Congratulations to the Democrats of San Bernardino County!  As you can see from these numbers, which are apparently from this morning at 6am, Democratic registration exceeded that of the Republicans in the largest county (by area) in the nation.

Blue County’s Dream is half realized!  We have become a Blue County again!  According to the San Bernardino Register of Voters, the number of registered Democrats now outnumbers registered Republicans by 312,000 to 311,000 Countywide.  Since Blue County was organized in February 2007 there have been over 50,000 new registered Democrats due to the great efforts of voter registration drives by clubs, individuals, and candidates throughout the county.  

The effort was facilitated by Blue County, a PAC set up for the effort. I’ll let them explain their mission over the flip. You’ll also find the SB Dems press release there too.

Another one bites the dust as we turn Red California into a nice shade of purple on the way to blue. Good work!

Blue County is a Political Action Commitee that financially supports great Democratic Candidates in San Bernardino County.  The focus of our fundraising is for the direct and indirect contributions to candidates and supporting clubs with voter registration.   Our events support these efforts along with good times and networking with great people.

And the SB Dems press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, Oct. 13, 2008

791 words

San Bernardino County turns “BLUE”

  SAN BERNARDINO, CA — San Bernardino County, the largest county in the United States, has officially turned “blue” with more Democrats than Republicans registered to vote for the first time in more than seven years.

  Weekly statistics released this morning by County Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil reported 314,452 Democrats and 311,576 Republicans, giving the Democrats a lead of 2,876 registered voters throughout the county.

  Democrats registered 4,423 new voters last week and gained 2,976 on the Republicans who registered only 1,447 new voters.  It is the largest weekly gain for San Bernardino County Democrats in more than a decade.

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY-WIDE REGISTRATION, 10/13/08

Party                            Total                Pctg.                Added              Difference

DEMOCRAT              314,452            39.55%         +4,423             +2,876

REPUBLICAN            311,576            39.19%         +1,447            

NP                               139,137            17.50%        

OTHERS                     29,859             3.76%

TOTAL                        795,024

  “This is the fourth week in a row we have turned in more than two thousand Democrats,” County Democratic Party Vice-Chair Patrick Kahler said. “This even tops last week as our single largest weekly gain since the February Presidential primary.”

  Long touted by Republicans as “the largest red county in the nation,” San Bernardino leaves the ranks of red counties such as San Diego, Orange and Riverside, to join the ranks of blue counties along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Napa, Marin, Sonoma, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Mendocino.

  On Saturday, Oct. 11, the Democrats hosted a “San ‘BLUE-nardino’ County Celebration” which featured actor and activist Ed Asner, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Congressman Joe Baca, California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico and Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman.

  “The steady progression of Democratic voter registration reflects this County’s dissatisfaction with the Republican incumbents, the lack of leadership they have provided, and the hope offered by Democrats of restored principles and attention to middle class values,” said Tim Prince, Democratic nominee for the 41st Congressional District.

 “The Democrats have superior headquarters, superior clubs involving grassroots people, and a focus on restoring jobs to America, opportunity to the economy, and hope inspired by new voters,” Prince said.

  “Democrats are energized and people are waking up to the fact that voting Democratic is in their best interest,” said Carol Robb, Chair of the County Democratic Party.

  “Narrowing the gap of registration is just the tip of the iceberg,”  Robb said.  “We expect a ‘Big Blue’ tsunami in November.”

  Kahler manages an organization known as “Blue County” and manages its website at www.BlueCounty.net.

  “Since Blue County was organized in February 2007 there have been over 50,000 new registered Democrats due to the great efforts of voter registration drives by clubs, individuals, and candidates throughout the county,” Kahler said.

  “In the last 15 months there have been 52,000 new Democrats registered in this County,” said Kahler.  “Democrats now have the two largest counties in the nation, this one and Coconino in Arizona, are now blue.  Nye County in Nevada is now the largest red county in the country.”

  The dramatic shift in registration has been attributed to the wide-spread corruption of locally elected Republicans, the popularity of the Obama Presidential campaign, the condition of the region’s economy, and a backlash against massive voter fraud recently committed by a crew of Republican contractors who disappeared after county Democrats caught them committing felony violations of the state elections code.

