Looks like from this Bradley piece
Daily Archives: March 24, 2006
The Tyranny of the Donors
What’s good for donors is bad for voters. What’s good for political consultants is bad for democracy. Clean money elections are the next California political earthquake. Just look at what’s in the news today:
Steve Schmidt has left the Bush White House and now appears to be getting paid $50,000 or so a month to run Schwarzenegger’s bid for re-election as California Governor, reports Capitol Weekly. $50,000! No wonder Arnold plans on raising $120 million this year. Schmidt now joins the big-dollar corporate donors in the small group who benefit personally from the Schwarzenegger’s campaign, AND who have extra motivation to keep alive the bizarro world system of huge fundraising that has come to define California politics.
Columnist Dan Walters in The Sacramento Bee reports that the California election season began this week. What does that mean? Arnold is out fundraising at the posh Beverly Hilton–with his event being invaded by nurses and other union workers–and the Democratic candidates are up on television to the tune of millions of dollars a month. What were you expecting, a policy debate?
Meanwhile, the San Jose Mercury News today reports that Mayor Ron Gonzales is pushing a plan to run clean money elections in the city. Clean Money elections provide for public financing of the campaigns for qualified candidates, thereby decreasing the influence of lobbyists, fundraisers, and consultants, and increasing voter participation.
The California Nurses Association is sponsoring an initiative on the November, 2006 ballot to bring Clean Money elections to the state. Our campaign begins in April as we hit the streets to collect 600,000 signatures in a month, which we can only do with your help. Please visit us at www.CalNurses.org/CleanMoney and sign up to help!
Put it another way: no more $2000 candelabras!
Rasmussen: Three-way Tie in CA Governor’s Race
According to Rasmussen Reports, a Republican-leaning polling outfit, these are the current numbers:
The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll in California shows Schwarzenegger trailing State Treasurer Phil Angelides by one percentage point, 45% to 44%. That is the same nominal edge Angelides enjoyed in our February poll, when he led 41% to 40%.
State Comptroller Steve Westly leads 45% to 44%. In our last poll, Schwarzenegger led Westly 39% to 34%.
…
The fact that both Democrats poll essentially the same numbers at this time suggests the race remains a referendum on the incumbent rather than a choice between competing candidates.
The Referendum-on-Arnold model is very different from Matthew Dowd’s (public) “it’s a choice” strategy for the Schwarzenegger campaign.
News Roundup 3/24/06
Today we offer what we hope will be a regular feature: a roundup of interesting news from across the state. It’s not all expressly political and it’s not as focused on the horserace as it will no doubt become. Today, we’ve got the anti-government crusaders in Santa Clara County, housing & sprawl, education, the fundraising competition, free speech, and San Jose public Campaign financing, all on the flip.
- Following up on Calitics’ recent post on the Santa Clara County sales tax kabuki, we find that the anti-government crusaders are now trying to prevent (or at least delay) the people from deciding if they want to increase their sales tax rate.
- California has the lowest home ownership percentage in the nation. Of course, given that the news source is the California Building Industry Association, their recommendation to fix that is essentially sprawl. Proposition 13 and our geography couldn’t have anything to do with the housing issues, nope. In related news, Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed the president of the Building Industry Association of Southern California as the new director of the Department of Housing and Community Development.
- Governor Schwarzenegger wants more veterans to go to California colleges and universities. That’s a great goal. How about properly funding our public schools to prepare more Californians generally for a secondary education. Again, Proposition 13 can’t have had anything to do with our schools’ funding shortfalls, now can it?
- The Roundup has the best example of the sad “fundraising horserace” analysis I think I’ve seen. I reckon they’ll be the go-to people for conventional wisdom of that stripe. Once, again, public financing is the way to go.
- A federal judge ruled unconstitutional California’s decades old law banning noncommercial speech visible from our highways. I’m a big fan of removing government barriers to free speech, but progressives should note that most billboards are owned by companies like ClearChannel, which has often taken (or sponsored) conservative advocacy advertising and refused to put up any alternative views.
- San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales is pressing for public financing of San Jose campaigns. That’s the Good Ron. The Bad Ron is under fire for secrecy in the conduct of the city’s affairs.
Blog Roundup: March 23, 2006
The (admittedly tardy) California Blog Roundup for March 23 is below the fold:
- The Ruth Group tells us that there’s a Debra Bowen fundraiser in Marin on April 18.
- The Democratic Daily has a set of quotes from Dianne Feinstein’s recent in-state campaign swing and radio address. It’s astonishing how liberal Senator Feinstein can sound.
- Alliance for a Better California notes that among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fat-cat spending is about $100K / month on private jets owned by his production company. So, he’s paying himself to fly himself around, with his contributors’ money? Well, I guess that’s better than the dodge that the federal legislators use.
- Dump Doolittle notices that the local papers in CA-4 have a suspicious lack of articles concerning John Doolittle’s (ties to) corruption.
- Say No To Pombo asks what lessons the recent DCCC v. grassroots Duckworth-Cegelis primary in IL-06 has for CA-11.
- More California news than usual in the BradBlog’s daily e-voting roundup.
- Last, The California Observer reports on Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez’s steps toward reworking California’s television / high-speed Internet landscape. This is actually really important, as more broadband for rural and lower-income folks is going to help drive their ability to get information and participate in the ongoing changes in politics and the economy. People’s eyes glaze over when they hear about telecom or broadcast infrastructure laws, but consider that these are the pipes through which information flows, and control of those pipes is important. Just ask Rupert Murdoch.