The SoS debate is today at 2PM (webcast here), we hope to live-blog it either here or at dKos.  More details on that later.  Teasers: David Roth (CA-45), Debra Bowen, Margaret “legend in her own mind” Fortune, GOP gay purge, trouble for the bonds.

• David Roth has a very impressive ad up on YouTube.  I don’t know if this is on the air, but it’s a great ad.  I don’t know why exactly the DCCC didn’t target this race.  Mary Bono is, quite frankly, delusional on Iraq.  The district has a fair amount of Dems and some money would have helped.  Mary Bono pretends she’s a moderate, but she’s not.
• Debra Bowen has picked up a few more endorsements.  Newspaper endorsements are tough to come by when you are running against a newspaper publisher (Bruce M.).  However, she has so far been endorsed by the LA Daily News, the Monterrey County Weekly, and the San Jose Merc.  The common theme: “McPherson is not Kevin Shelly, but if you want somebody who really knows the job, go with Bowen.”  The endorsements that have gone for McPherson have all been essentially, he hasn’t totally screwed up and doesn’t seem to have given money to any friends.  I’m sorry that’s not a good enough reason for me.  I want a Secretary of State that understands the complexities of every issue of voting.  That’s Debra.
• Margaret Fortune, she of the Prop 74 campaign and self-styled education guru…who really isn’t such a guru, is back.  On Tuesday, she raved about her close ties to the Governor when she was meeting with some black religious leaders in Sacramento.  Apparently, she wasn’t so well received:
  

  When I leave this engagement in 22 days, I’m going back to the administration. And when you knock on the door, it’s going to be me who’s going to answer for the governor. The governor respects me.”

  “That sounds like a threat,” someone says from the audience.
  Fortune: “No, no, no. That is not a threat.” (LAT Pol. Muscle 10.18.06)

  Hmm…she is quite the legend in her own mind isn’t she? She goes to these leaders, insults them, cries to make them feel guilty, then flees away.  No, Arnold deeply cares about the votes of everybody (wink-wink), just some matter more than others.

• The Republicans are preparing to purge their gays.  It seems they have had enough of…well, gays.  So, my feeling on this: the no self-respecting queer should be voting for Republicans anyway.  And the problem with gay Republicans isn’t that they are gay, it’s that they are forced to be closeted.  As John Cloud said in Time, the denial of self is enough to drive anybody crazy.  The GOP of old was a party that was built on libretarian values.  It is long since abandoned that in a quest for the Religious radical Right vote.  Barry Goldwater would be ashamed of today’s GOP.
• The SF Chron thinks the bonds might be in trouble.  Well, you heard it here for quite some time, at least 2 of them will fail.
• Oh how I love kos to death. Except when he talks about anything having to do with California. Good heavens.
  

  I voted today. Feels good to vote against Ahnold. And the California initiative process needs desperate reform. As always, on principle, I voted “no” on every single one of them even though I was sympathetic to many of the initiatives.

  Against Ahnold, not  for Angelides, eh? sigh. (by CarlsbadDem)