Let’s have a brief respite from the coming California apocalypse to try and figure out which politician will beat a fast retreat out of Sacramento and into DC to replace Hilda Solis in the Congress.  There are actually some good progressive possibilities here, which one would hope considering that Solis was such a progressive leader.  The CapAlert early line matched with my expectations.

Democratic state Sens. Gil Cedillo and Gloria Romero say they’re exploring running for the East Los Angeles County congressional seat that’s expected to be vacated by Rep. Hilda Solis, reportedly President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for labor secretary.

While Cedillo was expressing his interest Thursday to reporters on the floor of the Senate, Romero wandered by and said she was “definitely” looking at jumping into the race.

Told that in addition to Cedillo, the Calderon brothers — Assemblyman Charles and state Sen. Ron — could be contenders, Romero declared, “I can beat them all” — and walked off.

I like the confidence.

Both Cedillo or Romero would be great additions to the House.  I would give Romero the edge because it’s actually her district – Cedillo serves a contiguous district.  Romero would be a rare voice for prison reform in Washington, and while her advocacy proved fruitless in Sacramento, ultimately she will be proven right if we see mass releases in the next few months, and having her on the national stage would be very helpful to the prison reform movement.  For Cedillo it’s the same, only on immigration reform.  I would imagine that both of them would join the House Progressive Caucus.

As long as the Calderons stay out of this seat, I’d be happy.

Other contenders are the sitting Assemblymembers in the district, Ed Hernandez and Mike Eng, as well as state Board of Equalization chair Judy Chu, who in a twist is married to Mike Eng, which would make for an interesting primary.  I think Chu is good in her position but I can’t say I know much about her on other issues.

The last special Congressional election gave us Laura Richardson.  Hopefully we’ll do much better with this one.

UPDATE: As per below, Jackie Speier won the last special election for Congress in CA, actually.

That was Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez today at an event in downtown Los Angeles, in front of a Chevron station (that was selling gas for a low low $3.49, I think the advance man could’ve found stations 30-40 cents higher without too much trouble), as he announced with Assemblymen Mike Davis, Mike Feuer and Mike Eng a series of bills to combat rising gas prices and the artificial depression of refinery supply.  The bills will seek to oversee refinery maintenance, expand regulatory authority, and deal with the “hot fuel” issue.  The Speaker said that “During the electricity crisis a few years ago, California adopted similar measures to keep energy companies from using these convenient (refinery) shutdowns to amp up their profits, and today we’re going to make sure oil companies can’t use Enron-like tactics on California consumers.”

This is an object lesson in why now was the exact wrong time for the CDP to accept $50,000 from the prime progenitor of those Enron-style tactics.  And it actually came up in the press conference.  A full report on the flip, with audio to come.

Nunez referenced a Wall Street Journal article (behind the wall, sadly) that detailed how refineries are cashing in on high gas prices by artificially lowering their supply through various methods, particularly shutdowns.  The three bills work out this way:

1) new oversight committee: Nunez and Eng’s bill would create the California Petroleum Refinery Standards Committee, made up of the Attorney General, the State Controller and a couple political appointees, which would develop standards for maintenance and operations at California refineries, would look into shutdowns and would increase mandatory reporting from oil companies regarding them, would take audits and inspections, and would ensure compliance.  Penalties for not complying to these standards, would be “very stiff” and would be considered felonies, not misdemeanors.

2) “Hot fuels”: temperature varies in fuel, and it impacts the weight of gasoline, which since it’s sold by the gallon impacts the price.  The suspicion is that oil companies are manipulating temperature variations to give the consumer less for its money.  Assemblyman Mike Davis’ bill would seek a comprehensive study, cost-benefit analysis, and recommendations on what the national standard for gasoline temperature should be.  Right now it’s 60 degrees; the concern is that the number should be higher.

3) Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act: oil companies are not releasing enough data to determine properly the efficacy of inventory levels and profit margins.  Assemblyman Mike Feuer’s bill would mandate monthly financial reports on oil supply, demand, and price issues.  It would also allow that information to be shared with the Attorney General and the Board of Equalization.

