Arnold Scwarzenegger

Tomorrow, John McCain will be jetting into Stockton, California, the foreclosure capitol of the US. But don’t worry. McCain’s not going there to meet with middle-class Americans who face the loss of their homes. Instead, he’ll be there for a big-buck fundraiser to be hosted by billionaire developer Alex Spanos. Spanos is perhaps Stockton’s best-known resident and a major donor to Republican causes ($8.1 million in 2003-04).

Hank Shaw of the Stockton Record gives us the lowdown on the Republican Central Valley aristocracy who will be in attendance at the gala:

The new news is that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be at the party, too, as will a who’s who of local Reeps. Congressional candidate Dean Andal will be there, as will his employer Gerry Kamilos. Andal hopes to beat Rep. Jerry McNerney this year, and the man Jerry ousted — former Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy — is supposed to appear at casa de Spanos, too.

Other luminaries:

Pat & John Quinn (supermaket moguls)

Bah-zillionire investor John Calamos

Shopping center tycoon and Scooter Libby fan Mel Sembler

Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian

State Sen. Jeff Denham

Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi

Local political consultant Don Parsons

Claudia and Greg Pruett of the tomato processing plant Vaquero Farms

Former California GOP chief Bob Naylor

…and a cast of thousands. The hootenany start at $1,000 a head, payable to “MaCain Victory California,” which is presumably the Arizona senator’s state fund. But it’ll raise lots and lots more, because — at least in theory — 13 “co-chairs” have agreed to raise at least $25,000 for McCain (that’s $325,000) plus 24 who have (again, in theory) promised to raise at least $10,000, adding another $240,000.

McCain is scheduled to arrive via private jet at the Spanos Jet Center at 4:00, attend another event, and then arrive at the Spanos residence for the 5:30 fete. As he travels around Stockton before arriving at the Spanos estate, though, McCain will be driving through a city that has for the last year been consistently ranked as the foreclosure capitol of the United States. With 8,376 homes currently in foreclosure, one in every 27 people in Stockton (pop. 290,000) has faced the loss of their home since the sub-prime mortgage meltdown began last year. The problem is so widespread that the City of Stockton has a special page on its website giving advice to its residents who face foreclosure:

Somehow, though, I’m guessing that McCain won’t be touring the parts of Stockton that look like this:

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He just might, however, pass by one of the three (!) buses that are operated by the entrepreneurs at Stockton’s RepoHomeTour.com.

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And you know, it’s really too bad that McCain will be seeing Stockton from the back seat of a limo and not from the inside of one of the Repo Home Tour buses. Maybe if he got out and mingled with the non-billionaires a little more regularly, he would be just a tad more sensitive to the problems that face real people. Instead, just two months ago, McCain scoffed at the idea of government relief for homeowners facing foreclosure.

Republican John McCain on Tuesday derided government intervention to save and reward banks or small borrowers who behave irresponsibly though he offered few immediate alternatives to fixing the country’s growing housing crisis.[…]

“I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers,” McCain said.

The same article went on to give the Democratic response to McCain’s laissez-faire attitude:

Democrats accused McCain of lacking the skills needed to lead a country on the brink of recession.

“Instead of offering a concrete plan to address the crisis at all levels, McCain promised to take the same hands-off approach that President Bush used to lead us into this crisis,” Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement.

It’s clear that McCain and the elite guests who will be hobnobbing at the Spanos estate don’t have any problem with that hands-off approach. And they certainly don’t have any difficulty in averting their eyes from the crisis that surrounds them. After all, what’s the matter with all those irresponsible people in Stockton? Why can’t they just eat cake?

Penny

Online Organizing Director

California Democratic Party

Today, for 3.2 million college students, California’s budget problems just got personal. Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Republicans in the legislature have demanded across-the-board 10% cuts from every state program. That’s about $1.1 billion that will be taken from higher education. So how will the schools make up for the loss of $1.1 billion? Easy. Raise student fees. And that’s exactly what they’re doing today.

Democrats have tried to stop the carnage. At today’s meeting of the CSU Board of Trustees, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, noting that CSU student fees have risen 94% over the last five years, submitted a resolution to stop the fee hikes being proposed. But the Board ultimately voted to oppose Garamendi’s proposal, which would have capped student fees at 2007-08 levels and limited future fee increases to the rate of inflation. Instead, they voted to raise fees by 10%.

This afternoon the Lt. Gov. will make the same proposal at a meeting of the UC Board of Regents. Garamendi is a member of both boards by virtue of his office. The Regents will be considering a 7.4% fee hike. UC fees have risen 84% since 2002. Students at California universities will now confront an estimated cost (including room, board, books, tuition and fees) of up to $24,000 per year at UC and $20,000 at CSU.

John Garamendi has made the cuts against higher education into a personal cause, working with the Students for California’s Future (a coalition including the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, the California State Student Association, and the University of California Student Association) to fight back against the budget cuts and proposed fee hikes. Here’s how John Garamendi framed the battle today:

“Twenty years from now, the social and economic landscape of California will look very different than it is today. There is virtually no question that our population will be bigger, more diverse, the elderly will make up a greater proportion of the population, and we will be likely grappling with the effects of climate change. To meet these challenges, we will undoubtedly need more teachers, more scientists, more engineers, and more workers trained in health care and advanced technology fields.

“Hiking taxes on our young people takes us in the opposite direction. Rather than making college available to more young people, fee hikes take California a step backward. The question before us, then, is whether we will continue to offer the California dream – to all our people — good jobs, good opportunities – or whether we will become increasingly stratified economically.

“Yes, our state is in a budget mess. But I believe that if our state can protect yacht owners and oil companies from tax hikes, we can certainly find a way to protect our young people from tax hikes. If we fail, who among us will tell a young person, who may be the first in their family to go to college, that they must be taxed more because yacht owners don’t want to pay more? Who will tell a family — struggling to put their child through college, while gas prices and food prices are out of sight — that they should be taxed more because the oil companies won’t pay more?”

The California Democratic Party has initiated the Summer of Change video contest to give Californians a chance to stand up and speak out for their interests in the budget discussions. I’m attaching one of the video entries in our contest that was filmed at a recent rally that students organized in Sacramento. Check out the Students for California’s Future website — they have another day of action planned for this Monday, May 19.

Penny

Online Organizing Director

California Democratic Party

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McCain: Let Them Eat Cake?

Today It Gets Personal For 3.2 Million California Students

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