Results tagged “Ted Lieu” from South Bay Pipeline

Ted Lieu's one-man debate on Monday night, hosted by the Asian American Action Fund, was billed as a forum for all attorney general candidates.

But there was another element that may explain why the other candidates stayed away: the straw poll.

After Lieu debated himself for about a half hour, the guests -- an assortment of attorneys and API political hacks -- voted on their favorite candidate. The results are here. Lieu got 54 of 57 votes. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, who had RSVP'd before backing out at the last minute, got 2 votes. San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris (who, by the way, is the favorite) got 1 vote.

In other words, it was a pro-Lieu crowd. From the perspective of Torrico and Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who also RSVP'd before bailing out, it probably looked like an ambush.

What have we learned? That Lieu is capable of a certain amount of organization and guile, I suppose. Whether that will be enough to win this thing... well. It's a long way to June.

Ted Lieu's Twitter feed today:

Sun Tzu: "To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."

If that makes no sense to you, then perhaps you weren't at the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce last night, where Lieu was scheduled to debate two Attorney General opponents: Pedro Nava and Alberto Torrico.

Torrico and Nava backed out at the last minute, so Lieu was left to debate himself.

They did not give a reason, but perhaps they sensed a trap. The debate was hosted by the Asian American Action Fund, which at this stage is officially neutral in the race. However, the moderator, Gautam Dutta, used to work as a tax counselor in the office of Controller John Chiang, who is a Torrance resident and a Lieu supporter.

The most important bill from a South Bay lawmaker this year was AB 260, by Ted Lieu, which regulates the subprime mortgage market.

Lieu has been working on this issue for a couple years. When the foreclosure crisis began in early 2007, Lieu proposed using state proposition funds for a bailout. Those were the days. That idea didn't pass, and if it had it seems likely that the magnitude of the problem would have very quickly overwhelmed the state's ability to address it.

Last year, Lieu proposed a series of mortgage reforms that were intended to at least prevent such a problem from happening again. AB 1830 would have banned some of the more irresponsible lending practices -- steering, yield-spread premiums, negative amortization loans -- and put a cap on pre-payment penalties. The governor vetoed that one, objecting to the so-called "private right of action," which would have allowed borrowers to sue their lenders. (Too much of a giveaway to the trial lawyers, apparently.)

This year, Lieu came back and passed AB 260, which is the same bill, except without the private right of action. Without that provision, enforcement will be up to the attorney general. And late last night the governor signed it.

There are two pieces to this puzzle, however. Mortgage reform is one, and the other is foreclosure mitigation.

Earlier this year, Lieu passed a bill to impose a foreclosure moratorium on banks that did not create a comprehensive loan modification program. Though some have said the bill lacked teeth, he believes the bill is part of why modifications are way up.

Lieu, who is running for attorney general, is trying to build on the momentum and pass AB 1588, which would compel banks to submit loan modification requests to a form of arbitration. The banks can be expected to fight that one to the bitter end.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, authored a bill this term to ban the sale of pets at swap meets, flea markets, and at roadside stands. The bill, AB 1122, was intended to crack down on puppy mills and "backyard breeding," and had the support of the ASPCA and other animal-welfare organizations (such as, no kidding, "Parrots First.")

But there was also strong opposition from such organizations as the California Swap Meet Owners Association and the Northern California Samoyed Fanciers. (And who could say no to that face?)

In the face of such controversy, Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure.

I am concerned with the scope and the unintended consequences of this bill and that it does not assure the humane and ethical treatment and welfare of animals. This bill has unknown costs associated with the enforcement and implementation of prohibiting the sale of live animals in specified venues and could drive the selling of animals underground or to private sites.

Dog dealers rejoice!

The governor has until Oct. 11 to sign or veto about 700 bills now on his desk. Since he hasn't signed anything yet, it's pretty clear he's trying to pressure the Legislature to come up with a deal on water policy.

Some might say: so what.

Given the ideological tilt of the Legislature, it's no surprise that most of the measures now pending are either minor in nature or are important mostly to liberal groups. 

