The best thing in the world about CA Secretary of State Debra Bowen is that the best way to reach her is through her Facebook page.  So she got back to me pretty quickly when I asked about this delegate situation.  I was wrong about a couple things.  The vote has not been certified, although I was led to believe that the counting had to stop within 30 days of the voting, which would have been March 4.  In fact, that may be true; but the county registrars have a few days left to report their results.  Also, it’s up to the state Democratic Party to award the delegates, but that’s based on the certified vote count in the respective districts.  The upshot is that the counties have to report by March 11, and Secretary of State Bowen will certify the vote by March 15.  Then the CDP will award delegates based on that.

So the numbers are still subject to change slightly.  But none of this should obscure the fact that, based on the current numbers, the delegate count is 203-167.  And the zombie lie that it’s different has spread to the pages of the Washington Post:

To be sure, Team Obama’s small-state strategy may have been the candidate’s only option against a far-better-known opponent, and it has worked. In the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests that Obama’s campaign staff had hoped to merely survive, Obama and Clinton just about broke even. He won more delegates in Kansas and Idaho than she won in New Jersey. Her big win in California — with its net gain of 41 delegates — was negated by his wins in Georgia and Nebraska.

Except the net gain is currently 36 delegates, but what the hell do I know, I’m not some big-city editor.

In a rather unsurprising move, Joe A. Veronese dropped out of the primary race for Senate District 3.  Joe Alioto Veronese was lagging behind  Asm. Mark Leno, former Asm. Joe Nation, and incumbent Carole Midgen.  With Nation’s entry into the race, it gave the SF police commissioner a tough time trying to argue that he was the candidate for Marin. Nevertheless, we’ll be seeing Joe Alioto Veronese again, of that I can assure you.

In terms of the SD-03 race, well, I have to imagine that this favors Mark Leno.  In Leno’s recent David Binder poll, JAV was pulling about 7%. Given the  demographics, Leno will be in the best position to pick up those votes. Specifically, Leno is stronger in the Marina and North Beach neighborhoods where JAV was strong than Senator Migden has been in the past. This might even help him become the front-runner. I’m not sure the endorsement would make a huge difference, but it might help Nation to grab a few SF votes if he gets the JAV nod.

Press release over the flip.

SAN FRANCISCO – After much consideration, Police Commissioner Joseph Alioto Veronese made the difficult decision today that he will not seek to include his name on the June 3 primary ballot for the 3rd Senate seat held by incumbent Senator Carol Migden.

Joe entered the race over nine months ago by announcing his candidacy in San Francisco, San Rafael and Petaluma.  He was proud to engage thousands of new people in the process throughout the entire district, including hundreds of donors and volunteers participating in a campaign for the first time.

“I have been campaigning to change the debate in Sacramento and focus on issues of true importance to the people of the 3rd district,” said Alioto Veronese.  “Over the last several months I have met with the hard working people from every corner of this District and have been humbled by all the support I have received.  Yet, after much deliberation with my wife and key supporters I have decided to withdraw my candidacy for the State Senate”.

Veronese continued, “While this will be the end of my bid for the State Senate, this is only the beginning of my work to fight for social justice, public safety and protecting our environment.  I will continue to be vigilant to fight on behalf of the people of this district”.

After personally communicating with many of his supporters, Joe will hold a press conference within the next 7 days to announce who he believes his supporters should follow in this race.  

(full disclosure: I work for Courage)

Score another big victory for the little guy.  The people of Potrero have beaten back Blackwater and kept them out of their community.  After the stunning recall of the local planning board members who supported Blackwater in December, Blackwater was facing clear local opposition to the plan.  Regional groups had been working hard to raise opposition in San Diego County.  Meanwhile, the Courage Campaign was teaming up with the locals to turn this into a broader fight.  There were significant questions about it’s environmental impact on the community and area.  The company was awaiting the official Environmental Impact Review.  Instead of continuing to fight against the town, Blackwater decided to pack its bags and leave tiny Potrero.

The letter from Brian Bonfliglio of Blackwater pulling the project is on the flip.

March 7, 2008

Mr. Jarrett Ramaiya

County of San Diego

Department of Planning and Land Use

5201 Ruffin Road, Suite B

San Diego, CA 92123

Re: Application for Major Use Permit (P06-069)

Dear Jarrett:

On behalf of Blackwater West, I am writing to inform the County of San Diego that, effective today, we are withdrawing Application P06-069 for a Major Use Permit for our proposed project in the community of Potrero.

After examining the capacity of our existing facilities and our business development goals, we have decided not to pursue plans for a training campus in Potrero.

Although our project would have brought a great benefit to San Diego County- providing local, state and federal law enforcement with access to low-cost superior training facilities while brining much-needed jobs to the area- the proposed site plan simply does not meet our business objectives at this time.

Please refund all funds on deposit and not expended for permit processing.  Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Brian Bonfiglio

Vice President

Blackwater West

You have to assume that Blackwater’s declining reputation in this country has had an impact on their “business objectives”.  They are toxic and any agency that hired them for training would have serious public relations problems.

While they have pulled out of Potrero, Bonfiglio is “not going home”.  They appear to have broken this story to the friendly SD Union-Tribune:

Bonfiglio said noise tests the company conducted at the site did not meet county standards, and the cost of reducing the noise was too expensive. He said Blackwater had spent well over $1 million in its effort to get government approval for the site.

Blackwater worked the county hard, at one point a former lawyer pushing for the approval actually went to work for the county.

But all of that is over now.  It is time to celebrate.

“It’s great news for the community of Potrero,” said Carl Meyer, the recently-elected chairman of the Potrero planning group. “I think Potrero will start to rejoice tonight. We’ll have a party.”

Speaking of Carl….here is the video the Courage Campaign put together about the community’s battle to keep Blackwater out.

It sure is nice to watch that again and know that Carl and all of the other local heros in Potrero get to go to bed tonight knowing that Blackwater will not be moving into their town.  Congratulations Potrero!