APA’s for Progress was invited yesterday to be on a conference call with Judy Chu, who is running for the seat that Hilda Solis vacated when she was appointed to be Secretary of Labor. Thanks Todd for arranging the call.

After introductions, Dr. Chu, who is currently Vice Chair of the California Board of Equalization, shared the story about why she decided to run for the position, her political journey, and reasons that she believes will lead to victory for the Judy Chu for Congress campaign. Aftewards, the bloggers and Dr. Chu engaged in a Q&A.

It was clear throughout the call that the campaign is highlighting the fact that she actually lives in the 32nd District, while her primary opponent (Senator Gil Cedillo) does not reside within the boundaries of the District.  After recalling the morning of December 18, when she first heard about Solis’ nomination, Dr. Chu recalls her reaction. “I was thrilled because [Secretary Solis] is a good friend… and it occured to me that this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s a chance to help President Obama change America, and someone needs to carry on [Secretary Solis’] legacy.”  Her political journey started when she won a seat on the local school board, and she joined a coalition that fought against an English-only movement in the San Gabriel Valley. She was then elected to City Council, followed by the State Assembly, where she fought for consumer rights, immigrant rights, support for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, and against hate crimes.  In discussing why she believes she’ll win on May 19, she pointed to her “deep roots in the District.” She has been elected nine times by the voters in the District, and has significant endorsements including ones from Los Angeles Mayor Villaragosa, legendary labor activist Dolores Huerta, and local unions, which she believes represent the “voices from the District.”  Other endorsements she has received include ones from the California Democratic Party and the California Teachers Association.

For my first question (I know this is a pretty soft toss of a question), I asked her what she felt were the 3 most important issues facing AAPI communities today on a federal level.  She named the “glass ceiling,” hate crimes, and language access as the most pressing issues, and cited her extensive record in working on these issues.  While it was refreshing to hear a politician not stutter when answering this question, I was disappointed that she didn’t mention immigration reform, which is a critical issue that often gets overlooked for AAPI’s since it’s generally seen as a “Latino issue.” Glass ceiling in employment and hate crimes, although they’re really important and need attention, they’re largely (I think) more middle class concerns.  I hope that Dr. Chu will choose to hold forums with CBO/community leaders and social science researchers to identify key issues facing various communities.

One of the MOMocrats followed my question by asking about Dr. Chu’s opinion on Betty Brown’s remarks and the bill in Texas on voter identification, which could potentially create a barrier to voter participation. Dr Chu responded by saying,

We have to be careful of voter ID’s. it’s been a way to prevent people of color from exercising full voter rights. We must look at such measures carefully and especially their attempts to suppress voter participation. I think that this is something that voters of color must rally around, and must, at this point, protest unless there is some proposal that makes sense. I don’t think at this point we should have such a thing. I think the Betty Brown situation is very disturbing and insulting for her to say that people should deny their heritage to participate in the electoral process. Plus, she didn’t really apologize. She had a Republican friend say that she apologized, but she never actually apologized. We also need more pressure for her to actually apologize.

WORD, Judy, WORD! Hear that down there in Texas? Pick up those bullhorns and take it to the streets!

One of the other bloggers (sorry, the dude asking the question didn’t identify himself. please let me know who you were so i can give credit where credit’s due. might have been Todd.) shared his concern that the Democratic Congress would simply be a “rubber stamp” that doesn’t challenge President Obama’s decisions. He asked what Dr. Chu thought about the torture memos, CIA, and Judge Bybee, and what she thought Congress could do. Dr. Chu’s simple answer was,

When I read the memos, I was horrified. I couldn’t believe that could take place… well, I guess I could believe it given who was President the last 8 years. It was horrifying. America is better than this, than having unlimited human rights violations. One measure that makes sense is impeaching Judge Bybee, who authorized torture. It’s inappropriate to have him in the Court of Appeals. He should be held responsible for these violations.

Finally, I had to ask about the massive bank bailouts and the fact that there’s been hardly any attention paid to student loans and education access. Fact is that some populations are less willing to take out loans and as tuition keeps going up, loans and huge debt can’t be the answer to education access. I definitely appreciated Dr. Chu’s response, and really her on point knowledge about this issue:

We need to address the barriers that students encounter in education. College is becoming less and less affordable. Tuition has increased 54% in the last decade. I think we need to cut the interest rates on student loans. I know there’s a proposal to cut it by half. We also need to increase Pell grant amounts. Pell grants have been great way to support students in obtaining higher education. We need to also give undergrad students who agree to teach in our schools tuition assistance.  It would also increase the quality of people who teach by encouraging top performing students into the teaching profession. I also think there needs to be loan forgiveness for 10 years of working in public interest/service careers.

That’s right… investing in our future! Way to go Judy Chu!

