The League of Pissed Off Voters‘ mission is to engage pissed off 17-35 year olds in the democratic process to build a progressive governing majority in our lifetime. We currently have 17 official chapters around the country.

I’m active in the San Francisco chapter, and I wanted to share our voter guide with you and hear the Calitics perspective on it. In particular, I think Prop 81 and the Controller’s race are interesting ones that aren’t getting any press.

We raised money to print 20,000 of these bad boys, which we’re distributing around town. We haven’t used a dime from candidates or candidate committees.

Governor: Phil Angelides!
Lieutenant Governor: Jackie Speier!
Secretary of State: Debra Bowen!
Attorney General: Jerry Brown
Controller: John Chiang
State Senate District 8: None of the Above
State Assembly District 12: Janet Reilly!

Prop 81 – Library Construction Bond: No
Prop 82 – Universal Preschool: Hell Yeah

Prop A – Stop Homicides Now: Hell Yeah
Prop B – Ellis Act Eviction Disclosure: Hell Yeah
Prop C – Transbay Terminal Authority Shuffle: Yes
Prop D – Laguna Honda Patient Admission and Rezoning: No

See below the jump for our explanations of these.

Governor: Phil Angelides!

Phil Angelides is the anti-Arnold. While Arnold has protected his rich corporate donors, Angelides has a strong history of standing up for children, teachers, and workers. He’s the only major candidate with the guts to call for corporations and wealthy citizens to pay their fair share to rebuild California’s education and social services. Phil also told us he would seriously consider lowering the voting age so that 16 and 17 year olds who pay taxes can get some representation.

Lieutenant Governor: Jackie Speier!

The LT does a little bit of everything, and holds powerful roles on commissions governing California’s universities, environment, and economy. We need an LT who shares our values and has the knowledge to make California’s bureaucracies work for us. Jackie Speier has a strong progressive voting record in the State Senate, and she’s outlined plans to provide Cal Grants to more college students, increase the number of guidance counselors in public schools, and reduce emissions from the state’s buses and trucks.

Secretary of State: Debra Bowen!

The Secretary of State is in charge of our elections. Everyone who remembers Florida, Ohio, and the various Diebold debacles knows how important it is to have a solid Secretary of State. Debra Bowen is a State Senator who has been a leader in technology issues. She was the first Senator with a webpage, and wrote a bill to make legislative info available online. She’s headed investigations into Diebold and it’s her goal to kick their sketchy machines out of California and replace them with secure, open-source voting machines. Amen!

Attorney General: Jerry Brown

We’re going with Jerry Brown, because back in the day, he was the baddest progressive California has ever seen. As Governor, he was a trailblazing environmentalist and he vetoed the death penalty. Then he ran a grassroots campaign for president that refused donations larger than $100. But then some of our friends Oakland aren’t too happy with what he’s done as Mayor, with his “tough on crime” act that hasn’t really involved the community. Brown is running against LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who seems cool, but also makes up nervous. He supports the death penalty, and he also has a “tough on crime” vibe that might not focus as much on rehabilitation and community involvement as we would like.

Controller: John Chiang

The Controller is California’s Chief Financial Officer, responsible for keeping an eye on our money, running the state’s payroll, and conducting audits to make sure nothing shady is going on. We like both of the major Democratic candidates, but we’re going with John Chiang because he has the most experience with these kind of technical but important issues. Chiang has worked for the IRS, and he serves on the Board of Equalization, so he knows all the crazy details about how California’s tax system works. He’s never held office before, but he’s worked for Democrats like Gray Davis, Barbara Boxer, and Don Perata. Chiang is running against Joe Dunn, a State Senator from Orange County with an impressive progressive voting record. He was knee deep in the investigation into how Enron ripped off California. But by a hair, we’re going with Chiang.

State Senate District 8: None of the Above

We hate to leave this one blank, but we can’t get behind any of these candidates. We like some things about Leland Yee, like how he opposes the death penalty and the work he’s done for immigrants. But he has a horrible record on renter’s rights, he’s made some sketchy enivormental votes, and he hasn’t really accomplished much in the State Assembly. Mike Nevin is a San Mateo County Supervisor who has some good things to say about “smart growth” and affordable housing. But he supports the death penalty and we’re not convinced that he’ll look out for renter’s rights.

State Assembly District 12: Janet Reilly!

