Tag Archives: CA-32

CA-32: Cedillo’s campaign announces $568,000 in Q1 UPDATED: Pleitez $152,777

Impressive haul.  From the release:

El Monte, CA – State Senator Gil Cedillo today reported having raised $568,000 in the first quarter of 2009, with over $441,000 cash on hand.  Cedillo officially entered the race for the vacant 32nd Congressional District in late January, giving him just over two months to raise money prior to the first fundraising disclosure deadline.  The FEC quarter one deadline was on Tuesday, March 31st and the reports are made public today.

The Cedillo campaign has publicly stated an ambitious goal of raising $750,000 prior to the May 19th Special Primary Election.  The strong quarter one fundraising numbers mean the campaign has already raised 75% of the desired budget.

I’ll post Q1 numbers for other candidates as soon as I have them.

UPDATE with part of the release from Emmanuel Pleitez, who raised $152,777:

LOS ANGELES – Today the Emanuel Pleitez Campaign for Congress announced that it has raised $152,777 in campaign contributions through the first quarter of 2009. That surprisingly large figure, coupled with a ground force of 25 full-time volunteers engaged in technology, finance, communications and grassroots outreach efforts, places the 32nd District candidate squarely in the middle of a three-way race for the vacant Congressional seat.

“Our field and fundraising efforts have exceeded expectations, and we have proven that we are contenders in this race,” said Pleitez. “But the financial reports only tell part of the story of my campaign. We’ve got 25 full-time volunteers who are donating their time to this effort, and it’s impossible to calculate their value. Not only are they giving us their expertise, they’re also contributing their enthusiasm for the political process and their determination to bring new leadership to the 32nd District.

Not a bad haul for Emanuel, who is showing that he doesn’t consider himself an also-ran in this district and is in it to win.

CA-32: I’m Proud To Be Running For Congress

(The news peg here is that Dr. Chu vows to join the Progressive Caucus.  Please welcome her to Calitics. – promoted by David Dayen)

It was December 18th when I first heard the news that President-elect Obama had chosen Hilda Solis as his nominee for Secretary of Labor. I was so thrilled because Hilda Solis is a person of such integrity, a true progressive champion who has left an amazing legacy as my representative in the 32nd district of California. After the initial excitement I felt upon hearing the news, it occurred to me: the congressional seat would be open; this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to help President Obama bring change to America and to continue the work Hilda Solis began in CA-32. I knew I had to run for this seat.

I have represented parts of the 32nd congressional district since 1985 when I was elected to the Garvey School Board in Rosemead. Having gained notoriety fighting an English only ordinance in Monterey Park — and winning that fight — I was elected to the Monterey Park City Council in 1988 and served three terms as Mayor. In 2001 I was elected to the state Assembly and was proud to win a seat on the California Board of Equalization in 2006 where I currently serve as Vice-Chair. The 32nd district has been my home for 24 years and I have voted for Hilda Solis as my representative ever since she first won the seat in 2000. Now, in 2009, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to succeed her and carry on her fight for progressive values in Washington.

Hilda and I actually go back 20 years when we worked together on a re-districting initiative that brought both the Asian-American and Latino communities together. Too often our communities are at odds but our re-districting fight proved that all of our interests could be served if we work together. Our friendship and partnership continued for years and in 2001, as I ran a difficult race for the California Assembly, it was Hilda Solis’s endorsement that put me over the top. Now in 2009, as a member of the administration, Hilda must stay out of the political fray, but I am proud and humbled to have the support of the Solis family to continue the fight that Hilda started in Congress. If I am lucky enough to be sent to Washington by the voters of CD 32, I intend to follow Hilda’s example by joining the progressive caucus and fighting for workers who have been under assault for the past decade.

