Election Reflection Panel Success

Around 70 people filled the Balboa Conference room at the law offices of Coughlin Stoia a couple weeks back. The crowd was eager and excited to talk about this years election. The panel consisted of Scott Peters, Richard Barrera, Leslie Wolf Branscomb and Howard Wayne, along with moderator Len Simon. The panel discussion which lasted for two hours cover topics including: the council president, Prop 8, the city attorney, Obama, city council elections and more.

You can view photos of the evening at Progressive San Diego's Flickr page.

Panelists Announced: Election Reflection

Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Reception at 5:00 p.m. | Program at 6:00 p.m.
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP
655 West Broadway, Suite 1900 | San Diego, CA 92101

Panelists
Scott Peters
President, San Diego City Council, District 1
Richard Barrera
San Diego School Board-elect, San Diego Regional Organizer for United Healthcare Workers
Howard Wayne
Deputy Attorney General, Office of the California Attorney General, former State Assemblymember
Leslie Wolf Branscomb
former Legal Affairs Editor and County Government Reporter, SD Union Tribune

Moderated by
Len Simon
Of Counsel, Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP

Cost: FREE
Parking in the building is available for $5
Street parking and other downtown parking is also available

RSVP: http://www.acslaw.org/chapters/lawyer/sandiego/rsvp

Refreshments will be provided

Topics will include the structure and composition of the City Council, the City Attorney election, the state propositions, and the effects of the presidential election.

_____________
The PSD Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization that works to empower all San Diego residents and communities to work together to create an equitable and sustainable society.
_____________
The ACS for Law and Policy is one of the nation's leading progressive legal organizations. Founded in 2001, ACS is a rapidly growing network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals.

Election Results Show Big Wins for Region’s Working Families

Working families came out ahead in Tuesday’s election as voters chose at least 68 candidates and propositions endorsed by the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council.

Highlighted wins include Marty Block and Manuel Perez for the State Assembly; Sherri Lightner, Todd Gloria and Marti Emerald for San Diego City Council; Steve Castaneda for Chula Vista City Council; and the failure of Proposition B.

The Labor Council is confident Pamela Bensoussan, who is trailing by approximately 100 votes as of Friday, will ultimately win the other Chula Vista City Council seat once all the ballots are counted.

“The real winners of Tuesday’s election are the working families of San Diego County,” Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Lorena Gonzalez said. “Voters went to the polls not to point fingers or continue the rhetoric of blaming working families for San Diego’s woes, but to find real solutions to the challenges that face our neighborhoods and our economy.”

The wins were cemented with the help of nearly 1,500 individual union members who volunteered for 4,000 shifts during the course of the election season, a total representing 16,000 hours of volunteer time dedicated to informing voters of the candidates’ support for working families.

“I want to thank and recognize every union member who helped our endorsed candidates win,” Gonzalez said. “They are the ones who sacrificed countless weekends, holidays and evenings to make a difference in their communities.”

"The Change You Deserve."

Warning: slightly salty language at the end so it might be NSFW
but still funny...

Wal-Mart's Anti-Worker Tactics Continue

The Wall Street Journal today reported that anti-worker mega-company Wal-Mart is holding mandatory meetings where they strongly encourage their employees to vote against Democrats in November.

According to the WSJ:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

The article claims that Wal-Mart's reasoning behind the move is to stop passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Wal-Mart has stooped to a new low in trying to force their employees to vote Republican.

I wonder if these mandatory meetings where they "informed" their employees of how they would like them to vote were any different than the intimidation and other practices that are used to prevent employees from forming a union.

I shouldn't be surprised since it is just another example of Wal-Mart doing everything it can to prevent the fair treatment of their employees.

John McCain get Computer Help

John & Cindy McCain failed to their property taxes for 4 years

According to Newsweek:

San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response. County records show the bills, which were mailed to a Phoenix address associated with Mrs. McCain's trust, were returned by the post office. According to a McCain campaign aide, who requested anonymity when discussing a private matter, an elderly aunt of Mrs. McCain's lives in the condo, and the bank that manages the trust has not been receiving tax bills on the property. Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: "The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due." [Link]

Now, I know when you're an heiress to a beer fortune and you have properties all over the country, sometimes it is hard to keep track of all those different property tax bills that you receive. And I can see how sometimes you might forget paying one of them for 4 years or so.

UPDATE:

Is anyone surprised that there has been no mention of La Jolla property issue in the local media. I cannot help to believe that if the issue was about a Democratic presidential candidate, the UT would be all over the issue.

Monday - Quick Hits

Trade Unions set to appeal court decision on City of Vista's charter case. NCTimes

Mayor Sanders has decided that parks and libraries are to have their budgets trimmed, while he increases city spending 13%. UT

I'm shocked! Possible conflict of interest among city advisory board members. UT

City council to consider pay raise for mayor and themselves again. UT

San Diego City College to receive the Recycler-of-the year award from city council. UT

Democrats gathered statewide to select their delegates to the Democratic Convention in Denver late this summer. NCTimes

OC Lincoln Club joins fight to steal electoral votes

Capitol Alert from the Sacramento Bee is reporting that OC Lincoln Club is donating $100,000 to help qualify the Electoral College reform initiative for the ballot. [Link] The measure, if it qualifies for the June ballot and passes, would award California's electoral votes by Congressional district instead of the present winner-take-all system.

