Daily Archives: April 11, 2007

Uncategorized

California to Play a Major Role in the Fight for Federal “Clean Money” Elections

11 Comments

(Really? Ya mean Californians care about a better and more effective democracy as well? ; ) – promoted by atdleft)

Clean money, or public financing of campaigns, is back on the agenda, this time on the federal level.  On March 20, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, and Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced bipartisan legislation that would create a voluntary system of full public financing for congressional elections.  The bill, called the Fair Elections Now Act (FENA), is designed to curb the “pay-to-play” nature of politics in D.C. in which special interests have a disproportionate impact on the political process via their large campaign contributions.  The logic of this ethical reform is identical to that of Proposition 89, the California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act, but FENA is without many of the problems that led to the demise of Prop. 89. 

Here’s how the public financing system would work under FENA: In order to qualify for public funds, should a candidate choose to use them, he or she must first gather a specific amount of “qualifying contributions” of exactly $5 each to show substantial support from the community. If candidates collect enough contributions, they are then eligible for public funds, the amount of which are based on the size of the state. 

In addition, if a “clean money” candidate is running against an opponent who chooses to fund his or her campaign with private contributions, FENA provides “Fight-Fair Funds” for the participating candidate.  These funds would increase the amount of funds to the participating candidate by up to 200%. 

Essentially, FENA would create a win-win situation for everyone involved: candidates wouldn’t have to spend all of their time fundraising and could instead focus on the voters, and voters would gain more responsive representatives who make legislation in the interest of them, not big-time campaign donors.

California is absolutely critical to passing this much needed reform.  Eventually, the House leadership from California, particularly Reps. Pelosi and Waxman, will be important in this process, but at this point, it is vital that Senator Dianne Feinstein support FENA.  As the Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, the committee that has jurisdiction over FENA, she will be instrumental in getting this legislation passed.

A number of citizen groups, representing a variety of issues, have already showed their support for the Fair Elections Now Act.  Among them are the NAACP, AFL-CIO, League of Women Voters, and the National Council of Churches.  The San Francisco Chronicle published an editorial last December in which they encouraged the prospect of Durbin’s federal public financing bill.  The editors there believe that “clean money” legislation, like the FENA, is the only way to “drain the swamp” of political corruption in D.C. and Sacramento that is inherently related to special interest money.

Already Durbin’s staff has been speaking with Senator Feinstein about the merits of this legislation.  Common Cause and other good government groups have been working on this issue as well.  They think she’ll come around, but a little coaxing from her constituents couldn’t hurt.

Orange County

CA-42: The “Red County” GOP Machine Stands By Its Man

2 Comments

(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary, Southern California’s resource for revealing Gary Miller’s true record of disservice to his constituents… AND a place for action in restoring honor and integrity to the 42nd Congressional District – promoted by atdleft)

I hope the Dems spend huge sums of money trying to defeat Congressman Miller.

Given the demographics of the district as well as Mr. Miller’s ability to self fund any defensive campaign which might be required, I can’t think of a better way for them to waste their resources.

So why is “One Who Knows” getting all worked up on GOP insider hangout Red County/OC Blog about a challenge to Dirty Gary Miller in the 42nd Congressional District? Oh, only because the DCCC is actually turning up the heat on Dirty Gary. Oh my, real democracy is such a “waste of resources”… But wait! It gets better!

(And I’ll tell you all about it after the flip…)

Here’s what OC Blog’s sister “Red County” San Bernardino blog has to say about the DCCC online ad:

The YouTube or MySpace quality web ad is noticeable edited and nowhere near the professional standards of any relevant political media consultant or producer.  At this point we may be witnessing the cheep work of a DCCC or DNC college intern that barley knows how to use his Apple Final Cut Pro. See the web ad here.

