No, seriously. [Jon Fleischman is reporting ] that John “15%” Doolittle is running for House Republican Conference Secretary. Here’s the full press release from FR (PDF). Doolittle says that he’s a grrrrrreat Congressman in the release:
“Since coming to Congress, I have sought to provide unyielding support for the Republican cause and for those striving to join our crusade for smaller government, lower taxes, and fiscal restraint,” Doolittle said.
No mention of all the investigations into the question of foreign governments paying for his vacations. No mention of any losses in Congress yesterday. The man’s in denail Oh, and look he even has a sweet campaign website for the other dirty congressman to learn how to rake in the lobbyist cash.
Sweet, pick him…he’s a shining paragon of GOP virtues.
So, I have a few thoughts I’d like to share, state and national. Agree, disagree, whatever.
Rahm Emmanuel might get a lot of credit, but take a closer look. He spent $3million on Tammy Duckworth when we already had a strong candidate there…and lost. Similarly, he gave up on CA-11 after his (and Ellen Tauscher’s) hand-picked Republican Democratic nominee Steve Filson lost. After getting polling data that was very positive for Jerry McNerney, he finally got back into the race.
In my book, the DCCC was a non-factor in CA-11. They refused to listen to people who lived in the district, who supported Jerry, and brought in their own man. Credit should go to the Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and the Human Soceity who worked tirelessly in their IEs. The DCCC…nothing. This was a win for the grassroots, the netroots, and for the people of CA-11.
The Blue-Dog Democrat myth. Again, this is just BS. Dems in Dem-heavy districts did well. A couple of races are still too close to call, but take for example, I dunno, CA-11. Jerry? No Blue-dog there. We do not need to become Republican lite to win. We needn’t suck at the corporate sow. We need to complete the 6 in ’06 strategy. First thing: Raise the minimum wage. Now.
California is still blue. Wanna know how I know that? John Chiang is how I know that. I bet if you asked most Californians, including most Californians that voted for him, who John Chiang is, they’d say they have no clue. Yet he won, easily, despite a couple of massive IEs from Intuit, because they don’t want taxes to be easy for Californians, and by the Indian gaming interests, because…um, Tony Strickland sold out to them, and they were mad at labor. The special interests hit Chiang as hard as they could, yet he still defeated Strickland by 10 percent.
Nope, John Chiang won in California because he had a D next to his name. I know there are other factors (ie identity politics and endorsements from newspapers), but the real reason is that D. And that’s because we still have a good brand here. Let’s keep that brand strong for ’08!
UPDATE: I forgot to mention the Arizona initiative to ban gay marriage. It lost. A similar initiative will lose if it comes up in Massachusetts. People have seen that the sky has not come tumbling down. Polls in California show an initiative would be really close here. Don’t expect to see one soon, because they don’t want to lose another. Despite several losses, the tide has begun to turn on marriage equality.
I told you I’d be back bright and early! Well, all in all, a pretty good night. So, let’s get to some results:
Yes, Arnold won. But the only thing he proved is that the Democratic vision for this state is alive and well. By co-opting our platform, Arnold showed that the Republican vision for this state is just not one that we are prepared to deal with.
CA-11: Jerry won! Ding-dong the environmental witch is dead. Congratulations, this was really a victory for the netroots, a victory for ethics, and a victory for the environment.
Arnold’s coattails were non-existent, well, unless you can add Poizner’s $15million of his own money to those tails. The GOP took only the two statewide races, Gov and InsComm, and they were resoundigly defeated elsewhere.
CA-LtG: McClintock’s name ID wasn’t sufficient to propel him over the top and John Garamendi will be our next lite gov. I know this position is essentially powerless, but would you really want McClintock to have gubenatorial powers when Arnold leaves the state? Or to give him any further platform? Me neither.
CA-SoS: Woohoo! Debra Bowen won!!! Finally, somebody will address the issues of electoral integrity from the SoS office. Bowen will be a phenomenal SoS. You’ve done a good job, California.
