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| California Attorney General Kamala Harris (left) with U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein |
Harris, 46, was San Francisco's District Attorney from 2004-2011, and is the daughter of a Jamaican father and a Tamil Indian mother. She is unmarried.
Showing posts with label Kamala Harris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kamala Harris. Show all posts
Kamala Harris Inaugurated As California Attorney General
Harris, 46, was San Francisco's District Attorney from 2004-2011, and is the daughter of a Jamaican father and a Tamil Indian mother. She is unmarried.
CA-AG: Cooley Concedes! Kamala Harris Wins!
The next Attorney General of California (will be a Black/multiracial woman)
As MadProfessah has been saying for awhile, Kamala Harris will be the next Attorney General of California, after all. Her opponent Steve Cooley finally officially conceded the race today as it became more and more apparent that Harris' current lead in the excruciatingly close race was insurmountable.
The latest tally has Harris with 4,376,509 votes (or 46.0%) versus 4,324,924 votes (or 45.5%) for Cooley, a lead of 51,585 votes out of 9.5 million votes cast for Attorney General (there were 4 minor party candidates). Note, starting in November 2010 general election ballots in California will only ever have two candidates (with no write-in provision), thanks to the ill-conceived Proposition 14 which passed in June 2010. That, along with "non-partisan, "citizen-driven" re-districting should make 2012 a wild and crazy year for electoral politics, even in the deep blue state of California.
It should also be noted that Cooley received some 300,000 votes more than his party's ill-fated standard bearer, failed gubernatorial candidate ("such a lovely ring to it, dontcha think?" Meg Whitman and 150,000 votes more than that (rhymes with "witch") failed U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
It also means that the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General all explicitly support marriage equality and oppose defending Proposition 8 in court. since they believe it is unconstitutional. In fact, I would wager every single statewide elected official in California supports marriage equality at this point (since they are all Democrats!)
It should also be noted that Cooley received some 300,000 votes more than his party's ill-fated standard bearer, failed gubernatorial candidate ("such a lovely ring to it, dontcha think?" Meg Whitman and 150,000 votes more than that (rhymes with "witch") failed U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
It also means that the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General all explicitly support marriage equality and oppose defending Proposition 8 in court. since they believe it is unconstitutional. In fact, I would wager every single statewide elected official in California supports marriage equality at this point (since they are all Democrats!)
CA-AG: Harris Has Insurmountable Lead of 43,050!
Kamala Harris now leads Steve Cooley by 43,050 votes (4,291,854 or 46.0% to 4,248,804 or 45.5%). According to the Secretary of State's office (pdf) there are are now 629,634 unprocessed ballots, with 361,588 provisional ballots and 228,854 vote-by-mail ballots. Los Angeles County has the most number of outstanding ballots, left to be counted 93,590 (73,928 of which are provisional). 82% of provisional ballots are usually counted. The thing to note is that Harris won on election day (when provisional ballots are turned in by approximate 3 percentage points and she lost vote-by-mail ballots by 8 percentage points. Of the ballots left to count, Cooley should be expected to have a net gain of 10K-20K votes at most.
(He wins VBM ballots netting approximately 20K votes but loses provisional ballots by 8K votes.)
Basically, we are where we were on election night when Harris had a slim lead but today there are far less votes to be counted, dramatically reducing Cooley's chances of retaking the lead. I'm still slightly worried that the percentage of votes left to be counted consists of less than 20% from Los Angeles County, but Harris won other relatively large counties by good margins as well. Also, there are some indications that the unprocessed ballot number is too high, making things even tougher for Cooley.
It is mathematically possible for Cooley to win but the probabilities are in the 1-2% range (he would have to win the outstanding ballots at net rates of 7-8% which the rest of the sample simply does not reflect). Los Angeles County Council President Eric Garcetti (and former Occidental College professor) called the race for Harris yesterday and urged media outlets to do the math to show how slim the possibility of Cooley winning actually is. Garcetti actually estimates that there are far LESS uncounted votes than in the unprocessed ballot status page since some of the counties have not updated their numbers in over two weeks and the total vote count is approaching 9.6 million. We'll probably hit 10 million votes cast statewide by the time everything is counted and certified next month.
