Duncan Hunter Isn't Even Going To Be The Republican Candidate In CA-50

Last year's campaign was fiery-- and so will this cycle's be


Duncan Hunter, a far right congressman from the reddest southern congressional district was one of the first two Republicans in Congress to have endorsed Trump. Like the other one, Chris Collins of New York, Hunter was indicted and arrested on dozens of financial fraud charges, including wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations, and conspiracy. The crux though is that he stole at least $200,000 from his campaign funds and used them for personal expenses including a series of prostitutes and extranmarital affairs. His wife has already plead guilty and has been cooperating with Hunter, who is out on bail. He was hoping to be reelected so that he could use his status as a congressman in a plea deal for a lighter sentence. It doesn't look like he's going get beyond the primary though.

Carl DeMaio had a convincing FEC quarter-- $1,569,929, of which he spent $204,059, leaving $1,205,456. That's a lot more than Duncan Hunter's entire haul for the cycle-- $588,297.97-- and a lot more than Hunter has in his campaign account-- $289,487. State Sen Brian Jones has filed and neither has Darrell Issa, who is independently wealthy and can put as much as he needs into his campaign. When Issa ended his 2018 run he still had an enormous $3,750,024 in his campaign coffers. On the Democratic side, Ammar Campa-Najjar raised another $580,543 in the third quarter and has $852,762 in his war-chest.

Tuesday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the San Diego Republican Party had decided not to endorse Hunter for another term. An endorsement takes a two-thirds majority and none of the candidates came close:

• Carl DeMaio- 21
• Brian Jones- 14
• Hunter- 14
• Darrell Issa- 0

It's the first time in his political career that Duncan Hunter, Jr. didn't get the Republican Party's nomination.

Hunter faces three, high-profile Republican opponents and is preparing for a federal trial on charges of campaign finance violations.

The bi-monthly Republican meeting featured a town hall forum, providing a rare occasion where all four candidates appeared at the same event.

Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric moderated the debate, which included opening and closing statements, and he posed five questions to each of the four candidates.

Much of the night centered around Republican unity, with Krvaric reminding candidates several times to “stay positive” and focus on the issues.

“I will not tolerate any beating up of a Republican candidate,” Krvaric said. “To the candidates, we want to hear what makes you different... Do not throw mud at your fellow Republicans in the room.”

The 50th District covers a swath of the county east and north of San Diego, a region previously considered one of California’s most reliably red seats that has shown a strong loyalty to the Hunter name for decades. Hunter is in his sixth two-year term and his father, Duncan L. Hunter Sr., served from 1981 to 2009.

“I’ve been fighting for you for 11 years,” Hunter said to the crowd. “You know where I stand on the issues.”

But Hunter now is considered a vulnerable incumbent. He was victorious against his Democratic opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, by fewer than 9,000 votes last year-- about 10 weeks after a federal indictment accused him and his wife of illegally spending more than $250,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting a trial scheduled for January, weeks before the March primary.

Hunter said he’s ready for the battle.

Even when federal prosecutors “indicted me months before my election and tried to steal my seat, I still won,” he said. “I’m not going to move somewhere and fight for the easy seat... As a United State Marine, what we do is we stand and we fight.”

According to a recent poll, Hunter trails his Republican opponents, with 11 percent of the vote. All four candidates face an uphill climb against Campa-Najjar, who leads the poll with 31 percent.

DeMaio used questions from the forum to highlight many of his five-step plans for the country. He received applause and cheers for his ideas on immigration and supporting President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“We had 39 Republicans cut and run last year,” DeMaio said. “The president needs an entire team who will stand with him and fight, and that is exactly what I plan to do.”

As the host of a daily news and politics radio show, DeMaio already had a platform to advertise his candidacy and a built-in fan base, though it’s unclear how much of that fan base is based in the 50th District. The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for the Union-Tribune and 10News, shows him leading the GOP candidates with 20 percent.

A crowd of DeMaio supporters lined the parking lot entrance of the hotel, donning “Make America Great Again” hats and waving DeMaio signs at passing cars.

“The energy and enthusiasm of the grass roots movement behind my campaign is undeniable,” DeMaio said.

Issa, a nine-term congressman who represented northern San Diego County for nearly two decades, announced in September his bid for the seat, just after his confirmation to a Trump Administration trade position was stalled by Senate Democrats.

The former congressman does not live in the district, which his opponents were quick to point out, but experts say he has the experience and network to target Hunter’s district.

“I’m not running because this is an easy seat. I’m running because I’m concerned about it,” Issa said. “If Duncan Hunter is able to, quite frankly, survive what he’s facing, then we can have a whole different discussion. But if not, you need a conservative on day one that will do the job.”

Issa was the wealthiest member of Congress during his tenure, with an estimated net worth of $283 million, according to financial disclosure forms he filed while in office. The poll shows him holding 16 percent of the vote.

He appealed directly to the delegates in his closing statement, cautioning them to weigh their endorsement choice carefully.

“You have a seated U.S. congressman who has a stellar voting record. You have a state senator who hasn’t done anything wrong... If the delegates tonight endorse any one of us, they endorse against three of us,” Issa said. “Do you want to really say that Duncan Hunter needs to go?”

It’s unclear if Issa’s plea had an effect on the final vote. The former congressman left before giving his final 10-minute statement to committee members.

...Besides Hunter, Jones is the only GOP candidate who lives within the 50th District, a point he stressed several times during the debate. He served on Santee City Council before moving on to the Assembly and then State Senate this year.

He received the most support from the crowd when speaking about gun rights and abortion.

Ending the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade is “one of the most important issues to save America and make it great again,” Jones said.

Last cycle, the race was incredibly close, especially for a district where Trump had beaten Hillary 54.6% to 39.6%.

Facebook-- Making It Harder On Challengers Like Shastina Sandman To Run For Office

This morning Jacquie sent me this note. She's happy because it helps with the independent expenditure Blue America is doing for Jovanka Beckles up in Richmond, California:

Hey, good news-- we got Facebook ID/Political Ad approved. The secret code was delivered here today. (I think it’d had gone to a neighbor’s house, as it just showed up today- a non-mail day)

We try hard to follow FEC rules-- in fact all the government mandates that govern what we can and can't do as a PAC. In fact we even have a lawyer who helps us to stay on the sometimes not intuitive straight and narrow. But when it comes to Facebook, no one can screw up... because Facebook just assumes everyone wanting to place a political ad is a Russian political operative and they've put in fail safe rules that they enforce themselves. In other words, committees like ours can't make a mistake if we wanted to because Facebook won't run any ads unless they've determined you're not a Russian operative trying to get Trump into the White House again. The letter, Jacquie told me, "took WELL over 7 days, when they told me it would take 3-7. Since it came from 25 minutes down the road, I’d hoped for speedier delivery."



