The capitol community has been abuzz since election night, when longtime assemblyman Raul Bocanegra tallied less votes than his ‘unknown’ competitor, Patty Lopez. Her website was homebrew, partially unfinished. The campaign videos that she had posted to Youtube were in Spanish. A quick search of campaign disclosures revealed that Lopez had spent less than $10,000 on her entire campaign. The race remains too close to call, but Lopez has been the talk of Sacramento – Capitol Weekly’s Samantha Gallegos spoke with the mystery woman herself.
“’Honestly, I didn’t expect to make it to Sacramento,’ says Lopez, who was born in Michoacan, Mexico, and is a volunteer at the L.A. Unified School District. ‘My campaign was more to be a voice for the people that don’t have a voice, so the people in their [elected] seats would pay attention at the issues that are important to us.’”
And speaking of Socal assembly races, Dan Morain looks at Mike Gipson’s dirty campaign against Prophet Walker for AD-64, and “the most vile mailers I’ve ever seen,” in the Bee.
“Gipson’s deception wasn’t clever. Anyone with a computer could have done it. He cut out a photo of Walker and pasted it in a dark hoodie, and manipulated the photo to depict Walker aiming a gun and grinning, though in context it looks like a snarl. Gipson placed a photo of his own face onto a police officer in uniform.
“The verbiage described Walker’s criminal past and Gipson’s good work. But that was secondary. The point was the menacing image, juxtaposed against “Officer” Gipson. Gipson was a cop 20 years ago in Maywood, a gritty L.A. suburb that in 2010 disbanded its police force because of its history of brutality and corruption.”
Voters may be tired of Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein – but that doesn’t mean they won’t keep re-electing them. From Mark Barabak at the Los Angeles Times.
“A recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found that a majority of Californians surveyed are ready for the state's two Democratic senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to come home and retire to these golden hills, a fact that is hardly surprising….
“But if California elects a new United States senator in either 2016 or 2018, rejecting Boxer or Feinstein in the process, it will be because some flesh-and-blood candidate steps forward and convinces enough voters that, however imperfect they may be, the alternative they present is better — even marginally — than what the incumbents have to offer.”
The Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating the state Republican Party for allegedly violating campaign finance rules relating to IEs in AD21. (Those of you at Capitol Weekly’s Election Post Mortem a couple of weeks ago might remember Lisa Gasperoni calling the the GOP out on this very issue during her panel.) Chris Cadelago has the story at the Sacramento Bee:
“In a letter Thursday, the California Fair Political Practices Commission informed campaign attorneys that the agency was looking into an Oct. 16 complaint concerning the California GOP and party mega-donor Charles T. Munger Jr. Republican officials have repeatedly denied the allegations and say they followed the law.
“The complaint challenges the state party’s ability to receive unlimited sums from Munger and use the money to make independent expenditures on behalf of Republican Jack Mobley and against Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced. Gray won the race by 6 percentage points.”
Richie Ross, the Sacramento campaign consultant/lobbyist who was fined last week by the FPPC for failing to properly collect fees owed by legislators, probably wishes the story would fade away. Instead, the Bee’s Laurel Rosenhall offers up an in-depth look at the case and the history behind it.
“Sacramento is full of people who work multiple angles of the political business to sway elections, influence officials and benefit the interest groups that pay them. Lobbyists run huge independent expenditure campaigns for clients who want to shape elections. Unions spend big to help their preferred candidates. Consultants connect corporate clients with lawmakers through donations, receptions and industry tours. Political strategists are paid to elect candidates and advise business and labor clients. All of them have interests in how those legislators vote.
“What makes Ross unusual is that he works directly on the campaigns of legislative candidates and also registers as a lobbyist who seeks votes from the Legislature. A registered lobbyist must disclose who’s paying him, how much and what bills he’s trying to influence.”
A Sunnyvale law banning large capacity magazines will be the target of the gun rights lobby on Monday as activists ask the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn it. Howard Mintz has the story at the San Jose Mercury News.
“A group of Sunnyvale gun owners, backed by the National Rifle Association and other gun groups, on Monday will urge the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate the city's law, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last year.
“Gun rights advocates have thus far failed in their legal challenge to the ordinance, which threatens criminal prosecution of anyone with a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.”
A two year study commissioned by the California Natural Resources Agency finds that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan – the twin tunnels – can be funded if local water agencies agree to make fixed payments. Scott Smith has the story for the Associated Press.
“The information was provided as the state treasurer's office released a financing plan for the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Project. The treasurer's independent study offered no opinion on whether the project should be built but said the tunnels would only be feasible if water agencies adopted set annual payments.”
The Center for Investigative Reporting sifted through two decades’ worth of data on commercial pesticide use tracked by the state of California. CIR used the data in a recent series on Strawberry growers, but Rachael Bale has five interesting factoids that didn’t make it into the series – check them out here.
And, in the ‘can-you-believe-it?’ file: Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as Governor of Cal-ee-fornia 11 years ago today. If you have a few minutes, check out Michael Lewis’ amazing 2011 profile of the Governator and his times, from Vanity Fair.
“If there had not been a popular movement to remove a sitting governor and the chance to run for governor without having to endure a party primary, he never would have bothered. ‘The recall happens and people are asking me, “What are you going to do?’”’ he says, dodging vagrants and joggers along the beach bike path. ‘I thought about it but decided I wasn’t going to do it. I told Maria I wasn’t running. I told everyone I wasn’t running. I wasn’t running.’ Then, in the middle of the recall madness, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines opened. As the movie’s leading machine, he was expected to appear on The Tonight Show to promote it. En route he experienced a familiar impulse—the impulse to do something out of the ordinary. ‘I just thought, This will freak everyone out,’ he says. ‘It’ll be so funny. I’ll announce that I am running. I told Leno I was running. And two months later I was governor.’ He looks over at me, pedaling as fast as I can to keep up with him, and laughs. ‘What the fuck is that?’”
Hasta la vista, babies…
