I attended the Equality California statewide candidates forum on Sunday April 25th which was a rare opportunity to see all 6 Democratic candidates running to be the next Attorney General of California.
MadProfessah-endorsed candidate Judy Chu won the hotly contested Primary for the Democratic Nomination for the 32nd Congressional District to represent the seat vacated by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. With 100% of precincts reporting Chu leads Gil Cedillo by 4,124 votes, 31.9% to 23.38%, a margin which is less votes than 26-year-old Emmanuel Pleitez received (6,509).
Proposition Number (Topic) MadProfessah LA TIMES CALITICS CA DEM PARTYCA-32
1A (Budget Cap, Rainy Day Fund) NO YES NO NEUTRAL
1B (Education Funding Plan) YES NO NO YES
1C (Lottery Modernization Plan) NO YES NO YES
1D (Children's Services Funding YES YES NO NEUTRAL
1E (Mental Health Services Funding YES YES NO NEUTRAL
1F (Elected Officials Salaries) NO YES NO YES
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.
The breadth and strength of Judy Chu’s campaign for Congress was demonstrated again today as candidates reported their first fundraising numbers for this May 19 special election.
In the first three months of 2009, Judy Chu collected an impressive $770,167, over $200,000 more than her nearest rival, State Senator Gil Cedillo.
Judy Chu, Vice-Chair of the California State Board of Equalization, reported a strong $577,609 cash-on-hand figure at the end of the period.
Chu’s consultant, Parke Skelton, stated, “Judy Chu is well on the way towards surpassing $1 million for this race. Her fundraising reflects the enthusiastic and broad support she has attracted from throughout the 32nd District. Just over 83% of her contributions have come from individuals, not PACS. An impressive 1,567 individuals contributed to Dr. Chu’s campaign in this filing period.
There is video of the endorsement available on YouTube.
EL SERENO - The Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, will be joined by his counterparts from Azusa, West Covina, South El Monte, Duarte and scores of other San Gabriel Valley elected officials on Wednesday as he officially announces his endorsement of Judy Chu in the race for the 32nd Congressional District seat recently vacated by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.
The event, which will include just a fraction of the more than 75 elected officials from the San Gabriel Valley who have already endorsed Judy Chu, will feature statements from Mayor Villaraigosa and other mayors and mayors pro tem from the San Gabriel Valley.
Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles state senator running for Congress, has spent more than $125,000 gathered from campaign donors over the last six years on shopping excursions, gourmet meals, entertainment and upscale hotels around the globe, public records show.
At Patina, the haute cuisine restaurant at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Cedillo paid $1,203 for dinner. He dropped $289 at Nic's Martini Lounge in Beverly Hills. At the Standard, a downtown hotel known for its hip rooftop bar and swimming pool, Cedillo and his staff spent $5,705 over the course of 26 visits.
In Mumbai, India, Cedillo's stay at the Four Seasons came to $829; his tab at the Bar des Arts in Sao Paulo, Brazil, $229; his hotel and dining charges on a jaunt to Rome and Florence, $1,969.
[...]But the scale of Cedillo's spending was on par with that of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, whose worldwide travel and shopping at retailers such as Louis Vuitton in Paris led the state to tighten campaign disclosure rules last summer.
Cedillo's spending, detailed in reports he filed with the secretary of state, contrasts with the frugal record of Judy Chu, his chief rival for the San Gabriel Valley congressional seat. A former Monterey Park assemblywoman elected to the state Board of Equalization in 2006, Chu has spent no campaign money on shopping or entertainment, and less than $5,000 on meals and travel over six years.
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.
Got all that? On one side you have John Perez, Antonio Villaraigosa, Ed Hernandez and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor with Chu versus Romero and Polanco with Cedillo in a 62% Latino district. I presume L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina (who previously rejected a run for the seat herself) will be on the side of Romero/Polanco/Cedillo, but only time will tell.
On Thursday morning, both the Service Employees International Union and and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor endorsed Chu.
There have been tensions between Romero and Maria-Elena Durazo, head of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. But Capitol sources say Romero decided to focus on the superintendent’s race after consulting with former Sen. Richard Polanco, among others.
The potential Congressional showdown has also divided the Capitol’s Latino Caucus, of which Cedillo is chair. Cedillo has tangled with Assemblyman John Perez, D-Los Angeles, and has even threatened to challenge Perez for his Assembly seat in 2010.
Perez is the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Villaraigosa is said to be leaning toward endorsing Chu, though his office did not return calls seeking comment.
Cedillo and Villlaraigosa were once close political allies, with Villariagosa using his clout to help Cedillo’s election to the Assembly in a 1997 pecial election. But tensions between the two childhood friends quickly grew, and eventually boiled over after Villaraigosa's failed race for Los Angeles mayor in 2001. Villaraigosa threatened to run against Cedillo for Senate after his 2001 defeat, and the rift has never healed between the two. Cedillo stuck with Hahn when Villarigosa eventually defeated Hahn in 2005.
[...]
If Chu is to win the seat, she will have to earn some Latino support. The 32nd Congressional District is about 62 percent Latino. Asians make up about 20 percent of the district population. Latinos make up about half of the district’s voter registration. Asians comprise about 13 percent of registered voters.
[...]
Chu has already secured the endorsement of Assemblyman Ed Hernandez, D-El Monte, who has his eyes on Romero’s senate seat in 2010. Chu and her husband, Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-Los Angeles, -- two of Hernandez’s top potential rivals -- are said to be backing Hernandez for the Senate seat.[...]
Romero’s exit from the congressional race sets up a 2010 showdown between Romero and Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, for state superintendent. The current superintendent, Jack O’Connell is being pushed out by term limits, and has announced his intention to run for governor in 2010.
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!
