Bookmark1995
Banned
Yeah. Go Gonzalez and Schwarzenegger! The butterflies are having positive effects I see. I wish Gonzalez had become mayor earlier. He could have saved the EV1. 
Green Revolution on the Golden Gate
- Thread starter wilcoxchar
- Start date
Mayor For a Day: Michael Zucchet Resigns
July 16, 2005
SAN DIEGO - Just when San Diegans were hoping they could put the scandals in the city government behind them, even more drama has erupted in San Diego in the wake of mayor Dick Murphy’s resignation yesterday. Interim mayor Michael Zucchet, who represents District 2 on the San Diego city council, has announced his own resignation effective immediately just one day after his instatement as Murphy’s replacement[1].
Zucchet’s resignation comes as part of a separate FBI corruption investigation than the one involving the city pension fund. This investigation, which has become known as Operation G-Sting[2] and involves not only Zucchet but also councilman Ralph Inzunza of District 8 and former city councilman Charles Lewis, relates to an investigation into bribery and corruption with two Las Vegas strip clubs. The main investigation by the FBI and IRS has surrounded bribes taken by several Clark County, Nevada commissioners. However, the operation also looked into alleged bribes in San Diego to get the city council to repeal so called “no touch” laws for city strip clubs.
Michael Zucchet and Ralph Inzunza resigned today in the wake of the US district court announcing convictions as a result of Operation G-Sting and indictments made in August of 2003. Interim mayor Zucchet has been convicted of one count of conspiracy, five counts of wire fraud, and three counts of extortion in relation to the investigation. As a result of these resignations, Zucchet will be replaced as interim mayor by fellow Democrat Toni Atkins, and San Diegans can look forward to yet more special elections in November. Republican Kevin Faulconer, who challenged Zucchet in the 2002 city council election, is heavily expected to run again for the District 2 seat. Inzunza’s District 8, meanwhile, has no expected entrants yet, but the district which includes much of the United States-Mexico border area is heavily expected to elect another Hispanic member to the council.
***
Anti-War Activists Camp Out Near Bush’s Crawford Ranch[3]
August 10, 2005
CRAWFORD, TX - President Bush began his vacation at the Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, but it has not been entirely restful. A group of anti-war protestors led by Cindy Sheehan, a member of Gold Star Families For Peace and mother of Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq in April 2004, has camped out about three miles from the President’s Crawford ranch. Cindy Sheehan started the camp, which has gained the name “Camp Casey” after Sheehan’s son, as a protest against the invasion of Iraq, on August 6. In the days since, the camp has swelled as news of Cindy Sheehan’s protest has spread around the nation and the world.
Sheehan has been joined by other members of Gold Star Families For Peace as well as many other prominent anti-war activists at the camp in the past few days. Estimates of the number of regular supporters and members of Camp Casey are anywhere between one and two hundred. In a statement of her purpose to the website MoveOn.org, Cindy Sheehan outlined her short term and broader goals. In the short term, Sheehan stated that she intends to remain at Camp Casey for the full duration of President Bush’s five week vacation or until she is granted a meeting with the President and a sufficient explanation of the meeting behind the invasion of Iraq. She stated that beyond that, her broader goals include bringing American troops home from Iraq and increasing awareness and support for veterans and their families.
Today, there were rumored reports of local police threatening to arrest all the protesters at Camp Casey including Sheehan due to increased security measures with the arrival of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Bush’s ranch today. However, the police have stated no such intention. However, police have said they are continuing to monitor the protest camp. Sheehan seemed upbeat about the international attention she has received over the past few days, and hopes that her protest will fan the flames of further anti-war protests around the country. The President, meanwhile, gave statements to reporters at the Prairie Chapel Ranch that he sympathizes with Sheehan and supports her right to protest as she is doing, but that he feels it would be a mistake to withdraw from Iraq at present just as rebuilding efforts continue. The Iraqi parliament is expected to draft and vote on a new constitution in the coming months.
***
As Federal Funding Comes In For Transbay, Mayor Signs Soaring Rincon Hill Plan
August 19, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - At long last, the Transbay Redevelopment Plan has received vital federal funding this week, as Congress passed the nationwide transportation bill the SAFETEA - LU Act. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA - LU, provides billions of dollars in federal funding for surface transportation projects throughout the country. Thanks to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, the act gives a long awaited boost to funding for the Transbay Redevelopment and Caltrain Extension to the new transit center. In total, over $56 million will be provided for the Transbay Terminal as part of the Congressional act. $29 million is provided from the High Priority Bus and Bus Facilities category, and a further $27 million is provided through the Projects of National and Regional Significance category[4]. Members of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority including Chairman Mike Nevin and Executive Director Maria Ayerdi have praised the commitment of Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein in netting this funding for the new transit terminal. With the joining of municipal rail and bus services, Caltrain, BART, and Greyhound among other mass transit services at the new Transbay Terminal, it is already being described as the “Grand Central Station of the West Coast.”
In addition to the overall funding approved for the Transbay Redevelopment Plan and the terminal in particular, the plan for new development for the Rincon Hill neighborhood was approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed into law by Mayor Gonzalez earlier this month. The Rincon Hill plan was originally proposed along with the Transbay Redevelopment in April, but has finally been signed into law and construction has now begun. The industrial neighborhood nestled at the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge will soon see a boom in high rise development. More specifically, two new skyscrapers at One Rincon Hill will soon sprout up from atop the hill that gives the neighborhood its name, and will be be the first towers of the Transbay Redevelopment to reshape the San Francisco skyline.
The plan approved for One Rincon Hill will be the first of the massive shift in the skyline which has seen height limits for much of the area southeast of the financial district loosened to make way for large skyscrapers. The taller of the two skyscrapers set for One Rincon Hill will be over 860 feet tall, which would make it taller than the Transamerica Pyramid and the tallest building in the city. The second tower, while not as high as the first tower, will still be over 600 feet tall in the current plans[5]. Together, and combined with the elevation of the site of One Rincon Hill at the crest of the eponymous hill, will cut an impressive profile on the city’s skyline, especially when viewed from across the bay. The impact of One Rincon Hill should also be felt in the alleviation of some of San Francisco’s housing shortage. One Rincon Hill is zoned to be one hundred percent residential, could have over 900 residential units across the two towers and the other buildings on the site.
Despite this impressive number, one area where One Rincon Hill has received criticism is in its lack of affordable housing units on the site of the new development. Matt Gonzalez has been an outspoken proponent of affordable housing for the Transbay Redevelopment Plan since he was elected to the county board five years ago and pushed for affordable housing units on site. However, he was not successful in this effort for One Rincon Hill. Onsite affordable units were ultimately rejected in favor of a contribution to developing affordable housing units elsewhere in the Transbay area. As such, the development firm behind One Rincon Hill is now mandated to contribute $25 million as part of the project to aid in creating affordable housing units elsewhere in the city and the Transbay Redevelopment area. In a statement made when signing the One Rincon Hill approval, Mayor Gonzalez reaffirmed his commitment to affordable housing even in the more affluent downtown areas of San Francisco, but applauded the development firm for the monetary commitment as a compromise. Construction on One Rincon Hill is expected to start in a few months now that the plan has gained city approval, after the demolition of the clock tower building that currently occupies the site at First and Harrison Streets by the entrance to the Bay Bridge.
***
Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in Florida
August 25, 2005
MIAMI - Hurricane Katrina, the twelfth storm in 2005’s Atlantic hurricane season, officially made landfall in southern Florida a few hours ago. Katrina, which only was upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane in the past few hours shortly before it hit near the Miami metropolitan area, is the fifth hurricane in an already extremely active Atlantic hurricane season. With Katrina’s landfall, NOAA is now estimating that this year could surpass last year’s season, which was the 6th most intense hurricane season since recordings began in 1850.
Hurricane Katrina formed two days ago as a tropical depression in the Bahamas, and developed into a tropical depression and now a category 1 hurricane as it moved west northwest through the Bahamian archipelago. Katrina made landfall between North Miami and North Miami Beach[6] and is expected to continue its current path across the Florida peninsula overnight. So far, Katrina has dumped as much as a foot of rain over the Miami metropolitan area. Several areas of northern Miami and other cities in the region have been evacuated in the wake of the flooding as Katrina continues to move across the peninsula. Additionally, the city of Miami has reported 80 mile per hour winds, with similar reports from other parts of the region as Katrina struck the south Florida coast.
So far, there have been reports of nearly 500,000 people without power in the Miami area. The National Hurricane Center estimates Katrina will slightly weaken as it shifts west across Florida, but it is expected to strengthen once the hurricane moves back over water as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for much of the Florida Keys and the Tampa Bay area, while hurricane warnings have been issued for the Gulf coast cities from Sarasota to the Everglades. Hurricane Katrina is expected to curve northwest and make landfall somewhere on the Gulf Coast in the next two days. As authorities encourage people not in evacuation areas to remain in their homes until the hurricane passes, current reports coming out of Florida estimate the death toll for Hurricane Katrina right now at 4 people. Three deaths are reported to be caused by falling trees hitting cars or people, while one person in Fort Lauderdale has died from being impacted by downed power lines.
[1] Zucchet's term as interim mayor is, of course, vastly shorter than his OTL term. In OTL he was interim mayor for three days.
[2] Yes, this FBI operation was known as Operation G-Sting.
[3] All of this section is OTL. As for why I'm mentioning it...
[4] The SAFETEA funding for Transbay is as OTL, per this source.
[5] The OTL heights of the towers at One Rincon Hill are much shorter, with the taller tower at just 641 feet and the second tower at 541 feet.
[6] This is a few miles south of where Katrina made landfall in OTL. In OTL, it was between Hallandale Beach and Aventura.
July 16, 2005
SAN DIEGO - Just when San Diegans were hoping they could put the scandals in the city government behind them, even more drama has erupted in San Diego in the wake of mayor Dick Murphy’s resignation yesterday. Interim mayor Michael Zucchet, who represents District 2 on the San Diego city council, has announced his own resignation effective immediately just one day after his instatement as Murphy’s replacement[1].
