Kamala Harris, Democratic frontrunner in the race to succeed retiring senator Barbara Boxer, has built a formidable war chest, having raised $2.5 million since announcing her bid in January. With $2.2 million in the bank, she has a significant advantage over any Dem who might want to contest the race.
Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee: “The first-quarter haul indicates Harris will be a formidable fundraiser despite operating under more stringent federal rules that limit individual donations to $5,400 and bar candidate contributions from corporations and labor unions. Her campaign said it had more than $2.2 million remaining at the end of the first quarter ending March 31.
“’We are well on our way toward building a strong grassroots campaign that will reach every community of California,’ Harris said in a statement.”
On the other side of the aisle, GOP mega-donor Charles Munger seeks to even the playing field in ever-bluer California. Spending a staggering $78 million over the past decade, Munger has been called the savior of California’s Republican Party. Michael Finnegan and Maloy Moore have the story at LAT.
"If it weren't for Charles Munger, the California Republican Party would have been driven into the sea at this point," said Kevin Spillane, a GOP strategist….
“Most recently, Munger has turned to rebuilding the state party. For last year's election, he gave the party $4.9 million — or 17% of what it raised, a huge share for a single donor. Munger also spent $6 million on campaigns to put Republicans in the Legislature, striking fear into Democrats.
"’We kept having to move our chess pieces around because he would suddenly appear on the board in a big way,’ said Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist.”
Not that the Dems are hurting for mega-donors. Climate activist Tom Steyer plans to spend big against climate change deniers – i.e. Republicans. To be fair, most of that dough will be leaving California, headed for swing states in 2016. Carla Marinucci has the story for the San Francisco Chronicle.
“San Francisco activist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Super PAC said Monday that the billionaire Democrat will wage a campaign to put Republicans on the “hot seat” about climate change and spend “what it takes” for an aggressive new high-tech war room to track — and attack — GOP candidates in 2016.
“The program, based at the NextGen headquarters in the Financial District — with satellite offices in Washington, D.C., and other cities — aims to put climate change at the top of the political agenda next year. It will focus its firepower on turning environmental concerns into a wedge issue, especially with young voters…”
Even with mega-donors weighing in on both sides, candidates – including winners - often find themselves awash in red ink when the campaign ends. California legislators are nearly $4 million in debt, five months after the last general election.
Jim Miller, Sacramento Bee: “November’s election is in the rearview mirror, but many California lawmakers and unsuccessful candidates continue to live with reminders of costly campaigns. Lawmakers reported about $3.7 million in unpaid bills and personal loans, according to state filings reviewed by The Bee.
“Debt retirement fundraisers around the Capitol have been common in recent weeks. Yet such fundraising has long troubled campaign-finance watchers…
“’You’re not giving to them so they run a competitive campaign. You’re not giving to them so they can get their message out,’ campaign-law expert Jessica Levinson, vice president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, said of campaign donors. ‘The purpose is, “Help me out. I need to retire my campaign debt.” It’s much more of a specific goal.’”
In what is being called a ‘landmark decision,’ a Sacramento judge has ruled that the legislature is not exempt from the constitutional right of Open Access guaranteed by Prop 59. The ruling could have wide impact in public records act requests. From Matthias Gafni, Contra Costa Times.
“In an eight-page ruling Friday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny denied the state's pleading to throw out part of the case brought by Bay Area News Group and its Southern California partners Los Angeles Newspaper Group. Both newspaper groups sued the state Senate and its leaders in July over their refusal to release portions of the appointment calendars of two indicted and suspended state senators. ‘Judge Kenny's ruling is significant,’ the newspapers' attorney Duffy Carolan said Monday. ‘The Senate's argument in this case -- that its records and meetings were not subject to the State's constitutional right of access -- does not hold up. Going forward, the Senate and the Assembly can no longer operate under a different presumption.’
“State attorneys argued that Proposition 59, a ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by voters in 2004, exempted the Legislature's records and meetings from public inspection.
"’If the intent of Proposition 59 was to exclude legislative proceedings and records from its reach, it could have plainly so stated,’ Kenny wrote.”
And, 100 years ago today, Billie Holiday, “Lady Day” to her admirers, was born.
One of the singular vocalists of the twentieth century, Holiday’s influence is inescapable, even a half century after her death. In 1958, Frank Sinatra cited her as his biggest influence, saying further, “Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.”
And that was an understatement.
Sadly, from the late 1940s to the end of her life, Holiday was wracked by drug addiction and repeated run ins with the law. It was almost as if she was being targeted….
Cut the “almost.” Earlier this year, Johann Hari wrote a stunning article for Politico, chronicling the FBI’s determined persecution of Billie Holiday – retribution for the singer’s recording of the anti-lynching song, ‘Strange Fruit.’
“Jazz was the opposite of everything Harry Anslinger believed in. It is improvised, relaxed, free-form. It follows its own rhythm. Worst of all, it is a mongrel music made up of European, Caribbean and African echoes, all mating on American shores. To Anslinger, this was musical anarchy and evidence of a recurrence of the primitive impulses that lurk in black people, waiting to emerge. ‘It sounded,’ his internal memos said, ‘like the jungles in the dead of night….’
“One night, in 1939, Billie Holiday stood on stage in New York City and sang a song that was unlike anything anyone had heard before. ‘Strange Fruit’ was a musical lament against lynching. It imagined black bodies hanging from trees as a dark fruit native to the South. Here was a black woman, before a mixed audience, grieving for the racist murders in the United States. Immediately after, Billie Holiday received her first threat from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics…”
Lady Day, we salute you.