A major article in today’s LA Times alleges Tyrone Freeman and SEIU Local 6434 routinely misused local funds, including giving contracts to family members:

The Los Angeles-based union, which represents low-wage caregivers, also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, a Beverly Hills cigar club, restaurants such as Morton’s steakhouse and a consulting contract with the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent shop, records show.

In addition, the union paid six figures to a video firm whose principals include a former union employee. And a now-defunct minor league basketball team coached by the president’s brother-in-law received $16,000 for what the union described as public relations, according to the union’s U.S. Labor Department filings and interviews.

It’s not clear if there are any legal violations here, and Freeman and his family members deny that there was anything inappropriate in the contracts and spending:

“Every expenditure has been in the context of fighting poverty,” [Freeman] said…. Freeman, 38, said the union’s members have benefited from the money spent on the video production and day-care companies that his wife and mother-in-law operate at their homes, because of what he termed the high quality of the services.

The article goes on to detail the expenditures and flaws with them, some of which went to nonprofits in trouble with the IRS and “entities” associated with former LA Rams star Eric Dickerson that have been suspended from doing business in California.

Labor unions constantly have to battle the usually false perception that they misuse funds, and face a well-funded right-wing campaign that seeks to undermine unions for even the slightest error. Most unions, including those I’ve been a part of, are very scrupulous about how they use money to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, so I am very surprised to hear that this was going on.

And I’m not alone in that. The article quotes Nelson Liechtenstein, one of the nation’s leading labor historians, as follows:

It’s very important for unions not to do this kind of thing,” he said. “Union leadership is a public trust — all the more so when the people being represented are among the lowest-paid in America.”…

Lichtenstein said the [$418,000 golf] tournament spending was troubling under any circumstances.

“I don’t care if they’re making money or not,” he said. “It’s disconnected from the world of the people they’re representing. No one’s playing golf who’s a home healthcare worker.

And Joe Matthews at Blockbuster Democracy blog is even more critical, calling for Freeman’s resignation:

So this is going to be a difficult test of the union movement in LA and nationallly. But it’s a test. Freeman needs to step down and offer a full-throated apology. The union needs to ask for an independent audit of the local. And the public needs to hear immediately from union leadership — Stern, county labor chief Maria Elena Durazo, other top SEIU leaders such as janitors’ union chief Mike Garcia — about how such conduct must not be permitted in the movement. So far, the silence is deafening. Stern, in the story, refuses to address the conduct in question. That won’t cut it.

Why does the action need to be so clear-cut? Because the labor movement is on the rise in Los Angeles. To attend a city council meeting or a mayoral press conference is to watch the labor movement governing the city. As the journalist Harold Meyerson has written, the rise of the LA unions as a labor force has been aided by the widespread perception that our unions are not old-style, corrupt empires. This is supposed to be new labor. The public needs to see transparency and accountability in the response to this.

As for Freeman, I hope he can make amends for this conduct and have a future in the labor movement. But it can’t be as president of this local.

Matthews has it exactly right. The SEIU leadership needs to show that they won’t tolerate this kind of action within their ranks. Union democracy is important, and so is union accountability, union honesty, and union ethics. The misdeeds of one local unfortunately tend to get used to attack the labor movement as a whole – and Andy Stern and Tyrone Freeman in particular owe that movement answers and action.

One of the newer entries into the California right-wing blogosphere is Fox and Hounds Daily, a project of the Small Business Action Committee and its head, Joel Fox. Fox was the longtime head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which helps explain Fox’s absurd anti-tax screed about various local taxes on the LA ballot.

Whenever right-wingers start expressing concern about how taxes will impact working people, those working Californians should immediately be skeptical. Since when have conservatives expressed genuine concern for the needs of the poor, or the shrinking middle class? Conservatives have long used taxes to attain populist credibility with working Californians but a close examination of Fox’s article shows that this is based on a lie. The right-wing anti-tax movement is directly responsible for the dire straits working Californians find themselves in today, and the proposals Fox criticizes would do much to help save them money.

