The race for Secretary of State has a new entrant. The Republican side was already fielding Damon Dunn, a wealthy developer. And now leader of the Birthers, Orly Taitz has filed to run as well.

The Orange County Register is reporting that Taitz filed her paperwork and has qualified to run in the Republican primary. As you are probably aware, Taitz is obsessed with proving that President Obama is not an American citizen and, therefore, not qualified to be President. Apparently the President isn’t the only person who is unqualified, in Taitz’z opinion:

n launching her campaign to be the state’s top elections official, Taitz is alleging that fellow Republican candidate Damon Dunn, a former NFL player living in Irvine, is ineligible to seek the GOP nomination. She says he’s committed voter and election fraud.

Taitz told me this morning that she’s running “to clean up the fraud we all have seen in the 2008 election. It is important to bring legitimacy to elections. And I will be fighting to ensure the California corporations are not overburdened by regulations.”

California already has, in my opinion, the best Secretary of State in the nation in Debra Bowen. She’s competent, dedicated and an asset to the State. Maybe you stop by her webite Debra Bowen For Secretary of State and make a donation.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Bruce McPherson was appointed as a “moderate”, someone who could clean up the Secretary of State’s office after the Kevin Shelley mess.  He wants to make the SoS office less partisan, which would be a good thing.  In fact, he sponsored a bill when in the legislature to make the election for SoS non-partisan, and apparently he still feels that way.  Well, it’s been a mixed bag for him.  We still haven’t fully resolved the Diebold crap and many of the counties are in terrible shape for the next election.  The Alameda County last-minute switcheroo which forced the county to use paper ballots is just a symptom of that.  Other counties are struggling to determine what machines are acceptable and continually have to buy new machines.  But at least he hasn’t hired any of his supporter’s sons (or at least we don’t know of any shenanigans like that).  So, all in all, I’d say a pretty middling run as SoS.

Now, Debra Bowen has the potential to be a great SoS.  She understands the issues that are involved in the job, specifically the Diebold issues.  She has reached out to grassroots support and has promised that she will work for greater transparency in the election process.  But some of this stuff might be too technical for everybody to understand, or require too much effort to understand.  That is why we need Debra Bowen.  She would be an excellent voice nationally on election reform and would be a great voice for the public.

However, the unions seem to have split on Bowen’s candidacy. 

Republican Secretary of State BruceMcPherson’s election bid has received a boost from an unlikely source–several of the state’s leading unions, including the powerful California Teachers Association, which has endorsed a statewide Republican for the first time.
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This fall, McPherson is expected to count the wellheeled California Teachers Association ($11,100), California Professional Firefighters ($1,500), and the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC) ($5,600) in his corner. All those groups are members of the labor coalition that spearheaded the 2005 campaign against the governor. Another member of that labor alliance, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association ($5,600) endorsed McPherson in the primary.
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Bowen’s campaign counters with the labor endorsements of the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association ($3,000), AFSCME ($6,000), the United Teachers of Los Angeles ($2,000), and the State Council of Laborers ($10,000).

Bowen says that fighting through a tough primary has prepared her–and her campaign–for the general election. “I have already created an energized grassroots and ‘netroots’ presence,” she said.

Some, more cynical Republicans, say the unions’ endorsements of McPherson are only token support for a statewide Republican to give the left-leaning groups political cover for their solidly Democratic agenda. It doesn’t hurt that McPherson, the only GOP incumbent besides Schwarzenegger, has a solid chance in the fall, they add.(Capitol Weekly 7/6/06)

I can’t really fault them.  McPherson hasn’t really done anything all that drastic that would harm them in any way.  However, McPherson hasn’t really done much of anything.  I don’t think that’s really a compliment to him.  But, I suppose if you want to show token GOP support, some people would think that this is the race to do that.  It is not.  Our elections are too important.  Debra Bowen is the right choice to be our next ELECTED Secretary of State.