When I ran for election to the Santa Cruz City Council for the first time in 2000, and again in 2004, I must have knocked on every door in an attempt to speak to every voter.  I was privileged to receive the most votes ever in each election, and I credit it to this hands-on campaigning.  Running for the State Assembly, I have tried to connect with voters in the same way, but campaigning in a much larger district requires innovative thinking.  That’s one reason I am proud to be a part of the Calitics community – it gives me the chance to speak with people without a media filter and without resorting to sloganeering.

I want to share with you another innovative approach to voter communication I had the good fortune to experience.  Yesterday evening, I hosted a telephone town hall for voters across the 27th district, reaching out to nearly 28,000 voters in all.  We discussed issues ranging from global warming to universal healthcare.  I used telephone town hall technology to speak with voters from Boulder Creek, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Santa Cruz and other parts of the district. Over 4,000 people joined me for some or all of the one hour town hall, from the comfort of their own homes.  

The event was like an amalgam of a virtual house party and a radio call-in show.  I began by telling the folks on the call a little bit about my background as a progressive small business person and two-time Mayor of Santa Cruz and then outlined some of the themes of my campaign, including environmental protection which was the theme of the town hall.  But most of the time was dedicated to answering questions from those who called in.  Callers were able to hear each other’s questions as well as my answers, as we discussed how to increase public transit and rail service in the district, preventing cuts to the education budget and creating alternative sources of energy instead of relying on fossil fuels.

This town hall – with the large number of participants – would be difficult, if not impossible, to put together in a usual venue.  I look forward to participating in more once I am in the Assembly, in addition to in-person town halls, as a tool to bring the voices of voters to government.  If commenters know of other innovative voter and constituent communication tools that you have used or participated in, I would love to hear from you.  Thanks to Calitics for providing a similarly innovative forum and for your support of my campaign.

International Union Will Push to Weaken Rank-and-File Members’ Voices

My name is Michael Rivera. I’ve been a Respiratory Therapist for 18 years, specializing in Neonatal and Pediatric Respiratory Care. I’m very concerned about the future of my union, SEIU. This week, I’m going to my first SEIU convention where I’m worried that the grassroots union principles that drew me to get involved will be undermined by SEIU’s Washington-based officials. Along with other UHW members, I plan to post here and at www.seiuvoice.org with updates during the convention.

Our International union leadership has put forward an agenda that they’re calling “Justice For All,” which would strip away many of the safeguards for member oversight and governance. What alarms me most about the “Justice For All” platform is that it institutionalizes the practice of weakening the voice of rank-and-file members in national contract negotiations. Their proposal would replace elected bargaining teams with a team appointed by the International president, and it would limit worker involvement to carrying out a plan that was developed by union officials without member input.

By comparison, UHW’s “Platform For Change” proposals (www.seiuvoice.org) would guarantee the right of members to oversee bargaining at the highest levels, including during national bargaining. We don’t oppose the goals that SEIU leaders have pronounced, such as helping the tens of millions of non-union workers to organize and win the same rights that we have. But we believe the best way to build power and numbers within the labor movement is through worker leadership. Our employers must view our union as being driven by the interests of the members. Our power to create change in people’s lives rests on whether our employers view us as the driving force behind our union’s agenda or whether our employers simply see our involvement as academic.

SEIU Convention Opens Next Week

Every four years, elected delegates come together to determine the direction of our national union. This year, we’re meeting in Puerto Rico. As delegates, we’ll vote on policy resolutions and amendments to the union’s constitution and bylaws, and we’ll elect the officers and executive board members of SEIU. The convention is important because it’s where we set goals and establish a structure that will determine what this union is able to accomplish.

I’m not expecting a very fair or open decision-making process at the convention. We know from prior conventions the event is heavily scripted and delegate votes sometimes look like rubber-stamp approvals for SEIU’s Washington-based officials. We don’t expect to win our “Platform for Change” reforms at this convention. But we do expect to talk to other union members there and to leave with more relationships and greater power so that our movement to reform SEIU will continue to grow even stronger.

Since real debate probably isn’t going to happen inside the convention itself, I’m looking forward to participating here in an open discussion and debate about these important issues.

