Daily Archives: October 26, 2007

Blog Roundup

October 25, 2007 Blog Roundup: Special SoCal Fire Edition

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Today is the second day with a special SoCal wildfire blog roundup. In a little while, I’ll post a blog roundup on other topics that will cover the last couple days.

Orange County

Sleeping with the Enemy : HRC Rakes In GOP Bucks In The O.C.

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This piece is also posted at Of The Bus at The Huffington Post.  “Campaign Coverage by People Who Aren’t in the Club

Hillary out raised both Obama and Edwards in the third quarter of the campaign and not only are Democratic candidates receiving money from Democrats, but also Republicans. 18% of Hillary’s Orange County donors are registered as Republicans, Obama 14% and Edwards 11%. Doesn’t seem like a huge gap, but if you think of it in terms of differences, Hillary received 22% more donations from Republicans than Obama and 39% more than Edwards. Republican donors are not just making symbolic donations either. The average donation from the Republicans registered in Orange County to Clinton was $1,800 with Democratic donors not far behind with an average of $1,600.

Direct link to the piece.  Just to clarify, I’m Heather Pritchard, the author of the piece.

It isn’t the first time Orange County has gotten excited about a Democratic Candidate. In 1992 prominent Republicans broke ranks to support a little known Governor from Arkansas for the Democratic nominee for President. Clinton lost in Orange County to Bush Sr. 67% to 32% even though he was lauded as a moderate Democrat and after winning office he pushed through policies that in hind sight were more harmful than first perceived by moderate Democrats. NAFTA is now under fire in some form from each Democratic candidate as are other Clinton initiatives (Hillary even admits it could use some reworking).

Hillary is walking a fine line between the experience she received as First Lady and the down side of these policies as a Presidential Candidate. Hillary wants to appeal to men by claiming to be their gal and voting for bills like Kyl-Lieberman amendment but she also wants to ride the wave of exuberance created by the idea of the first female US President in history. Clinton’s chief strategist claims that polling indicates that Hillary will have “as much as 24% of Republican women defect and make a major difference nationwide in terms of, I think, the emotional element of potentially having the first woman nominee.” Women so badly want a woman President they will jump ideological lines to vote for one and since Hillary is triangulating herself into the left side of the GOP it makes it possible for them to rationalize this choice, not only is she a woman, she’s a tough woman.

Hillary also benefited by fund raising in Orange County by way of Norman Hsu, who is being sued by Briar Wood Investments. Hsu is being accused of defrauding investors of “at least $23 million and dictated that they make contributions to Democratic candidates as a condition of doing business with him. “

Martin Waters, Briar Wood’s chief and registered Republican was invited to attend Democratic Party events “as proof of his stature and credibility, the lawsuit says.” And although Hillary has returned the money raised by Hsu, it’s interesting to note that she had received these donations by help of a Republican rather than a Democratic connection in the county.

Update – The information I gathered is public.  I used information from the Orange County Registrar of Voters and public Donation records from Q3.

Health Care

SCHIP Is Back – And California Needs It

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The House just took another stab at S-CHIP legislation, and passed it out with 265 votes.  The veto override got 273, so that sounds like a step backwards.  I don’t think so.  Ten Democrats didn’t vote, and all of them can be expected to vote yes.  43 Republicans voted with the Democrats, which is I think one more than before.  The point is the cosmetic changes to the bill did little to get Republicans on board.  But they had to vote against kids’ health care, again, and take a stand on an issue where Democrats are favored by a 2:1 margin.

Democratic ideas for fixing the healthcare system to cover the uninsured enjoy more support among Americans than proposals coming from Republicans, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll shows […]

Two of the main proposals advanced by Democrats received majority support in the poll.

Sixty-two percent said they supported requiring large employers to help pay for coverage whereas 31% opposed it. And 51% said they favored a mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, much as drivers are required to carry auto coverage; 39% disagreed.

Tax breaks to make insurance more affordable — a leading Republican idea — more closely divided the public, with 44% backing that approach and 45% opposing it.

In one of the most politically significant results, the poll finds that independents and moderates were generally lining up with Democrats in the healthcare debate.

A lot of California Republicans didn’t vote today, as many were back home in their districts surveying fire damage.  If they bothered to talk to anyone in the state, they would know that the Healthy Families program (as S-CHIP is known in California) is about to go broke and requires “emergency measures” to stay afloat.  On November 17, the money will dry up, and the options are severely limited.  As many as 830,000 kids could become disenrolled if the program is forced to shut down.

That’s what’s really at stake in this debate.  It’s a political issue, but a personal one as well.  More often than not, the political IS personal.  What our representatives decide has a major impact on how we live.  They need to do right by children.