Secretary of State Debra Bowen, an ally of the netroots and a Calitics favorite, held a conference to talk about the results of her top-to-bottom review.  I watched a bit on the webcast, but fortunately, BradBlog had it live-blogged. And if you're looking for a shorter snippet, try this . 

Erika Morphy at TechNewsWorld does a fine job of giving a brief to-the-point overview with some of the most stunning findings quickly explained. She also gives the response from vendors the time it's worth (very little, but a link to read more if you wish). The article also has the added benefit of a quote or two from yours truly. Scott M. Fulton, III at BetaNews gives a similarly informed, descriptive and human-readable overview and goes into a few more details. He also points out what much of the media coverage of the reports has otherwise overlooked. Namely, that the greatest threat revealed in these reports comes from election insiders.

“Manufacturers may have been reluctant to cooperate fully with red teams, under the theory that 'hackers' may not themselves enjoy a similar level of access,” writes Fulton. “Of course, that presumes that those seeking to actually break into a voting system to rig an election, and those who run the election, are in all cases different people.”

That, of course, is a flawed presumption since the greatest threat to election security, in fact, comes from insiders such as Elections Officials, Voting Machine Vendors, and poll-workers who are allowed to take pre-programmed, election-ready voting machines home on “sleepovers” for days and weeks prior to the election. (BradBlog 7/31/07)

So, as long as you trust Diebold, or County elections officials, you're fine! Why worry? What possible motivation would Diebold have to mess with elections? What? Seriously? Life would never really imitate Man of the Year would it? Would it? Nah…

It is official, Eric England has now filed to run against John Doolittle in next June’s primary election.  SacBee:

Egland is the first to flatly declare for the Republican primary. Auburn City Councilman Mike Holmes also is exploring a primary run for Doolittle’s seat, and he said Monday he is moving closer to entering the race.

Doolittle’s campaign consultant, Richard Temple, said the congressman is not worried, and welcomed the competition.

“In this case, the more candidates the better,” said Temple. He said that because the congressman has a strong base of support, multiple opponents will only divide the disenchanted.

“Neither of them can beat him,” Temple said.

Temple right, if both of these guys get into the race, it will split the opposition, but by how much?  It depends on the relative strength of the candidates.  Right now the NRCC is staying out of it.  They are “keeing a close eye on it” and hoping that it “turns out OK for John.”

England is a political neophyte.  He campaigned for Doolittle last year, siding strongly with him on Iraq.  He believes that Doolittle would lose to our man Charlie Brown in the general election.  No word of any outside groups getting involved in this primary fight yet.  Speaking of Charlie Brown, he will be at Yearly Kos and attending the CA Caucus.  And Charlie Parties, have you heard about those?

For those in Northern California, Charlie is starting his own version of house party fundraising.  Rather than having them all on one night and calling in to them, he is going to each of them on a different night.  He is hoping to have 40 of them by September 30th.  There are 8 scheduled thus far.  Here is the info, if you are interested in hosting one.

The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg penned a column about the California Republican Party’s attempt to siphon off what could be roughly twenty of California’s fifty four consistently Democratic electoral votes.  Naturally, they are using the initiative process to try and do this.

Two weeks ago, one of the most important Republican lawyers in Sacramento quietly filed a ballot initiative that would end the practice of granting all fifty-five of California’s electoral votes to the statewide winner. Instead, it would award two of them to the statewide winner and the rest, one by one, to the winner in each congressional district. Nineteen of the fifty-three districts are represented by Republicans, but Bush carried twenty-two districts in 2004. The bottom line is that the initiative, if passed, would spot the Republican ticket something in the neighborhood of twenty electoral votes-votes that it wouldn’t get under the rules prevailing in every other sizable state in the Union.

The Republican lawyers behind this convoluted effort, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, were deeply involved in the 2003 recall campaign against Democratic Governor Gray Davis that propelled current Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger into power.

It is no surprise that the law firm created a ficticious front group, Californians for Equal Representation, to do their bidding because they have a history of it.

