Patty Lopez stunned California’s political ‘experts’ with her surprise win in AD-39 against Raul Bocanegra, an incumbent Assemblyman who had a seemingly-solid lock on reelection. Despite a flurry of attention following the November 4 election, she has largely remained a mystery. Jeremy White offers a long look at the education activist, originally from Michoacán, Mexico. From the Sacramento Bee:
“Even among 26 other freshman Assembly members, Lopez, who is 47, stands out for her lack of formal political experience. The next two years will test a novice politician who touts her community roots and independence from the Democratic political establishment whose chosen candidate, Bocanegra, has begun laying the groundwork to unseat Lopez in 2016.
“’Hopefully, (I’m) giving hope to the people if they didn’t believe in their government before. Like me, people don’t need to have money and power to make it right for the people,’ Lopez said.
“’Nobody gave me anything, I owe nobody nothing, so I’m here and my vote is 100 percent to the people,’ she added. ‘I’m controversial because I will stand for the people.’”
Responding to a series of controversial police shootings, Senator Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) has proposed legislation to bar the use of grand juries in officer-involved shooting deaths. Patrick McGreevy has the story at the Los Angeles Times.
“Mitchell introduced legislation to bar the use of a grand jury, arguing that secrecy of the bodies was intended to protect the reputations of people accused of crimes, but that the result has been to keep the public from being fully informed when a police officer is accused of excessive force.
“’Community mistrust in the justice system arises when the public’s right to know is abridged,’ Mitchell said in a statement. ‘Too often eye witnesses and video evidence substantiating charges of wrongdoing on the part of law enforcement are not revealed or probed in context, resulting in seemingly inexplicable dismissal of cases by the Grand Jury.’”
Assemblyman Brian Jones, (R-Santee) has introduced a bill to allow products assembled with ‘virtually all’ American-made components to use the iconic ‘Made in USA’ label. Currently, California is the only state that requires that 100% of a product’s parts to be US-made to use the label.
From Chris Nichols at the San Diego Union Tribune: “The other 49 states follow a more lenient federal law that permits some outsourcing as long as “virtually all” of the product is of U.S. origin, according to a Federal Trade Commission advisory.”
“In 2012, the Assembly unanimously favored the easing of California’s rules, as called for in a previous bill by Jones. That legislation died in a Senate committee after opposition from trial lawyers and consumer groups who argued that the change would mislead consumers…
“The lawmaker framed his efforts as supporting California jobs.
“’My bill will provide an opportunity for California to successfully compete with other states and nations for jobs and investments without removing consumer protections,’ Jones said in a news release.”
Taxpayer advocates are howling mad at the news that the state purchased $540,000 worth of Ford Fusion hybrids and other cars for legislators over the past 18 months, sometimes replacing cars with less than 13,000 miles on the clock. Best tidbit in the story: Lew Uhler, president of the California-based National Tax Limitation Committee drives a 1990 Buick with 337,000 miles. Bet that just flies through smog check.
No breaking news over the weekend about the impending Senate race (if we can use ‘impending’ for an election that is still 21 months away), but Chuck McFadden takes a look at Democratic divisions that the race is laying bare. From Capitol Weekly:
“Here we have Attorney General Kamala Harris, of African-American and East Indian (Tamil) descent, and on the other hand, we have Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles who is, what else, Latino. Both yearn to be the next U. S. senator after current senator Barbara Boxer steps down in 2016. Tony V’s challenge is to rouse the big Latino population of Los Angeles and the rest of California on his behalf in a primary race against fellow Democrat Harris. He realizes more than anyone the huge, mostly untapped, potential of the Latino vote. Harris would have the Northern California Democratic establishment, and, presumably, the preponderance of African-American voters on her side.
“The resulting race, if there is one, could be bloody fratricide.”
Meanwhile, at the Times, Seema Mehta and Michael Finnegan wonder how presumptive candidate Antonio Villaraigosa will pay the bills between now and November 2016.
“Since he left office in 2013, the former Los Angeles mayor has taken on consulting jobs and other work that a grueling Senate race would force him to scale back or abandon.
“Kamala Harris, a fellow Democrat who would be his leading opponent, holds a $154,000-a-year job as state attorney general that provides not just a steady paycheck but also constant opportunities to draw media coverage that serves her political needs….
“Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, a close friend of Villaraigosa's, said he did not expect personal finances to be a challenge for the former mayor.
"’He left the mayor's office with just the clothes on his back, literally,’ Nuñez said. ‘But I think he's done well in the private sector.’"
Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters looks at candidate Steve Glazer, an ‘outsider’ Democrat in the March 17 three-way race to succeed Mark DeSaulnier in the 7th Senate District.
“With DeSaulnier now in Congress, Steve Glazer is running for his 7th Senate District seat, claiming his maverick mantle and opposing Brown on several issues. And that seems strange, at least superficially, because Glazer has a decades-long relationship with Brown that includes managing his 2010 campaign for governor.
“Their differences include the bullet train, with Glazer lamenting the ‘billions of dollars we’re spending on high-speed rail’ instead of deteriorating highways…
“Glazer describes himself as ‘fiscally conservative’ and is enjoying some Republican support, which could be decisive. He jumped on his rivals for, he said, supporting additional taxes. ‘I think we need to hold the line on taxes,’ he said.”
And, the big news this past weekend: The Harrisburg Wienermobile Tragedy. (with photos.)
“The famed Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was involved in an unfortunate fender-bunder in Pennsylvania. According to KDKA, a Wienermobile — which is shaped like a hot dog in a bun — crashed into a pole in Harrisburg Sunday thanks to icy road conditions. While no one was hurt, the 27-foot Wienermobile is in bad shape: It has a smashed windshield and ‘serious damage of the front of the ‘bun' fender.’"