Gary, my husband, got a sample copy of the OC Register this Sunday and we were quite happy to see two Democratic Candidates along side the four Republican primary candidates for the 70th Assembley district race.   How often does that happen?

It doesn’t really, unless there is a primary.  This is the new reality for Democrats in Orange County and why primaries matter.

Candidates crowd Assembly field to replace DeVore

Melissa Fox

The Democratic side of the draw features two Lake Forest attorneys – a former Kansas state legislator running a low-key bid and a first-time candidate who’s been aggressively campaigning for the past year.

Both return-candidate Michael Glover and newcomer Melissa Fox say they can upset the GOP nominee. Fox points out that Barack Obama beat John McCain in the district in 2008, that a ballot measure calling for parental notification for abortions failed in the district, and that the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage passed in the district by less than a percentage point.

“The seat is not as far away as it might seem,” said Fox, an Orange County native.

The two candidates offer few distinctions on policy, and both acknowledge that an ability to appeal to Republicans and unaffiliated voters is key. Fox, 42, has outworked Glover on the campaign trail – knocking on voters’ doors, raising money and building the kind of relationships that have resulted in endorsements from the California Democratic Party, California Labor Federation, California Federation of Teachers, California National Organization for Women, and Equality California, among many others.

Michael Glover

Glover, who fell 16 percentage points short of defeating DeVore in 2008, acknowledges Fox’s advantage among establishment Democrats

“Maybe I made a mistake by not getting to know more Democrats,” he said

But he has some of the most specific policy positions in the race – including the legalization and taxation of marijuana – and he has the experience of serving from 1973 to 1980 in the Kansas Legislature.

“I’m running because I’m the best qualified candidate,” said Glover, 62. “When I get to Sacramento, I know how the sausage is made.”

You see, it’s compelling!  And it means OC Register readers see that Democratic candidates exist and they are running in primaries and that we want these seats too.  That it’s not a one party system Orange County anymore.

Why is that good for not just Democrats?  That means Republicans have to debate their ideas, they have to define themselves and hopefully that means they have to become a bit more moderate if they win.   Orange County has over 500,000 Democrats as well as many Declined to State voters who are also their constituents.  Primaries matter.

And this Primary matters a great deal to not only to me, but to Orange County Democrats.  I’ve been pretty clear about who I support and I’m voting for Melissa Fox.    And I believe that Michael Glover also has every right to run, it’s obvious this primary has been good for us.  But when it comes to game time, to the general election, is Glover going to run as hard as Melissa Fox has in the Primary?

Melissa has garnered endorsements, not just a few but a lot, endorsements  you have to WORK hard for.   I’ve watched her run from meeting to meeting, luncheon and dinner, I’ve seen her work a room like a candidate but also like someone who really cares about what she does.  Melissa has a way of making every single person she meets feel important and part of her mission, which should be every Orange County Democrats goal, to be heard in Sacramento.

Melissa Fox reaches out to every constituency, small and large and makes it a point to learn about all the issues.  She came to Oak Grove Elementary School and walked the picket lines with our teachers and listened to what they had to say about the CUSD issues, all of which would cover the 70th AD.  Melissa is engaged and inquisitive and most of all, she’s positive, her energy level is obscene, I’ve witnessed her outrun everyone in her team and just keep going.  This is who I want representing me in Sacramento, this is who I want representing me as a Democrat on the ballot in November.

It can’t be about just knowing how the sausage is made.  We’ve got lots of  people in Sacramento representing us now, who know a lot about making knackwurst and all the other kind of stuffed goodies, but that’s not really gotten us very far, has it?  The only way things can change is we have a two-thirds majority in the Assembly and the Senate.

The last thing we need is someone running a “low-key bid” in the general election.

It’s about making sure that the things that work get funded and the things that don’t work get re-examined.  And I want someone who is willing to work and learn and who will run in the General election like they’ve been running in the Primary.  For me, that’s Melissa Fox.

Here is a campaign video that Melissa Fox for Assembly put together, take a look.  And most important, vote this primary, please.  Primaries MATTER!