These appear to be decent bills that correctly address the issue of artificial refinery supply.  However, in the question-and-answer session that followed, there was an example of why it is not smart to play both sides of this fence.

The fact that the backdrop of the press conference was a Chevron statement is telling; after all, they own 25% of the refineries in the state, and they are getting rich off the high gas prices being made by their actions at those refineries.  The VERY FIRST QUESTION offered to Speaker Nunez was about his trip to South America paid for in part by Chevron.  Nunez replied that the trip was “insignificant,” that the trip was taken to learn more about alternative fuels in South America, that he stands for issues that are important to Democrats, and that he resented any attempt to question his ethics.  And right after the presser was over, during a sort of press gaggle, he told the radio reporter who asked that question that is was either a “cheap shot” or a “chicken shit” question (I wasn’t quite close enough to fully make it out).  The reporter replied that the information was out there and she was just giving the Speaker a chance to respond.

Clearly that’s a fair question.  And clearly it’s fair to ask whether, at a time where the Speaker of the Assembly is accusing Chevron of market manipulation and of engaging in “Enron-like tactics,” it’s the best time for the CDP to be taking a $50,000 contribution from that same corporation.  Now more than ever, the message should be united, and the perception here is quite confusing, and more hurtful than the money is helpful.  I appreciate these efforts to stop market manipulation, but I do not appreciate giving the opposition another arrow in their quiver through the appearance of impropriety of this donation.  I renew and strengthen my call for the Party to return the money and work in more innovative ways to fundraise and grow the party.

Just before the primary election last week, the California Latino Leadership Fund, which is at least partially funded by the Latino caucus, sent a mailer to residents of AD-43 linking Paul Krekorian to terrorist wannabe Mourad Topalian. 

The mailer sent by the Oakland-based Leadership Fund targeted Krekorian and the Armenian National Committee of America, an advocacy group that endorsed him.

The mailer accused the ANC of giving an award to “suspected terrorist” Mourad Topalian in 2000, and faulted Krekorian for accepting the ANC’s endorsement in the Assembly race.

Topalian, a former Armenian National Committee leader, was sentenced in 2001 to 37 months in prison for storing stolen explosives and owning two machine guns. The ANC says it cut its ties with Topalian after his conviction.

In fact, Quintero himself had been endorsed by the ANC when he ran for City Council in 2001. (LA Daily News 6/9/06)

Well, now the Latino caucus is under fire for this rather vile hit piece.  In another piece, a mailer went out against Mike Eng in AD-49 suggesting to white and latino voters that Eng “is not like us.”  Yikes!  That’s really a not so subtle racist remark, isn’t it? The actual caucus members plead ignorance of the deal, but they are looking for answers on what happened to allow these attacks:

Political mailers bankrolled by the Latino Caucus, which linked Democratic Assembly candidate Paul Krekorian to a terrorist and played the race card against Democratic contender Mike Eng, are being denounced by community leaders and Caucus members who say they want to know who approved the attacks.

Capitol sources said that the job of the vice chairman of the Latino Caucus, Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, may be on the line.

Several Caucus members met Tuesday across the street from the Capitol at private offices in the 11th and L Building to discuss the mailers, which were funded with independent-expenditure (IE) money. They are trying to figure out how to limit political fallout from some of the nastiest hit pieces in this year’s primary campaign.

“It’s an affront to us, especially because we for so long have been the victims of this kind of crap,” said Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-Southgate. He and Assemblyman Albert Torrico, D-Newark, have launched an investigation into the flyers. (Capitol Weekly 6/15/06)

These kind of nasty, bordering on racist, ads have no place in politics at all.  While they shouldn’t be used on politicians of any party, to see them used in Dem on Dem attacks is particularly disconcerting.  The incestuousness of the relationships portrayed in the Capitol Weekly article is rather discusting.  Check it out.