This came from Ad Age last week and I'm sure it put something of a chill onto the whole advertising industry: Facebook's Election Ad Rules snag Challenger Candidates. It starts with the imagine of an ad from a right-wing crackpot, Shastina Sandman, running today for Congress against Dana Rohrabacher in Orange County's CA-48. Aside from the 5 Democrats in today's open primary, there are 6 Republicans opposing Rohabacher as well. Democrats worry that one, Scott Baugh, could possibly come in second and set up a Republican vs Republican run-off in November, locking a Democrat out of the contest entirely.

So, the more right-wing votes that candidates like Shastina Sandman drain off from Rohrabacher and Baugh, the better. But Shastina Sandman hadn't raised enough money ($5,000) bu the FEC reporting deadline, May 16, to even trigger a report. She was depending on a relatively inexpensive Facebook ad to get her crackpot Trumpist message out there.

Shastina Sandman is waiting for a letter from Facebook, coming by U.S. mail, that she hopes will contain a verification code to buy ads for her upcoming primary in California's 48th Congressional District.

She's running out of time. The primary to determine who will advance to the November general election is Tuesday.

Sandman is caught in Facebook's new, stringent vetting process to approve political ads, a response to foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential race. Some candidates from Florida, Mississippi and other states say they have been impacted as well.

Implemented in late May, the timing of the election integrity measure seems to be hitting hardest states like California that are in the middle of primaries. The policy requires candidates and political groups verify their identities and locations and then wait for a code, by snail mail, that lets them make those ad buys on the social network, and some challengers claim the new rule hits them harder than it does incumbents.

When it was nine days out from the election, says Sandman, "I get this disapproval notice from Facebook about a video that had already been running as an ad. That's ridiculous."

A Republican and Donald Trump supporter, Sandman is running for the seat held by Republican Dana Rohrabacher. More than 10 candidates will appear on that primary ballot on Tuesday, and the top two finishers, regardless of party, will compete in the general election.

Sandman has a Facebook presence; she runs a page called Magapreneur, a play on Trump's "Make America Great Again" catchphrase, which she uses to promote Trump-themed merchandise. But that page and her personal Facebook page were blocked from buying ads until she could verify her identity.

Sandman thinks incumbents like Rohrabacher have millions of dollars and massive staffs to help with just these kinds of hoops and hassles. "I understand Facebook wants to verify candidates but by doing it like this it almost seems like meddling in elections," Sandman says.

Facebook says it has been trying to find a formula that balances the need to take control of the abuse on the platform with the need to stay out of sensitive political matters. But the new policy seems to mean some candidates in heated races can pay to boost their messages to voters, while others cannot.

Mark Meuser, a Republican candidate for California state secretary of state was recently caught up in the verification protocols, too, saying he couldn't promote a video he created about "illegal voting."

"Facebook gives challengers like me a much better opportunity to get a message out for less money," Meuser says, explaining why his timeout from advertising has been such a disadvantage.

On Friday, Meuser said he was still talking with Facebook representatives who seemed to want to help him fix the issues he was having.

The issue is bipartisan. "It's happening to Democrats, too," says Adriel Hampton, creative director at his political consulting firm, The Adriel Hampton Group. "I was shut down for a few days but had a team member who was verified. The hard part is the letter takes more than a week. So that's what's really frustrating people."

(Poiticians are not the only ones caught up in the new rules. Even Showtime had to get verified to run ads for a new series called "The Fourth Estate," about New York Times reporters. The Verge reported that Facebook blocked ads for the show until the channel went through the same snail mail process as candidates.)

Facebook had notified Meuser and Sandman in routine reach-out efforts, according to a company spokeswoman.

"We're committed to helping advertisers as they go through this process. At the same time, it's incredibly important to verify political advertisers so we can help prevent bad actors from interfering in elections. Doing this won't be perfect to start, but the important step is to start," says Katie Harbath, Facebook's global politics and government outreach director.

Facebook has been telegraphing its moves for months now, with public blog posts, notices sent to pages and e-mails, it says. In April, it announced the identification process and started notifying pages it determined would be most likely to be affected. The identification requirement officially took effect in the last week in May.

Republican Richard Boyanton, who is running for senator from Mississippi, tweeted that he wanted a primary do-over because Facebook cut off his ad spending.

"I am starting to push to have this election redone," the candidate tweeted on Thursday. "The Facebook canceling our ads puts the election as bias to incumbent because of denying our ads 10 days before June 5th election. Facebook should pay for the new election."

Hampton, however, says candidates should have been more prepared and capable of following the warning signs.

"I think it's a screw up by consultants," Hampton said. "Just because Facebook has a complicated interface you can't ignore real ID requirements."

Facebook new requirements come after it uncovered 475 fake accounts that had purchased some 3,000 political ads in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential race. YouTube and Twitter were similarly attacked by bad actors, and all the companies sent representatives to Congress to testify last year about the disinformation campaigns on their platforms.

By the way, here's Shastina Sandman's video. If you're a Republican who plans to vote in the primary today, please forget about voting for Rohrabacher or Baugh, who are practically RINOs compared to Shastina. If you want the real Trump candidate, you need to vote for Shastina. Do you have any friends or family in the district? Don't let them waste their votes on Baugh or Rohrabacher when they can strike a real blow for Trumpism. Send them this video before it's too late. And tell them Facebook, the mainstream media, the Clintons, Obama and the Iluminati have tried to keep it away from them. Fast... before the polls close!

In California Voting Your Conscience Means Voting For Kevin de León! And Antonio Villraogosa-- Really!

by Dorothy Reik

In this crazy world of "top two" primaries, we Democrats who want to flip Republican congressional seats need to be strategic. We need to vote to be sure Democrats are the top two contenders in the statewide races for Governor and U.S. Senate. As I write this, Franklin Graham is revival-touring our state to turn out radical evangelicals to vote for Republicans "Can you imagine if your school boards were controlled by evangelical Christians?" he asked the pastors in Pasadena. "The gays and lesbians have their people run for politics and win," he said. "As Christians, we are just being stupid."

Gubernatorial frontrunner Gavin Newsom is GOTV texting Republican frontrunner John Cox supporters to make his own general election race easier. To hell with congressional and legislative races which will suffer with a Republican competing candidate at the top of the ticket! Fewer Republicans turn out if there are no Republicans at the top of the ticket. They deserve-- richly deserve-- this grotesque fate for cynically forcing the jungle primary on California.

