democratic majority:
Bass said she had not spoken to de León about her decision to endorse Pérez. She said she wanted to be "very respectful and give him some space."
"At the end of the day, democracy prevails," she said, contending that she was the 29th vote in favor of Pérez, which is more than the traditional 26 votes needed to push a nomination forward.
So, why is there still an issue? Because Asm. Kevin De Leon is still fighting, despite a lackluster showing from the Latino Caucus of the Democratic majority, which endorsed him in underwhelming fashion:
On Wednesday morning, de León met with a group of supporters within the Assembly's 17-member Latino caucus at the Sheraton Hotel.
Ten members of the caucus attended the meeting, with seven present pledging their support for de León as speaker. Pérez is also a member of the Latino caucus, but he was not present.
Color me unimpressed, of course, when you claim an endorsement with less than 44% of the vote among voters who aren't your opponent. So all in all, it would seem that De Leon's position isn't all that strong. But now I'd like you to consider the words of another De Leon supporter: Assemblymember and current candidate for Attorney General Pedro Nava:
"I do think that's what really matters and what people should focus on was the number of votes for speaker is not 27 or 29, it's 41," said de León supporter Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.
"I think that we have a large number of very independent-thinking people who are not going to be stampeded into making a decision," Nava said.
Remember what I said about the choice of the majority party usually getting confirmed as Speaker without much hassle. Well, 41 is, of course, the number of votes required to win confirmation as Speaker by full vote of the Assembly. What Asm. Nava's words quite clearly suggest is that De Leon's supporters are contemplating going outside the Democratic Caucus to secure some Republican votes in order to defeat Perez, who would be the choice of the majority of Democrats. If that's not what Asm. Nava meant, I highly encourage him to clarify, because that's the only logical interpretation of his statement.
And if that is the case, why would the Republicans agree to support De Leon against Perez? They're both Latino labor leaders from the Los Angeles area--except one of them is gay, and one of them isn't. And given the fact that many Republicans still see being gay as some sort of terminal character flaw that leaves one unfit for any public or private responsibility, it would be no surprise if that were reason enough for at least some Republicans to join the De Leon faction to support him against the wishes of the Democratic majority.
And then, of course, we return to the plight of Senator Gil Cedillo, who obviously has reasons to support De Leon over Perez because, as I've written earlier, the good Senator so desperately needs to serve in the Assembly for his last two remaining years of eligibility that he is willing to challenge Asm. Perez in the Democratic Primary, even if Perez is elected as Speaker. Obviously, Cedillo has every incentive to promote De Leon's bid, because trying to unseat a sitting Speaker in your own Party's primary undoubtedly won't win you a lot of friends. Of course, there is no word on what Senator Cedillo will do if he either a) loses to Perez, or b) wins and serves his two years. Given his unbridled desire to hold another political office and his lack of ability to do so in either circumstance, I hope he will determine that his life still has value.
But humor aside. How likely is it that Cedillo will able to win a traditional campaign against Perez, regardless of whether the latter is the Speaker? Cedillo won't get the endorsement of the Democratic Party because Perez is the incumbent and he only needs 50% of the delegates. And I really doubt anyone will give a boatload of money to someone who can only serve in the Assembly for one term and then has to leave town with little hope of promotion to a higher office.
And given the fact that they're both strong leaders in the Latino community, the only way I see Cedillo being able to have any chance whatsoever is to make Perez' sexual orientation an issue, most likely in a fashion that is slightly less than above board. And given the fact that Cedillo's previous campaign was more than up to the task of using character assassination in his failed run for Congress, I have no doubt that his next team would be willing to use the same sort of scorched earth approach.
So what's the bottom line? I call on Asm. De Leon and Senator Cedillo not to make this an issue, either in the campaign for Assembly Speaker or in Cedillo's quixotic primary challenge. California Democrats support full and total equality and acceptance of the LGBT community, and it would be a shame if one of our own used the issue for personal gain among a far less tolerant group of people--such as, for instance, the California Republican Party.
This will be brief. It is with amusement that I read from Capitol Weekly's Twitter feed that Senator Gil Cedillo is intent on challenging John Perez for his Assembly seat now that he is termed out of the State Senate--even if Perez is elected as speaker, which is an outcome that is looking increasingly likely.
