A quick event announcement. The GOP nominee will be cruising into town today to pick up some cash from a few rich Republican types. (Yes, there are a few. And they are rich.)

Subject: McCain in San Francisco TODAY – 5:30 PM!

What: Rally for Democrats outside McCain Fundraiser.

When: Today-Monday July 28th, 5:30-7:30 pm

Where: Outside the Fairmont Hotel-Mason Street between Sacramento and California Ave. Parking on Grace Cathedral Garage ($11.00 before 6:00pm). Located on Taylor and California Ave.

Please bring your hand-made signs. We will have extra signs for you to use.

Last week, David Dreier sent a letter to residents in his district.  It was signed by nine “Democrats for Dreier” announcing their support of his re-election campaign, because he is a “different kind of leader” who is a passionate advocate for the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire.

The letter was signed by the following 9 Democrats:

Paul Eaton, Mayor of Montclair

Roberto Campos, small businessman, Glendora/Upland

Karen Davis, Mayor of Glendora

Mary Ann Lutz, Monrovia Councilmember

Kurt Zimmerman, Mayor of Sierra Madre

Joe Garcia, Monrovia Councilmember

Anthony Fellow, Director, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, Arcadia

Dorrie Bryan, HR Manager, Rancho Cucamonga

Eugene Sun, San Marino Councilmember

The questions arose almost as soon as the letter was sent.  On the flip…

First of all, the fact that he filled out the list with two random small businesspeople instead of filling the list with electeds is kind of curious in and of itself.  But there are far more serious issues with this list.

Paul Eaton, the Mayor of Montclair, spoke for Russ Warner, the Democratic CHALLENGER to Dreier, at a fundraiser two months ago and called him “the type of change we need in the district”.

Mary Ann Lutz is a CONTRIBUTOR to Warner’s campaign.  She gave $250 on June 30 of this year.

In these cases, there are only two explanations.  Either Dreier just placed these Democratic supporters of Russ Warner  (or at least it seems so) on a “Democrats for Dreier” list without their knowledge, or he bullied them into supporting his candidacy lest they find their local communities without federal help from Congress in the future.  I have credible information that this is a case of the latter.  A fellow activist just got off the phone with Eaton, and he explained that Dreier has lobbied for his support consistently since he reached office, laying out the carrot of increased transportation funds for Montclair and the surrounding area.  This time around, Dreier basically, as I understand it, intimated that Warner wouldn’t have the seniority to steer transportation money back to the district, and as a result electeds like Eaton decided to support him this time around.

This is fairly typical politics, and it’s standard for an incumbent to argue that experience and seniority is an asset for their candidacy.  But it’s a particularly brutal way to play the game, and in this case Dreier is pretty transparently offering a quid pro quo of dollars in exchange for support.

There’s also the case of Kurt Zimmerman, a former Assistant US Attorney and, according to this Smart Voter guide, a current Attorney with the Department of Commerce.  If that’s still accurate, his signature endorsing a political candidate would be a violation of the Hatch Act prohibiting government employees from partisan political activities.

This is only the beginning of the questions surrounding the “Dems for Dreier.”  I also think this shows an element of fear from Dreier’s campaign, that they need to de facto bribe public officials into gaining their support.

It’s been more than 12 years since Brian Bilbray first took money from Big Oil to fund his political career. Back then, gas was $1.27/gallon in the 50th district, and after a dozen years of Bilbray and his Big Oil Republican buddies, gas is well over $4/gallon. Bilbray and his cronies think the solution is to give more tax dollars to oil companies, which makes sense since that money comes back as campaign contributions- a convenient way to launder taxes into re-election funds and not actually address gas prices in any way.

Nick Leibham just outraised Bilbray int he second quarter and is spreading a bit of that cash around as direct relief to drivers in the district. This Wednesday (July 30), Leibham will roll back gas prices at three gas stations in the 50th to $1.27, just like it was before Big Oil laid down the money to push Bilbray into office. This was a HUGE success in 2006 when Larry Kissell did it in North Carolina. More than 500 people showed up for the cheap gas, snarling traffic and bringing in police to wrangle the crowds. It’s a great time to be punching holes in Brian Bilbray’s absurd claim of being good on environmental and energy issues. Just a quick check of his recent voting record exposes how bad it is. Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act (Use It or Lose It): No. Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act: No. Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act: No. Energy Independence and Security Act: No.

Bad for the environment, bad for safe energy, bad for energy security, bad for creating new jobs in energy. And this guy’s supposed to be a friend of the environment and renewable energy? No.

[Update] Over at Politicker, Wally S. Edge wonders “isn’t it a little wrong to try to buy someone’s vote? Or is that just the American way?” Apparently there’s an electoral system in this country that I’m unaware of in which politicians do not spend money in the pursuit of receiving votes. Did we pass public election financing when I wasn’t looking?