Zucchet’s resignation comes as part of a separate FBI corruption investigation than the one involving the city pension fund. This investigation, which has become known as Operation G-Sting[2] and involves not only Zucchet but also councilman Ralph Inzunza of District 8 and former city councilman Charles Lewis, relates to an investigation into bribery and corruption with two Las Vegas strip clubs. The main investigation by the FBI and IRS has surrounded bribes taken by several Clark County, Nevada commissioners. However, the operation also looked into alleged bribes in San Diego to get the city council to repeal so called “no touch” laws for city strip clubs.
Michael Zucchet and Ralph Inzunza resigned today in the wake of the US district court announcing convictions as a result of Operation G-Sting and indictments made in August of 2003. Interim mayor Zucchet has been convicted of one count of conspiracy, five counts of wire fraud, and three counts of extortion in relation to the investigation. As a result of these resignations, Zucchet will be replaced as interim mayor by fellow Democrat Toni Atkins, and San Diegans can look forward to yet more special elections in November. Republican Kevin Faulconer, who challenged Zucchet in the 2002 city council election, is heavily expected to run again for the District 2 seat. Inzunza’s District 8, meanwhile, has no expected entrants yet, but the district which includes much of the United States-Mexico border area is heavily expected to elect another Hispanic member to the council.
***
Anti-War Activists Camp Out Near Bush’s Crawford Ranch[3]
August 10, 2005
CRAWFORD, TX - President Bush began his vacation at the Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, but it has not been entirely restful. A group of anti-war protestors led by Cindy Sheehan, a member of Gold Star Families For Peace and mother of Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq in April 2004, has camped out about three miles from the President’s Crawford ranch. Cindy Sheehan started the camp, which has gained the name “Camp Casey” after Sheehan’s son, as a protest against the invasion of Iraq, on August 6. In the days since, the camp has swelled as news of Cindy Sheehan’s protest has spread around the nation and the world.
Sheehan has been joined by other members of Gold Star Families For Peace as well as many other prominent anti-war activists at the camp in the past few days. Estimates of the number of regular supporters and members of Camp Casey are anywhere between one and two hundred. In a statement of her purpose to the website MoveOn.org, Cindy Sheehan outlined her short term and broader goals. In the short term, Sheehan stated that she intends to remain at Camp Casey for the full duration of President Bush’s five week vacation or until she is granted a meeting with the President and a sufficient explanation of the meeting behind the invasion of Iraq. She stated that beyond that, her broader goals include bringing American troops home from Iraq and increasing awareness and support for veterans and their families.
Today, there were rumored reports of local police threatening to arrest all the protesters at Camp Casey including Sheehan due to increased security measures with the arrival of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Bush’s ranch today. However, the police have stated no such intention. However, police have said they are continuing to monitor the protest camp. Sheehan seemed upbeat about the international attention she has received over the past few days, and hopes that her protest will fan the flames of further anti-war protests around the country. The President, meanwhile, gave statements to reporters at the Prairie Chapel Ranch that he sympathizes with Sheehan and supports her right to protest as she is doing, but that he feels it would be a mistake to withdraw from Iraq at present just as rebuilding efforts continue. The Iraqi parliament is expected to draft and vote on a new constitution in the coming months.
***
As Federal Funding Comes In For Transbay, Mayor Signs Soaring Rincon Hill Plan
August 19, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO - At long last, the Transbay Redevelopment Plan has received vital federal funding this week, as Congress passed the nationwide transportation bill the SAFETEA - LU Act. The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, or SAFETEA - LU, provides billions of dollars in federal funding for surface transportation projects throughout the country. Thanks to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, the act gives a long awaited boost to funding for the Transbay Redevelopment and Caltrain Extension to the new transit center. In total, over $56 million will be provided for the Transbay Terminal as part of the Congressional act. $29 million is provided from the High Priority Bus and Bus Facilities category, and a further $27 million is provided through the Projects of National and Regional Significance category[4]. Members of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority including Chairman Mike Nevin and Executive Director Maria Ayerdi have praised the commitment of Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein in netting this funding for the new transit terminal. With the joining of municipal rail and bus services, Caltrain, BART, and Greyhound among other mass transit services at the new Transbay Terminal, it is already being described as the “Grand Central Station of the West Coast.”
In addition to the overall funding approved for the Transbay Redevelopment Plan and the terminal in particular, the plan for new development for the Rincon Hill neighborhood was approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed into law by Mayor Gonzalez earlier this month. The Rincon Hill plan was originally proposed along with the Transbay Redevelopment in April, but has finally been signed into law and construction has now begun. The industrial neighborhood nestled at the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge will soon see a boom in high rise development. More specifically, two new skyscrapers at One Rincon Hill will soon sprout up from atop the hill that gives the neighborhood its name, and will be be the first towers of the Transbay Redevelopment to reshape the San Francisco skyline.
The plan approved for One Rincon Hill will be the first of the massive shift in the skyline which has seen height limits for much of the area southeast of the financial district loosened to make way for large skyscrapers. The taller of the two skyscrapers set for One Rincon Hill will be over 860 feet tall, which would make it taller than the Transamerica Pyramid and the tallest building in the city. The second tower, while not as high as the first tower, will still be over 600 feet tall in the current plans[5]. Together, and combined with the elevation of the site of One Rincon Hill at the crest of the eponymous hill, will cut an impressive profile on the city’s skyline, especially when viewed from across the bay. The impact of One Rincon Hill should also be felt in the alleviation of some of San Francisco’s housing shortage. One Rincon Hill is zoned to be one hundred percent residential, could have over 900 residential units across the two towers and the other buildings on the site.
Despite this impressive number, one area where One Rincon Hill has received criticism is in its lack of affordable housing units on the site of the new development. Matt Gonzalez has been an outspoken proponent of affordable housing for the Transbay Redevelopment Plan since he was elected to the county board five years ago and pushed for affordable housing units on site. However, he was not successful in this effort for One Rincon Hill. Onsite affordable units were ultimately rejected in favor of a contribution to developing affordable housing units elsewhere in the Transbay area. As such, the development firm behind One Rincon Hill is now mandated to contribute $25 million as part of the project to aid in creating affordable housing units elsewhere in the city and the Transbay Redevelopment area. In a statement made when signing the One Rincon Hill approval, Mayor Gonzalez reaffirmed his commitment to affordable housing even in the more affluent downtown areas of San Francisco, but applauded the development firm for the monetary commitment as a compromise. Construction on One Rincon Hill is expected to start in a few months now that the plan has gained city approval, after the demolition of the clock tower building that currently occupies the site at First and Harrison Streets by the entrance to the Bay Bridge.
***
Hurricane Katrina Makes Landfall in Florida
August 25, 2005
MIAMI - Hurricane Katrina, the twelfth storm in 2005’s Atlantic hurricane season, officially made landfall in southern Florida a few hours ago. Katrina, which only was upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane in the past few hours shortly before it hit near the Miami metropolitan area, is the fifth hurricane in an already extremely active Atlantic hurricane season. With Katrina’s landfall, NOAA is now estimating that this year could surpass last year’s season, which was the 6th most intense hurricane season since recordings began in 1850.
Hurricane Katrina formed two days ago as a tropical depression in the Bahamas, and developed into a tropical depression and now a category 1 hurricane as it moved west northwest through the Bahamian archipelago. Katrina made landfall between North Miami and North Miami Beach[6] and is expected to continue its current path across the Florida peninsula overnight. So far, Katrina has dumped as much as a foot of rain over the Miami metropolitan area. Several areas of northern Miami and other cities in the region have been evacuated in the wake of the flooding as Katrina continues to move across the peninsula. Additionally, the city of Miami has reported 80 mile per hour winds, with similar reports from other parts of the region as Katrina struck the south Florida coast.
So far, there have been reports of nearly 500,000 people without power in the Miami area. The National Hurricane Center estimates Katrina will slightly weaken as it shifts west across Florida, but it is expected to strengthen once the hurricane moves back over water as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for much of the Florida Keys and the Tampa Bay area, while hurricane warnings have been issued for the Gulf coast cities from Sarasota to the Everglades. Hurricane Katrina is expected to curve northwest and make landfall somewhere on the Gulf Coast in the next two days. As authorities encourage people not in evacuation areas to remain in their homes until the hurricane passes, current reports coming out of Florida estimate the death toll for Hurricane Katrina right now at 4 people. Three deaths are reported to be caused by falling trees hitting cars or people, while one person in Fort Lauderdale has died from being impacted by downed power lines.
[1] Zucchet's term as interim mayor is, of course, vastly shorter than his OTL term. In OTL he was interim mayor for three days.
[2] Yes, this FBI operation was known as Operation G-Sting.
[3] All of this section is OTL. As for why I'm mentioning it...
[4] The SAFETEA funding for Transbay is as OTL, per this source.
[5] The OTL heights of the towers at One Rincon Hill are much shorter, with the taller tower at just 641 feet and the second tower at 541 feet.
[6] This is a few miles south of where Katrina made landfall in OTL. In OTL, it was between Hallandale Beach and Aventura.
Bookmark1995
Banned
I read about Miamians wanting to secede from Florida since the GOP-dominated state government won't do anything about climate change. So, will hurricane striken Miami be another center for the Green Party?
Category 5 Hurricane Katrina Slams Into New Orleans
August 31, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - After battering southern Florida and the Miami metropolitan area a few days ago, Hurricane Katrina has now crossed the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall on the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi two days ago. While the hurricane had increased to Category 5 size during its movement over the Gulf of Mexico, by the time it once again reached land it had decreased in strength to a weak Category 4[1]. Even as a Category 4 hurricane, Katrina has already had a devastating impact on the area around New Orleans and the rest of the Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coast. It is already clear that even discounting the previous on the Miami area, Katrina will go down as one of the top five most devastating hurricanes in American history.