 

This Laura Richardson (CA-37) loan default story is growing.  The Hill is reporting that she’s had three homes in default and is currently renegotiating with her lender to save one of them.  It seems like she’s engaging in what amounts to a pyramid scheme – buying new homes with little money down, and at the same time loaning her campaigns for state Assembly and Congress tens of thousands of dollars.  So the money that would be used to pay off the loan is paying for her political upward mobility.

A third home that Richardson borrowed heavily to move into in Sacramento was sold at auction earlier this month — at a $150,000 loss to the bank that issued her the $535,000 loan. …

Even as that was happening, ethics watchdogs were crying foul over Richardson’s personal finances and questioning how she was able to lend her campaign to Congress $77,500 in the midst of multiple home loan defaults. …

Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports show that Richardson loaned her campaign a total of $77,500 — in three installments — between June and July of 2007.

Richardson’s year-end FEC filing showed that her campaign still had $331,000 worth of debt but $116,000 cash-on-hand. …

Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center, said it would be reasonable for the FEC to look into the timing of the loan against the timeline of Richardson’s home loan defaults.

“In situations like this it’s very important for whoever loaned her the money to demonstrate that they treated her equitably, not favorably,” McGehee said. “Otherwise, you’re getting into a situation of a corporate underwriting of a campaign.”

It was pretty clear last year, when Richardson ran a divisive, racially-toned campaign to win the Congressional seat against State Senator Jenny Oropeza, based in part on saying how this was “our” seat (referring to African-Americans), that she was potentially bad news.  This confirms it.  I won’t defend her because these types of financial improprieties are unaceeptable.  Getting behind on one loan because it’s a fact of life that you need to practically go broke to win a political campaign is one thing.  But this to me looks like a series of efforts to possibly use borrowed money and plow it into political activities.  And that’s wrong.  I don’t think she’s in danger of losing her primary next week, but she should be.

Currently there are 32 elected women in our California State Senate – that’s about 20%  Last week I met with Assemblywoman Patty Berg, former chair of the Women’s Caucus to discuss the upcoming primary election.  It is sad to report, but our predictions were grim. Pundits and pollsters are predicting that we could drop to 25 elected women in our state government.  Needless to say, we are worried.

As the founder of the CALIFORNIA LIST, an organization dedicated to electing women in California, I have watched as our legislature consistently loses 2 elected women each successive election cycle. The loss is occurring in our State Assembly, which affects the pipeline of future female leaders. This seriously affects the flow of political leaders moving up the ladder of experience. For leadership, after serving in the Assembly you move to the State Senate and then to a statewide office.  The decline in women leaders today will have devastating results that can only become more apparent in the future.

What exactly does this loss mean?  As fuel prices take a toll on our economy and California faces a tremendous budget deficit, the choices that will be made in our government in education, health care and transportation are on the table for negotiation. Where will the cuts be made?  How will the priorities be established? By record, women consistently champion those issues that affect families, health and environmental concerns.  With the dwindling statistics of women elected, who will be the advocates of those societal matters that we as women hold so dear?

I think that the differences that women make in government are subtle.  Having women elected officials has opened up the political process and shifted the debate to issues that affect our everyday lives — from health care solutions introduced by Sheila Kuehl to the consumer fraud watchdog policy designed by Jackie Speier to environmental protection laws authored by Fran Pavley.  These women are on the political forefront.

Please visit our website at www.californialist.org to learn about our endorsed women who are running for office on June 3nd – women we feel are qualified to help secure a strong future for California. These women are the future leaders of our state — help elect them on Tuesday.  Help us reverse the downward trend and build our pipeline of elected women.

Bettina Duval is the founder of the CALIFORNIA LIST, a political fundraising network that helps elect Democratic women to all branches of California state government.

Note: I will be on The Morning Show with Hal on Monterey’s progressive radio station, KRXA 540 AM, at 8 AM tomorrow to discuss this and other local political issues.

Whether it’s Republicans switching parties or simply trying to sound like Democrats one trend is becoming clear in the 2008 election – the Republican brand is a sure loser, so many of them are trying to pass themselves off as Democrats.

Here on the Central Coast we’ve been dealing with this for some time. Abel Maldonado’s decision to run for the Democratic write-in nomination – which the Monterey Herald said “fails the straight face test” – is but the latest in a long, long list of dishonest campaign tactics employed by local Republicans who are so embarrassed of their party affiliation they try to hide it from the public.

