Tag Archives: Chris Cabaldon

Uncategorized

More on Ashburn’s History at the Sacramento Gay Bars

1 Comment

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, an Assembly candidate who was ultimately defeated by Mariko Yamada, has come out swinging against Roy Ashburn.  The insteresting part of this, Cabaldon’s Facebook status update from six months ago:

It wouldn’t bother me so bad to see Roy Ashburn at Badlands with a boy if he didn’t have such a bad voting record on gay rights.

Cabaldon appeared in an interview on Sacramento’s CBS13 news program, and is now apparently big news around the gay blogosphere. Looks like Roy Ashburn is getting the full Larry Craig treatment.

The interesting thing here is that Cabaldon, and basically gay male in Sacramento, knew about this guy months ago. Ashburn always was a creep, but now, there are people tracking down his “passenger.”

Boy Culture has new information that suggests Ashburn’s mystery passenger is an openly gay 29-year-old San Jose man (he looks several years younger) who was visiting Sacramento for work and who did not know Ashburn is a senator. He is a Latino, which fits nicely with the supposition that Ashburn was picked up outside Faces-Tuesday was Latin Night. (BoyCulture)

For future reference, if anybody sees a Republican “family values” Senator at a gay bar in Sacramento, feel free to post a diary here at Calitics. I’m a little hesitant to write up anonymous emails, but if somebody else wants to write about their first hand experience, Calitics is a community blog that accepts content of all stripes.

California

Endorsements in the CA-08 Assembly Primary Race – Healthcare Proxy Battle?

3 Comments

The California Nurses’ Association called today about the Yamada campaign, and it piqued my interest enough to check out Mariko Yamada and Christopher Cabaldon’s respective endorsement lists. While doing that, one noteworthy pair of endorsements for Yamada came from the California Nurses Association and SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, two unions who have not only been aggressive in pushing for a single payer health care plan for California, but who also stood up against Schwarzeneggar and the 2005 special election boondoggle back when the CA Democratic party was content to sit back and let Arnold run the state unimpeded.

On the issue of health care reform, the candidates are close but not identical. In a recent debate, Yamada backed Sheila Kuhl’s single payer health insurance plan pretty strongly, while Cabaldon gave it lip service, but like the CA Democratic leadership in last year’s health insurance negotiations, also left himself open to a compromise that fell short of single payer. As the Davis Vanguard reported at the time: [emphasis mine]

For Christopher Cabaldon he suggested that everyone is paying for the uninsured, even when we do not see it. He favors the Sheila Kuehl single payer health system as the ideal. However, he then argued that we must do something even it is not a single payer system. We cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the possible. Finally he argued that cuts in Medi-Cal are taking us in the wrong direction and it will make it impossible to find Medi-Cal providers who cover the disadvantaged. Mariko Yamada was also supportive of the Kuehl Bill and argued that if her supporter, Phil Angelides had been elected Governor, we would have it as law now. She is also willing to consider others but not as enthusiastically. Talked about the fact that social workers have supported single payer health system going back 50 years, back then, she quipped they were called Communists but now normal people also support such a system.

While Cabaldon has his fair share of union endorsements, the presence of that 2005 special election coalition of SEIU-UHWW, CNA, firefighters, police and teachers’ unions on Yamada’s endorsement list suggests that those unions don’t trust Cabaldon, even though he’s the front runner and as such would be easy enough to endorse. It’s not a matter of liberal versus conservative – both candidates are fairly liberal Democrats, well in the mainstream for the blue 8th AD – but it suggests that the battle over the shape of health care reform between establishment accommodationists and single payer advocates that scuttled the compromise last year is still simmering under the surface, and that CNA and SEIU-UHWW are doing some quiet primary work to try and actually get single payer passed as more than a symbolic bill, should the Democrats get a big enough majority in November to pass it over the governor’s veto.