Excerpted release on the flip:

Nick Leibham will temporarily roll back the price of gas during his “pain at the pump” tour on Wednesday, July 30th.  Leibham, the Democrat nominee for the 50th Congressional District, will have three different stops in North County throughout the day:

11 a.m: Encinitas, Shell Station, 1060 N. Camino Real

2 p.m: 4S Ranch, Chevron Station, 1629 Dove Canyon Road

5 p.m: Carmel Valley, Shell Station, 3861 Valley Center Drive

Leibham will offer 50 motorists at each location the opportunity to fill up at the price of $1.27 a gallon for up to 10 gallons of gas.  $1.27 was the average price of gas in San Diego in April, 1996 when Republican Brian Bilbray took his first campaign contribution from Big Oil.

Following up on the saga of the DCCC takeover, Matier and Ross report’s that Fiona Ma’s coup de grace to former chair Scott Wiener was not about a quid pro quo, it was payback to Gavin Newsom.

The big flip: Looks like gubernatorial politics played a big hand in Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin’s narrow victory as head of the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is exploring a run for governor – and would no doubt like to have the local party’s backing. The mayor worked the phones hard to try to keep his dual detractors, Peskin and Supervisor Chris Daly, from taking control.

The key vote in Wednesday night’s showdown came from Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco.

Gay activist Scott Wiener, who was running for re-election as central committee chairman, says Ma promised to support him two months ago – only to flip and vote for Peskin, despite a long history of political run-ins with the board president.

Ma said she never promised Wiener her support. While she and Peskin certainly have had their “ups and downs” over the years, she said, none of it compares to the slights she’s suffered at the hands of Newsom and his chief political strategist, Eric Jaye.

Namely, Jaye running the campaign of Ma’s Assembly opponent, Janet Reilly, and fueling the story that appeared in our column about Ma’s relationship with a lobbyist pushing electric meter technology on the city.

Ma also points out that Newsom didn’t endorse her for the Board of Supervisors or the Assembly.

Upshot: When it came time to vote Wednesday, Ma handed her proxy to former Public Utilities Commission boss Susan Leal – whom Newsom recently fired – and she delivered the knife to the mayor’s pick.

As for the governor’s race? “I am urging Jerry Brown to run for governor,” Ma said.

I’m not sure which is worse, a quid pro quo or this. The deal I can sort of understand, but to knock someone off because you have a beef with another person, and to use a respected person like Susan Leal to do the dirty work is sad. This town’s political scene needs an enema.

Edit by Brian: For more discussion of this poll, see this Calitics thread.

Three words: Not. Gonna. Happen.

Today, we have DiFi supporters dropping poll numbers to Matier and Ross as part of a surfacing campaign for her to run for Governor, again.

I hope she does run as it will be a ton of fun to unleash an effort against her that will make kicking Lieberman out of the party look low-key. To be perfectly honest, I have been disappointed that it didn’t appear like she would be on the ballot again during the era of a mature netroots and resurgent progressive movement. So I say, bring it on. And know that if she runs my boot will be so far up her ass that Dick Blum will be tasting leather when he kisses her goodnight.

It’s really beyond the point of tolerance for Bush Dog Jim Costa, who represents the district with the worst well-being in America for its residents.  As Republicans dishonestly try to bully Democrats with their meaningless “Drill Now” chant, despite the fact that offshore drilling wouldn’t lower gas prices and would do nothing to secure the energy future of the nation, Costa has joined up with a bipartisan group seeking a “compromise” (read: giving in to Republican fantasies) on energy.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers seeking to craft a compromise on energy legislation includes politically vulnerable members, according to a partial list of members obtained by The Hill.

Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and John Peterson (R-Pa.), who organized the group, have kept the list of participants under wraps since the recent announcement of its formal launch.

Abercrombie and Peterson previously indicated the complete list of members would be released last week but later reconsidered, saying certain members could be face political problems if their names were released.

Reps. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), Gene Green (D-Texas), Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.), Nick Lampson (D-Texas), Jim Costa (D-Calif.), Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) are part of the group, according to the list.

The group met on Wednesday […]

The bill that is being crafted breaks significantly from Democratic leadership on the topic of offshore drilling.

Boren, Costa, Green, Lampson and Nunes twice voted no on the Democratic leadership’s “use it or lose it” energy drilling bill.

It’d be one thing if Costa were actually a “vulnerable member,” but his “opponent” this year, Jim Lopez, has no records with the FEC, hasn’t updated his campaign website in a month and a half and hasn’t had an event in the district since March.  Costa is about as vulnerable as Iron Man.  So one must conclude that he plans to sell out the Democratic Party on energy as a matter of principle.

It is completely absurd to open up the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling when there are over 60 million acres of leased public land lying fallow.  The last people with any interest in lowering gas prices are oil execs; they want offshore leases so they can keep them in reserve and tell their stockholders how much cash they’re sitting on.  So Costa simply wants to enrich oil company bigwigs at the expense of the middle class, and ignore the serious risk to the planet in stalling on departing from the failed energy policy of the past.  This man shouldn’t dare even call himself a Democrat after the work he’s done in the 110th Congress.