Daily Archives: May 19, 2006

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SD-8: A primary campaign descending into the muck

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As you can probably guess from my username, I live in San Francisco.  More specifically, I live in SD-8, so I’m currently represented by Sen. Speier.  She’s termed out and is running for Lt. Gov.  However, the race to replace her has gotten really, really ugly in the last few days.  In the last week, I received about 10 mailers.  However, these 2 stuck out for their ugliness.  First I received Nevin’s attack on Yee, which was soon followed by Yee’s attack on Nevin.  Click on them to see them in greater detail.  There’s more on the flip…

Nevin on Yee

   

Yee on Nevin

Both of these mailers are negative garbage.  Both make me want to vote for Lou Papan.  Oh yeah, did they not mention that there is another candidate running.  Yeah, Lou Papan, the longime assemblyman from San Mateo county, is also running for the seat. 

Personally, I’m not totally sure why Nevin decided to go so negative with this attack on Yee.  It’s easily debunked.  Yee has received only one contribution from the oil companies, and his record certainly doesn’t indicate that he is beholden to BigOil.  But, that even being said, I’m not sure high gas prices are the most important issue in such progressive district.  For one, I’m sure you could find many evironmentalists that aren’t that upset by high gas prices.  Personally, I’d rather that money go to the oil companies in a windfall, but perhaps the high prices will begin to ween our state (and nation) off the bottle.

The prescription drug issues that Yee focused on are a bit easier to understand.  Nevin has worked in a firm that does some lobbying.  That immediately opens up the door to imputed positions.  Nevin is just the victim of that.  Whether Nevin actually worked against Prop 79 is unclear, but it’s certainly an overstatement to say that he is beholden to drug interests.

Of course, once again, we waste our time with meaningless attacks.  Perhaps both of these candidates would be better off by saving their money for mailers that inform the candidates who they are, not attack their opponent.

Capitol Weekley says this of the race:

SD 8 – This district includes parts of San Francisco County and most of San
Mateo County.

There’s been bad blood between Lou Papan and Mike Nevin since the 2001 redistricting, when Nevin accused Papan of drawing him out of an Assembly district to ease the path for Papan’s daughter, Gina. Papan denies the allegation, and even if it were true, it didn’t work, as Gina Papan lost to Gene Mullin. Conventional wisdom has Papan in the race to help draw votes away from the other San Mateo candidate, Nevin. But Nevin did pick up the endorsement of Leland Yee’s hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle. Capitol Weekley 5/18/06

For more about this nasty race, see [Around the Capitol], which has lots of articles about the race.  Three taped debates will be airing on PeninsulaTV (Ch. 26), beginning on May 23.  Check the website for showtimes.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Blog Roundup

California Blog Roundup 5/19/06

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. I’m pressed for time, so it ain’t as pretty as it normally is, but I’ve tried to sort things properly. No teasers, sorry.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, Environment

California Must Lead on Climate Change

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Governor Schwarzenegger announced his environmental plan last month, but ended up watering down the suggestions of his Climate action team.  A spokesperson called Schwarzenegger’s manner of dealing with the environment “bit of a Jekyll and Hyde approach.”  He does not provide the type of leadership on the climate change issues that we need.  Yes, he is substantially better than the President.  At least the governor has acknowledged that there is no more substantial debate (i.e. Science magazine did a review of 928 scholarly articles on the subject, they all said human activity was contributing to warming).

We need real leadership on this issue: We need a Democratic governor who is committed to reducing greehouse gases such as CO2.  Why is this so important?  Well, take a gander at these ads produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a oil-funded lobbying group.  Essentially, the ads say that the more carbon dioxide the better.  They are quite funny too. The exact quote: “Carbon Dioxide: They call it pollution, we call it life.”  I don’t think I really need to go into the science here, but suffice it to say that the wingnuts will continue to push against environmental action.  In California, we need to make sure that we are the leaders on this.  We brought the world catalytic converters, we can do the same with CAFE standards, CO2 emissions, and more.  And we can do a lot better without Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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“Where Does Brian Bilbray Really Live?”

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It’s one thing for Democrats to call Brian Bilbray, Republican lobbyist and 50th CD congressional candidate, a carpetbagger. Considering that Bilbray has never lived in the 50th District and considering that for the last 5 years his residence has been in Virginia, the Democrat’s claim that Bilbray was an carpetbagging opportunist may have been valid, but until now it didn’t resonate.

Things seem to have changed. Yesterday, Democrats claimed that Bilbray has made fraudulent claims regarding his place of residence and that he may have actually claimed three legal residences for different legal purposes. The Union Tribune soft sells the story today, keeping the political aspect up front, but local ABC affiliate, KGTV, has taken a far more aggressive stance and is actually investigating the story.

In a story first run last night and repeated today, KGTV asks, “Where Does Brian Bilbray Really Live?“

In fact, there are serious questions about where Bilbray really lives. Virginia property records show Bilbray claims a home in Alexandria, Va., as his primary residence, for tax purposes.

The same is true for a home in Imperial Beach. Bilbray and his wife, Karen, also claim the Imperial Beach home as their primary residence. […]

“I live in Carlsbad, taking care of my mother,” Bilbray said.

He said he has lived in the Carlsbad house since March 2005.

It is the address he used in his declaration of candidacy for the North County congressional seat.

Democrats said Bilbray does not live at that address.[…]

Neighbors told 10News they rarely ever see Bilbray at the house, which is his mother’s home.

“He comes here occasionally to see his mother like boys will do, but he doesn’t live here,” said neighbor Frank Knudsen.

“If he does live here, he must leave late at night and come back early in the morning,” said neighbor Bill Rider.

Another man, who lives right next door, said he wondered when people would catch on that Bilbray does not live here.


It’s not going to help the floundering Bilbray campaign to have television news following him around to see where he sleeps at night.

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Calitics Poll Headquarters

Say hi to a new feature of Calitics: Calitics Poll HQ.  You can find it on the left side, just below the about box.  I’ll be working on collecting lots of polls together before and after the primaries.  Today it only has the Field Poll for the governor race.  Expect it to grow dramatically over the next week or so.