Election 2008: May 2008 Archives

The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC returned from more than thre hours of closed deliberations and are believed to have agreed to allow half the delegations of Florida and Michigan to be seated at its convention.
The numbers remained murky, but there was general agreement it will mean 24 to 25 more delegates for Clinton.
And, while it remained unclear if the votes for those states would be counted, it was clear that the Clinton campaign will claim them as part of her argument she has received more of the popular vote than Obama.

As teh DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee prepares to begin its deliberations, it appears a deal is in the works between the campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Under it, the Florida vote will be confirmed, but deletates will be given a half a vote at the convention. The Michigan results _ where Clinton was the only major candidate on the ballot _ will be thrown and its dlegatino will be evenly devided between Obama and Clinton.
Under such a scenario, the number of delegates needed for the nomination increases from 2,025 to 2,116

Two years ago, a bagel shop owner who hadn't practiced law in more than a decade was voted onto the Los Angeles Superior Court bench over an incumbent judge with two decades' experience.Brandon Lowrey in the Daily News.

This year's judicial elections could be equally surprising, with a ballot of nearly a dozen races featuring at least one controversial candidate, along with all four in another race deemed "not qualified" by the county bar association.

And what's particularly worrisome to legal experts is that the relatively low-profile races mean voters Tuesday could be mostly clueless about candidates' qualifications for a public office that wields power over life, death, freedom and money.

A measure allowing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to ask voters to approve a half-cent sales tax cleared the Assembly on Thursday.
The measure, AB 2321 by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, would allow the MTA to assess the tax for 30 years to bring in an estimated $39 billion to pay for projects in its long range plan, including the Subway to the Sea.
"Los Angeles desperately needs to improve our transportation infrastructure. People spend too much time in their idling cars sitting in traffic rather than at home with their families," Feuer said. "This bill could enable Los Angeles residents to transform our region."
Local officials are still debating whether to place the measure on the November ballot, with possible competition from a sales tax increase being considered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to balance the state budget.

When the Democratic Party Rules Committee meets Saturday, it will be the ultimate in sausage making in an event normally televised only on CSPAN.
Here's what is involved.
Both Florida and Michigan violated party rules by moving ujp their primary elections. Florida has 211 delegates, Michigan has 157.
The discussion is whether to seat all, half or less of the delegates from each state and how to apportion them.
Florida's results gave Clinton 67 deletages, Obama 41, Edwards 13 and the remaining for another candidate or undecided. The full breakdown is here.
The Michigan Democratic Party did not provide a breakdown.
In Michigan, Clinton was on the ballot, Obama was not.

In late 2001, the Rev. Frederick Murph joined a delegation of black leaders on a trip to the mayor's mansion in an effort to save Bernard Parks' job as Los Angeles police chief. Gene Maddaus in the Daily Breeze.

Many of Parks' most prominent backers were there, including Rep. Maxine Waters, businessman Danny Bakewell and L.A. Lakers great Magic Johnson. They bought some time to try to repair the breach between the chief and Mayor James Hahn - but ultimately, the effort failed.

"I was the last one that stayed on the ship before it went down," Murph said.

Councilman Bernard Parks is getting support from nine of his City Council colleagues -- the people who know him best -- in his run for the Board of Supervisors.
The nine will make it official on Tuesday morning at a news conference in front of City Hall.
They include City Council President Eric Garcetti and Council members Jan Perry, Tony Cardenas, Janice Hahn, Jose Huizar, Tom LaBonge, Bill Rosendahl,Greig Smith and Herb Wesson.

Sen. John McCain is having a high-priced fundraiser on Wednesday in Los Angeles, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former First Lady Nancy Reagan serving as honorary co-chairs.
The event is being held at the home of Robin and Elliott Broidy, a major investor, and has a minimum buy-in of $1,000 per person and $4,600 per couple.
Fro access to private reception with McCain, the costs go up to $43,100 to be considered a deptuy chair and range up to $86,200 for vice chairs, $125,000 for co-chairs and $250,000 for chairs.
Among those listed as major donors are real estate mogul Alan Casden, writer-director Lionel Chetwynd, television baron Jerold Perenchio, investor Brad Freeman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner

One of he most engimatic -- and unknown -- factors in the race for the Board of Supervisors is the Latino vote.
The Mexican American Political Association is holding a rally this morning on behalf of state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, but the vote remains very much up in the air in his close contest with Councilman Bernard Parks.
Latinos account for some 95,000 voters in the 2nd District and are expected to have a critical impact on the race.
"In every election Latinos are becoming an important factor in the outcome. We want to make sure Latinos know who Mark Ridley Thomas is, what he stands for, and why Latinos must support him," says immigrant right leader Angelica Salas.
The race has broad implications, since once elected, it is hard to oust a supervisor.
Civil Rights leader Nativo Lopez says, "This election is one of the most important elections affecting Latinos. The winner will have decisive influence over county programs serving Latinos such as health care, foster care, criminal justice, and transportation. We must not stay silent."

