Special interests buy legislative seats

Government of, by and for 

the Special Interests

• Million and millions of special interest dollars is being poured into California state Assembly races. 
• The only "choice" voters are given is which one of the bought and paid for candidates to anoint. One thing for sure, the new Assemblymen will eagerly represent the Oligarchs who paid for their campaigns. The voters back home are an optional extra.

35th California Assembly District

(San Luis Obispo Tribune)  -  In the race for the Republican-leaning 35th California Assembly District, Democratic candidate Dawn Ortiz-Legg raised nearly $170,000 more than her Republican opponent, Jordan Cunningham, and outspent Cunningham by about $106,000 in the three-month span from July 1 through Sept. 24 (the state filing period differs from the federal one).

Ortiz-Legg reported raising $530,807 during the three-month period, nearly 80 percent of the total $680,058 she’s raised. Ortiz-Legg also spent more this period than any other — $361,044 of the total $498,874 she’s spent the entire race.

Ortiz-Legg, a San Luis Obispo-based solar energy consultant, ended the period with more cash on hand than Cunningham, with $189,944. She reported $3,820 in debts.

Her larger contributors this period include the California Democratic Party, the Democratic Central Committee for Marin County, the campaign committees for various Democratic state assembly members, and PACs for various education and labor unions, including the California State University Employees Union.

Cunningham, a Templeton-based attorney, raised nearly 70 percent of his total $524,055 contributions in the last three-month filing period — $361,704. He spent $254,747, leaving him with a balance of $178,246 and an outstanding debt of $20,962.

Cunningham’s donors in the last period include the California Republican Party, the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County, PACs representing several labor unions, companies such as Phillips 66 and Phillip Morris USA, and individuals including San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow and Assessor Tom Bordonaro.

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See more big spending
sacbee.com

The central coast's 35th Assembly District

Another phony Democrat vs Democrat "election"

Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown and challenger Eloise Reyes

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• California's phony "election reform" has given us this Democrat vs Democrat contest - one of 16 such races in the state.
• Not only do voters have no meaningful choices on their ballots, but the candidates are nothing more than the bought and paid for lackeys of outside special interest groups.
• Local voters have no real choice. They only have the right to vote for bought off candidate "A" or bought off candidate "B".

(89.3 KPCC)  -  As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton battle for the White House, races further down the ballot in California are getting heated — and expensive.

Outside groups are spending millions in local races to help their favored candidates reach Sacramento. This year, no state race has seen more outside spending than the 47th Assembly District in the Inland Empire.

There, outside groups have thrown more than $3.7 million into the election, with more than $1.4 million of that coming since the primary. Oil industry and labor groups have been the biggest spenders.

This working class, largely Latino and African-American area includes Colton, Fontana and San Bernardino. The election pits two Democrats against each other, attorney Eloise Reyes and incumbent Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, who was first elected to the seat in 2012.

Their contest hinges on economic and environmental issues. "The region desperately needs jobs, but it also has significant environmental concerns that need to be addressed," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, who teaches political science at the University of California, Riverside.

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The 47th Assembly District in San Bernardino

A colossal bundle of cash draws Clinton to California

Government of, by and for the Oligarchs

Clinton tells the average voter to fuck off, and spends her time kissing the asses of the corrupt Elites.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  Hillary Clinton has decided a tour of California would be far more lucrative.

Clinton is substantially easing her campaign schedule in the coming days to rub elbows with the stars and other deep-pocketed donors during fundraisers at the country’s most exclusive vacation retreats and communities.  

Some of the biggest money will be raised over the next couple of days in California, where Clinton is arriving fresh off an East Coast swing through Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. 

On Monday night, Clinton will be in the most moneyed ZIP codes in Los Angeles, hopping from the home of basketball legend Magic Johnson to the Beverly Hills estate of entertainment mogul Haim Saban – both big time supporters and fundraisers for the Democratic nominee. At the events, she will likely bump into such Hollywood big shots as Jeffrey Katzenberg, Casey Wasserman and Bob Iger, all also big donors.