Evacuation procedures in New Orleans began on August 26th, but did not become fully operational in New Orleans until August 28, one day before Katrina made landfall, when Katrina was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane. It is estimated that by the time Katrina hit New Orleans, over a million people had evacuated from the New Orleans metropolitan area, though with congestion and complications on many of the highways leading out of the city, we currently do not know how many people are still left in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Mayor Ray Nagin declared various refuges in New Orleans for those who were unable to evacuate, including the Louisiana Superdome which sources in the city say is currently housing over 20,000 refugees from the disaster.
It was thought that New Orleans was prepared for a storm surge generated by a hurricane such as Katrina, but the past few days have proven those thoughts horribly wrong. The levees protecting the city from flooding on both the Mississippi River side and the Lake Pontchartrain side have failed. The seawalls and levees on both sides were built to prepare for a 23 foot rise in water levels during a hurricane or heavy rainfall. However, the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA have reported rises in water level of over 30 feet in some areas along the Lake Pontchartrain side, and over 25 feet on the Mississippi side[2]. The left front quadrant of Katrina causing Lake Pontchartrain to surge against the flood barriers combined with a foot of rainfall in some places in the New Orleans area to overwhelm the barriers protecting New Orleans. By now, nearly all of the city is flooded.
While rescue attempts and further evacuation efforts are ongoing, they have frequently been hampered by insufficient preparation and the unforeseen impact of Katrina. Dramatic aerial and on the ground footage has documented sections of the I-10 Twin Span Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain coming loose from its pylons and toppling into the lake. Communication has been lost with rural coastal towns across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Estimate of over 150 dead so far from this latest landfall may well be short, and the effects on the gulf coast are going to be felt for years to come. Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco has sent in the Louisiana national guard to New Orleans to restore order, though she has so far refused overtures by Department of Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff to take over efforts to restore governance and order in New Orleans. President George W. Bush cancelled his vacation in Crawford in the wake of the hurricane soon after the devastation from the landfall in New Orleans was made clear, and is now back in Washington. The President is expected to make a trip to the Gulf Coast to survey the damage in the coming days.
***
California Assembly Approves Same Sex Marriage Bill
September 6, 2005
SACRAMENTO - After a year and a half, the same sex marriage licenses issued by San Francisco, they may finally once again be recognized. In one of Mayor Matt Gonzalez’s first actions as mayor, he began issuing same sex marriage licenses to couples on March 13, 2004[3]. In issuing the licenses so near the start of Gonzalez’s mayoral term, San Francisco just barely pipped out Massachusetts in issuing the first same sex marriage licenses in the United States. The previous November, the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples beginning in May of 2004. However, while San Francisco may be able to claim to be the first to do so, it has been a long and difficult road since then.
The day after the city began issuing the licenses, various groups filed suits with the San Francisco Superior Court demanding a stay against the licenses. The Superior Court granted the stay on March 20, a week later. The city of San Francisco filed a countersuit with the state of California alleging that the refusal of same sex couples violated the state statute on marriage. At that point, governor Schwarzenegger directed attorney general Bill Lockyer to get a definitive ruling on the issue, as it pertained to the rule of law in California.
On April 13, 2004, a month after San Francisco began to issue licenses, the State Supreme Court upheld the stay on the licenses pending further review by the court. Attorney general Lockyer expressed his sympathies with San Francisco and same sex couples, and touted Matt Gonzalez’s record as a public defender, but agreed with the decision to delay the licenses until a ruling was made, with respect for the state statutes and the rule of law in California. After hearings by the State Supreme Court throughout the spring and summer, they issued a final ruling on August 12, 2004. The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city and county of San Francisco overstepped its bounds in issuing the same sex marriage licenses, and declared in Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco that such marriage licenses issued by San Francisco earlier in the year were null and void. The day after the ruling, Matt Gonzalez issued an official statement lamenting the ruling by the California courts, but called for a continual fight for same sex marriage while respecting the court’s ruling for now. “As a public defender, you quickly realize you can’t win every case, but you are obligated to fight and protect the rights of those you represent. Last year the citizens of San Francisco elected me to represent them, and I will continue to fight for all of your rights in my capacity as mayor as much as I can. We may have lost this battle, but the war is far from over.”
In 2005, the fight for same sex marriage legalization indeed resurfaced, this time in the state legislature. To open the legislative session, Assemblyman Mark Leno introduced a bill to legalize same sex marriage across the state of California. Leno’s bill was approved by committee, but it failed to pass after a full vote from the State Assembly. Later, Assemblywoman Patty Berg amended a fisheries bill of hers that was already in the California State Senate to copy the language of Leno’s bill. This bill, Assembly Bill 849, passed the State Senate with a vote of 21-15 on August 12, 2005; exactly one year after the California Supreme Court struck down the San Francisco marriage licenses. After passing the State Senate, the amended bill returned to the Assembly, which at last voted on it yesterday. While Leno’s bill failed to pass the Assembly 35-37 in June, Assembly Bill 849 now passed the California State Assembly by a vote of 41-35. This now marks the first time that a bill to legalize same sex marriage heads to the governor’s desk.
This is as far as any same sex marriage bill has reached in California. However, the final hurdle is likely to be the hardest to overcome and is where this latest effort will fall short. Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated that he is likely to veto the bill amid the ongoing battle in the courts over the constitutionality of Proposition 22 approved in 2000. In response, state legislators have delayed actually delivering the physical copy of Assembly Bill 849 to the governor’s desk as they attempt to convince governor Schwarzenegger to not veto the bill[4]. A statement from the office of San Francisco Mayor Gonzalez indicate that he has personally made calls to governor Schwarzenegger urging the governor pass the bill. However, it still seems likely that the effort will fall on deaf ears.
***
“Camp Casey” to Disband as Cindy Sheehan Ends Protest, Returns to Vacaville
September 6, 2005
CRAWFORD, TX - President George Bush has been gone from Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas for over a week now. However, “Camp Casey”, the protest camp that sprung up nearby to protest the Iraq War remains. Now it too will depart according to reports and interviews with Cindy Sheehan, the de facto leader of Camp Casey. Sheehan’s original goal was to arrange a meeting with the President asking why her son died in Iraq, but long after the President left Crawford early in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Sheehan and her supporters remained steadfast. “We have remained here for the duration of the President’s intended vacation, as I originally promised to do,” Sheehan said in a statement to the few reporters still in Crawford after the President’s departure.
Sheehan now feels that she can declare some sort of victory in having outlasted the President in her protest. She will soon return to her home in Vacaville, California, with her husband Patrick Sheehan. This has been a deep point of contention for Sheehan. She claims that the protest against Bush was extremely draining on her emotionally as she quickly became the face of the camp and possibly the entire anti-war protest, and it had strained her marriage to Patrick to the breaking point[5]. When asked what she was going to do now that the Crawford protest was over, Sheehan said she wanted to spend time with her husband and three surviving children.
However, Cindy Sheehan has indicated no sign of ceasing her protest against the Iraq War. She intends to travel to Washington, D.C. later in the year to “continue taking the protest to the President” and wants to continue her work organizing with other families of soldiers lost in Iraq to call for bringing the troops home.
In her final statements at Camp Casey, Sheehan also criticized not only President Bush and the Republican Party, but also the Democratic Party for not doing enough to stand up to the President regarding the initiative to invade Iraq and the conduct of the war since then. Sheehan found it eye opening that “after I began holding both parties to equal standards, I was being lambasted not just by those on the right but by those on the left too.” She later criticized the “blind party loyalty” she felt is present in both the Democrats and Republicans, musing that perhaps there needed to be challenges to both parties if true democracy was to be achieved.
***
California Businesses Prepare For Start of Health Insurance Mandate
September 15, 2005
SACRAMENTO - In accordance with the California Health Insurance Act upheld in last year’s initiative, businesses with more than 200 employees in the state will be required to provide health coverage for their employees by the beginning of next year; or to put it in other terms, beginning in less than four months. In anticipation of the start of the act’s enforcement, the Department of Managed Health Care’s today released a report on the progress of the state’s businesses toward complying with the act. According to the act, most large companies are now already in compliance with the change and already have employer-provided insurance plans fitting the act’s terms.
Nearly all employers with over 200 employees in the state already offer some form of health coverage to their employees, as a study had already showed in the wake of the California Health Insurance Act’s passage by the state legislature in 2003. However, significant progress has been made on the expansion of coverage to comply with the greater requirements set forth by the act. In 2002, only about 80% of large employers offered single patient coverage at the 80% requirement of employer payment, decreasing to just over 50% of large employers for family insurance. Additionally, only 60% of workers were employed by firms offering health insurance coverage to part time employees[6]. The Department of Managed Health Care’s report today shows significant improvement in these areas as we near the beginning of the act’s enforcement. Now, 95% of firms offer the required employer coverage of health insurance plans for single patient plans, and 80% offer it for family insurance plans. Additionally, the percentage of workers employed in large firms offering such to part time employees has increased to over three quarters. The Department of Managed Health Care is also confident of a further jump in the numbers once employer-provided health insurance plans beginning in 2006 kick in.
Additionally, the Employment Management Department has also released the current figures for the estimated number of people insured in California. Again, they show a significant increase since the passage of the California Health Insurance Act in 2003. When the act was introduced by state legislators Jackie Speier and John Burton, nearly 6.4 million people in California or 18.2% of the population lacked health insurance coverage[7]. According to today’s Employment Management Department’s figures, that number has dropped to just 5.5 million, or 15.4% of the state. This has come very close to achieving the goal set out by Burton and Speier when they introduced the bill of bringing health insurance to at least 1 million Californians.
[1] I made the headline intentionally wrong. Could be either a mistake by the article's author, a reflection of how recent the downgrade was or how bad communication in the aftermath of Katrina is, or the author intentionally using the height of Katrina's strength instead of its current strength for various reasons. Also, in OTL, Katrina had just recently fallen to a Category 3 by the time it made landfall in Louisiana, but here it's just on the other side of the measurement boundary.
[2] This is higher than the OTL storm surge, but not by much.
[3] Gonzalez begins issuing them a month later than Newsom did in OTL. This is also the "I didn't find out about this until I'd gotten way after that time and I really should cover it" update.
[4] All the part about Assembly Bill 849 is OTL including the tactic of physically delaying it reaching Schwarzenegger's desk.
