Category Archives: Democratic Party Chatter

If Anything Interesting Happens at the California Democratic Convention in LA, I’ll Let You Know…

I’m attending the California Democratic Convention in Los Angeles this weekend. It’s unclear how much actually “news” or Democrat-on-Democrat political fighting will occur, but if anything fun happens I’ll let you know.
You can follow me on Twitter at my main account, @njudah where I’ll hashtag the relevant entries with #cadem2014. If anything warrants a longer form post, I’ll post here from some hotel computer. It should provide for at least some entertainment, if nothing else.
I’ve been going to most of these things since 2003, depending on where they’re located, and often I find just talking to the various people working behind the scenes, I learn a bit more than just what makes the daily news. Thus, I’ll pass along any interesting details, should they pop up!

One of the Weirdest Political Ads Yet – Nava for Attorney General

pedronavaad.jpgThis year’s primary is one of the worst ever. There is very little interest in the election, a lot of boring candidates, and none of them have much money (well aside from Him, Her, and that Other Guy). This inevitably leads to some crazy-ass stuff put out there in an effort to be “daring” but usually ends up being “lame.”
Case study: Pedro Nava for Attorney General. Now, I’m sure he’s a good guy, and he served 3 terms in the Assembly and passed some bills. Yay. How that qualifies him to to be Attorney General? I have no idea. I actually met him once ages ago at a fundraiser for John Kerry that I attended in Montecito, CA and he seemed like a nice enough guy, but this video just has all kinds of WTF all over it
I mean, what’s up with the weird cartoony background? The dogs? The dog with bunny ears? The dog with glasses flying a plane? And he’s not even looking at the camera? And the clapping dog? OMG.
Ok I thought the clapping dog was kinda funny. But you know what? I really don’t give a sh!t about his record on “animal rights” if he’s running for ATTORNEY GENERAL. I’d be much more interested in seeing something about crime and that kind of thing.
Plus, it’s been my experience, having worked with candidates in the past who’ve been Big Friends of the animal rights movement that it’s a kiss of death for a campaign. In 1994 I worked for a Senate candidate that made as big a deal about his record as Pedro does, and he got his ass kicked. Every time someone starts touting such a record, they very rarely win in a competitive election.
I’m scanning in mail pieces. There’s just so much weird out there this year. Oh and those ads for Prop. 17 are easily the most full of sh!t ads I’ve ever seen. Mercury Insurance Sucks!

Why I Like Watching “Treme” But It Also Scares the Hell Out of Me

treme.pngIf you’ve not had a chance to see HBO’s latest show, “Treme”, by author/ex-journalist/blogger hater David Simon (he of “The Wire” fame), I strongly urge you to do so, by any means necessary. If you have HBO and OnDemand, it should be there, if not, well wait for the DVDs or explore (ahem) alternate means of content delivery or whatever, but you really need to see this.
The Short Recap: it’s a story about people from various parts of New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurrcaine Katrina in 2005-2006. We all know what a supreme f*ck up FEMA and the feds were after this disaster, and we’ve all seen the pictures on TV. What Treme manages to do is to personalize those stories and do that expertly woven tapestry of lives and events that Simon pioneered in The Wire.
It’s both fascinating, and horrifying to see what can happen to an American city in the 21st century, and how “shock doctrine” ideologues, good old fashioned corruption and racism, and the economic realities of a debt-ridden nation of do-nothings can collide and create the mess that we still have to this day.
Now, while I enjoy the drama and a well written TV series, and so on, Treme still scares the Hell out of me every week I watch the show. That’s because I truly fear what is going to happen to San Francisco when the inevitable Big F*cking Earthquake hits us.
We are not prepared for what people will do to our city after the quake, and after years of rule by Prince Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors, I genuinely believe that the only line of defense we have against a horrifying immediate aftermath is going to be the citizens of SF, and them alone, helping each other out. What’s scarier though, is how this corrupt city will no doubt use the disaster as a way to destroy neighborhoods and create “Suburbia By the Sea,” and historical anything be damned.

