Someone needs to talk to Chuck.

If you’ve been watching your TV over the past few months, you’ve undoubtedly seen the rotoscoped ads (edited based on user input) from Charles Schwab that feature that tagline Talk to Chuck..  When you visit the website, you should notice the emblem at the lower right corner: a square “talk bubble” with “talk to Chuck” inside it.  Notice the style and font.

Now go over and have a gander at the website of self-styled conservative Republican (why anyone would call themselves that these days is beyond me) Chuck Devore, who is challenging Barbara Boxer for her Senate seat in 2010.

Scroll down.  Notice the “talk to Chuck” with the square talk bubbles and a very similar block font?  Definitely not coincidental.  And IANAL, but does this constitute some sort of infringement of intellectual property rights?  After all, if I were a brokerage, I wouldn’t want to be associated with a political candidate on either end of the spectrum.  Then again, if I were a political candidate on either end of the spectrum, I wouldn’t want to willingly associate myself with a brokerage house.  But then again, I’m not Chuck Devore.

On May 19, voters in the City of Los Angeles get to vote on more than just the special election propositions that the legislature has seen fit to saddle us with.  We also get to vote on certain elections that we just couldn’t manage to settle back in March.

Among those races, which include a couple of college board races and a hotly contested City Council race, is the runoff for City Attorney between City Councilmember Jack Weiss and attorney Carmen “Tru” Trutanich.  Now, it is not my intention–with this post, at any rate–to get into a discussion about the relative merits of the candidates.  No, my intention with this post is simply to chuckle publicly at the total incompetence of Tru’s web team.

Now, Carmen Trutanich has been going by the moniker “Tru” for the duration of this campaign–e.g. “a TRU crimefighter for City Attorney.”  As in, true.  Honest.  You get the idea.  Well, if you’re going to use the word “true” to define your campaign, there are certain things you need to make sure you do with it–which brings me to the subject of internet domains.

Now, Trutanich’s official site is tru09.com.  Fine.  Tru, and the election is in 09.  Got it.  But, of course, you always have to account for typos, bad memories, and misinterpretations.  Things like “true” instead of “tru” or “2009” instead of “09.”  Common sense things like that.

And on this count, Carmen Trutanich’s web team = FAIL.

Before getting started, view the regular site once on tru09.com before proceeding on this journey to hilarity.  First off, nice flash animation/movie trailer music.  Don’t you think?

So let’s get started.  Well, it appears that the only thing the “tru” web team counted on potential site visitors doing erroneously was keying “2009” instead of “09” into the address bar–because if you go to “tru2009.com” you get redirected to the main page.  So far, so good.

But apparently, they for some reason never thought that a campaign based on the word “true” might actually lead people to put the word “true” into the URL.  For instance, just watch what happens when you visit True09.com.  Same type of flash animation, and same Dungeons-and-Dragons video game music–which means that Tru’s team must own the site, or have used it experimentally, but just never bothered to redirect it.  But, that animation is all you get.  After the end of your lecture on the definition of the word “true”, you are in truth taken to random “stay informed” form–a website reminiscent of something Jean-Paul Sartre might have built had he shared his existentialism in our century.  Minor fail.

But here comes the major fail.  Tru’s team didn’t get true2009.com–which allowed his opponent, Jack Weiss, to turn it into attack site against him.  That’s just humiliating.  Now, I must say that the Weiss campaign needs to do a lot more with the page to seem effective themselves, but the idea that a campaign could be so inept as to leave one of their most prominent “domainsquatting” alternatives open to the opposing campaign to use as an attack site?  Absolutely unconscionable in the digital era.

I’ve just heard confirmation from fellow Calitics blogger Todd Beeton, who is Judy Chu’s internet director.  It turns out that Betty Tom Chu and Judy Chu are tangentially related–by marriage, not by blood.

Betty Chu is the wife of Judy Chu’s cousin Bob Chu.  Now, how well they know each other, I don’t know.  But this is the final word in the Chu v. Chu relationship saga.  Back to campaigning as usual.

This comes to me by way of a Young Democrat friend of mine, Ian Magruder at UC Berkeley.  

Steve Poizner, 2007:

Popular YouTube video:

Now, I’m not sure when the video was posted–the poster clarifies that she is not the author.  It could also be that Steve Poizner is basing what he’s saying off of the source of the “original research” mentioned.  But, to get the full effect, watch the video, then watch Steve Poizner’s speech.  Same deal, except without the “right here, right now” increasing your heart rate.

Someone in Judy Chu’s campaign wrote me to let me know that Betty Tom Chu and Judy Chu are not related.

So, presuming they’re correct, the family feud aspect of it is out.  But the voter confusion/entry of other decently known Chinese candidate into the race aspect still stands.

On Monday I wrote about longtime Solis aide Benita Duran’s entry into the CA-32 special race.  Now, I tend to agree with Mr. Dayen’s assessment that Benita Duran stands just about as much of a chance of winning a six-week sprint to the finish while trying to construct and campaign and fundraising apparatus as I do–and I’m not even a candidate in the race.  Which, of course, might engender speculation as to exactly why Duran announced so last-minute.