CA-AG: Harris Regains Lead From Cooley
In the insanely close race for Attorney General of California, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has regained the lead from Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley after trailing for most of the last week a (wait for it!) 14,043 votes out of nearly 9 million votes cast (4,083,742 to 4,069,699 with another 750k to "minor party" candidates).
However, the remaining votes to be counted are almost entirely provisional ballots which were cast on the day of the election, where Harris is estimated to have outpolled Cooley by 3 percentage points. It is becoming increasingly likely that Harris will be the first Black woman to be California Attorney General and the first Black person to be elected statewide in over 3 decades!
CA-AG: Cooley Pulls Ahead Of Harris In Latest Vote Tally
With the vote totals updated on Friday afternoon, Republican Steve Cooley has pulled ahead of Kamala Harris for the first time in the post-election day tallies and currently leads by 22,817 votes.
Hopefully this does not include a large percentage of Los Angeles County ballots or else things would look very bad indeed for Ms. Harris to become the next Attorney General of California.
With estimates of more than 2 million outstanding ballots to be counted and Cooley's campaign claiming there are more outstanding ballots in the 40 counties he won than the 18 Harris carried this result is really too close to call. With that many ballots, one probably has to give the edge to Cooley.
Steve Cooley (Rep) 3,518,918 46.0%
Kamala D. Harris (Dem) 3,496,101 45.7%
Diane Beall Templin (AI) 133,186 1.7%
Peter Allen (Grn) 195,921 2.5%
Timothy J. Hannan (Lib) 192,018 2.5%
Robert J. Evans (P&F) 123,197 1.6%
Hopefully this does not include a large percentage of Los Angeles County ballots or else things would look very bad indeed for Ms. Harris to become the next Attorney General of California.
With estimates of more than 2 million outstanding ballots to be counted and Cooley's campaign claiming there are more outstanding ballots in the 40 counties he won than the 18 Harris carried this result is really too close to call. With that many ballots, one probably has to give the edge to Cooley.
CA-AG: Harris Lead Now Down To 4 Digits
In the down-to-the-wire election for California Attorney General ,Kamala Harris's slim lead over Steve Cooley has been significantly reduced to 9,364 (out of over 7 million total) as numbers come in around the state, although the campaign is still expressing confidence since there are nearly one million outstanding ballots, most of which were cast within the last few days of the election when Harris was clearly leading. (In order to have a lead now, Harris must have received more votes on Election Day itself, and historically absentee and provisional votes follow the pattern of election day ballots.)
The latest tally is:
I am still relatively confident that Harris will win, but it's gnna be a squeaker. It may even involve a recount!
The latest tally is:
| Candidate | Votes | Percent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kamala D. Harris (Dem) | 3,307,599 | 45.9% | |
| Steve Cooley (Rep) | 3,298,235 | 45.8% | |
| Diane Beall Templin (AI) | 125,507 | 1.7% | |
| Peter Allen (Grn) | 185,729 | 2.5% | |
| Timothy J. Hannan (Lib) | 180,682 | 2.5% | |
| Robert J. Evans (P&F) | 117,303 | 1.6% | |
I am still relatively confident that Harris will win, but it's gnna be a squeaker. It may even involve a recount!
Kamala Harris Now Holds Slim Lead Before Absentees Counted
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris
The latest numbers (100% of precincts counted) from the Secretary of State Debra Bowen (who was re-elected last night) show that San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has a pretty good chance to become the first female attorney general of California:
Kamala D. Harris DEM 3,292,836 45.9%
Steve Cooley REP 3,277,998 45.7%
Timothy J. Hannan LIB 179,594 2.5%
Peter Allen GRN 184,841 2.6%
Diane Beall Templin AI 124,841 1.7%
Robert J. Evans PF 116,690 1.6%
That's a lead of 14,838 votes. There are still absentee ballots and provisional ballots outstanding. Absentee tend to be more conservative than the electorate while provisional can be either liberal or conservative, so basically all we can say is that Harris has done amazingly well in her first statewide race for office. Even if she loses the race, maybe she should consider running for Dianne Feinstein's U.S. Senate seat in 2012?