In an era of political hyperbole, the hard-fought campaign for the 23rd Senate District seat in the June 3 primary may boil down to the savior of the polar bear versus the defender of the elephant. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

There is, of course, more to global warming advocate and former lawmaker Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills and Assemblyman Lloyd Levine of Woodland Hills

Each is recognized as among the most environmentally conscious, progressive individuals ever to represent Assembly districts in the San Fernando Valley.

And each is vying to represent one of the most diverse, heavily gerrymandered Democratic districts - extending from Oxnard and Port Hueneme, running southward into parts of the San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and the Westside of Los Angeles.

Last week's California Supreme Court decision backing gay marriage has galvanized both sides of the issue, with groups working to either pass or defeat a constitutional prohibition reporting numerous new volunteers and waves of fresh cash donations. Mike Swift in the Mercury News.

In a measure of the issue's national import, anti-gay marriage - pro-amendment - forces have landed the pre-eminent Catholic fraternal organization's largest-ever donation on the gay-marriage issue. Meanwhile gay-marriage - anti-amendment - support groups have won large donations from national gay-rights groups, including a $500,000 pledge from the Human Rights Campaign.

Both sides say they are also receiving large numbers of much smaller, individual donations.

County officials are still confirming the validity of more than 1.1 million petition signatures that both s

As if Sen. John McCain needed another obstacle, the Libertarian Party on Sunday nominated former Republican Rep. Bob Barr as its nominee for president this year.
Barr, a conservative, has said he does not believe McCain will speak for conservatives in the election or pursue their policies.
The full release is after the jump:

As the political race to replace retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke heats up in the final days before the June 3 election, analysts say results at the polls could lead to significantly reshaped county policies. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

The race has intensified in recent months as the leading candidates, Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, 64, and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, 53, have lined up endorsements, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and increasingly resorted to heated verbal exchanges.

"The Ridley-Thomas and Parks race is the most important one on the June ballot," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and senior scholar at the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development.

The race for the State Assembly's 40th District has been testy for weeks. Now, it's downright ugly. Jerry Berrios in the Daily News.

As the June 3 primary approaches, negative mailers, money laundering charges and accusations of back-room deals are only part of the race's charm.

Seven candidates - four Democrats, two Republicans and a Libertarian - are vying for the seat being vacated by term-limited Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys.

Democrats Bob Blumenfield, Laurette Healey, Dan McCrory and Stuart Waldman are looking to face a Republican opponent in November in this traditionally Democratic district that includes Winnetka, Reseda and Woodland Hills.

Councilman Bernard Parks and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas received some competing endorsements today in their race for the 2nd Supervisorial District.
Parks received the backing of former Lakers star Magic Johnson, a major businessman in the district, who, naturally enough, compared Parks to the current Lakers team star, Kobe Bryant.
"Councilmember Parks has shown the courage to lead from his time as a police officer to his time as Chief of Police and now as a Councilmember," Johnson said. "I fully expect him to take his integrity and unparalleled work ethic with him to the Board of Supervisors.
"In last night's Lakers game we saw Kobe Bryant play the role of closer and help his team win the game. Bernard Parks is the ultimate closer and the man our county needs to get things done."
Ridley-Thomas, in the meantime, picked up another employee groups backing, with an
endorsement by the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys (LA-ADDA), a criminal justice organization comprised of 1,000 prosecutors serving the people of Los Angeles County.
"I am very proud to have the support of our county's prosecutors in my campaign for Supervisor," Ridley-Thomas said. "I have been a fighter for justice all of my public life, so it is particularly gratifying to stand united with the hard-working women and men who are the people's lawyers in L.A. County District Attorney's Office."

It is the ultimate test of a political candidate: Which one would you want to have a beer with.
In a survey at bars, Rock the Vote and Touch Tunes surveyed beer drinkers on their choice for president and the winner was Sen. Barack Obama at 29 percent, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton at 22 percent and Sen. John McCain at 20 percent. None should take much solace, howver, since the category of none of the above also received 29 percent.
By region, Obama scored the best in the Midwest, Clinton in the Southwest and McCain was favored in the Southeast.
As for the biggest issues facing beer drinkers, the economy ranked first, followed by the Iraq war and then health care, global warming and the cost of education.
And, if the survey of 72,000 bar goers holds true, the Republicans are in for a tough year.
Only 18 percent said the GOP "rocks," compared to 34 percent for Democrats. Antoehr 18 percent said they were independent and 30 percent said they either didn't know or favored something else.

