Representative Ami Bera has defeated his challenger, former congressman Doug Ose in a nailbiter election that was called yesterday - more than two weeks after Election Day. Christopher Cadelago looks at the race – and the GOP’s failed attempt to add congressional seats from California – in the Sacramento Bee.
“Bera, an Elk Grove physician, trailed Ose by more than 3,000 votes at the close of election night and steadily closed the gap before surging to a 700-vote advantage last week, as county election officials tallied tens of thousands of remaining ballots. He led Wednesday by 1,432 votes with nearly all ballots counted.
“Bera’s campaign attributed the late success to an aggressive get-out-the-vote operation that was the largest in the nation when he ousted GOP then-Rep. Dan Lungren in 2012. This cycle, the freshman lawmaker’s campaign knocked on 270,000 doors and made 950,000 phone calls.”
President Obama is poised to announce executive action on immigration in a White House speech tonight at 8PM. The speech follows yesterday’s release of a Facebook video with the president which received over a million views and was shared 23,000 times. Can somebody hook up a live feed of Tim Donnelly watching that speech?
From Carrie Budooff Brown, Seung Min Kim and Anna Palmer at Politico:
“The White House is in full-out sales pitch mode for President Barack Obama’s announcement Thursday that he will shield about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, circumventing Congress to provide the most sweeping changes to immigration policy in decades….
“The White House even managed to get Univision to delay its live telecast of the Latin Grammy Awards, with its audience of about 10 million viewers, for Obama’s speech at 8 p.m. Eastern time — although it won’t be aired by the four major broadcast networks.”
Governor Brown and University of California head Janet Napolitano faced off at Wednesday’s meeting of the UC Board of Regents. On the table was a nearly 28% tuition hike – as protesters chanted outside, Brown pushed other options, while Napolitano maintained that the increase was necessary. In the end, a committee gave the increase tentative approval – the full board is set to vote today. Richard Perez-Pena has the story in the New York Times, while Larry Gordon covered the showdown for the Los Angeles Times.
“The regents committee on long-range planning approved the hike in a 7-2 vote after an unusual debate that pitted the state’s most powerful political leaders against administrators of the 10-campus UC system. The full Board of Regents is scheduled to vote Thursday on the proposed increase, which would end a three-year freeze on tuition.”
California’s budget is on track to exceed estimates by $2 billion, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. From Jim Miller at the Bee.
“Barring a stock market slump that drags down the state’s economy, California budgets will run surpluses through the end of the decade even as temporary tax increases phase out over the coming years, the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal analyst said Wednesday.
“The fiscal outlook by the Legislative Analyst’s Office also projects that the state will take in $2 billion more in revenue through June than lawmakers expected when they approved the current budget plan. All of the increase will be absorbed by the state’s voter-approved constitutional funding guarantee for schools and community colleges.”
California Women Lead, a nonpartisan organization that encourages women's participation in politics, released a report totalling the total number of women serving in elected office across the state. California Women in Elected Office 2014, looks at the number of women serving on County Boards of Supervisors, State Legislature, Board of Equalization, Executive Offices and Congress. Read the full report here.
End-of-life advocate Brittany Maynard died November 1 in Portland where she had moved to take advantage of Oregon’s Death With Dignity act that allowed her to take her own life as advanced brain cancer became unbearable. Advocates for her cause marked what would have been Maynard’s 30th birthday yesterday with a push to expand end-of-life options for terminally ill patients. From Melody Gutierrez at SFGate.
“The advocacy group Compassion & Choices released a “call to action” video Wednesday narrated by Maynard, an East Bay teacher who drew worldwide attention after publicly discussing her decision to die on her own terms…
“Compassion & Choices’s California campaign director Toni Broaddus was in Sacramento Wednesday meeting with lawmakers and their staff about legislation for the upcoming year. Among the lawmakers who have expressed interest in carrying or assisting legislation are Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco; Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis; Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton; and Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel.”
When looking for strange news, you can always count on Florida. Today’s tidbit:
When Trenton Dennard sent Latoria Brown a friend request on Facebook, Brown didn’t think she knew Dennard. And then she realized that he looked familiar – he’d just shot her 12 year-old nephew in a drive-by shooting.
“Trenton Dennard was arrested on Tuesday after agents with the U.S. Marshals Service received information that he was staying at a hotel in Mount Dora.
“Police said Jahjuan A. Edwards was sitting on a porch on Church Street when Dennard fired multiple gunshots from a moving car just before 4 p.m. Sunday.
"’We are relieved that he's finally off the street,’ said Latoria Brown, Jahjuan's aunt.
“According to his arrest report, Dennard sent a Facebook friend request to Brown the day after the shooting.
"’When I looked at his profile that was the person that had just previously shot my nephew,’ Brown said.
“Brown said she did not know Dennard prior to the shooting.”
h/t Catherine Mejia, WESH, Orlando.