I have been a fierce advocate for workers throughout my career. I’ve been a proud member of the American Federation of Teachers for 20 years; as Mayor of Monterey Park, I supported SEIU 535 in their efforts to organize nurses at Garfield Hospital and joined with the Teamsters to fight the expansion of WalMart; in the Assembly I sponsored AB 805, the Heat Illness Standards bill that provides minimal standards to protect workers from excessive heat on the job, such as shade, water and rest breaks; and as a member of the US Congress I will be proud to add my name to the list of co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act. President Obama supports it because he knows that empowering workers to unionize is key to rebuilding the middle class and I agree. My fight for workers has won me a 100% lifetime voting record from the California Federation of Labor and I’m proud to have received the endorsement of the L.A. County Federation of Labor and the Service Employees International Union in addition to several locals including the Amalgamated Transit Union California Conference Board, Teamsters Joint Council 42 and Teamsters Local 911.

I hope you’ll join my campaign as well.

Please visit JudyChu.net, sign up to be a volunteer and donate what you can to our campaign to carry on Hilda Solis’s legacy. The primary is on May 19th; this is going to be a quick campaign but I know will be a tough one and I’d appreciate your support.  

CA-32: Calitics Interviews Emanuel Pleitez

The CA-32 race to replace Labor Secretary has less than six weeks to go until the primary.  We know about the two major candidates; Board of Equalization member Judy Chu (not to be confused with Betty Chu, who will appear directly above her on the ballot and surely cause some errors among voters) and State Senator Gil Cedillo, whose extreme spending of campaign contributions on shopping, meals and lavish hotels made the LA Times this weekend and caused a stir.

Somewhat less remarked-upon has been the candidacy of Emanuel Pleitez, a product of East Los Angeles and Woodrow Wilson High School, who matriculated at Stanford, joined the advisory board of Voto Latino (a group that encourages voter registration and engagement for the Latino community), worked for Democratic lawmakers like Antonio Villaraigosa, Tom Daschle and Hillary Clinton, and worked on the Obama transition team at the Treasury Department.  On Friday I had the opportunity to chat with Pleitez about his life experiences, the financial crisis, housing policy and a host of other issues.  A paraphrase of that conversation follows.

(As a side note, this story about one of the volunteers on the campaign, who traveled all the way from Santiago, Chile to work on it, is pretty amazing.)

Calitics: Tell me about your experiences that have brought you to this run for Congress.

Emanuel Pleitez: You know, after college and working in the private sector at Goldman Sachs, I was able to travel a lot.  And I think visiting 27 countries gave me a new perspective on what the challenges are out there in the world.  When I would go to South Africa or India, China, Brazil, I would visit the universities, and the slums, and see their struggles, and it really made me think about the issues of global poverty.  I even drove a taxicab in Myanmar!  And what I took away from all that is that the best way to create change is to start in your own backyard.  And that’s what we’re doing in this campaign.

Calitics: So how are things going?

EP: Well, we have 25 full-time staff working every day.  And our main focus is door-to-door, face-to-face contact.  We’re out canvassing every day.  A lot of people tell me that they think we’re the only candidate in the race, because we’re the only one they see.  So we feel pretty good about our position.

Calitics: Now, you worked on the transition in the Treasury Department, and one central concern that a lot of people have had with Treasury is the lack of staffed positions at the undersecretary level, and the belief that Tim Geithner has basically had to go it alone over there.  How should people look at the transition’s performance in that respect?

EP: I agree with that criticism of Treasury.  I had nothing to do with personnel, I worked in other departments.  But there are many reasons for the lack of senior staff, and I wouldn’t discount the ability and importance of the career civil servants working in the Department, who are doing a fantastic job.

Calitics: This week, the Congressional Oversight Panel released a preliminary report on the TARP program and Treasury’s performance, and they were highly critical of the lack of transparency and clarity over some of these programs, as well as a lack of accountability for the big banks.  How would you assess the various programs offered to this point?

EP: I don’t have all the details of the COP report.  My inclination is to defend Secretary Geithner, but I want people to be critical.  I think what he’s trying to do is return confidence to the markets and get credit flowing again, and we’re seeing signs that the plans are starting to work.

