The general election has begun.  On a random Thursday night, when most political junkies were watching POW McCain’s cottage cheese and lime Jello speech at the RNC convention, in a town notoriously hard to get anywhere in on time, 2,000 people showed up at the opening of Barack Obama’s first campaign office in Southern California.

There were a couple speeches from locals (Eric Garcetti, Harb Wesson, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and a couple others) at the beginning, and they handed out a few yard signs and bumper stickers, but basically, this was an office opening.  Just a walk-through of the building.  And the campaign sent only one email out about it, with just 24 hours advance notice.

Two thousand people.

Wow.

over…

Practically every local TV station in L.A. was out there, including a NEWS CHOPPER.  It basically turned into a block party, with supporters waving signs at passersby on the street.  But there was also some positive work being done.  Most of the people who turned out to the event signed up to volunteer, whether by phone banking or traveling to Nevada.  It’s a large enough office to handle a lot of volunteers at once.  And they are organized and ready.

I was able to talk with Mitchell Schwartz, who will be the California Field Director for the next two months.  He said the goal of the office was to win California, and then help Nevada.  So there will be legitimate actions taken here to increase turnout, which bodes well for the propositions and downticket races, even though the Obama campaign will strictly be trying to identify and turn out Obama voters.  The CDP is running a coordinated campaign for downticket (they had their opening in Santa Monica on the same night, which kind of shows how the two entities aren’t really working together).

What’s more, Schwartz told me that there are going to be up to 10 field offices opening in California over the next week or two, including 3-4 more in the SoCal area (East LA and San Bernardino are likely to get one, among other locations).  There will be places to work.

There was a genuine excitement last night.  I think what we’re seeing on the ground post-Palin is a real determination to get to work.  There is a backlash to the conservative culture war backlash they are trying to ride to victory.  The community organizer slur in Republican speeches on Wednesday continues to be a rallying cry for Democrats, spawning viral videos and major media coverage.

For community organizers, the Republican vice presidential candidate didn’t just drag their profession through the mud, she mocked the entire belief that Americans can’t collectively work to solve problems.

“I think it demonstrated that they don’t take common people seriously,” says Gonzalez. “They put all their trust and faith in themself and other electeds… just elect me and I’m gonna fix your problems. Who believes that?” […]

“I think it was a cute line that she felt like she could deliver,” says Gonzalez. But, “it invites a contempt for organized Americans, and I think that is incredibly dangerous and short-sighted.”

The denigration of community organizing really hit a nerve, and I think now there’s a common opponent, one that’s bigger than McCain and more visceral.  “We’re going to show everyone what community organizing is about,” said one attendee to me.  I think  Jon Stewart summed it up best, as per usual:

So to everyone out there trying to make a difference in your communities, FUCK YOU!  You stupid asses!  You jerk-offs!  You know what you are?  You’re a thousand points of bullshit, that’s what you are.  By the way, if it seems odd that the GOP was denigrating community service, the night after making “service” their slogan… you’re confused.  Those Republicans were not praising service with those signs, they were demanding it from the waitstaff.

(Never underestimate the ability of Republicans to keep two contradictory notions in their head at the same time.  Indeed, in last night’s address, John McCain appeared to flip back to advocacy for community service and community organizing.  They are for service, except when it’s done to help scary black people.  That’s basically it in a nutshell.)

This is no joke.  The Obama campaign raised $10 million in one day this week, after a fundraising email explicitly mentioned the slur on community organizing.  That speaks volumes.  People are energized and fired up.  The spirit of 2004, as Van Jones termed it at the DNC last week, is back.  We almost carried a weaker candidate over the line that year because everybody worked together and did whatever they could to win.  And now we’re seeing that to the nth degree, with better organization and more energy.

Go out and get involved.

NOTE: Because I never gave it out, the Los Angeles HQ is at 3619 Motor Ave. in the Culver City area.

