Proposition Battle Thread

OK, we’re seeing movement on the floor, as the Pro and Con speakers mass at the microphones.  John Hanna and Inola Henry are managing the resolutions at the podium.  I’ll update.

According to John Hanna, it takes 60% of the members to pass a ballot measure.  1A will be pulled from the endorsements and dealt with separately.

…Willie Pelote of AFSCME recommends that 1A be pulled from the calendar.  And now, Paul Hogarth is pulling 1D and 1E.  And someone from region 12 (didn’t get the name) will be pulling 1F.  Hector de la Torre tried to pull a resolution and was out of order.  He’s an elected official.  FAIL.

Susie Shannon cleaned things up by pulling 1E (Paul could only pull one of them).  Dr. Richard Wood pulled 1C.  Paula Bower pulled 1B.  So basically, everything got pulled, and all of them will be dealt with separately.

So now each proposition will be gone through one at a time.  1A is up first, with 60% needed to pass (or opppose), according to John Hanna.  There will be 3 speakers on each side.  Darrell Steinberg kicks it off, with a good bit of his Senate colleagues behind him.  He’s talking about how we cannot “turn our backs” on $25 billion in public investment, so we should pass a measure that… would ratchet down public investment by $25 billion just in the first two years and would be permanent????

[Note: rest of the play-by-play moved below the fold. Great work by David Dayen on this, too – some things Twitter just can’t handle.]

…Shorter Steinberg: Howard Jarvis opposes, so we should support.  Um, the Chamber of Commerce supports, so… we should oppose?

…Lillian Taiz of the Cal. Faculty Assn is opposing.  Based on the out-of-my-arse judging of the applause on both sides, I don’t think either side will get 60%.  “Prop 1A… forces us to live the Republican dream!”

…Sen. Gloria Romero is speaking in support, to “stand and deliver for Prop. 1A, 1B and 1C.”  She’s saying that schools get none of the money owed to them if 1A fails.  That’s just fundamentally not true.  It’s owed to K-12 and they can sue for it.  This guilt by association thing, furthermore, that Howard Jarvis is against it.

…Melinda Dart from AD-12, a 4th-grade teacher, is speaking against 1A.  That’s pretty cool, she’s going against her own union… (UPDATE: she’s CFT, not CTA).  “We’re already #47 in education spending.  But we’ll go down to #50 permanently if we pass 1A.”

…Lynette Henley from Vallejo says “(Dart) made all the points I would say in support of 1A”  Much waving the bloody shirt of “think of the children” going on… “You are failing our students” by not supporting the props.  But remember, those OPPOSING are the ones being emotional.

…Willie Pelote of AFSCME is giving a stemwinder speech.  He’s preaching.  I can’t really understand what he’s saying, but I assume he’s opposed… wait I got something, “This is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever thing… it’s a Republican approach to governing in the state of California.  Do we want Republicans to be in our house telling us what to do?”

…OK, they’re calling the question, but now there’s a point of order.  Deana Ingelsrud is trying to extend debate, and she’s getting yelled at.  Really, you’re not going to change many minds at this point, I would rather just move to vote.  Now we have to have a vote to suspend the rules (which needs a 2/3 vote).  Just drags it out.

…The motion to extend debate failed miserably.  We’re on to the vote.

…Looks to me like 1A will go through, actually.  Mediaptera says it needs 1,425 to pass.  I guess the question is if it needs 60% of the total credentials or 60% of those assembled… John Laird just told me that it’s 60% of those present and voting.  So we’ll see.

…They’re counting.  It’s going to be close.

…Point of information from Mark Leno, which is smacked down.

…The vote was 758 yes, 542 no.  58% for yes, so the motion fails.  The party takes no position on Prop. 1A.

…Agi Kessler tries to do a motion to reconsider?  Actually, I think she’s just saying it rhetorically, while supporting 1A.  Paula Bower doesn’t want the body taking a position on any of the props, and she’s talking against 1B because she wants the Party not to put its imprimatur on it.

…They’re voting on 1B now.  I expect it to pass… and it does.  So the Party takes a position of support on 1B.

…We’re up to 1C now.  Mark Leno is speaking on Prop. 1C.  “It may not be the most lovable measure but it gives us $5 billion dollars.  I demand that anyone speaking against to identify $5 billion in cuts.  This is not a time for purist positions.”  Um, majority-vote fee increase.

…The speaker against calls the supporters “false and misleading.”  He’s, um, not a good speaker.  He should say the words “majority vote fee increase.”  Someone should, at least.

…Richard Boylan, a speaker against 1C because “it is funny money” and “a bad gamble.”  These speakers against are a bit wooden.  I suspect a yes recommendation.

…David Cohen from San Jose is speaking yes on 1C.  “Russian roulette with our students,” blah blah blah.

…Derrick Cassidy from San Diego county Central Committee.  He finally mentions the majority vote fee increase.  He’s not saying it that well, but he just answered Leno to his face.  “Balancing the budget on the backs of the lottery is shameful.”