  In the four weeks since Mark Jacoby and his Young Political Majors fled the county to avoid criminal prosecution, leaving only volunteers to register Republicans, Democrats have registered 6,165 more voters than the Republicans have.

  San Bernardino County covers more than twenty thousand square miles, stretching from the border of Los Angeles County on the west to the Nevada state border on the north and the Colorado River and Arizona state border on the east.

  In 1810, Franciscans gave the name San Bernardino to the highest peak in southern California, in honor of St. Bernardino of Siena, and named the county San Bernardino.  The county was formed from parts of Los Angeles County in 1853.

  Residents of note include Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and the Earp family.  Wyatt Earp lived in San Timoteo Canyon, Colton, Vidal, and Earp, named after him, where he owned a gold mine in the nearby Whipple Mountains.

  His father, Nicholas Earp, was a Justice of the Peace, coroner, judge and preacher.  His brother Virgil, a U.S. Marshall, lived in Vanderbilt,  and his brothers James and Morgan are buried in the county.

 Other famous residents include McDonald’s founders, Dick and Mac McDonald, Taco Bell founder Glen Bell, and professional soccer player Landon Donovan.

  San Bernardino County has been a predominantly Republican county, with Bill Clinton in 1996 being the last Democrat to win a plurality in the county. However, the county is split between heavily Latino and Democratic areas, and more conservative areas.

end

(The man who would be Governor… – promoted by jsw)

Title updated.

When Republican State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced with California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring on August 28, 2008 that he would contribute enough money to pay $5 for every new Republican voter registration, no one expected a voter registration card “slamming” program.  

In San Bernardino County the California Republican Party with their local Republican affiliates hired a firm from outside California called YPM – Young Political Majors, owned by a man named Mark Jacoby and run out of Florida and Arizona – to commit the same voter fraud that got YPM run out of other states.

(more on the flip)

Moreover, this isn’t something new. YPM has a bad track record stretching back years and years.  For example, the following story comes from an article written in 2004:

Young Political Majors LLC, or YPM, is a company registered by Mark Jacoby at a Town ‘N Country residence.

Jacoby appeared this summer at the election office in Gainesville with a box of about 1,200 voter registration cards. Of those, about 510 voters had switched to the GOP.

Elections Supervisor Beverly Hill spoke with Jacoby and grew suspicious. She randomly called the Republicans to verify they wanted to switch. All of them said, “Absolutely not,” Hill said. “They didn’t even know they had signed a registration form,” Hill said.

Here’s how YPM does it: their paid signature gatherers ask registered Democratic voters to sign a claimed legitimate petition (in this case a petition to “stop sexual predators from getting out of jail”). Then, depending on the circumstances, they tell the voter that the petition is not legal unless they re-register as a Republican, or they have the voter sign in two places – one of which is the bottom of a Republican voter registration card.

It is simply unacceptable for this type of activity to go on here in California.

“This insidious and fraudulent practice is called ‘slamming,’ and Insurance Commissioner Poizner must put an immediate stop to funding this conspiracy to commit fraud,” said Senator Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party (see letter below letter).      

The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters, Kari Verjil, has allowed the slamming to continue for weeks.  The California Democratic Party is calling on the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office, the Secretary of State and the State Attorney General’s office to investigate and prosecute those who are knowingly committing fraud.  

The same situation is known to have occurred in Riverside County. This past August the Registrar of Voters, Barbara Dunmore, referred that fraud to the Riverside County District Attorney.

American voters should not be treated this way.

* * *

Here is a copy of the letter Chairman Art Torres sent to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters.

September 16, 2008

Via Facsimile (909) 387-2022

Ms. Kari Verjil        

San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters

Dear Registrar of Voters Verjil:

Our offices have received numerous calls about the California Republican Party’s use of “slamming” — illegally re-registering Democrats as Republicans — in your county.

I would like to know the status of your investigation of the Republican slamming.  A few thousand voter registration cards are being turned in each week to your office and it appears your office has not stopped this fraudulent practice.  

In calls to a random sampling of 100 of these voters, we found one-third of the phone numbers were either disconnected or the wrong number.

