Yesterday, we found out about that Rep. Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino) allegedly called his Congressional colleague Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) “a whore“. Also yesterday, we learned that Loretta intended to resign from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), which Baca now leads. Now, Politico is reporting that two California Congresswomen are saying that Loretta is not the only one who doesn’t feel comfortable in the CHC.

Follow me after the flip for some insight into this growing problem on Capitol Hill…

So you thought that the problem was just with Loretta Sanchez? Well, think again! Congresswomen Hilda Solis and Linda Sanchez are not very happy with the direction the CHC has taken, either:

Rep. Hilda L. Solis said she shared “Sanchez’s sentiment about the lack of respect afforded to women members of the Hispanic Caucus.” And Loretta Sanchez’s sister, Rep. Linda Sanchez, said she supported her sibling’s decision to resign in protest of Baca’s alleged remark, which he has “categorically” denied.

So it’s no longer just about Loretta. It isn’t just “her problem”. It’s about Joe Baca’s “leadership” of the CHC.

In her statement Thursday, Linda Sanchez said she was “waiting to see if the Hispanic Caucus leadership will make good on its promise to be more fair and inclusive of its Latina members.”

“Latinas are the fastest growing segment of the minority population,” she added, “and their perspective deserves to be represented, not denigrated.”

“If the Hispanic Caucus is to be truly representative of the Latino community,” Linda Sanchez went on, “it must give equal treatment to all its members, regardless of gender or seniority.”

Perhaps if Baca were a little more receptive toward the feelings of the women in the CHC, there wouldn’t be such a problem there…
Well, and perhaps if he didn’t practice such crass nepotism:

Solis also reiterated concerns about the political arm of the caucus, BOLDPAC, which came under fire last year after Baca and his allies authorized political contributions to their relatives. Solis, the Sanchez sisters and three other lawmakers then withdrew from BOLDPAC.

“At a time when the public is crying out for a more ethical government,” Solis said, “we should be taking every step to avoid any appearance of preferential treatment for relatives.”

So I guess Loretta isn’t alone when it comes to having concerns about the CHC. Perhaps it has something to do with Joe Baca funneling away CHC funds for his sons’ LOCAL CAMPAIGNS:

The political action committee has made recent campaign contributions to several candidates for state and local offices who have family ties to the Hispanic Caucus.  Among them are Baca’s sons Assemblyman Joe Baca Jr., a state Senate candidate, and Jeremy Baca, an Assembly candidate. Both sons received $3,300 contributions from BOLDPAC in November, Federal Election Commission filings show.

So perhaps, Loretta does have reason to be frustrated. Perhaps, there wouldn’t be such a problem if Baca treated his female colleagues with more respect. Perhaps, there wouldn’t be such a problem if Baca put the interests of his fellow Latinos above the political aspirations of his family members. Perhaps, there wouldn’t be such a problem if Baca had behaved more like the honorable statesman that his Inland Empire constituents expct of him.

So perhaps, we shouldn’t be saying that the crisis in the CHC is “just about Loretta”.

After the trouble that Peter Ragone got into for posting comments under different names, you’d think Garry South (and his wife) would have learned something.  But, alas, in California, sock puppetry is always in season.  They developed some sort of tag team in the Open Letter diary.  So here’s how it goes.  First Garry comes in and says how pathetic I am for having what is essentially a myspace page (I have a real one too), how mean I am, how I have no right to dare question his genius and how I have no right to communicate with my presidential candidates.  Whew! Plus I received and offer to do something that I have no desire to do: “Until then, you can kiss my . . . baby.” All that was in this comment.

Yesterday, another comment came down the pike from Garry South, but this one referred to South in the third person, such as this from an excellent introductory paragraph:

I suggest you should be the one to shut your mouth. You simply have not an ounce of political savvy or wisdom to second guess one of the most brilliant political minds of our country.

Over the flip, please…

Whoa, I thought to myself.  Did Garry South just call himself “one of the greatest political minds of our country” right after he denied that his ego was a problem.  I’m thinking that I might have touched the crazy nerve, you know the nerve that gets you to talk in third person like Bob Dole or something.  I didn’t mind the remarks about my crazy rantings and all that jazz, because, you know, I thought I was dealing with some sort of nervous breakdown.  And I’m not one to gratuitously respond to the mentally ill.

But, it turns out, that it wasn’t Garry who said that Garry was one of the greatest political minds.  Nope this comment reveals that it was, in fact, his wife who wrote that South is “brilliant”.  It seems she had planned to post her long rant anonymously, but had failed. Personally, I think that qualifies for sock puppetry, but as always, I’m open for comments on that one. (One thing here for all you people who plan to engage in sock puppetry: I see your IP addresses and I will be highly suspicious if two commentors have the same  address.) In her second comment, this time under the user name “truedemocrat”, Mrs. South said that:

Call me biased in my defense of him, but I know many true Democrats will agree with me — if they are honest!