The initiative qualifying effort was dropped by its original sponsors, but in recent weeks was pickup "by a group led by Republican strategist David Gilliard." Their goal is to turn in 700,000 signatures by the end of the week.[Link]

The OC Lincoln Club joins 49th Congressional Representative Darrell Issa as the single largest contributors to the effort by the California GOP to malapportion the electoral system here in California. Here is a list of some of the donors who have contributed to this effort.

Cross posted at Calitics

GOP Dirty Rotten Scoundrel - Dead On Arrival!

The GOP's attempt to steal 20 - 22 of California's 55 electoral votes is going down in flames. Their attempt to "reform" only our great state is a blatant attempt to steal the 2008 presidential election. California, like 47 other states, awards all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes. In the last four elections, all of California's electoral votes have gone to the Democratic nominee.

According to the LA Times, the reasons for the early demise of this ballot initiative are the lack of funds, and the resignation of two of its original backers.

If any similar measure should ever be considered in the future, it must be done across all 47 states. I suggest that we start with Texas and Florida!

Call me cynical, but I don't trust the GOP. If they can't win hearts and minds, they'll cheat! So watch out for their next dirty trick!

Better Luck Next Time...

The LA Times is reporting tonight that the supporters of the scheme to change the way California awards its electoral votes are pulling the plug on their effort to qualify an initiative for the June 2008 election. [Link] So much for the GOPs attempt to game the system here in California.

UPDATE:

Here's the [Link] to the LA Times article this morning detailing the departure of two key consultants from the initiative effort.

GOP expects to lose more House seats

I thought the below article without any additional comments from The POLITICO was worth reading:

GOP expects to lose more House seats
By: Josh Kraushaar
September 25, 2007 09:55 AM EST

Top Republicans are privately bracing for the possibility that they could lose additional House seats in next year’s elections as a result of untimely retirements, ongoing scandals and unexpectedly gloomy fundraising forecasts, according to several members and aides.

(Click here to read more...)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

The GOP is up to their dirty tricks again! The CA Republican Party‘s "Presidential Election Reform Act" is nothing but another right-wing power grab. If you can’t hijack an election by having a Kathryn Harris or a Kenneth Blackwell, then use the techniques perfected by the good ole Tom Delay/Karl Rove School of Election Theft. Their goal, of course, is to hijack the White House on June 3, 2008 — five months before the general election.

This dangerous initiative dictates that California divide up its electoral college votes by congressional district, allowing Republicans to rob 20 electoral college votes — the equivalent of Ohio. If these dirty rotten scoundrels really want reform, they should propose national change — not cherry-pick California's electoral votes to, once again, steal the executive branch. May I suggest we begin with Texas?

Editorials by the New York Times and the L.A. Times called this ballot initiative an "elaborate dirty trick" designed by a "shadowy group" to "do serious damage to our democracy."

Unfortunately, this initiative has cleared the first hurdle, and they will start the signature gathering process to qualify for the June ballot. Sponsors will have until Christmas to gather 434,000 valid signatures. No doubt, their hired guns will be out in full force in front of every Wal-Mart. PLEASE remind your family, friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers not to sign this petition when they see those paid signature gatherers.

The Courage Campaign, headed up by Rick Jacobs, is uniting with the netroots and the grassroots to build a people-powered online infrastructure in California that will defeat this dirty trick. Check out their web site at: http://www.couragecampaign.org/

Personally, I would prefer to derail them in their signature gathering effort. We can start by educating people and publicizing what this initiative is all about. We need to take action now! Having a Rudy McRomney in the White House scares the heck out of me!

Florida in 2000. Ohio in 2004. California in 2008?

From the folks that brought you the 2003 Recall election, now comes their latest endevor. It is an attempt to reallocate some 20 of California's 55 electoral votes to next year's GOP nominee.

Here is how it works. Quite simply their plan is to place an iniative on the ballot for next June's election. If the iniative passes ... WhamO! Califorinia's winner-take-all system of adwarding of its electoral votes, gets replaced by a new system for awarding electoral votes based on the vote for each of the state's 53 CDs and the remaining 2 electoral votes awarded to the overall winner of the statewide popular vote. How does that sound?

Great ... especially, when you consider that George Bush lost California by over 2 million votes to Al Gore and then as a "wartime president" turned around lost California a second time to John Kerry by 1.2 million. Why try and nominate a candidate that would appeal to a majority of Californians? When you can rely on good 'ol malapportionment to do part of the job for you.

It is bad enough that California has only 55 electoral votes, when you consider that its population is approximately equal to the following states: Connecticut, Iowa, Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, which together have 101 electoral votes.

I guess this is what the modern GOP has come to. If you can't disenfranchise voters (i.e. Florida 2000), or rigged the election (i.e. Ohio 2004), then their is always the tried and true way of malapportionment. Well at least we have done away with the 3/5s rule.