And, here is Melissa’s website if you want to learn more.

(Excellent stuff from the Democratic candidate for AD-70 – promoted by Robert Cruickshank)

I was recently asked by the Orange County Register to give answers about how to fix the California budget in 75 words.

That is not possible, because it’s a complicated issue.

Of course, I could have pretended it was simple, like my opponent will do, by blaming California’s budget problems solely on government spending.

But that is not the case.

California has the second lowest ratio of state employees to population among all the states, with 103 full-time equivalent state employees per 10,000 residents. The national average is 143 state employees per 10,000 residents.

It isn’t excessive spending that is the real culprit causing our budget woes – it’s the reckless borrowing we’ve done to pay for unfair tax cuts to the rich and giant corporations.

The three main causes of California’s budget crisis are (1) the national recession, (2) the billions of dollars in tax cuts given to the wealthy and giant corporations, and (3) the billions of dollars in interest that California must pay for the money borrowed to cover these unfair tax cuts to special interests.

If you want to see why people get confused about the causes of our budget problems, break down this whopper from the website of Jerry Amante, one of the Republicans campaigning in the 70th Assembly District, where I’m running:

Over the last 20 years, the California Consumer Price Index has risen 44% and population has increased by 20%.  During the same period, state spending as (sic) increased by 262%, from about $40 billion to $145 billion.  This huge expansion in the size of state government is the root cause of our budget problems.  The solution is not to raise taxes so the government can keep growing – it is to rein in spending and limit government growth. I support a constitutional amendment to limit spending increases.

I don’t know where Amante gets his numbers.

The California Consumer Price Index has risen 72.1% from December 1989 to December 2009, not 44% as Amante claims.

Population has increased by 28% from 1990 to 2009, not by 20%.

(It’s pretty easy to Google this stuff.)

Factor those two numbers together (population and inflation), and you see that if spending had remained level per person, state spending adjusted for inflation would have had a natural increase of 220%.

Jerry Amante was either just plain wrong or intentionally dishonest in his numbers about population and prices, leading to a gross distortion of the growth of the California budget relative to population and cost of living.

How did he do on his spending numbers?

He got one number right: state general fund spending for 1989-1990 was $39.5 billion, very close to Amante’s $40 billion number.  But state general fund spending in 2009-2010 was $86.1 billion, not the $145 billion that Amante claims.

Maybe Amante meant total state spending, including special funds and bond funds, but then he should have used $48.8 billion as his number from twenty years ago and a current number of $124.7 billion.

But whatever numbers Amante uses, the fact remains that real general fund spending has increased less than half of one per cent per year over the last twenty years.

Total spending has increased by more, driven by reckless borrowing under GOP Governor Schwarzenegger, so that bond payments have increased more than 400% from what they averaged twenty years ago.

Much of that irresponsible borrowing has been to pay for tax cuts.  While general fund spending has been relatively level, the cost per year of the tax cuts enacted since 1993 has risen to $11.7 billion a year.  Just the 2008 and 2009 tax cuts for giant corporations will cost the state nearly $8 billion over the next eight years.

If you are asking, “What tax cuts?,” you’re not alone. You probably haven’t seen these tax cuts, since the constant shift has been from taxing corporations and the richest Californians to taxing the middle class, primarily in the form of increased sales and income taxes, but also through higher fees, much higher tuition and service cuts.

California also lost $1.2 billion dollars a year when Republicans irresponsibly took away the provision that allowed for a California estate tax that was fully deductible against federal estate taxes.

So does California primarily have a spending problem, or do we have an acute tax fairness problem and a reckless borrowing problem?

We do have a huge revenue problem as the recession has seriously cut into the state’s income and sales tax revenue.  California’s problem is worse than other states because we came into the recession already crippled by Arnold’s ill-considered tax cuts and the reckless borrowing needed to pay for them.

Most Californians agree that we need to restore the cuts made to education, continue to provide vital and cost-effective health services for our seniors so they can live with dignity in their own homes.

To protect our schools and our seniors, we need to stop the borrowing, roll back some of those corporate tax cuts and let the banks, oil companies, and giant corporations pay their fair share.

