interior
interior, another angle
rice and beans with fried yucca
chicken stroganoff
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| de León | Cedillo |
Cedillo, who is termed out in the Senate, had planned to run for a third and final term in the 46th Assembly District seat, which he previously represented for two terms and change.
But that plan was foiled when the current holder of the 46th District -- Assembly Speaker-Elect John A. Pérez-- opted to take the leadership role instead of vacating his Assembly seat for a Senate run.
Cedillo initially pledged to challenge Pérez, but a decision by Assemblyman Kevin de León, who also sought the speaker post, to run for Cedillo's Senate seat created an open Assembly seat for Cedillo to seek.
Pérez said in a statement that he will make a victory for his lifelong friend a priority.
"Gilbert cares deeply about the concerns facing all working men and women, Latinos, and the broader community," he said in a statement. "We need legislators like Gilbert with the experience and community ties to build consensus as we address our state's ongoing economic crisis."
The election for the 32nd Congressional district seat is exactly two weeks away but the race between State Board of Equalization Member Judy Chu and State Senator Gil Cedillo is heating up.Among Judy Chu's slew of mostly positive mailers was one that featured a front-page Los Angeles Times article on state Sen. Gil Cedillo's spending more than $125,000 of his legislative campaign money on expensive dinners, hotels and gifts. The mailer reprinted the April 11 article in full and highlighted two paragraphs contrasting Chu's "frugal record" with a summary of Cedillo's spending.
Cedillo, in two separate pieces that arrived in mailboxes in recent days, used newspaper articles to try to bolster his charge that Chu, a state Board of Equalization member, gave "tax breaks and contracts" to her corporate campaign contributors.
The language used as headlines on the Cedillo mailers, however, came from articles having nothing to do with Chu. One, "This Is an Outrage!" appeared as a quote in a March 16 Los Angeles Times article about anger over bonuses given to executives of AIG, one of the struggling corporations given federal financial aid. Another, "Political Malfeasance and the Financial Meltdown," ran above a syndicated George Will column March 25 in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
Assemblymember John A. Pérez (46th District) and
MadProfessah with Judy Chu
Curtis Chin, Judy Chu and Jeff Kim
Judy Chu is currently on the Board of Equalization. While a Chinese-American running for a seat that is majority Latino, Chu has the support of the California Federation of Labor, which typically cleans up in these kinds of special elections. That alone makes her the favorite IMO.MadProfessah is endorsing Judy Chu, who is an incredibly strong ally of the LGBT community.Gil Cedillo is a State Senator in the adjoining district, and so he represents very few of these constituents. He has been strong on issues around immigration in particular, and will certainly be formidable in this race.
Emanuel Pleitez worked in the Obama transition team on the Treasury Department. The fact that Treasury has practically no senior officers staffing it save for Tim Geithner, over a month after the inauguration, doesn't really speak well to Pleitez' transition capabilities. But he apparently has the most robust campaign apparatus in the district thus far (with 17 volunteer full-time staff members), and he was born and raised in the district.
Gloria Romero has announced that she is not interested in running for Hilda Solis congressional seat any longer, but is focussing on becoming the next State Superintendent of Public Instruction and has endorsed her State Senate colleague Gil Cedillo for the position.
Katie's Steak Sandwich
Judy Chu has made it official: she is running for California's 32nd Congressional district. An article in yesterday's Los Angeles Times carried her annoncement as well as interesting analysis of various politicians chances of winning the seat:In an interview with The Times on Monday evening, Chu said she made the decision to run Sunday after days of urging from supporters.Another interesting aspect of the race is that apparently there is not a residency requirement for the special election, so theoretically any big name Latino politician could consider running for the seat. Fabian Nunez, anyone? Then again he's a bit busy right now keeping his son out of jail!
"I've decided to heed those calls," she said. "I know this district very, very well and I believe the people of this district know me and know I'm very devoted to the San Gabriel Valley."
[...]
Romero could not be reached Monday afternoon, but said publicly last week that she would pursue the seat. A staunch labor supporter, Romero was elected to her state Senate seat in 2001, replacing Solis. She had previously served in the Assembly and said she represented the district at the state level for 10 years.
She would have an important leg up on Chu, according to political consultants.
"Most people believe a Latino would be favored," said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan publication that analyzes and handicaps legislative races.
He said about 48% of the district's voters are Latino. Asians are the second-largest group, making up 13% of the vote.
But if several Latino candidates split the Latino vote, he said, a strong Asian candidate could put together Asian and white voters and take a majority.
Perhaps an even larger factor, said Democratic political strategist Steve Maviglio, is who the Los Angeles Federation of Labor backs, and how strongly.
"They have the most horses in the county. They have the most money. If they put all their firepower behind one candidate, it's pretty much over," he said.
That's partly because most special elections have turnouts below 20%, which he said favor grass-roots, get-out-the vote campaigns that are labor's strength.
State Senator Gloria Romero"Absoutely I am very interested in this seat. I have represented this district for over 10 years in the California state legislature," she said. "I know this district well, and this district knows me."
Other names that have been discussed for the seat include Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, Judy Chu, chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization, and her husband Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-El Monte.
Both Chu and Romero would be an amazing congressional respresentative and I would be hard pressed to pick between Romero and Chu, although knowing what I know right now, I would pick Chu. I know very little about Hernandez except that he's in his second term in the Assembly. Both Chu and Romero are strong supporters of LGBT equality and have been endorsed by Equality California when they ran for their current elected positions. Interestingly, Romero replaced Solis as the representative of the 24th State Senate district, will she also replace Solis as the representative of the 32nd Congressional district?
The race is on. May the best woman win!