This is the core point that Democrats and progressives need to be repeatedly hitting – taxes save you money. Take for example the proposed LA Metro sales tax that Fox uses as a prime target:

The MTA wants a ½-cent sales tax hike for thirty years to cover various transportation projects. When implemented (if passed), L.A.’s sales tax will be 8.75%. That assumes there will be no state sales tax increase that may come along in a state budget deal. If that happens, along with a successful MTA sales tax increase, Los Angeles residents will be looking at a sales tax over 9%.

Nowhere in the article does Fox mention what the tax would be used for. It’s a typical disinformation move – complain about higher taxes but fail to explain what it would provide. As gas prices soared, working Californians’ wallets were squeezed, perhaps nowhere moreso than in Los Angeles County, which has a growing mass transit system but remains overly reliant on automobiles for commuting.

The LACMTA proposal would address that by providing billions for desperately needed mass transit projects, whether it’s the Subway to the Sea, the Foothill Extension of the Gold Line, or some other project. Mass transit saves people money. Real money. That’s why ridership on the LACMTA’s rail lines soared this year. Southern Californians are desperate for mass transit options so that they can save money. Why does Fox want to deny them that option?

More over the flip…

Small businesses have an especially strong interest in mass transit. Many of their workers have been priced out of the LA city center and have to move to the suburbs. Rising gas prices hit them hard, and that makes it difficult for LA small businesses to retain workers. Of course, when people pay more at the pump, their retail spending drops. Big chains can weather that decline far better than small and medium businesses can.

Of course, Fox is merely advancing an ideological agenda under the cover of defending small business. Otherwise why would he oppose Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to hire more cops? Small businesses can’t afford to hire their own security the way the big chains can. And small businesses need good schools to provide the trained workers that they need to survive.

It’s not just small businesses that ought to reject Fox’s concern trolling. Working Californians have seen widening inequality over the last 30 years – which just so happens to be the same length of time that anti-tax politics that have dominated our state. They’re suffering largely because they don’t have the same public services that produced the prosperous middle class in the 1950s and 1960s. Tax cuts have meant higher college fees, higher transportation costs, and higher health care costs for fewer services.

The legacy of tax cuts in California is a destructive one. But until Democrats and progressives start explaining that tax cuts actually cost more to small business and working Californians than higher taxes, conservative faux-populism will continue to dominate our state. Fox is overt about his strategy:

But turnout is unlikely to counterbalance the piling on effect taxpayers will feel from all these tax measures. Constant talk of tax increases will blur the different measures in taxpayers’ minds and some, if not all of the measures, could face a voter backlash.

The response, then, is to constantly talk about the savings that these public services will provide – and the costs of not approving these taxes. How much money will Southern Californians have to shell out at the pump over the next ten years without the LACMTA sales tax?

If we are to defeat folks like Fox, we need to provide the answers to those kind of questions.

(I work for Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group.)

Yesterday, the DEA raided a medical marijuana dispensary in Culver City, spending hours on site detaining employees and ultimately leaving the facility in disarray. This is unfortunately not an unusal story. Since 2005, the DEA has raided dozens of state-sanctioned dispensaries in California.

But this time was different. We're used to the DEA calling in help from various federal agencies and local law enforcement. But I guess none of their usual buddies were available yesterday because from the picture below, which appeared in the LA Times today, it looks like they had to resort to calling in Blackwater:

The DEA often likes to say that medical marijuana is not their top priority (though at the height of the raids last year, they were raiding an average of one dispensary per week). They like to argue that medical marijuana raids do not take resources away from other drug interdiction. Yet this photo makes me wonder – if they have sufficient resources to shut down meth labs and to bust medical marijuana providers, why do they need the help of Blackwater, a private agency?

Yet another reason we need Congress to hold oversight hearings on DEA medical marijuana activities. Good to know that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is concerned about this issue and has already begun to question the DEA on its actions.