UPDATE 11/03/2010 4:37PM
The Registrar Recorder/County Clerk of Los Angeles County is reporting that it has some 399,960 votes to be counted. Assuming that Harris maintains her 53%-39% edge in these Los Angeles County ballots, then this should results in at least an increase in Harris' lead of 50,000 votes (assuming a 12-13 point lead for Harris in these ballots). I think we can safely say that Harris has pulled this one out. In the rest of the counties there are probably no more than 800,000-1,200,000 votes to be counted, since Los Angeles generally has about 1/3-1/4 of all votes cast statewide. Cooley would have to win all those non-LA County ballots by a greater margin than 53-47 (or 6 percentage points more than Harris) assuming there are 1.2 million ballots outstanding, and would have to win by a margin greater than 54-46 (or 8 percentage points greater than Harris) if there are only 800,000 non-LA ballots outstanding to be counted. Both scenarios seem to me to give Cooley a very unlikely chance of winning. Of course it's possible, but not very probable, that the outstanding ballots could have an overwhelmingly different character than all other ballots and be very pro-Cooley but that's a very low probability possibility. Congrats to Attorney-General-elect Kamala Harris!
Saturday Politics: Field Poll Says Newsom Leads; Harris Tied With Cooley
I'm pretty sure Gavin will win the LG race but I'm worried about the AG race. The internal details from Field are below:
Cooley and Harris are obtaining broad support of rank-and-file voters within their own respective parties. Among Republicans, Cooley is preferred 71% to 6%, while Democrats are supporting Harris 68% to 13%. Non-partisans and those registered with minor parties, who represent 17% of likely voters, are narrowly backing Harris by a 34% to 32% margin.
Cooley is maintaining large preference leads among voters in the traditionally Republican-leaning regions of Southern California outside of Los Angeles County (47% to 28%) and the Central Valley (44% to 30%). In his home county of Los Angeles, Cooley narrowly trails Harris 43% to 37%. Harris is preferred by a nearly two-to-one margin (52% to 27%) in the San Francisco Bay region where she lives. She also leads in less populated areas of Northern California outside the Bay Area (45% to 23%).
There is also a big coastal county-inland county divide in voter preferences in the A-G race. Cooley leads by eighteen points (46% to 28%) among voters in the state’s less populous inland counties, while Harris is preferred by six points (42% to 36%) among voters living in counties bordering the Pacific Ocean or San Francisco Bay.
Women are backing Harris by eleven points, 43% to 32%. Men are supporting Cooley by twelve points (45% to 33%).
Voters age 65 or older are backing Cooley by five points (44% to 39%). He leads among voters age 40–49 (39% to 34%). Harris is leading Cooley by four points (40% to 36%) among voters 50–64. Voters under age 40 are about evenly divided in their preferences.
White non-Hispanics favor Cooley by eight points (43% to 35%). Harris is preferred by large margins among Latinos and African-Americans. Each of the three Asian-American voter segments examined by the poll were dividing their preferences fairly evenly between the candidates, although large proportions remained undecided.
Cooley is preferred by two points (40% to 38%) among the 55% of voters who either already have voted by mail or intend to do so in the coming days. Among the 21% of voters who have already voted Cooley’s lead is even wider – 46% to 38%. Voters intending to vote at their local precinct on Election Day are evenly divided, 37% for Cooley and 37% for Harris.
