We’ve heard some scattered stories today. As dkirk notes in comments on the last thread, Yes on 8 is apparently using Barack Obama’s voice in a robocall:
Male Voice: Here are Barack Obama’s own words on Gay Marriage. –Then play recording of Obama response to question during debates–.
Male Voice:(Paraphrased) – Proposition 8 defines marriage as between one man and one woman, as you heard Barack Obama state. Remember to vote Yes on Prop 8.
Obama has repeatedly announced his opposition to Prop. 8. I don’t really like his splitting of the baby, that he personally opposes same-sex marriage but opposes divisive and discriminatory initiatives like Prop. 8, but let it be known that it’s the furthest any Presidential candidate has been willing to go in American history, particularly the fact that he has lent his image to ads.
This is a message for (um) all people (um) in Pasadena. The (um) place for (uh) people in Pasadena is for you to vote at Jackie Robinson on Wednesday the 5th, November 5th. The (uh) ballot can be delivered on November 5th at Jackie Robinson.
Today is November 4th.
There’s audio at the link. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that this comes from Yes on 8. Just a hunch. Pasadena is a pretty liberal city, and huge turnout obviously could be the difference in a lot of these races.
The biggest newspaper in the region, the Sacramento Bee, makes the case for Charlie Brown and a new direction in the district, particularly on the area of putting pragmatism above ideology. Now, I don’t totally agree with all the conclusions of the editorial, but the last bit is unquestionably true:
Brown understands that the that the mortgage crisis, the collapse of the financial system, the credit crunch and the recession are real. He would have supported the rescue plan because doing nothing was worse than doing something, though he believes Congress has done a poor job of selling the package. And the final package assured taxpayers get any profits, required congressional oversight, banned golden parachutes.
This is telling. McClintock sticks to ideology; Brown pragmatically puts the nation first.
The nation and the 4th District need to find ways out of partisan and ideological gridlock. Elect Charlie Brown to Congress.
Now, if the final package wasn’t such a dog with fleas that the feds have basically scrapped it, and if the banks weren’t using it to collect free money instead of facilitating lending, this would be a stronger argument. Whatever; the Bee’s endorsements have been profoundly odd, and have seemed to value bipartisan seriousness over everything. But I think there’s a difference between rejecting partisanship and abandoning core principles. I think that Charlie Brown will govern the way he has campaigned, by working through problems and using his best judgment based on his values and principles. Tom McClintock is incapable of adapting to changing information whatsoever.
What he will do is try to play dirty to win the election, including sending nasty robocalls throughout the district because they’re cheap for his cash-strapped campaign. The problem is that they haven’t done a good job of checking their call lists. The Brown campaign, for example, got robocalled.
UPDATE: The latest poll shows Brown expanding his slim but measurable lead.
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 10/20-22. Likely voters. MoE 5% (9/23-25 results)
McClintock (R) 42 (41)
Brown (D) 48 (46)
Among early voters (13 percent of respondents)
McClintock (R) 38
Brown (D) 56
Brown takes independents 51-34. McClintock’s fav/unfav is at 44/42. Brown is at 49/29. And McClintock is out of the cash he’d need to push up Brown’s unfavorables.
This is very good news. Let’s get this seat. Stay for Change.
Here’s some tidbits from the campaign trail with 12 days out:
• CA-03: Bill Durston and Dan Lungren debated last night, and it was a predictable affair, says Randy Bayne:
Nothing new, no fireworks, no knockout punch, no excitement of any kind was reported by either MyMotherLode.com or the Stockton Record. Just what we already know – Durston wants us out of Iraq, doesn’t like No Child Left Behind, and thinks the bailout is the wrong solution. Lungren supports the occupation, favors No Child Left Behind, and voted for the bailout.
If you’re looking for change from eight years of down the toilet policy, and you don’t want to continue flushing our future down the crapper – vote for Bill Durston.
If the registration stats cited by anecdotal reports are at all accurate, we’re going to be very close to registration parity in this seat by Election Day. Lungren may be acting positive in public, but inside the campaign they must be terrified. They probably didn’t expect Durston to run a credible campaign.