[5] In OTL, Patrick Sheehan filed for divorce on August 12, 2005.
[6] Source: http://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/california-health-insurance-act-sb2-data-update/
[7] Source: https://igs.berkeley.edu/library/elections/proposition-72
August 31, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - After battering southern Florida and the Miami metropolitan area a few days ago, Hurricane Katrina has now crossed the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall on the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi two days ago. While the hurricane had increased to Category 5 size during its movement over the Gulf of Mexico, by the time it once again reached land it had decreased in strength to a weak Category 4[1]. Even as a Category 4 hurricane, Katrina has already had a devastating impact on the area around New Orleans and the rest of the Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coast. It is already clear that even discounting the previous on the Miami area, Katrina will go down as one of the top five most devastating hurricanes in American history.
Evacuation procedures in New Orleans began on August 26th, but did not become fully operational in New Orleans until August 28, one day before Katrina made landfall, when Katrina was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane. It is estimated that by the time Katrina hit New Orleans, over a million people had evacuated from the New Orleans metropolitan area, though with congestion and complications on many of the highways leading out of the city, we currently do not know how many people are still left in New Orleans and the surrounding area. Mayor Ray Nagin declared various refuges in New Orleans for those who were unable to evacuate, including the Louisiana Superdome which sources in the city say is currently housing over 20,000 refugees from the disaster.
It was thought that New Orleans was prepared for a storm surge generated by a hurricane such as Katrina, but the past few days have proven those thoughts horribly wrong. The levees protecting the city from flooding on both the Mississippi River side and the Lake Pontchartrain side have failed. The seawalls and levees on both sides were built to prepare for a 23 foot rise in water levels during a hurricane or heavy rainfall. However, the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA have reported rises in water level of over 30 feet in some areas along the Lake Pontchartrain side, and over 25 feet on the Mississippi side[2]. The left front quadrant of Katrina causing Lake Pontchartrain to surge against the flood barriers combined with a foot of rainfall in some places in the New Orleans area to overwhelm the barriers protecting New Orleans. By now, nearly all of the city is flooded.
While rescue attempts and further evacuation efforts are ongoing, they have frequently been hampered by insufficient preparation and the unforeseen impact of Katrina. Dramatic aerial and on the ground footage has documented sections of the I-10 Twin Span Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain coming loose from its pylons and toppling into the lake. Communication has been lost with rural coastal towns across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Estimate of over 150 dead so far from this latest landfall may well be short, and the effects on the gulf coast are going to be felt for years to come. Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco has sent in the Louisiana national guard to New Orleans to restore order, though she has so far refused overtures by Department of Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff to take over efforts to restore governance and order in New Orleans. President George W. Bush cancelled his vacation in Crawford in the wake of the hurricane soon after the devastation from the landfall in New Orleans was made clear, and is now back in Washington. The President is expected to make a trip to the Gulf Coast to survey the damage in the coming days.
***
California Assembly Approves Same Sex Marriage Bill
September 6, 2005
SACRAMENTO - After a year and a half, the same sex marriage licenses issued by San Francisco, they may finally once again be recognized. In one of Mayor Matt Gonzalez’s first actions as mayor, he began issuing same sex marriage licenses to couples on March 13, 2004[3]. In issuing the licenses so near the start of Gonzalez’s mayoral term, San Francisco just barely pipped out Massachusetts in issuing the first same sex marriage licenses in the United States. The previous November, the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ordered the state to begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples beginning in May of 2004. However, while San Francisco may be able to claim to be the first to do so, it has been a long and difficult road since then.
The day after the city began issuing the licenses, various groups filed suits with the San Francisco Superior Court demanding a stay against the licenses. The Superior Court granted the stay on March 20, a week later. The city of San Francisco filed a countersuit with the state of California alleging that the refusal of same sex couples violated the state statute on marriage. At that point, governor Schwarzenegger directed attorney general Bill Lockyer to get a definitive ruling on the issue, as it pertained to the rule of law in California.
On April 13, 2004, a month after San Francisco began to issue licenses, the State Supreme Court upheld the stay on the licenses pending further review by the court. Attorney general Lockyer expressed his sympathies with San Francisco and same sex couples, and touted Matt Gonzalez’s record as a public defender, but agreed with the decision to delay the licenses until a ruling was made, with respect for the state statutes and the rule of law in California. After hearings by the State Supreme Court throughout the spring and summer, they issued a final ruling on August 12, 2004. The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city and county of San Francisco overstepped its bounds in issuing the same sex marriage licenses, and declared in Lockyer v. City and County of San Francisco that such marriage licenses issued by San Francisco earlier in the year were null and void. The day after the ruling, Matt Gonzalez issued an official statement lamenting the ruling by the California courts, but called for a continual fight for same sex marriage while respecting the court’s ruling for now. “As a public defender, you quickly realize you can’t win every case, but you are obligated to fight and protect the rights of those you represent. Last year the citizens of San Francisco elected me to represent them, and I will continue to fight for all of your rights in my capacity as mayor as much as I can. We may have lost this battle, but the war is far from over.”
In 2005, the fight for same sex marriage legalization indeed resurfaced, this time in the state legislature. To open the legislative session, Assemblyman Mark Leno introduced a bill to legalize same sex marriage across the state of California. Leno’s bill was approved by committee, but it failed to pass after a full vote from the State Assembly. Later, Assemblywoman Patty Berg amended a fisheries bill of hers that was already in the California State Senate to copy the language of Leno’s bill. This bill, Assembly Bill 849, passed the State Senate with a vote of 21-15 on August 12, 2005; exactly one year after the California Supreme Court struck down the San Francisco marriage licenses. After passing the State Senate, the amended bill returned to the Assembly, which at last voted on it yesterday. While Leno’s bill failed to pass the Assembly 35-37 in June, Assembly Bill 849 now passed the California State Assembly by a vote of 41-35. This now marks the first time that a bill to legalize same sex marriage heads to the governor’s desk.
This is as far as any same sex marriage bill has reached in California. However, the final hurdle is likely to be the hardest to overcome and is where this latest effort will fall short. Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated that he is likely to veto the bill amid the ongoing battle in the courts over the constitutionality of Proposition 22 approved in 2000. In response, state legislators have delayed actually delivering the physical copy of Assembly Bill 849 to the governor’s desk as they attempt to convince governor Schwarzenegger to not veto the bill[4]. A statement from the office of San Francisco Mayor Gonzalez indicate that he has personally made calls to governor Schwarzenegger urging the governor pass the bill. However, it still seems likely that the effort will fall on deaf ears.
***
“Camp Casey” to Disband as Cindy Sheehan Ends Protest, Returns to Vacaville
September 6, 2005
CRAWFORD, TX - President George Bush has been gone from Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas for over a week now. However, “Camp Casey”, the protest camp that sprung up nearby to protest the Iraq War remains. Now it too will depart according to reports and interviews with Cindy Sheehan, the de facto leader of Camp Casey. Sheehan’s original goal was to arrange a meeting with the President asking why her son died in Iraq, but long after the President left Crawford early in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Sheehan and her supporters remained steadfast. “We have remained here for the duration of the President’s intended vacation, as I originally promised to do,” Sheehan said in a statement to the few reporters still in Crawford after the President’s departure.
Sheehan now feels that she can declare some sort of victory in having outlasted the President in her protest. She will soon return to her home in Vacaville, California, with her husband Patrick Sheehan. This has been a deep point of contention for Sheehan. She claims that the protest against Bush was extremely draining on her emotionally as she quickly became the face of the camp and possibly the entire anti-war protest, and it had strained her marriage to Patrick to the breaking point[5]. When asked what she was going to do now that the Crawford protest was over, Sheehan said she wanted to spend time with her husband and three surviving children.
However, Cindy Sheehan has indicated no sign of ceasing her protest against the Iraq War. She intends to travel to Washington, D.C. later in the year to “continue taking the protest to the President” and wants to continue her work organizing with other families of soldiers lost in Iraq to call for bringing the troops home.
In her final statements at Camp Casey, Sheehan also criticized not only President Bush and the Republican Party, but also the Democratic Party for not doing enough to stand up to the President regarding the initiative to invade Iraq and the conduct of the war since then. Sheehan found it eye opening that “after I began holding both parties to equal standards, I was being lambasted not just by those on the right but by those on the left too.” She later criticized the “blind party loyalty” she felt is present in both the Democrats and Republicans, musing that perhaps there needed to be challenges to both parties if true democracy was to be achieved.
***
California Businesses Prepare For Start of Health Insurance Mandate
September 15, 2005
SACRAMENTO - In accordance with the California Health Insurance Act upheld in last year’s initiative, businesses with more than 200 employees in the state will be required to provide health coverage for their employees by the beginning of next year; or to put it in other terms, beginning in less than four months. In anticipation of the start of the act’s enforcement, the Department of Managed Health Care’s today released a report on the progress of the state’s businesses toward complying with the act. According to the act, most large companies are now already in compliance with the change and already have employer-provided insurance plans fitting the act’s terms.
Nearly all employers with over 200 employees in the state already offer some form of health coverage to their employees, as a study had already showed in the wake of the California Health Insurance Act’s passage by the state legislature in 2003. However, significant progress has been made on the expansion of coverage to comply with the greater requirements set forth by the act. In 2002, only about 80% of large employers offered single patient coverage at the 80% requirement of employer payment, decreasing to just over 50% of large employers for family insurance. Additionally, only 60% of workers were employed by firms offering health insurance coverage to part time employees[6]. The Department of Managed Health Care’s report today shows significant improvement in these areas as we near the beginning of the act’s enforcement. Now, 95% of firms offer the required employer coverage of health insurance plans for single patient plans, and 80% offer it for family insurance plans. Additionally, the percentage of workers employed in large firms offering such to part time employees has increased to over three quarters. The Department of Managed Health Care is also confident of a further jump in the numbers once employer-provided health insurance plans beginning in 2006 kick in.