The City of Los Angeles is joining San Francisco in putting into effect a ban on all plastic shopping bags. The Los Angeles City Council announced today that the plastic bag ban will go into effect July 1, 2010. The L.A. Times reports that the ban is at all grocery stores as well as retail markets. The regulation will only go into effect if the State fails to charge customers a $.25 fee for requesting plastic bags. San Francisco passed a similar ordinance back in 2007.

The City Council is hoping to cut the number of bags that wash into the Los Angeles river every year. The plastic bag industry, which has a lobbying group, filed a lawsuit last week challenging the plan. We’ll see what happens in the next two years.  

Eric Bauman is going to raise $1 million dollars for 2008.  The best part is how he’s going to spend it.

Last night, members of the Los Angeles County Central Committee raised their hands to take an oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, and took to electing Party officers.  Among them was Chairman Eric Bauman, unanimously re-elected to a fifth term.

I’m told that’s a record.  From his words last night, it’s easy to see why.

Bauman has been singled out here as someone who speaks his mind and knows the mechanics of electioneering, even when his opinions and techniques run against the grain of some Democratic leaders.

He showed what he’s made of in thanking the Central Committee and looking ahead to 2008 – and perhaps beyond:

Now is the time to rebuild, refresh and reassemble the mosaic that comprises our Democratic Party for it is only through unity, strength and shared purpose that we can be successful this fall.

As we work to build unity however, we must take seriously our responsibility to remind those we have elected or put in positions of power of their obligation to do the right thing by our Party and our people.

Whether it is protecting those most at-risk from harsh budget cuts or standing up for our Constitution or avoiding situations and actions that have the appearance of impropriety, as leaders of our Party, we must not fear holding feet to the fire and speaking truth to power.

If we truly are leaders, we must act like it: respectfully, responsibly, but fearlessly.

Who else senses a little tough love in there?

What I find interesting about Bauman’s leadership of the LACDP is not just his (sadly uncommon) willingness to speak truth to power, but how he marshalls forces and resources on the ground to help candidates up and down the ballot, even in those districts often written off as unwinnable.

After the jump I’ll share what I heard last night (and from Bauman separately), and what I’ve seen him do to build and strengthen the Democratic Party in Los Angeles County.

In nominating remarks, presumptive Assemblyman John A. Pèrez noted that in Bauman’s time as LACDP Chair, the organization had grown from an annual budget of $50,000 to over $1 million this year.

The amount raised is important.  However, what really matters is how it’s being spent – a wider topic of some discussion here at Calitics (and across the party) in recent weeks.

Continuing his speech, Bauman reminded Party members how they chose to spend their war-chest when they adopted a budget earlier this year:

That’s why LACDP’s leaders have spent months setting goals and formulating an aggressive plan to educate, motivate and mobilize LA County’s 2,070,210 Democrats.

Our plans for 2008 are extensive and include everything from direct voter contact programs to voter registration to providing comprehensive training for Democratic activists.

Of course we will assist clubs and groups who open campaign headquarters; work with the California Democratic Party; and maximize the quality, effectiveness and impact of our Red Zone program. We will also work with our colleagues in rural, red and purple areas around the state to help them best take advantage of this incredible Big Blue Wave year.

As Chair of this Party, I staked out an aggressive goal in January to raise a minimum of one million dollars this year to fund our various programs – and more than half of it has already been raised. That is a testament to a talented staff and committed members who have worked hard to ensure we have the resources we need to accomplish our goals.

Most importantly, these funds are being used to support candidates for local, state and federal office and to fund the critical activities that will grow our Party and support our grassroots activists and volunteers.

Bauman’s details of how the funds would be used – for grassroots activities and Party building – fired up the membership.  Whether it’s in candidate campaigns, PACs, or Party Organizations the fastest way to stifle grassroots fundraising is to have that cash disappear into a vacuum or worse, to have it used for purposes unfathomable to the rank and file.

I’ve had some personal experience with Bauman’s grassroots programs.  A close friend of mine was a Red Zone candidate two years ago and benefitted from guidance and resources from Bauman and the LACDP staff.

