State Sen. Ted Lieu is running for U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman's District 33 seat, opposed by about eight other Democrats and five from other parties.
Sen. Lieu won 73 percent of the votes in a Democratic Party pre-endorsement meeting. For a good example of his work in Sacramento, he has authored S.B. 1272, which would put the following proposition on the statewide ballot for November:
“Shall the voters adopt a resolution that there should be limits on political campaign Spending, and that corporations should not have the constitutional rights of human beings, and instruct California elected officials and legislative representatives to promote that policy through amendments to the United States Constitution?”
This already has been endorsed by the Los Angeles City Council.
The argument for it will be presented to our Culver City Democratic Club meeting tonight at 7 o’clock in the Rotunda Room of the Vets Auditorium by Michele Sutter, co-founder of M.O.V.I. (Money Out, Voters In).
Talking Over Convention
Our meeting agenda will include discussion of the California Democratic Party Convention last Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the Bonaventure Hotel. I expect our members who attended shall bring back to our meeting copies of endorsement lists of candidates, propositions and resolutions, as well as personal reminiscences of the meeting and listening to our party leaders. We can use that information to help us make our club's endorsements.
For more help with our choices for the June 3 primary election, our neighbors in the West L.A. Democratic Club have invited us to two candidates' forums, at a location to be determined near Culver City.
Forums in April and May
On Saturday, April 5, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., we can hear candidates for Congressional District 33 (Mr. Waxman's seat), state Senate District 26 (Mr. Lieu's seat), and Los Angeles County Supervisor (Zev Yaroslavsky's seat).
On Saturday, May 3, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there will be appearances by candidates for state offices and Los Angeles County offices (assessor, sheriff, and judgeships).
After hearing the above, and studying the propositions, our Culver City club may choose to make endorsements at our meetings on April 9 and May 14. I expect the choices will be easy for most state offices, except Secretary of State (Derek Cressman, Alex Padilla, Leland Yee), Controller (John A. Perez, Betty Yee), and Supervisor of Public Instruction (Tom Torlakson, Marshall Tuck). The County offices will be hotly contested. No incumbents are running. Other contested primaries will include Congressional Districts 31 (to replace Republican Gary G. Miller) and 35 (to replace Democrat Gloria Negrete McLeod), and Assembly District 62 (six Democrats are running to replace Steven Bradford).
Much has been written lately about Democrats losing their two-thirds majority in the state Senate because Sens. Ron Calderon and Rod Wright will be absent from voting. This will not be nearly as big a problem as when a one-third minority blocked the Democrats' state budget, and they had to make a deal with Abel Maldonado, who was then hounded out of office by furious Republicans. The deal was to put before the voters the winning proposition that the top two votegetters advance to the runoff election, regardless of party affiliation. I think that makes parties weaker, which is not good.
Our club should discuss the practical effect of this on elections, and also the effect of the new process for redistricting. I remember that Mr. Calderon and Mr. Wright were among the six Democratic senators who chose to kill S.B. 810 (by Mark Leno), a singlepayer healthcare bill that would save the state billions, while providing every Californian with guaranteed quality healthcare.
The other Democratic senators who didn't vote for this were: Lou Correa, Alex Padilla, Michael Rubio and Juan Vargas. All received big contributions from insurance companies and Big Pharma.
Mr. Sanders, new president of the Culver City Democratic Club, maybe contacted at leesanders72@gmail.com
