Rupf
Contra Costa Country Sheriff Warren Rupf, who considered running for the 11th Congressional District himself, has endorsed Lodi grapegrower Brad Goehring in the 2010 Republican primary.
“Brad Goehring is a candidate that understands the nature of the law enforcement mission and the tools we need to accomplish [...]
Environmentalists will hold a fundraiser next month for the state Attorney General campaign of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, right in one of his chief rivals’ backyards.
The Sunday, Dec. 9 event – for which tickets cost $100 to $500 each – will be held [...]
Former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher’s district director, Jennifer Barton, has been selected BART’s new executive manager of external affairs.
BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger told her team this morning of her choice of Barton, who has been the face of District 10 for seven years. (See memo below.)
Barton has been working for [...]
A controversial resolution calling for a non-interventionist foreign policy – meaning a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq – was shot down by the Alameda County Republican Central Committee last night, even as the committee’s chair changed hands between the party’s warring factions.
Former chairman Jerry Salcido – among a faction [...]
Rep. John Garamendi
House Democratic leaders have recommended Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, be appointed to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The House Democratic Steering Committee has also voted to place Garamendi on the Science and Technology Committee.
The full House Democratic caucus [...]
I met with Damon Dunn, the professional athlete-turned-businessman-turned Republican candidate for Secretary of State, this morning at Tully’s Coffee in downtown Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza — but caffeine is the last thing he needed.
Dunn, 33, is a live wire, a mile-a-minute speaker drawing on his energy [...]
Kramer
Nejedly
Contra Costa Community College Director John T. Nejedly has declared his intent to challenge Contra Costa County Assessor Gus Kramer.
Nejedly, son of the late state Sen. John A. Nejedly and sibling to Supervisor Mary Piepho and Central Contra Costa Sanitary District [...]
Expect fireworks at tonight’s Alameda County Republican Central Committee meeting, as there’s a debate and vote on a proposed resolution endorsing a non-interventionist foreign policy – which in the short term means pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The resolution was introduced by committeemen Jerry Salcido, [...]
A few choice tidbits from today’s rollout of a proposed ballot measure to hike the state’s cigarette tax by a dollar per pack to fund cancer research, for which I didn’t have room in the article I wrote for tomorrow’s editions…
Don Perata, who said he [...]
UC Berkeley cognitive linguistics professor George Lakoff’s ballot initiative calling for the reversal of the two-thirds voting requirement for a state budget and tax increases has been cleared for the signature-gathering process.
Lakoff describes the initiative as the restoration of democracy in California, a return to majority rule and end [...]
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced this morning that five alleged terrorists believed to have taken part in planning the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks will be brought from the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to New York City, where they’ll be tried in federal court.
From House Minority Leader [...]
Miller
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, has been in Pakistan the last few days and he sent this report this morning:
With the excitement of passing the health care reform bill still echoing in my ears, I left Washington on Monday night for Pakistan — my third trip in [...]
Legislators love to complain about how the ballot initiative process costs the state money and ties their hands on the budget.
But a new analysis from the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies revealed today in Oakland shows that of the $11.85 billion worth of ballot measures voters approved between 1988 [...]
(This post comes courtesy of Steve Harmon, our man in Sacramento…)
The administration is knocking down rumors that Susan Kennedy, the all-powerful and influential chief of staff for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is preparing to leave the administration for a job with Mercury Public Affairs [...]
A week after he took the oath of office. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, held his first congressional town hall.
More than 100 people packed the Livermore City Council chambers through the lunch hour today. It was, for the most part, a friendly crowd although opponents of his favorable vote [...]
Television producer (“Alias,” “Lost”) and movie director (“Cloverfield,” “Star Trek”) J.J. Abrams of Pacific Palisades gave $25,000 Tuesday to state Attorney General Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial exploratory committee. His wife, actress Katie McGrath, gave another $25,000.
A day earlier, producer Kathleen Kennedy – who with director [...]
This subject is not exactly politics but I found it interesting.
President Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that the brown pelican population has sufficiently recovered and has been removed from the endangered species list.
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to photograph brown pelicans as they sat on the breakwater [...]
A national organization opposed to new restrictions on the citizen’s initiative process today gave Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kudos for vetoing four bills that would have, among other things, banned the use of paid signature-gatherers.
The Virginia-based Citizens in Charge Foundation awarded the governor with the November 2009 John Lilburne [...]
Damon Dunn
Former NFL player and Stanford football star Damon Dunn cast his first vote ever in May.
But in the world of politics, where up is down and down is up, the wealthy, 33-year-old Irvine businessman says his status as a recovering non-voter makes him [...]
University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall Law School Professor John Yoo – widely recognized as an architect of Bush Administration policies on torture and detainee rights – has filed a brief asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to toss a lawsuit filed by a former prisoner.
As proposed ballot measures and a legislative bill to allow recreational marijuana use advance here in California, medical marijuana advocates scored a big win today as the American Medical Association shifts to a friendlier stance.
The AMA’s House of Delegates voted to reverse its long-held position that marijuana be classified on [...]
As promised in public statements prior to his election on Nov. 3, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, has scheduled the first of three in-person town halls before the end of the year.
He invites constituents to join him at a brownbag lunch town hall in Livermore on Thursday from 11:30 [...]
Veteran political consultant Clint Reilly has been hired to help run the campaign for two constitutional reform ballot initiatives.
Reilly will move from volunteer adviser to paid consultant at Repair California, a group founded by the Bay Area Council that wrote two ballot measures it hopes to place [...]
It started over the weekend with a series of email blasts from the National Republican Congressional Committee. Each contained nearly identical subject lines and content; they changed only the names of the targeted Democrats:
McNerney’s Silence Was Due to Fear
Cardoza’s Silence Was Due to Fear
Costa’s Silence Was Due to Fear
A few [...]
Haggerty
Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty has been appointed chairman of the National Association of Counties’ Transportation Steering Committee. See full release below.
PRESS RELEASE
The National Association of Counties (NACo) President Valerie Brown of Sonoma County, announced her appointment of Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty to Chair [...]
The California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility filed language for two ballot initiatives with the Attorney General’s Office this week that would cap new public employees’ retirement benefits, raise the eligible retirement age and eliminate the use of vacation pay and other perks to spike retirement pay.
The initiatives are identical [...]
John and Patty Garamendi on Election Night in Walnut Creek.
With health care and other pressing legislative issues on the House of Representatives’ agenda, newly sworn-in Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, has not yet been assigned committees.
Garamendi [...]
What would you do if you were a pollworker and a voter with a suspected case of H1N1 flu stopped off to cast a ballot on Tuesday? The election division does not typically stock hazmat suits.
“While we provide a ‘10 ways you can stay healthy at work’ tip sheet to [...]
San Francisco’s top environmental enforcer, a notable crusader against climate change, has been selected by President Barack Obama to become this region’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
Jared Blumenfeld, 40, will run the EPA’s operations in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and more than [...]
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has put up three Bay Area billboards – two in Oakland, one in San Francisco – as part of a 15-city outdoor advertising campaign to call attention to the evils of human trafficking.
The “Hidden in Plain Sight” campaign [...]
Garamendi
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sworn in California’s newest congressman this morning, Democrat John Garamendi of the 10th District.
Watch the ceremony and Garamendi’s comments at roughly at this link: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ID/214961&start=7711&end=8274 Scroll over to 129:20 or so to the start of the Garamendi swearing-in portion of the video.
Read [...]
California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring is headed for New York City, where he’ll be holding a sort of summit meeting tomorrow with the GOP chairs from New York, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Wisconsin to map out the party’s strategy for 2010.
To hear many [...]
As Californians keep gathering petition signatures for marijuana legalization ballot measures and a state lawmaker rewrites his legalization bill, marijuana reform advocates today are touting a new report that finds no relationship between marijuana arrest and use rates – a sign that the “war on drugs” has failed as [...]