I myself had the privilege of leading two training sessions for the Red Zone candidates and their staffers last weekend.  These are citizens from across the county (or whose districts reach into the county) who are answering the call of civic duty by running in tough Republican Districts.  They are doctors, teachers, and parents taking up the mantle of our Party and LACDP has their back.

Bauman has had his eyes on California’s rural, red and purple regions for a long time.  In recent months, he has worked to export this Red Zone program beyond his home county – a good model as CDP moves toward implementing their 58 County plan.

Full disclosure: I am proud to have previously worked for John A. Perez and the Los Angeles County Democratic Party – both mentioned above.  I tapped these relationships to copy/paste from printed remarks, instead of transcribing my recording.

Where else but Venice, California, would you go to hear an outraged crank argue for indicting the sitting president of the United States for murder in a gymnasium packed to the gills with wild-eyed radicals cheering his every charge?

Which is exactly what we did this past Wednesday, except the crank was no crank, but rather the world-famous former district attorney and best-selling author Vincent Bugliosi, and more than a few radicals in the audience looked to have day jobs and mortgages to pay.

As Linda Milazzo reported recently, Bugliosi-the noted Manson Family prosecutor-was in town to promote his latest book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder-what he calls a “practical, nuts and bolts blueprint” that he hopes some state or local district attorney will follow to make George Bush pay for his crimes. Bugliosi is sending letters and copies of his book to prosecutors around the country, offering his own pro bono services as anything from bookkeeper to lead prosecutor.

Organized by the Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles and hosted by PDA-LA president Marcy Winograd, the extended book signing drew over 200 to the Venice Center for Peace & Justice in the Arts. A few audience members looked to be straight out of the sixties-albeit a good deal grayer upstairs and broader in the midrift-but many could pass for the teachers, budget analysts, and regular Janes and Joes they mostly were.

Bugliosi’s basic point is that if George Bush took America to war under false pretenses, “he is criminally culpable for the deaths of the 4,000 American servicemen who have been killed in Iraq as well the 100,000 or more Iraqi men, women, and children who have died as result of that war.”

It isn’t enough that Bush and his cohorts blundered us into invading Iraq on intelligence reports they had misread. No, they had to know that they were lying to the American people about their reasons for launching the invasion.

To support his contention that the Bush Administration did knowingly take us into war under false pretenses, Bugliosi cited a CIA assessment of the threat Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq posed to America’s safety and the Manning Memo, a report of a meeting between George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and their top aides during the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Bugliosi points out that the CIA assessment clearly stated that Hussein posed no threat to our country unless he was attacked. “But just days after receiving that report,” Bugliosi said, “Bush told the nation the exact opposite of what the CIA was telling him.” The public version of that report was scrubbed of this observation when it was later released, a further indication that Bush and his advisors knew precisely what they were doing.

Not as well known as the similar but weaker Downing Street Memo, the Manning Memo reports that “Bush was so worried about UN inspectors not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that he started talking about ways to provoke Hussein into a war, including by flying U2 spy missions over Iraq,” according to Bugliosi. At that point, UN weapons inspector Hans Blix was reporting that his inspectors were able to perform professional, no-notice inspections anyplace in Iraq. “Hussein’s government was being proactively helpful, according to Blix,” Bugliosi related.

Based on his years of successful prosecutions-105 successful prosecutions without a loss-Bugliosi charged that no innocent person would look for those kinds of excuses in those circumstances. “There is no answer to the Manning Memo but guilt,” he said.

Bugliosi contends that his effort is a nonpartisan one and that he would equally call for the indictment of a Democratic president under the same circumstances.

Asked why he would risk his reputation on such a quixotic venture-he claims to be virtually blacklisted by nearly every mainstream television talk show, which were so happy to see him on previous book tours (including the purportedly left-leaning ones)-he says he has been in a state of rage set in motion especially by Bush’s cavalier attitude about the destruction he has wrought.

As one egregious example, Bugliosi cited Bush’s infamous “perfect day” quote when the carnage in Iraq was at a fever pitch:

“I’m gonna have lunch with Secretary of State Rice, take a little nap, I’m reading an Elmore Leonard book right now – knock off a little Elmore Leonard this afternoon – go fishing with my man Barney [his dog], have a light dinner, then head for the ball game. So it’s a perfect day.”

