Former self-proclaimed vigilante looks to finish off the CA Republican Party

by Brian Leubitz

Sometimes when you are swimming, or surfing, or generally playing in the ocean, you can be surprised by a big wave. Other times, you can see them building for miles. Asm. Tim Donnelly’s gubernatorial campaign is the latter. He’s the wave that is building miles away, ready to crash down upon California’s GOP, making the long-term fallout of Prop 187 look quaint. But, he’s in, for whatever reason:

Donnelly plans to make the announcement at a Los Angeles manufacturing facility. … The conservative Southern California Assemblyman, who earlier had announced an exploratory committee for the run, will challenge moderate former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado for the GOP nomination. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not made an official announcement but is widely expected to seek a fourth term, is not expected to be challenged for his party’s nomination.

In a statement released Monday, Donnelly said he will stress three key issues in the campaign: jobs, civil liberties, and “leaving California a better place for the next generation.” (SF Gate / Carla Marinucci)

The CRP has two options next June, and neither of them are all that stunning. Maldonado’s campaign has already been through some tough times, firing campaign staffers and other such shenanigans. He’s not that great of a candidate, having already lost statewide and for Congress. But, he’s not going to offend anybody, he has a good personal narrative, and (probably) won’t embarrass the party.

Donnelly, as you can see from the Colbert Report story to the right, is a different story. His placing in the Top-2 could radically change the face of the state party. While I’ve not seen any polls, a one-on-one matchup with the Governor would be a landslide of epic proportions, and turn minorities away from the CRP for several elections to come.

Perhaps it would be hard to resist the shadenfreude, but a complete lack of an honest opposition could raise problems. Like the Calderons or other such nonsense. But, as the headline for the above post says, it should be interesting.  

Local measures, officials to be decided

by Brian Leubitz

Here in San Francisco, the ballot is, shall we say, not all that interesting to many voters. As I was on the street last night passing out slate cards, I heard several “there’s an election?” and flat out “I’m not planning on voting.” But, in many ways, you can’t blame them for the apathy, as three of the the four candidate elections are unopposed. But throughout the state, there are some interesting elections, including several important ballot measures.

In San Bernardino, voters will choose a new mayor to help the city recover from its current bankrupt state:

Despite the problems, 10 candidates are vying for votes Tuesday to replace two-term Mayor Patrick J. Morris.

Aside from Korner, the candidates are: developer and former two-time candidate Rick Avila; retired high school coach Richard Castro; city public works employee Draymond Crawford; accountant Carey Davis; City Councilman Rikke Van Johnson; City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack; rail analyst Henry Nickel; and real estate broker Karmel Roe. There’s also a write-in candidate: Concepcion Powell, a business development consultant and founder of the San Bernardino-based U.S. Hispanic Women Grocers Assn. (LA Times)

And there are other problems in San Bernardino, as two of the candidates had to step out because of corruption issues. (And one apparently regularly speaks to her deity) But the big issues facing the city aren’t going away. A runoff seems likely given the big pack of candidates, so there will be more time to consider the issues. Republican Councilwoman Wendy McCammack and Businessman Carey Davis seem to be slight favorites to be in that runoff.

Elsewhere, Palo Alto will consider its housing density future and San Francisco will consider waterfront height restrictions. Anything else you are watching?

$10 million disappears in right-wing money laundering operation

by Brian Leubitz

How go those Gap jeans you are wearing today? And your Charles Schwab account is growing, I’m sure. And, of course, you totally bought Eli Broad’s support of Gov. Brown’s tax measure, right?

Well, welcome to the world of dark money, a bizarro land where people get to say and do very different things. Reports released by state investigators show a complex money laundering scheme involving several shady right-wing money movers and organizations, all to help hide the donors of about $25 million intended to fight against Gov. Brown’s tax measure, Prop 30, and for the anti-labor measure, Prop 32. While many of the names will be unfamiliar, some of them are pretty much household names. But these are people that don’t really want the attention, they just want to get their way. Because they are rich and that is what happens.

So, a pair of Republican consultants, Tony Russo and Jeff Miller, went about laundering the money through a vast network of Koch brother connected organizations in order to hide the true source of the money. Just to be clear, there is a word for that here in California: illegal.

The Fisher family, of the clothing firm Gap Inc., contributed more than $9 million. San Francisco investor Charles Schwab gave $6.4 million, and Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad sent $1 million.