Keep in mind that last time we saw Gil Cedillo, he was engaged in a mean-spirited, borderline racist, and completely mendacious campaign for the 32nd Congressional District against newcomer Emanuel Pleitez and current Congresswoman and former Board of Equalization Chair Judy Chu.
There are a couple of things that really stand out to me about this. First, I was under the impression that Senator Cedillo had already served his terms in the Assembly from 1997 until 2002. If he's contemplating running, he obviously has some eligibility left, but how could it extend beyond one term? I would appreciate enlightenment on this issue. (UPDATE by Robert: According to Capitol Weekly, Cedillo has 1 term left - he replaced Louis Caldera in 1997 when Caldera became Army Secretary under Clinton.)
Second--challenging a sitting Speaker of the Assembly who is also a Latino with roots in the labor movement to move to the lower house? Whose support, endorsements or fundraising does he really think he's going to get if he pulls a move like that? He certainly won't get the support of the CDP, or the prominent members of the local party.
And lastly, after the hit that the Senator's reputation took in light of his disastrous campaign for Congress, why would he want to follow that up by challenging a sitting Speaker when we have an opportunity to have several uninterrupted years of continuous leadership in that position due to the fact that we'll apparently have a Speaker who isn't in his last term?
Sometimes, I guess, the thirst for an office convinces people to do things they probably shouldn't. This is one of those cases.
(I've been meaning to promote this for a couple of days. Confirmations don't always get the level of attention they should. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Low-income telephone customers won a brief reprieve last month, after the California Public Utilities Commission temporarily shelved a dangerous plan to gut the Universal Lifeline program. But the battle is far from over. While the AT&T backed plan is being "re-written" at the CPUC, the measure's sponsor - Commissioner Rachelle Chong - is up for a confirmation vote by the State Senate to a full six-year term. Yesterday, a diverse coalition of advocates went to Sacramento to lobby against Chong's re-appointment. Two residential hotel tenants from the Central City SRO Collaborative who were selected by their peers to go joined senior advocates, consumer groups, Latino leaders and faith based groups - to express strong opposition to a Commissioner who has disregarded the CPUC's mandate to protect consumers. After a grueling day at the State Capitol, we met with four of the five members of the Senate Rules Committee - and all four of San Francisco's delegation in the legislature. "I'm impressed," said State Senator Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), after we told him who else we had met with that day. "I can't even get a meeting with four of my colleagues in one day."
So...what's the aftermath and what can we learn--besides, of course, that Judy Chu will defeat her distant cousin easily on July 14? Postmortem below the flip.
I was invited yesterday by Emanuel Pleitez' press secretary Emily Dulcan to come to the office to interview Emanuel Pleitez and some members of his team on the second day of GOTV weekend. By chance, campaign consultant Eric Hacopian, who has been the center of a manufactured controversy recently, happened to be in the office, so I got a chance to interview him as well.
The office was lively, with about two dozen phone bankers of all ethnicities and ages working the phones from the campaign office. According to the field directors, they currently had 55-60 volunteers canvassing neighborhoods from that office at the time. For space, the recap of the interviews is below the flip.
You would think you would want the endorsements before GOTV weekend, but the Judy Chu campaign rolled out a series of endorsements in the past 48 hours. Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (CA-47) endorsed Dr. Chu yesterday and appeared with her at a GOTV rally. And today, Chu announced endorsements from Congresswoman Diane Watson (CA-33) and the United Farm Workers. Previously UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta had endorsed Chu, but prior to today, the UFW had endorsed Gil Cedillo, so this is a very surprising reversal.
"Judy Chu has always been a champion and friend to farm workers and working class families everywhere. When farm worker Asuncion Valdivia died after toiling in the extreme heat of the Central Valley for hours on end and was denied adequate medical care by his employers, Judy proposed legislation that would ensure such a tragedy would never happen again," said Arturo Rodriguez, UFW President. "Today, California's workers are entitled to mandatory shade, rest, and water breaks thanks to the law Judy helped pass. It is because of her dedication to the health and well-being of our members that the United Farm Workers of America proudly endorse Judy Chu for Congress!"