Garamendi
Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi pulled out an expected win Tuesday in the 10th congressional district, although his margin of victory was just slightly more than half of his party’s 18-point registration advantage.
Garamendi garnered 53 percent compared with Harmer’s 43 percent.
Does the narrower-than-expected win signal a GOP [...]
Harmer
GOP congressional candidate David Harmer took a dim view a few minutes ago of the Associated Press’ decision, with a third of the precincts reporting, to call the race for his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.
“Wasn’t it the AP who wrote the headline ‘Dewey defeats Truman?’ [...]
With about a third of the precincts reporting in the 10th District, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is retaining a commanding lead over his Republican opponent David Harmer. With a 12,500-vote spread, this election looks as though it’s over.
10th congressional district
One seat; 78 of 273 precincts reporting
David Harmer (Rep) [...]
Vote-by-mail results just posted in Contra Costa County show Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi leading with 57 percent compared with 38 percent for Republican David Harmer.
The results offer a stronger than usual window into the outcome because elections officials expect 75 percent of all ballots cast in this special [...]
Weir
Contra Costa County Registrar of Voters Steve Weir sent over an update this morning on today’s election.
Among the party registration of those who have voted by mail, a higher percentage of Republicans have voted than Democrats. But Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans — 7,000 more Democrats have [...]
Miller
Employers who send their workers home with the flu will have to offer up to five paid sick days under legislation introduced Tuesday by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.
The Emergency Influenza Containment Act targets low-paid employees with significant direct public contact such as food service workers who [...]
The national press is writing about today’s 10th Congressional District special election. Most conclude that Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will beat Republican David Harmer, although it may not be the partisan stomping that Democrats have enjoyed in past elections in this district.
Here are the links:
Wall Street Journal: [online.wsj.com]
Fox [...]
California is doing more than many states, yet perhaps not yet enough, to deal with veterans returning from war with disorders and injuries that lead to drug abuse, according to a national organization’s new policy brief.
The Drug Policy Alliance’s brief says as thousands of troops [...]
A listing of upcoming political events in the East Bay:
Pleasant HillCourt Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, Executive Director Charles Mead will speak Thursday on the impacts of state budget cuts on foster children.
The free presentation is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley, Interfaith Council [...]
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced proponents of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for their measure:
REQUIRES PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO OFFER CHRISTMAS MUSIC. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires public schools to offer an opportunity for students to listen to or perform Christmas music during the holiday season. [...]
S.K. Seymour LLC, the partnership that runs Oakstersdam University and its related “cannabusinesses,” last Tuesday gave $10,000 to Hope 2010, a ballot measure committee (formerly known as Leadership California) controlled by former state Senate President Pro Tem and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata. [...]
U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is moving ahead with her cap-and-trade climate change bill despite Republican threats to boycott next Tuesday’s mark-up session.
“That won’t stop us. We’re going to use every tool at our disposal to get that [...]
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has withdrawn from the governor’s race.
Here is Newsom’s statement sent a few minutes ago:
It is with great regret I announce today that I am withdrawing from the race for governor of California.
With a young family and responsibilities at city hall, I have found it [...]
The next National HIV/AIDS Community Discussion will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. this Sunday, Nov. 1 in the Little Theater at Berkeley High School, 1980 Allston Way, according to the White House.
These discussions, hosted by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), offer the [...]
I’ll have a story in Sunday’s editions about what legalized marijuana might look like were any of the proposed ballot measures now circulating for petition signatures, or a bill now pending in the Legislature, to be enacted. In trying to characterize law enforcement’s opposition, I decided to check in with [...]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Gala in celebration of a new building’s opening last night in Washington, D.C..
McDonough School Dean George Daly also presented Schwarzenegger with the school’s Dean’s Medal, “which is the highest honor bestowed by the [...]
Josh Richman, Lisa Vorderbrueggen, jrichman, lvorderbrueggen