The California Budget Project has done some great work in analyzing the state budget issues, and bringing to light some of the myths that are constantly thrown around.  If you want to compare myths and facts, take a few minutes to read their great analysis.

Don’t believe the myths.

To fix the budget, we need the facts.

Melissa Fox

PS Remember that I’m hosting coffee at the CDP convention. See my over-caffeinated blogad on the right side of the page.

(This is a fantastic look at how dramatically Orange County has changed in the last 40 years, from Democratic candidate for AD-70 Melissa Fox. – promoted by Robert Cruickshank)

I recently came across a fascinating – and very revealing – article about the political history of Orange County.

Dated July 7, 1974, and titled Orange County: The Right Wing Cradle, the article shows how dramatically Orange County, and in particular my own 70th Assembly District (Irvine, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Foothill Ranch, and most of the cities of Aliso Viejo, Newport Beach, and Tustin) has changed, both politically and demographically, in the past four decades.

The article describes Orange County as “a stronghold of the John Birch Society, a former stomping ground of the Klu Klux Klan, the fastest growing county in the United States, and the home of the first drive-in church.”

Among the Orange County right-wing politicians profiled in the article are retired General Curtis LeMay (who ran for Vice-President of the United States as the running mate of segregationist George Wallace), former Congressman James B. Utt (who once claimed that “a large contingent of barefooted Africans” was training in Georgia as part of a United Nations military force to take over the United States), former Congressman James G. Schmitz (who railed against sex education and was later revealed to have engaged in an extra-marital affair and fathered two children with one of his former college students, and who was also the father of sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau), then-current Congressman Andrew Hinshaw (who was later convicted of taking bribes from large landowners as Orange County Assessor in exchange for lower tax assessments and served eight months in prison), and publisher and neo-Nazi activist John H. Townsend, who used his Orange County base to attack evolution, the income tax, abortion, the United Nations, Jews and the “international Zionist conspiracy.”

Orange County has profoundly changed, and for the better.

Who would have believed, even a few years ago, that an African-American Democrat named Barack Obama would win in the heart of Orange County?

Yet Obama carried my 70th Assembly District in South Orange County by nearly 9,000 votes.

Proposition 8 won here by less than 1 percent, and Prop 4 (parental notification) was rejected by a majority of the district’s voters.

Back in 1974, the most important institution and the largest employer in the district was the El Toro Marine Air Base.  It had 10,000 military personnel living on the base and 70,000 people (an amazing number, given the area’s small population) with PX privileges as military dependents or retirees.

Now the most important institution and the larger employer in the district is UC Irvine, with more than 22,000 undergraduate students, nearly 6,000 graduate students, 2,700 faculty members and researchers, and more than 9,000 staff. Once known as a commuter school, nearly half of UCI’s students now live (and can vote) on campus.

When the article was written, the total population of Orange County was 1.6 million, and South Orange County was still largely undeveloped. Now the county’s population tops 3 million, with much of that growth coming in the south part of the county. In just the last decade, Irvine has grown from 143,072 residents to more than 200,000. Tustin has grown from 67,504 to more than 75,000. Newport Beach has grown from 70,032 to more than 86,000. Lake Forest has grown from 56,707 to more than 78,000. Laguna Beach has grown from 23,578 to more than 26,000. Aliso Viejo has grown from 40,166 in 2000 (only 7,612 in 1990) to more than 42,000.

This growth in population has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in diversity. When the article was written, the district was close to 99% white. Now the district is wonderfully diverse, with significant numbers of Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Indian Americans, Arab Americans, and Persian Americans, who are not favorably impressed by the Republicans’ hostility to immigrants, education, and expanding the American Dream.

Orange County — and the 70th Assembly District in particular — is no longer the cradle of the right-wing extremism.

And after November 2010, with your help, a right-wing extremist will no longer represent us in Sacramento.

Please visit my webpage at Melissa Fox for Assembly

Wow, this guy is a piece of work.  First he shows up to The Democratic Party of Orange County’s Annual Truman Dinner to Protest the Keynote Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the couple of hundred of other protesters and allows one of them to pin a poster of Nancy Pelosi as Stalin to his back.