[updated to include Cedillo’s endorsements by LIUNA and UFW per David Dayen’s comment below.]

Man, I just can’t get enough of this CA-32 race.  You’ve got two Democratic heavyweights duking it out for a federal position that offers job security with no term limits.  Plus a bright, charismatic former Obama transition official who I think is younger than I am and not inclined to wait his turn.

It’s fascinating to me!  And that was before my neighborhood got dragged into this.

See, Judy Chu has been racking up her fair share of endorsements–most notably the unanimous CDP endorsement, as well as the recent announcements of an endorsement by Antonio Villaraigosa and, most recently, an email sent on Judy’s behalf by Emily’s LIST (really, no surprise there).  Cedillo, meanwhile, has gotten a few notables of his own, most recently LIUNA and UFW, as well as a nearly unanimous endorsement by the Los Angeles County Young Democrats (n.b. I am the Political Director of the aforementioned LACYD).  Well, Senator Cedillo’s team has decided to take that endorsement by Mayor Villaraigosa and turn that around on its head, using Measure R, a sales tax increase that was passed by Los Angeles County voters with a 2/3rds majority.

Now, for our NorCal friends who aren’t aware of this issue, Measure R was a somewhat controversial and complicated measure that was put before the voters of California in November.  It became somewhat of a big deal because the flagship project of Measure R, which was allowed to be placed on the county ballot by AB1213, sponsored by Mike Feuer (AD-42), was an extension to the sea of the Purple line subway along Wilshire Blvd., which is an expensive but sorely needed project in the mid-city, Century City, and, yes, the infamous Westside (I live half a block from the next stop in line to be built, and it means I could get downtown in 15 minutes, rather than 15 hours).

Well, that fact spurred outraged cries of racism and bias toward the County elite on the wealthy Westside, because more money was being spent per capita in that region than in the San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley or South L.A. (for some reason, population size, rather than availability of existing infrastructure or daily commuter population, were the only valid metrics).  And these communities were quite upset with Villaraigosa for being such an ardent supporter of AB1213 and Measure R, before a series of renegotiations about local reinvestment and a whole bunch of other issues.

With that background in mind, here is Cedillo’s camp responding to Villaraigosa’s endorsement of Chu:

“Voters, not endorsements, are going to decide the winner of California’s 32nd Congressional district.  And voters in this district know and respect Gil Cedillo’s record.

Los Angeles politicians like Antonio Villaraigosa actively tried to deny San Gabriel Valley residents their fair share of money from Proposition R – the transportation sales tax – to reduce traffic along the 10, 60 and 605 Freeways so they could build a subway on the Westside of L.A.

It was Gil Cedillo, Supervisor Gloria Molina and Senator Gloria Romero who stood up to Villaraigosa and the other L.A. politicians and said there would be no Proposition R unless the San Gabriel Valley got its fair share of the proceeds.  The efforts of Senator Cedillo and his allies were successful and thanks to them, there are 1.8 billion dollars allocated to local transportation projects that benefit San Gabriel Valley families.

Gil Cedillo is a proven leader who has taken on those big money special interests for years to help workers get better wages and benefits.  He took care of the people of the San Gabriel Valley when Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. powerbrokers wanted to take their tax dollars and literally send it down a hole under Wilshire Boulevard.

By standing beside Antonio Villaraigosa today, Judy Chu has shown that she will cozy up to the entrenched political interests, the C-E-Os and wealthy campaign contributors and take care of their interests in Congress instead of putting the hard working families of the San Gabriel Valley first.”

Fine.  I’m sure that message will play really well in the district.  And it’s a great release.  Hard-hitting.  Just the way I like it.  Except for the way it portrays…well…my neighborhood.

Honestly, I’m not a CEO and I, as well as everyone else who would use a subway extensively in this area, do my best to pay my rent every month.  I seriously think they could have played to the interests of the district while playing down the divisiveness just a tad.  That’s my hole down Wilshire Boulevard, thank you very much.

Since it referenced me, let me start by shouting out to fellow Calitician Lucas O’Connor, writing on the front page of MyDD:

Since approximately the morning after election day in November, Dave Dayen has been writing over at Calitics about the dramatic Congressional pick-up opportunities in California that were missed in the Obama wave. Specifically, Obama carried 42 of California’s 53 districts (I won’t even begin right now to get into the state leg breakdown which is also a debacle), including eight districts held by Republicans in Congress. Well all of a sudden this week, the whole world is waking up to the Dayen gospel.

Attention started building about two weeks ago when the DCCC announced it would target all eight of these Obama-Republican California districts. But an announcement of DCCC targeting hasn’t always meant a lot, so to really get going it took a new report from California Target Book finding in part:

Not only is the current statewide Republican registration of 31% a historic low, but for the first time there is not a single congressional, state senate or assembly district that has a majority Republican registration.