She may not have much political experience, but you’d never know it if you hear Janet Reilly talk about her plans for fixing California. She has detailed proposals for providing health care to every Californian, restoring our environment, and improving our schools. She’s against the death penalty, for tenant protection, and would consider giving 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote. Meanwhile, her opponent, Fiona Ma, has accomplished little on the Board of Supervisors, has a lousy record on tenants’ rights, supports the death penalty, opposes lowering the voting age, and has offered few details on what she would do in Sacramento. Fiona even ducked the Bay Guardian, refusing to meet with them to talk about her campaign!

Prop 81 – Library Construction Bond: No

This one sounds simple: Why wouldn’t you support a $600 million bond for building libraries? Well, here are a couple reasons:
– Prop 81 allocates money only to the construction of libraries- the money can’t be used for librarians, books, computers, or other resources, only building.
– Also, the funds allocated in Prop 81 must be matched by the city trying to use them. This means that the strapped cities that need new libraries the most wouldn’t be able to access Prop 81 funding because they wouldn’t be able to spare the money necessary to match the funds. Meanwhile, Prop 81 would subsidize library construction in more affluent communities, thereby increasing the digital divide.

Our low-income communities absolutely need the access to books, computers, and other technological resources that libraries provide, but brand-new, empty library structures? Not that helpful, and this is all Prop 81 promises.

Prop 82 – Universal Preschool: Hell Yeah

Prop 82 provides free preschool to all kids by raising taxes only 1.7% for only the super rich (individuals who make over $400K or couples who make over $800K). It’s pretty simple: kids who go to preschool do better. A study showed that every dollar we invest in preschool will save $2.62 in juvenile hall and other costs related to dropouts.

Prop A – Stop Homicides Now: Hell Yeah

Our city is facing a crisis of homicides and gun violence, with young people in low-income communities (like Western Addition, Mission, and Bayview/Hunter’s Point) particularly impacted. Prop A creates a citizens council to address the systemic causes of homicide. This council will be in charge of $10 million a year for the next three years for innovative violence prevention programs including job training, after school programs, and summer internships, as well as a fund to support the families of homicide victims. Prop A is a critical step in addressing homicide in our city proactively and thoughtfully.

Prop B – Ellis Act Eviction Disclosure: Hell Yeah

Prop B requires real estate sellers to tell potential buyers if there were any Ellis Act evictions on a property, and if any of the tenants were disabled or elderly. The Ellis Act allows landlords to get out of the rental business by evicting their tenants. But it’s being abused by real estate speculators who buy rental properties because they want to kick out the tenants and convert the rentals into condos. Prop B protects renters without restricting real estate sales.

Prop C – Transbay Terminal Authority Shuffle: Yes

This one’s a little wonky, so stick with us. The Transbay Joint Powers Authority is in charge of building the Transbay Terminal to link BART, MUNI, and CalTrains, which is crucial to the future of public transit in the Bay Area. Prop C would do three things to shuffle the Transbay Authority: 1. It requires the Mayor him/herself attend TJPA meetings (instead of the Mayor’s designee) 2. It replaces the MUNI director with the Supervisor who heads the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 3. It puts the Board of Supervisor who represents the neighborhood (financial district, SOMA, etc.) on the Transbay Authority. The Transbay Terminal is important enough that we think the Mayor should be personally involved. We also think it makes sense to have the Supervisor in charge of public transit there also instead of the MUNI director, because the Transbay Terminal is a lot bigger than just MUNI.

Prop D – Laguna Honda Patient Admission and Rezoning: No

Laguna Honda is supposed to a hospital for seniors. Recently they’ve been admitting a lot of patients suffering from mental illness and substance abuse problems, some of whom have gotten violent and caused a lot of trouble. We understand that this is a problem that needs to be fixed, but Prop D isn’t the way to do it. Prop D doesn’t provide for how to care for the patients it would remove from Laguna Honda, meaning a lot of them would get kicked out on the street. The sketchiest part about Prop D is how it rezones public land all over the City to allow for private nursing homes to be built. Huh? What’s that got to do with Laguna Honda?

~–~ Note there are 5 days until this election!! ~–~

Isn’t it funny how ads and arguments that are supposedly attacks, often only give you more reasons to like a candidate (if you weren’t the intended audience for the ad)? Case in point, some of Brian Bilbray’s ads against Francine Busby.

They are all on his web page, lets take a look.

A TV ad “English” (WindowsMedia, Quicktime)

It plays a video clip from one of the debates, where Busby says she thinks having an official language is a silly idea. It also points out her support for the McCain-Edwards version of immigration reform.