Considering how late in the game it is, something has to be getting these endorsers off the fence and into Chu's column, especially with respect to the Farm Workers, who appear to have reversed their endorsement. Maybe it's Gil Cedillo's vindictive, ugly campaign.
I don't think it will matter to GOTV efforts, but it's a telling sign when the players start lining up at the very end of the game.
UPDATE by Dante: The endorsement by UFW is, according to Judy Chu Press Secretary Fred Ortega, a dual endorsement. The UFW endorsement of Gil Cedillo was not withdrawn. Said Fred Ortega: "The endorsement is yet another sign of Judy Chu's crossover appeal, and she is very proud to have the endorsement of the organization founded by Cesar Chavez to protect the rights of predominantly Latino workers."
First of all, forgive me for not posting an update about the CA-32 race yesterday--I happened to have the honor of being a volunteer driver in Vice President Biden's motorcade during his recent stay in Los Angeles. Mr. Dayen did an admirable job of picking up the slack.
In addition, I wish to issue a correction today. In Wednesday's roundup, I made a factual mistake in implying that if Judy Chu were to win the CA-32 race, that there would be a special election to replace her. This is not true. The California Constitution specifies that in the event of a vacancy on the Board of Equalization, the Governor appoints a replacement subject to the confirmation of a majority of the Assembly and the Senate. It would be interesting to ask whom Schwarzenegger would appoint in that scenario, as well as to see if the Democratic Legislature would permit the Governor to appoint a Republican to fill a strongly Democratic Board of Equalization district. In any case, I apologize for the error.
This Gil Cedillo is really a miserable little person. Over at Nuestra Voice you can hear him with LA radio DJ Mario Solis Marich answering questions about that ridiculous attack mailer on Emanuel Pleitez using Facebook photos to build a narrative of Pleitez as a scary drunken gang-lover who parties with white women. In the transcript, you'll notice Cedillo's immediate reaction to bringing up Pleitez' name:
SOLIS MARICH: There was some controversy over the past 2 weeks when your campaign decided to do a negative attack piece on newcomer Emanuel Pleitez. Many people who observe campaigns including myself took that as a sign that the young candidate was really eating into your base.
CEDILLO: Well, one we're not sure we'd call it negative unless he calls it negative, the fact that he posted these photos on his Facebook.
Two, we recognize what his roll is in this campaign, to suppress the vote and to try to take away votes and we think the electorate has the right to know all the information, information that he's made public, about the candidates. We put the record out there and let people decide if they want to elect someone who has 25 years of effective leadership or if they want to elect somebody who they may not have full confidence in.
So in other words, anyone who participates in a campaign to try and get elected is automatically "suppressing votes," presumably votes from Gil Cedillo. The backstory here is that Parke Skelton, Judy Chu's campaign manager, and Eric Hacopian, Pleitez' top strategist, have worked together on other campaigns, which is to be expected from two Democratic consultants in LA. Off of that thin reed Cedillo spins a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that Emanuel Pleitez swooped into the race to suppress votes from the naturally chosen "one" candidate who is supposed to win the seat. Now, if you were of a conspiratorial nature, you could say the exact same thing about Betty Tom Chu, the Republican Monterey Park City Councilwoman who entered the race late and will undoubtedly cause some ballot confusion given the closeness of names between her and Judy Chu. But it's this sense of entitlement on the part of Cedillo, this idea that he deserves that Congressional seat and no Hispanic should dare "suppress the vote" by, you know, running against him, that stands out here. This is typical sleazeball identity politics, the idea that any Hispanic must vote for a Hispanic, and multiple Hispanics in the field dilute the strength of the vote, and they should line up and wait their turn behind the self-anointed savior.
Now, here's the rest of the interview, where Cedillo becomes increasingly ridiculous:
Five days left to go, and the news continues out of CA-32--mostly recaps and summaries. And most of these articles are some of the prime examples of just why journalism is suffering--perhaps I should call it "the banality of balance." In the attempt to be as even-handed as possible, the truth is often a casualty. But there are a couple of good, more detailed pieces about the election, which I'd like to highlight below.
For the sake of brevity, go beneath the flip. I promise it's worth the click. There's a lot of interesting material today.
Six days left to go, and the chattering class is paying attention. Here's what they're saying.
