Conservatives really don't like Abel Maldonado.  It wouldn't take any sort of political expert to see that.  But it seems now that this anger wasn't quenched when St. Abel defeated Sam Aanestad for the Lt. Guv nomination.  Nope, now that he flat out ignored the right-wing attempts to get him to file an appeal against the Prop 8 decision, they have had ENOUGH! (It seems to be a theme with these right-wingers.)  So, Karen England decided that she is going to do something about it.  She's going to run a write-in campaign for Lt. Governor:  

She wrote in a column posted last night on the conservative website Flashreport.org that she decided to jump in the race after Maldonado declined to defy Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger and appeal the recent Propostiion (sic) 8 ruling during his six-day stint as acting governor.

“To some this may seem extreme or be dismissed as a publicity stunt.  It is neither.  It is the proper response when we find the two front runners for the office of Lieutenant Governor do not share our principles, our values or our respect for the legal system,” England wrote. (Sac Bee)

Now, the question will be whether there is really enough attention to Ms. England to draw any measurable amount of votes away from St. Abel.  Either way, in the net, it is only a positive for Democratic nominee Gavin Newsom.

Incidentally, the “triple threat” that she wanted to terminate in the photo? It was a series of bills in 2006 intended to make schools safer for LGBT students.   Because, you know, it certainly is a threat to provide all students an opportunity to learn in a safe environment.

Our apologies for being a little quiet here on Calitics this weekend.  The convention has been a wee bit hectic for all of us. We’ll get you a more detailed recap soon,  but there were a few details that were worth sharing.

In the Insurance Commissioners race, Dave Jones was able to squeak out the endorsement.  It was certainly a dramatic race, with both campaigns doing a really good job of rallying support. But in the end, Dave Jones’ progressive base was simply too much for Hector de la Torre to overcome.  The endorsement won’t necessarily bring a big windfall, Chair Burton has said that they won’t be spending any money in primaries.  But, hey, Jones will now get that lower postage rate that everybody was seeking.  Of course, the cache of the Democratic Party endorsement will be quite powerful on the mail that we will likely be seeing coming out of Jones’ campaign very shortly.  I like both of these guys, but in the interest of full disclosure, I did end up voting for Dave Jones. Either will make a much better insurance commissioner than Steve Poizner, that’s for sure.

In the LG race, Gavin Newsom won the outright vote, but didn’t get the endorsement. I know the Hahn folks were trying to spin this as a win, but I just don’t get it.  Newsom had already declined to seek the endorsement a while back, and it was Janice Hahn’s campaign who forced the issue. If I recall correctly, the vote was about 57-43 52-42 in favor of Newsom. Which, considering Newsom’s past, is fairly respectable. But, again, I’m not entirely sure why we went through the process. Perhaps Garry South figured it would make Gavin work and might cause some sort of game-changing drama.  That clearly didn’t happen, and Hahn is still looking for some way of overcoming Newsom’s advantage in name ID.

On the Props, the resolutions committee went the right way on all the props, and we’ll approve them.  They supported Prop 15, the fair elections initiative, and Prop 13, a measure that would change the way seismic retrofits are taxed.  They opposed Prop 14 (“open” primaries), Prop 16 (PG&E Power Grab), and Prop 17 (Mercury Insurance power grab).

General session is about to start, and we’ll wrap up the festivities, approve reports of the committees, and perhaps get a chance to vote on a few endorsements. I know at least one campaign was trying to get signatures, but I don’t know what came of it.  A full recap to come soon.

Abel Maldonado is running for LG, whether or not he gets confirmed by the Legislature.  Just going on resources, Maldonado should have a big leg up.  Sen. Sam Anestad, the only serious threat to Maldonado in the primary, had less than $100K at the end of last year.  At this point, the race is his to lose.

So, in his speaking slot, Maldonado is trying to recast the framing of Latinos in his party.

“They agree with us more than they agree with the Democrats,” Maldonado told the delegates. “But we don’t talk to them. Ronald Reagan, our great president, what did he say? ‘Hispanics are Republicans. They just don’t know it.’ We can’t put up a bumper sticker during an election that says ‘Viva the candidate’s last name’ and expect that they’re going to vote for us. It’s not going to happen. We can’t go out and have a fiesta and have tequila and mariachis and tacos and think they are going to register as Republicans. That’s not going to happen.” (LA Times)

Of course, there’s a lot to parse here. Of course, he’s right that the republicans need to do more than just have a Cinco de Mayo party and expect voters to come running.  The way he said it was rather blunt, but true.

But where most of us would take issue would be the first two sentences in that paragraph.  While Maldonado might be able to point out a few issues that Latinos might vote a bit conservatively on, there is a reason that Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for President Obama, both here in California and throughout the nation.  To this day, the party harbors and tosses red meat to nativists who ignore the hope and promise of America for the disfavored. Their immigration policies are more than strict, they are insulting.  You can’t threaten to arrest community servants who help the sick and poor and expect to get votes from those who you demonize.