…Vote is happening now.  It looks like Yes carried.  And John Hannah made a ruling from the floor without counting.  But someone called for a division.  Now there will be a hard count.  Let me just say that this is as it should be.  We should have democracy, and an airing of differences, and there ought to be a vote of the delegates on each measure.  60% is a fine threshold for something as valuable as a party endorsement, it’s the standard for candidate endorsements as well.

…John Hanna is doing a pretty good job up there, by the way.

…Prop. 1C gets 67%, so the yes vote is adopted.  The Party endorses 1B and 1C so far, no position on Prop. 1A.

…Prop. 1D debate is up.  Asm. Bob Blumenfield is speaking in favor… Bob Blumenfield’s right, reserve funds SUCK!  That talking point, that 1D is well-funded and ready for cigarette sales to go down, so we should raid its reserve, in the light of wanting to build a reserve in 1A, is utterly nonsensical.

…A woman who works for First 5 gave a speech against, Mary Rose Ortega is speaking in favor.  Shorter Ortega: “Won’t you think of the children when you make program cuts for children!”

…Carole Lutness talks about the slippery slope of taking less than 1/2 of 1% from voter-approved funds.  Essentially every fund will be raided in the future, and if the legislature won’t take a stand for the voiceless, the voters must be allowed to.

…a CTA member talks for transferring the money and voting for 1D.

…Susie Shannon: “Do you want to robocall the 7.7 million Democrats and tell them we’re cutting programs for poor kids?… my child will not be able to go to pre-school (if this passes).

…The vote is up, and there’s going to be another count on Prop. 1D.  I think it’s close.

…OK, 1D didn’t pass, it only got 52% of the vote.  So the party goes no position on 1D.

…We’re on to 1E, the raid of Prop. 63.  The thing about these two measures (1D and 1E) is, they are a fraction of the overall budget, but they mean a hell of a lot for the poor and at-risk communities that they affect.

…No on 1E speaker asks “what else are we going to capitulate on?”

…Speaker for 1E says “We have framed this position wrong.”  I cannot argue with that.

…Friend of Calitics Paul Hogarth is speaking against 1E.  Notes that Reagan shut down the mental hospitals and that Schwarzenegger has been undermining Prop. 63 ever since it passed.  This is a great speech.  Cindy Asner gets some time as well.

…We’re up to the vote for 1E.  I don’t think it will pass, and in fact, we may have a majority for no.

…1E doesn’t pass.  623 yes, 619 no.  The Party takes no position on Prop. 1E.

…We’re now going into Prop. 1F, the “waste of time” proposition.  Speakers on this coming up.  Abel Maldonado has his fingers crossed!  The No speaker sez, “Show your intelligence for once!”

…Yes speaker says 1F will “help us reach out to independent voters.”  Because everyone makes their vote based on COLA increases for legislators in down budget years.

…Speaker for 1F “It’s disappointing that the lawmakers who supported all the other initiatives won’t come up here and speak for getting their money cut.”

…Looks like Prop. 1F will get a Yes endorsement.  It’s official.

The final numbers: The CDP endorses Yes on 1B, 1C and 1F; no position on 1A, 1D and 1E.

The final CDP endorsements show what the leadership ought to have supported all along. I oppose these measures, but looking at the politics, Yes on 1B, 1C, and 1F is a position that could get significant public support. Instead the legislators backed a “yes on everything” position.

56 thoughts on “Proposition Battle Thread”

  1. Paul Hogarth is on FIRE. Shame on convention-goers if they support 1E.

  2. 1C being the only relevant prop on the ballot, it is extremely sad that we have created a market in lottery futures. Haven’t we seen the dangers of rampant, criminal securities trading already. The irony that the casino capitalism and our bubble economy have created this budget short fall that we are now going to try and “fix” with more casino capitalism is too much. By the way, I’ve been live blogging with pics, etc:  http://venturacountydemocrats….

  3. We had a supporter of the leadership position upthread complaining about the 60% requirement to pass a resolution.  Now I don’t actually know this history, but I bet if we checked we’d find that the reason that 60% requirement is there is to prevent rank and file activists from passing resolutions the leadership would consider “too radical” or “ill advised” or some such thing.  They likely put it there to limit democracy and now it’s coming back to bite them.

  4. I had to leave before the resolutions – did any of them get pulled and actually fail to pass?

  5. Ok…this is an observation.

    People who ARE delegates have a responsibility, and that is to STAY on SUNDAY through the end of the convention and do the serious voting on the resolutions that are meant to be a guide for the direction of our party.

    I’m not talking about those who have a serious emergency. But, just about everyone else who leaves early.

    If you are an elected delegate, it’s really important to clear your schedule and follow-through with this commitment. Several of the votes today were VERY CLOSE.  

  6. on actually being able to keep track of each of the speaker’s names!!!  I’m in awe!!!

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