• The Los Angeles Times is doing their take on the ethnic divide on the race, and presents something you probably never knew--that voters tend to prefer voting for candidates of their own ethnicity over those of other ethnicities! I guess Avenue Q was right. Especially telling is the final quote:
"Ethnicity is a factor," said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at USC. "But it's not the only factor."
My world has been rocked beyond belief. Sarcasm aside, though--if you're going to do a piece on ethnicity in the CA-32 race, you could at least include some of the juicier, more intriguing aspects of the race--things like, what type of support will Emanuel Pleitez draw and how will that affect the race? What will the impact of Betty Tom Chu be? You know--more like our coverage.
• If national media coverage won local Congressional elections, Emanuel Pleitez would be in really good shape. Following up on the positive coverage in the Los Angeles Times about his candidacy, National Journal has what amounts to a glowing review of Pleitez' online strategy in today's online version. While I think that calling Pleitez a "web candidate" in the title does him a little bit of a disservice, the point is that Pleitez has tried something relatively new for a Congressional seat: using social media to facilitate a more lateral structure as a major part of the organization.
To me, the most interesting part of Pleitez' run against two much better known heavyweights is the fact that if the same race had been run five years ago, someone like Pleitez would have struggled to even get off the ground, much less be talked about in the same breath as the major candidates in this race. But the creation of easy-to-use online fundrasing through ActBlue as well as the massive proliferation of social media has allowed for the creation of an entirely different element to politics that really used to only apply at a more national scale, starting with Dean and perfected by Obama. The most interesting thing will be to see what happens when today's Facebook generation become political heavyweights themselves--how will the traditional and currently non-traditional elements of politics interact? I expect that at some point in the future Pleitez' run for Congress will become a reference point for political experts about both the benefits and the drawbacks of dependence on social media as a key element in the campaign.
• Presuming that either Gil Cedillo or Judy Chu advances to the expected runoff and then proceeds to victory in July, the game of musical chairs will continue--either for Chu's Board of Equalization seat, or for Cedillo's 22nd District Senate Seat. La Opinión is reporting (Spanish-language) that if it's the latter, Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes (District 1) is going to take a shot at the seat. That, of course, would open up a seat on the City Council as well. Just one more reason for Democratic politicians to really support Democratic Presidents--it opens up all sorts of opportunities for career advancement.
• I'm glad we have better commenters than the people at Mayor Sam. This nugget is particularly entertaining:
I could dream that 3 Dems could split the enough so that the R can win but that is dreaming. If we were competitive in urban areas that scenario wouldn't be out of the question.
Some people just don't understand that this is a consolidated Primary election. Just to clarify: if nobody gets 50%, the top vote-getter by party will proceed to the July runoff.
Eight days before the special election, and the campaign activity is really heating up. Today's roundup includes the latest endorsements, media coverage, and, of course, your absolute favorite...more attack mailers!
This will be somewhat lengthy and slightly opinionated--so come beneath the flip.
Over the past couple of days, my email box has become a lightning rod for supporters of various candidates in in CA-32 special election, many of whom have been communicating alternately their approval or dismay at my post concerning the recent mailer from the Cedillo team.
I was also contacted by Gil Cedillo's campaign manager Derek Humphrey, who provided me with this quote in defense of the mailer:
A number of people contacted our campaign about the Pleitez facebook page. I think they were really shocked to see these pictures of him partying and drinking on what is essentially an extension of his campaign website. These are recent photos that any internet user can easily access.
I am sure it's common place for a 26 year old recent college graduate to post photos to their facebook page that glamorize drinking, partying, and dancing on tables. But, members of Congress and elected officials are role models for young men and women in their community and their behaviors reflect their character.
But you know what I really like to get in my inbox? The ones that provide me PDF's or images of the mailers that other campaigns are sending out--because those provide me not only more material to cover for the race, but in some cases an increasing amount of hilarity.
So without further ado, below the fold I present you...
CA-32 mail-a-palooza! Images and mild commentary below the fold.
When I was with the East Bay Young Dems on Thursday night talking about my campaign and its potential to inspire more young working class folks to run for Congress in the 2010 mid-terms, one name came up a few times: Emanuel Pleitez.