MadProfessah Endorsements for CA's November 2, 2010 General Election
Finally, the moment you have been waiting for! Here are MadProfessah's positions on how I will be voting in the November 2 Statewide General Election, compared with endorsements from other organizations like the Los Angeles Times, Calitics.com, CA Democratic Party, Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Stonewall Democratic Club (LGBT group), CA League of Women Voters and Courage Campaign's Progressive Voter Guide. Previously, I had posted my endorsements for the June 8, 2010 primary election.
Jerome Horton is an African-American incumbent, but when he was in the state legislature he was an unreliable vote on LGBT issues. He has since tried to make amends, but MadProfessah can not in good conscience endorse him, although I will note that the Stonewall Democrats have.
There are several judicial races on the ballot for which it is often hard to get information on.
There are numerous openly LGBT people running for elected office. John Noguez for Los Angeles County Assessor. In statewide legislative districts there is Ricardo Lara (AD-50) and John Perez (AD-46).
Proposition ME LAT CALITICS CA DEM LA DEM LWV
19 (Marijuana) YES NO YES --- YES ---
20 (Redistricting) NO YES NO NO NO NO
21 (State Parks) YES NO YES YES YES ---
22 (Local Funds) NO NO --- NO NO ---
23 (Suspends AB-32)NO NO NO NO NO NO
24 (Ends Tax Cuts) YES NO YES YES YES YES
25 (Majority Vote) YES YES YES YES YES YES
26 (2/3 Fee Vote) NO NO NO NO NO NO
27 (Undoes Prop 11)YES NO YES YES YES NO
Statewide Races ME LA TIMES DEMOCRATS
Governor Brown Brown Brown
U.S. Senator Boxer* Boxer* Boxer*
Lieutenant Governor Newsom Newsom Newsom
Attorney General Harris Cooley Harris
Secretary of State Bowen* Bowen* Bowen*
Treasurer Lockyer* Lockyer* Lockyer*
Controller Chiang* Chiang* Chiang*
Insurance Commissioner Jones Jones Jones
Supt. of Public Inst. Torlakson Aceves Torlakson
Bd. of Equalization, #1 Yee* --- Yee*
Bd. of Equalization, #2 --- --- Parker
Bd. of Equalization, #3 --- --- Christian-Heising
Bd. of Equalization, #4 --- --- Horton*
Jerome Horton is an African-American incumbent, but when he was in the state legislature he was an unreliable vote on LGBT issues. He has since tried to make amends, but MadProfessah can not in good conscience endorse him, although I will note that the Stonewall Democrats have.
There are several judicial races on the ballot for which it is often hard to get information on.
Other Races ME LA TIMES DEMOCRATS
CA Sup. Crt. Chief Justice ---- Cantil-Sakauye
CA Sup. Crt. Justice Moreno Moreno Moreno
CA Sup. Crt. Justice ---- Chin ---
Superior Court, No. 28 Ameli Hammock AmeliSuperior Court, No. 117 Schneider Schneider Schneider
L.A. County Assessor Noguez Yong Noguez
Additionally, every Court of Appeals Justice and three State Supreme Court justices are up for re-election (or re-appointment). The Los Angeles Times basically says that every incumbent justice is worthy of re-election. However, Justice Carlos Moreno is the only State Supreme Court justice that thought Proposition 8 violated the state constitution. Ming Chin was in the minority of the 2008 In Re Marriage Cases decision and should NOT be re-appointed. Tani Cantil-Sakauye is Governor Schwarzenegger's nominee to replace Chief Justice Ron George; if approved she'll be the first female and Phillipine-American to head California's highest court. Since we know so little about her, I can't support voting to confirm her. I think it's silly that George didn't wait until the new Governor to be elected before retiring earlier this year anyway.There are numerous openly LGBT people running for elected office. John Noguez for Los Angeles County Assessor. In statewide legislative districts there is Ricardo Lara (AD-50) and John Perez (AD-46).
WATCH: EQCA Tries To "Shame" Whitman and Cooley
In light of statements by Republican candidates Steve Cooley and Meg Whitman that they would defend any court ruling in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case striking down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional, Equality Califorina is launching the following television ads.