The money went to a Virginia nonprofit that would use it to pay for the ad blitz and be allowed to keep the contributors secret. Nonprofits, unlike political action committees, are not required to identify their donors under federal law. … But things went from bad to worse. Although Russo handed over $25 million, only about $15 million ended up back in California. And when the money surfaced, it sparked an investigation by state authorities, who last month levied $16 million in penalties against the Arizona group and three others.(LA Times

Somewhere along the line, Sean Noble, a Koch-affiliated operative, decided that he actually wasn’t into sending the last $10 million back to California through their little washing machine. The attention had gotten to be too much. The fact that Russo claims he still doesn’t know what happens to that cash is something of a funny post script.

But the real fight is over the large penalty handed down to the Small Business Action Committee(SBAC), the California PAC that spent the money attacking Prop 30 and supporting Prop 32. The FPPC levied a “disgorgement” penalty that requires the group to pay to the state an amount of money equal to the dark money that they accepted. Of course, the SBAC is fighting the fine, and the result of that fight could mean a lot for how ballot measures are run over the next few years.

Perhaps if voters had easy access to more information, they could simply vote against any initiative campaign that was using the shady money. But in the real world, cash is still king.  If the fine is upheld, dark money could stall at the state border. If it is overturned, expect the secretive cash to become an even bigger (yet still overwhelmingly shady) tool in initiative campaigns.

Photo credit: Mayor Gavin Newsom on Flickr. Mayor Newsom (a prominent supporter of Prop 30) appeared with Charles Schwab at the opening of the Charles Schwab flagship space in San Francisco.

State Senator caught in undercover sting

by Brian Leubitz

Calderons and corruption? Well, shocking as it may be, Sen. Ron Calderon is currently involved in an undercover corruption sting.

State Sen. Ronald Calderon accepted bribes from a Southern California hospital executive who ran an alleged workers’ compensation scheme that brought the executive tens of millions of dollars, according to a sealed FBI affidavit obtained by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit.

In exchange for payments to family members, Calderon, a Democrat who represents a suburban district here, protected the interests in Sacramento of Michael Drobot, who ran a busy spinal surgery clinic in Long Beach, Calif., the affidavit says. The document says Calderon ensured that changes to state law would not injure Drobot’s lucrative business of providing spinal fusion surgery, which joins two or more vertebrae. (Al Jazeera America)

The article reads like an old school political hack job, but Al Jazeera says they got the material from the FBI affidavit. Stay classy Calderons!

Central Valley Congressman has strong opponents

by Brian Leubitz

Jeff Denham has made some waves over the past 36 hours as he became the first Republican Congress member to sign on to the House Democrats immigration reform proposal.

A Republican congressman from a heavily Hispanic district is breaking ranks from his party to join Democrats in an eleventh-hour push for a broad immigration overhaul before the end of the year. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) plans to sign on as the lone GOP member with 185 Democrats to co-sponsor a plan that would give millions of unauthorized immigrants the chance to attain citizenship.

A handful of House Republicans have expressed support for citizenship legislation similar to the bipartisan bill that passed the Senate over the summer. But Denham is taking the additional – and politically provocative – step of locking arms with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other Democrats trying to neutralize opposition from House conservatives and shake up a polarized immigration debate.(WaPo)

Denham has a strong challenger in Michael Eggman and some lagging poll numbers after the shutdown. He needs a change in the conversation from the disaster that the Republicans brought down upon the country. Immigration is a pivotal issue in a district with a strong Latino voter base, and Denham has never been a true believer in the rightwing on this front, so this is something of a fit. But it is a fit that was almost preordained by the politics.

But, at this point, a lot is still needed to make immigration reform actually happen. And even if there is some political cynicism at work, at least it is going the right direction.

Faces criticism (and praise) for exchange roll out

by Brian Leubitz

Tracy Seipel of the San Jose Mercury News has a profile well worth reading of Peter Lee, the executive director of Covered California:

His grandfather helped start the Palo Alto Medical Clinic in 1930, when the idea of a physicians’ group was so revolutionary that critics called it anti-competitive, even “communist.” And decades later, the Johnson administration recruited his uncle to help roll out Medicare, prompting new attacks from fellow doctors opposed to any slide into “socialized medicine.”