Those who think voting their "conscience" means voting for one of the outlier candidates need to realize that anti-Semite Patrick Little could wind up on the ballot instead of Kevin de León who, as President Pro Tem of the California Senate, led our state in fighting Trump's policies with progressive legislation that kept immigrants safe, our air and water clean and-- if Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon would have cooperated-- would have brought Medicare for All to our state. Little says, "I propose a government that makes counter-semitism central to all aims of the state. A government:

1) Of a People, for that people, free from jews
2) That cannot revoke the right to bear arms, such that this people can remain free from jews
3) that forbids all immigration except of biological kin, where no person of jewish origin may live, vacation, or traverse

Is it voting your "conscience" to give Little a statewide platform to promote his vile hatred? Remember, you are NOT voting for who will be your Senator, you are voting for who will be on the November ballot! Not one of the other Democratic candidates-- besides Feinstein and de León-- has a chance to get in the top two.

Meanwhile in the Governor's race we have Gavin "to hell with Congress"  Newsom GOTV texting supporters of Trump-endorsed Republican John Cox to make his own general election race easier. Cox wants to end the sanctuary state status of California and take it back for white people. Hold your ears or the dog whistle could blow out your eardrum: President Trump Endorses John Cox: "California finally deserves a great Governor, one who understands borders, crime and lowering taxes. John Cox is the man-- he’ll be the best Governor you’ve ever had. I fully endorse John Cox for Governor and look forward to working with him to Make California Great Again!"

We have to face reality, neither Delaine Easton nor John Chiang can beat Cox-- Chiang is polling at 9% and Easton at 6%-- and make it into the top two! The vote here has to be for Villaraigosa!  Remember again- you are NOT voting for Governor-- you are just voting for who will be on the ballot! And Gavin is doing more than just texting: "Newsom figures he’ll have an easier time defeating Republican John Cox in November and is airing ads "attacking" Cox in ways that could help him gain GOP votes for one of the top-two spots in the June primary.

The top two primary system was designed to hurt Democrats by making them spend their money in the primaries. It did that and more. With Newsom determined to turn out the Republican vote he has made California's bid to lead in turning Congress blue even more difficult. The Cook Report runs it down race by race.

Eric Bauman, California Democratic Party Chair, has the last word on the top two primaries:

“From the outset, the Top Two Primary system was designed by its sponsors to bleed the Democratic Party. Before the vote to amend California’s Constitution, the Sacramento Bee recalculated the prior Primary Election and found that Prop 14 would result in 24 Dem on Dem races and 3 Rep on Rep races-- guess what we had in November 2016... you got it. They sold this as a tool to "moderate" who sat in Sacramento and DC. Instead it’s been a farce that has cost Democrats tens-of-millions of dollars. We are looking at how best to repeal or amend it, ASAP!

Is The DCCC Supervising A GOP Win In Orange County's Most Flippable District?

One of California's most conservative Dems, Scott Peters, endorses his rich funder, Paul Kerr

According to OpenSecrets.org, this cycle's half dozen worst self-funders-- at least so far-- include 5 Democrats-- and 4 of this 5 are running ing in Orange County. These are men-- and one woman (an utterly worthless Qualcomm heiress from Brooklyn, pushed run by EMILY'S List-- who are trying to buy congressional seats. All are expected to spend much more before their races are over. Anyway, these are the sic with how much they've self0funded and what percent of their total campaign war chest comes out of their own pockets:

• David Trone (D-MD)- $5,281,939 (93.71%)
• Andy Thorburn (D-CA)- $2,335,900 (91.20%)
• Gil Cisneros (D-CA)- $2,052,762 (81.96%)
• Paul Kerr (D-CA)- $1,612,728 (82.75%)
• Bob Corlew (R-TN)- $1,300,000 (98.91%)
• Sara Jacobs (D-CA)- $1,087,461 (64.35%)

Kerr and Jacobs are running in the same district, CA-49. Kerr knows he has no shot at winning but he wants to build up name recognition so when his conservative pal, New Dem Scott Peters runs for mayor of San Diego in 2 years, he can then run for Peters' neighboring San Diego seat. Jacobs' ridiculous run is just something EMILY's List has cooked uo as a way for their corrupt consultants to get their hands on her money.

But the two biggest Orange County self-funders are Thorburn and Cisneros. Cisneros is the silliest candidate of the cycle, a former Republican potato chip taster for Frito Lay's who won $266 million in a lottery and thinks that entitles to him to a seat in Congress. He's been buying endorsements from easily corruptible members of Congress (like this guy) since he decided to run as a "Democrat."

When candidates have money to burn, they spend it foolishly. This week Cisneros, whose campaign is controlled by the DCCC, started running an ad on CNN attacking Thorburn. And Cisneros and Thorburn have started flooding Orange County mail boxes with slick, vicious attack ads against each other , like these 3:

Republican voters love is when their candidates attack each other. Democratic voters don't; in fact, they hate it. Democrats like positive primaries. And Democrats like the negative saved to be used against Republicans. Cisneros' incompetent task masters at the DCCC-- Jason Bresler and Kyle Layman-- should know better. But they don't. So, you have seen Cisneros and the DCCC smearing Thorburn relentlessly, asserting that he's a tax evader and giving the GOP weapons against him if he makes it into the general-- much like the DCCC did to Laura Moser in Houston.

Cisneros, whose every word is scripted by the DCCC and the high-priced consultants they made him hire, is on a kamikaze mission against Thorburn. "We already have a con man in the White House," they had him say. "We don’t need one representing the 39th District. Andy Thorburn’s career is an unbroken chain of tax evasion, financial mismanagement, and misreprersentation." What's especially funny about this is that it's coming from the mouth of a man who has constantly been caught in outright lies and an unending stream of misrepresentations. Cisneros is more like Trump than any other Democrat running for Congress anywhere in America.

This is the cached website the DCCC designed for Cisneros to use in his attack against Thorburn. They are such scumbags-- but also stupider than shit and unable to cover their own tracks. This is the site that has been taken down-- "Committee name here" written in the disclaimer box-- instead of anybody's disclaimer. Watch them screw up another race! Since Cisneros isn't even a Democrat and has no idea how to appeal to Democrats, his campaign is completely based around attacks against the Democrats running for the CA-39 seat. This are the claims he's been using his lottery winnings to make against Thorburn:

• Thorburn is running for office on his record of being a teacher but his only teaching experience was four decades ago in New Jersey. He is in fact an insurance executive who has bankrupted numerous companies, failed to pay his taxes, and made a fortune that he is now spending to misrepresent himself to voters.
• Thorburn says he’s a successful businessman but in fact he has a history of illegal and unethical business misconduct. He led a company that was forced to pay over 234 thousand dollars for breach of contract to a customer who asserts Thorburn defrauded him. A former business partner asserts Thorburn used fraud and defamation to push him out of their business and says that Thorburn did not pay taxes or use normal account procedures, used offshore bank accounts, and used insurance ratings improperly.
• Thorburn says he supports big government policies but won’t pay his fair share in taxes to fund these policies. He failed to pay his taxes for five years and has faced nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in federal tax liens. Thorburn and two of his businesses filed for bankruptcy. When wealthy men like Thorburn fail to live up to their responsibilities, the burden is shifted to ordinary families who pay their taxes. 