Calitics: How would you approach the situation with the banks.  Would you just recapitalize them forever, or seek a Swedish-style receivership or a liquidation of the insolvent firms?

EP: I would consider a receivership, but I wouldn’t make that the first thing on the table because of the expense involved and the danger to the markets.  But clearly, recapitalization alone won’t work, that’s just making capital disappear.

Calitics: What’s the biggest problem in the economy that we’re facing at this point?

EP: The biggest problem is the foreclosures right now.  Some of them are in rural districts are suburbs and they’re second, third and fourth homes, but for families in urban districts like mine, a foreclosure means the loss of everything you’ve got.

Calitics: Would you support bankruptcy judges being able to modify the terms of a primary loan for borrowers?  Isn’t there a problem with modifying securitized loans, in that the people holding the securities that have been modified can sue the loan servicers for illegally changing the terms of the security?

EP: That is a problem.  But as I understand it, cram-down is more of a threat to incentivize loan modifications and keep people in their homes.  Which is what we have to do.  Investors will get hurt anyway if the loan forecloses.  Somehow, the lenders and the investors and the home-owners have to come to an accommodation, and in that process the primary goal should be keeping people in their homes.  I wasn’t initially open to principal write-downs, but I am more so now, because we’re seeing that the interest-only modifications are not working, and people are being forced into foreclosure just a few months later.

Calitics: What are some of the other challenges facing the economy that you want to deal with in Congress.

EP: Obviously, we still need major stimulus to save jobs and transition into a new economic future.  A large part of my district is at or near the poverty rate, and we need help in these tough economic times.  I expect another trillion dollars to be spent by the government.  In my district, we need investments in public transportation and clean energy programs to reduce emissions and create manufacturing jobs.  There’s a program here called “La Causa,” which targets the high school dropout rate, and gets those kids into vocational programs for green jobs, whether it’s solar panel installation or something like that, so that they can be prepared for the 21st century economy.  We need more of that.  And we need investment in education, because any dollars spent get the greatest return in education.

Calitics: Do you plan on joining any ideological caucus in Congress?

EP: I haven’t really given it much thought, but I don’t think so.  I think all political is local, and I’d rather focus on helping my local community and responding to the concerns of my district.  Maybe I’ll join the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, that should be safe for me.  (Laughs.)

Calitics: Well, thank you for talking to us today.

EP: Thank you.

Betty Chu and Judy Chu: the final word!

I’ve just heard confirmation from fellow Calitics blogger Todd Beeton, who is Judy Chu’s internet director.  It turns out that Betty Tom Chu and Judy Chu are tangentially related–by marriage, not by blood.

Betty Chu is the wife of Judy Chu’s cousin Bob Chu.  Now, how well they know each other, I don’t know.  But this is the final word in the Chu v. Chu relationship saga.  Back to campaigning as usual.

CA-32 family feud: Chu vs. Chu

On Monday I wrote about longtime Solis aide Benita Duran’s entry into the CA-32 special race.  Now, I tend to agree with Mr. Dayen’s assessment that Benita Duran stands just about as much of a chance of winning a six-week sprint to the finish while trying to construct and campaign and fundraising apparatus as I do–and I’m not even a candidate in the race.  Which, of course, might engender speculation as to exactly why Duran announced so last-minute.

But that’s relatively small potatoes in comparison to the latest news from CA-32.  I checked the candidate filing page to see who else had filed, and one thing caught my eye: Judy isn’t the only Chu in the race.

It turns out that a certain Betty Tom Chu is running on the Republican ticket.  Simple name coincidence, you might think?  Anything but.  Betty Tom Chu is a former Monterey Park City Councilwoman, just like Judy used to be, who decided to run again.