The 26-year-old activist CA-32 candidate has been in the news this week as well, after coming under blistering attack from State Sen. Gil Cedillo. And what for? Because Pleitez has Facebook pictures that show him dancing, and with women. Calitics has done some great coverage on this hit mailer, which seems to be designed to destroy Pleitez in the Latino community as Cedillo faces a tough fight with Judy Chu.
I join Calitics in an unusual endorsement in this race: Any Democrat but Gil Cedillo.
Any Democrat but Gil Cedillo.
In 2007, Calitics watched as Laura Richardson ran a nasty, race-baiting campaign in a special election in CA-37, emphasizing that the seat "should be held by someone from our community" and using what amounts to an identity politics wedge to carry her to victory. We found that distasteful, and hoped that Democrats in future campaigns would not resort to such dirty politics. When the race to replace Hilda Solis in CA-32 began, we thought the candidates, nominally progressive Democrats, would highlight their policy positions and positive attributes instead of using divisive tactics. The major candidates, Board of Equalization member Judy Chu, State Sen. Gil Cedillo and former Obama transition official Emanuel Pleitez, all espoused generally progressive ideas throughout the campaign. But then again, so did Richardson, and we do believe that, at some level, how you campaign does dictate how you govern.
Therefore, we have been extremely disappointed in Gil Cedillo's divisive and often false attacks on his rivals. He started his campaign talking about "our community" and "our people", clearly attempting to play upon a Latino/Asian divide inside the district, which has a larger Hispanic population (which is an odd tactic for someone like Cedillo, who has never represented anyone from the 32nd district, to take). Cedillo's blatantly false mailers against Judy Chu during the race, attempting to blame her for the economic crisis by associating her with unrelated headlines and claiming that "Politicians like Judy Chu give tax breaks to their big corporate contributors," when as a BoE member she merely returned tax refunds owed corporations, were bad enough. But the mailer against Emanuel Pleitez, using Facebook images to build a false narrative of Pleitez as a drunken womanizer who hangs around with non-Hispanic women (a deliberate effort - we wouldn't be surprised to learn that this mailer only went to Hispanic women) and throws "gang signs" (actually that's the sign for Voto Latino, an organization for which Pleitez was a past board member), goes beyond the pale. This slandering, not only of Pleitez but of women in general, as if appearing in a picture at a bar connotes being a slut, goes well beyond what should be expected of a public official, and certainly beneath someone asking to be given a promotion and sent to Washington.
Calitics was generally comfortable with giving no official endorsement on this race until the events of the past couple weeks. We find Dr. Chu to be a progressive leader and Pleitez to have a significant amount of knowledge and energy, and Cedillo has been a past champion on significant issues like immigration. But the events of the past couple weeks have forced us to end our silence. Our somewhat unusual endorsement for voters in CA-32 is to vote for ANY DEMOCRAT BUT GIL CEDILLO. The behavior he has displayed in this campaign should be rejected, not rewarded.
I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, in the district formerly represented by now Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Like me, 60 percent of the residents of Congressional District 32 are Latino. That didn't stop my mother and I both from voting for a Chinese-American, Judy Chu, when she ran and re-ran for Monterey Park City Council in the 80s and 90s. Nor, by the way, did it stop then-Assemblymember and Latina Hilda Solis from endorsing her.
Today there's a pitched battle to fill Solis' very large shoes, with Judy Chu, currently serving on the state Board of Equalization, running against State Senator Gil Cedillo. Cedillo's main point of persuasion for voters seems to be that since the 32nd district is a Latino district, as a Latino he is better suited to represent it.
Unfortunately for the Cedillo campaign, however, he's not the only candidate in the race with that qualification. Emanuel Pleitez, a 26 year-old Mexican/Salvadoran-American who served on Obama's Treasury Department Transition Team, though trailing in third place, is apparently close enough on Cedillo's tails to find himself the target of a vicious piece of attack mail. The message of the mail piece: Pleitez is a "party animal." The evidence: Pictures on Facebook.
It's no longer necessary at this point to further describe how innocent these pictures actually were; Calitics and The Hill have already done a great job of it. However, given Cedillo's primary qualification for office, it's worth pointing out another detail his attack piece got wrong.
In the mailer, Cedillo accuses Pleitez of "flashing gang signs -- and then posting the pictures on the internet." It then goes on to ask rhetorically, "Doesn't he know about the lives and neighborhoods that have been destroyed by the gangs?"