• On both counts, great!

TV ad “One Clear Choice” (WindowsMedia, Quicktime)

Busby supports letting babies born in the United States, be citizens of the United States. (um, duh!) Bilbray brags about writing the first House bill that would bar some babies born in the United States from being citizens, depending on their parents’ status (Question: does that include the father, because…how would that even work? Also, since just about every country in the world decides citizenship based on being born in the country, would those kids have citizenship anywhere else? Would they be citizens of nowhere?)

• Needless to say, score 2 more for Busby! Wow, Brian, your ads really are persuasive!

Mail piece: Endorsed by Corky Smith (pdf)

Corky Smith is about as good an endorsement as Mr. 19% Dick Cheney (pics of protest of Cheney’s Bilbray fundraiser). Is someone accused of cronyism and secret dealings with Walmart, who openly mocked the efforts of a bipartisan grassroots group of his own constituents in a local TV news interview, really the kind of person that Bilbray wants to associate himself with at this juncture? (when there are questions about a New Year’s Eve trip Bilbray and his wife took to the Marianas, paid for by Jack Abramoff!)

• If birds of a feather flock together, this is another big reason to vote Busby.

Mail piece: Had Enough? (pdf)

This one I’m just throwing in for entertainment value. The words “Had Enough?” take up half the page. Isn’t that the Democrats’ theme for November? This one really is a pro-Busby ad ROTFL!!

cross-posted to dkos

( – promoted by jsw)

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: The Enron convictions, Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger, Jerry Brown, Paid-For Pombo, 15% Doolittle, the CAHSEE and California’s rankings, immmigration, several interesting think posts, and more.

The One To Read

Lest we forget, Robert Silvey reminds us that the conviction of Ken Lay (devoted Bush supporter) is related to their company’s predation on California, abetted by Dick Cheney and the Republican Administration, which led in turn to the recall election of Grey Davis and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, this stuff is all connected. No, that’s not a conspiracy theory.

Statewide Races

• Marc Cooper plugs his own LA Weekly article on the Dem gubernatorial primary. Go read it: it goes well beyond the ordinary “how much money” and “how many ads” coverage that seems to dominate political reporting.
• To paraphrase both loosely and badly from Shakespeare, Governor Schwarzenegger learns the hard way that he who pisses away his money loses only his money, while he who pisses away his reputation loses everything.
• Julia Rosen from ABC posts on the amount of money the Dem candidates have put into the primary (too much, frankly). She also quotes Bill Bradley opining that without the IE campaign run by his friends, Angelides would not be doing as well as he is. I find this puzzling. By this logic, Arnold Schwarzenegger would not do well without his personal fortune or his contacts. Westly would not do well without his personal fortune or his contacts. I see no distinction.
• Randy Bayne comes out for Angelides. Oh, and Garamendi.
• Julia Rosen of ABC on indecision and turnout.
• Bill Cavala thinks we’re nostalgic for Jerry Brown. Could be.
• In addition to Brian’s great response to Kos’ frustration with the Dem candidates for governor, you should also read Delta’s take on the atmosphere created by the negative campaigning.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• I think a “Heh, indeed” is appropriate here.
• The more I read about the Republican involvement in protecting the people who were exploiting women in the Marianas (sweatshops, forced prostitution, forced abortions, rape), the more I wonder how people like 15% Doolittle can sleep at night. Family values, indeed.
• Good news for the 15% Doolittle family! They’ve made up to $150,000 from their campaign contributors this election cycle!

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• McNerney and McCloskey both want to know what Paid-For Pombo knew about the exploitation of women in the Marianas by Jack Abramoff’s clients, and when he knew it.
• Paid-For Pombo: Objectively pro-global-warming.
• This is disappointing. Progressive 11th reports that Filson’s FEC report suggests he’s paying for astroturf slate mailers. (More about why this is so disappointing below.)
• Say No To Pombo has an interesting post about the shibboleths of “centrism” and “electability”.

Education

• The Educational Justice Blog reports that the Cal Supremes have reinstated the California High School Exit Exam. They’re not pleased.
• The Citizens are happier with the reinstatement of the CAHSEE.
• The Capitol Observer reports on the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress state rankings: we’ve beaten Mississippi, and only Mississippi. No-one should be happy at that.

