Betsy Butler’s first campaign mailer of the 50th Assembly District election is the talk of the town. But not in a way the candidate hoped or intended.

That’s because Betsy Butler’s “mailers” weren’t mailed at all. Instead, they were wrapped around thousands of Mexican-made plastic baby bottles and hand-delivered by paid canvassers.

Reports of Betsy Butler’s baby bottle mailers started yesterday, when reports started flooding in of bottles mysteriously showing up on the doorsteps of voters all over Santa Monica.

Presumably, Butler chose to introduce herself to the 50th Assembly district via plastic baby bottles as a clever way to tout her involvement in a California law banning BPA from plastic baby bottles and sippy cups.

But whatever Butler’s intentions, voters in the district  were universally taken aback by the gimmicky mailers.

“When I came home, my first thought was it some sort of product placement,” said Rick Moore, who lives in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Santa Monica. He didn’t realize it was a campaign mailer until he took a closer look. “It’s just an odd thing to receive as a 59 year-old man. I mean, does she think this is the next stop for me?”

Abby Arnold, a voter in Santa Monica’s Ocean Park neighborhood was equally flummoxed. “I don’t have a baby. What am I going to do with a baby bottle except throw it away?”

One voter in the Wilmont neighborhood voiced similar concerns, writing in an email, “Clearly, the Butler campaign addressed a bottle for every unit in my (11-unit) building. This struck me as extremely wasteful, and since I don’t have kids and live in a small apartment,  I’m now confronted with the task of figuring out what to do with it.”

James Haygood of Sunset Park believes that Butler’s mailer sends the wrong message to voters, “Little things do matter. Leaving a bunch of plastic junk around the neighborhood definitely tweaks the sensibilities of people here that know that dealing with environmental issues means a lot of people doing a lot of little things.”

Another voter who lives north of Wilshire Blvd.  voiced surprise that a candidate reportedly endorsed by the California League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club would dump so much plastic into the district, plastic which would more than likely end up in the trash.

“This is just bizarre. It’s wrong. (CLCV and the Sierra Club) ought to look at how much landfill she’s taking up.”

Indeed, recycling statistics complied by Cal Recycle seem to validate this concern. The recycling rates for polypropylene plastics (the type of plastic the baby bottle mailers are made out of) is abysmally low, hovering around 5%.

“That’s not a very green message,” Rick Moore reiterated.

Voters also voiced concern about the Mexican-made Evenflo-brand bottles Butler chose to use.

Democratic candidates normally go to great lengths to make sure any campaign materials, including mailers and lawn signs, are locally manufactured by union shops. The issue could prove particularly problematic for Butler, who’s received tens of thousands of dollars in union PAC money.

“We always look for the union label on any printed materials a candidate hands out,” said Arnold. “It lets me know that keeping good manufacturing jobs in California is a priority for them.”

Evenflo, the company which manufactures the bottles Butler chose to use, could in an of itself also prove problematic for the candidate.

The company agreed in 2009 to stop using BPA in plastic baby bottles sold domestically (two  years before Butler’s BPA legislation was signed into law),  yet quietly  continued to ship plastic bottles made with BPA to other countries. The  company has also been repeatedly (and successfully)  sued for marketing defective products.  In 2007, a jury awarded $10.4 million to the parents of a four month old boy who died of head injuries sustained in a car crash while riding in a defective Evenflo car seat.  In 2008, the company had to recall a million child restraint seats when it turned out their seats could break off and fly around inside the car during collisions as slow as 38 mph.

The irony of Butler wrapping campaign literature touting her union and consumer protection endorsements around thousands of Mexican-made plastic bottles from a company with a track record of marketing products harmful to children was not lost on Arnold, the voter in Ocean Park.

“This is a highly informed, politically aware district. You can’t fool us.”

If Betsy Butler was hoping the baby bottle mailers would make an impression on voters, it can safely be said she’s achieved her goal. It certainly made an impression on the Wilmont voter whose apartment building was targeted by the campaign.

“I was undecided on who to vote for in the election until I received Butler’s baby bottle.” she wrote,  “Then I scratched her off my list.”

From the Department of Unforced Campaign Errors……

If your opponents’ biggest talking point against you is that you’re an outsider who’s abandoned her current district and constituents to move into a district you’ve never lived or worked in – chances are locating your campaign office out of the district is not the best tactical move your campaign could make.

But that’s exactly what AD50 candidate Betsy Butler’s campaign has done.

Yesterday, Butler sent out invitations asking supporters to come to an open house at her new campaign offices this Saturday at 11512 Santa Monica Blvd. in West LA.

The office is located several blocks outside the district (see this map for district boundaries)

During campaign season, it’s expected for politicians to set up their headquarters in the district. Not only does it make the campaign and the candidate accessible to his or her own constituents but also gives back to the district’s business community.