OK, so this “Republican kewl kid” who can’t even use Spellcheck is criticizing the DCCC for the quality of the online ad? And again, why all the moaning and groaning over the possibility of a REAL EXERCISE IN DEMOCRACY TO HOLD A VERY CORRUPT CONGRESSMAN ACCOUNTABLE?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

Neither Democrats, nor Republicans, nor Independents, appreciate a member of Congress who is being investigated by the FBI for his questionable land deals. Voters do not like someone who misuses his position of power to enrich himself while ignoring the best interest of the people in the district. Simply put, the more the people here find out about Gary Miller and his very dirty ways, the less they can tolerate it.

This is not political harassment. And it’s not wasting time. It’s democracy. And it’s about time that Gary Miller and his pals realize that.

Now when will people remember this? I really don’t like repeating myself. ; )

California, Health Care

When Universal Health Care is neither Universal nor Healthy

4 Comments

(cross posted to MyDD and dKos. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

It’s now been one year (ok, one year tomorrow, but who’s quibbling?) since the passage of Massachusetts’s supposed “universal” health care plan, and perhaps we could learn a little from the experiment.  Now, Massachusetts and California are very different states. First of all, prior to passage MA had about 375,000 uninsureds. California has over 6.5 million uninsureds.  That’s a lot.  Throw in demographic differences and the shape of the government budget, and you have some fairly different situations. 

But, there are still some lessons available in our cross-continent counterpart.  Flip it!

First, universal is a state of mind. More of a nirvana like concept that will only be attained by single payer.  Face it, it’s just not going to happen as long as private insurance companies are acting as bagmen for Wall Street to victimize the nation’s infirmed. Since enactment, the rate of uninsured has gone down by 110,000 or about 1/3! Whoop-de-frickin’ doo.

Now, the “individual mandate part has still yet to go into action, so that will make things all better right? Right? I mean, forcing people to buy insurance from the bagmen will work, right? Well, I should hope so, as it’s going to cost the middle class dearly:

Marilyn Glazer-Weisner, 55, of Swampscott is one of those feeling squeezed. Glazer-Weisner said she and her husband Alan, 56, earn too much to qualify for subsidized plans.

Glazer-Weisner says she’s paying $534 a month for a plan with a $2,000 deductible.

“It’s way too much money. I’m self-employed and my husband is self-employed. We’re both in our 50s. We can’t afford it. We’re getting killed,” she said. “I’m a cancer survivor for seven years and I’d like to stay that way.” (AP@Boston Globe 4/11/07)

See, that’s the thing about individual mandate, it uses revenue from healthy, formerly uninsureds, to pay for money-losing patients.  And that’s fine, and dandy, but why do we need a middle man in there? See, who are these healthy uninsureds that we are propping up Blue Cross and Kaiser with? They are young and lower to middle class. Individual mandate is a tax that strikes the middle class. It is an overwhelmingly regressive tax.

And even if you could stomach a regressive tax, where does the money go? Not to be reinvested in the health care system, but to Wall Street corporatists (like Bill Frist, MD). SO, Massachusetts imposes a regressive tax and then hands it over to the insurance industry aka what Harry Reid calls the “enemy of most everything we do today.” 

So, sure, if that’s what you’re into, break out the bubbly. But make sure you’ve got $553 left over to pay for your monthly health insurance premium.

Uncategorized

California Legislative Primary Progressive Commando Attack

(I’ve not talked about the importance of primaries since, well, today in fact. So, this reinforces much of what I’ve been talking about, primaries are important. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

by Joshua Grossman, Progressive Kick

• 80 state Assembly members/40 state Senators/53 members U.S. House of Representatives from California. Total of 3 = 173. Assembly & U.S. House members have 2-year terms; state Senators have staggered 4-year terms, with half (20) up for re-election every 2 years. So the total numbers of members of legislative bodies elected from California every 2 years is 153. (80 Assembly + 53 U.S. House + 20 state Senate). During 2004 in the general election NOT A SINGLE ONE of the 153 seats changed hands between the Democrats and Republicans. During 2006, a single legislative seat of the 153 total changed hands between the parties – Jerry McNerney defeating Richard Pombo for re-election to the U.S. House. So California Democrats didn’t gain a single seat in the state legislature in spite of the fact that Democrats nationally were gaining 325 seats in state legislatures, making gains in 42 of the 45 states holding legislative elections. So trying to affect the partisan composition of the California state legislature is a big fat waste of time, especially outside the 8 or so seats that have even the remotest chance of changing hands between parties.