Dr. Choi is currently sitting on Irvine’s City council and he proudly wore his Council badge to the event, representing the City where the vent took place.  City Council seats are historically “non-partisan” by the way.  And now he’s using the publicity that he’s receiving because of this photograph to raise money for his California Assembly race to out teabag his Republican primary opponents.

But here are some more details…

I was at the event, my husband was on the Committee for it and there were a lot of ugly signs, I wrote about this previously and Choi wasn’t very happy to have his participation questioned..

Steven Choi was also seen “posing with another protester who was wearing a rendering depicting Pelosi as an SS Guard” and “including one portraying President Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler together” and yet he defended his actions.

I’m a Republican Party member and went there to express my disapproval of her policies,” Choi said. “I have big concerns with what is going on with the government pushing down the mandated health issues… As a small businessman it would impact me.”

Choi said a woman who was at the event with the Irvine Republican Council placed the rendering on his back. He described the criticism as a partisan attack.

“They are making a case out of nothing,” Choi said.

So now he’s making this nothing into some fundraising from his website…

Dear Friends:

Thank you for visiting my campaign web site.

Lately, many people have sought me out due to my appearance with the protesters against liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

I am so humbled and honored to receive such an overwhelming outpouring of support from throughout the country (though there are obviously some opponents).

Will you kindly join my contact list to show your support for me?

I also hope you will help me by making a campaign contribution. Thank you so much.

So you know what?  I’m glad that my friend Melissa Fox decided to do the same thing.  I’ve known Melissa for a while know since Gary ran for State Senate in 2008, our kids get a long and I told her I would be happy to help her with her run for Assembly.  I genuinely LIKE Melissa and would love to see her win.

She sent her own email blast out and I think you should send her money and show Choi that he was wrong and that we don’t want anymore representation like him.  No more.

Choi’s Outrageous Behavior

You’ve probably seen the photographs of Irvine City Council Member – and 70th District Assembly candidate – Steven Choi wearing a poster on his back depicting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Communist dictator Josef Stalin.

Choi’s comparison of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives with a murderer of millions was a low media stunt   I watched him smile and preen in front of cameras and gleefully pose next to images of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi as Nazis, all while prominently wearing his badge identifying himself as a member of the Irvine City Council.  

Is this the representation we want in Sacramento?

Or would you rather have a representative who is interested in solving the real problems we face – critical problems with education, the economy, jobs, and public safety?

Send Choi a Message

Choi’s outrageous behavior does not represent my values or the values of a majority of the voters in the 70th Assembly District.

We need to send a message to Choi that we won’t allow extremism to represent us in Sacramento.

We need to take our campaign for education, jobs, economic growth, and the renewal of the California Dream to the voters, but without your contributions, our message won’t be heard.  Choi starts with a war chest of more than $100,000.  We need to match his fund-raising.

Push back now against extremism by making a contribution of $1000, $500, $100 or whatever you can afford to our campaign to make sure that we’re represented in the Assembly by someone who shares the values of our District and will fight for real solutions.

Thank you.

Melissa

So send Choi a message and Donate to Melissa Fox.  

If he thinks he can fund raise with using images such as this, then we need to show him that his efforts will only help his Democratic Opponent.  

PLEASE help Melissa show Republicans in Orange County that the tide is turning.

So who is Melissa Fox?  I know that her being a good friend of mine isn’t enough, but I can say why I love Melissa.  Melissa gets it, she’s smart, she doesn’t take herself too seriously and I can kick back in her house when we meet up to talk campaign stuff.  Her family is smart, warm and welcoming and they really care about the things that a lot of us here do at Calitics.  Her husband Michael is a blogger, brilliant and very passionate about the issues just as much as Melissa is.  Their son Max is bright, balanced and precocious and they encourage him to ask questions and be involved.  I can’t say enough good things about them as a family and as individuals and I’m so honored to just know them.

Melissa is a smart, hard-working and passionate advocate for families, the middle class, small business, schools, jobs and economic growth.

