{"id":14346,"date":"2012-05-18T01:24:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T01:24:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-05-18T01:24:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T01:24:59","slug":"ad50-betsy-butler-not-content-with-misleading-voters-resorts-to-flatout-untruth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/18\/ad50-betsy-butler-not-content-with-misleading-voters-resorts-to-flatout-untruth\/","title":{"rendered":"AD-50: Betsy Butler, not content with misleading voters, resorts to flat-out “untruth”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Probably the hottest race for Assembly this year is the race in Assembly District 50, where progressive legend Torie Osborn, who has the support of just about every single local Democratic club, as well as that of Julia Brownley and Sheila Kuehl, is going up against South Bay Assemblymember Betsy Butler, who currently represents about 1% of the new 50th Assembly District. The race has a classic “insider vs. outsider” dynamic: Osborn is well known for her nonprofit work for LGBT equality and against poverty, and has a ton of local grassroots support, including just about every single Democratic club that has endorsed in the race. Butler, meanwhile, is taking full advantage of the the money and endorsements that being a sitting legislator can provide. It’s well known that I’m an avid Osborn supporter; for a full rundown of all the stories that have made this race a fun one to watch, just check out this summmary<\/a> from Marta Evry.<\/p>\n

So far, Butler’s strategy in the race has been to attempt to convince voters that there’s nothing particularly special about this election: that she’s just your run-of-the-mill incumbent seeking re-election to her district. And even though it might be misleading to claim that when you’ve only represented 1% of the district, she’s technically correct: both the California Elections Code and the rules of the California Democratic Party allow her to claim that (and would also allow her to claim that if she were running in Shasta, but that’s a story for another day).<\/p>\n

Today, however, changes the equation. I got a piece of mail today from the Butler campaign touting her credentials on women’s issues. The piece was obviously designed to be mailed to women, given the introduction–“mothers, daughters, sisters and aunts”–but I received it anyway. It was your typical mailing, except for one part<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Our Assemblywoman, Betsy Butler<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And with that, we’ve transcended from “misleading” to “flat out not true.” I live in AD-50, and I don’t live in just the 1% that Betsy Butler currently represents. I live in the part that’s currently represented by Mike Feuer. The letter is signed by several people who are supporting Butler, and perhaps they could be trying to claim that the signatories are represented by “their Assemblywoman, Betsy Butler.” Problem is, that’s not true either, as the piece contains the signatures of activists in Beverly Hills (Mike Feuer) and Malibu (Julia Brownley), as well as some who don’t live in the district at all.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure whether Butler’s claim that she already represents me is a sign of desperation given Torie Osborn’s strong campaign, or simple disrespect for the intelligence of the voters of the 50th District. All I know is, I’m not a fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Probably the hottest race for Assembly this year is the race in Assembly District 50, where progressive legend Torie Osborn, who has the support of just about every single local Democratic club, as well as that of Julia Brownley and Sheila Kuehl, is going up against South Bay Assemblymember Betsy Butler, who currently represents about 1% of the new 50th Assembly District. The race has a classic “insider vs. outsider” dynamic: Osborn is well known for her nonprofit work for LGBT equality and against poverty, and has a ton of local grassroots support, including just about every single Democratic club that has endorsed in the race. Butler, meanwhile, is taking full advantage of the the money and endorsements that being a sitting legislator can provide. It’s well known that I’m an avid Osborn supporter; for a full rundown of all the stories that have made this race a fun one to watch, just check out this summmary<\/a> from Marta Evry.<\/p>\n

So far, Butler’s strategy in the race has been to attempt to convince voters that there’s nothing particularly special about this election: that she’s just your run-of-the-mill incumbent seeking re-election to her district. And even though it might be misleading to claim that when you’ve only represented 1% of the district, she’s technically correct: both the California Elections Code and the rules of the California Democratic Party allow her to claim that (and would also allow her to claim that if she were running in Shasta, but that’s a story for another day).<\/p>\n

Today, however, changes the equation. I got a piece of mail today from the Butler campaign touting her credentials on women’s issues. The piece was obviously designed to be mailed to women, given the introduction–“mothers, daughters, sisters and aunts”–but I received it anyway. It was your typical mailing, except for one part<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Our Assemblywoman, Betsy Butler<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And with that, we’ve transcended from “misleading” to “flat out not true.” I live in AD-50, and I don’t live in just the 1% that Betsy Butler currently represents. I live in the part that’s currently represented by Mike Feuer. The letter is signed by several people who are supporting Butler, and perhaps they could be trying to claim that the signatories are represented by “their Assemblywoman, Betsy Butler.” Problem is, that’s not true either, as the piece contains the signatures of activists in Beverly Hills (Mike Feuer) and Malibu (Julia Brownley), as well as some who don’t live in the district at all.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure whether Butler’s claim that she already represents me is a sign of desperation given Torie Osborn’s strong campaign, or simple disrespect for the intelligence of the voters of the 50th District. All I know is, I’m not a fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[10579,9973,10361],"class_list":["post-14346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-10579","tag-9973","tag-10361"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-3Jo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}