(Dovetails nicely with my incomptency post. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Gov. Schwarzenegger’s spinmeisters were working overtime yesterday in a desperate attempt to distract from their inability to stage-manage their boss’ racism and sexism.

After the Governor embarrassed himself into apologizing for derrogatory comments made about a Latina legislator and other Republican lawmakers, his taxpayer-funded staff has successfully steered the mainstream media into making this an insider story about how the tapes were obtained by the Times.

It is clear to anyone who has ever done Internet research that Schwarzenegger’s staff did not properly protect those audio files, and that the Angelides campaign took advantage of that incompetence by digging around on the public website and finding them. Whether the campaign gave the tape file to the Times is irrelevant — people leak public documents to the press all the time in politics. It’s neither interesting nor a crime or wrongdoing of any kind.

Again, it is merely a distraction from the real issue — Schwarzenegger behaving in a way that is unbecoming of a top elected leader in the largest state in the country — and another chance for right-wing Republicans to attack the L.A. Times for being the only paper willing to engage in real investigative journalism when it comes to Schwarzenegger.

The tape story and Schwarzenegger’s sexist comments reminded people that Schwarzenegger is a sexist pig, in part from the Times’ coverage before the 2003 recall of dozens of women who said they were groped by him. That isn’t so happy-making for his team and the Republicans, so they are relying on other, completely unfair, means to dig themselves out.

It is not unlike Joe Lieberman’s claims on the verge of his Connecticut Senate Primary loss that his opponent Ned Lamont hacked his website.

In both cases it comes down to two things: desperation and incompetence.

Maryland seems to be having a major crisis in their voting today.  Many workers didn’t show up at their assigned polling places, leaving voters outside waiting for them to open.  BradBlog has the whole story:

This morning voters in much of Maryland awoke with plans to go to the polls early and then head off to a normal day. Unfortunately when they got to their polling places they only found locked doors.

As reported by the Baltimore Sun many poll workers did not show up for work this morning and when they did they many had no idea how to operate new voting technology called “e-poll books” which are a necessary part of the voting process in Maryland and many other Diebold states. The workers were not trained to use that technology because Diebold did not provide the technology to the state until it was too late to properly train the pollworkers.
(BradBlog 9/12/06)

Where is Diebold going to be when we face the same issues? And where will Bruce McPherson be?  My guess is hiding behind Diebold’s skirt.  McPherson is the only “moderate” running down-ballot, so you can bet there will be a lot of CRaPpy cash thrown his way in the last month of the race.  Check out our ActBlue page to give to Debra’s campaign.

(Only $1,178,779 Thursday! A down day for Big Money I suppose. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Cross-posted at Daily Kos

Yesterday, the LA Times joined the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee by launching a political blog: Political Muscle. The blog has a special feature — called Mother’s Milk — to track the “money flow” in California politics.

Today, the scoreboard reported that $3,144,950 was raised for California state races — just yesterday. This brings the year-to-date total to $303,771,114.

To explain why the Times started this project, reporter blogger Bob Saladay wrote a mission statement:

Seventy years ago, another Austrian ruled California. His name was Arthur Samish, the son of an immigrant who became the most powerful lobbyist in state history. At 300 pounds, the outsized man was master of leveraging campaign contributions and personal favors for the oil, movie studio, insurance and tobacco industries.

This year will prove that little has changed — California politics remains dominated by money.

The 2006 election is destined to set another record in political spending — cash will pour in from oil and tobacco companies, powerful unions, millionaires and corporate donors. They will unload more than $200 million to finance the governor’s race, a host of initiatives, the Democratic and Republican parties, and various front groups. […]

It’s difficult to find a campaign donor without a tie to some powerful interest in Sacramento. Elected officials say donations don’t influence their votes. They frequently quote Jesse M. Unruh, the legendary former Assembly Speaker, who said: “If you can’t take their money, drink their booze, eat their food, screw their women and vote against them, you don’t belong here.”

But another quote from Unruh may be more operative this year: “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

If you are going to talk about money in California politics, I would suggest another quote the most constructive this year:  “Vote Yes on Proposition 89”.

Prop 89, The Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, puts us in charge of elections, not big money special interests. Candidates who build a coalition of $5 donors and refuse special interest money get Clean Money public financing, leveling the playing field so elections are about ideas not money.

Public financing is working in Maine and Arizona, getting more people involved in the system and dramatically altering how campaigns are conducted. Candidates are freed from the call room to go and talk with voters, and potential candidates who don’t have a golden rolodex can run on the strength of their ideas.

In Arizona, Governor Janet Napolitano ran as a clean money candidate and said (video), “I got to spend time with voters as opposed to dialing for dollars, or trying to sell tickets to $250-a-plate fundraisers. This was much better.” In the same video, Maine Representative Nancy Smith said, “Being a Clean Elections elected official now, there’s a lot of freedom that comes with that. I really can focus on what my constituents need and not worry about upsetting anybody and it’s going to cost me in the next election. I can really focus on what I think good policy is.”

Public Financing = Good Policy
As happened in other states, more and more organizations are realizing that big money special interests are preventing good policy. Yesterday, the Sierra Club endorsed Proposition 89. Bill Magavern, senior advocate for Sierra Club California, said, “If you want clean air and clean water, you need clean elections. Proposition 89 will eliminate the corrupting influence of donors who want to weaken environmental laws by shifting power back to the voters who overwhelmingly support measures to ensure a healthy, safe, and clean environment.”

Help Make it Happen
To counter the big money attacks on Proposition 89, the campaign is taking the case directly to the voters as outreach expands to phone banking. These personal contacts with voters are very important to our statewide field plan. Starting tomorrow, the Nurses are coordinating phone banks at the following locations:

  * Sacramento
  * San Diego
  * San Francisco
  * Glendale
  * Oakland

The program begins this Wed, Sep 13th and then will run every Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thursday from 5-9pm. They are flexible about the length of slots. Food and refreshments will be served each night.

If you can volunteer, please contact:

Ted Cahill
Prop 89 Field Director
Email: tcahill [at] calnurses.org
Phone: 510-273-2248

Please help spread the word.

– – – – – – – – – –
Stay up-to-date on Proposition 89 at the Prop 89 Campaign Blog.

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