There's also a good candidate in the race-- Sam Jammal, the Democrat who actually lives in the district (unlike Cisneros, Mai Khanh Tran and Thorburn, the 3 multimillionaire carpetbaggers)-- but the clueless DCCC shenanigans could well end with 2 Republicans-- Young Kim and Bob Huff-- winning the jungle primary and no Democrat making it into the general election. That's the DCCC; that's Kyle Layman; that's Jason Bresler; that's Ben Ray Lujan... and that's what we get when Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer get to supervise the DCCC. Eric Bauman should kick them out of the state.

How Badly Has The Corrupt Stench Of The DCCC Spread Across America? Now It's Infected California

Imagine if the DCCC did something useful instead of trying to destroy progressive candidates

Monday morning Emily Cadei updated her Sacramento Bee story about how the establishment intends to further marginalize Democratic voters in selecting party candidates for Congress. First a warning: poor Emily used the phrase "liberal groups" to describe corrupt conservative establishment operations. I don't think she understands the difference; maybe she wasn't paying attention at school that day. Take the first "liberal group" she mentions, Fight Back California. This is ex-Congresswoman Ellen Taucher's group. She was a Democrat so she must be "liberal," right? Wrong. Tauscher was once the head of the New Dems, a vice chair of the DLC, and a proud Blue Dog. Tauscher is working with her original campaign manager, strategist Katie Merrill, who loses all her races, and, as you should expect, they've been hiding who has been funneling 6-figures into their SuperPAC-- just what you would expect of a slimy character like Tauscher: dark money fueling her efforts to sucker the grassroots into contributing to a gaggle of dreadful right-of-center Republican-lite candidates just like herself. Their main goal will be to make sure no Berniecrats win any nominations, just Tauscher-like offal from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. One source told me she’s getting money from Gill Cisneros, the "ex"-Republican lottery winner the DCCC wants to sell the CA-39 nomination to. That has been impossible to confirm since Tauscher takes advantage of the dark money Supreme Court rulings to hide her sources.

My history with Tauscher goes back a ways. In 2006, she recruited another “ex”-Republican to run against the grassroots candidate in California who she and Rahm Emanuel, then chair of the DCCC, were eager too defeat, Jerry McNerney. They decided McNerney was too liberal to beat Republican Natural Resources Committee chair Richard Pombo and they dug up a Republican masquerading as a Democrat instead. McNerney slaughtered the interloper in the primary and Tauscher and Rahm put a hex on the district, calling donors and telling them not to contribute to McNerney in the general. That’s how Rahm taught the DCCC to play-- a practice continued by Steve Israel and whoever tells the hapless Ben Ray Lujan what he should do. In any case, McNerney pulverized Pombo, shocking the GOP (and Tauscher’s and Rahm’s Republican wing of the Democratic Party). It was one of the biggest races of the year and McNerney, propelled by grassroots enthusiasm, took 109,868 votes (53.3%) to Pombo’s 96,396 (46.7%). Pombo spent $4,629,983 that year, to McNerney’s $2,422,962. The NRCC came to Pombo’s defense with a then-massive $1,442,492, while Rahm grudgingly allowed the DCCC to spend a mere $295,366, less that the Sierra Club or even the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund. The media has always white-washed Tauscher and given her favorable treatment. But she's a monster-- and far from "a liberal." Luckily for Emily, you don't have to actually know anything to write for the Sacramento Bee.

Katie Merrill, advisor to the Democratic Super PAC Fight Back California, still intends to target Republican incumbents in key California congressional races-- its original purpose. “But if it looks like we’re in danger of a Democrat not advancing to a general election as we get closer to June, we might have to-- and other groups might have to--focus on supporting a particular Democratic candidate.”

Did you contribute to Tauscher's and Merrill's PAC, thinking you were helping "liberals?" Too bad. They back the worst conservative garbage, just like themselves. We warned you.

Now let's look at sleazy right-wing Democrat Kyle Layman, who I'm certain Cadei was referring to when she wrote this:

An aide at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) confirmed that the party committee hasn’t ruled out supporting or even attacking a particular Democratic candidate in California, despite the backlash that produced in Texas last month. The DCCC sparked outrage from liberals after it publicized negative research on Laura Moser, one of a handful of candidates running in the Democratic primary for a Houston-area congressional seat. Their rationale was she was not a good fit for the moderate district.

Cadei's very biased sources claim that the "problem for the party stems from the fact that many of these races have also drawn more than one well-funded Republican." Really? "Many?" Looks like Cadei was also asleep in her math class. Not "many." Perhaps 3, a problem created by the DCCC itself by recruiting and encouraging too many corrupt conservative self-funding candidates in CA-39 and (thanks to Layman's incredible incompetence; he recruited Harley and DC recruited Hans, two nearly interchangeable New Dems) CA-48. The DCCC never believed they could win CA-39... until GOP incumbent, Ed Royce, who did believe and withdrew. So the DCCC asked candidates looking to run in CA-48, Republican lottery winner Gil Cisneros and a very random, very wealthy lady doctor from CA-48, to run in CA-39 instead. So they're stuck juggling candidates instead instead of fighting Republicans, the same old position the spectacularly failed GOP is always in. What the DCCC is whining about now is that California's ridiculous top-2 jungle primary could produce outcomes where the Democratic vote is splintered and two Republicans proceed to the general.

Kyle Lameman (DCCC)

Zoe Lofgren, chair of the California Democratic congressional caucus, commenting on DCCC bullying tactics to clear the field for their preferred corrupt conservative candidates: "I think people don’t like that, I don’t like it. I would expect to at least be consulted." Note, for example, that there was no reason to push Emilio Huerta out of his race (at least not that fit that criteria) against David Valadao-- the only Republican running in CA-21. What the DCCC really wants to do is make sure they could guarantee the nomination for the fake Democrat lottery winner, Gil Cisneros, who bribes them and their members-- bigly. He's a fool and can't win but the DCCC would rather lose than not deliver for Cisneros. He only got one vote (1) is the district pre-emdorsement convention and 4% in the Indivisble poll. The DCCC is now manufacturing their own absurd polling that shows him with a chance. It's really disgraceful especially when you take into account that Cisneros lives in a multimillion dollar beach mansion nowhere near CA-39 and has a life that is nothing like the people in the district that the DCCC parachuted him into. "Party officials and lawmakers," wrote Cadei, "say they’ll continue to have conversations with other candidates they think could play a spoiler role, even though it’s virtually impossible for a candidate to get his or her name off the primary ballot once they’ve filed to run. But they and other strategists believe that the party’s best chance to influence the California races is to get involved directly in the campaign." But they won't ask the worst candidate they have, Cisneros, to drop out. Instead Kyle the Lame is threatening to destroy Andy Thorburn's reputation if he doesn't get out of the race.