Now, Peter V. Lee, as executive director of Covered California, the state’s new health exchange, has the daunting task of executing a key part of the new federal health care law in the nation’s most populous state. And if the law succeeds here, many health care experts agree, it will likely succeed in other states. (SJ Merc)

Now, let’s just say that the California website rollout has been much smoother than the HealthCare.gov site that had another glitch last night. But there are still a few minor hiccups. But the key here is that it mostly works. It is no mystery why that happened, our lawmakers supported the system and gave it the resources it needed rather than fighting it. And sure, Lee has played a huge role in getting this up and going.

In the end, this system is far from the most effective and efficient health care delivery system, but it is an important step on the road.

Former self-proclaimed vigilante joins “Free California” movement in attempt to recall Pomona senator

by Brian Leubitz

Sure, I could have posted the video from the Bee of Donnelly talking about the recall campaign. But, let’s face it, this is about Tim Donnelly, so the ColbertReport video was far more appropriate. The former MinuteMan state leader is pretending to run for Governor next year, and even Abel Maldonado is getting more and better press coverage.

So, he needs some sort of stunt, kind of like the fence stunt in the video. And attempting to recall a State Senator that has been in office for about six months seems to fit the bill:

Having failed to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown to reject a wide-ranging package of gun control bills, pro-gun advocates announced on Thursday they will seek to punish Democrats who supported the measures at the ballot box.

“Every single assemblyman and state senator swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution,” Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, told reporters before speaking at the conference. “And when they violate that oath by trying to erase the Second Amendment, then I think we have a duty” to “remove that threat.”(SacBee)

This is of course from a man who claims to be a vigilante and carried a gun into the airport. Torres seems to be merely a name he chose from a list of Democrats, perhaps one with a slightly less Democratic seat. But the underlying fact is that Torres won the special election this spring, and deserves to server out her term.

Californians support these very modest gun safety changes, and Torres seems to be in little actual threat. But this is about Tim Donnelly, the “patriot not politician”, who apparently loves to play political games.

by Steve Smith, California Labor Federation

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission today sent a strong message to shadowy out-of-state special-interest groups and donors trying to influence our state’s elections by levying record fines for contributions to committees that supported Prop 32 and opposed Prop 30.

According to the Sacramento Bee:

In a campaign finance case watched around the country, California’s political watchdog has levied a $1 million fine against two non-profit groups for inappropriately laundering money during last year’s ballot initiative wars.

The Fair Political Practices Commission announced the settlement with the Center to Protect Patient Rights and Americans for Responsible Leadership, two groups based in Arizona that the FPPC describes as part of a network operated by the conservative Koch brothers.

The commission also sent letters to two California committees demanding they pay the state general fund more than $15 million they received from groups that didn’t properly report the source of their funds.

These groups used every dirty trick in the book to try to hoodwink voters into passing the pernicious Prop 32, a measure which would have silenced workers, and defeat Prop 30, the tax measure to fund our schools. Ultimately, they failed because voters saw through the façade.

Reaction was swift from union leaders to this landmark settlement.

California Labor Federation Leader Art Pulaski:

With today’s record fine, California sent a strong message to shadowy special-interest groups that we won’t tolerate illicit campaign donations that undermine our democracy. We applaud Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) Chair Ann Ravel for aggressively pursuing this investigation and holding these out-of-state dark-money groups accountable for violating California law.

California Professional Firefighters President and Alliance for a Better California Chair Lou Paulson expressed outrage that the California-based Small Business Action Committee (SBAC) was the lynchpin for the illegal effort. SBAC was ordered by the FPPC to repay the $11 million it received from the out-of-state front groups.

The FPPC action offers final proof of an open secret: Corporate California is using dark money to try to game California’s election process. It’s clear there was a calculated effort by California political operatives to hide the involvement of California interests in the Prop. 30 and 32 campaigns. We’re appalled that the SBAC would be the conduit for this money-laundering scheme.

SEIU California President Laphonza Butler also applauded today’s action, yet noted more needs to be done to shed light on these dark money groups that try to rig elections in California.

With the identity of the secret donors still unknown, it’s clear that our campaign finance laws contain loopholes that allow shadowy front groups to deceive voters by hiding the source of campaign dollars. We call on legislators to strengthen campaign finance laws to prevent billionaires and corporate titans like the Koch brothers from using shadowy front groups to buy California elections.