Daily Archives: November 22, 2006

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Alarcon enters the L.A. City Council District 7 Special Election

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Senator Richard Alarcon, who just won the 39th Assembly seat without contest two weeks ago, has made official his entry into the fight to represent L.A.’s District 7 in next year’s special election.  Alarcon will be duking it out with Felipe Fuentes and, presumably, Cindy Montanez (who has announced but not yet filed).

Let’s review the drama.

Once upon a time in the nineties, both Cindy Montanez and Alex Padilla enjoyed the mentorship of Richard Alarcon, a political fixture of the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

That was before Alarcon encouraged his wife to run against Padilla for the City Council seat Alarcon had vacated in order to move on to the Senate.  Padilla, who had managed the ’98 campaign that had delivered Alarcon his new Senate seat, was, understandably, peeved.

Padilla went on to win his City Council seat, and Alarcon went on to enjoy his two terms in the Senate.  Montanez, meanwhile, represented much of the same Northeast Valley constituency as Padilla and Alarcon in her role as Assemblymember for the 39th district.

Things looked cozy in the San Fernando Valley for a time, but term limits have a way of turning even the most carefully crafted political detente upside down.

Alarcon and Montanez made a pact to trade seats in 2006, when both would be termed out of their respective legislative chambers.  Logical enough, but what then of Alex Padilla?  With Villaraigosa — not exactly a chum of Padilla’s — running the city, marinating in City Council for the indefinite future was an unlikely prospect for a rising star like Alex.

Padilla disrupted the Alarcon-Montanez arrangement, by running for Alarcon’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.  Then he disrupted it further, by winning.

On the evening of the June primary election when she conceded her defeat, Montanez, suddenly faced with a dearth of elective options, announced her intention to run for Padilla’s vacated Council seat.

Circumstances might have settled nicely at this point, with Padilla in the Senate, Alarcon in the Assembly, and Montanez a shoo-in for the Council, and with term limits in Sacramento years away.  But after such a nasty primary tangle for SD20, there was absolutely no love any longer lost between Padilla and Montanez, and Padilla was not about to stay neutral in any contest to succeed him.  Padilla’s Chief of Staff in the Council, Felipe Fuentes, filed papers for the upcoming special election.  The race was looking to be a match-up of Fuentes versus Montanez for the City Council seat vacated by Padilla and once occupied by Richard Alarcon.

But that wasn’t quite interesting enough.  Speculation abounded that Alarcon was not exactly satisfied with his fate for the next six years in the Assembly, and that his eyes were wandering in the direction of City Hall.  The question of what is so much more appealing about representing Council District 7, a seat Alarcon had already occupied in the ’90s, than Assembly District 39, will make for good political chatterboxing.  Regardless of his motivations, it’s now official: City Council District 7 will be the next clusterfucked battlefront in a long-standing and ever-more-complex squabble in the Valley among like-minded Democrats who once wore the same stripes.

And now there’s a brand new tidbit for political speculation: with the possibility of Alarcon going back to City Council, who’s starting to size up AD39?

Orange County

SD-34: Why Correa Won (MY post-mortem)

The Senate race in District 34 was by far the most carefully-watched legislative race in the state. It was the only high-profile race, one agreed to be competitive by all analysts.

This district is situated in Central Orange County, in the Santa Ana/Anaheim/Garden Grove area. It is the only district in Orange County that can ever elect Democrats, since the county is so overwhelmingly Republican. The district is 58% Hispanic, but because of low Hispanic participation is competitive between the parties.

Read below the fold…

The Republicans chose to unite around Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher well before the primary, and Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Fullerton) promised her mucho money and establishment support. But Daucher was never loved  by the base: first, she had a moderate record on some key issues like abortion. And second, she had no real connection with the district. Her Assembly district barely overlaps SD-34, and if she had any principles she would wait to run for Ackerman’s seat (SD-33) in 2008. Instead, she carpetbagged her way into a district totally unlike her own: while hers is a base of wealthy, white suburbanites, SD-34 was a deeply ethnically diverse, and “working man’s” district. Republican Assembly candidate Ryan Gene Williams, though presumably a Daucher supporter, said that “Lynn is nice, but she is a tea-and-crumpets lady running in a taqueria district”.