Apparently Bob Mulholland sent out a press release waking up to these facts last week.  Now, I’m not going to hate on Mulholland for finally getting with the program.  But let’s make ourselves clear – this was true in 2006 and 2008 as well, and yet the state party failed to capitalize, by their own admission.  So it’s going to take more than one press release to show a commitment.  Republicans have obviously become repellent to the broad majority of Californians, and they’re too busy trying to recall each other to notice.  It’s upsetting that we haven’t used this unpopularity in the past two election cycles, and I hope that the CDP can catch up with the curve.

They can start with effective recruitment.  John Garamendi, who spoke to Greg Lucas as if he’s still a gubernatorial candidate but who by all accounts will be running for Congress, ought to be pushed to run in the 3rd District, where he is the largest landowner and where there is currently no viable candidate to beat Dan Lungren in a district that is trending Democratic, instead of the 10th, where there are multiple viable candidates.  Recruitment is an often-unremarked-upon but crucial element to winning elections.

Speaking of which…

• CA-04: This CapAlert piece certainly makes it sound like Charlie Brown might challenge Tom McClintock once again.

At the Jefferson-Jackson dinner at the Blue Goose Fruit Shed in Loomis, Brown and his wife, Jan, were honored as photographs flashed of Brown and supporters during four years of campaigning. The production was accompanied by songs from Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender” to Neil Young’s “Long May You Run.”

And then Brown stirred huge cheers when he hinted he might have the stamina for one more try for Congress in 2010.

“We’ll see what happens over the next few months – and whether you’ll have the opportunity to get into any pictures again,” Brown said.

In an interview, Brown said he is still mulling his prospects. He said he expects to decide by this fall.

We’re big fans of Charlie here at Calitics, and should he run again we’ll stand with him.  McClintock would have the power of incumbency and a red-leaning district but the rumblings I’m hearing out of there signal that residents and local pols aren’t all that enthused by the new Congressman’s performance.

• CA-32: The LA Times weighs in with an overview of the 32nd race to replace Labor Secretary Hilda Solis set for May 19.  They list Judy Chu and Gil Cedillo as the front-runners (though Emanuel Pleitez is profiled) and suggest that the race is a harbinger of the changing, minority-majority face of Southern California politics.  They also mention the Betty Tom Chu controversy, as well as some allegations on the Cedillo side.

Judy Chu supporters suspect that Republican Betty Tom Chu, a Monterey Park councilwoman and a political opponent of Judy Chu, entered the race to confuse voters and harm the chances of her distant relative by marriage. Tom Chu said last week she did not have time to discuss her candidacy, but earlier told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that she is running because she could not support any of the other candidates and wanted to offer voters an alternative.

Apparently motivated by concerns that the large number of Latino candidates in the race would split the vote in that group and give Judy Chu the edge, there also were signs of jockeying.

Democratic candidate Francisco Alonso, a former mayor of Monterey Park, and a campaign official for Democratic actor/filmmaker Stefan “Contreras” Lysenko each said Cedillo called them shortly before filing closed and urged them to drop out. A Cedillo spokesman said the state senator was merely inviting the others to “work together” with him and did not intend to discourage them from running.

Over the weekend, Cedillo won the endorsement of the LA County Young Democrats, while Chu garnered the endorsement of the state Democratic Party.

Following up on the post I just made about the CA-32 fundraising race, it seemed like Judy Chu saved the best for last:

The breadth and strength of Judy Chu’s campaign for Congress was demonstrated again today as candidates reported their first fundraising numbers for this May 19 special election.

In the first three months of 2009, Judy Chu collected an impressive $770,167, over $200,000 more than her nearest rival, State Senator Gil Cedillo.

Judy Chu, Vice-Chair of the California State Board of Equalization, reported a strong $577,609 cash-on-hand figure at the end of the period.

Chu’s consultant, Parke Skelton, stated, “Judy Chu is well on the way towards surpassing $1 million for this race.  Her fundraising reflects the enthusiastic and broad support she has attracted from throughout the 32nd District.  Just over 83% of her contributions have come from individuals, not PACS.  An impressive 1,567 individuals contributed to Dr. Chu’s campaign in this filing period.”

We’ll see how much of a difference that amount of money makes in a low-turnout special.  But those numbers were as of the end of the quarter, with over a month and a half to go in this election.  It’s entirely possible that we’ll have two million-dollar candidates in this race.

(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.  

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.

Someone in Judy Chu’s campaign wrote me to let me know that Betty Tom Chu and Judy Chu are not related.

So, presuming they’re correct, the family feud aspect of it is out.  But the voter confusion/entry of other decently known Chinese candidate into the race aspect still stands.

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.

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.

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.