As to how Bush might defend himself-along with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, and any others who were in on the lies-against this murder charge, Bugliosi offered only the defense suggested by the late 20th Century philosopher Richard Pryor on the occasion of being caught by his wife in bed with another woman:

“Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

By Dick Price & Sharon Kyle

Editor and Publisher, LA Progressive

www.laprogressive.com

Recent articles by Dick & Sharon

Indicting Bush in Venice

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

Barack’s Sister Brings the Heat to El Sereno

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

Have We Forgotten About Iraq?

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

The Love of a Gay Man

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

Disclaimer: I volunteer as the Netroots Outreach Coordinator for the Mary Pallant Campaign

Mary Pallant’s campaign (which I have written about here, here, here and elsewhere) got a big new boost today: the endorsement of progressive CA State Senator Sheila Kuehl.

Of course, Sheila Kuehl needs no introduction to regular Calitics readers: she has progressive credentials most of us can only dream of.  She was the first openly gay person in the California legislature, and she has been an incredible advocate for issues across the progressive spectrum from universal healthcare to the environment to civil rights.  Her signature issue of late has been the passage of SB 840, the California Universal Healthcare Act.  Sheila’s bio speaks for itself, of course:

Sheila James Kuehl was elected to the State Senate in 2000 and again in 2004 after serving for six years in the State Assembly. During the 1997-98 legislative session, she was the first woman in California history to be named Speaker pro Tempore of the Assembly. She is also the first openly gay or lesbian person to be elected to the California Legislature. A former pioneering civil rights attorney and law professor, Sen. Kuehl represents the 23rd Senate District in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. She is the chair of the Senate Health Committee and sits on the Agriculture, Appropriations, Environmental Quality, Joint Rules, Judiciary, Labor and Employment, and Natural Resources and Water Committees.  Ms. Kuehl is also chair of the Select Committee on School Safety and Chair of the Select Committee on the Health Effects of Radioactive and Chemical Contamination.  Senator Kuehl served as chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee from 2000-2006.

In her thirteen years in the State Legislature, Sen. Kuehl has authored 171 bills that have been signed into law, including legislation to establish paid family leave, establish the rights contained in Roe vs. Wade in California statute, overhaul California’s child support services system; establish nurse to patient ratios in every hospital; require that housing developments of more than 500 units have identified sources of water; further protect domestic violence victims and their children; prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender and disability in the workplace and sexual orientation in education; increase the rights of crime victims; safeguard the environment and drinking water; many, many others.  Since 2003, she has led the fight in the legislature to achieve true universal health care in California, and, in 2006, brought SB 840, the California Universal Healthcare Act,  to the Governor’s desk, the first time in U.S. history a single-payer healthcare bill had gone so far. Undaunted by its veto, Senator Kuehl continues to work to bring universal, affordable, quality health care to all Californians.

The Mary Pallant campaign is obviously honored to have State Senator Kuhl’s endorsement.  As the true progressive in the race to unseat Elton Gallegly in CA-24, the endorsement is a perfect fit for us in our quest to give this district the sort of progressive representation its people deserve.

State Senator Kuehl is another in a long line of Democrats to support Mary’s campaign as we head into the decisive June 3rd primary.  Other endorsements include:

California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO

California Nurses Association, CNA

Calitics Editorial Board A progressive open source news organization for California politics

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America – UAW

Political Action Committee, Cal State University Channel Islands (CSUCI)

Progressive Democrats of America

Progressive Democrats of Ventura County

Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles

Progressive Democrats of Santa Monica Mountains

Individuals:

Cindy Asner , Activist, Board Member for California Clean Money

Jane Bright, Gold Star Families for Peace

Jeff Cohen, Author

Ray Cordova, Chair, South County Labor, AFL-CIO

Maureen Cruise, “Run Mary, Run!” Delegate for the 41st Assembly District

Rebecca Curtis, English Professor, Union Leader SMCFA

Ralph Erikson, Past president Malibu Democratic Club; retired Judge

Richard Francis, Attorney and Founder of SOAR (Save Our Open Space and Agricultural Resources

