New list of House Dems features 2 Californians

by Brian Leubitz

This is 2013, and even Republicans are moving towards accepting marriage equality. Yet some House Democrats still haven’t announced their support. Joe.My.God. compiled such a list, featuring two Californians: Juan Vargas of San Diego and Jim Costa of Fresno.

Now, politicians are rapidly “evolving”, so I don’t want to unfairly mark either of these two Congressmen if they have supported marriage equality. Vargas, as recently as Mark Leno’s marriage equality bills in the Legislature, voted against equality. But change happens. If you know of any public commitment to full equality from these two, please, let me know. If not, Congressmen, what are you waiting for?

“No More Cuts.”

It’s a sentiment you’ll see at many a Democratic rally.  But, not so much with the Republicans.  Shane Goldmacher’s got this one:

Flanked by people in wheelchairs and protesters in green union T-shirts, the Republicans echoed Democratic talking points in opposing Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to slash in-home care for hundreds of thousands of elderly, blind and disabled.

“Why is Paul Cook here?” the GOP assemblyman from Yucaipa began, asking the question on everyone’s mind.

Because, Cook said, slashing the care program would actually drive up costs, forcing the frail into more costly nursing homes. Sure, he was “never going to convince” some of his GOP colleagues. But he was ready to fight for the unionized program that most Republicans made a favored bogeyman for government largesse. (LA Times)

Asm. Silva (R-OC) goes on to say that, hey, in fact cutting this program would end up costing more than it saves in the long run.  Wow, that makes sense.  There’s some partisanship I can believe in.

It’s hard to turn your back on something that you’ve been working for so long.  And so, I imagine that is the case for Mary Salas. She has now asked for a partial recount of the votes.

Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-San Diego, has requested a recount of ballots in San Diego and Riverside counties in hopes of overcoming a 22-vote deficit between her and Democrat Juan Vargas in the 40th Senate District.

San Diego Registrar Deborah Seiler confirmed that Salas made the request just before 5 p.m. Monday. Officials in Riverside said they also received a request to tally their ballots again.

The sprawling 40th District includes all of Imperial County and parts of Riverside and San Diego counties. San Diego was the only county where Salas outpolled Vargas. (CapWkly)

Now, there is some gamesmanship here. Not only was the request made right before the deadline, but Salas did not request a recount in Imperial County. For some reason, the law allows recounts county by county.  Salas won San Diego County, and came close in Riverside, while losing Imperial. So, the move to only request a recount in these two counties makes sense.

Now, for Vargas, the clock has expired on making the request for Imperial County.  He’s going to have to hope that his decision not to seek a recount in Imperial County will not come back to bite him.  It’s a little bit bizarre, but them’s the rules.

At this point, I don’t think we really know who is going to win this one. Results should trickle in, with the finally tally hopefully before the end of next week.

Down in the 40th Senate district, every vote mattered.  And as of the latest tally, it looks like Business-Dem Juan Vargas will sneak through the primary with a 22 vote victory over Asm. Mary Salas. 22 Votes.

Ahead by 22 votes, former Assemblyman Juan Vargas  has declared victory over Assemblywoman Mary Salas  in the 40th Senate District Democratic primary.

Salas, who led in early returns, had declared victory in the days following the election. But with the final outstanding votes counted, Vargas is ahead 24,282 votes to 24,260 votes, according to county returns.

“It’s been a long road, but we’ve reached the finish line tonight,” he said in a statement.

The final boost came from a count of more than 12,500 Riverside County ballots that had inadvertently been left at a post office on Election Day. A Riverside judge ordered last week that the county include those ballots in its final results. The county has until Thursday to certify the results.(SacBee)

Salas can request a recount, but it is neither automatic nor state-funded.  Furthermore, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, who vigorously supported Salas, has indicated that he would not be funding such a recount. However, with such a narrow margin of victory, a change due to a recount is not out of the realm of possibility. With simple random error, it is hardly difficult to achieve a 22 vote mistake over the course of about 50,000 votes. If I hear anything of a recount fundraising effort, I’ll be sure to pass that along.

Vargas, a former Assembly Democrat, was heavily supported by insurance and other corporate types.  Vargas also voted NO on Mark Leno’s marriage equality bills while in the Assembly.  In an ideal world, Salas would have pulled the squeaker out, but now it looks like we’ll deal with Vargas for the next few years. It’s hardly the end of the world, but it’s always tough to lose one like that.

One of the more contested races in the June primary was the SD-40 race between Juan Vargas and Mary Salas.  This is one of those clear-cut decisions for progressives. Vargas is wishy washy on all of our issues, got the bulk of his support from corporate interests, and wasn’t there for the LGBT community when it came time for a vote on marriage equality.

On election day, it looked like Salas was going to take the race. Now, well, things are different…and confusing.

Updated results from San Diego County this afternoon gave Vargas a six-vote edge district wide. According to totals reported by all three counties in the district, Vargas leads with 24,079 votes to Salas’ 24,073. San Diego County has roughly 750 ballots to count countywide, though not all of those will be from this district or race. (CapAlert)

Oh, and there are 12,500 votes up in the air, so this is far from over.

We’ll keep you updated, as this is going to go on for a while…

In another primary battle involving a seven-term incumbent, Bob Filner is facing a challenge from two Latino Congressional hopefuls.  Juan Vargas currently represents the 79th AD and is termed out this year.  Thus, this is another term limits inspired fight.  Danny Ramirez is a perennial candidate in this race, and shouldn’t be much of a factor this year with a serious Latino candidate in the race.

Filner has been one of the more liberal voices in Congress.  On immigration he received an “F-” from the Americans for Better Immigration (that’s a good thing). He received an “A” From the NAACP, 95% by the League of Conservation Voters, 100% by NARAL, and a 100 from the HRC.

Hispanics, many of them recent arrivals to California, make up just more than half of the 51st District’s population. So while many Americans favor building a tall wall to slow the influx of illegal immigrants, not many of them live in the California district that would be most affected.

The demographics of the 51st District are, however, at the very heart of the primary challenge to Filner. Primary voters are being asked — and not for the first time — whether Filner’s good relations with his Hispanic constituency and strongly liberal voting record justifies his re-election, or if the fact that Filner is a non-Hispanic white makes him an impediment to Latino empowerment. (CQ Politics 6/1/06)

Vargas has run against Filner for this seat before.  In 1992, when Filner first won, Vargas was a San Diego City Councilman, but lost his Congressional bid.  So now Vargas is attempting to see if the gains in Hispanic voters in the district will be sufficient to win the seat.  Filner is managing to get most of the endorsements from Latino organizations, and the split in any identity voters caused by Ramirez’s presence on the ballot should propel Filner to a comfortable victory.  However, Vargas has run a decent campaign and he has a history in the district.