California's primary election

[Brian]

We have yet to receive our sample ballots, but already Anni and I have gotten nine mailings from Assembly candidate Raul Bocanegra (and nobody else so far). We're registered Democrats who never miss an election -- and the Cal State Northridge urban studies professor apparently has lots of money behind him. Because of the new open primary, no doubt, not one of the pamphlets mentions that he is a Democrat.

Also new this cycle: a law directing all statewide initiatives to the November ballot when more people vote. Yikes, how many are we going to have then? Still, two slipped onto the June 5 ballot. I will continue my perfect record of voting against every tobacco tax while favoring the other proposition that seeks to mitigate some of the horrors that term limits have wrought upon the California Legislature.

Thanks to reapportionment, the best news is that almost every Montrose Peace Vigil stalwart will be united in Adam Schiff's Congressional district instead of split into three among his and two served by Republicans.

[Brian]

Sure enough, we got our sample ballots the afternoon after I started this thread. I shouldn't have been surprised to see that Raul Bocanegra's Democratic opponent in the 39th Assembly District is our soon to be Councilman Richard Alarcon. I had learned that Alarcon moved into that district and filed for the open seat around the time that the city redistricting commission was drawing us into his council district. I never bothered to consult the state assembly map. The next day, his attorney got his August 2010 felony indictment dismissed. The day after that, the district attorney arraigned him again.

My new Assembly district is so much more hospitable than the Santa Clarita based district I live in now. All three Republicans in the race have Spanish names too -- and we have one of the few Green party candidates on the ballot anywhere. Because of the open primary, the two Democrats could face each other in November. Another change in the law allows the parties to officially endorse candidates -- and Bocanegra got the state and county Democratic party to back him, not Alarcon.

I know it ain't Sherman versus Berman, but it's interesting. More importantly: Which candidate could help us the most in Sacramento or downtown in City Hall to preserve the land around the Verdugo Hills Golf Course?

[Brian]

I'm finally returning to Adam Schiff's district!

I remind you what a shallow political animal I am so you'll understand how elated I was to receive a mailer from "Adam Schiff-Democrat-United States Congress." It came with a postage-paid postcard for the new portions of his district. I filled out our names, address, e-mail and phone, checked the box asking to be invited to meet Schiff and mailed that sucker. Anni and I voted for him in 2000, when he defeated Republican incumbent and House impeachment manager James Rogan. Reapportionment gave us Brad Sherman two years later, which was fine because by then Sherman seemed more progressive than Schiff. We unwittingly moved into Buck McKeon's district in 2005, and C-SPAN has become a living hell. Somehow, it's harder to watch him chair the House Armed Services Committee when he's my Congressman.

With three weeks remaining before election day, we've accumulated 21 mailings for Assembly candidate Raul Bocanegra -- 11 from his campaign and 10 from other organizations. Of those, four capitalize on Richard Alarcon's recent re-indictments, and only one came directly from Bocanegra. For his part, Alarcon has sent us one postcard-size picture of him, his wife and four daughters with the legend, "Strong Feelings."

[Brian]

May 15, 2012 23:00:40 GMT -8 Brian said:

With three weeks remaining before election day, we've accumulated 21 mailings for Assembly candidate Raul Bocanegra...For his part, Richard Alarcon has sent us one postcard-size picture of him, his wife and four daughters with the legend, "Strong Feelings."

The mail has slowed in the past eight days, no doubt because of the prevalence of absentee voting. Only another four Bocanegra mailers have come. Alarcon sent two more of his smaller "Strong Feelings" mailers, the first invoking the death of his three year old son in a traffic accident to extol a pediatric trauma care center that he helped to fund, the other recounting his role assisting victims at the 2008 Metrolink crash. The biggest type on that postcard is a quote by Alarcon: "I knew the man was dying. So I just stayed with him. And held him until he passed away." Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the "Dear Neighbors" letter signed by Alarcon and his wife offering excuses for the felony charges they face for allegedly lying about living in his city council district. A photo depicts the remodeling -- at a third house.

Anni put her phone number in the optional box when she registered, so she gets a lot of action on her answering machine every election, usually robocalls. However, actual human beings have been calling on behalf of Bocanegra's campaign. It's not just mail. There are mouths where his money is.

[Brian]

The Dodgers will be playing three time zones from here next Tuesday, so I will be able to give the election results my full attention. Besides the races I've already mentioned in this thread, I'm learning more -- and getting more excited -- about the first L.A. County district attorney election without an incumbent since 1964. Right now, I'm leaning toward Danette Meyers. More interesting and impossible to avoid if you watch TV is the battle over Proposition 29, the statewide tobacco tax initiative -- focus groups and millions of dollars versus policy wonks and well meaning charities. Will the voters reject the big bad corporations like they did with the Mercury Insurance proposition in 2010?