Additionally, the Employment Management Department has also released the current figures for the estimated number of people insured in California. Again, they show a significant increase since the passage of the California Health Insurance Act in 2003. When the act was introduced by state legislators Jackie Speier and John Burton, nearly 6.4 million people in California or 18.2% of the population lacked health insurance coverage[7]. According to today’s Employment Management Department’s figures, that number has dropped to just 5.5 million, or 15.4% of the state. This has come very close to achieving the goal set out by Burton and Speier when they introduced the bill of bringing health insurance to at least 1 million Californians.
[1] I made the headline intentionally wrong. Could be either a mistake by the article's author, a reflection of how recent the downgrade was or how bad communication in the aftermath of Katrina is, or the author intentionally using the height of Katrina's strength instead of its current strength for various reasons. Also, in OTL, Katrina had just recently fallen to a Category 3 by the time it made landfall in Louisiana, but here it's just on the other side of the measurement boundary.
[2] This is higher than the OTL storm surge, but not by much.
[3] Gonzalez begins issuing them a month later than Newsom did in OTL. This is also the "I didn't find out about this until I'd gotten way after that time and I really should cover it" update.
[4] All the part about Assembly Bill 849 is OTL including the tactic of physically delaying it reaching Schwarzenegger's desk.
[5] In OTL, Patrick Sheehan filed for divorce on August 12, 2005.
[6] Source: http://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/california-health-insurance-act-sb2-data-update/
[7] Source: https://igs.berkeley.edu/library/elections/proposition-72
I just realized that it's been a month and a half since the last update and I've advanced the TL three weeks. I'm trying to move faster than reality but summer 2005 is surprisingly newsworthy.
Early Signs In Race To Unseat Richard Pombo From Democrats, Possible Primary?
October 12, 2005
PLEASANTON, CA - When you think of members of Congress who face a difficult road to reelection next year, California’s 11th district probably does not come to mind. Except the 1992 election on the creation of the district in which Republican Richard Pombo won the seat by less than 4,000 votes, Pombo has comfortably held the district for over a dozen years. .The 11th district covers most of San Joaquin County, the eastern half of Santa Clara County, and parts of Alameda and Contra Costa County including Pleasanton and Danville. While it has occasionally swung Democratic in national and statewide elections, the 11th district has remained stubbornly Republican in the House. Even with the Democratic polling advantage so far in the generic congressional ballot, Pombo is one of the safer members of Congress going into next year.
At least, he was until recently. The race for the Democratic nomination already has two potential challengers who could bring in some major funding sources against Pombo. Jerry McNerney, the CEO of a wind turbine company, was Pombo’s Democratic opponent two years ago and lost by 60,000 votes then. However, McNerney’s strong pull among voters in the Alameda and Santa Clara county areas of the district showed he does have some potential to do well against Pombo, especially in a year that is likely to be friendly for Democrats.
McNerney, however, will have some stiff competition for the Democratic nomination. Steve Filson, a Navy veteran and airline pilot from Danville, announced his entry into the race in August. Filson, while less well known than McNerney, does have the early backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and if the DCCC does invest in the race Filson could have formidable campaign funding against both McNerney and Pombo. Additionally, there is the potential entry of state senator Mike Machado (D-Linden). Machado has not yet made a endorsement of either candidate, and sources close to the senator say he is currently weighing launching a campaign for Congress himself.
Along with the challenge from Democrats, Richard Pombo may face a primary challenge from members of his own party. Former Congressman Pete McCloskey has stated he is attempting to recruit candidates to run against Richard Pombo in the March primary, and may even move to Pleasanton himself and run. McCloskey may perhaps be most known for running in the Republican presidential primary against Richard Nixon in 1972, but his other legacy, the authorship of the Endangered Species Act, is the reason why he has decided to go after Pombo. Pombo has made one of his planks while in Congress to overhaul and possibly the Endangered Species Act as part of his rather controversial environmental record. McCloskey cited the attempts to reform or kill the Endangered Species Act as the reason for his renewed vigor in politics and his challenge to Pombo, whose stance has also been condemned by other moderate Republicans. With this in mind, Pombo’s seat certainly looks less safe than previous years[1].
***
Frye and Francis Tied in Polls for San Diego Mayor
October 15, 2005
SAN DIEGO - The saga of the San Diego pension scandal continues with the November election of the next San Diego mayor looming in just a few weeks. In the July primary, Donna Frye emerged well ahead of the other candidates, easily leading with 42.3% of the vote. However, this was largely because of the two major Republican candidates splitting much of the Republican vote. Businessman Steve Francis earned 26.8% in June’s vote, narrowly beating out San Diego police chief Jerry Sanders who came in third with 25.5%[2].
Since the July primary, the mayoral race has tightened quickly. In almost all polls since July, Donna Frye and Steve Francis have been practically tied, trading places on who has the edge but remaining within the margin of error. The aggregate of the recent polling has both Francis and Frye tied with 45 percent of the vote and the remaining ten percent undecided. This mayoral election will have more at stake than just the mayoral election. In 2004 San Diegans approved a referendum to switch the city of San Diego to a strong mayor system on a five year trial basis, and that switch goes into effect on January 1, 2006. Whoever wins this election will be the first mayor to serve under the new system. Part of the reason for the move to a strong mayor system is intended to remove the connection between the mayor and the legislative council. Considering the pension scandal, advocates are hopeful that a strong mayor system will make the mayor’s office more independent and improve the office’s accountability.
***
Sonoma County Rejects GMO Ban as State Considers Legislation
November 3, 2005
SANTA ROSA, CA - Sonoma County has become the most recent battleground for anti-GMO activists in California. One of the initiatives on the ballot in the county this year was Measure M, which would have banned the cultivation, sale, and distribution of genetically modified organisms within Sonoma County. More specifically, the measure used language well known to city and county development planners. Measure M was framed as a nuisance abatement ordinance, and would have deemed that genetically modified organisms: “constitute an imminent endangerment of agricultural health and environmental health and as such is declared a public nuisance.”[3] The ballot measure needed a simply majority to pass, but was defeated by a margin of 47 percent in favor to 53 percent opposed[4].
This is only the latest anti-GMO measure to make a local ballot in California over the past few years as the controversy surrounding genetic modification of agriculture has entered mainstream discussion of environmental issues. The city of Arcata in Humboldt County, notable for electing the first Green majority city council in the United States, successfully banned GMOs in 2004. It has been followed by successful county bans in both Mendocino County and Marin County, and local GMO bans in Point Arena and Eureka. With Measure M, Sonoma County could have potentially joined its two neighboring counties in banning genetically modified agriculture, but now will remain a divider between the two.
The rush of local measures to ban GMOs does not come as a surprise given the current mood of the state legislature. Central Valley senator Dean Florez is pushing legislation that would classify seeds and nursery stock as a “statewide concern” and effectively ban any further local regulation on genetically modified organisms. While supporters of Florez’s bill claim it would create a uniform standard across the state of California on agricultural regulations, many point out that it is a rather blatant attempt to prevent more cities and counties from banning GMOs in their jurisdictions. Considering Florez’s bill, 2006 may be the last time California voters will be able to have a local voice on whether genetically modified organisms should be banned at the municipal or county level.
***
In Nail-Biter Election, Frye Pips Francis For Mayor
November 9, 2005
SAN DIEGO - Yesterday, citizens of San Diego were called to the voting booth to elect a mayor for the third time in a year. As nobody in the July election received a majority of votes, Republican Steve Francis and Democrat Donna Frye proceeded to a mayoral runoff held yesterday in the city. The campaign was bitter and went down to the wire, with both Frye and Francis neck and neck in the tracking poll up to election day. The only poll that mattered, however, was the final one. In a narrow victory for the Democrats, city councilwoman Donna Frye received 52.1% of the vote to Steve Francis’s 48.9% to become the next mayor of San Diego.
The campaign was tumultuous, with Frye and Francis trading blows throughout the fall. Despite police chief Jerry Sanders endorsing Steve Francis a following his narrow loss in the primary and Francis attempting to unify Republicans behind him, Francis’s message apparently did not sway the citizens of San Diego. Frye continued to stake out a position of change from the Dick Murphy era of the last five years. Steve Francis’s history as a businessman and his proposal of downsizing the San Diego city government as a solution to the pension scandal was successfully portrayed by the Frye campaign as more of the same mismanagement that led to the pension scandal. Meanwhile, Francis tried to stake his position as an outsider, hitting Donna Frye on her experience as a councilwoman and trying to connect her to the disgraced trio of Democratic council members in Michael Zucchet, Robert Inzunza, and the late Charles Lewis.
The connection of Frye with the corruption of the city council in previous years was possibly what sank Steve Francis’s campaign. In October, Frye announced her mayoral transition team and included Diann Shipione, the whistleblower who while a pension board trustee called attention to the mismanagement that led to the scandal being made public. Frye has also touted the diversity of her team, with several members with ties to the Hispanic and Asian communities of San Diego. In her victory speech, Donna Frye attempted to reconcile with Republicans, while noticeably avoiding reconciliation with her runoff opponent. Frye vowed for a lasting change and accountability in the system, reaching out to not Steve Francis but Jerry Sanders to help repair San Diego’s finances and the sullied reputation it has gained from the recent scandals. Frye also reiterated the honesty of her message to voters in stating a tax increase would likely be necessary, and thanked San Diegans for “being willing to hear and understand what is really needed to be done to fix the mess made by my predecessors.” Frye will succeed interim mayor Toni Atkins on December 5. As the current city council term ends on December 11, 2006, and Frye’s vacancy leaves more than a year left in the term, a special election rather than a council appointment will be held to fill the vacancy.
[1] This section is entirely OTL so far.
[2] In OTL Jerry Sanders came second ahead of Steve Francis in the primary.
[3] This is how the OTL measure was worded. Yes, they did try to declare GMOs a public nuisance.
[4] Measure M was defeated 43-57 in OTL.