• Dave Johnson reported in his September 15, 2006 The Huffington Post article on new MB&H client Economic Freedom Fund that other Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk’s clients include:
• California Tribal Business Alliance-“an ‘Indian Gaming’ organization” whose “mission statement is ‘to safeguard and enhance the success of the business enterprises of our tribal government members’ ……. and ‘will foster business development and coalition building with like minded government and business leaders in California.'” (Also see this.)
• “Californians for Paycheck Protection-yet another front group-this one sponsoring a California anti-union ballot initiative (Prop. 75). (Their major funders in 2005 (go see how much) included the Chamber of Commerce and the California Republican Party.)” (Also see this.)
• “notorious anti-environmental Congressman Richard Pombo.” (See here.)
• “big tobacco“, with BM&H as “Philip Morris Outside Counsel” (See this.)
• “A different partner at this firm, Thomas Hiltachk, filed the ‘Fair Pay Workplace Flexibility Act of 2006’-a stealth attempt to get rid of California’s overtime rules.”

Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk also represents the Blue Cross of California front group — a coalition of one — aimed at derailing movement on California’s top legislative priority: healthcare.

Two organizations. One address. Zero concern for the average Californian.

Now, just because they filed this initiative does not mean it will make it on the ballot.  They have no shot at making the Feb 5th date.  They could, if they raised the $1 million+ to pay for signature gatherers have a shot at making it on the June ballot.  That will be a very low turnout election.  We don’t have any major races occurring on that date.  Yeah, I know the Migden-Leno race will be big an all, but there is no major mayor’s race in LA or SF.  No constitutional officers up for election.  No Senate race.  If they do make it on the ballot, then a relatively small number of Californians could have a big impact on the presidential election.

This type of arcane rule initiative is among the hardest to pass.  It is not exactly something that grabs people.  There would be a very heavy push back from the Democrats if it looked like this was particularly viable.  I would not be surprised to see a competing ballot measure put up to try and confuse votes.  It worked wonderfully when big PhRMA put up Prop 78 to defeat Prop 79.

This will need to be something we track and see if it gets any traction.

[UPDATE by Julia] Here is an AP article on the initiative.  Arnold says that his is not involved and the CRP says the same.  I find that highly unbelievable, especially on the party’s end.  Notice what Nehring has to say about it.

“We’ll take a serious look at it, once it qualifies for the ballot,” state Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring said.

Not if it makes it on the ballot, but when.  This could be all a ruse to get Democrats to drop a bunch of cash to defeat it, when those dollars/resources could be used elsewhere. 

On the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sunday paper, there was an articleabout the YearlyKos Convention.

  The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos political blog starts this week in Chicago, and here’s all you need to know about how influential the YearlyKos convention has become: Five top presidential candidates are going — including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers don’t like her that much.

Analysts say the community of liberal online activists — the “netroots” — has become not only a coveted constituency for the left but a legitimate threat to conservatives, who trail Democrats in online campaigning and fundraising. (SF Chronicle 7/30/07)

And Calitics will have a big contingent at this year’s YearlyKos Convention. Julia Rosen, Lucas O’Connor, Dave Dayen, Bob Brigham, Dante Atkins (hekebelos) and myself will all be there. It should be a fantastic opportunity to network, talk about all the cool things Calitics is doing with Calitics en espanol and the Calitics show, and get more great ideas. In the interim, we won’t be doing a Calitics show this week.  We’ll be posting occasional stories about the event as time permits. And, since the presidential candidates are going to be there, we’ll try to get some video of that on the site.

Anything else you want to hear about from Chicago? Did I miss anybody on the list of attendees? Want to be on the Calitics trivia team? Leave a comment.

[UPDATE By Julia]  Well, why don’t I just use this thread to do what David, Matt Ortega and I were discussing last night.  The three of us are moderating the CA/HI regional caucus that Kid Oakland put together.  What issues would you like to see discussed at that meeting?  Keep in mind that we only have an hour and time will be set aside for the candidates.  Oh and yes Brian you missed at least two, Matt O and Jenifer Ancona.