Updating my tally on the two Democrats vying for State Assembly in my district: We've received 32 mailings so far for Raul Bocanegra and 12 for Richard Alarcon, 8 of those in less than a week. Two of Alarcon's latest were sponsored by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor's AFL-CIO Council on Political Education, saying Bocanegra is "only out for himself" and that he took advantage of his official role in a condo development in Pacoima to buy one for himself. Most of the new offerings from the Alarcon campaign reprise previous themes -- disaster response and home remodeling -- yet they've notched their first issue oriented brochure along with their first direct attack on Bocanegra for taking donations from the tobacco lobby.

Oh, and the postcard I mailed to Adam Schiff's campaign not only got through, it landed farther than I imagined -- his Congressional office has added me to his e-mail list. The latest campaign mailer is headlined, "A history of progressive Democratic leadership." On the back, it says Schiff has "pushed for an accelerated timetable for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan."

Correction: The e-mails are coming from Schiff's campaign address in the next block on Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, not his district office -- the layout makes them appear to be official.

[Brian]

On election eve, the total is 38 mailings for Raul Bocanegra and 15 for Richard Alarcon.

I searched for reasons to vote for Bocanegra on his website, which only had the same focus group tested platitudes and list of endorsements -- and no specifics on any issue that might come before our state legislature -- exactly like his mail, phone messages and an actual door hanger on Monday. All I really know is that he can raise a ton of money and spend it well, while not wasting any of it on TV ads.

I also could not rule out Alarcon. After all, he is innocent until proven guilty of those felony charges. I was impressed that he came to the Proposition O committee meeting with Councilman Krekorian to speak for the storm water proposal to save the golf course right after we were drawn into Alarcon's council district starting in 2013. Yet he could prove himself more useful in Sacramento.

Luckily, I didn't have to choose between them. The new primary system gives Democratic me the chance to vote for John Paul (Jack) Lindblad, who got 8 percent in the 2008 general election and 20 percent in 2010 as the 39th District's Green Party candidate. His website is clunky and wonkish, but I agree with more than 90 percent of his positions and initiatives. And he mentions the Verdugo Hills Storm Water Project.

[Brian]

The really big election news tonight is that Barack Obama finally won a California Democratic primary. Remember, Hillary Clinton took the state by a landslide in 2008.

The Los Angeles County election results website is a throwback to the paleolithic era of computers. You have to click on a link to download an ASCII line sequential file, then scroll for miles to find the races you want. The Secretary of State, however, has improved the readability of hers greatly since 2010:

vote.sos.ca.gov/

[Brian]

One million votes are yet to be counted -- they will be added to the tallies at the link below until July 6:

vote.sos.ca.gov/

At the close of business Friday, the Secretary of State had posted more than 4.4 million total votes cast for or against Proposition 29, the tobacco tax. Right now, the No votes exceed the Yes by a mere 37,124.

Although several second place candidates under the new primary system remain undetermined statewide, the local match ups for the general election are set. Adam Schiff received 60 percent in his redrawn Congressional district while his Republican opponent got 17 percent, so you have to wonder how hard Schiff will run in the next five months. State Senator Carol Liu, who was caught on camera this year on the local TV news driving while talking on her cellphone, only racked up 51 percent against Republican Gilbert V. Gonzales' 43 percent, so we're bound to see a lot more of Liu outside of her car.

Now that the primary's over, I'm going to have to forget the mailbox and walk away from my computer to decide who to support as my next state assemblyman, Richard Alarcon or Raul Bocanegra.

One of the undeniable pleasures of election watching is the defeat of candidates like our craven Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who came in third for Los Angeles County District Attorney, and Congressman Buck McKeon's wife Patricia, who couldn't place as a Republican in the 38th Assembly District even with the contributions from Buck's buddies in the military industrial complex.

With no presidential contest in either party, turnout was a dismal 25 percent. How different would some of the results have been if a mere half of the registered voters had done their duty?

[Brian]

In case you missed it, the proponents of the tobacco tax initiative conceded defeat on Friday. The results won't be certified until July 6, but Monday's update from the Secretary of State has the No votes ahead by 28,328 with an estimated 66,372 ballots to be counted. So it really is over.

A poll in March said that 60 percent of voters statewide favored Proposition 29. Come June, not even half would vote for a tax that most of them would never pay. Only 20 percent of Californians smoke.

This is bad news for those of us who support the initiatives on the November ballot to raise taxes to prevent further, deeper cuts to education and other basic human needs.