You may remember that Arnold Schwarzenegger sued John Chiang in state court to follow his order, and his dream, of cutting all state worker salaries to the minimum wage while we wait for a budget.  The court date was set for September 12, which salvaged the salaries for the month of August.  Chiang’s next move was to partner with some labor allies and move the lawsuit into the federal courts.  This not only would delay the question of whether or not Chiang needs to follow the order, but removes a serious liability problem for the state, because if they slashed salaries per a state court order and then had it overturned by the feds, they would be on the hook for expensive penalties and payments.  

Now, this has become complete, with the state canceling the September 12 court date.

This afternoon, controller spokesman Jacob Roper delivered this bit of news via e-mail to the State Worker:

Since the case has moved to the Federal court, the Sept 12th superior court hearing will not be held. A group of labor organizations has filed a motion to move the case from the Eastern Federal district to the Northern district, and a hearing on that motion is scheduled for October 31.

Roper also restated the controller’s position that cutting salaries to minimum wage would be a massive, time-consuming reprogramming task, “so there is no reason to believe that minimum wage checks would be issued anytime soon.”

While the lingering budget crisis is still incredibly painful for all manner of Californians, with missed payments sure to come if nothing is settled by the end of the month, at least the state workers have John Chiang in their corner, fighting for their interests.  And this is mirrored by the stirring testimony of everyday workers who are losing their benefits and the control of their lives as the Yacht Party turns up its nose and turns its back on the people.  John Chiang is doing his part, and Republican rank and file citizens are putting on the pressure in selected districts; the only way to ultimately win this fight is at the ballot box.

• Everybody’s waiting to see what Sarah Palin will have to say at 7:30PT.  I’m on record; she’s going to do great, and she’ll be feted by the media for it.  Very little of it will be true, but she’s on home court and is an engaging speaker.  Some speech samples here.  The speech is going to be tough and straight-up politics of resentment.  We’ll see if she can channel her anger at being called out for ridicule this week; I think she’s up to the task, and this backlash stuff is standard Republican politics when they are put up against the wall.  Stoller is asking the right question – will this be the right way to introduce yourself to the whole nation, including independents?

• Turning locally, while Arnold missed the festivities in St. Paul to look very serious about the budget, Pete Wilson made it out there in his stead – and he slammed Schwarzenegger’s call for a tax increase, clearly temporarily forgetting the increase of his own.  And when he was reminded, he said, “The situation was very different.”

• Among the bills about to land on the Governor’s desk is an equal pay bill.  This has become a big issue in the Presidential race, and I’m glad to see the legislature on the right side of it.

• This is a good Chris Hayes piece from The Nation about union members at the RNC, but the California-specific part about the SEIU-UHW fight I found just right:

The more I talked to the UHW members and heard their grievances, the more I thought about the fact that organized labor has two goals that can often come into tension: power and dignity. We tend to focus on the power aspect in politics: the power to collectively bargain, to make sure labor captures a fair share of profits, to demand higher wages–all of which have been in sharp decline. That’s the objective nature of unionization. The subjective nature of unionization, though, is dignity. It is the process by which working people come to believe that their views and their ideas and their demands are important. That they should be listened to. These two values can be in tension, as I suspect might be the case in California. Sometimes maximizing power might (I stress might, because the UHW-SEIU situation is very, very complicated) require people to fall in line, but the prerogative of dignity is to speak out and stand up.

• I’m interested in hearing more about Prop. 5.  Anything that rolls back our stupid and shortsighted drug war is positive, in addition to addressing the prison crisis.  Martin Sheen, of all people, has joined up with the No on 5 crowd, being run by the people who brought you the pro-Denham team during the aborted recall.

• Just noting the prison guard payoff to Don Perata because nobody else has.

Open thread time.

You wouldn’t think that anyone would look at the dysfunction that is the California legislature and use it as a model, but that’s precisely what the national Republicans have done in their party platform, as the eagle-eyed Matt Yglesias discovers:

Page 16 of the Republican Platform endorses a Balanced Budget Amendment “to require a balanced budget except in times of war” and then page 17 says that “because the problem is too much spending, not too few taxes, we support a supermajority requirement in both the House and Senate to guard against tax hikes.”