Lila Garrett, Host, KPFK Connect The Dots

Gary Gray, Professor; Musician/Composer

Susan Haskell, Consultant

Rita Henry

Larry Janss, Community Leader

Jim Kalember, Ex-Officio, 5-term publicly elected Trustee of the Oak Park Unified School District in Ventura County, CA

Sheila Kuehl, State Senator 23rd District California

Coby King, Co-Chair of Rules Committee, California Democratic Party

Hank Lacayo, President, California Congress of Seniors

Leah Lacayo, Ventura County Fair Board

Marie Lakin, NWPC VC

Rick Lebeck, Teacher, CTA Union Member

Sue Lebeck, Teacher, CTA Union Member

Trudi Loh, Attorney, Political Consultant

Ahjamu Makalani, Vice Chair, Progressive Caucus

Margie Murray, Vice President VDU, LACDCC

Jeff Norman, US Tour of Duty – “Mary Pallant is the real deal.  Blessed with a luminous heart and mind, she makes great things happen with seeming ease.  What more do you want?”

Thom O’Shaughnessy, OD Committee, California Democratic Party; Irish American Caucus

Brad Parker, President, Valley Democrats United; Member at Large Progressive Caucus

Fran Pavley, Former Assemblymember 41st AD; current candidate for State Senate District 23 Progressive Democrats of America

Dorothy Reik, President, PDSMM

Scott Ritter, Author, Former Marine, Former Weapons Inspector

Lyn Shaw, Chair, Women’s Caucus California Democratic Party

Carol Smith, RN Mayor, City of Ojai

David Swanson, Washington Director of Democrats.com and of ImpeachPAC.org. He is co-founder of the AfterDowningStreet.org / CensureBush.org coalition, creator of KatrinaMarch.org, and a board member of Progressive Democrats of America.

Norman Solomon, Author of “Made Love, Got War” and “War Made Easy” (How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death). Nationally syndicated journalist, media critic and antiwar activist.

Wayne Williams, Photographer, Activist

Marsha Williams, Producer

Marcy Winograd, President, PDLA; 41st AD Eboard Rep

If you would like to support Mary’s campaign to take back CA-24, please consider making a donation here.  I’ll be back with a final update on the race after the primary!

Despite the unwillingness of our Democratic Congress (Rep. Wexler notwithstanding) to do their Constitutional duty to hold the criminals in the Bush Administration accountable for their actions, the major sacrifices made by and injuries done to Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson and their colleagues and associates will not soon be forgotten by those of us who care deeply about our country.  This nation owes them a debt of gratitude for their service and their willingness to tell the truth in spite of incredible hostility and pressure from a corrupt and utterly immoral White House and its cronies.

Those progressive patriots of you who live in the Southern California area will have the opportunity to meet Joe Wilson himself at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30pm for the equally courageous Netroots candidate Ron Shepston.  I’ll be there as well, for what that’s worth!

Most of the Netroots community is familiar by now with Ron and his campaign.  Ron started blogging as CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream.  At a blogger dinner in Los Angeles, a bunch of us realized that there was no serious challenger running against the uber-corrupt Gary Miller in CA-42  (The DCCC has produced a must-see video on Gary Miller’s disgusting tax evasion scheme–just one of many reasons the guy has got to go, together with all his GOP friends).  So we asked Ron if he would consider running–and the rest is history.  Ron has since run a netroots-based campaign to win in this tough but doable district, with the inimitable dday as his Netroots Coordinator.  For more about Ron, you can see his quick bio here, and his issues page here.

Want to meet Ron and Joe Wilson?  Just head on over to Beverly Hills at 6:30pm this Thursday night for the $50 fundraiser!  You can see details at the Facebook event page, or download the info from Ron’s campaign homepage.  Tickets can be purchased either at the door or online.