• Meanwhile, the so-called “Business Dems” number almost half the Democrats in the state legislature and constantly force the watering down of progressive legislation if not ensuring its outright defeat. Not one person in 10,000 in California has ever heard of the Business Dems. There are coalition efforts by California Nurses/California League of Conservation Voters + a few other progressive groups to win Democratic party primaries for more progressive candidates, but it’s very much a smoke-filled room coalition. There is no across the board progressive entity in the state of California trying to mobilize progressives on behalf of progressive candidates in state legislative PRIMARY elections.
• The universe of people who vote in the Democratic party primary elections is far smaller and more progressive than the universe of people who vote in general elections. If we can’t win a primary, we don’t deserve to win the general election in that district. The universe of voters in these races is highly identifiable – so-called pathological voters – and is of a size that lends itself to grassroots campaigns (as much as any campaigns in districts of these sizes can be characterized as grassroots). In contrast to the extremely non-competitive general elections in California, Democratic party primaries for state legislature are often highly competitive and are sometimes won by incredibly small margins (sometimes fewer than 1000 votes and in the last election one race was won by 24 votes if memory serves). It makes sense that the primary races are generally so competitive, because after all, in the vast majority of cases the victor of the primary is guaranteed to win the general election.
• IF progressives can win a sufficient number of seats in Democratic-held districts they can hold out for a 2012 redistricting plan that would cease entrenching all incumbents in their districts in contrast to the previous 2002 redistricting plan which greatly strengthened incumbents of both parties. That would mean that in a good Democratic year the Democrats could win a 2/3 majority (they’re very close now, the problem is that just about all of the currently Republican-held seats are safe) which would allow Democrats to pass a budget without legislative Republicans vetoing it. (California is one of only 4 states where a 2/3 majority is required to pass a state budget.)

So what’s to be done?

This posting is not an action plan or a campaign strategy. We have
some excellent organizations working on progressive state legislative electoral politics in California, but much of their work is top down. Some questions that I don’t have the answers to and would love your feedback on are:
1. What can be done to create models that involve California citizens directly as individuals to participate in nominating strongly progressive Democrats in primary elections?
2. What are the best ways and structures to mobilize progressive Californians for this work, whether or not they’re enrolled members of organizations such as the California League of Conservation Voters, labor unions, etc?
3. Is there a bottom up model for how to do this, other than targeting Democratic county central committees and assembly district committees?
4. Can we motivate unaffiliated progressives to cohere into some kind of structured force that is something greater than merely an ad hoc response to a particular progressive running in a given district?
5. And how could this as yet nonexistent structure be constituted so that it would provide a powerful motivational tool to convince wonderful progressives to run for office who otherwise wouldn’t because of insufficient resources?

If you want to help make California progressive, not just Democratic, click on the Progressive Kick ActBlue link: http://actblue.com/c…
As a 527 organization, Progressive Kick can take contributions of any size of any size from a dollar to $10 million (if you work in a social change nonprofit you have to be an optimist, at least for the long haul  😉

California, Orange County

All the Candidates Come to OC (Virtually)

“I’m appalled at the money involved” in campaigns, said retiree Virginia Laddey, 85. “That’s why I like MoveOn. We get heard without having $2,300 (the contribution limit).”

(From OC Register)

And yes, I got to meet Virginia last night at the MoveOn town hall in Irvine last night. Actually, I was able to meet quite a few terrific Democrats (and others) from all over Orange County as we met in Irvine to see what the 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidates had to say about ending the Iraq War. We all listened to what the candidates had to say, and we all came to our own conclusions.

Some were deeply impressed by what Dennis Kucinich had to say about ending the war, while others just couldn’t understand how he’s a serious candidate. Some were glad to hear Hillary Clinton come out strongly in favor of ending the war, while others still thought that she was “waffling” on whether she’d really withdraw all the troops out of Iraq. Many were convinced last night that Barack Obama has what it takes to end the war, while others still have many questions about the Illinois Senator.