She is an Orange County native, a small business attorney, a wife and mother, and a dedicated community leader.

Melissa was born in Garden Grove and raised in Westminster. Her mother was a registered nurse and a librarian and her father was a police officer and later a compliance officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is also a Korean War combat veteran.

Melissa attended high school in Westminster, where she graduated as valedictorian, and then went to Brandeis University and Tulane University Law School.

After law school, she returned to Orange County, where for the last 17 years she has specialized in providing legal counsel to small businesses. Melissa lives in Lake Forest with her husband, Michael, a college professor who received his Ph.D. from UC Irvine, and their 11 year-old son, Max.

MELISSA IS A FIGHTER FOR OUR SCHOOLS, FAMILIES, SENIORS, JOBS AND SMALL BUSINESSES

· As a small business attorney for 17 years, Melissa respects the hard work and knows the problems of business owners – problems that have been intensified by the current economic crisis. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight to reignite our Southern California economy and grow the businesses and jobs we need.

· As a mother with a child in a public school, Melissa knows the devastating impact of the budget crisis on our children and our schools. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for our students and dedicated teachers, and to make sure that California’s schools are the best in the nation.

· As a middle class homeowner and businesswoman, Melissa knows the financial burden that California’s unfair tax system – including hidden taxes such as increased vehicle fees, tolls, and college tuition – imposes on middle class families and small businesses. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for tax fairness, making sure that our economy is stimulated by tax relief for small businesses and the middle class.

· As a volunteer Ranger with the Orange County Parks Department who trained with the Orange County Sheriff and Fire Departments, Melissa knows the incredible commitment and dedication to duty of Orange County’s public safety officers. She is just as dedicated to fighting for those who protect us. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for our police, sheriffs, and firefighters and fight to keep them on the job.

· As a camper, hiker, and advocate for new green jobs and new sources of energy, Melissa knows the need for responsible stewardship of our land, water and air — not only for all the recreational opportunities we enjoy, but also for our economic well-being now and in the future. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for new local green jobs, the development of new cleaner sources of energy, and responsible stewardship of our natural resources, including our oceans, waves, and beaches.

· As the great-granddaughter of immigrants, Melissa knows the contribution that immigrants from all over the world have made to America and Orange County. She believes that one of the greatest strengths of our district is its diversity. Melissa also knows that it is essential to our public safety and national security that our borders be secure. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for secure borders, responsible, legal immigration, and for the needs of our immigrant communities.

· As the wife of a college teacher who received his Ph.D from UC Irvine, Melissa knows the crucial role of UCI and our community colleges in creating jobs, stimulating local business growth, and ensuring a brighter future for California. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for the students and faculty at UC Irvine and our community colleges.

· As the daughter of a combat veteran, Melissa knows the tremendous value of veterans’ service, their core principles of honor, courage, and commitment, and their needs after returning from deployment. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for those who fought for us.

· As the daughter of seniors, and the granddaughter of a wonderful woman who had Alzheimer’s, Melissa knows and special gifts – and special needs – of our senior citizens. As a member of the Assembly, Melissa will fight for seniors, retirees, their families and their communities.

TIME TO RENEW THE CALIFORNIA DREAM

Melissa’s mission is to renew the California dream – bringing to government a much needed breath of fresh air, new ideas, truth and openness – with a passionate commitment to California’s future.

“Not very long ago, California was the envy of the nation. Our schools and public universities were the best in the country, our beaches and parks were national treasures, our freeways inspired countless popular songs, and our booming economy led the nation in jobs, productivity, and prosperity.

California was the best place in America to live, work, play, raise a family, and retire.

We called it the California Dream.

Now our schools are among the worst in the country, we’re building toll roads instead of freeways, our police and firefighters and teachers are being laid off, our seniors are being forced from their homes, our public universities are increasingly unaffordable, our beaches and parks are being closed, we lead America in foreclosures and job losses, and our economy is among the worst in the nation.

This must change.

Please join me in the fight to make California once again the best place in the nation for our families, small businesses, students, and seniors.

It’s time to renew the California Dream.”

— Melissa