There will also a lunch with Ambassador Wilson and Ron Shepston in Los Angeles at 1pm (no donation limit has been set).  If you’re interested in attending the luncheon, feel free to email erik_at_ronshepston_dot_com and they’ll have more information for you.

Hope to see you there!

Most Californians are sure that their election is over. All the media coverage is blaring babble from the most recent presidential debate in distant states as well as other inane minutia that denigrates the process.  

Yet, if you look closely, really closely, you may find evidence that there is yet another election coming up here in June. Yes, June 3rd to be exact.

This season, in spite of the state being billions of dollars in debt, and the cries of horror about budget cuts, our state legislators gave us the special treat of spending double on TWO elections!!!.

And the citizens who ARE paying attention to the obscure references to the June 3rd primary are again faced with figuring out who is worth voting for, if anyone.

With little information in the mainstream media, many turn to their local Democratic Clubs and special interest groups for guidance. Or, they look to their Democratic party. This guidance most often comes in the form of the last minute slate mailers, the topic of this conversation.  

But IS the endorsement of the club or party truly well thought out? And DOES it actually represent the opinion of the regular club membership? And how many members are actually involved in any of these clubs? Or, has the endorsement been manipulated by the last minute sign-ups that dump cash into the club the day before the membership cut-off date for eligibility to vote? Then, a busload of “new members” appears for this one event.

From my vantage point in the San Fernando Valley, I can assure you that the custom of stacking-new-members-just-in-time-for-the-endorsement-vote is alive and well in the 40th Assembly District race. The four Democratic candidates are Laurette Healey, Dan McCrory, Stewart Waldman and Bob Blumenfeld.

The season opened with the Young Democrats of the SFV and a ground war between two guys who both think they are entitled to the Assembly seat in the 40th AD (that’s mid-SFV from Van Nuys out to West Hills). These “Young Dems,” by the way, are heavily sprinkled with incumbent politicians’ staffers. Stewart Waldman, the former staffer for the incumbent in the 40th AD, snatched this one away, having been the founder of the group. He’s too old to be a member now, but says strong ties to many board members got him the endorsement.

Then came the bruiser at the Valley Grassroots for Democracy (yea, right…democracy). Not to be outdone here, the Bob Blumenfeld team, led by the incumbent’s dad, thought they had this one knocked. They’d spent a lot of time gathering together new members who drove in to vote, but low and behold, there was an uproar from the regular membership when they were handed the letter Blumenfeld had sent to stack the club:

“I’m writing to see if you’d be willing to help me stack the room for some upcoming Democratic Club Endorsement meetings…

    – Bob”  (openly admitted he sent this, saying that Stewart had “done it first” at Young Dems)

As it turned out, the leadership, that seemed to be totally on board with this stacking ploy, ultimately chose to cave in to the demands of core members and issued a “no endorsement” for this race.  Grassroots indeed!

Losing that one, the “Berman machine” (and it includes more than Howard, the Democratic congressman who votes with the Republicans on Iraq war issues) turned up the steam to steamroll the insiders of the Democratic party into “choosing” HIS STAFFER at the pre-endorsement caucus.

That’s the official party endorsement, not to be confused by any others that use “Democratic Party” in their name (e.g., DPSFV). The party chooses one Democrat in the field of many Democrats and puts the official seal of approval on that one…which he/she then uses in their slate mailings that arrive just before election day.

To understand this convoluted process is an exercise in near futility. It seems that elected officials anywhere in the state can send in delegates to vote for a candidate.  Huh???  Running that by again, elected politicians from OUTSIDE the district can send delegates in to vote. So, in spite of it being a Democratic primary, these elected Democrats are unwilling to allow the democratic process to take place. They step in with their pre-selected favorite based on…..what???

And send in they did. The twenty-seven “chosen” joined with a measly four from the district activist pool to vote for Bob. At the caucus, the vote was one short of sending it to the convention for the endorsement. After all ballots left and went to Sacramento, wonder of wonders, Blumenfeld was now having his name put in for endorsement. This was stopped in its tracks by the concerted efforts of Waldman and Dan McCrory (another in the race) and the 468 delegates who signed their petitions to send the carefully engineered endorsement of Bob to the floor for a vote. It lost. No Democratic Party endorsement for anyone in the 40th AD. Add one strike for “nobody” and chalk one up for grassroots democracy. The plea was to allow the voters of the district to decide. What a unique idea!