Now, here’s where things get interesting:  I’ve heard from a couple of different sources, though I have been unable to confirm this independently, that Betty Tom Chu is Judy Chu’s aunt.  And this must have made for some very interesting politics in the Chu household, because Betty Chu turned out incumbent Monterey Park City Councilwoman Sharon Martinez, whom Betty’s niece Judy had endorsed for re-election.  For what it’s worth, my sources also seem to indicate that Betty and Judy don’t really get along too well.

So now, let’s talk about the political ramifications of this as it may turn out on May 19th.  All the candidates will appear on the same ballot, regardless of Party–which should mean that Betty and Judy will appear right next to each other on the ballot.  That right there could lead to a lot of voter confusion on the ballot.  But even more than that, it seems fair to reason that the appearance of another prominent Chinese candidate on the ballot, especially one who just won an election in March in an area that Judy is really counting on to win, does Judy no favors.  To further complicate matters, it seems like Betty should be able to actually self-fund a decent campaign, seeing as how she founded East West bank, which is a decently-sized retail bank serving the Asian community in Southern California.

Of course, Betty Chu is running on the Republican ticket, which means that she will stand little chance of defeating whichever Democrat emerges from the field in an overwhelmingly Democratic district.  And given the fact that Betty stands no chance of winning in July and was just elected to City Council, it’s definitely feasible to speculate that Betty Tom Chu has entered the CA-32 race specifically to sabotage her niece from taking the seat.

All of which is making me say: if you want to know who’s going to come out of the Democratic primary in this low-turnout special, you really should flip a coin.

Family feud in CA-32: Chu vs. Chu

Yesterday I mentioned the entry of longtime Solis staffer Benita Duran into the CA-32 special election.  As David Dayen pointed out, it’s not really likely that Duran will be able to win, given the fact that she is just now getting involved in a race where Chu and Cedillo will have both raised considerable amounts of money and have campaign infrastructures and name recognition, and where Emanuel Pleitez seems to be making more noise than widely expected, as evidenced by things like this.

I’ll leave it to others to speculate about Duran’s motives for entering the race.  But, inspired by this, I just checked the candidate list for the CA-32 special, and found something interesting:

Judy isn’t the only Chu in the race.

Betty Chu is a City Councilmember in Monterey Park.  Unlike Judy, however, she’s a Republican.  That must have led to some interesting family politics in the Chu household recently, as Betty Chu recently defeated Judy Chu-endorsed CANDIDATE NAME HERE in the most recent Monterey Park City Council election.

CA-32 field gets more crowded: Solis staffer Duran enters the race

A friend pointed me just now to this Congressional Quarterly article about a new entrant to the CA-32 special election to replace Hilda Solis.  Benita Duran, a former staffer to Hilda Solis, has thrown her hat into the ring:

Benita Duran, a longtime L.A.-based aide to new Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, is jumping into the race to succeed her former boss in the House, clouding the picture in an already crowded primary field.

The May 19 primary is all but certain to determine the next representative for the overwhelmingly Democratic 32nd District.

Though her candidacy is not yet on record with the Federal Election Comission, Duran has established a campaign Website.

That makes her the fourth candidate in the race, joining Judy Chu, the chairman of the state Board of Equalization, state Sen. Gil Cedillo and Emanuel Pleitez, who was a member of President Obama’s transition team.

How will this affect the race?  Your guess is as good as mine.  One could argue that the entry of another Hispanic helps Chu by further splitting a potential ethnic vote, but there’s also the possibility that the entry of another woman in the race could soften Chu’s support.  Or it’s possible that none of it could matter and labor will carry the day.

Me?  I’m looking forward to the FEC reports for Q1.

Campaign News: CA-32, CA-10, CA-48

Through a series of vacancies and some early action, California has suddenly become ground zero for Congressional elections.  Here’s the latest news on some of the races.

