Nancy Pelosi and Ellen Tauscher

Nancy Pelosi and John Burton

Some say the feud between Nancy Pelosi and Ellen Tauscher has always existed. Some say that it that it is a Hatfield-McCoy stories that goes back generations in east coast politics. But one thing is clear, it erupted in the press during the summer of 2001:

The story nonetheless laid bare a dispute that belies the solidarity of Bay Area delegation, arguably the most liberal in the nation. Its origins are a matter of dispute. Some believe Tauscher sees Pelosi as competition. Some believe Pelosi feels betrayed after helping Tauscher first get elected in 1996.

The rift has isolated Tauscher to a certain degree from her California colleagues, who almost universally are behind Pelosi.

“I’ve searched my heart why Ellen Tauscher would not support Nancy Pelosi for whip,” said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, a firm Pelosi backer who was appalled at Tauscher’s assertions. “I cannot figure out in my wildest imagination as to why she is not excited at this history-making prospect. Her doing this says to me she is a very bitter person.”

Boxer wasn’t the only California Democrat who was “appalled” at Tauscher not supporting a fellow woman of the delegation, the move infuriated John Burton (who many people at the time viewed as almost as powerful than the governor and overly protective of Pelosi.

It wasn’t just the fact Tauscher abandoned Pelosi that made the situation so controversial, it was also the manner in which the story exploded:

In a culture where even the worst of political enemies are referred to as “my good friend,” each struggles to find nice things to say about the other.

Their long-running dispute spilled onto the front pages of Roll Call — the newspaper of Capitol Hill — with an eyebrow-raising banner headline: “Pelosi Denies Whip Threats: Tauscher Charges Intimidation” as members were preparing to adjourn for their summer recess.

The Roll Call made no attempt to conceal the fact that the story was all Tauscher’s doing:

Exposing a rift between two of the House’s most powerful women, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) charged this week that allies of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the state Legislature are threatening to weaken Tauscher’s district in redistricting as retribution for her decision to back Pelosi’s opponent in the race for party Whip.  […]

The rumors, according to Tauscher and associates both in Washington and California, began soon after.

If Tauscher’s first mistake was shivving Pelosi, her second mistake was to go whining to Roll Call about it:

Tauscher charged that the effort is being led by state Sen. John Burton (D), a former Member of Congress and close Pelosi associate who is now the Senate’s President Pro Tempore. […]

Though he evidently intended to bury the rumors Burton nonetheless made little effort to disguise his contempt for Tauscher, suggesting that she was inviting trouble by voicing her concerns.

“The best way to get a problem with me is to run crying to the press,” Burton said gruffly.

Burton described his close relationship with each of the Members in the Bay Area delegation, but pointedly excluded Tauscher from the list, concluding, “Ellen is not one to determine where her district would be.”

In the end, Tauscher’s two blunders ended up with Burton creating a new 10th District that would remove any fear of Tauscher losing in a general, but one that was specifically designed to allow her to lose in a primary if she kept undermining Pelosi.

Tauscher wasn’t redistricted out of a seat, but was given a clear shape up or ship out choice.

Yet Tauscher was defiant, insisting that she would continue her DLC push to water down the Democratic Party.

Remember, Tauscher’s one of Washington’s rising Blue Dog Democrats — she’s vice chair of the Democratic Leadership Council — and that leaves the liberal Bay Area Democrats feeling blue. […]

“Our party is trending toward districts like mine — coalition swing Democratic districts,” Tauscher said. “The old guard is threatened by us. There’s a real concerted effort to say, ‘We don’t want to grow any more like her.’

“The fact is, I’ve worked hard with my Bay Area colleagues. I don’t rub their noses in the fact that the DLC picked up four seats in the last election.

If we’re going to get the majority (in the House), we need to be more moderate.”

Since then, Tauscher’s side has been rejected by Democrats while Pelosi is about to be sworn in as Speaker.

Not only did Tauscher end up on the wrong side of history, potentially even worse is she ended up on the wrong side of Burton, who does all he can to help Pelosi:

In San Francisco, Pelosi’s friends and allies concede that one adviser stands head and shoulders above the rest: John Burton, the tart-tongued liberal famous for championing the cause of the poor, elderly and homeless in Sacramento and as a House member in Washington. His sister-in-law, the late Rep. Sala Burton, wife of legendary San Francisco Rep. Phil Burton, summoned Pelosi to her deathbed to urge her to run for Congress.