In perhaps the biggest private endorsement in the race, basketball star and entrepreneur Magic Johnson will announced Thursday his support of Councilman Bernard Parks for the Board of Supervisors.
Johnson and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, the main contender to Parks for the job, have had their differences in the past over proposed developments in the district.
Parks has picked up much of the establishment endorsements, including outgoing Supervisor Yvonne Burke, Rep. Maxine Waters and the business community.
Ridley-Thomas has the backing of unions in the June e election.

Sen.Barack Obama, losing in Kentucky and before the results from Oregon were released, returned to the scene of his first victory, Iowa, to talk about how his campaign embodied change.
"There is a spirit that brought us here tonight. a spirit of change and hope," Obama said..
After sending his thoughts to Sen. Edward Kennedy, Obama recalled his early campaign in the snowy fields of Iowa.
"The cynics said we wouldn't get too far," Obama said. "But the people of Iowa had a different idea."

Vowing to continue her campaign to the end, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told supporters in Louisville, Ky., she was not out of the race.
"Tonight, I'm thinking about why we're all here. What propels us is the struggle to realize Ameria;'s promise,' Clinton said. "Where every childn can acheive their God-given potential, where every man and woman has a chance to succeed"
Clinton took time to pay tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., hospitalized with a brain tumor.
.:And, her victory was due to the ground laid by Kennedy, she said.
"Some have said this campaign was over," Clinton said. "But, that didn;t stop you. You never gave up on me beause you know I'll never give up on you."
The question Clinton still faces is: What's next?
NBC's Tim Russert laid out a varied scenario from being the voice of women in the Senate, filling the role of a Sen. Ted Kennedy or something else. It is a question only one woman can answer.
***
Clitnon did offer a glimpse of what drives her: "Never give up, never give in."

Sen. HIllary Clinton was declared the winner of the Kentucky primary election, showing a closer than expected early returns.

Heading down the final stretch of the presidential elections, votes are being tallied in Kentucky and Oregon today.
For Sen. Barack Obama, the numbers folks at the networks say the election means it looks like he will be able to declare that he had won a majority of the elected delegates at stake in all the primaries and caucuses.
For Sen Hillary Cliinton, the hope is to have another runaway in Kentucky to allow her to claim having captured the most popular vote in the election.

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, comes to Northern California this week for a pair of events.
The first is a roundtable dicussion with workers at a Union City factory on Thursday morning, followed by a rally in Stockton.

The California Democratic Party met over the weekend to select its delegates to the national convention.
Here is their full release on the delegation:

The California Delegation to the Democratic National Convention met on Sunday for the first and only time prior to the August 25-28 convention to be held in Denver, confirming and finalizing the most diverse delegation of all 50 states.

The 241 district-level delegates (134 Clinton delegates, 107 Obama) elected at the April 13th delegate caucuses voted to confirm the rest of the California Delegation, comprised of: 48 PLEOs (Pledged Party Leaders & Elective Officers) [Clinton 26 / Obama 22] and 81 Statewide At-Large [Clinton 44 / Obama 37], for a total of 134 additional Voting Delegates [Clinton 70 / Obama 59 plus five add-on Superdelegates, selected by the Chairman Art Torres]

The Clinton and Obama campaign received 1,922 applicants for the remaining PLEO and At-Large positions, and each campaign weighed the California Democratic Party's affirmative action goals, geographical representation, and other considerations as they created their PLEO and At-Large Delegations. More than 2,800 Democrats had previously applied to run for district-level delegate, so in total almost 5,000 California Democrats sought a place in the delegation this year.

"This campaign season we've had the best cooperation I've ever seen between presidential campaigns during the delegate selection process," said Sen. Art Torres (Ret.), Chairman of the California Democratic Party. "I'm so proud of the campaigns and local California Democrats for helping to once again produce the most diverse delegation in the nation."

"As difficult as these choices are, this process was made easier by the cooperation between both campaigns and the party. There is no question that California democrats will go into the fall strong and unified," John Emerson, a Clinton Campaign Official, said on behalf of the campaign.

"Our campaigns and the party united to ensure the delegation represents the rich diversity of California and that Democrats from all communities across the state will have a voice in Denver," said Shannon Gilson, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign.