So do you still have questions about the MoveOn parties last night? Well, go ahead and read the rest of today’s OC Register piece on the Orange County meetings to see what OC Democrats are thinking right now about the candidates.

California, Environment, Orange County

Take Action on Climate Change This Weekend!

Desertification and malaria may rise in Africa because of it. India’s food and water supplies may vanish because of it. The entire ecosystem, as well as the basic livelihood, of Mediterranean Europe may be in jeopardy because of it. Canada may have to change all of its social and economic policies because of it.

It’s climate change, and it can be devastating for California if we don’t do anything about it. So what can we do about it? Well, how about making some noise about it on Saturday!

(Follow me after the flip to find out how!)

So what can you do about climate change? How about joining us at the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday to demand action on reducing our carbon footprint? How about going to Main Beach in Laguna Beach on Saturday to demand an 80% cut in carbon emissions by 2050? How about finding an event near you to attend on Saturday?

Yes, Congress needs to act on climate change. Yes, the President needs to act on climate change. Yes, the state needs to continue taking action. Yes, our local governments need to take action. And yes, the private sector needs to take action. But NONE OF THESE governments and businesses will take action if WE DON’T. That’s why we need to step it up, speak up, and take action on climate change! I hope you join me this weekend as we take action in our communities.

: )

Bay Area, San Francisco

A friendly reminder of the power of incumbency

(Updated…with pictures before and after the flip – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

UPDATE: I’ve now posted the image of the flyer. Personally, I’m of the mind that it gives the media far too much credit.  Incidentally, the SF Chron story that was attached quotes only one person as to how divisive the election will be quotes only Don “I must have another 4 years” Perata and political ally, but generally cool dude, Aaron Peskin. ANd in the SacBee story that was attached, Peskin seems to be mourning the loss of the political machine:

“Since the Jerry Brown-John Burton machine has retired, there are no kingmakers left in San Francisco,” Peskin said. “There’s nobody to knock anybody’s heads together to say who should and who shouldn’t run.”

Uh sure, them was some great days for democracy. Look, I have enormous respect for BOS President Peskin.  But he’s just wrong on the fundamentals here.  (oh…and I have a cool picture from SFPride with both leno and peskin over the flip)…

The SFYD endorsement apparently means quite a bit. Enough to send out some friendly reminders from political allies on why  incumbency ROX!! Woohoo!

Apparently, two electeds in the City haven’t been reading Calitics enough. You see the thing is “incumbent” alone isn’t enough anymore. Nobody owns a seat, you get what you earn, nothing more, nothing less. Our community is plenty strong. We can handle a little politics.

So, over the flip, I repeat my top 5 reasons, and I invite everybody to read my piece in Capitol Weekly.

Top 5 Reasons Primaries are Important

1) Primaries get the grassroots growing and are great training grounds for new leaders.
2) Primaries are, in many CA districts, the only real election at all.  Voters should get the chance to vote where it means something.
3) Primaries get people to register in a party (yay, more registered Democrats).
4) We get a real debate in places where that is frequently missing. Electeds should be held accountable to their constituents to explain their views.
5) Primaries force electeds to be more responsive to their constituents and to better represent the interests of those constituents.

Photo: (from left) Aaron Peskin, Hank “Mister SF” Donat, Wes Culwell, Mark Leno, and Brian Leubitz

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Post-Partisan Guv’s Daily Fundraising Outrage: Rupert Murdoch

So, you know how Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to be raising money from somebody new every day? Well, who’s up tomorrow? Why none other than Rupert Murdoch.  Just look at how post-partisan he is:

Then, another meeting with Sen. Dianne Feinstein about water policy and fuel efficiency standards. After that, a private dinner in New York with Gov. Eliot Spitzer. On Thursday, an afternoon speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on the environment, and then a fundraising dinner with media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his wife, Wendi Deng. (Pol. Muscle 4/10/07)

Well, maybe Spitzer can give Arnold a message for Rupert…