When phone slamming happened several years ago, the federal government, as well as state and local officials put a stop to it.  

You must stop this illegal practice whereby American citizens who have registered as Democrats, whether earlier this year or several years ago, are being changed to Republicans with your county voter registration cards by organizations authorized by you to do voter registration.

Sincerely,

Senator Art Torres (Ret.)

Chairman of the California Democratic Party

cc: Secretary of State Debra Bowen

    Attorney General Jerry Brown

    San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos

Look what I found in Red County-San Bernardino, OC Blog‘s sister blog in the Inland Empire:

Will embattled 15-term Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis (CD 41) retire from the United States House of Representatives at the conclusion of the 110th Congress? Longtime Capitol Hill reporter Bob Novak is reporting in the Washington, D.C.-based publication Human Events that “both on Capitol Hill and in California, Republicans say that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R) is unlikely to seek re-election.”

Really? So the man who probably best served “K Street’s Queen of Earmarks” is now stepping down? The sleazy lobbyists might lose their best friend?

Follow me after the flip for more…

So what exactly did Robert Novak have to say about the 41st District? Well, here it is:

Both on Capitol Hill and in California, Republicans say that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R) is unlikely to seek re-election. This despite the fact that Lewis is not currently the target of an inquiry, and there have been no new developments in the ethical allegations against him. Lewis won last year with two-thirds of the vote against a token Democrat. Lewis has not tipped his hand at all, yet talk of potential Republican replacements already abounds. Conservative GOP San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus is said to be interested.

Republicans do not want to see either Lewis or Doolittle resign, because they do not want to spend money now on a special election. The money issue will also loom in the general election of 2008, but unless that election goes as badly for the GOP as last year’s, Republicans can take heart in the fact that none of California’s congressional districts is considered competitive. If there is anywhere you would prefer to have retirements, this is the state.

Wow, so Jerry Lewis is going against the will of fellow Republicans by deciding to retire? But they’re not really worried about losing this seat? Maybe they should be.
Republicans may have a sizable registration edge in the district, but it’s not insurmountable…
Especially if Democrats have a strong candidates, and perhaps they do…

Democratic possibilities for the 41st include downtown San Bernardino lawyer Tim Prince, who has pledged to run for the seat only in the event of a Lewis retirement. Prince’s last stand for elective office was a failed attempt at the mayoralty of the city of San Bernardino.

And CQ seems to be taking him seriously as a threat to the GOP’s possibly tenuous hold on this district, thanks to Lewis and all his scandal.

So would any of these Republicans have to put up a real fight to hold this seat? Perhaps. Look at how Brian Bilbray had to struggle to win in what was supposed to be a “safe Republican” seat. Look at how John Doolittle had to struggle in his “safe seat” last year. And so far, things aren’t looking any better for Republicans today. Maybe they’ll have another Congressional seat about in California, after all.

I think this is a significant development in the future of California, both political and otherwise.  According to this report (PDF) from the California Budget Project, job growth in the inland counties of the state grew nearly FIVE TIMES LARGER than job growth in the coastal counties between 1990 and 2005.  In fact, they’ve contributed to more than half of the total job growth in the state, despite having only 1/5 of the jobs currently.  What used to be bedroom communities in the Inland Empire of SoCal, for example, are now very much self-sustaining and thriving, particularly in the western edges of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

If this trend continues, it could either be very ominous or a great opportunity, depending on your outlook.  On the one hand, it tracks with a pattern of population shift from areas that are reliably Democratic into areas that are reliably Republican.  On the other hand, it represents a demographic shift in those “red” areas, and could lead to opportunities to build a Democratic resurgence inland, as possibly evidenced by Jerry McNerney’s victory in CA-11.

Whatever the case, it’s something that progressives must deal with.  The power bases in LA and SF are only going to retain their power for so long.  Places like Ontario and Auburn are goin to have more and more importance, and it’s time RIGHT NOW to ensure that there’s some Democratic infrastructure in place to identify and engage people in those areas who share progressive views.  Take Back Red California is an organization of Democratic activists trying to do just that, but more attention must be paid.  This is a generational shift, and it will only grow and grow.

I hope to see more of our friends from the inland counties here in the coming months.