Whitman's gubernatorial opponent, Jerry Brown, is the current Attorney General and has refused to defend Proposition 8, as has current Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris is running against Cooley for Attorney general and has said she would not defend Proposition 8 in court because she feel it is unconstitutional.
The ads are set to begin airing on Monday, September 27, and will run on the CNN, FOX and MSNBC affiliates in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Palm Springs metropolitan areas
Whitman's gubernatorial opponent, Jerry Brown, is the current Attorney General and has refused to defend Proposition 8, as has current Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris is running against Cooley for Attorney general and has said she would not defend Proposition 8 in court because she feel it is unconstitutional.
The ads are set to begin airing on Monday, September 27, and will run on the CNN, FOX and MSNBC affiliates in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Palm Springs metropolitan areas
2010 CA Statewide Primary Results
Yesterday was the statewide primary election. Results for Los Angeles County are available here, and statewide results are available here.
Statewide Races
Constitutional Offices
MadProfessah was correct in every statewide constitutional office except Superintendent of Public Instruction, where the top two (non-partisan) candidates were Larry Aceves and Tom Torlakson, who are both registered Democrats just squeaked ahead of my endorsed candidate Gloria Romero.
Propositions
MadProfessah was correct in 3 of the 5 propositions, although it was a scary night, because initially it looked the pro-business scams Prop 16 (PG&E) and Prop 17 (Mercury Insurance) looked like they were passing, but happily they were rejected. Sadly, Proposition 15 failed and Proposition 14 passed. This means that from now on, all June primary races will be a "jungle primary" where the Top 2 candidates will face each other, REGARDLESS of which party they are a member of. ONLY those two names will be allowed to appear on the November ballot, with no write-in option.
Proposition Number (Topic) MadProfessah RESULTS
13 (Seismic Retrofit Assessment) YES YES
14 (Top 2 "Open" Primary Amendment) NO YES
15 (CA Fair Elections Act) YES NO
16 (PG&E Utility Monopoly Protection) NO NO
17 (Mercury Insurance Premium Change) NO NO
Statewide Constitutional Officers MadProfessah DEMOCRATS REPUBLICANS
U.S. Senate Boxer* Boxer* Fiorina
Governor Brown Brown Whitman Lieutenant Governor Newsom Newsom Maldonado
Attorney General Harris Harris Cooley
Secretary of State Bowen* Bowen* Dunn
Treasurer Chiang* Chiang* Strickland
Controller Lockyer* Lockyer* Walters
Insurance Commissioner Jones Jones Fitzgerald
Superintendent of Public Instruction Romero Aceves(D) Torlakson(D)
Statewide Legislative Races
You can click on the Assembly District number for the actual vote counts. MadProfessah endorsed candidates are in italics, with winning candidates in bold. Incumbents are marked with an asterisk*.
Get ready to vote again in November!
AD-43. MadProfessah-endorsed Mike Gatto won the special election to replace Paul Krekorian and won the Democratic primary election.Los Angeles County
AD-44. Anthony Portantino* .
AD-45. Gil Cedillo.
AD-46. John Perez*.
AD-47. Holly Mitchell, won a tight race over CA Democratic Party Secretary Reggie Jones-Sawyer 43%-37%.
AD-48. Mike Davis*.
AD-49. Mike Eng*.
AD-50. Openly gay Ricardo Lara won his primary to and will become the second openly LGBT person of color elected to the California Legislature in November (after John Perez).
AD-51. Steve Bradford*.
AD-52. Isadore Hall*.
AD-53. MadProfessah endorsed openly gay, African-American Mitch Ward in this huge primary to replace Attorney General hopeful Ted Lieu, but former Equality California board member and registered lobbyist Betsy Butler won the primary and will be elected in November.
Los Angeles County Assessor. MadProfessah endorsed openly gay John Noguez becomes the first openly gay County Assessor of Los Angeles County.