It was Burton’s top goal to get Pelosi the gavel, which has been completed. Now it is time to shore up Pelosi’s support, which begins in a district Burton knows so well you’d think he drew it himself.

Ellen Tauscher’s Endorsements – 2006

Identifying existing bases of support and changing their minds.  That’s how any campaign manages to defeat an incumbent.  In a Democratic Primary, perhaps it’s a bit more difficult, or perhaps it’s just that the tactics have to be reinvented.  Many institutional groups (NARAL, Sierra Club, etc.) are just blindly endorsing Democratic incumbents whenever and wherever they can.  It requires changing the fundamental mindsets of people and groups who want a united Democratic front and are opposed to a system of regular primary challenges.  It requires taking on the conventional wisdom of every single Democrat in this country that’s terrified of risking a single inch and, particularly in California, it requires cracking the California Democratic Party’s iron insistence on picking the nominee before the primary (except of course, for governor, or for cases in which we beat them).  So who endorsed Ellen Tauscher in 2006?  This is the list we’re starting from.  These are the minds we’ll need to change, or at least be able to contend with.  What can we gather and how can we attack this?

The full endorsement page for Ellen Tauscher’s 2006 congressional campaign is still up and running on her website here.  Looking through it quickly, several things jump out.  One, that certainly is an impressive looking list, both in volume and content, to a casual eye.  Lots of Democrats, lots of organizations representing good sorts of people and ideas, lots of well-meaning folks.

A more careful look reveals a few other things.  For one, they’re ALL institutional.  No community leaders, no local party officials, no organizers, nobody without clout related to fundraising and ballot boxes.  Who cares what goes on in the community.  Also, some notable names missing.  Senator Barbara Boxer doesn’t make the list. Nancy Pelosi or the 32 other Congressional California Democrats aren’t mentioned either.  For that matter, not a single member of the House of Representatives or national figure outside of Senator Dianne Feinstein. Then there are other nice little maneuvers, like listing the Vice Mayor of Fairfield ahead of the Mayor of Fairfield.  Not sure how that one played in Fairfield City Hall, but I’d imagine better in some parts than others.  So here’s the full list, I would venture that it probably isn’t too early to think about how to come at this, whether in any primary that CA-10 may see or anywhere else.

Elected Officials

Dianne Feinstein,Senator, United States Senate
Phil Angelides, State Treasurer, State of California
Cruz Bustamante, Lt. Governor, State of California
John Garamendi, State Insurance Commissioner, CA Department of Insurance
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, California Department of Justice
Steve Westley, State Controller, State of California
Tom Torlakson, Senator- 7th District, California State Senate
Loni Hancock, Assembly Member- 14th District, California State Assembly
Lois Wolk, Assembly Member- 8th District, California State Assembly
Federal Glover, Supervisor, District 5, Cotra Costa County Board of Supervisors
John Vasquez, County Supervisor, Solano County
Gary Stanton, Sheriff/Coroner, Solano County
Jim Davis, City Council Member, City of Antioch
Donald Freitas, Mayor, City of Antioch
Michael Smith, Councilmember, City of Dixon
Janet Abelson, Mayor, City of El Cerrito
Jan Bridges, Councilmember, City of El Cerrito
Jack Batson, Vice Mayor, City of Fairfield
Harry Price, Mayor, City of Fairfield
Christopher Stokes, Mayor, City of Isleton
Carl Anduri, Councilmember, City of Lagayette
Lorraine Dietrich, Councilmember, City of Livermore
Marjorie Leider, Vice Mayor, City of Livermore
Laura Abrams, Councilmember, City of Orinda
Bill Judge, Mayor, City of Orinda
Victoria Smith, City Council Member, City of Orinda
Amy Worth, Councilmember, City of Orinda
John Hanecak, City Council Member, City of Pleasant Hill
Michael Harris, Councilmember, City of Pleasant Hill
Pete Sanchez, Vice Mayor, City of Suisun
Kathy Hicks, Mayor, City of Walnut Creek