Or maybe I’m just seeing things.

originally at surf putah

Uncategorized

Will There Be an LGBT Legislative Caucus after November? Yes!

3 Comments

Although there have been reports that the California LGBT Legislative Caucus is in danger of extinction the truth is that in January 2009 it is very likely that it will be as large as ever.

The only current members of the LGBT Caucus who are not termed out are State Senators Christine Kehoe and Carole Migden. However, Migden is facing a tough primary fight which she is very likely to lose.

Here is a table showing the members of the LGBT caucus for the current legislative sessiob and a projection of what the caucus will look like after being sworn in in January 2009.

January 2007                       January 2009
Assembly                         
Mark Leno (AD-13)                  Tom Ammiano (AD-13)
John Laird (AD-27)                 John Perez (AD-46)
                                   Chris Cabaldon (AD-8)
State Senate
Christine Kehoe (SD-39)            Christine Kehoe (SD-39)
Carole Migden (SD-3)               Mark Leno (SD-3)
Sheila Kuehl (SD-23)

In addition, there’s the possibility that Laurette Healey may win her primary to replace

Assemblymember Lloyd Levine in the 40th Assembly District and it’s possible that Greg Pettis will win his primary in the 80th district (but it’s unlikely he will win the general election in this Republican-leaning district).

Uncategorized

8th Assembly District – Yamada’s In, Cabaldon Lands More Endorsements

4 Comments

(“This is going to be a long election cycle.” Don’t worry, it already is… And boy, is it fun! ; ) – promoted by atdleft)

Well, we’re well over a year out from the 2008 primary, but things are already up and running. This is going to be a long election cycle.

As Brian posted in the quick hits, Sacramento State Senator (and UCD  grad) Darrell Steinberg just endorsed West Sac mayor Chris Cabaldon, adding to Cabaldon’s already strong establishment support. I’m not sure how much this helps Cabaldon in Yolo County as much as with fundraisers and networking in Sacramento, though, as Steinberg isn’t all that well known in the district. Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad points out that Cabaldon also just got 5 members of the Winters City Council. And the establishment endorsement juggernaut rolls on…

Also today, from the Daily Democrat and the Davis Vanguard, comes coverage of Mariko Yamada’s announcements in Fairfield and Woodland, at the Solano and Yolo County seats, respectively. Yamada, the Yolo County Supervisor representing parts of Davis, Woodland and the county in between, is the second Democrat to jump into the 8th Assembly District Race.

Courtesy of the Vanguard, here’s a youtube video of Yamada’s Woodland speech:

The full statement can be found here at Yamada’s website. The heart of the speech, and the heart of Mariko’s candidacy, is right here:

But you know, something is wrong in the direction our society has gone. As a social worker and a Democrat, I expect to be an advocate for the poorest of the poor. But what we are seeing now is a middle class, the working families, the young people trying to get started, the everyday people of Solano and Yolo counties teetering on the brink of becoming the poorest and most vulnerable. The gap between the rich and the poor is heightening. Too many of our friends and neighbors are being forced awake from their American dream and realizing it’s a very chilly morning.

Working families know that one illness, one accident, one shift in retirement benefit payments, and one job loss in a family, can rob them of the progress they’ve made in life.

  As a social worker and a county supervisor, I see the daily casualties of misplaced priorities of our nation and our state. Local governments struggle to provide basic services in the face of constantly changing regulations and the chronic under funding of basic services. I believe it is time for the people to give voice to common sense policies. With your help, I will work hard to take your voice to the Capitol.