CA-Controller: All that money that Intuit and the Indian gaming interests dumped into IEs for Strickland were completely unsuccessful. Chiang won this one going away. Again, he’ll do a great job.
The less competitive races: As expected Jerry Brown defeated Pooch and Lockyer defeated the repo’d man. Both were far better than their scary competition.
CA-InsComm: Well, Poizner was right, we cruzed, we losed. Next time, we’ll get some better candidates. However, in the interim, Poizner is now primed to run for governor, the position he wanted anyway. It’s time to start branding him the way we want.
DiFi won. Oh look, we have our “independent” senator back. We missed our shot to push her back to the left by running a primary challenger, but I think we learned a lesson from CA-36, where Marcy Winograd forced Jane Harman to pay attention to her consitituents. Perhaps that’s a lesson that some other Congress people should pay attention to
Right now it looks like Lynn Daucher(R) won by 13 votes in SD-34. Yes, thirteen. Currently the tally stands at 38,666 for Correa and 38,679 for Daucher. There will be a recount for sure and a thorough counting of all ballots and a check for provisionals. There was a lot of dirtiness in the OC’s elections, so this one is far from over.
Props: Well paint me stupid. I thought that some of the bonds would go down, but it looks like they all came through easily. Hmm, well, I was wrong. It happens sometimes when you go out on a limb, but Arnold and the DemGang went all out in the last two weeks and that seems to have worked. However, Props 85 and 90 were both defeated. Yay! Maybe they will stop trying to put that stupid parental notification on the ballot again and again. But I doubt it. This time it was beaten more soundly receiving only 45.9%,as compared to 47.2 last year.
We barely squeaked by on Prop 90. Whew!! That was way too close for comfort at 47.4% Yes. We’ll need to address paid signature gathering soon. I’m really sick of the Howie Rich’s of the world coming here and trying to mess with our system.
Props 86-89 all failed. The forces against them, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, the monied special interests and well I don’t know about 88, but they just got wiped out by the TV ads. They obfusicate the issue and hope people will just vote no. It worked this time. Next time we’re going to work just as hard. Particularly, Clean Money and the Alternative Energy/Oil Tax were good ideas. You haven’t heard the last of them.
I’ll be at Debra Bowen’s event in San Francisco tonight. It’s at Delancey street at 8pm (Town Hall Room). I believe Bill Lockyer, Jerry Brown and DiFi will all be there. I’m also going to try to stop at Alix Rosenthal’s party at the 500 Club in the Mission. I’ll try to do some periodic mobile blogging.
A few reports from around the blogosphere. Strangely, most of them seem to be coming from the OC? Hmmm. BradBlog has the best coverage for voting issues around the country.
The Liberal OC’s Mike reports on his voting experience in Garden Grove. Apparently, paper ballots were in short supply or well, no supply.
Also from the OC, Steve Young (CA-48) is reporting that heavily Dem precincts didn’t have enough English ballots and that some voters gave up or voted on Chinese/Spanish/Vietnamese ballots. (BradBlog)
Speaking of problems, Election Protection, the people who run the National Voter Hotline are reporting some trouble at the polls, mostly focused in the midwest. Go Early, and allow time to vote. The ballot is long…ok, really long. So, take your time. Note that anybody in line at 8pm must be allowed to vote.
Today’s Field Poll (PDF) predicts turnout to only slightly eclipse 50% of registered voters or 36% of elligible voters. (Riverside Press)
“Democratic Voters Choice”, the sleazy slate mailer company bolson pointed out yesterday, is at it again (SacBee). This time Dan Lungren, you know the former conservative AG and gubenatorial candidate, was the choice over real Democrat Bill Durston. The editor of the mailer said it was “a typesetting mistake”. Uh…nope, I don’t buy it. Message #34 to the legislature: Clean up the Slate Mailer System NOW!