• CA-32: The special election for Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’ seat will coincide with the statewide special election on May 19th.  The major candidates, Board of Equalization member Judy Chu, State Sen. Gil Cedillo and Obama transition official Emanuel Pleitez, actually met in a forum last week sponsored by the Southwest Voter Registration Project,  and the Latino Professional Network.  I didn’t learn about it until a press release popped up in my inbox from Cedillo’s press flack touting “Cedillo is Victorious in First Debate”.  Seeking a somewhat less biased opinion, I struggled to find a news report until coming across this in the Whittier Daily News.

Immigration issues dominated the agenda when three of the leading Democratic candidates to replace new Labor Secretary Hilda Solis met face to face for the first time at a forum Thursday night.

“Today I met with the president … I could have said anything … what I said was, ‘Mr. President, please stop the raids. Please stop the raids now,’ ” Cedillo said of a meeting with Barack Obama during the president’s town hall meeting in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Cedillo is known for repeatedly introducing legislation to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, but he said that his legacy goes far beyond: “In 11 years of the legislature … I have written 80 bills signed by three governors. I have fought to defend immigrants, because I believe it is the right thing to do.”

Chu discussed being raised by an immigrant mother in South Central Los Angeles, fighting against an English- only movement in Monterey Park, and pushing legislation in Sacramento to protect outdoor migrant workers and require contracts negotiated in a certain language to be printed in that language.

“I support bills that will bring justice to immigrants. Many times immigrants do not have a voice in the political system, and it is up to us, who are in elected positions, to be able to speak up for them,” she said.

Pleitez, too, was born to an immigrant mother, who crossed the border from Mexico while pregnant with him. He said his childhood growing up at the “mercy of the generosity of the people of my community” in back rooms and back garages of neighbors created a debt that he owes to the district.

“I was able to move on to Stanford University, Goldman Sachs … but I will never forget … this debt that I have,” he said.

“I will leverage my youth to organize around the country … to really pass immigration reform.”

This was the last scheduled debate where every major candidate has committed to attend, and judging from the article, observers found little differentiation between the candidates on the issues.  Cedillo vowed not to vote for any health care system that didn’t include immigrants “regardless of immigration status,” but given the audience I would expect that kind of rigidity.  I hope there will be a wider range of issues discussed in a public way, and as I have in the past I invite all the candidates to share their views here on Calitics.  We should have at least one response in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, PowerPAC, a new group targeted at youth of color which aided President Obama in California and across the nation last year, endorsed Gil Cedillo.  He also received the endorsement today of former Assemblyman Ed Chavez.

• CA-10: The field is still assembling after last week’s announcement that Ellen Tauscher will leave Congress to work on arms control policy in the State Department.  While Sen. Mark DeSaulnier has not formally announced, such an announcement is expected.  In the meantime, Adriel Hampton, a municipal investigator for the San Francisco City Attorney’s office, is among the first to formally announce.  Hampton clearly seeks to leverage social media and Web 2.0 (he has a Ning site, in addition to Facebook and Twitter) to create buzz for his outside-the-establishment campaign.  Hopefully he’ll pop up around here as well.  I’m not seeing a lot of substance behind the “hey kids, let’s put on a Government 2.0 show” announcement, but I’m sure that will come.  Perhaps others can fill in the missing pieces here. (Actually, Robert did, below.

Meanwhile, the Yacht Party still must believe that this seat holds the same demographics as it did when it was represented by a Republican in 1996, because they continue to trot out names to contest the seat.  Melanie Morgan is touting someone.  Yes, Spocko’s Melanie Morgan.

Conservative activist, author and former radio talk show host Melanie Morgan sent an e-mail yesterday saying she’s “squealing like a schoolgirl” to announce that Catherine Moy – executive director of the Move America Forward group of which Morgan is chairwoman; co-author with Morgan of “American Mourning;” and a Fairfield City Council member – will run in the special election to succeed Rep. Ellen Tauscher, assuming Tauscher is confirmed to a high-ranking State Department post.