Which brings us to the latest travesty of this election, the last minute delivery of 80 (or 83, depending on source) applications of new members to the Stonewall Democratic Club hours before the closing of membership for voting purposes. The daddy mentioned before (dad of incumbent who is running the campaign for his son as well as the anointed replacement for son, the Berman staffer) has his operative from the club rush in his credit card to PAY for these new members he’s collected to stack the endorsement meeting. Yes, at $25 a pop, that’s $2000. The county chair, who’s also a Stonewall member, says “there is absolutely no prohibition whatsoever about this in any bylaws.”

So, voters who want to use a “trusted” club endorsement, what do you think? Is it okay for a political operative to gather up a busload of people to drive in and vote in the club meeting on endorsements and then disappear??? And for this particular race, the 40th Assembly District, this highly unethical (if legal) stacking of new members will result in an endorsement bought and paid for by a political campaign consultant if existing members to not step in and say, “Enough!”

D-Day to see the fireworks over this one is Monday, April 28. For those in the L.A. region who want to come observe the drama it’s at 7:00 PM at the West Hollywood Park Auditorium, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood (between Santa Monica Blvd. and Melrose Ave.)

Lest you think that this is an isolated incident, we have the latest breaking story from Randy Bayne’s blog up north (http://bayneweb.com/blog/?p=1005) on an even worse example. The West Sacramento Dems had 700 (yes, seven hundred) new “members” brought to them by their local endorsement buyer. Now they cannot conduct business since they are unable to reach a quorum with the new higher membership that is in NUMBERS only. They can’t even meet to try to change their bylaws!

So we are left with this. Manipulation of the clubs by politicians or their hired hacks.  Not real residents who care about the club. Not real activists who are working within the club on issues of common concern. Not real citizens concerned about the community.  Just people who are “hired” to go to a club ONE TIME solely for the purpose of delivering the club endorsement to the ethically-challenged buyer.

And the clubs who allow this are obviously complicit. New members, even if only there once, mean more money. Of course, there MUST be some within each club who disagree with this state of affairs, but certainly not enough, or this would not continue year after year.

Our so-called democracy has taken an incredible beating these last years. Many look to the Democratic party as their only hope. And many of those many will be disappointed. While it would be nice to think that one could look to someone else to do the heavy lifting involved in maintaining the democracy, the reality is that it’s you who must step up to the plate and make time to participate and do in-depth research on these people we entrust with our future.

Time to start tossing all those last minute endorsement slates as the pieces of trash they are. Certainly not worth the paper they’re on. And certainly nothing to base a vote on.

And for those who continue to think that they are too busy in their own little worlds, or that they can’t make a difference, or that their vote doesn’t count, we are left with the words of George Bernard Shaw:

Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

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Congratulations to the winners at this afternoon’s Obama caucus for CD 30, Robert Vanderet, Victoria von Szeliski, and Shayne Adamski.  This trio of very organized campaign volunteers ran as a team, and took all three delegate seats.  With heartwarming support from progressive Democrats and the Santa Monica Democratic Club, I came in third for the two male delegate slots.  Marcy Winograd, also supported by Progressive Democrats of America, Los Angeles, came in second for the one female slot.

Using the organizing skills they’ve amassed working together for Obama, the campaign team ran a focused slate from their own ranks of exactly as many candidates as there were seats to be filled.   The three winners made effective use of the resources they and other volunteers have generated for our Obama campaign, including compiled email addresses and online discussion groups.

Thank you to everyone who came out for this amazingly energizing caucus — over 650 Democrats stood in line in the sweltering sun to cast their votes.  It is clear that Barack Obama has inspired a dedicated campaign that will take him, and us Democrats, all the way to the White House.

Kevin McKeown

Santa Monica City Councilmember