Yesterday one of these dip-shits (who backs Brooklyn big spending Qualcomm heiress Sarah Jacobs) told me Applegate-- who ran the closest congressional election in America last quarter and nearly beat Darrell Issa and then drove him into announcing his retirement-- "can't win" in the CA-49 general election. These are the public polls that have come out this year:

DCCC should stand for Democratic Corrupt Conservative Crap

If the DCCC cared in the slightest about policies, they would either be staying out of the CA-39 primary or be fighting tooth and nail for Sam Jammal, the local, progressive non-self funder. Yesterday Sam issued a position paper on protecting the environment. The DCCC staffers never would, but you should read it-- and then consider contributing to the California candidates who aren't involved with the DCCC. It's called Jumpstarting A Clean Energy Revolution. He writes that he's running to be a champion for our environment and to help us reach our still untapped potential when it comes to clean energy innovation. Nice sounds, right, but in Sam's case that's no cliche, but a plan for action:

Save Our Open Spaces in the 39th District: Whether listening to the will of our voters and preserving Coyote Hills, keeping Tres Hermanos available to everyone or preserving the hills above Yorba Linda Blvd., our open spaces are a community treasure. We have a long history of open spaces throughout our community, but, as areas have been developed, we are losing our natural beauty. The reality is that once land becomes developed, we don’t get it back and the next generation misses out on hiking the trails and having the needed escape from busy urban areas. While I am not opposed to development and support addressing our housing shortage, we can do this without removing the hills and open spaces that make our community a destination. Protect Our Beaches from Drilling: In January, the Trump Administration announced its plan to expand offshore drilling on California’s coast. Our coastline sets our state apart from the rest of the world. In Congress, I will use every means available to block attempts to open drilling on our beaches and will work with policymakers in the state to slow any efforts to drill. Whether it’s through litigation or restricting funds for implementation of Trump’s plan, we must stop this extreme attempt to destroy our coast.

Fund the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): We all remember the days of smog alerts and, while we have made progress, we cannot let Republicans undermine the EPA. The EPA has helped transform the air we breathe and the water we drink for the better. Under President Trump and climate denying Scott Pruitt, there is an active attempt to dismantle this organization and take us back to days where going outside or drinking tap water can make one sick. We should not allow what is happening in places like Flint to occur anywhere in America in 2018 and beyond. Whether its undermining Obama-era regulations or cutting funds for enforcing environmental protections, the mission of the EPA is under attack. In Congress, I will fight to make sure the EPA is fully-funded and we are holding Scott Pruitt accountable.

Transition to 100% Clean Energy: We have the technology today to begin the transition to 100% clean energy. The biggest hurdle we face is politics. The Koch brothers and fossil fuel industry have overpowered Republicans and even some Democrats at the expense of our environment and economy. This is why I have pledged to reject any donations from the oil and natural gas industries. I have also pledged to do all I can to move our nation towards 100% clean energy. This means transitioning away from fossil fuels and investing in the next generation of jobs.

Lead on Clean Energy Innovation: According to the non-profit Solar Foundation, there are over 100,000 solar jobs in California. This includes thousands of solar jobs and small businesses throughout Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. Solar is creating middle class jobs throughout our district. Across the country, the solar industry already employs more people than coal and natural gas. Combined with a rapidly growing energy storage sector and growth in electric vehicle adoption, our state is leading on clean energy innovation and we are just getting started.

The key is making sure we have smart policies that encourage competition, deployment and job creation. This starts by removing Trump’s anti-competitive tariffs on solar panels as well as steel and aluminum. While we must encourage American manufacturing, the use of tariffs is an outdated solution that only serves to drive up the costs of solar panels. Instead, we should look for targeted incentives to encourage solar and battery storage manufacturing and deployment to help these industries compete and promote American leadership in clean energy innovation. The fossil fuel industry enjoys millions in subsidies that, along with their political influence, creates an uneven playing field, which hurts our ability to lead. It’s time we correct this and promote the industries and technologies that represent our future.

Promote Clean Energy Adoption: As noted earlier, the technology is here to build a clean energy future. The challenge is building political will. We can do this if we focus on solutions encouraging local adoption. Here are my ideas for building a clean energy future:

• Green School Infrastructure Bank-- Earlier this year, the City of Anaheim Public Utilities announced a partnership with the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to build shade structures over schools’ parking spaces and picnic tables and cover them with solar panels that generate energy for the utility. The schools will receive a lease fee for use of their campuses. This is the type of program Congress should be encouraging. In Congress, I will introduce legislation to establish a green school infrastructure bank funded by matching public and private dollars to promote the deployment of solar, wind and battery storage to power our schools. This fund will support projects that provide energy to our schools, which will enable schools to sell excess power back to the grid and utilize their energy cost savings to fund our schools.
• Veterans in Clean Energy-- Modeled after the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Ready Vets program, I will draft legislation to create a job training partnership between our military, community colleges, apprenticeship programs and the clean energy sector to train veterans for jobs in clean energy. Today, the U.S. solar industry employs 13,000 veterans of the armed forces, a figure which represents 9.2% of all solar workers in the nation, exceeding the percentage of veteran employment in the overall economy. As clean energy adoption expands, we have an opportunity to help those who served once more serve our nation by leading the fight against climate change. It is critical we make sure local training resources are available to train our veterans for these jobs.
• Community Solar and the Post Office-- The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) maintains more than 25,300 leased spaces in its facilities inventory nationwide. These facilities encompass thousands of acres and unutilized roofs that could be the site for solar projects. I will introduce legislation to promote using USPS facilities to provide solar power in the communities they serve. Solar produced at the facility can be used to power the USPS, which will lower their operating costs, and excess power generated can be used for community solar projects that power surrounding neighborhoods.
• Electric Vehicles Adoption-- According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all U.S. emissions-- emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for every gallon of gas. These emissions are also a leading cause of respiratory illness. While electric vehicle adoption continues to grow as cars become more affordable, we do not have sufficient infrastructure to support purchase of these cars. We also have incentives that promote foreign manufacturing over domestic suppliers. In Congress, I will propose inclusion of funding for electric vehicle charging stations in any infrastructure bill. I will also work to fix the electric vehicle tax credit to apply to make sure American manufacturers are not disadvantaged and we are promoting middle class adoption of electric vehicles.