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What Is A DCCC? Why Are You Voting For it in the June Primary? And Why Am I Writing In Myself?

sampleballotwritein.jpgIf you are registered to vote in the Democratic Primary, by now you may have received your ballot, and after voting for things like nominees for Governor, Equalization Board, and State Senate, you find now you’ve got a section for “Democratic County Central Committee” with about 453,213 candidates listed. And, you have likely received more political junk mail for this office than you have in the past. All the while you wonder “why am I voting for this?”
Quick Review: the DCCC is the Democratic Party’s official party organization in this county*. As a registered Democratic voter, you can pick who serves on this committee, which decides local endorsements that will bear the “official” Democratic Party seal of approval on them. In addition to the people you vote for, Democratic members of the state legislature, the US House, and so on also have a vote (usually represented by proxy from someone in their office).
Big yawn, right? However, in San Francisco, it’s not a big yawn because whomever controls said DCCC becomes the one that’s in charge of the endorsements for local office. Since so many people simply read the Official Endorsements of the Democratic Party slate card (and any junk mail said organization issues) and votes that way, no matter what, you can see why this then becomes a Very Big Deal to political types who care about such things.
If you run for DCCC, you’re running for a thankless job. No pay, endless hours spent at meetings, meetings which are held in a concrete bunker downtown (really), and all sorts of political acrimony. Running also means trying to contact voters in 1/2 of the City, usually with little or no money. Having helped out on one of these ages ago, I can tell you it’s very very difficult for the average citizen to run for these things and be able to get anyone to know their name, much less win, because the cost is so high, especially if you use dead tree mail. So why do people run for this thing again?

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Let’s Do Write Ins For The Non-Challenged Incumbents in June!

Oh, June Democratic Primary Ballot. You are, in fact, the worst primary ballot yet, and I’ve been voting in these things for far too long. At the top of the ticket is a yawn-fest (if some crackpot no name actually beats Gov. Brown in the primary, I’ll buy everyone that reads this column a beer), in the middle an “evil of two lessers” choice (nominees for Attorney General), and at the bottom, a confusing battle locally for people who actually want to serve on the San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee (a job that pays nothing, sucks up your time, and drives you mad).
What to do, what to do?
Here’s what I’m doing – my time-honored tradition of using my mail ballot as a taxpayer funded coloring book. Now, far be it from me to trivialize voting in the World’s Greatest Democracy, but when so many of these things have been pre-ordained, I think it’s time for some Write In Candidate Fun.
This is nothing new – when San Francisco instituted its IRV/RCV/WTF/OMG/FML voting system, it was reduced to a joke since so often, incumbents were unopposed for re-election. Despite the fact we were promised it’d make it easier for no-names to beat the Big Kids, nothing changed, so I took the liberty of making those poll workers work, by counting my write in ballots, more than once.
This time, I propose something different. Many, many incumbent legislators are on the ballot in the primary who have no opposition, so there’s no risk if you decide to say “Frak It” and write in the name of someone else. It’s not like we dislike people like Fiona Ma, Tom Ammiano, or Leland Yee, but they’re going to win with 99.99% of the vote in the primary, AND win re-election in the fall. So why not write in someone for those spots, and have some fun with it?
I have no delusions that out of such an exercise we’re going to read in our Google Readers the day after the election that Fiona Ma has been ousted, via write-in votes by Rory B. Bellows or some other crazy thing. So go for it, and post in the comments who you wrote in for what.
PS: Of course, the idea that taxpayers are paying for an election that is for the nomination of candidates by party is nonsense – there’s no reason at all we need to waste tax dollars on this. Party nominees should be made by members of that party, be it by convention, private vote, or whatever, but this idea that the government has to sponsor such contests is ludicrous.

John Cusack for Governor 2010? Sure, Why Not?