Immigration

• D-Day thinks that the recent Senate compromise on immigration doesn’t suck all that much, though he doubts that anything good will come out of the conference committee. Tex Sensenbrenner provides support for that hypothesis.
• Marc Cooper comes down in roughly the same place as D-Day.
• Politics in the Zeros doesn’t like it.
• The Talent Show is not thrilled with the Senate’s immigration bill, and gets its flaws (in the real world) just about right. The comments are worth reading, as they descend into nativist nuttery pretty fast. More from the real world here.

Other Electoral

• Remember, it’s not just Republicans who are a wee bit too friendly to corporate interests. It’s certain Democrats as well. In a lot of races. The difference is that we expect better from Democrats.
• Shane Goldmacher of the California Observer crossposts a Capitol Weekly piece on the nastiness of some campaign direct mail. It is useful to read this piece in conjunction with the descriptions of Gary South and Tom Mulholland in Marc Cooper’s LA Weekly piece.
• Assembly Member Tim Leslie (R – 15% Doolittle) shows why he needs to be termed out, even if nobody else does.
• Keeping one’s eyes on the prize in CA-50.
• If you want to know what a male feminist Christian professor is voting for this June, here’s your answer.
• Here are Progressive 11th’s picks.
• The SCCDP blog has been following the dustup over the Silicon Valley CofC’s false attacks on Cindy Chavez, San Jose mayoral candidate. The chair of the SVCOC has resigned, and a former chair has made public his resignation from the SVCOC. Still no apology for the lie, though.

Think Pieces

• Bill Cavala has a short piece at California Progress Report that nonetheless manages to be a glorious mess. He seems to be advocating public financing, redistricting reform, and the elimination of term limits as a unified platform, even while admitting that the public only supports the first of those.
• Joe Dunn explains the oligopoly problem in California’s gasoline supply.
• janinsanfran thinks that Mi Familia Vota is looking to go national from Florida and has some thoughts on the matter. The piece is worth reading, and not just because I agree wholeheartedly with big chunks of it.
• Howie Klein on the bogus slate mailer problem. Man, I hate these things — first up against the wall when the revolution comes. I think the slimiest version I have personally seen was put out by the pharmaceutical industry last year, which recommended progressive positions on every Proposition except Props 78 and 79. Here’s a good one, though.
• Incidentally, the California Club For Growth is sending out its slate mailer with the discount for “non-profit philanthropic organizations”. Related, did you know that AEI and the Heritage Institute are officially 501(c)(3) non-profits, so contributions to them are tax-deductible. Couldn’t make that up if I tried.

Other

• Randy Bayne explains exactly why indexing the minimum wage to inflation is important.
• Kvatch, from Blognonymous (and a few others) have been pursuing an interesting anti-war campaign.
• We bloggers is journamalists. Is that a step up, or down?

Vince Duffy, a former Gray Davis speechwriter, has a few thoughts on how to beat Arnold Schwarzenegger.

California Democrats should tie all of these Republican rascals, including the president himself, around Arnold’s neck, from the primary through Election Day.

Pundits who say Democrats need a positive message miss the point. The message is that Democrats are not George W. Bush Republicans and Arnold is.

This year, that’s more than enough.

It was, after all, Schwarzenegger who basked in the Bush glory at the Republican convention in 2004. To a nationwide audience, Schwarzenegger called Democrats liars and boasted that only Republicans can be tough on terrorists.

Even worse, it was Schwarzenegger who campaigned for President Bush in arguably the most important battleground state, Ohio, just days before Election Day in 2004 in front of 20,000 people.

That day, the governor said: “I’m here to pump you up to re-elect George W. Bush,” and it was a success. Ohio went for Bush by a tiny margin. America re-elected the president and the Republican Congress.

Our task is to never let anyone forget that Schwarzenegger is responsible.(CapWeekly 5/25/06)

It’s all stuff that’s been said before, and I don’t know if it’s really enough.  Yes, Arnold is a bad governor.  Yes, he has ties with Bush (ie Dowd and Smith, former BushCo employees, now running his campaign), but it’s not totally clear that it’s enough against him.  Unfortunately there’s still going to be a group of people that will vote for Ahnold just because he’s a movie star.  Look, I was at the Capitol last week, and there were people queueing up to see him walk into the capitol.  You think people were doing that for Davis?  I think not.

I think tying Schwarzenegger to Bush will help.  But only to a certain extent. The Dem nominee should also present the state with concrete ways that he is different than Arnold.  There are plenty of ways to show that Arnold is not a moderate (such as that early veto announcment last week).  We just need to make sure we can show that he is no moderate.