The California Delegation to the Denver Convention is now complete, with 370 Pledged Delegates (Clinton 204, Obama 166) and 71 Superdelegates. A breakdown of the delegation with respect to the CDP's Affirmative Action goals is as follows:

Goals 2004 2008
Under 30 10% 8.6 11.1
Latino 26% 25.6 25.9
African-American 16% 15.4 17.5
Asian Pacific Islander 9% 8.6 8.6
Native American 1% 2.3 2.5
Disabled 10% 6.1 8.2
LGBT 12% 8.2 11.8

You can say a lot of things about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - and we do - but you can't say he doesn't believe in his "post-partisanship" mantra. Sacramento Bee.

Witness his explanation to The Bee's editorial board last week of why there are both Barack Obama and John McCain signs by the front gate of the Schwarzenegger manse in Brentwood:

One almost feels sort\ry for radio talk show host Kevin James at this point with his much viewed challenge by Chris Matthews on "Hardball" this week.
In it, James was going on and on about appeasement and Neville Chamberlain and finally had to admit he didn;t know what he was talking about.
Matthews, on Friday's show, played the nearlhy five-mionute segment again and ended by saying of James, "He's a good guy" and that he would invite him to appear again.
If you were James, would you go on?

Ending their neutrality, two of the area's most powerful politicians -- Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman -- came out Thursday to support Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination for president.
There has been wide speculation about what the two would do and the signal it sends to the Jewish community.
"Barack Obama has laid out a foreign policy vision driven by principle and conviction, and he understands that our moral authority and our safety as a nation go hand in hand," Berman said in a statement.
Waxman added: "Senator Obama's vision for change has inspired tens of millions of Americans. And he's also proved that he has the experience, judgment, integrity, and toughness to bring real reform to Washington."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to attend campaign fundraisers in Newport Beach and Century City Thursday, an aide confirmed, in what could be her final visit to Southern California as a 2008 presidential candidate. Daily News.

The event at the Century Plaza Hotel is "sold out," Sim Farar, one of Clinton's national finance chairs told the Daily Variety Web site, Wilshire & Washington, which reports on politics.

Various media outlets have reported that the Clinton campaign is about $20 million in debt, including about $11 million she loaned it in what she called a demonstration of her commitment. If Clinton is not repaid the money she loaned the campaign by the time the Democratic Party nominates a candidate Aug. 27, federal law limits the amount she can receive to $250,000.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, basking in victory from West Virginia, told the nation on Tuesday she has no plans to leave the race soon.
"There are some who want to cut this raced short," she said.
"I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard."
In a fundraising email sent out by the campaign, Clinton says, "I will not turn my back on you."
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a failed GOP candidate, said Clinton's resilience should be no surprise.
"You learn in Arkansas politics to never give up," he said.

Tim Russert on MSNBC said the real test of Clinton's staying power will come this week with fundraisers she is planning and what the money people tell her privately.
"You want to be able to make the case...that you were there standing," Russert said. "There is a real difficulty with the resources. It is not an inexpensive operation."

Terry McAuliffe, one of Clinton's most ardent supporters, is predicting that her victory speech tonight will be the "best speech ever" made in politics.

All the networks are predicting a two-to-one victory for Sen. Hillary Clinton over Sen. Barack Obama in West Virginian -- prompting a new round of speculation on what it means as far as stopping Obama's march to the nomination.
Clinton supporters are saying she is in it until the end of the primary season with the hope she can sweep the remaining states and upset the dynamics leading to Obama.

The race for county supervisor is taking new twists and turns between state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas and Councilman Bernard Parks.
On Saturday, the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is sponsoring a regional meeting of grous in South Los Angeles, with Ridley-Thomas scheduled to be the opening speaker.
But, there was no spot for Parks _ who chairs the council's Budget and Finance Committe which is considering, among other things, the DONE budget for the coming year.
"We are well aware of the politics," DONE General Manager Bonghwan Kim said. "We have made the councilman aware of the event in any way we can. But that's part of the neighborhood council system where they decided who they wanted to speak."
The Ridley-Thomas invitation was prompted by the Eight District Empowerment Congress, a group he created while he was on the City Council.
In other developments, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce announced it was endorsing Parks in the election. It cited his years of experience as police chief and council member.

Much like the Democratic National Committee has gone after presumptive nominee John McCain, the Republican National Committee on Friday launched its own site against the nominee they presume, Sen. Barack Obama.
The RNC launched a website with its own list of questions for Obama. It is at CanWeAsk.com

It could be as Sen. Barack Obama swept to an easy victory in North Carolina and held Sen. Hillary Clinton to what seems to be a narrow win in Indiana.
Political pundits are giving the night to Obama and there was wide speculation about the potential of a deal in the coming weeks.
Clinton is still talking about taking the campaign to Puerto Rico, Kentucky, West Virginia and Oregon, but she acknowledged in her speech that she still needs one thing to compete _ money.