October 12, 2005
PLEASANTON, CA - When you think of members of Congress who face a difficult road to reelection next year, California’s 11th district probably does not come to mind. Except the 1992 election on the creation of the district in which Republican Richard Pombo won the seat by less than 4,000 votes, Pombo has comfortably held the district for over a dozen years. .The 11th district covers most of San Joaquin County, the eastern half of Santa Clara County, and parts of Alameda and Contra Costa County including Pleasanton and Danville. While it has occasionally swung Democratic in national and statewide elections, the 11th district has remained stubbornly Republican in the House. Even with the Democratic polling advantage so far in the generic congressional ballot, Pombo is one of the safer members of Congress going into next year.
At least, he was until recently. The race for the Democratic nomination already has two potential challengers who could bring in some major funding sources against Pombo. Jerry McNerney, the CEO of a wind turbine company, was Pombo’s Democratic opponent two years ago and lost by 60,000 votes then. However, McNerney’s strong pull among voters in the Alameda and Santa Clara county areas of the district showed he does have some potential to do well against Pombo, especially in a year that is likely to be friendly for Democrats.
McNerney, however, will have some stiff competition for the Democratic nomination. Steve Filson, a Navy veteran and airline pilot from Danville, announced his entry into the race in August. Filson, while less well known than McNerney, does have the early backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and if the DCCC does invest in the race Filson could have formidable campaign funding against both McNerney and Pombo. Additionally, there is the potential entry of state senator Mike Machado (D-Linden). Machado has not yet made a endorsement of either candidate, and sources close to the senator say he is currently weighing launching a campaign for Congress himself.
Along with the challenge from Democrats, Richard Pombo may face a primary challenge from members of his own party. Former Congressman Pete McCloskey has stated he is attempting to recruit candidates to run against Richard Pombo in the March primary, and may even move to Pleasanton himself and run. McCloskey may perhaps be most known for running in the Republican presidential primary against Richard Nixon in 1972, but his other legacy, the authorship of the Endangered Species Act, is the reason why he has decided to go after Pombo. Pombo has made one of his planks while in Congress to overhaul and possibly the Endangered Species Act as part of his rather controversial environmental record. McCloskey cited the attempts to reform or kill the Endangered Species Act as the reason for his renewed vigor in politics and his challenge to Pombo, whose stance has also been condemned by other moderate Republicans. With this in mind, Pombo’s seat certainly looks less safe than previous years[1].
***
Frye and Francis Tied in Polls for San Diego Mayor
October 15, 2005
SAN DIEGO - The saga of the San Diego pension scandal continues with the November election of the next San Diego mayor looming in just a few weeks. In the July primary, Donna Frye emerged well ahead of the other candidates, easily leading with 42.3% of the vote. However, this was largely because of the two major Republican candidates splitting much of the Republican vote. Businessman Steve Francis earned 26.8% in June’s vote, narrowly beating out San Diego police chief Jerry Sanders who came in third with 25.5%[2].
Since the July primary, the mayoral race has tightened quickly. In almost all polls since July, Donna Frye and Steve Francis have been practically tied, trading places on who has the edge but remaining within the margin of error. The aggregate of the recent polling has both Francis and Frye tied with 45 percent of the vote and the remaining ten percent undecided. This mayoral election will have more at stake than just the mayoral election. In 2004 San Diegans approved a referendum to switch the city of San Diego to a strong mayor system on a five year trial basis, and that switch goes into effect on January 1, 2006. Whoever wins this election will be the first mayor to serve under the new system. Part of the reason for the move to a strong mayor system is intended to remove the connection between the mayor and the legislative council. Considering the pension scandal, advocates are hopeful that a strong mayor system will make the mayor’s office more independent and improve the office’s accountability.
***
Sonoma County Rejects GMO Ban as State Considers Legislation
November 3, 2005
SANTA ROSA, CA - Sonoma County has become the most recent battleground for anti-GMO activists in California. One of the initiatives on the ballot in the county this year was Measure M, which would have banned the cultivation, sale, and distribution of genetically modified organisms within Sonoma County. More specifically, the measure used language well known to city and county development planners. Measure M was framed as a nuisance abatement ordinance, and would have deemed that genetically modified organisms: “constitute an imminent endangerment of agricultural health and environmental health and as such is declared a public nuisance.”[3] The ballot measure needed a simply majority to pass, but was defeated by a margin of 47 percent in favor to 53 percent opposed[4].
This is only the latest anti-GMO measure to make a local ballot in California over the past few years as the controversy surrounding genetic modification of agriculture has entered mainstream discussion of environmental issues. The city of Arcata in Humboldt County, notable for electing the first Green majority city council in the United States, successfully banned GMOs in 2004. It has been followed by successful county bans in both Mendocino County and Marin County, and local GMO bans in Point Arena and Eureka. With Measure M, Sonoma County could have potentially joined its two neighboring counties in banning genetically modified agriculture, but now will remain a divider between the two.
The rush of local measures to ban GMOs does not come as a surprise given the current mood of the state legislature. Central Valley senator Dean Florez is pushing legislation that would classify seeds and nursery stock as a “statewide concern” and effectively ban any further local regulation on genetically modified organisms. While supporters of Florez’s bill claim it would create a uniform standard across the state of California on agricultural regulations, many point out that it is a rather blatant attempt to prevent more cities and counties from banning GMOs in their jurisdictions. Considering Florez’s bill, 2006 may be the last time California voters will be able to have a local voice on whether genetically modified organisms should be banned at the municipal or county level.
***
In Nail-Biter Election, Frye Pips Francis For Mayor
November 9, 2005
SAN DIEGO - Yesterday, citizens of San Diego were called to the voting booth to elect a mayor for the third time in a year. As nobody in the July election received a majority of votes, Republican Steve Francis and Democrat Donna Frye proceeded to a mayoral runoff held yesterday in the city. The campaign was bitter and went down to the wire, with both Frye and Francis neck and neck in the tracking poll up to election day. The only poll that mattered, however, was the final one. In a narrow victory for the Democrats, city councilwoman Donna Frye received 52.1% of the vote to Steve Francis’s 48.9% to become the next mayor of San Diego.
The campaign was tumultuous, with Frye and Francis trading blows throughout the fall. Despite police chief Jerry Sanders endorsing Steve Francis a following his narrow loss in the primary and Francis attempting to unify Republicans behind him, Francis’s message apparently did not sway the citizens of San Diego. Frye continued to stake out a position of change from the Dick Murphy era of the last five years. Steve Francis’s history as a businessman and his proposal of downsizing the San Diego city government as a solution to the pension scandal was successfully portrayed by the Frye campaign as more of the same mismanagement that led to the pension scandal. Meanwhile, Francis tried to stake his position as an outsider, hitting Donna Frye on her experience as a councilwoman and trying to connect her to the disgraced trio of Democratic council members in Michael Zucchet, Robert Inzunza, and the late Charles Lewis.
The connection of Frye with the corruption of the city council in previous years was possibly what sank Steve Francis’s campaign. In October, Frye announced her mayoral transition team and included Diann Shipione, the whistleblower who while a pension board trustee called attention to the mismanagement that led to the scandal being made public. Frye has also touted the diversity of her team, with several members with ties to the Hispanic and Asian communities of San Diego. In her victory speech, Donna Frye attempted to reconcile with Republicans, while noticeably avoiding reconciliation with her runoff opponent. Frye vowed for a lasting change and accountability in the system, reaching out to not Steve Francis but Jerry Sanders to help repair San Diego’s finances and the sullied reputation it has gained from the recent scandals. Frye also reiterated the honesty of her message to voters in stating a tax increase would likely be necessary, and thanked San Diegans for “being willing to hear and understand what is really needed to be done to fix the mess made by my predecessors.” Frye will succeed interim mayor Toni Atkins on December 5. As the current city council term ends on December 11, 2006, and Frye’s vacancy leaves more than a year left in the term, a special election rather than a council appointment will be held to fill the vacancy.
[1] This section is entirely OTL so far.
[2] In OTL Jerry Sanders came second ahead of Steve Francis in the primary.
[3] This is how the OTL measure was worded. Yes, they did try to declare GMOs a public nuisance.
[4] Measure M was defeated 43-57 in OTL.
He basically is. I can go on about this guy for years. Just looked up his record again and I forgot he also tried to liquidate a quarter of the National Park Service's land, blocked the creation of as many parks and preserves as he could while chairman of the House Resources Committee, tried to create federal incentives to encourage buffalo hunting and remove them from the ESA, and calls all environmentalists Communists whenever he gets the opportunity (because if there's one thing Communist countries are known for it's their incredible regard for the environment).
Even worse, after redistricting finally forced him out of Congress the SOB tried to run in another district that includes Yosemite. Mercifully he lost.
Bookmark1995
Banned
I think it is possible to portray Dick Pombo could be portrayed as a Grinch-like villain.
Carole Strayhorn to Skip GOP Primary, Challenge Perry as Independent
January 6, 2006
AUSTIN, TX - Rick Perry may have some better news to ring in the new year, depending on how you look at things. Six months ago, the future was looking not nearly as bright for the Texas governor. Governor Perry’s approval rating had sunk to a historic low of just 38% with 53% disapproving of his job as governor[1]. He was in danger of pacing a contentious primary challenge from not one but two potential challengers. However, since then, the gubernatorial forecast for Perry going into the start of the 2006 election campaign has looked brighter. The governor’s approval rating has rebounded to a still shaky but more comfortable tie of 45% approval and disapproval. Additionally, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison decided to run for reelection in the Senate instead of challenging the incumbent governor for the Republican nomination in March. And now, Perry’s other potential threat from his own party, state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, has announced she intends to forego the Republican primary in March and challenge governor Perry directly in the general election as an independent.
However, Perry may not be out of the woods yet. Carole Strayhorn brings with her formidable credentials in her independent bid, having achieved several firsts for a woman in Texas politics. Strayhorn entered politics serving on the city of Austin’s school board for five years before being elected mayor of Austin in 1977, the first woman to be elected mayor of the state capital. She served as mayor until 1983 when she became the first woman appointed to the Texas state board of insurance. Strayhorn then won election to two state offices, in 1994 to the Railroad Commissioner and in 1999 to State Comptroller. Since Rick Perry assumed the position of governor following the election of President Bush, Carole Strayhorn has been a thorn in the governor’s side from her position as State Comptroller and one of Perry’s fiercest critics.