“The conservative counter-insurgency has begun, and I’m going to do everything in my power to get Cat elected,” Morgan wrote. “Cat has terrific name recognition in the area, a devoted following and she is entirely capable of running this race and winning it – as a rock-solid conservative who has never voted to raise a single tax, and has a solid record on national defense working relentlessly with the largest pro-troops grassroots organization in the country.”

I don’t think Morgan knows what the word “counter-insurgency” means.  Will she be seeking out groups inside the district to reconcile differences and win hearts and minds with a movement of primary resistance?

Other Republican names are floating out there, but the one that brings a smile to my face is tom Del Beccaro, Vice Chairman of the Yacht Party and recent founder of a PAC dedicated to stopping the Fairness Doctrine, which has already been stopped by a full vote in the US Senate.

• CA-48: It takes two years to run for Congress at the least, if not multiple cycles.  So I appreciate Irvine City Councilwoman Beth Krom’s kickoff in CA-48 to unseat John Campbell, bringing 300 people to Shady Canyon for the affair.  Both Steve Young (the most recent candidate in the district) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez enthusiastically endorsed Krom’s candidacy, so expect the field to clear.  It’s quixotic, but we need more windmill-tilters taking back red districts.

CA-32: Competing Launch Parties

Judy Chu followed Gil Cedillo’s campaign kick-off with a kickoff of her own, and friend of Calitics Todd Beeton was there.

Judy Chu’s event was held in a smaller venue than Cedillo’s and had fewer attendees but had a few things going for it that Cedillo didn’t. First was the visibility. Chu had bands of young people out on the street with signs cheering on Chu urging cars to honk in support. Also, while there was no member of congress on hand to tout Chu as Xavier Becerra did for Cedillo, Chu had a larger and more diverse group of local leaders speak on her behalf ranging from State Contoller John Chiang to Assemblymen Ed Hernandez and Mike Eng (Judy’s husband) to Hilda Solis’s sister Irma. While Cedillo spoke to a room full of primarily hispanic supporters (I’d say 90+%), the mix of Asian, hispanic and white faces there to support Judy and speak on her behalf was notable. While Cedillo is trying to tap into the majority hispanic population in the district (60% hispanic vs. 20% Asian), Judy Chu, having served on the Monterey Park City Council, in the Assembly and now on the Board of Equalization, already has a voting base in the district that spans all ethnic groups. Cedillo on the other hand has never represented any part of this district before.

Pretty interesting that Hilda Solis’ sister not only showed up, but announced that “my whole family supports Judy Chu.”  The new Secretary of Labor isn’t going to make an endorsement in this race, but that’s about as close as it gets.  And it’s important, especially when combined with the Cal Labor Federation endorsement.

There’s kind of a competition between who is the candidate of exclusion versus inclusion in this race.  Chu says that she’s the only one in the race from the district (that’s not true; Emanuel Pleitez was born there, and Baldwin Park USD Board member Blanca Rubio lives there as well), and that a carpetbagger shouldn’t be allowed to come in from out of town; Cedillo clearly is using his ethnic identity to make the point that the candidate should be representative of “our community.”  Both are exclusionary messages.

Meanwhile, Chu levied the first attack of the campaign by highlighting a Roll Call story about Cedillo doing a Washington fundraiser at the offices of the C2 Group, a lobbying firm in DC.  Their clients include Fannie Mae, Amgen, Comcast Corp., the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the American Beverage Association.  What’s more interesting about that fundraiser is that half a dozen Democratic Congressmembers are sponsoring it, including Rep. John Salazar (D-Colo.), chairman the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’ political action committee.  Will Cedillo get substantial CHC funds for this race?

It would be good to know where these candidates stand on the issues of the day, and a political campaign is a great way to make that known.  There’s a special election in the state on the same day as the primary – how do Chu and Cedillo stand on Prop. 1A?  What about the AIG bonuses?  At some point, it would be good to see the race turn to actual issues instead of sniping and exclusionary politics.