The Democrats had a very tough primary between Assemblyman Tom Umberg, who had been the consensus nominee before “scandal” (an extramarital affair and all the baggage that goes with) got in his way, and Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa, formerly an Assemblyman. Umberg had far more institutional support and resources, but Correa was handpicked by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata as the stronger candidate. Correa surprisingly ended up beating Umberg 59% to 41% on June 6, but emerged from the primary at a huge financial disadvantage to Daucher.

The race was all along a battle of top-down versus bottom-up. Daucher had the money and the Republican machine. Correa had a paltry website which he never updated, very little cash, a low-key style, but real honest-to-gosh support from the hard-working, low-income families of the district. With Schwarzenegger and the GOP ticket sweeping Orange County, and with an ever-narrowing Democratic edge in the district, Correa had to hope his name recognition and his grassroots connection with the voters would win the day.

It did. Barely. But despite never having enough resources to really compete against the huge GOP machine, Correa carried the day. He still hasn’t updated his website. He still has no campaign cash. But at the end of the day, the people of the Santa Ana area want a real working man to represent them; not a tea-and-crumpets carpetbagger from Brea.

Uncategorized

Do your holiday shopping at Amazon?

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UPDATE: Powell’s is a pro-union, progressive new and used bookstore in Oregon.  Check them out for all your book and DVD needs.  They don’t necessarily have all the biggest books/movies, but they do have a great eclectic stock. But if you really must have T2: Extreme Edition, they’ve got it.  I also highly recommend The Onion’s Homeland Insecurity a new compendium from the satirical newspaper.  I’ll suggest more items as Chanukah approaches! 😉

I’m in a war on Christmas, you see.  That’s why I didn’t say “Christmas” shopping.  Or, perhaps it’s because I’m Jewish.  But, I digress.  If you happen to shop at Amazon, I’d be really appreciative if you could use the Calitics Amazon link here. It’d help defray the costs of running the site and all. 

Just think you could buy Joe Matthews book on Arnold, The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger And the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy, or you could buy The Terminator or T2 – Extreme DVD or even Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines (Widescreen Edition). My, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a broad range! (Don’t forget that he can do comedy (no, I’m not talking about the Special election), how about “It’s not a tumor”: Kindergarten Cop.  Or, if you aren’t so psyched about Arnold, you could get Peter Schrag’s latest, California: America’s High-Stakes Experiment.  Or whatever.  Go crazy!!

Thanks, ya’ll!

Blog Roundup

Odds and Ends 11/22

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It’s a slow day, so another light one. Teasers: Steve Clute and Irma Anderson concede, Rob Reiner and Pooch, and more!

  • Sacramento peace activists were spied on by the Pentagon.  How creepy is that?  I understand the need to track terrorists, but peaceniks? That’s getting pretty Nixonian in its targeting of political enemies and dissidents.  Cut it out Bush.

  • Oops! It seems that Rob Reiner and the First Five Commission did nothing wrong.  A report by the Sacto DA says that the commission operated within its authority when it spent $20 million bucks advertising the benefits of preschool. This call for an investigation by Sen Poochigian had nothing to do with slandering Reiner in advance of Prop 82, could it?  I’m sure Pooch and the gang will send Reiner a formal apology and be extremely supportive of a universal preschool initiative in the future.  Good riddance, Pooch.

  • The Governor signed legislation in September authorizing fundraising for “officeholder expenses”, and what do you know, he opens such an account. Is there anything this man won’t do to get a few more bucks?

  • Irma Anderson conceded as Mayor of Richmond to Gayle McLaughlin, a Green.  Richmond now becomes the largest city with a Green mayor.
  • Steve Clute conceded AD-80 to Bonnie  “I wouldn’t kick Arnold out of bed” Garcia.  And with that, we are REALLY done with election 2006. So, we’re at a grand total of 0, yes that’s right zero, turnovers in the California Legislature, in what was a “Democratic Wave” nationally.  I’m sick of these safe districts.  In 2010, we will redistrict fairly and not collude for the sake of incumbents.

  • Have a great Thanksgiving!