Both Cabaldon and Yamada will be dependable Democrats on most issues, and both candidates will be solid on the hotbutton issues of cultural liberalism. The difference between the two lies as much in the narratives that each campaign is building as anything else, with Cabaldon promising to continue the status quo, and Yamada arguing that the status quo just isn’t working out for regular people anymore. The actual policy stances between the two, and between both and outgoing Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, is likely as not to be pretty similar (certainly far more than the rhetoric will make it sound during the campaign), but politics is as much about stories and narratives as anything else, and Mariko is saying something that has long needed to be said, with our Golden State’s rich economy and squeezed populace:

It’s getting harder and harder to make it here.

originally posted at surf putah
—

Candidate sites:

West Sacramento mayor Chris Cabaldon
Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada

California

And It Begins – Cabaldon Announces for the 8th Assembly District

5 Comments

(This is better than the quick diary that I wrote. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Well, it’s not exactly a surprise, but the entry of Chris Cabaldon – West Sacramento five-time mayor and runner-up to current Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) in 2002 – into the race officially begins the campaign to succeed Wolk in 2008, who is term limited and will be running for State Senate to replace Mike Machado (D-Linden) in the fifth district. Ah, you gotta love the term limits-induced merry-go-round in Sacramento.

The 8th district includes most of Yolo and Solano Counties, minus the city of Vallejo and the rural parts of Yolo County north of Woodland; in a nutshell, the I-80 corridor. The district is strongly Democratic, ad the winner of the Democratic primary will be heavily, possibly prohibitively favored to win the general.

Cabaldon’s announcement, interestingly enough, was in Davis in front of the train station, not West Sacramento, and he was flanked by Democratic officeholders from all over Yolo County – from Davis, County Supervisor and former Assemblywoman Helen Thompson, City Councilman Don Saylor, and Mayor pro tem Ruth Asmundson; From Woodland, County Sheriff and mayor Dave Flory, Vice Mayor Skip Davies, and City Councilman Jeff Monroe; From West Sacramento, County Supervisor Mike McGowan, Vice Mayor Oscar Villegas and City Councilmen Wes Beers and Mark Johannessen. One notable absence was outgoing Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, who has not yet announced who she is endorsing, if any, in the race to replace her. Republican County Supervisor Matt Rexroad, while not endorsing anybody in the race (claiming that his endorsement would be “the kiss of death” anyways), looks to me to be endorsing Cabaldon between the lines in this post (which is currently down; I’ll re-link it when his site gets back up and running). Clearly, Cabaldon is trying to get himself out there early as the Yolo County candidate, before anyone else announces.

Cabaldon’s supporters and detractors tend to cite the same thing – building in West Sacramento – to support their opinions. Supporters tend to point to his bringing Ikea to West Sac and contruction of condo housing as part of the recent revitalization of the port city; detractors tend to view him as excessively pro-corporate and pro-sprawl, and Cabaldon’s current campaigning on the issue of controlling urban sprawl to be hypocritical. Not really ever having set foot in West Sacramento before or after Cabaldon’s tenure, I can’t really say one way or the other whether it helped or hurt the city, but that’s the discussion. I don’t suspect that Cabaldon’s having come out last year as gay will affect the race much either way, since the district and most of his competitors are pretty socially liberal.

Those rumored to be considering a run are Steve Hardy (D-Vacaville), a City Councilman from Vacaville who came in 3rd in the 2002 primary, and Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada (D-Davis), who was involved with the short-lived Davis DFA meetup and is generally considered to be the progressive candidate in the race. Having gotten to know Mariko a bit during the Dean campaign (over before it began, sadly), I hope she runs.

For those interested, there are a couple good discussions simmering on over at The Davis Vanguard on Cabaldon (here and here), as well as potential challengers here.

If the California presidential primary is moved to February, the state races will be the second in a series of three elections in ’08, and will likely end up with pretty low turnout. Who this helps is anybody’s guess this far out.At any rate, it should be fun to watch, and if the rumored Wolk-Garamendi, jr. race in the 5th State Senate district also pans out, 2008 could be a very exciting year for Yolo politics.

related websites:

Christopher Cabaldon for Assembly
Mariko Yamada’s County Supervisor page
Steve Hardy’s City Council page (scroll down)

—–

originally at surf putah