But that’s relatively small potatoes in comparison to the latest news from CA-32.  I checked the candidate filing page to see who else had filed, and one thing caught my eye: Judy isn’t the only Chu in the race.

It turns out that a certain Betty Tom Chu is running on the Republican ticket.  Simple name coincidence, you might think?  Anything but.  Betty Tom Chu is a former Monterey Park City Councilwoman, just like Judy used to be, who decided to run again.

Now, here’s where things get interesting:  I’ve heard from a couple of different sources, though I have been unable to confirm this independently, that Betty Tom Chu is Judy Chu’s aunt.  And this must have made for some very interesting politics in the Chu household, because Betty Chu turned out incumbent Monterey Park City Councilwoman Sharon Martinez, whom Betty’s niece Judy had endorsed for re-election.  For what it’s worth, my sources also seem to indicate that Betty and Judy don’t really get along too well.

So now, let’s talk about the political ramifications of this as it may turn out on May 19th.  All the candidates will appear on the same ballot, regardless of Party–which should mean that Betty and Judy will appear right next to each other on the ballot.  That right there could lead to a lot of voter confusion on the ballot.  But even more than that, it seems fair to reason that the appearance of another prominent Chinese candidate on the ballot, especially one who just won an election in March in an area that Judy is really counting on to win, does Judy no favors.  To further complicate matters, it seems like Betty should be able to actually self-fund a decent campaign, seeing as how she founded East West bank, which is a decently-sized retail bank serving the Asian community in Southern California.

Of course, Betty Chu is running on the Republican ticket, which means that she will stand little chance of defeating whichever Democrat emerges from the field in an overwhelmingly Democratic district.  And given the fact that Betty stands no chance of winning in July and was just elected to City Council, it’s definitely feasible to speculate that Betty Tom Chu has entered the CA-32 race specifically to sabotage her niece from taking the seat.

All of which is making me say: if you want to know who’s going to come out of the Democratic primary in this low-turnout special, you really should flip a coin.

Yesterday I mentioned the entry of longtime Solis staffer Benita Duran into the CA-32 special election.  As David Dayen pointed out, it’s not really likely that Duran will be able to win, given the fact that she is just now getting involved in a race where Chu and Cedillo will have both raised considerable amounts of money and have campaign infrastructures and name recognition, and where Emanuel Pleitez seems to be making more noise than widely expected, as evidenced by things like this.

I’ll leave it to others to speculate about Duran’s motives for entering the race.  But, inspired by this, I just checked the candidate list for the CA-32 special, and found something interesting:

Betty Chu is a City Councilmember in Monterey Park.  Unlike Judy, however, she’s a Republican.  That must have led to some interesting family politics in the Chu household recently, as Betty Chu recently defeated Judy Chu-endorsed CANDIDATE NAME HERE in the most recent Monterey Park City Council election.

A friend pointed me just now to this Congressional Quarterly article about a new entrant to the CA-32 special election to replace Hilda Solis.  Benita Duran, a former staffer to Hilda Solis, has thrown her hat into the ring:

Benita Duran, a longtime L.A.-based aide to new Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, is jumping into the race to succeed her former boss in the House, clouding the picture in an already crowded primary field.

The May 19 primary is all but certain to determine the next representative for the overwhelmingly Democratic 32nd District.

Though her candidacy is not yet on record with the Federal Election Comission, Duran has established a campaign Website.

That makes her the fourth candidate in the race, joining Judy Chu, the chairman of the state Board of Equalization, state Sen. Gil Cedillo and Emanuel Pleitez, who was a member of President Obama’s transition team.

How will this affect the race?  Your guess is as good as mine.  One could argue that the entry of another Hispanic helps Chu by further splitting a potential ethnic vote, but there’s also the possibility that the entry of another woman in the race could soften Chu’s support.  Or it’s possible that none of it could matter and labor will carry the day.

Me?  I’m looking forward to the FEC reports for Q1.

Last week, I posted a brief entry about CYD’s endorsements in CDP leadership races.  I received some complaints about it, and I agreed to post CYD’s official press release as a clarification of sorts.  It is rather lengthy, so I am posting the full text below the fold.

Santa Barbara, CA- The California Young Democrats (CYD) took official positions on the race for the California Democratic Party’s Executive Board:

Chair- John Burton.  A founding member of the San Francisco Young Democrats, John Burton has spent decades in the trenches fighting to put progressive principles into action. A leader on such issues as universal healthcare, college affordability and the living wage, CYD is confident that John Burton will continue to fight for issues young people across the state care most about. “As a former President of the Young Democrats I am pleased to have the strong support of the California Young Democrats in my campaign for CDP Chair” said Burton.  “In 2008, we witnessed more young people become active in state and national politics than ever before.  I look forward to working with these innovative leaders to use cutting edge campaign tactics including online organizing and “Peer to Peer” campaigning that was so effective on a national level last year.  Together we will continue to pursue our mutual goal – a blue California.”