Measure E. MadProfessah endorsed a Yes position on this County measure to benefit Los Angeles Unified School District. The measure leads 53-47, far less than the two-thirds needed to be enacted.
Superior Court Judges.
5 of the 6 judicial candidates endorsed by MadProfessah won, the same ratio as the Los Angeles Times, although we got different races wrong. Click on the office number for the vote counts.
Measure E. MadProfessah endorsed a Yes position on this County measure to benefit Los Angeles Unified School District. The measure leads 53-47, far less than the two-thirds needed to be enacted.
Superior Court Judges.
5 of the 6 judicial candidates endorsed by MadProfessah won, the same ratio as the Los Angeles Times, although we got different races wrong. Click on the office number for the vote counts.
RESULTS LA TIMES MadProfessah
Office 28: Hammock Randy Hammock Ameli
Office 35: Bruguera* Bruguera Bruguera
Office 73: Matz Matz Matz
Office 107: Salkin Tony de los Reyes Salkin
Office 117: Schneider Schneider Schneider
Office 131: Nelson* Nelson Nelson
Get ready to vote again in November!
MadProfessah Endorsements: June 8, 2010 Primary
Finally, the moment you have been waiting for! Here are MadProfessah's positions on how I will be voting in the June 8 Statewide Primary Election, compared with endorsements from other organizations like the Los Angeles Times, Calitics.com, CA Democratic Party, Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Stonewall Democratic Club (LGBT group) and Courage Campaign's Progressive Voter Guide (pdf).
Proposition Number (Topic) MadProfessah LA TIMES CALITICS CA DEMS
13 (Seismic Retrofit Assessment) YES YES YES YES
14 (Top 2 "Open" Primary Amendment) NO YES NO NO
15 (CA Fair Elections Act) YES YES YES YES
16 (PG&E Utility Monopoly Protection) NO NO NO NO
17 (Mercury Insurance Premium Change) NO NO NO NO
Statewide Constitutional Officers MadProfessah LA TIMES STONEWALL CA DEMS
Governor Brown None Brown Brown
Lieutenant Governor Newsom Newsom Hahn None
Attorney General Harris Harris Lieu None
Secretary of State Bowen* None Bowen* Bowen*
Treasurer Chiang* None Chiang* Chiang*
Controller Lockyer* None Lockyer* Lockyer*
Insurance Commissioner Jones Jones De La Torre Jones
Superintendent of Public Instruction Romero Aceves Torlakson None
Statewide Legislative Races
AD-43. MadProfessah, LA CDP, Stonewall Dems and Los Angeles Daily News have all endorsed Mike Gatto.Los Angeles County
AD-44. The incumbent here is Anthony Portantino* and has been endorsed by Los Angeles Democrats and Stonewall Democrats but NOT MadProfessah.
AD-45. MadProfessah lives and votes in the 45th Assembly District but can not, in good conscience, endorse State Senator Gil Cedillo's cynical attempt to hold on to elected office for two more years by switching seats with current Assemblymember Kevin De Leon. Especially after he ran an unnecessary (and losing) campaign against Judy Chu in the 32nd Congressional District Special Election last year.
AD-46. Openly gay speaker of the Assembly John Perez* is the incumbent here and is endorsed by MadProfessah.
AD-47. One of the toughest primary fights this summer is between Holly Mitchell and Reggie Jones-Sawyer. MadProfessah, Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass (current officeholder), CA Democratic Party and LA County Dems have all endorsed Holly Mitchell, while Stonewall Dems have endorsed Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
AD-48. The incumbent here is Mike Davis*, who was outed recently by a friend at a recent Stonewall Democratic Club meeting but who has not been endorsed by that club or MadProfessah.
AD-49. The incumbent is Mike Eng*, husband of strong LGBT ally Congressmember Judy Chu, and is endorsed by MadProfessah, Stonewall Dems and Los Angeles County Dems.
AD-50. Openly gay Ricardo Lara is trying to become the second openly LGBT person of color elected to the California Legislature.