The decision by Carole Strayhorn to run as an independent candidate puts her in a surprisingly crowded field for the gubernatorial election later in the year. The Democratic nomination has yet to be decided, but it will likely be either state representative Chris Bell of Houston or Bob Gammage, a veteran state politician and member of the Dirty Thirty legislative group in the 1970s. However, Strayhorn even has competition among the minor candidates, who have increasingly been eating away at the polling numbers of both major parties in the gubernatorial polls. Musician Richard “Kinky” Friedman is also running as an independent for governor, who is mounting a surprisingly strong and serious campaign for what could easily be considered an outsider joke candidacy. Additionally, former presidential nominee David Cobb will run for governor for the Green Party, though Cobb appears to be having trouble gaining traction in the race outside of Travis County.
With such a divided opposition, Perry has still apparently been holding up in the first polling of the campaign, though Strayhorn’s independent candidacy has received a strong showing right out of the gate. A Rasmussen poll was released today with Perry, Bell, Strayhorn, Friedman, Cobb, and even Libertarian candidate James Werner all named on the poll. Perry led with just 36 percent in the poll. This would be a troubling sign for the governor, except that Carole Strayhorn surprisingly emerged second in the Rasmussen poll with 20 percent. Democrat Chris Bell and Kinky Friedman each tied with 12 percent, while Cobb polled at 6 percent and Werner ws at just 2 percent. The remaining 12 percent of those polled were undecided, which especially this far out means the race could still swing wildly in the months to come[2].
***
Challenge to Pombo Heats Up as McCloskey, Machado Enter Race
February 2, 2006
PLEASANTON, CA - The race for California’s 11th congressional district has been getting a lot more interesting in the last couple weeks. Two high profile candidates have entered the race in the Democratic and Republican primaries, which will make Richard Pombo’s reelection race that much more difficult. The most direct challenge to Pombo will undoubtedly come from the entry of veteran Pete McCloskey. McCloskey expressed interest in unseating Pombo a few months ago spurred by Pombo’s attempts to repeal the Endangered Species Act. McCloskey first sought candidates to run in a primary against Pombo, but it seems after coming up short, the 78 year old former Congressman, who served the Central Valley from 1967 to 1983, has opted to enter the race himself.
McCloskey is not the only candidate to enter the Republican primary in an attempt to unseat Pombo from within his own party. Businessman Tom Benigno, who ran against Pombo in the 2002 Republican primary and received 13 percent, also announced he will run again in the primary in June. Benigno is a long shot to win the Republican nomination, but he has stated he will still be running with full intention to win the nomination. In the first primary poll since McCloskey and Benigno entered the race, however, Pombo still held a very comfortable lead over both challengers. Pombo stood at 63 percent in the primary poll, while McCloskey stood at 26 percent and Benigno behind at 11 percent, with the remainder undecided.
Meanwhile, the Democratic primary has gotten much more interesting, as a two way fight between Jerry McNerney and Steve Filson has turned into a three way fight. State Senator Mike Machado has filed to enter the race after much speculation on whether he would endorse either Filson or McNerney or if Machado would run himself[3]. Senator Machado now becomes the most well known candidate for the Democratic nomination, and his campaign should have decent finances. While Machado faced a tough race for the State Senate’s 5th district initially in 2000 winning by under 1,300 votes, his reelection campaign against Gary Podesto two years ago went much easier for the incumbent. The entry of Mike Machado into the Democratic race puts a whole new spin on the primary. While McNerney was ahead of Filson 58-42 in the latest poll, Filson had recently put in $10,000 of his own money into his campaign, and the DCCC had recently announced they would begin rolling out campaign funding for Filson in the primary in the coming days. Machado’s entry into the race, however, puts a whole new dynamic on the Democratic race, and combined with McCloskey jumping in against Pombo is sure to shake up the 11th district even more as we near the June primary election.
***
The San Diego Election Saga Ends on a Strange Note
February 28, 2006
SAN DIEGO - After a whirlwind of scandals and special elections that has gripped San Diego for the past few years and resulted in the resignations of many a city official, the saga appears to finally be over - but not without one more twist. After Donna Frye was elected mayor in November, her city council seat was to be filled in a special election. After Frye’s election, her District 6 council seat encompassing a large area northeast of downtown San Diego including Clairemont and Mission Valley, attracted many contenders vying for the snap election held on January 31.
No less than six Democratic candidates and three Republicans entered the race. While many of the Democrats had little name recognition beyond their neighborhoods, by far the most notable candidate for the council seat was Dean Spanos, son of Alex Spanos and co-owner of the San Diego Chargers. It was clear from the start that Spanos entered the race as part of his ongoing effort to get the city of San Diego to replace Qualcomm Stadium, but the short span between the seat vacancy and the special election as well as the dislike of Spanos among many of District 6’s residents led to Spanos failing to gain much traction in the race. Indeed, it seemed few candidates were able to gain much recognition out of the contested field in the three months between Frye’s election as mayor and the end of January primary. This is seen as one of the main reasons for the shocking result in the primary election and in today’s runoff.
In the primary election, Republican candidate Judy Riddle came out on top with 23.5%. Riddle, a longtime Clairemont resident and community volunteer, ran on a platform of opposing the new tax hike mayor Frye called for and as an honest, kitchen table candidate for the office. While Riddle’s advancement to the runoff election ahead of Spanos was a surprise, the divided Democratic field created the biggest surprise of the primary. Green candidate Kent Mesplay came second in the primary with 18.6% two percent ahead of Spanos. While the San Diego council seats are ostensibly nonpartisan, there was much conversation in the general campaign about how the runoff for Donna Frye’s formerly Democratic council seat would now be between a Republican and a Green. Mayor Frye stayed silent on the race, though it was common knowledge that she privately endorsed Mesplay over Riddle for her replacement in the city council, both to prevent the seat from going to a Republican and in support of a candidate who shared her environmentalist views. While many dismissed Mesplay’s candidacy even in the runoff, including Riddle calling Mesplay a “kook” in a public speech, the runoff election today provided one final shakeup for San Diegans to begin 2006. By a vote of 55.7% to 44.3%, the voters of District 6 elected Kent Mesplay as San Diego’s first Green city council member. This will be yet another sore point for San Diego Republicans after Kevin Faulconer narrowly failed to gain Michael Zucchet’s former District 2 seat, losing the November special election to Democrat Lorena Gonzalez.
***
Activist Barbara Becnel Announces Candidacy for Governor
March 13, 2006
LOS ANGELES - Four months ago on December 13, 2005, Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams was executed by the state of California. Williams had been convicted for first degree murder in 1979 and sentenced by a jury to death. Since then, he had renounced gang violence and become an activist and author while in San Quentin. Williams gained many supporters during his sentence. One of them, who became one of Williams’s closest friends and editor of his books, is Barbara Becnel. During the leadup to his execution, Becnel was one of the most prominent voices calling for governor Schwarzenegger to grant Stanley William clemency, which Schwarzenegger denied. Becnel was present at the execution at the request of Williams. Now, she says, she will fight to bring her voice to Sacramento.
Since getting to know Stanley Williams, Barbara Becnel has become one of the loudest voices in the debate in California surrounding the death penalty. And in the months before and since Williams was executed at San Quentin, she has become even louder in her calls and has been joined by many supporters, especially from minority communities. Becnel says she had a chance to talk with Democratic front runner Phil Angelides about the death penalty in February, but she says the Treasurer was fully committed in his support for the death penalty. Becnel says that was the final straw that made her want to run for governor. But there have been hangups since her decision.
Becnel talked with Democratic Party supporters and floated the idea of launching a run for the Democratic nomination and even launched an exploratory committee. However, it soon became clear that the Democratic Party would be more than willing to freeze her out of primary debates, and that Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly were the clear establishment picks for the nomination. There was little way she would be able to gain traction running through the Democratic Party. However, she soon approached Todd Chretien and Peter Camejo about running for governor on the Green Party. Camejo was preparing to make a run for governor as he had in 2002 and the 2003 recall election, but he agreed to step aside and run for Senate instead if Becnel wished to run on the Green Party[4]. Becnel agreed, and with the latest filing of her candidacy, becomes the first black woman to run for governor of California. Becnel has gained the early support of prominent minority leaders including Jesse Jackson, former Black Panther associate Angela Davis, and immigrants rights activist Nativo Lopez. Along with these endorsements have come rumors that those activists may also run for office as Greens, but California Green Party co-chair Mike Feinstein downplayed the potential for those candidacies. Even so, these early endorsements will give Barbara Becnel a strong profile in her long shot candidacy.
[1] That approval rating is OTL and was Perry's lowest approval rating during his governorship.
[2] I adjusted an actual poll slightly to add Cobb in. Around this time in OTL, the numbers were Perry 40%, Strayhorn 21%, Bell 14%, and Friedman 12%.
[3] Mike Machado in OTL endorsed Steve Filson around this time.
[4] In OTL, Barbara Becnel did indeed talk with Camejo and Chretien about running for governor on the Green Party and Camejo was willing to step aside for her. However, in OTL they decided Becnel would get more visibility in the Democratic primary. After the 2006 election though, she did join the Green Party.
The election results master post has been updated.
January 6, 2006
AUSTIN, TX - Rick Perry may have some better news to ring in the new year, depending on how you look at things. Six months ago, the future was looking not nearly as bright for the Texas governor. Governor Perry’s approval rating had sunk to a historic low of just 38% with 53% disapproving of his job as governor[1]. He was in danger of pacing a contentious primary challenge from not one but two potential challengers. However, since then, the gubernatorial forecast for Perry going into the start of the 2006 election campaign has looked brighter. The governor’s approval rating has rebounded to a still shaky but more comfortable tie of 45% approval and disapproval. Additionally, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison decided to run for reelection in the Senate instead of challenging the incumbent governor for the Republican nomination in March. And now, Perry’s other potential threat from his own party, state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, has announced she intends to forego the Republican primary in March and challenge governor Perry directly in the general election as an independent.