The next time you see some legislative Republican weeping crocodile tears about the impact of the late budget, understand that they consider it a success, all the way up to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and John McCain.  They desire a balanced budget amendment and supermajorities to pass tax increases, so that no matter who holds the seat of power, spending cuts must be used as the only possible answer to any fiscal crisis or economic downturn, with no consequent way to reverse them after the downturn subsides.  This is what they want – they think a paralyzed government is the best possible solution.  In fact, if they could do away with the government itself – except for the cushy salaries for the lawmakers and their staffs, of course – then it would be absolutely perfect.

In practice, there aren’t enough votes to make the desired spending cuts, either, so the only recourse is borrowing.  So what the Republican wet dream really looks like is a perpetual mortgaging of the future, spending billions upon billions in taxpayer money for no material benefit.

When we do get the opportunity to overturn this at the ballot box, what has to be made clear is that Republicans want no part of governing.  They are hostage-takers, and far from this being a localized problem in California, it’s a national strategy to strangle government, and to lock in impossible burdens that constrain Democrats and Republicans alike.  There’s a name for professional hostage-takers, but I don’t think I need to tell you what it is.

Man, it’ll be good to have a Democrat in charge who understands the importance of progress instead of covering your ass and rewarding your friends:

“First of all, though it doesn’t help much this year, I think this process and the frustration many of us are expressing reveals what must be done next year.

We need to not only think about but begin planning for taking significant questions about state and public finance back to the people of California. And next year as your leader I intend to do that. I’m not going through this anymore. I’m tired of it. It’s unproductive. It does nothing for the way people view us.

You’re right Senator Aanestad, under the current state of the Constitution; it is a two-thirds requirement to pass a state budget. And I know that question has been taken to the people in one form or another. But maybe it has not been take to the people in the right form, at the right time. And so, be prepared next year. Whether it is through the legislature or by the initiative process, we’re not going to go through this anymore.

If Darrell Steinberg was in charge right now, Jeff Denham wouldn’t be in the State Senate.  Abel Maldonado would be hanging on for dear life.  And we’d have a 2/3 majority.  Because he would prioritize it.  He would design the entire year around achieving it.  Don Perata simply has failed in understanding what is crippling this state.  Steinberg gets it.  And finally, progressives and the legislature will be on the same page.  For now, we struggle with the failed perspective of the past.

Technically, the session is over in Sacramento, but of course, with no budget, the work will go on.  More on that in a moment, but let’s take a look at the bills that have passed thus far.

Hundreds of bills passed through their respective houses and made their way to the Governor’s desk.  Among those passing:

• AB 1945, which cracks down on insurance company rescission policies

• SB 1301, the California DREAM Act, allowing children of illegal immigrants to access financial aid for college

• SB 375, a major land use bill that would improve transportation planning and reduce urban sprawl (this is a real coup)

• AB 583, the Clean Money pilot project bill that would make the 2014 Secretary of State election a Clean Money race.

UPDATE: More bill passage from the indispensable Frank Russo:

• AB 1830 (Lieu): This is the good version of the subprime mortgage bill that passed in a weaker state earlier this year.

• AB 180 (Bass): Another mortgage bill that seeks to go after predatory lenders and “foreclosure consultants.”

• SB 1440 (Kuehl): This is a big one.  It sets a minimum requirement that insurers spend at least 85% of their premiums on health care.

• SB 840 (Kuehl): The single-payer bill, which will be promptly vetoed by the Governor, sadly.

• A couple toxic chemicals bills: AB 1879 and SB 509.

• AB 2939 (Hancock): Allowing cities and counties to implement stricter green building guidelines than state law, which are already tightening through SB 375.

Among the bills that failed:

• SB 1522, a health care reform bill which would have standardized the individual health care market and made it easier to comparison shop, as well as set a floor for basic minimum care.  That those who most strongly pushed for comprehensive health reform would fail to pass this common-sense fix makes no sense to me.

