Disclosure: I’ve been a volunteer with the Perez campaign since April 2007.

We won.  Manuel Perez won the Democratic nomination for the 80th Assembly District in California.  He won thanks to grassroots organizing, an insightful and professional grasp of core issues, and the powerful support of his brothers and sisters across the broad spectrum of the labor movement.  But essentially because he’s a mensch, and he’s in this for us.  His rally speech at 2pm:  

Video shot by Rafael Aguilera, director at The Verde Group, who has worked with Manuel, and came down to be here for the campaign.  Crossposted from Calitics.

It’s been such a joy to be a part of this campaign.  Manuel is the real thing, and it’s an honor to help.  This is a seat California Democrats are determined to win.

Updated on Sun., June 8th to trim a bit, title was From Rally to Victory Speech – Election Day.

I really, really don’t like to agree with Dan Walters. He’s quite obtuse, but I suppose that’s neither here nor there for the purpose of this particular insight: the GOP has managed to leverage the 2/3 supermajority for the budget requirement to extort other compromises. Compromises for which they don’t otherwise have the vote. We talked about this briefly on the Calitics Show with Mark Leno on Wednesday, so maybe Dan was listening to me when he wrote this in today’s SacBee:

Initially, trailer bills were just boring bits of legislative ephemera. But politics being what they are, someone eventually noticed that the trailers, drafted and enacted quickly and secretly, made them perfect vehicles for “lowballing” other stuff.

Trailer bills have proliferated, filled with provisions that either have nothing to do with the budget or change it in mysterious ways, and are routinely enacted without any analysis of their effects, much less any opportunity for outside input. They are, moreover, “urgency” bills that take effect immediately upon being signed by the governor.

This year, the Senate Republican caucus is trying to get bills limiting Atty General Jerry Brown’s power and to drastically cut back on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). They would have no leverage outside of the budget process to demand these changes, so they use the only process where they have some sort of governable size: the budget.

It is unacceptable that a minority should be attempting to kick and scream their way to overrule the majority’s decisions.  It’s just one more reason to get rid of the 2/3 requirement.