Vanessa Crews, President, Acalanes Union High School District Governing Board
Dennis Goetsch, Superintedent of Schools, Antioch Unified School District
Joyce Seelinger, School Board Member, Antioch Unified School District
Shana Levine, School Board Member, Dixon Unified School District
Kim Poole, School Board Member, Dixon Unified School District
Amy Swanson, School Board Member, Dixon Unified School District
Anne Griffin, Vice President, Fairfield Suisun Unified School District
Kathy Marianno, School Board Member, Fairfield Suisun Unified School District
Gary Ebrhart, School Board Member, Mt. Diablo Unified School District
Dennis Fay, School Board Member, Orinda Unified School District
Pat Rudebusch, School Board Member, Orinda Unified School District
Paul Gardner, Governing Board Member, San Ramon Valley Unified School District
Rob Kessler, Superintedent of Schools, San Ramon Valley Unified School District
Ray Silva, School Board Member, Solano County Office of Education
Dave Brown, School Board Member, West Contra Costa Unified School District

Beverly Lane, Director, East Bay Regional Park District
Ted Radke, Director, East Bay Regional Park District
Christine Monsen, Executive Director, ACTIA

Organizations

AFSCME California
Alliance For Retired Americans
California Federation of Teachers
California Labor Federation
California Organization of Police and Sheriffs
California School Employees Association
California State Employees Association
California Teachers Association
California Teamsters Public Affairs Council
Citizens for Global Solutions
Contra Costa Central Labor Council
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 302
National Association of Social Workers
National Organization for Women Political Action Committee
National Women’s Political Caucus
NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
Public Employees Union, Local One
Service Employees International Union
Sierra Club
The Vacaville Reporter

State Supreme Court To Review Same-Sex Marriages

California’s legislature has already passed a law allowing for same-sex marriage.  The Governor vetoed it, citing a prior initiative (Prop. 22) that banned it as “the will of the people” (I guess that the legislators choose themselves).  At the time, Schwarzenegger also said that a variety of challenges to Prop. 22 were working their way through the legal system, and that the courts should decide.  Here’s the relevant passage in a story about his veto.

In 2000, voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22, an initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California. Several court cases on the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage are making their way through the court system.

Schwarzenegger said the ultimate decision will be made by a court.

Well, the Governor is getting his wish.  On the flip…

The California Supreme Court agreed unanimously Wednesday to decide whether same-sex couples should be permitted to wed, prolonging the legal battle for another year.

Meeting in closed session, the state’s highest court voted without comment to review an October appeals’ court ruling that upheld the prohibition on same-sex marriage. The court is not expected to issue a ruling until the end of next year.

Here, then, is the question.  Now that the Governor has essentially given the court final say on the question of gay marriage, when they render their verdict (which, depending on which legal expert you talk to, appears to be before a court that is inclined to overturn the appeals court and legalize it), will he declare that the system has worked, or will he complain about “activist judges subverting the will of the people,” the same judges he asked to solve the mess in the first place?

Another nugget in the LA Times article is that the anti-gay marriage crowd is seeking to put an initiative banning it on the 2008 ballot.  Now, will Schwarzenegger support that effort, or, since the ultimate decision is supposed to be made by a court, will he oppose it?

You see what happens when you have no principles?  You end up talking yourself square into a corner.

On a separate front, this is a good day for those who believe in equality and fairness, and although it’ll take at least a year, it’s going to be a true test of how seriously this overwhelmingly Republican court (6 Republicans, 1 Democrat) takes the idea of civil rights.

DC Insiders Notice CA-10 Primary

From today’s House Race Hotline:

Emboldened by their role in the Dem sweep, liberal bloggers are now targeting Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA 10), a Bay Area centrist, pro-business Dem in the mold of Joe Lieberman.

When Berkeley Bubble wrote on Tauscher, guess who showed up?

And  MyDD’s Matt Stoller gave us a shout out:

Calitics is doing good work tracking Ellen Tauscher (including video).  She’s a real problem for Democrats, and should face a serious challenge.

UPDATE: While DC seems to get it, this is stoopid talking:

But defenders of Tauscher note that Kos and some others in the blogosphere sharply targeted the moderate Lieberman — and got credit for getting him defeated in the Democratic primary — only to find their influence was viewed as profoundly weakened when he was handily re-elected as an independent in the mid-term elections.

Tauscher can’t run as an independent once she loses and it was the same blogs that BEAT LIEBERMAN that also put Tester and Webb over the top. I don’t know who views flipping the senate as “profoundly weakened”  influence, but Marinucci should stop listening to them.

UPDATE II: Ruck Pad goes in-depth on Carla Marinucci