Ah, but Senate Democrats are fighting back, pointing to a long list of bills that are said to be of vital importance to Californians. Among them are a couple by South Bay lawmakers:

AB 260 (Lieu) -- Expands the authority of the Real Estate Commissioner to fine, revoke or suspend the license of mortgage brokers that violate state or federal laws.

SB 148 (Oropeza) - This consumer-protection bill would require medical providers that operate mammogram machines to conspicuously post notices of serious violations.

Stay tuned.

The Log, a publication by for and about California boaters, is passing on a plea from Assemblyman Ted Lieu on behalf of his abandoned-vessel bill, AB 166. The bill passed both houses of the Legislature, and is sitting on the governor's desk. Lieu is urging boaters to write the governor in support of the measure.

AB 166 would permit boat owners to dispose of vessels at no cost by contacting a local government agency. The agency would then call a contractor to take on the job of vessel disposal.

The contractor would bill a state fund for the actual cost of disposing of the boat -- preventing the vessel from being abandoned and becoming a costly-to-remove hazard to navigation. Aside from posing navigational hazards, abandoned vessels can emit seeping toxins, such as fuel and oil that can pollute the environment.

This is an issue in the Delta area, but also around Marina del Rey.

Today, the O.C. Register takes a look at Ted Lieu's battles to reform mortgage lending. Familiar stuff for local Lieu-watchers, but it's interesting to see him get some broader attention.

Story includes the detail that Lieu brought chocolates to banking industry lobbyists (?), and this curious graf:

Lieu's repeated efforts to change lender behavior - he also authored a bill awaiting action by the governor that restricts use of subprime loans - have cost him. He lost his chairmanship of the banking committee and was not allowed even a seat on it.

In one of the last acts of his speakership last year, Fabian Nunez ousted Hector De La Torre from the chairmanship of the Rules Committee. He tapped Lieu to replace him, moving Lieu over from Banking and Finance. There was bad blood between Nunez and De La Torre over an Assembly pension deal and De La Torre's failed bid for speaker.

Did Nunez also want to punish Lieu for being too hard on the banks? That's hard to figure, since only a few months before Nunez co-authored Lieu's mortgage reform bill. But I suppose anything is possible.

Lieu is running for attorney general.

NPR has a piece on the difficulty of alleviating prison overcrowding -- even when the state is under a court order to do so. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg explains:

"When it comes to criminal justice, it's very, very political... And of course too many of them running for higher office or concerned about their political futures were not willing to cast the votes for a comprehensive package."

That's a reference to folks like Pedro Nava and local boy Ted Lieu, who both voted against prison reform, no doubt in part to protect their law-and-order cred for the upcoming attorney general's race. (A third A.G. candidate, Alberto Torrico, voted for the Assembly bill.)

In an interview, Lieu, D-Torrance, blasted the reform proposal, which he called a form of early release:

"We took a whole bunch of non-violent, non-serious offenders, and took them off parole supervision. It's the parole agents' job to help these people integrate into society. Primarily what this bill did was cut money. It's an odd response when the federal courts say you've got a huge problem in corrections, and our response is, 'Let's cut $1 billion.' I simply would have cut more from other places and not have cut from public safety."

Lieu argues that the problem is not that sentences are too harsh -- which some have suggested could be remedied by a sentencing commission -- but rather that there is too much recidivism. The solution to that, he says, is more rehabilitation, not early release or lessened probation supervision.

"What people don't understand is that you have to try very hard to get into state prison," he said. "You don't get there for shoplifting. The average state prisoner has five felony convictions. You're in state prison if you did one horrible act or a series of moderately horrible acts."

These votes have already come up at a recent A.G. debate, and are likely to figure prominently in the coming campaign.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has appointed Betsy Butler to the state's Film Commission.

Despite having never run for office before, Butler is the leading contender to replace Ted Lieu in the Assembly largely by virtue of her Sacramento connections. Butler is the top fundraiser for the Consumer Attorneys of California, a lobbying group for trial lawyers. Before that she worked for the League of Conservation Voters and the Environmental Defense Fund.

As far as I'm aware, Butler has never worked in government before*, so this film commission appointment could be intended to fill in that gap on her resume. Steinberg has endorsed Butler in next year's Democratic primary.