But beyond the simple immigration issue, the Republicans also need to take a long, hard look at their policies towards the middle class. Their refusal to support services don’t do any favors for working man.  They claim to fight taxes, yet want to tax students with ever-increasing “fees.”  They fight to protect corporations and the rich.  

Look, I won’t argue with Maldonado’s statement that Latinos are dedicated to the pursuit of the American dream.  But since Teddy Roosevelt left the Republican party, the Republicans haven’t had a real champion that speaks to anybody in the middle class, let alone the growing Latino electorate.

And frankly, Abel Maldonado isn’t that voice either.  He plays every side of every issue in public.  But when the rubber hits the road, he ends up going with the corporatist, moneyed side every time.

Garry,

Please resign.

For the good of the progressive movement, for the good of the state of California, and for the good of your candidate, Janice Hahn, you should resign your post as chief strategist to the Hahn campaign.

In this time of profound economic and political crisis, California deserves a campaign that is focused on solving the issues that have brought our state to its knees, a campaign focused on restoring the California Dream. Petty attacks like those you have begun to level against other candidates — including attacks on Jerry Brown’s age — not only distract from those issues, but they undermine your own candidate.

Your attack on Gavin Newsom is highly unethical. (See below the fold.) By using against him conversations you held with Newsom while he was a client of yours you are not only breaching the trust you held as a senior advisor to Newsom’s gubernatorial campaign, you are also potentially making Newsom into a sympathetic figure, further undermining Hahn’s cause.

Janice Hahn has a lot to offer Californians — she is a successful local government official who has a long record of effectively implementing progressive policies. She has built a considerable amount of support across the state during her campaign because of her pledge to bring a local government perspective to a profoundly broken state government. You risk undoing that work by resorting to your typical, failed approach of attacking the opponent instead of showing the electorate why your candidate deserves their support.

We write not as supporters of any particular candidate or potential candidate, but as progressive Californians who are sick of watching you run promising campaigns into the ground with your destructive style of vicious personal attacks. All you accomplish is electing Republicans. Do the ethical and honorable thing and resign from the Hahn campaign immediately.

Signed,

Dante Atkins

Calitics Editorial Board

Robert Cruickshank

Public Policy Director, Courage Campaign

Marta Evry

Venice for Change

Rick Jacobs

Founder & Chair, Courage Campaign

Brian Leubitz

Calitics Editorial Board

Julia Rosen

Online Political Director, Courage Campaign

Shayera Tangri

Dan Ancona

Joel Wright

David Atkins

Note: for an in-depth explanation of why Garry South is a disaster for Democratic candidates, peruse the open letter Calitics posted laying out South’s failures in January 2007.

Note 2: It should be emphasized that this isn’t really about Janice Hahn, we were impressed with her during our interview last year. But Garry South is really doing her a disservice over the last few weeks. Mudslinging just isn’t the way to win a Democratic primary.

STATEMENT BY GARRY SOUTH

CHIEF STRATEGIST, JANICE HAHN FOR LT. GOVERNOR

FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR, GAVIN NEWSOM FOR GOVERNOR

I am surprised and perplexed that my friend and former client Mayor Gavin Newsom apparently has decided to jump into the lieutenant governor’s race at the last minute – especially against an already-announced candidate who would be the first woman lieutenant governor in California history.

In every one of several conversations we had about the job while he was running for governor, the Mayor expressed nothing but disinterest in and disdain for the office of lieutenant governor. In fact, he was derisively dismissive of Gray Davis’s decision to run for and serve as lieutenant governor prior to running for governor (“I’m not a Gray Davis,” he said). On a couple of occasions, he directed me to repudiate publicly in the strongest terms that he had any interest in ever running for lieutenant governor.

The Mayor himself told the Chronicle in October that rumors he may run for lieutenant governor were “absurd” and “a complete lie,” and angrily accused Jerry Brown of personally spreading false information to that effect. As recently as December, he himself said flatly “no” when asked directly on a San Francisco radio show whether he intended to run for lieutenant governor.

In addition, when he precipitously pulled out of the governor’s race in late October – against my advice – he said he couldn’t continue as a statewide candidate because he was a husband, a new father and the mayor of San Francisco. So far as I know, he’s still a husband, a new father and the mayor of San Francisco. So it’s pretty hard to see what’s changed over the last four months that would now allow him to run for another statewide office.

If the Mayor does run, it is his responsibility to explain why he now claims to want an elected office he summarily dismissed publicly numerous times over the last several months, and which just earlier this year he called “a largely ceremonial post” … “with no real authority and no real portfolio.”

Paid for by the Janice Hahn Lieutenant Governor 2010 Committee

777 S. Figueroa Street, Suite 4050, Los Angeles, CA 90017

This morning’s CalBuzz post features a story on the debate of whether Gavin Newsom can raise money from people who gave him money for his Governor campaign for the LG campaign.  Hmm…good question.  