So, while Butler may not have done anything illegal by setting up shop outside the district, she certainly hasn’t done herself any favors.

The open house, which takes place this Saturday, also happens to fall on the first day of Passover, this even though AD50 is the center of Los Angeles’ Jewish community.

As my dear departed mother would say, oy vey.

Democratic activists hoping for big gains in the California legislature this year were dealt a serious blow after campaign finance reports released last Thursday raised troubling questions about Assembly Speaker John Perez’s strategic priorities and the California Democratic Party’s ability to achieve a two-thirds majority in the State Senate and Assembly.

Democrats would have to pick up at least two more seats in each chamber to achieve the super-majority needed to pass revenue increases over the objections of a Republican minority.

Yet campaign finance reports reveal that Speaker Perez, Sacramento Democratic lawmakers and PACs donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to safe Democratic Assembly districts while virtually ignoring new “swing” districts or defending others against possible Republican pickups.

In the 10th Assembly District (Marin, D+35) Sacramento Democrats gave  $80,600 to Mike Allen, an incumbent Assemblymember who moved into the open district when his existing district was carved up and  reapportioned. This, even though Mr. Allen is running against two other Democratic candidates and no Republican opposition.

In the 50th Assembly district (Santa Monica, D+33), Perez and Sacramento Democrats donated $88,750 to Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, who moved north to the Democratic stronghold after redistricting meant she’d have to run in the new, more conservative 66th Assembly district (Torrance, D+3). Butler is running against Democratic candidates Torie Osborn and Richard Bloom, both long-time residents of the district. The lone Republican in the race, Brad Torgen, is not considered a viable candidate.

Records also show that most of these donations were given to Allen and Butler during a three-week period last December, and that many Democratic Assemblymembers who donated did not give money to any other Assembly campaigns. The timing suggests a coordinated and conscious effort from leadership to funnel money to these candidates at the expense of other candidates running in more competitive districts.

But as Butler and Allen enjoy the largess of their colleagues in Sacramento while running in districts so safe a Democratic corpse could win,  two other candidates running in swing districts which could potentially lead to Democratic super-majorities enjoy no such protection.

In the South Bay, Torrance School Board member Al Muratsuchi became the Democratic candidate for AD66 after Betsy Butler left the district.  Election experts consider the race highly competitive for Republicans, giving them the best opportunity in two decades to pick up a seat in that area.

However, not a single Sacramento Democrat, including both John Perez and Betsy Butler have yet to make any financial contributions to his campaign. 

Even Democratic State Senator Ted Lieu, whose district overlaps much of AD66, gave $1,000 to Butler, but nothing so far to Muratsuchi.

Additionally, while PACs – including the Professional Engineers in California  Government, the State Building & Construction Trades Council and  the California State Council of Laborers – gave over $300,000 to Butler  and Allen, many of them presumably at Perez’s direction, Muratsuchi received only $11,900 in PAC money, including $1,000 from the California League of Conservation Voters –  $6,800 less than they gave to Betsy Butler.

Sacramento’s indifference means Muratsuchi has had to loan his campaign $45,000 to defend the new South Bay Assembly seat against two Tea Party candidates, Nathan Mintz, who ran and lost a close race against Butler in 2010, and Craig Huey, who ran an unsuccessful $500,000 self-financed congressional campaign against Janice Hahn last year.

In the Central Valley, where termed-out Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani is running for Senate District 5 (Stockton, D+4), only one Sacramento lawmaker, fellow Democratic Assemblymember Kevin De Leon, contributed to Galgiani’s campaign.

Galgiani has $140,000 in cash on hand while her two Republican opponents, Assemblymember Bill Berryhill and former County Supervisor Leroy Ornellas, each have twice that amount.

Galgiani represents much of the district now and is considered a popular moderate. AroundTheCapitol.com reports the race is “likely the bellwether Senate district for 2012….Galgiani came out as gay to the Stockton Record on November 1, and will be running in a district that voted 64% in favor of prohibiting same-sex marriages.”

If elected, Galgiani would be the first openly gay legislator elected from a Central Valley district.

Taken in their entirety, campaign finance records, along with reports of political maneuvering, clearly and consistently demonstrate Speaker Perez and Sacramento Democrats are prioritizing the reelection of “incumbent” Assemblymembers in safe, Democratic districts over obtaining a two-thirds majority in the legislature in 2012.

Political insiders will claim this just isn’t true, that Sacramento’s strategy will change after the June primaries, focusing less on incumbents and more on flipping swing districts.

However, even if accurate, considering California’s new top-two election rules, it’s a deeply flawed strategy.

In the case of both AD66 and SD05, there’s no guarantee Muratrsuchi and Galgiani will survive a June primary and make it to November. And even if they do, their well-funded opponents will have already had a six-month head start to rip the Democrats to shreds with negative mailers and media spots.