Matt in Monterey told you of a campaign mailer that conservative Republican Ila Mettee-McCutchon sent to voters that included a picture form 1995 of her shaking hands with Bill Clinton and the caption “Monterey County Democratic Leaders Endorse Ila Mettee-McCutchon” – even though Clinton had made no such endorsement, despite the fact that the Monterey County Democrats had endorsed Jane Parker and the Monterey County Republicans had endorsed Ila.

As the Monterey County Democrats have discovered,  this is part of an ongoing strategy concocted by local Republican political director Brian Brandon Gesicki – who is, surprise surprise, also Abel Maldonado’s campaign manager. In addition to the Ila ads, which he created, in 2006 he had College Republicans hold up signs saying “Democrats for Calcagno” (a Monterey County Supervisor who was a registered Republican) and sent ads that included pictures of John Kerry and John Edwards (neither of whom had endorsed Calcagno).

Also that year a Sacramento court ruled against his effort to list Abel Maldonado as a “business controller/auditor” for his Controller primary race despite the fact that Maldonado was neither.  And in 2004, Monterey County Republican co-chair Paul Bruno posed as a Green Party official and paid the filing fees for a Green Party candidate to try and draw votes away from Maldonado’s Democratic challenger that year, Peg Pinard. The Green in question, Brooke Madsen, dropped out of the race after learning the truth and said he felt “used” by Republicans.

In a press release, Monterey County Democratic chair Vinz Koller said this was a “self-defeating” pattern of dishonesty:

Not only are such tactics wrong, they are ultimately self-defeating. In the information age, voters know too much – and they know they don’t have to put up with this kind of junk any more.

Regardless of what happens with Gesicki and the Central Coast Republican strategy of pretending to be something they’re not, we can expect these tactics to be employed across the state and across the country in the service of Republicans who know voters aren’t in a mood to reelect them.

Last night I met Dennis Morris here in Monterey, as he visited the Democratic Central Committee after introducing himself to voters at the busy farmer’s market downtown. He asked me to post this here – when he wins the write-in vote next Tuesday he’ll have more time to put up a proper website and, hopefully, visit Calitics himself. In the meantime the Monterey County Democrats have more info on this race. -Robert

From Dennis Morris:

I am an attorney and small winery owner seeking the Democratic Nomination for the California State Senate race in the 15th District, a District that comprises five counties spanning from Santa Maria to Santa Cruz.

I am running because I believe every political race should have at least two candidates so that the freer and broader flow of ideas and perspectives are afforded to the People.  Seeing there was no Democratic contender for this race, I immediately contacted my local Democratic Party, filed the necessary papers, and formally announced my intention to become California’s next State Senator for the 15th District on May 22, 2008.

I am running on a platform of change.  I believe government is not sufficiently responsive to constructive changes, and that such changes are needed in this State to balance the budget, improve our economy, ensure our children receive a proper education and reduce the problems of congestion, pollution and overcrowded prisons.  I am a strong advocate of fully funding education, which will provide Californians with both short-term and long-term benefits.  I believe the State budget can be balanced by making government do its job more efficiently and effectively, rather than by making significant cuts to the State’s education and healthcare budget.  I am opposed to the current proposal of balancing the budget by gambling on the possible success of the State lottery.

In line with his position of a more efficient government, I believe taxes should be more fair and simpler to calculate.  I am staunchly opposed to laws that foster loopholes which lends to a spirit of game-playing by the more savy taxpayers and corporate executives.  In my opinion, laws should be simpler, easier to follow and fewer in number.  I believe this more streamlined approach to government will greatly benefit the People, allowing those less privileged to become more legally self-sufficient and more understanding of our responsibilities as Citizens.

To that end, I find the recent decision of the current, incumbent Republican State Senator, Abel Maldonado, to enter the Democratic Primary as a write in  candidate astonishing.  Although apparently legal, it is precisely this type of loophole that I believe must be closed in order to renew and recapture the faith of the People in their government, and in this particular case, to ensure Californians have a choice come November (this reason I decided to run in the first place).

Please join me on June 3rd and write “DENNIS MORRIS” on the ballot as the  Democratic Candidate for the State Senate race, 15th District. I am hoping to garner the required 3689 votes and overcome Senator Maldonado’s last-minute tactic to be put on the ballot in November, which will provide Californians with a choice we may not otherwise meaningfully have at General Election time.

I thank you for your interest in this campaign, and to the principles and ideas expressed herein.

Very truly yours,

Dennis Morris