The most remarkable quote of the week came from a backbencher Yacht Party Republican named Mark Wyland, commenting on the historically late state budget.  If the California Democratic Party had a locker room, this would be serious bulletin-board material:

Voters are unlikely to punish lawmakers for the budget delay in any substantive way on Nov. 4  unless it’s to pass a ballot measure that would change how political districts are drawn, said state Sen. Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad).

“My experience with voters is that they really don’t care how long it takes to get a budget,” Wyland said, following his participation in a panel discussion at an event on reforming state government.

According to Wyland, prolonged budget stalemates like this year’s sometimes encourage voters to keep their incumbents. Because districts are usually heavily skewed in registration to one party or another, he said, sitting legislators are more likely to hear encouragement for their party’s ideological position than disfavor.

And voting against the party – in Wyland’s example, for tax raises or to reinstate the unpopular vehicle-license fee – is an invitation to face a primary challenge in the next election cycle, he said.

This is the calcified opinion from the Yacht Party, and why they’ll never be moved from their ideological perches.  They believe that they have more to fear from internal challenges on the grounds of insufficient fealty to failed conservative policies than from the consequences of those policies.  And there’s a lot of evidence on their side, although not as much as they think.  

But the most glaring point made in this statement is one of contempt.  It shows contempt for voters to act in the best interest of an ideology than in the best interest of the state.  It shows contempt for voters to hold the budget hostage, causing extreme hardship in the lives of state employees, community health centers, policemen and firefighters, and public schools,  and expect nobody to notice.  It shows contempt for voters to use the tyranny of the minority to advance a cause completely at odds with the prevailing opinion of the state.  Real people were affected and harmed by this budget, and all of us will be in the future as the bills of conservative borrow-and-spend economics and systematic destruction of government come due.

And the thing is, Wyland is relying on a failed model.  Demographic shifts and a reckoning of the failure of conservatism has made no district safe.  Indeed Californians can punish Yacht Party Republicans for their intransigence and obstructionism.  There are a number of races at the federal and state level where Democrats have more than a chance to unseat Republicans and turn seats blue.  In fact, with some luck and proper resources we can get very close to that 2/3 majority needed to pass budgets and fix the structural revenue deficit.  That’s where you come in.

The Calitics Editorial Board has identified five seats which strike a balance between winnable races and progressive leadership.  We’ve decided to start a major fundraising push for these five candidates between now and the end of the quarterly reporting requirement on September 30.  That gives us only a few days, but here’s the kicker – Calitics will match every donation made to these candidates up to $500 each, for a grand total of a $2,500 candidate match.  

Please visit our special Calitics Match ActBlue page and support any or all of these five great candidates:

Charlie Brown (CA-04): A recent Research 2000 poll showed Brown leading perennial candidate Tom McClintock 46-41 in this deep red district.  Brown, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel, nearly defeated indicted Congressman John Doolittle in 2006 and has shown tremendous leadership on veteran’s issues and the FISA fight before even coming to Congress.  He’s a better Democrat we can all be proud of.

Debbie Cook (CA-46): Running in a tough district against certifiably crazy Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Debbie Cook is running with an unabashedly progressive message.  The Mayor of Huntington Beach, Cook is an expert on peak oil and energy issues, and would instantly be one of the most knowledgeable voices in the Congress on how to move toward a post-carbon future.  She also believes in ending the Iraq occupation responsibly and achieving the goal of quality and affordable health care for all.

Hannah-Beth Jackson (SD-19): A former Assemblywoman and creator of Speak Out California, a blog and resource for Golden State progressives, Hannah-Beth Jackson has proven her progressive bona fides time and again.  Running in rapidly changing Ventura County against the former state director of the Club for Growth, Tony Strickland, Jackson can prove that even Tom McClintock’s old seat is not safe from the progressive wave.  She would lead in the State Senate on issues of economic justice and the environment.

Alyson Huber (AD-10): AD-10 is another district where the demographics are changing, and Alyson Huber is perfectly suited to take advantage of this and turn the seat blue.  Huber, an attorney and working mother, is focused on increasing access to health care and education for all Californians.  She would help tremendously in bringing us closer to that needed 2/3 majority.

Manuel Perez (AD-80): A transformative leader, Manuel Perez is ready to take that leadership to Sacramento.  Part of a growing group of Hispanic-Americans in the Coachella Valley who are leading a major progressive challenge to the typical politics of the region, Manuel has created community health clinics, served on the Coachella School Board as a trustee, taught classes, and organized his community to fight for change.  He is uniquely suited to take his varied experience and lead in the State Legislature.

The time is tight, but we need to make Mark Wyland and the Yacht Party Republicans he represents cry.  Please contribute to our Calitics Match fundraising effort before Tuesday!

Matt Stoller at Open Left has reproduced a letter from progressive Democrats in the Congress demanding changes to the proposed bailout package. Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey are the two lead authors, and other California members of Congress who have signed it include Hilda Solis and Pete Stark.

The letter insists that 4 kinds of reform be included in any bailout:

• A 0.25% tax on all stock trades and “exotic transactions” such as derivatives trading as a kind of “progressive PAYGO” to ensure that the taxpayers won’t be paying the costs of the bailout.
• Equity shares in any companies that benefit from the bailout
• “Major bankruptcy reform” including homeowner renegotiation of mortgages. Obama undercut progressives on this when he said bankruptcy reform didn’t need to be part of the package, perhaps a telltale sign of how unprogressive an Obama administration might be. But it’s still a necessary part of any financial solution.
• A detailed list of new regulations to protect consumers and provide more stable, responsible regulation of the financial industry to prevent a recurrence of this crisis.

The progressives’ move in Congress comes as more economic observers question the need for a bailout. It’s possible that this represents the first move by the 74 members of the Progressive Caucus to block a bill that in particular lacks bankruptcy reform. Even so, an axis of Bush Dogs, House Republicans, and timid/weak/complicit House Democratic leadership may prove to be too much for the Progressive Caucus to overcome.

Still, this letter is a welcome move by California progressives like Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey. The bailout needs to be either made a fundamentally progressive policy move or stopped entirely. If a progressive coalition is to come together to stop it leadership from the Progressive Caucus is a necessary component. Even if it is too little too late, it potentially marks the beginning of a push for truly progressive solutions to our economic crisis – the kind that FDR and the Democratic Party stood for 75 years ago, but that current Democratic leaders from Obama on down have now eschewed.

UPDATE: A deal has been announced, although the details have been slow to materialize – a likely sign that the deal isn’t exactly set in stone. More significantly Republicans are being pressured to deliver 70-100 votes which suggests that Congressional progressives, especially those from California, do have leverage to stop this train wreck. Universal health care, green infrastructure, a jobs-and-wages economic recovery – all those things are imperilled by this bailout. Better to deal with this after January 20.