AD-51. Strong ally of LGBT rights Steve Bradford* is the incumbent here and is endorsed by MadProfessah, Equality California, Los Angeles Dems and Stonewall Dems.
AD-52. The incumbent here is Isadore Hall* who has NOT been endorsed by MadProfesah, but who has been endorsed by LA County Dems and Stonewall Dems.
AD-53. MadProfessah has endorsed openly gay, African-American Mitch Ward. Equality California and Stonewall Dems have endorsed Betsy Butler. Honor Pac (LGBT Latino group) has endorsed Kate Anderson.
Los Angeles County Assessor. MadProfessah endorses openly gay John Noguez. The Los Angeles Times has endorsed John Y. Wong.
Measure E. MadProfessah endorses a Yes position on this County measure to benefit Los Angeles Unified School District. It is a $100 increase per parcel which LAUSD says will go to save the jobs of teachers. The Los Angeles Times urges a NO vote, while the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Stonewall Democrats urge a YES vote.
Superior Court Judges.
I know it is really hard to make an informed choice about the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge races, so I always try and include what people who follow these races are saying about them. The Los Angeles County Bar Association has a page where they rate, but do not endorse, judicial candidates.
Measure E. MadProfessah endorses a Yes position on this County measure to benefit Los Angeles Unified School District. It is a $100 increase per parcel which LAUSD says will go to save the jobs of teachers. The Los Angeles Times urges a NO vote, while the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Stonewall Democrats urge a YES vote.
Superior Court Judges.
I know it is really hard to make an informed choice about the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge races, so I always try and include what people who follow these races are saying about them. The Los Angeles County Bar Association has a page where they rate, but do not endorse, judicial candidates.
LA DEMS STONEWALL LA TIMES MadProfessah
Office 28: Mark K. Ameli Ameli Randy Hammock Ameli
Office 35: Soussan Bruguera* Bruguera Bruguera Bruguera
Office 73: None None Matz Matz
Office 107: Valerie Salkin Salkin Tony de los Reyes Salkin
Office 117: Alan Schneider Schneider Schneider Schneider
Office 131: Maren E. Nelson* Nelson Nelson Nelson
If you don't vote by mail (like I and the Other Half do) then please make sure to get out and vote next Tuesday.
Saturday Politics: CA-33, AD-43, SD-15, CA-AG and CA-LG
Kamala HarrisIn today's edition of Saturday Politics we have stories about Karen Bass's run for Congress, developments in the California Attorney General race and details about the new (and the next) Lieutenant Governor of California.
CA-33. Assemblymember Karen Bass path to the United States House of Representatives has been cleared by the decision by a deep-pocketed rival named Howard C. Mandel to not challenge the former Speaker of the Assembly for the Democratic nomination for the 33rd Congressional District, currently represented by retiring Diane Watson. Multiple sources tell MadProfessah that the good doctor, who had been prepared to spend up to $500,000, has been quietly convinced by leaders in the Jewish community that they support Ms. Bass's run for the Congressional seat. This leaves Bass' only remaining challenger the perennial candidate Felton Newell.That's it for this week. Feel free to send tips for future Saturday Politics stories by twitter (@madprofessah), email or in the comments!
AD-43. Following his decisive win in the April 13th special primary election and his primary opponent's withdrawal from the race, Mike Gatto has secured the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club in both races happening June 8, 2010: the special election run-off and the Democratic primary election.
CA Attorney General. While MadProfessah endorsed San Francisco District Attorney on Wednesday, the same day that former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly wrote a check for $4 million to double his campaign war chest for the Democratic nomination for the Attorney General.
CA Lieutenant Governor. The race between Los Angeles City Councilmember Janice Hahn and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has gotten pretty tense. The two ad elaborate, duelling parties at the California Demorcratic Convention in Los Angeles, where neither was able to gather the state party's official endorsement. At the Equality California statewide candidates forum last Sunday, the two refused to share a stage. Interestingly, Hahn easily earned the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club on Monday, despite the fact that Newsom is well-known in the LGBT community as an early champion of marriage equality.