Say+Anything+001+resized.jpgNow, calm down and bear with me here. I’m not entirely kidding. Here’s why.
There’s no denying that after 7 years of mismanagement by Governor Doofinator, the 2/3rds rule and an array of inexperienced or corporatized “Democrats” in Sacramento, combined with endless bullsh*t “ballot measures,” we need a change at the top.
But right now our choices are limited to “eMeg,” another vain billionaire who has no idea how government works, and AG/Former Governor Jerry Brown, who is smart, knowledgeable, but has chosen to run a campaign so low-profile, no one knows he’s running, and is likely to lose, especially with the Democratic base divided over “President” Obama’s performance, and a GOP who’s willing to cater to the batshit insane to reclaim power.
Now, my scenario here was a bit more relevant in January, when I came up with it, but I figured I’d put it out now, on the eve of the California Democratic Convention, since I’m worried we’re going to have a new level of arrogant stupidity invade the Capitol. So for your consideration, I wonder if perhaps Democrats run John Cusack* for Governor in 2010.
I came up with this for several reasons. While Brown was able to dispatch the inept and expensive “Newsom for Governor” campaign in 2009 by raising money and spending little, that approach does not work in early 2010, which is what the campaign chose to do.
Up against a crazy billionaire, though, at this late date, it isn’t working anymore. Now, we have the prospect of a candidate who has no challenge in the primary coasting, but not building a statewide network to fight this craziness. The “kitchen table” approach won’t cut it this time around. Brown has name ID amongst older voters, but he doesn’t necessarily have an image or name ID with many new voters, nor does he have a mechanism to do that. (And sorry, but f*cking Facebook doesn’t count)
More to the point, we can’t afford another vanity governor who will do more damage to the state, and who’s willing to lie to get the job. And while I note the irony of replacing one Hollywood candidate with another, I’ve been reading Cusack’s articles and interviews for some time now, and he’s a very bright, very engaged person, not amongst your typical arrogant Hollywood liberal who drives around in a Prius but does so for just for show. And, his career hasn’t had the post 80s drop off that others of his generation have had – he’s still fairly well known amongst voters of all ages. (and it’s not like similar ideas haven’t popped up before!)
Admittedly this is all a bit wild – but the fact is if either Cusack, or any Democratic candidate could have easily upset Brown if they’d just had the courage to step up for both the Party, and more importantly, the improvement of the State of California. Brown would have been caught flat-footed, and people would have had a chance to make a real choice in June.
Of course, Mr. Cusack has better things to do than waste his time working with an incompetent, lying state government. It’s too bad that more people that know this to be the case never bothered to even try. But cowardice in the Democratic party starts at the top, with a President who is always willing to sell out his own party for the sake of keeping the people who hate him happy, and it continues on down to an array of California politicians who don’t seem to know, or care, how to make this state great again.
Unfortunately, we all lose in the end.
* I also propose Mr. Cusack because he just seems cooler than most “stars” but Hell, it could be anyone (politician, star, or otherwise) with a little cash and some name ID who isn’t a moron (because voters are too stupid to read up on this on their own) to do what Arnold could have done, but failed to do – cut the crap and rally people to a reform agenda. The trick is whoever this magic person is would have to surround themselves with good people – something again in short supply in politics!

OUCH! Former Newsom Campaign Manager Garry South Issues Scathing E-Blast On…Gavin Newsom?

frustratednewsombayview.jpgOuch.
That’s all I could think of when I was sent this email from Garry South, the chief strategist of the Hahn for Lt. Governor campaign, who also happens to be a former advisor to the now defunct Newsom for Governor campaign. Newsom, as you may know, might actually run for LG after all, and the fact one of his former advisors is working for another candidate? Well one had to wonder if that was going to end in tears or not.
Today, the following communique was issued by Mr. South. Upon reading it, all I could think of was just how much of a knockdown dragout fight this race could be. Read on:

STATEMENT BY GARRY SOUTH
CHIEF STRATEGIST, JANICE HAHN FOR LT. GOVERNOR
FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR, GAVIN NEWSOM FOR GOVERNOR
I am surprised and perplexed that my friend and former client Mayor Gavin Newsom apparently has decided to jump into the lieutenant governor’s race at the last minute – especially against an already-announced candidate who would be the first woman lieutenant governor in California history.
In every one of several conversations we had about the job while he was running for governor, the Mayor expressed nothing but disinterest in and disdain for the office of lieutenant governor. In fact, he was derisively dismissive of Gray Davis’s decision to run for and serve as lieutenant governor prior to running for governor (“I’m not a Gray Davis,” he said). On a couple of occasions, he directed me to repudiate publicly in the strongest terms that he had any interest in ever running for lieutenant governor.
The Mayor himself told the Chronicle in October that rumors he may run for lieutenant governor were “absurd” and “a complete lie,” and angrily accused Jerry Brown of personally spreading false information to that effect. As recently as December, he himself said flatly “no” when asked directly on a San Francisco radio show whether he intended to run for lieutenant governor.
In addition, when he precipitously pulled out of the governor’s race in late October – against my advice – he said he couldn’t continue as a statewide candidate because he was a husband, a new father and the mayor of San Francisco. So far as I know, he’s still a husband, a new father and the mayor of San Francisco. So it’s pretty hard to see what’s changed over the last four months that would now allow him to run for another statewide office.
If the Mayor does run, it is his responsibility to explain why he now claims to want an elected office he summarily dismissed publicly numerous times over the last several months, and which just earlier this year he called “a largely ceremonial post” … “with no real authority and no real portfolio.”

I’ve got to wonder why Mayor Newsom would want to subject himself to a statewide race against some of his own people, who seem quite willing to take out the blowtorch and pliers and go to work on the Mayor over here. I sure as Hell wouldn’t want to go through that, and I can’t imagine why Newsom would either. Even if he won the primary, he’d come out of it with enough damage that it might make the LG in reach for the Republicans in November since everything’s kind of up in the air now.
Bring on the pain, Democrats!

