The Sunday roundup from around the region…
Docs Weigh in for Wells in AD 77… In what has been a fairly quiet race to succeed Assemblyman Joel Anderson in the 77th District (at least compared to what I’m used to in prior Steve Baldwin, Jay La Suer and Anderson dust-ups), things may finally be getting interesting. The California Medical Association yesterday filed a late independent expenditure report to the tune of over $19,500 for a mailer in support of Bill Wells, as he vies against Brian Jones and Christine Rubin.
The amount may not jump out as that significant, but in a race where fundraising has been on the low side, it may be huge indeed (cash-on-hand for the three contenders was in the 25-30k range thru March 17).
Additionally, in the last couple of days, I’ve received two mailers from Jones and one from Wells. All positive…thus far.
Please toss me a note, if you see anything of interest in the AD 77 race.
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SD 36 Race Gets a Bit "Slushy"… In the District 36 contest to succeed Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembyman Anderson of course anticipated his opponents would make hay over the fine he paid to the FPPC. Yet, Anderson is not the only candidate being questioned in the last several days. Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone has been the focus of posts on the San Diego Rostra blog over his direction of hundreds of thousands of dollars in "discretionary taxpayer funds" (some call them slush funds) into a non-profit that bears his name. Read all the action at SD Rostra:
http://sdrostra.com/?tag=36th-senate-district
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SD County Republicans Release Voter Guide… Part of a recent email message from local GOP Chairman Tony Krvaric includes this bit of wishy-washiness:
Don’t be fooled; there are NO "non-partisan" elections in San Diego County! EVERY ELECTED OFFICE is an opportunity to put Republican ideas of smaller government, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility into action. Rest assured that corrupt union bosses around the county are intimately aware of which elected officials will carry water for their agenda of fleecing the taxpayers, and are aggressively pushing them.
Geez, Tony, can’t you tell us how you really feel? (Okay, I was kidding about the milquetoasty-ness.)
Take a look at the Republican Voter Guide.
By the way, if you missed the previous news about the San Diego Republicans being the only local party to tout its endorsed candidates in the actual sample ballot, take a look:
San Diego GOP Fends off Legal Challenge to be Lone Advertiser in June Sample Ballot
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Amato’s Take on the Palin Endorsement… KCBQ AM-1170 and Washington Times radio talk show host Rick Amato digests the snub of Chuck DeVore in his blog:
That collective gasp that you hear is either the sound of Chuck DeVore supporters reacting to Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Carly Fiorina, or it is the sound of Palin fans in Calif jumping off her bandwagon…or perhaps both.
With 24 hours to digest — more like cough up — the announcement, here is how it looks from where I sit.
Funny how Palin — who traveled the nation with the TEA Party Express — can overlook the ONE TEA Party candidate in the race — DeVore — and endorse his opponent.
Even more peculiar is how she called Fiorina “the common sense conservative,” which begs the question: If Ms. Palin believes Fiorina is the one with common sense, then what does that make Chuck DeVore and the thousands of TEA Party members who support him? Angry white racists?
That aside my belief is that Sarah Palin took the money — figuratively and perhaps literally — and ran.
Remember The TEA Party Express which recruited and trotted Sarah Palin across the country like their prized trophy, is NOT really an authentic grass roots TEA Party organization.
As I have discussed on my radio show the TEA Party Express is funded, founded and organized by a Political Action Committee out of Sacramento which acts as a fundraising arm for the Republican party…the very same Republican party that is backing Ms. Fiorina.
Unfortunately the TEA Party Express — which organizes rallies across the country by calling on unsuspecting AUTHENTIC grass roots TEA Party members to join in — IS THE ASTRO TURF which critics accuse the entire movement of being.
Instead of joining in on the TEA Party principles and values — the GOP has created a vehicle to be used to exploit the TEA Party movement.
SEE THIS ARTICLE FROM POLITICO.com:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35785.html
While the GOP is feeling fat and sassy this morning with the endorsement of their astro turf candidate by their prized trophy, they may have overlooked one big problem.
You can’t fake authenticity.
If conservative, libertarian and independent voters in California are disenchanted with the list of candidates who advance on June 8th, I predict they will either stay home in large numbers in November or a populist 3rd party movement will emerge. Either way bad news for the GOP.
And as they say, as California goes so goes America.
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"Politics 101" of the Week… If you put your photo on an 18"X24" yard sign, no can likely see the pic…and you have less space for your name and message. Big egos don’t win campaigns. It’s about name ID, not photo ID.
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Chris Christie Redux… If you have somehow missed the New Jersey Guv responding to a question from a reporter about his "confrontational tone," it’s absolutely worth the watch. See Jon Fleischman’s post with video. Wowza, this guy is the real deal.
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Have a superb Sunday and a great week!
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Barry on Twitter
May 16th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Barry, what’s the deal with the 77th and their inability to raise money this year? Are the candidates all poor fundraisers? Is some other race sucking up the money? Are the traditional donor bases disenchanted? Do you think it is the economy? Just curious as it seems they are raising the sort of dollars needed for a city council race, not a state legislative race. Thanks!
May 18th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Bits and pieces of some of that, I’d say, not including another race sucking up the money. Also, Baldwin and Anderson were top-notch fundraisers and in their initial open seat primaries had lengthy cultivated lists of activists and donors to target. La Suer’s first race was pre-Prop 34 contribution limits and Baldwin and Duncan Hunter were helping him raise dollars. These candidates don’t have the same kind of list (although Jones has a pretty decent one from his 08 congressional run), or big names dialing for large contributions on their behalf.
May 20th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Thanks Barry. I have noticed that many candidates have been having trouble with fundraising this year from the state level down to the assembly races. The only candidates I have seen running strong on the ones who are pumping in a lot of personal money. 2010 has a chance to be like 1994 but without an Allied Business PAC, Adam Smith Institute, etc., I am concerned that candidates might not have the money to win in the tough districts. I hope I’m wrong!