SD-15. In other Lieutenant Governor news, State Senator Abel Maldonado was sworn in this week as the new Lieutenant Governor after winning confirmation a few months after the Assembly rejected his nomination, giving the Republicans 3 of the 8 statewide constitutional offices (including Governor and Insurance Commissioner). Maldonado's ascension leaves his seat in State Senate District 15 open, and openly gay former Assemblyman John Laird has made no secret of his desire to switch the seat to the Democrats. If he wins, he would become only the second openly gay man to serve in the State Senate, following Mark Leno.
MadProfessah Endorses Kamala Harris for AG
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.From left to right, the candidates in the picture are Assemblymember Ted Lieu, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, Assemblymember Pedro Nava and Assemblymember Alberto Torrico. The likely Republican opponent in November is Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley.
I have seen a number of the Attorney General candidates in small group settings in my capacity as Steering Committee member of the Stonewall Democratic Club and elected delegate of the California Democratic Party.
Previously, I had been impressed with Pedro Nava. He has been endorsed by the smartest politician in California politics, LA County Democratic Chair Eric Bauman and he generally is a very effusive and energetic speaker. Unfortunately, he has very little money, although he does have Parke Skelton as his political consultant.
At the forum, it was the first time I was seeing Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico in action, and he said some very impressive things about education ("should be a civil right") and rehabilitation that made me want to take another look at him. Torrico has nice ideas but doesn't seem to be ready for the scale of a statewide race. Yet.
Ted Lieu is probably the strongest supporter of the LGBT community and hardest worker of the group (the male Judy Chu!) which has won him many LGBT Democratic club endorsements, even in such a hotly contested field. He points out that he can repeat the Ted Chiang statewide win of 2006 for State Controller, but I just don't think one can equate a State Controller race with a State Attorney General race. I do agree that the Southern California candidates have an advantage. Those are Delgadillo, Torrico and Lieu. Lieu is the only Asian in the race, and they vote in excess of their proportion in the population, which statewide is nearly 12% (statewide the Black population is close to 6%).
It's true that Nava, Delgadillo and Torrico all have Spanish surnames in a state which is hurtling towards majority-minority status, but the electorate, even the Democratic primary electorate is still majority white. Delgadillo ran for and lost this race to Jerry Brown, and instead of giving him a leg up in this race, the odor of food past it's purchase date lingers around his campaign.
However, I think this is trumped by Kamala Harris being the only woman in the race. I think the fact that she is a prosecutor (even if she is from the liberal enclave of San Francisco) will allow her to distinguish her from the crowd of guys she is running against. She's a pretty electrifying speaker and has the most "star power" of the group. She's also raised the most money (except for the self-financing Chris Kelly, who has essentially "pulled a Whitman" and written himself two $2 million checks).
On the issues, I would be happy with any of the candidates as the next Attorney General, but by electing Kamala Harris California would be really signaling we have truly entered the Obama era of politics, by electing the first African-American statewide official since Mervyn Dymally for Lieutenant Governor a generation ago when Jerry Brown was his running mate in 1974.
Report from CA Democratic Convention: Day 1
Day 1 at the California Democratic Covention in Sacramento was a bit of a blur.
I joined and attended the African American and the LGBT Caucuses of the CA Democratic Party, although I only voted in the former. The two were scheduled at the same time! I also attended and voted in the Progressive Caucus.
So far I have seen at close quarters:
Attorney General Jerry BrownIn addition I met and spoke privately with two openly gay African American men who are both running for political office: Manhattan Beach mayor Mitch Ward (state assembly) and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" casualty Anthony Woods who is running for the soon-to-be-open 10th Congressional district seat curretly held by Ellen Tauscher (CA-10).
SF Mayor Gavin Newsom
CA Lieutentant Governor John Garamendi
SF Attorney General Kamala Harris
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson
Speaker Karen Bass
Many state legislators...
That's it for now!
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