I Wish I’d Posted My Prediction on the Massachusetts Senate Race…

Lessons for bloggers: don’t hold back on unpopular predictions, lest you end up being right. A few weeks ago I predicted that Martha Coakley would lose the US Senate special election in Massachusetts. Every single time I brought this up, my Democratic friends would look at me like a heretic and proceed to rattle of something they read on “Daily Kos” about why I was wrong and that speaking such heresy meant I was going to Hell. And yet, none of their reasons had anything to do with actual facts or history. So here was my reasoning, and why liberal bloggers sometimes have their heads in the sand:
-Martha Coakley’s campaign was spectacularly poor. She didn’t campaign like she should have, once she got the Democratic nomination. If part of life is showing up, in campaigns, it is everything. By basically assuming she’d win by default, she made the classic mistake that allowed the other candidate to define the race. She also made several verbal gaffes that amplified her seeming disdain for talking to actual voters.
-Her campaign was run almost exclusively by DC based political people, and veteran campaign consultants and workers were sidelined by the Geniuses from DC. Another sign of something Really Bad. Pushing aside the people who know the state in favor of generic strategies based on abstract polling data and focus groups doesn’t work well. Plus, there are a lot of rings that need to be kissed in Massachusetts politics, and you don’t necessarily know which ones those are if you’re relying on whiz kids from DC.
-Massachusetts is not 100% Communist Leftist Whatever. Massachusetts has elected Republicans as Governor exclusively since 1990, and it was only in 2006, when Deval Patrick won, that the cycle broke. Also, remember that Ted Kennedy himself came dangerously close to losing his re-election in 1994 against Mitt Romney (!), and it took a Herculean effort of money and resource to ensure his re-election. Had it not been for some extremely poor choices of words by Romney, and a recognition that Kennedy was in trouble in time to do something about it, he might have well lost. Remember, in 1994, the Speaker of the US House lost his bid for re-election that year.
-President Obama is an easy target. People know right now they can call him names, they can use code words for the “n-word,” and they can call him a liar in front of the entire country, and nothing will happen. Obama’s obsession with getting the acceptance of people who quite literally, do not think he’s a legitimate holder of the office, and who will say or do anything to tear him down, is his ultimate weakness.
No one fears President Obama if they cross him, so they rip him a new one on any big or little thing (remember that bullshit crying spasm the righties had about his choice of mustard? WTF?). So of course they’re going to prop up some dude in Massachusetts and make 41 the new majority number for a Senate of 100. (Wait, what?)
There’s no reason why Obama and Democratic office seekers can’t turn this around, but it isn’t likely they will. Running around and “re thinking” and “re framing” are popular pastimes of bloggers, party insiders, and the endless amount of “staff” of officeholders, and while they’re talking and bitching, the other side wants to kick their asses. Until they decide they’re going to respond in kind, they will continue to get their asses kicked.
The sad part is the other side has nothing of substance to offer beyond blind rage. When we had them in charge of Everything (President, Senate, House, SCOTUS), the best they could come up with was Tom DeLay/Jack Abramhoff style corruption, a war without end, and endless trillions added to the deficit, and a bubble economy that just blew up on us. But we don’t think about that anymore, right?
PS: Oh, and one other thing: despite what the folks Outside of California assume about our Golden State, California is not 1000% Communist either. Look at the history of statewide initiatives and elections starting in 1982, and see just how well “lefties” do. Barbara Boxer has always had to run a tough race, and the Democratic hold on statewide offices has NEVER been absolute, ever.
The fact the California State Democratic Party acts like it IS 1000% Democrat is well, I suppose good news for Republicans?
PPS: Jack Donaghy is one of my all time favorite characters on TV. F*ck yeah, Jack!

Twittering The California Democratic Convention

What few readers out there that still read this blog may recall we launched this blog at the CDP Convention in 2006 in Sacramento. I’m up here now mostly for my day job, but I’m also posting Twitter updates, which can be found at my Twitter page. In fact I’m at the “Jerry Brown 2010 Social Networking” booth with the Governor as I post this.
I’ll be tagging tweets with #cdp09 for easy searching, too! Thanks for following!

Yes He Could: GOP Sen. John McCain Speaks At ACORN Rally in Miami, 2006! No, really

I can’t make this stuff up…apparently GOP Senator John McCain was a featured speaker at a (gasp!) ACORN organized rally with (gasp!) unions and (double gasp!) IMMIGRANT’S RIGHTS people! ZOMG!
I did not believe it until I saw this:

Then this:

and this:

Note to McCain campaign: when living in glass houses (all seven of them), ya might not wanna throw ACORNS….