However, Perry may not be out of the woods yet. Carole Strayhorn brings with her formidable credentials in her independent bid, having achieved several firsts for a woman in Texas politics. Strayhorn entered politics serving on the city of Austin’s school board for five years before being elected mayor of Austin in 1977, the first woman to be elected mayor of the state capital. She served as mayor until 1983 when she became the first woman appointed to the Texas state board of insurance. Strayhorn then won election to two state offices, in 1994 to the Railroad Commissioner and in 1999 to State Comptroller. Since Rick Perry assumed the position of governor following the election of President Bush, Carole Strayhorn has been a thorn in the governor’s side from her position as State Comptroller and one of Perry’s fiercest critics.
The decision by Carole Strayhorn to run as an independent candidate puts her in a surprisingly crowded field for the gubernatorial election later in the year. The Democratic nomination has yet to be decided, but it will likely be either state representative Chris Bell of Houston or Bob Gammage, a veteran state politician and member of the Dirty Thirty legislative group in the 1970s. However, Strayhorn even has competition among the minor candidates, who have increasingly been eating away at the polling numbers of both major parties in the gubernatorial polls. Musician Richard “Kinky” Friedman is also running as an independent for governor, who is mounting a surprisingly strong and serious campaign for what could easily be considered an outsider joke candidacy. Additionally, former presidential nominee David Cobb will run for governor for the Green Party, though Cobb appears to be having trouble gaining traction in the race outside of Travis County.
With such a divided opposition, Perry has still apparently been holding up in the first polling of the campaign, though Strayhorn’s independent candidacy has received a strong showing right out of the gate. A Rasmussen poll was released today with Perry, Bell, Strayhorn, Friedman, Cobb, and even Libertarian candidate James Werner all named on the poll. Perry led with just 36 percent in the poll. This would be a troubling sign for the governor, except that Carole Strayhorn surprisingly emerged second in the Rasmussen poll with 20 percent. Democrat Chris Bell and Kinky Friedman each tied with 12 percent, while Cobb polled at 6 percent and Werner ws at just 2 percent. The remaining 12 percent of those polled were undecided, which especially this far out means the race could still swing wildly in the months to come[2].
***
Challenge to Pombo Heats Up as McCloskey, Machado Enter Race
February 2, 2006
PLEASANTON, CA - The race for California’s 11th congressional district has been getting a lot more interesting in the last couple weeks. Two high profile candidates have entered the race in the Democratic and Republican primaries, which will make Richard Pombo’s reelection race that much more difficult. The most direct challenge to Pombo will undoubtedly come from the entry of veteran Pete McCloskey. McCloskey expressed interest in unseating Pombo a few months ago spurred by Pombo’s attempts to repeal the Endangered Species Act. McCloskey first sought candidates to run in a primary against Pombo, but it seems after coming up short, the 78 year old former Congressman, who served the Central Valley from 1967 to 1983, has opted to enter the race himself.
McCloskey is not the only candidate to enter the Republican primary in an attempt to unseat Pombo from within his own party. Businessman Tom Benigno, who ran against Pombo in the 2002 Republican primary and received 13 percent, also announced he will run again in the primary in June. Benigno is a long shot to win the Republican nomination, but he has stated he will still be running with full intention to win the nomination. In the first primary poll since McCloskey and Benigno entered the race, however, Pombo still held a very comfortable lead over both challengers. Pombo stood at 63 percent in the primary poll, while McCloskey stood at 26 percent and Benigno behind at 11 percent, with the remainder undecided.
Meanwhile, the Democratic primary has gotten much more interesting, as a two way fight between Jerry McNerney and Steve Filson has turned into a three way fight. State Senator Mike Machado has filed to enter the race after much speculation on whether he would endorse either Filson or McNerney or if Machado would run himself[3]. Senator Machado now becomes the most well known candidate for the Democratic nomination, and his campaign should have decent finances. While Machado faced a tough race for the State Senate’s 5th district initially in 2000 winning by under 1,300 votes, his reelection campaign against Gary Podesto two years ago went much easier for the incumbent. The entry of Mike Machado into the Democratic race puts a whole new spin on the primary. While McNerney was ahead of Filson 58-42 in the latest poll, Filson had recently put in $10,000 of his own money into his campaign, and the DCCC had recently announced they would begin rolling out campaign funding for Filson in the primary in the coming days. Machado’s entry into the race, however, puts a whole new dynamic on the Democratic race, and combined with McCloskey jumping in against Pombo is sure to shake up the 11th district even more as we near the June primary election.
***
The San Diego Election Saga Ends on a Strange Note
February 28, 2006
SAN DIEGO - After a whirlwind of scandals and special elections that has gripped San Diego for the past few years and resulted in the resignations of many a city official, the saga appears to finally be over - but not without one more twist. After Donna Frye was elected mayor in November, her city council seat was to be filled in a special election. After Frye’s election, her District 6 council seat encompassing a large area northeast of downtown San Diego including Clairemont and Mission Valley, attracted many contenders vying for the snap election held on January 31.
No less than six Democratic candidates and three Republicans entered the race. While many of the Democrats had little name recognition beyond their neighborhoods, by far the most notable candidate for the council seat was Dean Spanos, son of Alex Spanos and co-owner of the San Diego Chargers. It was clear from the start that Spanos entered the race as part of his ongoing effort to get the city of San Diego to replace Qualcomm Stadium, but the short span between the seat vacancy and the special election as well as the dislike of Spanos among many of District 6’s residents led to Spanos failing to gain much traction in the race. Indeed, it seemed few candidates were able to gain much recognition out of the contested field in the three months between Frye’s election as mayor and the end of January primary. This is seen as one of the main reasons for the shocking result in the primary election and in today’s runoff.
In the primary election, Republican candidate Judy Riddle came out on top with 23.5%. Riddle, a longtime Clairemont resident and community volunteer, ran on a platform of opposing the new tax hike mayor Frye called for and as an honest, kitchen table candidate for the office. While Riddle’s advancement to the runoff election ahead of Spanos was a surprise, the divided Democratic field created the biggest surprise of the primary. Green candidate Kent Mesplay came second in the primary with 18.6% two percent ahead of Spanos. While the San Diego council seats are ostensibly nonpartisan, there was much conversation in the general campaign about how the runoff for Donna Frye’s formerly Democratic council seat would now be between a Republican and a Green. Mayor Frye stayed silent on the race, though it was common knowledge that she privately endorsed Mesplay over Riddle for her replacement in the city council, both to prevent the seat from going to a Republican and in support of a candidate who shared her environmentalist views. While many dismissed Mesplay’s candidacy even in the runoff, including Riddle calling Mesplay a “kook” in a public speech, the runoff election today provided one final shakeup for San Diegans to begin 2006. By a vote of 55.7% to 44.3%, the voters of District 6 elected Kent Mesplay as San Diego’s first Green city council member. This will be yet another sore point for San Diego Republicans after Kevin Faulconer narrowly failed to gain Michael Zucchet’s former District 2 seat, losing the November special election to Democrat Lorena Gonzalez.
***
Activist Barbara Becnel Announces Candidacy for Governor
March 13, 2006
LOS ANGELES - Four months ago on December 13, 2005, Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams was executed by the state of California. Williams had been convicted for first degree murder in 1979 and sentenced by a jury to death. Since then, he had renounced gang violence and become an activist and author while in San Quentin. Williams gained many supporters during his sentence. One of them, who became one of Williams’s closest friends and editor of his books, is Barbara Becnel. During the leadup to his execution, Becnel was one of the most prominent voices calling for governor Schwarzenegger to grant Stanley William clemency, which Schwarzenegger denied. Becnel was present at the execution at the request of Williams. Now, she says, she will fight to bring her voice to Sacramento.
Since getting to know Stanley Williams, Barbara Becnel has become one of the loudest voices in the debate in California surrounding the death penalty. And in the months before and since Williams was executed at San Quentin, she has become even louder in her calls and has been joined by many supporters, especially from minority communities. Becnel says she had a chance to talk with Democratic front runner Phil Angelides about the death penalty in February, but she says the Treasurer was fully committed in his support for the death penalty. Becnel says that was the final straw that made her want to run for governor. But there have been hangups since her decision.
Becnel talked with Democratic Party supporters and floated the idea of launching a run for the Democratic nomination and even launched an exploratory committee. However, it soon became clear that the Democratic Party would be more than willing to freeze her out of primary debates, and that Angelides and state Controller Steve Westly were the clear establishment picks for the nomination. There was little way she would be able to gain traction running through the Democratic Party. However, she soon approached Todd Chretien and Peter Camejo about running for governor on the Green Party. Camejo was preparing to make a run for governor as he had in 2002 and the 2003 recall election, but he agreed to step aside and run for Senate instead if Becnel wished to run on the Green Party[4]. Becnel agreed, and with the latest filing of her candidacy, becomes the first black woman to run for governor of California. Becnel has gained the early support of prominent minority leaders including Jesse Jackson, former Black Panther associate Angela Davis, and immigrants rights activist Nativo Lopez. Along with these endorsements have come rumors that those activists may also run for office as Greens, but California Green Party co-chair Mike Feinstein downplayed the potential for those candidacies. Even so, these early endorsements will give Barbara Becnel a strong profile in her long shot candidacy.
[1] That approval rating is OTL and was Perry's lowest approval rating during his governorship.
[2] I adjusted an actual poll slightly to add Cobb in. Around this time in OTL, the numbers were Perry 40%, Strayhorn 21%, Bell 14%, and Friedman 12%.
[3] Mike Machado in OTL endorsed Steve Filson around this time.
[4] In OTL, Barbara Becnel did indeed talk with Camejo and Chretien about running for governor on the Green Party and Camejo was willing to step aside for her. However, in OTL they decided Becnel would get more visibility in the Democratic primary. After the 2006 election though, she did join the Green Party.
The election results master post has been updated.
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Hmm. Probably not for this election (at least TTL Kinky is partly running as an independent to not be tied to any label), but... perhaps in any possible future runs for office.
*runs off to scribble notes*