Budget and Plan to Adapt to Climate Change

Climate change is real and it comes with significant costs. We have already seen these costs in Puerto Rico, Houston and South Florida as a result of massive and unprecedented hurricanes. We have to put a price on climate change now, which means we must begin to budget for our response to natural disasters made worse by climate change, as well as prevention; otherwise, we will continue to absorb “unexpected” costs, which will be a drain on our budget. As Trump’s tax reform severely tightens our federal budget, we must double down on adaptation programs in order to avoid the high costs of catastrophe.

In Congress, I will introduce a matching grant program geared to support state and local climate adaptation efforts. For the 39th district, these funds can help with efforts to wildfire prevention efforts in our hills and canyons already underway by our local fire departments. Funds can also be used to address droughts that will likely be the new normal in the coming years. We must increase water conservation efforts, supporter waste water treatment and water recycling and invest in rebuilding our aging water infrastructure. Climate change is already causing catastrophic financial burden which will only get worse, we must begin making these investments for the future now.

Or vote for some out-of-touch "ex"- Republican, serially untruthful lottery winner who only knows one thing: tasting potato chips for Frito-Lays and bribing grotesque corrupt Democrats in return for endorsements.

California's Democrat vs Democrat Conundrum

-by Samuel Hagar

How to cross party lines for votes without abandoning your ethnicity-- The first thing a pollster tells you when you ask “how do you win a Democrat on Democrat” general election (a phenomenon we're finding more and more frequently on the West Coast due to the somewhat dysfunctional jungle primary system) is:

You need to create a coalition. Democrats, Decline to States, and Republicans must be patched together to create a coalition across demographics...

This may seem simple and not worthy of the thousands of dollars in consulting and pollster fees, however it is true. To win a Democrat on Democrat race, a candidate must build out from his or her natural constituency (race, gender, region, ideology etc) to attract the necessary support in order to earn 50+1 percent of the vote.

The glaring example of this type of race is the United States Senate race to replace Barbara Boxer this year in California. This race pits California Attorney General Kamala Harris (an African American statewide elected official and Establishment fave from the Bay Area) against Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (a Latina Blue Dog congresswoman, somewhat reknowned for being the dumber of two congressional sisters). The nature of the race (and the candidates in it) is that Loretta (having only received 18% of the vote in the primary) faces a general election in which she must get a ton of votes (compared to Kamala) that are outside of her geographic territory (where she picked up most of her votes in the primary)-- let’s face it, a Congressmember in a state as large as California has a minuscule base of support (speaking in geographic terms) as compared to a candidate who’s name has appeared on a statewide ballot before.

Loretta is a Blue Dog Democrat, a conservaDem who frequently votes with the GOP against the best interests of working families, so there was no way that the progressive/liberal community in California (a lot of votes!) would rally around her, leaving the remaining winnable votes for Loretta in the following constituencies: Latinos and Republicans.

Now, given her voting record, Loretta can make (and has made) a play for Republican votes. Her courting of an endorsement from Congressman Darrell Issa, not just a Republican but one of the best-known and most hated Republicans in the state, is the prime example of this strategy. But let’s remember, California is a deep blue state with far more Democratic votes than Republican votes, so the Republican vote alone cannot get Loretta Sanchez across the finish line (even after adding that to her Orange County name identification base).

So, as a Latina, Loretta must win a significant number of latino votes and add those to her base and iffy Republican support. While that may seem simple (such as 1+1 = 2), it is not.

Latinos have faced a year and a half of absolute brutal, vitriolic language from the Republican nominee. Polling indicates that the latino vote identifies Republicans as espousing the Donald Trump view points. And, it is no secret that Issa, who has a stridently anti-immigrant record, is one of Trump's most devoted followers in the state.

Unless Loretta thinks she can win every latino who agrees that “we must build a beautiful beautiful wall” along the Mexican border (and assumes that that plus her Republican vote is enough) then her strategy points to the exact problem facing so-called Democrats in these intra party races: to cross party lines for votes often involves stabbing your natural constituency directly in the back.

Today Christopher Cadelago reported for the Sacramento Bee that as part of her campaign to entice Republican voters, Sanchez has one of her SuperPACs running a radio spot blasting Kamala Harris as "another Barbara Boxer," something most California voters hope is true but that Republicans, of course, fear. Two Republican Party operatives, Stu Mollrich (California’s New Frontier PAC) and Dave Gilliard (Jobs, Opportunity & Freedom PAC) are running SuperPACs smearing against Harris for Sanchez.

Sanchez's latest ad from the PAC she is illegally coordinating with features a mock discussion between two Republican voters about the fact that the Senate race-- for the first time-- is between two Democrats. When one of the Republicans says she may not vote, she is instructed to cast her ballot for Sanchez-- described in the ad as an "anti-establishment Orange County moderate" with a "reputation for working across the aisle to solve problems."

There is another race in California (in which shockingly almost as much money has been spent as in the statewide U.S. Senate race) that points to this exact problem: the race for Assembly District 47, pitting so-called "moderate" Democratic incumbent, Cheryl Brown, a blatantly corrupt conservaDem, against her challenger, progressive reformer and attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes.

First, let’s look at the District. Assembly District 47 is set in San Bernardino County (one of the poorest counties in America) and home to a majority latino population. Analysts agree that nearly 54% of the General Election Vote (could be higher due to Donald Trump) will be latino, 10% will be black, and the rest will be white, Asian, etc… This is a minority majority district.

Now let’s look at the candidates. The incumbent legislator is Cheryl Brown, an African American former newspaper owner who proudly calls herself a “moderate Democrat” and has voted 100% of the time with the oil interests in California. Her largest contributor is Chevron and public polling has consistently shown her hovering between 40% and 44% of the general election vote. The challenger is Eloise Gomez Reyes, a labor attorney and community activist who proudly tells voters how she picked onions and grapes in this district as a little girl to pay for her school clothes. Her largest contributors come from the labor community.

Thus far OVER $4.6 MILLION DOLLARS has been spent in this contest. That is broken down as follows:

Brown Campaign - $800,000
Reyes Campaign - $500,000
Brown Independent Expenditures - $2,100,000
Reyes Independent Expenditures - $1,200,000

In a district this compact (no wider than 20 miles in any direction such an incredible amount of spending (already the costliest state legislative race IN THE COUNTRY) has a significant diminishing return to scale. This phenomenon makes this race a perfect example of a Democrat on Democrat race because it takes the financial advantage largely out of the equation.

Maybe Loretta can win Republicans and Latinos to bring her across the 50% mark, however it will take a hell of a lot more money than Loretta currently has, in order to do so.

So, in District 47 (where the last report, as of the Tuesday after Labor Day showed the race at 42-38, Brown) how does the African American incumbent get across the finish line? 2 scenarios:

1- Convince enough latinos to vote for her (she would need to win 50% of the latino vote for this to be the case) or 2- Convince a super majority of Republicans and Republican leaning Decline to State voters to vote for her, while retaining a super majority (not just majority) of the Black vote.