When the California Citizens Redistricting Commission upended the political landscape in 2012,   it opened up a unique opportunity for Democrats, but only if we have the foresight and political will to take advantage of that opportunity. Now is the time to stop paying lip service about achieving a two-thirds legislative majority and actually do something about it.

Until that happens, we’re just kidding ourselves that we can fix what’s really wrong with California. The best we can hope for is triage.

As our convention convenes this weekend in San Diego, I hope the delegates, activists, candidates and politicians assembled will take a hard, cold look at how the political landscape is shifting beneath our feet.

These issues are more important than any single election or candidate, they go to the very heart of what it means to be a Democrat in California in 2012.

UPDATE:

State Senator Ted Lieu responds:

 

Re: My $1000 contribution to Betsy Butler’s committee. As you know, I have not endorsed in the race. The contribution was made in April 2011, months before the first draft of Assembly maps were released, and months before Betsy Butler announced where she was running. In early fall, my Ted Lieu for Senate 2011 committee was frozen due to the Kinde Durkee case.

   Regarding AD 66, when the Kinde Durkee legal proceedings are resolved, I will contribute to Al Muratsuchi’s campaign. I endorsed him early and am helping him in a variety of other ways.

Grassroots activists in Assembly District 50 received a hard lesson in “Incumbent-Protection 101” this weekend. Despite losing every Democratic Club endorsement in the district, candidate (and current 53rd AD Assembly member) Betsy Butler managed to get 57% of the vote at yesterday’s California Democratic Party “pre-endorsement” caucus, beating her opponent, Torie Osborn, who had won the support of every local club who voted to endorse, often by overwhelming margins.

Welcome to the myopic world of hard-ball Sacramento politics.

Every year, CDP delegates meet a few weeks before their yearly state convention to “pre-endorse” (aka recommend) Democratic candidates they believe are worthy of their party’s institutional support.

Candidates who received between 50% and 70% of the votes at their local weekend meeting are now eligible for, but not guaranteed of, the state Democratic party’s seal of approval at the February convention. And if no one received at least 50% of the votes, Dems won’t offer any endorsement in that legislative or congressional primary.

(And don’t even ask me the rules for how Democrats in these local party meetings gained eligibility to vote. Instructions from IKEA make more sense.)

Again, these meetings and subsequent endorsements are notable because of the brave new world of party primaries, ushered in by 2010’s Proposition 14 top-two system. It’s a world unsettled, too, by new district maps that have left more open seats than at any time in recent history.

As such, a number of Democratic candidates are scrambling for an advantage. And the gold standard is thought (by many) to be the official “Democratic Party candidate” come June.

The CDP endorsement is particularly important to Butler, who has little name recognition in AD50, having moved from the South Bay to avoid running against Tea Party candidates in her home district.

Theoretically at least, the delegates voting in these caucuses are supposed to be from the home district of the candidate they’re voting to endorse. And actually, the delegates themselves are. However, the politicians who “own” these delegates don’t have to be.

Only about a third of CDP delegates are elected by popular vote. The other two-thirds are appointed by politicians or elected by Central Committees. And in contested races like the one for the 50th Assembly District, delegates can be traded amongst politicians like playing cards.

That’s exactly what happened yesterday in the AD50 pre-endorsement caucus.

Of the 64 votes Butler received, 5 of those came from delegates she herself appointed. Forty-two delegates were assigned by Assembly Speaker John Perez, who pulled them from assembly members in districts as far away as San Francisco and Riverside.

Torie Osborn, on the other hand, not being an elected official, could not assign herself delegates. The numerous Democratic club endorsements she secured weren’t particularly helpful either, since party rules severely limited the number of delegates they’re allotted. Some endorsing clubs weren’t eligible to send delegates at all.

Dorothy Reik, President of the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains – one of the clubs endorsing Osborn – attended the pre-endorsement caucus.

“John Heaner, the chair of the 13th District who was running the meeting, tried to claim that other electeds had a stong interest in our district and had sent the delegates on their own.” said Reik,”That is ridiculous. Those delegates were not even in the room for the most part. What should have been an example of local democracy in action turned into a farce.”

Butler failed to get the 70% needed for unanimous consent at the CDP convention, so she’ll have to wait until February for another endorsement vote at the convention to seal the deal. It’s entirely possible grassroots activists won’t let this go without a fight, and could organize to block Butler’s endorsement.

But such moves are rare, success rarer still. The grassroots are woefully underrepresented at the State Convention, the delegation an almost perfect microcosm of Sacramento itself – insular, inclined to protect the status quo and resistant to overcoming institutional inertia.

But in the age of “occupy”, grassroots activists seem less willing than ever to put up with the status quo. As one young Osborn supporter put it, “Folks in Sacramento should take note that AD50 supports Torie Osborn without a doubt,and will fight to make her voice heard”

Fasten your seat belts, kids, this could be a bumpy ride.