• SB 110, which would have created an independent sentencing commission to review and revised sentencing guidelines and parole standards.  Another failure of leadership in our prison crisis, as lawmakers refuse to loosen their grip on the rules which they’ve abused and led to this disaster.

As for the budget, now the legislature, out of session by constitutional mandate, must work on nothing else.  Sen. Perata has called the bluff on the Republicans, asking them to formally submit their unspeakably cruel budget plan so that the whole state can see their priorities for what they are.

There was a strange colloquy near the end of yesterday’s Senate session (Republican Senator Jim Battin is pictured at right), where the Republicans were clearly caught flatfooted, flustered in their responses like school kids admonished for not doing their homework, and having a hard time coming to grips with what Perata told them. This is a reprise of what Perata did last year when Senate Republicans held the budget up and when he asked them to come up with their own proposal.

Perata: Right now, the bill that I brought up yesterday is kind of an orphan. You have your opportunity to present a bill that you outlined today in your press conference. I appreciate the fact that there is a substantial amount of work to be done on that bill. We know, because we started ours 8 months ago. So you’ve got a lot of work to do. But we’re very confident you can do it. Every day we will be here to see how we’re doing […]

Republican Senator Jim Battin: I just want to make sure I understand what your expectations are. So what you want from our caucus is a full budget document, is that correct?

Perata: Yeah. A budget.

Battin: And every day we are preparing that, you want to meet.

Perata: Yeah. You know what I don’t’ want to do is to be caught in that position where people are getting confused whey we don’t have a budget. Now every day we meet, we can say, “you’re working on it.”

Battin: And you also want to have the trailer bills as well?

Perata: Yeah. A budget.

Battin: You would actually allow us to bring it up for a vote on the floor?

Perata: You betcha.

Battin: So my expectation is that it will fail…And then what?

Perata: Let’s not prejudge. You may come up with a piece of work that will knock our socks off. So let’s see what you will do.

It’s a neat trick, and good for political purposes.  I don’t know how it gets us closer to a budget.  Schwarzenegger still wants the sales tax hike, Yacht Party Republicans are still dead-set against it, and Democrats are trying to compromise and on the edge of cracking.  But they seem to believe, this time around, that the budget can be blamed on Republicans in November and there’s a benefit in campaigning on the issue (I think that’s why Perata wants a real plan).

So nobody knows how this ends.  And the victims are the public employees, the long-term care workers, the schools, the health clinics, the everyday Californians that did nothing wrong and don’t deserve this anxiety.  

The most hotly anticipated State Senate election this year is in the 19th District covering Santa Barbara and Ventura County, between Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson and Republican Tony Strickland.  Though the two are almost polar opposites, the chunk of the district in Santa Barbara, where residents have long memories about the 1969 oil spill, makes it impossible for Republicans to win with their “Drill Now” message on energy.  So Tony Strickland opted to run some ads that Al Gore might have run were he to be contesting in the district, highlighting renewable energy through wind, solar, algae, tidal and other forms.  This is completely at odds with Strickland’s doctrinaire Republican record, with votes against green building standards, minimum renewable energy standards, and even fuel-efficient tires.  Strickland has taken money from Big Oil and stood with global warming denialists in the recent past.  It’s incongruous for him to carry a pro-environment message.

So I hooked up with the Courage Campaign and the California League of Conservation Voters to put together a little video highlighting this incongruity.

What’s interesting is that the Courage Campaign’s Web tool invited those supporters who received their email blast to spread the word, and they were so successful, both online political reporters at the Ventura County Star, the region’s biggest newspaper, covered the video.  More important, the Jackson campaign has been energized to fight back against some of Strickland allies’ misleading ads on taxes, and in doing so buttresses the outside groups’ take about Strickland’s terrible environmental record.

So progressive groups are ensuring that Strickland gets away with nothing in this race, and in turn the Jackson campaign is fighting back as well and counter-punching swiftly and effectively.  This is a growing success story in the 19th.