* UPDATE: Wrong. Butler worked for four years in the Commerce Department during the Clinton Administration.

Kamala Harris announced today that she raised $1.2 million in the first half of 2009 in her race for attorney general.

The San Francisco district attorney is running in a crowded field that includes Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu. After the last filing deadline six months ago, Lieu boasted that he had topped the field in cash-on-hand.

At that point, Harris had just gotten started and had just $117,000 in her account, compared to $350,000 for Lieu. Also running for the Democratic nomination are Assemblymen Pedro Nava and Alberto Torrico, former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, Facebook executive Chris Kelly, and former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.

No word from Lieu or the others yet on their January-to-June totals, but the bar has been set.

Readers, here's your morning scoop o' news:

Just like clockwork, the usual June gloom has rolled in, blanketing the South Bay in a thick cloud of haze and dragging down beach business.

A Manhattan Beach private school wants your old jeans. Students at del Sol School are collecting denim to turn into more effective and eco-friendly home insulation.

A man claiming to be the first black spacecraft manager at Boeing has filed suit against the aerospace giant, alleging he was fired because of his age, race and in retaliation for testifying in another age discrimination lawsuit against the company.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission and City Councilwoman Janice Hahn reached a last-minute agreement Monday over a controversial dredging project at the Port of Los Angeles.

Ted Lieu's mortgage reform bill cleared the Assembly on Monday.

A Torrance father-and-son car dealer team found a favorable result after trading Saturns for used vehicles.

Three El Segundo High School softball players are working to extend the team beyond the shadow of their star Stanford University-bound player. See pictures of the trio of seniors.

You'd think this guy was running for office:

Ted Lieu bill increases penalties on charter bus companies that violate safety standards.

Ted Lieu bill lets cops take guns from domestic violence scenes.

And last but not least, Ted Lieu bill cracks down on retailers who sell expired baby food:

Assemblymember Ted W. Lieu (D-Torrance) announced Assembly Bill 1512, which would outlaw the sale of expired baby formula, baby food and over-the-counter medicines, cleared the State Assembly today.

"Many retailers in California have been found selling expired products like baby formula and that's just unacceptable," said Assemblymember Lieu. "This legislation will protect the health and safety of consumers, especially infants and the elderly, from sales of these products beyond their expiration dates."

Also don't forget about the Ted Lieu bill on transgendered birth certificates.

Here goes, readers:

Rancho Palos Verdes city leaders agreed early today to provide the $8 million that developers of a luxury resort said they need to open up on time next week.

DaVita is bailing from El Segundo for cheaper pastures, the operator of kidney dialysis centers nationwide announced today.

Locals react to the state Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8, the ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

Narbonne High School students Tuesday mourned the death of Dannie Farber Jr. as detectives worked to figure out why a gunman would kill the football standout as he ate at a Compton restaurant over the weekend.

Newman, a Boston Terrier and the last link to a Torrance family killed two years ago in a freak car crash, is now missing.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu is floating a bill that would allow transgender people to change the sex on their birth certificates.

Softball teams from Banning and San Pedro High Schools face off today for the L.A. City Section title.

Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, is a candidate for attorney general, so his positions on Prop. 8 are likely to be closely scrutinized by activists and primary voters. Here's what he said on Twitter today:

Very proud of my friend Justice Carlos Moreno for dissenting from the CA Supreme Court opinion on Prop 8 today.

Moreno was considered a long-shot candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court appointment that today went to Sonia Sotomayor. His blistering dissent today would certainly have complicated his confirmation battle:

The rule the majority crafts today not only allows same-sex couples to be stripped of the right to marry that this court recognized in the Marriage Cases, it places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities.

Chris Kelly, the chief privacy officer for Facebook, has formed an exploratory committee to run for attorney general in 2010.

So far, he has a Web site, but not, so far as I can tell, a Facebook page. UPDATE: Found it.

This stands in stark contrast mild contrast to Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu, who is also running for attorney general and has a Web site, a Facebook page, and a Twitter feed.

UPDATE: Now that I've found Chris Kelly's Facebook page, I can report that he has 205 supporters as of this moment, all of whom seem to have signed up today. Lieu, who has been running for several months, has 409 members of his Facebook group and 221 supporters on his Facebook page.