You think, really? No! Nobody would possibly expect his wife to be biased.  The problem, for me anyway, isn’t that she posted under Garry’s name (perhaps not knowing that Garry’s name would be on the post), but rather that she thought she could post that comment without mentioning that she was married to the guy.

One more note: I was wrong about Mr. South running Gray Davis’ recall campaign. I apologize about that.  In the end, the point of the original diary was only to say that the “netroots” would take the hiring of Garry South as a mark of the DLC.  Any observer of the netroots understands that Al From doesn’t have too many friends within this community.  If my rhetoric exceeded that notice, I apologize, but I stick to the original premise of the letter: If you hire Garry South, you will be writing off the support of California’s netroots and progressive wing.

One thing that we did really well with the anti-Pombo campaign was to coordinate between bloggers, share information and also feed a few selected members of main stream media.

I think that it is time to continue this mode of operation with particular emphasis on Duncan Hunter, Jerry Lewis & John Doolittle.  In particular, there is an obvious connection between the investigations into their actions and the forced resignation of Carol Lam, the US Attorney who prosecuted Duke Cunningham.

downwithtyranny has posted on this recently, as have I at California Greening.

In particular, we should pay attention to the news of progress in this case, as Lam has only until February 15 to finish what she started.

(This is better than the quick diary that I wrote. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Well, it’s not exactly a surprise, but the entry of Chris Cabaldon – West Sacramento five-time mayor and runner-up to current Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) in 2002 – into the race officially begins the campaign to succeed Wolk in 2008, who is term limited and will be running for State Senate to replace Mike Machado (D-Linden) in the fifth district. Ah, you gotta love the term limits-induced merry-go-round in Sacramento.

The 8th district includes most of Yolo and Solano Counties, minus the city of Vallejo and the rural parts of Yolo County north of Woodland; in a nutshell, the I-80 corridor. The district is strongly Democratic, ad the winner of the Democratic primary will be heavily, possibly prohibitively favored to win the general.

Cabaldon’s announcement, interestingly enough, was in Davis in front of the train station, not West Sacramento, and he was flanked by Democratic officeholders from all over Yolo County – from Davis, County Supervisor and former Assemblywoman Helen Thompson, City Councilman Don Saylor, and Mayor pro tem Ruth Asmundson; From Woodland, County Sheriff and mayor Dave Flory, Vice Mayor Skip Davies, and City Councilman Jeff Monroe; From West Sacramento, County Supervisor Mike McGowan, Vice Mayor Oscar Villegas and City Councilmen Wes Beers and Mark Johannessen. One notable absence was outgoing Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, who has not yet announced who she is endorsing, if any, in the race to replace her. Republican County Supervisor Matt Rexroad, while not endorsing anybody in the race (claiming that his endorsement would be “the kiss of death” anyways), looks to me to be endorsing Cabaldon between the lines in this post (which is currently down; I’ll re-link it when his site gets back up and running). Clearly, Cabaldon is trying to get himself out there early as the Yolo County candidate, before anyone else announces.

Cabaldon’s supporters and detractors tend to cite the same thing – building in West Sacramento – to support their opinions. Supporters tend to point to his bringing Ikea to West Sac and contruction of condo housing as part of the recent revitalization of the port city; detractors tend to view him as excessively pro-corporate and pro-sprawl, and Cabaldon’s current campaigning on the issue of controlling urban sprawl to be hypocritical. Not really ever having set foot in West Sacramento before or after Cabaldon’s tenure, I can’t really say one way or the other whether it helped or hurt the city, but that’s the discussion. I don’t suspect that Cabaldon’s having come out last year as gay will affect the race much either way, since the district and most of his competitors are pretty socially liberal.

Those rumored to be considering a run are Steve Hardy (D-Vacaville), a City Councilman from Vacaville who came in 3rd in the 2002 primary, and Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada (D-Davis), who was involved with the short-lived Davis DFA meetup and is generally considered to be the progressive candidate in the race. Having gotten to know Mariko a bit during the Dean campaign (over before it began, sadly), I hope she runs.

For those interested, there are a couple good discussions simmering on over at The Davis Vanguard on Cabaldon (here and here), as well as potential challengers here.

If the California presidential primary is moved to February, the state races will be the second in a series of three elections in ’08, and will likely end up with pretty low turnout. Who this helps is anybody’s guess this far out.At any rate, it should be fun to watch, and if the rumored Wolk-Garamendi, jr. race in the 5th State Senate district also pans out, 2008 could be a very exciting year for Yolo politics.

related websites:

Christopher Cabaldon for Assembly
Mariko Yamada’s County Supervisor page
Steve Hardy’s City Council page (scroll down)

—–

originally at surf putah