“Lincoln asked, ‘If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? The answer is four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one,'” McClintock said in a statement. “And calling a homosexual partnership a marriage doesn’t make it one.”
I’m pretty sure that means nothing at all, but California’s Alan Keyes has had to distance himself from the comment. Meanwhile his much bigger problem is lacking the funds to run a proper campaign. He’s now taken to relying on cheap robocalls, and Charlie Brown has immediately called on him to stop. Dirty trick robocalls that appeared to be coming from the Brown campaign were a major factor in John Doolittle’s narrow re-election in 2006.
• CA-46: I didn’t get a chance to post Debbie Cook’s amazing closing statement at Tuesday’s debate. Here it is.
The OC Register has a story on this race today. These “Challenger hopes to upset incumbent” stories have a familiar feel to them – the pose of surprise that the race is competitive, the quote from the shallow CW fountain like Allen Hoffenblum explaining why the incumbent is probably still safe, and the overall sense of shock, which would be natural if you weren’t paying attention for the last 18 months, like, um, us.
• Assembly & Senate: Art Torres and Ron Nehring had a debate yesterday, and I think Torres needed to be prepped a little better. He claimed that Democrats could grab a 2/3 majority in the legislature but then couldn’t come up with a simple list of what seats are in play. He should be reading more Calitics. Nehring replied with a lot of bunk and a little truth.
None of that adds up to 54 and 27, of course, and Nehring said Torres’ boast “just doesn’t pencil out.”
He noted that Democratic efforts to oust Sen. Jeff Denham via recall failed miserably this year and the party ended up with no opponent to challenge Sen. Abel Maldonado in Santa Maria, a district believed to be winnable by a Democrat.
On the Assembly side, Nehring said, Republicans “have a great shot at holding on to” the 15th and “have a number of strategic advantages in the 78th (because) the Democrats have nominated the most liberal candidate (Marty Block) they possibly could.”
In the 80th, the Democratic candidate (Manuel Perez) “is getting hammered on … social issues which are important to many people in the Latino community,” Nehring said.
“I don’t know how can you be serious about trying to have a two-thirds vote in the Legislature,” Nehring told Torres, “when you blow so many of these opportunities.”
I’ll go bottom to top on this. Manuel Perez is going to CRUSH Gary Jeandron, and if anyone’s being hammered, it’s the Republicans. The IE money is pretty one-sided in the state. Between that and the registration gains, it’ll take more than just spin to dig your party out of its self-created hole, Mr. Nehring.
However, on one point I will agree with you. The Denham recall and Maldonado disaster have indeed stopped the potential forward momentum in the Senate. Of course, Torres couldn’t say the plain truth – that Don Perata is among the worst leaders in recent Democratic Party history, and has completely set back the state in major ways by his blunders. He is an embarrassment.
John Doolittle must have a really good sense of humor? A love of irony perhaps? The man who was famous for funding sleazy robocalls has introduced a bill that will allow people to opt out of robocalls from politician.
Rep. John Doolittle has reintroduced legislation that would allow people to block robotic political calls such as the automated calls unleashed on his behalf during his narrow victory over Democratic challenger Charlie Brown.
The Roseville Republican’s bill would extend the do-not-call list maintained by the Federal Trade Commission for people wanting to halt unwanted telephone solicitations. It would allow them to avoid getting the so-called “robo calls” that became a prominent feature in November campaigns throughout the country.
During the Brown-Doolittle race last year, residents complained of receiving repeated recorded campaign calls from a male voice purporting to be calling “about Charlie Brown.” (SacBee 2/10/07)
Personally, I think, if there aren’t some sort of scuzzy tricks hiding in this legislation (like, I don’t know, a $100 million contract for Brent Wilkes), I think it’s a good idea. But seriously, there couldn’t be somebody else on this bill? Couldn’t he get some Democrat, or even an ethical Republican (an endangered species, I know) to sign on to this bill so this isn’t just coming from somebody with a bad robocall history? I suppose that people aren’t lining up to hook up with John “15%”“100%” Doolittle now that he’s out of the leadership.