This is exactly why Chevron (the largest contributor to the Brown I.E., independent expenditures using Dark Money) has run ads that one would find a Republican running against a Democrat (Brown believes in lower taxes while that liberal Reyes wants to raise yours, they claim ominously-- and untruthfully). It’s of no surprise that Chevron would run these types of ads, given the fact that Chevron is run by Republicans and has benefitted for years from Republican relationships both in California and nation-wide.

There is a problem for Brown here (much like in the Sanchez scenario) in that Brown’s natural constituency-- African Americans-- have benefitted from years of Democratic policies that influential donors from say, Chevron, have worked diligently to abolish. Can Brown go win her Republican votes while convincing enough blacks that the only thing they have in common with her is their skin tone? That remains to be seen.

This race is a toss up and the one to watch. Blue America, of course, has endorsed Eloise Reyes and you can contribute to her progressive, grassroots campaign here.

What Happened In California Last Night?

Israel, Aguilar-- a victory for the Republican wing of the Democratic Party

There were, at least in theory, 53 congressional seats up for grabs in California last night. Almost all of them, however, were't really up for grabs, at least not last night. Four, however, were: 3 open seats-- retirements of Republican Buck McKeon (CA-25), Republican Gary Miller (CA-31) and Democrat Henry Waxman (CA-33)-- and a heavily financed insurgency by a ConservaDem, Ro Khanna, against progressive icon Mike Honda (CA-17).

Two of the districts are natural Red-to-Blue targets: CA-25 and CA-31. CA-31 is a D+5 district and Democrats should have captured it in 2012-- and would have had DCCC chairman Steve Israel not interfered on behalf of corrupt conservative Pete Aguilar. Israel did the same thing again this cycle, even though a far more electable candidate, Eloise Reyes, was in the race. He helped Aguilar with fundraising, helped poison the well for Reyes and spent $172,269 attacking Republican Lesli Gooch and hated Democrat Joe Baca. The results were nearly a replay of last cycle's catastrophe:

• Paul Chabot ®- 11,329 (27%)
• Pete Aguilar (D)- 7,368 (17%)
• Lesli Gooch ®- 6,978 (17%)
• Eloise Reyes (D)- 6,746 (16%)
• Joe Baca (D)- 4,799 (11%)
• Danny Tillman (D)- 3,648 (9%)
• Ryan Downing ®- 1,421 (3%)

Aguilar managed to slip into second place by a mere 390 votes, avoiding Republican vs Republican general election like the one Israel presided over in 2012. But that is exactly what did happen in CA-25, where Israel's heinous posture was even worse. Cook reports that the district has a PVI of R+2. That's old news. SantaClarita.com; shows the way the district has changed and clearly predicts that by November, CA-25 will have an even PVI.

While all eyes have been fixed on the very loud and expensive primary campaign that's pitted Republican hopefuls Tony Strickland and Steve Knight against one another in hopes of facing Democrat Lee Rogers in November, a strange thing has been happening within the district: Democrats have been closing in on Republicans rapidly this year.

The five-point spread in party registration that the GOP enjoyed two years ago is now just a one-point spread today. In fact, the Democrats have narrowed the gap by 2.6% since December 31.

The reason for this appears to be a significant push by Democrats in the 36th Assembly District (Antelope Valley and some parts of northern SCV)… [T]he City of Santa Clarita has a 6.7% GOP advantage, down from 9% in 2012 (ten years ago, it was 17%).

Last cycle, one of the biggest Democratic donors was trying to get me to join the board iof a music-related company she was forming. I had no interest. She was persistent but I really had no interest. And then she figured out a way to get me to change my mind. She offered to through an even for CA-25 candidate Lee Rogers at her mansion and guarantee she would raise a minimum of $50,000 for him. Sign me up! We agreed to meet at some watering hole where people like me avoid like the plague. I think I may have even changed out of my hoodie. I shouldn't have. She swept into the room and informed me that, "Darling, Steve told me your candidate isn't serious and isn't even going to really run. He knows about these things." Undermining progressive candidates like this is something I've watched Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, Debbie Wasserman Schulz and Steve Israel do for years. She didn't do the event for Lee and I didn't join her board. He was serious of course and he did run-- and came closer to beating Buck McKeon than anyone else ever had. He came so close, in fact, that McKeon decided to avoid a rematch by becoming a lobbyist.

This cycle, Israel did his worst to prevent Lee Rogers from winning a very winnable open seat. He'd rather spend DCCC money on Blue Dogs and New Dems running in much, much redder and much less winnable districts. AR-02, for example, is an Israel fave. He's already reserved $625,000 in broadcast time between October 21 and November 4, even though the Democrat in the race is a conservative who has signaled he'll be regularly voting with the GOP and even though the district has a PVI of R+8. Rogers, who hwas endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, is in a district with a rapidly narrowing 1% registration gap was left to fend for himself. The DCCC spent no money in CA-25 the way they did in CA-31. The result: a Republican vs Republican general election in November:

• Tony Strickland ®- 14,573 (29%)
• Steve Knight ®- 14,016 (28%)
• Lee Rogers (D)- 11,107 (22%)
• Ivan Thomas (D)- 4,868 (10%)
• Troy Castagna ®- 2,905 (6%)
• David Bruce (L)- 907 (2%)
• Michael Mussack (NPD)- 700 (1%)
• Navraj Singh ®- 534 (1%)

CA-33 was the most-watched race in the state, with 18 candidates on the ballot. 17.7% of registered voters bothered casting ballots. The DCCC played no role, although the California Democratic Party worked on behalf of Ted Lieu, who will face off against Republican Elan Carr in November and, hopefully, ending the political career of carpetbagger Wendy Greuel. The results among the 8 candidates who got more than 1% of the vote (along with the amount each campaign spent):

• Elan Carr ®- 17,904 (21.49%)- $402,594
• Ted Lieu (D)- 15,870 (19.05%)- $448,551
• Wendy Greuel (D)- 13,976 (16.77%)- $864,173
• Marianne Williamson (NDP)- 10,789 (12.95%)- $1,340,720
• Matt Miller (D)- 9,973 (11.97%)- $353,595
• Lily Gilani ®- 5,831 (7%)
• Barbara Mulvaney (D)- 1,945 (2.33%)- $142,096
• Kevin Mottus ®- 1,935 (2.32%) $64,373

Vanity candidate David Kanuth raised $912,945 and spent $609,153, and garnered 1,177 voted (1%) for his efforts. The only outside spending in the race was EMILY's List's $158,519 on behalf of Greuel and Blue America's $20,923 on behalf of Williamson. The tenor of Greuel's highly negative campaign turned off women voters she was depending on, acerbated her poor image with the voters and cost her a spot in the general. She has $185,960 left in her campaign treasury.