Plus, Kelly has harnessed the power of Facebook to generate a Chris-Kelly-for-Attorney-General application. I'd say Ted's in trouble.

Ted Lieu is now on-line over at Calitics answering questions.

So far, he has identified global warming as the most dangerous long-term threat to California, urged an end to the 2/3 budget requirement, and vowed to fight to increase the loan limits under the federal mortgage bailout.

Lieu got a question about whether delaying foreclosures merely prolongs a much-needed market correction. This is how he answered:

A foreclosure is one of the most inefficient market mechanism ever designed by humankind.  The lender loses half or more of the loan value, the family gets thrown out on the street, all sorts of fees are paid, empty homes then flood the market and destabilize it, and the vacant homes become blight and a public safety problem.  It is a lose/lose/lose/lose proposition all the way around.  If we can mitigate some of these foreclosures, then we are all better off.

Lieu, of course, is running for attorney general.

Shortly, Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu will be taking questions at Calitics. Get your question in now. We'll bring you some of the answers later on.

Chris Kelly, the chief privacy officer for Facebook, is apparently set to announce his candidacy for attorney general, according to TechCrunch, a Silicon Valley blog.

Kelly would be the fourth Democrat to get into the race, after San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, and Torrance's own Assemblyman Ted Lieu. (All of this is contingent on the expectation that Jerry Brown will run for governor in 2010.)

Kelly is a lawyer and a former Clinton White House official, but he is best known as the guy who tries to keep child molesters off of Facebook. Earlier this year, he entered into an agreement with 49 state attorneys general to institute a series of measures to prevent adults from soliciting minors on the site. (The holdout: Texas.)

Lieu also plans to run on his record of cracking down on sex offenders. In 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1900, a Lieu bill that made it illegal for sex offenders who are independent contractors to employ children or work around them. The classic example: no more sex-offender Santas.

Last March, Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, got a tap on the shoulder and was told he was no longer the chair of the Rules Committee. Apparently, he had crossed outgoing Speaker Fabian Nuñez. He was given one day to pack his things.

The beneficiary of that palace coup was Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu, who was elevated from Banking and Finance chair to chair of Rules -- with a spot on the leadership team and the authority to control the flow of legislation through the Assembly.

Today, new Speaker Karen Bass formally announced that Lieu will be staying on as her Rules chair in the new Legislative term.

Here's the full list of Assembly leadership posts:

Speaker pro Tempore                          Assemblymember Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego)
Majority Floor Leader                          Assemblymember Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont)
Assistant Majority Floor Leader            Assemblymember Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank)
Majority Whip                                      Assemblymember Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco)
Assistant Majority Whip                       Assemblymember Isadore Hall (D-Compton)
Democratic Caucus Chair                     Assemblymember John Pérez (D-Los Angeles)
Rules Committee Chair                         Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance)

The Sacramento Bee reports that Torrance Assemblyman Ted Lieu's proposal to impose a 120-day foreclosure moratorium is not moving as quickly as expected. Lieu introduced the bill last week. He predicted a committee vote on Monday and a floor vote on Wednesday.

Well, they had the hearing at Banking and Finance on Monday, but there was no vote. Lieu agreed to a postponement, and the committee chair, Pedro Nava, suggested that nothing will happen until January. Reporter Jim Wasserman sums it up:

Lieu's office said only that its bill, ABX4 4, is still in negotiations and hopes are for quick resolution. The Banking and Finance Committee Chair, Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said the debate Monday over the bill had flushed out issues that would be helpful when the new Legislature returns in January. The governor's office said it is still hoping for some kind of movement on the issue in the next two weeks, preferably on its version. And by most accounts, the Senate has no bill in the works.

Then again, two weeks is forever in legislative work where the real deals often come in the final hours of the final day.

If you're wondering why we're paying so much attention to this, keep in mind that if you live in the South Bay, Lieu is probably your Assemblyman. This is his signature issue. So far he doesn't have much to show for it. Any accomplishment that comes out of this messy process is likely to get touted heavily in some future campaign for higher office.