The Jerry Brown 70s: Medflies, Birds, Taxes and Racism

"People want a dictator these days, a man on a white horse."

- Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown finally gets around to campaigning, releasing an ad that is lame, shows him doddering, reminds us of his past (let us not be doomed to repeat it) and, like Jerry, is slow to load.

Governor Moonbeam actually goes back to the 70s hoping that his then quirks of sleeping on the floor, driving an old beat up car and not using the Governor's jet will motivate you to hand him back the keys to the kingdom. However even though Jerry may have been frugal in his youth he has, in his sunset years, learned to appreciate the perks of office.

"The black kids can teach the white kids how to fight and the white kids can teach the black kids how to read."

- Jerry Brown, speaking of a teen work camp in the 1970s

We really don't want to go back to the 70s when Jerry passed the the Dills Act which even fellow Democrat Willie Brown says got us into the mess we have today with public employee pensions. Jerry also took a $6 billion surplus and turned it into a $1 billion deficit and enacted $7 billion in new taxes. We also remember medflies, Rose Bird, Adriana Gianturco, B.T. Collins (the former Brown Chief of Staff who drank a cup of the pesticide malathion at a press conference), Gray Davis (the other former Brown Chief of Staff who eventually became Governor Lowbeam), the "era of limits," Joanie Loves Chachi and all kinds of other Brown era failures there's no need to turn back to.

And finally, it seems as if Brown has his own type of racism he practiced back then too.

Jerry I think MSNBC will have a nice spot for you.

Did Gavin Newsom Buy Maxine Waters' Endorsement?

I'm not Gavin Newsom
but I would like to be!

Many have told us that it’s well known within political circles that there is a price to doing business with Rep. Maxine Waters. Specifically, the price is high to get a coveted spot on Rep. Waters’s slate mailer.

Just ask Rocky Delgadillo and Mike Feuer. In 2001, according to the LA Weekly, “Feuer got on the first, primary mailer for $10,000. He was then asked for $25,000 to get into round two. Feuer’s people offered $15,000, and the next thing you knew, the better-funded Delgadillo’s people ponied up $35,000 to replace the councilman on the Waters slate-mailer roster.”

The LA Weekly goes on to say… “So it would appear that, in this specific case, the election was really for sale. And, in a sense, sold. But this appears not to have been the only runoff race in which Waters’s mailerites tried to pull a shakedown. In at least one other city-election race, Waters also tried to put on the bite for a five-figure enhancement from the leading candidate, who asked not to be identified (it turns out that few, if any, politicians want to rankle Maxine Waters). That candidate, however, refused to be hustled. The Waters people then took their money from the candidate’s opponent, who (one wants to say “justly”) lost.”

It gets better… The LA Times reports, “Well-known politicians such as former Gov. Gray Davis, and state Treasurer Philip Angelides have been charged tens of thousands of dollars. Others have paid nothing. A school board candidate paid $250. Al Checchi, a wealthy businessman and political novice who ran for governor in 1998, paid L.A. Vote the most: $171,000.”

And… “Indian tribes have been particularly good customers for both the slate mailer. Since 1998, they have paid $170,000 to the slate mailer operation and $126,000 to her firm for community outreach on gambling initiatives, their campaign reports show. Meanwhile, Rep. Waters has backed the tribes' ballot measures and defended tribal gambling interests in Washington.”

And because of Rep. Waters’s sleazy tactics, the nonpartisan watchdog organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has repeatedly named Rep. Waters to their “Most Corrupt Members Of Congress” list.

Oh look, on May 26th, Mayor Newsom announced the endorsement of Rep. Waters! Something tells me, he'll be on Waters's next slate mailer.

SO WE POSE THE QUESTION TO MAYOR NEWSOM – HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY FOR REP. WATERS’S ENDORSEMENT? We suspect that the next finance report will show a hefty sum forked over to the Waters’ slate mailer.

Polls Not Looking Good for Some Candidates

Gavin is bad ass!

This just in!

Republican political operatives closely aligned with Meg Whitman's campaign have begun to see what the slate of candidates looks like that will be going head to head with what many are calling the most diverse slate of Republican candidates in California Republican history.

Here are their internal results – with one race being particiuarly concerning to them.

Lieutenant Governor:

Gavin Newsom – 39%
Janice Hahn – 33%
Eric Korevaar – 11%
Undecided – 15%

The Republican Party is rooting for a Newsom win – and quite frankly so am I. (Recall we were the first blog in the state to report that Prince Newsom was dropping out) Gavin Newsom will be used as an anchor to tie down Attorney General Jerry Brown and the entire Democratic Party ticket. We need Gavin so I am urging all Mayor Sam readers to donate to his race so we can have a clean sweep in November 

www.gavinnewsom.com 

Even though Newsom released a poll that showed it 47%-26% my “right-thinking” political operative friends tell me that was before any mail had hit and the Hahn campaign has unloaded with several mail pieces while the first Newsom piece landed last night. Their internals have the Voted Already numbers a dead heat 34%-32%. Hat tip to the Hahn campaign for making it close.

Insurance Commissioner:
Dave Jones: 37%
Hector De La Torre: 29%
Undecided: 33%

Insurance Commissioner is pretty low-level job and whoever wins will be skewered by Assemblyman Mike Villines as part of the Sacramento problem of higher taxes and out-of-balance budgets.

Donate to Mike at: http://mikevillines.com

Attorney General:
I personally like District Attorney Steve Cooley and think he will be beat whoever the Democrats put up.

But this might be some not-so-great-news for the Harris campaign, who Republicans really want to see as the Dem nominee as well.

Attorney General

Chris Kelly: 16%
Kamala Harris: 15%
Rocky Delgadillo: 11%
Pedro Nava: 10%
Ted Lieu: 5%
Alberto Torrico: 4%
Undecided: 39%

I believe this is the first poll showing Chris Kelly with some sort of a lead or “traction” as the pros like to put it.

Again we want “anti-death penalty” Kamala Harris to go win this – so again I urge a donation to 

www.kamalaharris.com
Alright folks – remember this is the place for politics – Los Angeles or Statewide.

BREAKING NEWS: Source: Cooley Eyeing AG Run

Sources in the know say that Los Angeles District Attorney is reportedly considering jumping into the race for the Republican nomination for California Attorney General.  Developing.