Of course, Garry South, who is consulting for Hahn’s campaign after bleeding Gavin’s Gov. campaign dry, thinks that he can’t tap that same maxed-out donor base. By the by, very interesting that South was denigrating the LG position from his pricey perch at Gavin’s Gov campaign, and now seems to be all about the Numero Dos gig.  Interesting.

The Exec. Dir of the FPPC, Roman Porter, believes that he can raise money from these same donors, on the theory that it is a different race. I’m inclined to agree when given this language:

Except a candidate for governor, a candidate for statewide elective office may not accept from a person any contribution totaling more than $6,500 per election.

I think the key is how you read “statewide elective office.” Does that mean a single office, or any statewide elective office.  There’s not any solid caselaw to answer the question, so if somebody gets around to suing, there could be some interesting litigation.  

Election news never stops, and this being an election year, don’t expect a slowdown any time soon.  So, why not combine two of the developments?

First, Speaker Bass made her entry into the congressional race to replace Diane Watson official.

“This is a very, very humbling moment,” Bass told community leaders and supporters who joined her at her Mid-Wilshire-area office. “I am so proud to announce I’m going to throw my hat into the ring.”

If elected, Bass said, she’ll have “very big shoes to fill.”

Watson, who announced last week that she would not run for reelection after 35 years in public office, said she was pleased to back Bass.

“I 100% — maybe 300% — endorse Karen Bass,” said Watson, 76, whose Los Angeles-area 33rd Congressional District is among the most diverse in the nation. (LA Times)

Last week, Watson declined to endorse anybody in the race. It was a bit of surprise, but perhaps they just wanted to wait to make the announcement official this week.  With the current field, Bass appears to be the big front-runner. Nobody else has really made noise about entering the race, but Congressional districts only come up so often, so you never know.

Now, to SF Mayor Gavin Newsom.  When he left the race for Governor, he was struggling with money, paying Garry South $20K per month, and becoming increasingly unsettled. But apparently, he’s interested in Lite Guv:

Nothing official yet, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom  is putting together a campaign team for a possible run for lieutenant governor and will probably submit a ballot statement today to go in the state voter guide. (SF Chronicle)

As Matier and Ross point out, he was literally running from SF reporters at the end of his Gov campaign. But, Gavin Newsom is addicted to politics, and leaving the game is more easily said than done.

I’m still not sure if Newsom will actually enter the race, but if he wins, expect all hell to break out in San Francisco.

I need to say something: I <3 John Laird.

There, I said it. Former Asm. John Laird is neither flashy nor overly charismatic. But when it comes to quietly doing the work of the people, nobody works harder, knows his stuff better, or really understands the budget better than John Laird. And honestly, we really need him in the Senate.

So, as the Calitics editorial board has pointed out before, the Legislature should approve the nomination of Sen. Abel Maldonado to Lt. Governor. And while the race is going to be competitive, Laird has the horses to win the race:

Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat, said Monday that the poll gave him a lead “in the low single digits.” Respondents were asked twice about the theoretical match-up, first near the beginning of the call with pollsters, then again “after every conceivable thing was thrown and him and me both,” Laird said. He said the lead grew slightly after potential negatives were given to respondents. (CapWkly)

This is a winnable race. And a winnable race for a solid progressive that will work his ass off to improve this state. For me, it’s an easy call what you do here. But some see otherwise, saying that it’s too big of a risk, that it gives up too much.  Here’s Asm. Pedro Nava:

I will be voting “no” to confirm state Sen. Abel Maldonado to the second-highest constitutional office in California, a heartbeat from the governor, that of lieutenant governor.

Much has been made of his congenial personality, his friendly demeanor and his one vote to increase the minimum wage. But in order to take Sen. Maldonado’s true measure, you need to examine over 150 votes on issues of great significance to all Californians – laws that impact farmworkers, health care, civil rights, labor, women, consumers, seniors and the environment. (SacBee)

Look, if given the choice, I doubt there are too many people that would vote for Abel Maldonado for dog catcher around here. Yet, that isn’t what this is about. This is a confirmation hearing, not a test of whether you like the guy.  Clearly, progressives aren’t going to like him, but the same was said of Bruce McPherson when he took over the  (arguably more important) SecState gig. The Assembly confirmed him then, including a vote from Asm. Nava. As Sen. Steinberg mentioned last week, this is a vote about whether Maldonado is competent to assume the LG job, and it’s hard to argue that Maldonado is any more or less competent to assume that rather powerless gig than any of the candidates in the race for 2010.

Sen. Maldonado’s votes are bad. Very bad. So, let’s get him out of the Senate where he is casting those votes and into a short stint as LG.

SD-15 needs John Laird. California needs John Laird. A few months of incumbency in a rather banal gig is a risk worth taking. The calculus doesn’t actually seem that hard. Confirm Maldonado, and let’s get to the business of electing Sen. John Laird.