If Cedillo knew the movement behind Latino political empowerment a bit better, he may have recognized that the woman standing next to Pleitez in one of those photos is Rosario Dawson, star of 'Rent' and '25th Hour' and founder of Voto Latino. The "gang signs" the two of them are "flashing" are a 'V' and an 'L,' as in, 'Voto Latino.' Voto Latino's mission is to empower Latino communities like CD-32 by getting out the vote and promoting civic engagement. Admirably, Pleitez served on the organization's Board of Directors.
Perhaps failing to recognize the hand gestures for what they were was a simple oversight by an ignorant communications staffer. But eagerly jumping to the conclusion that Pleitez was endorsing gang activity on Facebook at the expense of families in the 32nd district was a reckless and malicious ploy to attract cheap votes.
The tragedy is that Cedillo has been nothing short of heroic in California in his numerous fights in the State Legislature on behalf of undocumented immigrants. But in an all-too-typical phenomenon among politicians, the integrity that inspired him to take on these principled fights in the State Capitol have evaporated on the campaign trail.
The good news is, desperate attacks like these tend to backfire. Unfortunately, they tend to turn people away from important elections in the process. Senator Cedillo should bear both of these facts in mind next time he decides to go negative on his opponents.
Jeremy Cohen, the Communications Director for Pleitez for Congress, sends along a comment to me about the negative mailer sent by Gil Cedillo's campaign:
Emanuel is running for Congress because people here are being severely affected by the economic crisis. It's sad that the Cedillo campaign wants to surf Facebook while families are being kicked out of their home and people are losing their jobs.
We also think it's unethical that his campaign would use the photos of these women for a political smear without any form of consent. Many of them are highly educated professionals -- teachers, non-profit directors, nurses -- who would be horrified to find that their picture had been mailed to tens of thousands of voters. Cedillo is not only smearing the name of Emanuel, but defaming dozens of women who have no involvement with the campaign.
Seems to me that Gil Cedillo probably did Pleitez a favor here. As this story an the controversy around it grows, Pleitez has an opportunity to increase his name ID and deliver his message to more voters. And Cedillo comes off looking really, really bad.
See also this comment. Cedillo's people knew exactly what they're doing by using pictures of Pleitez with non-Latina women.
The League of Women Voters sponsored a forum in Baldwin Park last night for candidates in the May 19 special election to replace Hilda Solis in the Congress. The two front-runners in the race, Gil Cedillo and Judy Chu, emphasized their strengths.
Cedillo said he has had about 80 of his bills signed into law and said he has worked with the governor to save 25,000 jobs. Chu told the audience that she was proud to have the endorsement "of everybody in the family" of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who held the congressional seat until her cabinet appointment this year.
At the forum at Baldwin Park's Julia McNeill Senior Center, many of the candidates agreed on some issues, including the need for immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship, eliminating tax loopholes for corporations using offshore accounts to shelter income and the need to reform education, especially regarding the federal No Child Left Behind law.
With two weeks to go, the signals I'm getting suggest that Gil Cedillo is nervous. The massive unforced error of those negative Emanuel Pleitez mailers makes me believe that Cedillo fears Pleitez is capturing a good bit of the Hispanic vote. The earlier negative mailers on Judy Chu showed a similar lack of substance (attacking someone for returning tax refunds OWED?). Negative mailers don't inspire turnout, they suppress it. And the May 19 election will already feature low turnout. Which magnifies the importance of GOTV, and with the Democratic Party and key labor groups having endorsed Chu, I would probably be throwing the kitchen sink at everybody in the race myself if I were Cedillo.
What I'd prefer to hear about, instead of who endorsed whom and such and such negative attack, are concerns of the local area. El Monte is crashing. The city made 60% of its tax revenue off of the auto dealerships that lined the city, and with the demise of the auto industry throwing auto sales off the cliff, revenue has shrunk. Many cities with clusters of dealerships will soon face the same problem. What can be done at the federal level to diversify the local economy, and shouldn't the efforts to revive the economy in auto manufacturing states like Michigan extend to cities with a proliferation of car lots like El Monte? If anyone from the campaigns is reading, maybe we can get an answer to that.
