Back in 2008, I pointed out a suspicious flyer that looked like it held the Democratic Party endorsements, but didn’t. Well, it’s back! Take your pick: Democrat or Independent, you probably got a flyer this week that looks like a very handy voter guide.

And the source of those recommendations?

This time I dug a bit deeper, looking up the return address. It turns out that the flyer comes from Political consultant Larry Levine, who is happy to endorse you on his flyer – for a price.

He’s probably not breaking any laws with this, but it is sure slimy; especially the flyer for Democrats that looks like an official Democratic Party slate card (which I am still waiting to receive).

If you look very closely, you will see that candidates Gavin Newsom, Alberto Torrico, and Dave Jones paid for his endorsement at the statewide level, and John Creighton paid for the endorsement as Superior Court Judge locally.  And of the propositions, PG&E and Mercury Insurance paid for Levine’s endorsements of Propositions 16 and 17.

How does that compare to the Democratic Party endorsements? The only overlap is that Dave Jones got the party’s endorsement.  (I’m disappointed in Jones for participating!)  All other races either didn’t have party endorsements, or are the opposite of the Democratic Party endorsement.

It’s really a shame that thousands of voters around California are probably going to actually look at, and use this flyer in making their judgments.

(And check out this for a laugh: There’s a “No on Prop 14” blurb on the flyer, which does correspond to the Democratic Party endorsement. On the flyer targeted to Democrats, it has a quotation attributed to California Democratic Party chair John Burton.  (This makes the flyer seem legitimate, right?) On the flyer targeted to Independents, it has the same quotation, except that it substitutes “Independent voters” for “Democrats,” but this time It’s attributed to Allan Clark, President of the California School Employees Association. Hmmmm.)

At least it’s nice to see that this flyer is getting some attention as being a scam.  One blog post on Daily Kos uncovered it a several years ago; a concerned citizen has created a website www.VoterInformationGuide.org warning people who may have googled the flyer about its true origins.  And just today, a SFWeekly blog post has a great headline: Gavin Newsom Pays For Endorsement in Bogus ‘Voter Information Guide’.

It’s important that the old-school, cigar-smoking, deal-making, money-grubbing political operatives are exposed.

It’s no surprise that on his flyer, Levine recommends a NO vote on Proposition 15.  He didn’t need anybody to pay him for that position – Proposition 15 is the first step in putting the likes of him out of business.

Let’s put him out of business.

(Cross-posted from A Progressive Alamedan)

(More AD success. danwood also blogs at A Progressive Alamedan. Edited to move some text below the jump – promoted by jsw)

Yesterday we had our elections for delegates to represent the 16th Assembly District (Alameda, Piedmont, and most of Oakland) for the Democratic Party.  We had  265 votes cast, which was phenomenal turnout.

The winners:

Women: Michelle Gabriel, Suzy Goldmacher, Linda Joseph, Tara Marchant, Rachel Richman, Veronica J. Williams

Men: Mark Briggs, Arnold G. Fong, Jason Gohlke, Wayne Nishioka, Anand Singh, Dan Wood.

Mark Briggs was elected as the Executive Board representative.

It was a clean sweep for the candidates who had organized together as a progressive slate.  I think this was due to some intense outreach on our part to our friends and neighbors, and the fact that we had the backing of East Bay For Democracy and the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, who apparently contacted all of their members with our information.  It also didn’t hurt that 2/3rds of our slate was endorsed by assemblymember Sandré Swanson and 100% of it was endorsed by former assemblymember Wilma Chan.  We worked really hard to put together a group of people that is active, passionate, and diverse in many ways, and I think our district will be well-represented.

I was very pleased to win and see the fine folks I was running with all win.  Actually it was kind of surreal that we all won, because there were many other great, progressive candidates running as well, and I wished that somehow there was some way for them to win as well!  We are all on the same side here, regardless of slight differences in approaches to things.  Choosing among candidates who are so like-minded is difficult.  Fortunately – I hope – those who didn’t make it as delegates will continue their great work.  Actually, there are possibilities for some of them to become delegates in spite of the election results; elected officials like Sandré Swanson can appoint up to five delegates themselves.  He has a great selection to choose from.

The election process was a bit strange, though I guess it went smoothly as could be expected.  I had heard about a few logistical problems that had happened around the state in Saturday’s elections, and I made a point to warn our convener and the many volunteers about them, just to be on the safe side.  Most ballots were cast by people showing up, filling out their ballot, and then leaving, so when it came time for the candidates to give their one-minute speeches, it wasn’t in front of a particularly big audience.  I think that next time, it would be better to have a particular scheduled time for the event to start, then a time for the speeches to start, and then after the speeches are over, a period of time for the ballots to be cast.  That way, people could do a quick drop-off of their ballots if needed during  certain time period, but at least the candidates would be likely to have a more substantial audience.  Keeping the ballot boxes open for a bit of time after the speeches would allow for latecomers, allow candidates and citizens to talk and discuss after the speeches but before the votes, and possibly give people a chance to pick and choose candidates better, based on what they heard.

In any case, I’m jazzed for this April’s convention in San Diego.  I really appreciate everybody who took time out of their busy day to come out in the cold for this.

(Cross-posted and slightly updated from A Progressive Alamedan)