Vargas Coronation By Democrats Points To Doom For Working Families

California Democrats can't come up with something better than this dreck... for Congress?

On Monday evening, perhaps you all saw our teaser on the coronation of State Senator Vargas to replace Bob Filner a longtime champion of progressive causes. Filner who has faced Vargas countless times in primaries once described his possible successor:

"While Juan has not yet been convicted of a crime, virtually everyone closest to him has been found guilty of something. Juan's former Chief-of Staff and handpicked successor on the San Diego City Council is now a convicted felon. Another of Juan's political cronies made millions off the poorest people in National City as a slumlord and recently, Juan's chief campaign consultant was convicted of a felony for misusing public money... If Juan truly didn't have any knowledge of the crimes his close associates have committed then he may well be the most clueless man in America."

Filber is referring to “StripperGate” where Vargas’s former Chief of Staff was convicted of taking bribes from a Strip club owner. Inzunza had this to say after first being convicted:

"I believe that what I did was all within the law," he continued. "It was all within the political structure that we have here in San Diego, here in California and here in the United States of America."

Frickin' Filner

When Congressman Filner was asked about the possibility of longtime foe Vargas taking his seat recently, you can see the reality set in on Filner’s face. While he appears apologetic to the people of the 51st District, maybe he is just scared of Juan’s campaign staff’s hands on approach to campaigning, which he witnessed firsthand. Watch:



Either way we are faced with possibly sending California's worst DINO in history to Congress. Let’s take a quick look at how this Vargasauras Rex was hatched and nurtured on the teat of Insurance companies.

Vargas accused of buying Vice-Chair seat

Fellow former Assembly member Canciamilla implied that he lost his prominent position on a legislative committee because he did not contribute as much money to the California Democratic Party. While Vargas refuted this point, the facts do evidence a conspicuously large contribution to the party, followed by a freshmen being appointed Vice-Chair of a major committee.

“…countered Assemblyman Juan Vargas of Chula Vista, a fellow moderate caucus member who won a chairmanship, of the Insurance Committee, despite his politics…Vargas…contributed in excess of $230,000 to the party and its candidates.”

–Contra Costa Times, November 8, 2005

I am sure that is exactly what the hard working tax paying citizens had in mind when they made donations to his campaign. What’s it called when someone makes a donation to one candidate and that candidate gives it to another candidate?

Just plain Juan

As Vargas was finishing his Assembly term in office, he swore he would not seek an insurance position in the third house. “In April, Vargas was asked whether he would take an insurance job if he lost the election. “I'm not going into insurance or finance,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. ‘I'm just not interested.’”

However, following his tenure, Vargas immediately accepted a position as the new Vice-President of California External Affairs for Safeco. “During his campaign for Congress, Juan Vargas was harshly criticized for accepting $335,000 in campaign contributions from insurers and frequently taking their side while chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee.“

Juan’s response? “I'm really excited about the job. It's a great opportunity for me and the community.” Yeah, especially the community.

Insured to Fail

"While he was chairman he often sided with the industry and now we know why," Heller said. "He saw a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The revolving door between industry and government, it couldn’t get any more efficient and insidious than this."

In three campaigns for the Assembly and an unsuccessful run this year for Congress, Vargas received more than $354,000 in donations from various insurance companies and industry groups, including $9,700 from Safeco, according to campaign finance reports. In a press release posted on its Web site, Safeco said Vargas would lead the company’s public policy strategy in California and serve as a liaison with California state officials, community leaders and other businesses and associations.

In a spin that would make most vomit in their mouth, Vargas' Wikipedia page (obviously written by a staff member) describes his job like this: “After serving in the State Assembly until 2006, Juan took a job with a home, auto and small business insurance company and was tasked with creating jobs and outreach in diverse San Diego Communities as part of the company's diversity initiative.”

This sounds familiar, Insurance Industry goon turned job creator.

Get the fuck out

Must be what Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is thinking. This isn't the first time people in state government backed a reprehensible candidate for a job in DC just to get them out of the state. Why else would he give a junior State Senator, who no longer lives in his district, and is running for Congress a budget to hire 13 14 staff members?

Thanks Darrell for passing the buck, you couldn’t just tough it out another two years?

With Juan’s 2010 Senate campaign still in the hole for over $375,000.00 I guess there wasn’t anything left to take. I wonder how Vargas will retire all that debt?

Insert place holder here

To keep up the charade of this being an election the Democratic Party propped up perennial rubber stamp Denise Ducheny against Vargas, and then quickly took her out at the knees.

Denise doesn’t mind, she still gets to fundraise for the campaign and that tends to work out well for her husband. They tried to bill her as the “progressive” in the race, you know the kind of progressive that takes money from the NRA, Big Tobacco, Indian Gaming and screws over union workers. Oh and then for good measure hits up Big Tobacco again after she is out of office for another $12,000.00.

Where did they find this such a progressive candidate? Well she was keeping herself busy working 14 days a year…

“One of the frequently targeted panels is the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, which pays $128,109 annually to review challenges. The board met 14 times in 2010, mostly starting at 10:30 a.m. The minutes of the meetings do not report adjournment times. All five positions are held by former lawmakers..."

It can’t be that bad, can it?

“It’s one of the choicest plums at the fruit stand,” said Steve Maviglio, former Gov. Gray Davis’ press secretary, now a Democratic consultant and, thanks to Davis, a member of the board for one year. “It’s a job that requires really no experience in the field, pays well and you can do it from the comfort of the home office.”

“The earth is the earth as a peasant sees it, the world is the world as a duchess sees it, and anyway a duchess would be nothing if the earth was not there as the peasant sees it.”--Gertrude Stein

You may recall Duchess Ducheny from when she earned the highly coveted “Triple Crown Award” for finishing first in spending among State Senate Members.

“Regarding the legislative year ending November 30, 2009, Ducheny spent more than any other legislator on office budgets, salaries, and miscellaneous expenditures.

#1 in total office budget ($1,274,117)

#1 in total Staff salaries & benefits ($1,108,429)

#1(tied) in the Per Diem payments ($38,042).

During this time, Ducheny was also the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, which had the highest operational budget.

The separate budget for her Senate Budget Committee’s operation was another $1,508,442, and that ranked-- WAIT FOR IT-- # 1 among the 23 state Senate standing committees!

Her Per Diem came to an average of $173 a day, factoring in the days the legislature was partially active. Many of those days included half days where attendance was all the participation required.”

Hey California was only in debt $42 Billion in 2009 what’s another $173 dollars a day for lunch?

Calling John Brooks

Our country is pretty much fucked with the prospect of Vargas and Ducheny being the top two vote getters in the primary. But with the new open primary system here in Cali I am holding out hope. There seems to be another candidate in the race that could have an impact. From what I understand he is walking the district every day talking to voters but isn’t getting any coverage. From the looks of it he is taking this seriously, but seems to be taking his sweet ass time getting his website up. He has an ActBlue page. When I reached out to him, I got an interesting quote back about his top issue.

"The path to rebuilding prosperity and pride in the 51st district is created through Education. We must involve and empower everyone in our family from the youngest to the oldest giving them the tools to succeed. Community involved Education will create more Jobs now and provide the opportunities for our children to become the architects and engineers needed to build our future."

You can check him out further at to Brooksforcongress.org.