X-Posted @ BearFlagBlue

Last Wednesday, Senator Mark DeSaulnier, the only candidate for California’s 10th to receive any public endorsements so far, wrapped up yet another important early one…that of the Contra Costa County Central Labor Council. Today the CCCCLC made it official.

This is in addition to endorsements by Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, Congressman George Miller, California Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, and State Assemblymember Tom Torlakson, as well as the Contra Costa Building Trades Council. Quite the impressive list.

After joining Assemblymember Joan Buchanan & Lt Gov. John Garamendi at last Thursday’s Contra Costa Central Committee meeting, Mark DeSaulnier took a few moments on Monday night to speak with the Tri-Valley Democratic Club.  

It was the first time I had met the Senator and found him to be personable and forthright and actually kind of funny. It was clear that he wasn’t happy about any of the May 19 props though, and when a School Board member from Dublin asked for his take, Senator DeSaulnier focused primarily on 1C which would borrow 5 billion from the lottery. DeSaulnier’s concern, which he shared with the Board Member and retired teachers in the room, was that No on 1C would take away 5 billion from education on top of the already 8 billion that we are projected short. DeSaulnier being in the legislature, I can see where he’s coming from…personally though I’m voting No on everything. Well, except for 1B…I’ll probably vote Yes and hedge my bet.

DeSaulnier also went on to speak a bit about his possible run for Congress should Tauscher be confirmed. He spoke about some of his recent endorsements and how an election schedule might look. I did sense some concern in the room about the possible domino effect with Assembly & Senate districts…although most of that concern seemed to be in regards to the 15th and who might replace Joan Buchanan after all of the hard work they had all done to get her into the seat.

Of course the latest rumors of Garamendi’s recent interest in serving California in DC came up too, but mostly just in regards to what district…most folks seemed under the impression that he lived in the 3rd. Understandable considering Garamendi’s background in the district. From the John Garamendi for Congress in CA-03 Facebook Group:

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has deep roots in CA-03: he was born and raised in Mokelumne Hill, owns a ranch in Paloma, and served that community from 1974 to 1990, first as a member of the state assembly and then as its state senator. If there is a Democrat in California capable of knocking off Dan Lungren in 2010, it’s John Garamendi.

As far as I understand, Garamendi currently lives in Walnut Grove which sits right on the boundary line between the 3rd and the 10th. I don’t think it’d be fair to call him a carpetbagger in any district.

Remember when Garamendi was furiously campaigning for Bill Durston in CD3? Much of his urgency centered around how unacceptable it was that Dan Lungren continues to represent this district…at the time, Garamendi was on fire! With Durston recently signaling that he is not interested in another campaign, and the field all but clear, who better to take on Dan Lungren than John Garamendi? A full election cycle in front of us and with the DCCC already eyeing Lungren’s seat in the 3rd, progressives (local and otherwise) should see a real opportunity here.

As far as the 10th district goes though, it was nice to see the Mark DeSaulnier show up at a small little club meeting, and most of the folks in the room seemed pretty impressed with him. I had hoped that I would have had more time to speak with the Senator, but the featured speaker of the night happened to be going over the Israeli/Palestine conflict…things went a bit long.

We did get a moment though to speak about the local blogging scene and I was rather impressed at his scope of knowledge and his desire to combat right leaning frames online locally. Good ol’ Tip O’Neill came up when we both mentioned indeed that “All Politics was Local”

I hope to be hearing more from the Senator in the coming days and would really love to see him participate in one of Calitics Online Townhalls…as would I equally like to see all of the other candidates participate in the same…from any candidate or official in any district in California for that matter. These Online TownHalls are a great way to start a dialogue between local grassroots/netroots activists and their elected officials.