Up in the Silicon Valley area (CA-17), Mike Honda unleashed a can of whoop-ass on plutocrat-backed Ro Khanna, beating him decisively. The results, again, with amounts spent:

• Mike Honda (D)- 28,136 (49%)- $1,122,500
• Ro Khanna (D)- 15,691 (27%)- $2,615,519
• Vanila Singh ®- 9,783 (17%)- $216,771
• Joel Vanlandingham ®- 4,248 (7%)

Honda and Khanna will face off in November.

Last night Blue America challengers Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) and Pat Murphy (IA-01) won their primaries and, like Ted Lieu (CA-33), advance to the general election. If you'd like to give them a boost, you can do that here on the Blue America ActBlue page. Next week's key primaries are opportunities for Patrick Hope (VA-08) and Jay Stamper in the South Carolina Senate race.

Tomorrow Is Election Day Here In California

Right-wing carpetbagger Tony Strickland

Well, it's primary day in several states. And several of them have contests that progressives are watching closely. The states with races where there's nothing important going on, on the federal level at least, for progressives: Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico and South Dakota. In the latter, Mike Rounds is expected to win the Republican nomination for the open Senate seat, where he'll face progressive Democrat Rick Weiland plus two Republicans, Larry Pressler and Gordon Howie, running as independents. Tomorrow Rounds has 4 opponents and one, Tea Party-backed Stace Nelson, is giving him a hard time. Nelson won't win tomorrow, but the depth of his support could rebound negatively on Rounds in November, when Nelson's backers are expected to vote for Howie.

Now, the states with races we're following: New Jersey, Iowa, Montana, and, of course, California. DWT endorsements outside California:

• NJ-12- Bonnie Watson Coleman.

• NJ-02- Dave Cole.

• IA-01- Pat Murphy.

• Montana Senate- John Bohlinger.

CALIFORNIA

There are 3 important House races in southern California, all for open seats, CA-25, CA-31 and CA-33. Blue America has endorsed, respectively, Lee Rogers (in a district that is trending blue), Eloise Reyes, and a dual endorsement in the 33rd: Marianne Williamson and Ted Lieu. Up north, there is the crucial battle in Silicon Valley, where progressive icon Mike Honda is battling a super-financed Republican-in-Democrat's clothing, Ro Khanna. Blue America has endorsed Honda.

Rogers is up against two right-wing extremists, Tony Strickland and Steve Knight, completely out of synch with a moderate, suburban district. The two crackpots were even too extreme for the conservative-leaning L.A. Times, which endorsed Rogers, a first in that district for a Democrat. Since then, Strickland has transformed himself into the ugly face of California gun lunacy by launching and opportunistic, now infamous guns now, guns, tomorrow, guns forever robocall just a couple of hours after a mentally deranged right-wing terrorist murdered 6 of Strickland's former constituents. Strickland, of course, has been endorsed by Republicans, like Paul Ryan, who are eager to elect more Members who they can count on to vote to kill Social Security and Medicare.

Due south of CA-25, down beyond the other side of Los Angeles, is CA-31, the D+5 Inland Empire district that Steve Israel's mind-boggling incompetence handed to the GOP last cycle, the bluest district anywhere in America with a Republican congressman. That congressman, corrupt extremist and bigot Gary Miller, is retiring and Israel is tempting the hand of fate by running his same failed game-plan: attempting to slide in the 2012 loser, Pete Aguilar, a careerist shill for the banking interests with a shockingly low set of ethical standards. Aguilar's entire career, first as a lobbyist, then as an appointed city councilman and appointed mayor, has been too provide a Latino front for the Chamber of Commerce predators-- exactly the kind of candidate Steve Israel loves. He's also been endorsed by the corrupt, Wall Street-owned New Dems. The alternative is a self-made labor attorney and local activist, Eloise Reyes, a dedicated progressive endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Blue America, the PCCC, Alan Grayson, Hilda Solis, Xavier Becerra and most Southland progressives. Aguilar's allies on Wall Street have swamped the district with the worst kind of ugly smears against Eloise, exactly what you would expect from a coke-snorting alcoholic bribe-taker and his team.

And the 33rd… There are 17 candidates left standing, but polling shows only 5 electorally viable: two progressives-- Ted Lieu and Marianne Williamson-- and 3 conservatives-- progressional "centrist" Matt Miller, Republican Elan Carr, and "ex"-Republican Wendy Greuel. Greuel, already viewed suspiciously as an opportunistic carpetbagger from the Valley by most Westsiders, probably wrecked her own chances last week with an ugly barrage of signature negative attacks against the two progressives in the race. She never attacks Republicans, only Democrats. That's a bad move in a Democratic primary and her already startling negatives-- from her vicious campaign against Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry-- plummeted further. She did switch her Republican Party registration after the Reagan years when being a Republican got in the way of her careerist ambitions, but in policy and in tactics, she represents the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Statewide, the only candidate I'm really excited about is the former head of Common Cause, Derek Cressman, who is running for Secretary of State against a gaggle of mediocre careerists. The other statewide candidates I plan to vote for are Betty Yee for Controller, John Chiang for Treasurer, Kamala Harris for Attorney General, Dave Jones for Insurance Commissioner and Tom Torlakson for Superintendent of Public Instruction. I'll probably vote for the Green candidates, Cindy Sheehan and Jena Goodman, for Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

My own Assemblyman (AD 43), Mike Gatto, does a good job and I'll vote to reelect him. In AD 64 there's an opportunity for a real upgrade by electing Comptom Board of Education President Micah Ali. There are also two L.A. County supervisorial races with excellent candidates-- District 1 (Hilda Solis) and District 3 (Sheila Kuehl). I'm going with Jeff Prang for L.A. Assessor and with Lou Vince for L.A. County Sheriff. And the judicial candidates:

• Office No. 22- Pamela Matsumoto.
• Office No. 48- Chuck Calderon is uber-corrupt but I'm not confident in Carol Rose. It's either her or an unthinkable crook for judge.
• Office No. 54- Debra Losnick
• Office No. 61- Jacqueline Lewis
• Office No. 87- Andrew Stein
• Office No. 97- Songhai Armstead
• Office No. 107- Emma Castro
• Office No. 113- Steven Klaif
• Office No. 117- James Pierce
• Office No. 138- Donna Armstrong
• Office No. 157- Arnold Mednick

Both ballot measures, 41 (Veterans Housing and Homeless Prevention Bond Act) and 42 (Public Records and Open Meetings Constitutional Amendment) are worth voting YES on.

Next up: Virginia and South Carolina, a week from tomorrow.