Female Vice-Chair – Alex Rooker. There are few Democratic Party officials who have been more supportive of CYD than Alex Rooker. Rooker has put her commitment to grassroots involvement into action, providing organizational support and one-on-one mentorship to Young Democratic clubs, individuals and the Statewide Young Dems. A strong labor activist, Alex Rooker has been on the forefront of peer-to peer organizing. Rooker’s dedication to young people and progressive principles has earned her CYD’s Willie Brown mentor of the year award. “I am incredibly proud of my endorsement by the California Young Democrats. The ideas and enthusiasm young democrats bring to our party is not just representative our party’s future, but of what makes our party great today.”

Male Vice-Chair  DUAL ENDORSMENT – Evan Low and Eric Bauman. CYD is proud to endorse both Evan Low and Eric Bauman in their bids to become Male Vice-Chair of the CDP.

Evan Low. As Vice Mayor of Campbell and an active member of the Silicon Valley Young Democrats, Evan Lowe serves as a mentor and inspiration to all Young Democrats who aspire to public service. One of the youngest elected officials in the state, Evan Low is a tireless advocate for young people who want active participation and leadership roles in the Democratic Party. “The California Democratic Party put out a call to action for more young people to participate and get involved, and so I have answered that call to action and am honored to have the support my fellow young democrats” said Low.

Eric Bauman. As Chairman of the Los Angeles Democratic Party, Eric Bauman has been a mentor to the young and young at heart Democrats in Los Angeles and throughout the state.  Eric Bauman has put his rhetoric into action- funding red-to-blue programs in Los Angeles County and helping local democratic clubs and candidates’ acquire the tools they need to win elections. His passion and support of young people has earned him CYD’s Willie Brown mentor of the year award. “Young Democrats have reinvigorated the energy and passion of the Democratic Party.  I am proud to stand with the California Young Democrats as we seek to restore the luster of the golden state and the promise of a better tomorrow.”

Controller- Eric Bradley. A former President of the UCSB College Democrats and founding member of the Los Angeles County Young Democrats, Eric Bradley knows that young democrats need funding to succeed. His fundraising efforts in the 2008 cycle helped the CDP provide a college outreach director to coordinate student participation, voter registration and GOTV.  “I am absolutely thrilled to have the endorsement of the California Young Democrats” said Bradley. “As a former YD this is such a great honor for me”.

These decisions were made at the California Young Democrats’ Executive Board Meeting in Santa Barbara, California on Saturday, February 28, 2009. “72% of young voters in California cast their votes for Barack Obama last November,” said Rocky Fernandez, CYD President.  “As the California Young Democrats work to ensure that young Californians continue to support Democratic candidates and progressive policy agendas, we know that our endorsed candidates for the party leadership will be partners and mentors along the way.”

The California Young Democrats are in a position to make our endorsements count. Earlier this year, CYD’s “Young Delegate Project” helped elect more young California Democratic Party Executive Board delegates than at any time in CYD’s history.  CYD will be using the same network based, peer-to-peer tools that helped President Obama reach and activate millions of volunteers worldwide  to promote and advocate for our endorsed candidates.

#  #  #

The California Young Democrats is the official youth arm of the California Democratic Party, comprised of progressive people ages 14-35.  The California Young Democrats are committed to creating a bloc of young voters who will elect Democrats for an entire generation.  Using proven Peer to Peer campaign methods, Young Democrats have made significant differences in races all over California.  Young Democrats in California work everyday to promote social justice, women’s rights, peace and stability in the world, and many other progressive values.  There are over 100 California Young Democrats Chapters statewide.

Well, just about final, since there’s one precinct in Council District 9 still left.  But here’s a recap, pending provisionals (which could only seriously risk affecting who participates in a runoff in one race):

• Villaraigosa avoids the embarrassment of a runoff with 55.56%.
• Measure B appears to have failed.
• David Vahedi and Paul Koretz are headed to a runoff in CD5 after being separated by 60 votes; Adeena Bleich took a more distant third.
• Republican attempts to win College Board seats failed, as Santiago and Lowry retain their seats.  The other incumbents, Angela Reddock in seat 2 and Nancy Pearlman in seat 6, fell a few points shy of winning outright and will face a runoff.
• Steve Zimmer and Nury Martinez win their respective LAUSD races.
• Wendy Greuel is the new LA City Controller.

The following campaigns will continue onto the May 19th General Municipal Election:

• City Attorney: Jack Weiss (36.47%) vs. Carmen Trutanich (26.93%)
• City Council District 5: David Vahedi (21.7%) vs. Paul Koretz (21.47%)
• Community College Seat 2: Angela Reddock (47.88%) vs. Tina Park (19.52%)
• Community College Seat 6: Nancy Pearlman (48.7%) vs. Robert Nakahiro (13.33%)

In West Hollywood, incumbent Mayor Prang and Councilmember Duran appear to have coasted to re-election.