Arnold has been “recast” as … a moderate? Perhaps? Where’s he going in the next term? Is he going to run for Senate in 2010? Could I stand a Senator Schwarzenegger? Oh please, go vote for Phil!!
Hey looky! Lisa Vorderbrueggen finally figured out that there’s a real race in CA-11. Maybe she can spend December covering former Congressman Pombo as he hunts kit fox on his ranch.
Thanks everybody, this election is important to all of us. Work hard today, and party hard tonight!
It’s a cute little slogan, but it means a lot. As for me? Well, I called voters in Brentwood for McNerney yesterday, and this morning (VERY early) went around and put door hangers up for my favorite local candidate, Alix Rosenthal. So, let’s make sure we rustle up every vote today. We can rest/party at 8PM. Now, let’s get Debra Bowen, Jerry McNerney, Charlie Brown, John Garamendi, David Roth…etc elected!
Jerry McNerney (D) will unseat Rep. Richard Pombo (R). Our sources on the ground tell us that momentum is firmly in McNerney’s court and that late campaign help from Bill Clinton and scores of environmental groups is giving Resources Committee Chair Pombo a run for his money. Schwarzenegger’s get-out-the-vote operation may yet save Pombo, but we will go out on a limb and tap McNerney to win in an upset.
Sabato also thinks Doolittle will squeak by in the Fourth, let’s show him his crystal ball was a bit foggy on that one.
On the flip, I’ll begin building a database of election night events. Please add any events in the comments here.
Angelides for Governor
8pm at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, 1230 J Street, Sacramento.
Please RSVP to [email protected] or call 415-402-0920.
CA-11: Jerry McNerney
ELECTION NIGHT PARTY, after polls close, 8 PM
San Ramon Golf Club
9430 Fircrest Lane
San Ramon, CA 94583
CA-50, Busby Election Night Party! 8:00p.m. Join us at D Street Bar & Grill, located at 485 S. Coast Hwy. 101 in Encinitas for an evening of celebration. Info: Seena Seward at 760.479.0114 or [email protected] Download a printable invitation(PDF).
One more day folks. Let’s make sure we don’t lose any races because our voters didn’t make it to the polls. Call, walk, whatever. You know what to do.
Teasers: Another Datamar poll, Arnold has a restraining order against McClintock to keep him 100 miles away at all times, some journalistic fawning over Arnold, Pelosi push back and more!
Datamar (PDF) has another poll out (they just released one on 11/1). Same stuff really. Arnold’s lead (54-36_ is still bigger than DiFi’s lead (54-38). No way that happens.
Bonds: 1A-1E passing, except 1C, the housing bond. 84 passing
85 (Parental Notification) failing. That’s a good sign, because Datamar has a likely voter model tilted towards conservatives.
86-89 all below water. 90 is ahead, but just barely this time (46-45). This is with their summary saying it’s about Eminent Domain, so this propably a good sign.
LAT: Arnold hid from Republicans down-ticket, Angelides chased around the state. Don’t trust that though, because Arnold has his volunteers getting the vote out for McClintock. We cannot afford Tom McClintock being our Lt. Gov. The man is dangerous.
There are a series of journalists fawning over Arnold:
Carla Marinucci: Arnold is a visionary for acting like a moderate in public; he can really talk the moderate talk. Me: Too bad he can’t walk the moderate walk.
Turnout will be low. We need to make sure our voters go out and cast their ballots. We can’t afford a Lt. Gov. McClintock or another four years of McPherson. We need Garamendi and Bowen to win those elections.
Who really runs the Legislature in the era of term limits? The staffers.
The GOP has been trying this “Where’s Pelosi? We can’t find her.” line. Um, perhaps they missed 60 minutes two weeks ago, or they don’t attend Democratic campaign rallies. Um, strange, we can’t seem to find her on FOX News? Where is she. Funny part about this? Chris Wallace, yes the one who got smacked down by the Big Dog, rejected John Boehner’s “Where’s Pelosi” line by saying she was out campaigning. I must admit that I was pretty darn surprised.