Just getting in the door to the cocktail reception at the Johnson home costs $2,700 per person. Those who wish to continue to the Saban home, where dinner will be served, must spend $100,000 for a pair of "host" tickets. Those who do will also have an opportunity to have their photo snapped with the candidate. 

Clinton was dealt a slight setback when Leonardo DiCaprio had to back out of his plan to host a fundraiser because of a filming obligation. No worries. The Clintons always seem to have an endless cache of stars ready to pitch in. This time, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel were standing by to help the candidate raise an eye-popping amount of cash. Tickets for the lunch they are hosting come with a price tag of $33,400.

Clinton will also be dropping in to Laguna Beach for a pair of fundraisers.

By Tuesday night, Clinton will jet off to collect yet more checks in that other California region where money also seems to grow on trees for Democratic nominees, the Bay Area. The events there include a reception cohosted by Apple CEO Tim Cook and company Vice President Lisa Jackson, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and another event at the home of big name in tech, Amy Rao.

The two-day California swing alone will raise many millions of dollars for Clinton, as the candidate who pledges to get money out of politics races to raise $1 billion for the general election. According to an Associated Press report, Clinton’s finance director recently informed campaign staff that the operation is halfway to that goal.

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Big Pharma's $70 million tops California campaign contributions

A Bidding War Between Oligarchs

• Elections are mostly really about competing Cartels of wealthy Oligarchs who often want to suck furiously on the Public Teat of the Treasury.
• It is an advertising war of lies and half truths where the voters support the propositions with the most ads.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  With Californians facing the busiest ballot in more than a decade, big spenders are poised to make it one of the most expensive election battles in state history -- already contributing $185 million to fight over everything from sex, drugs and guns to tobacco and taxes.

The money is piling up on behalf of campaigns for 17 statewide ballot measures -- the most since March 2000. And when it comes to big backers, Big Pharma is far and away the towering force.

According to figures released Monday by the nonprofit MapLight, drug companies have already poured $70 million into an effort to fight Proposition 61, which would limit the prices state agencies pay for prescription drugs.

That's 38 percent of all the money so far invested into the various ballot measures through July 7, the Berkeley-based group reported. Some observers are predicting drug company contributions will top $100 million by Election Day.

"This is their bread and butter,'' said Barbara O'Connor, director emeritus of Sacramento State's Institute for the Study of Politics and Media, who expects the industry will invest as much money as its needs to win.

The beneficiary of that drug company money, Californians Against the Misleading Rx Measure, says they got an early start on raising campaign cash. "As the other campaigns start kicking into high gear, they will start raising more," said Kathy Fairbanks, the no campaign's spokeswoman.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the measure's sponsor, has raised about $10 million, according to president Michael Weinstein.

"Maybe $100 million can convince people to vote against what is in their own best interest,'' said Weinstein. "From our point of view, today, tomorrow or 10 years from now, justice will prevail on drug pricing.''

Big Pharma is closing in on the $94 million raised in 2006 -- the most by any one side in a California initiative campaign -- to fight Proposition 87, an alternative energy measure opposed by oil companies, according to Alec Saslow, MapLight's spokesman.

The nonpartisan group's review showed unions, school administrators, and the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems have given $19 million to the campaign for Proposition 55 to extend an income tax increase on people earning more than $250,000 a year.

Meanwhile, Tom Steyer, a San Francisco billionaire and possible Democratic contender for governor in 2018, has contributed $1 million to support Proposition 56. The measure would increase the cigarette tax by $2 per pack.

Other big names in Silicon Valley also have surfaced as preeminent ballot backers, so much so that O'Connor is calling it, "Silicon Valley against the normal political players,'' such as labor unions and associations that usually raise campaign war chests.

"It will be interesting if the traditional players can match the funding, and if that funding will produce -- or will equal -- a win,'' O'Connor said. "In this election, who knows?''

To wit: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Paul Graham of Y Combinator, and Marc Benioff of Salesforce have given money to support Proposition 62, a measure that would repeal the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. The campaign already has raised nearly $4 million.

A competing measure, Proposition 66 is aimed at eliminating delays in carrying out the death penalty by imposing time limits on legal reviews of capital convictions. It has the support of law enforcement groups. Proponents have raised $3.3 million.

Then there's Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who has contributed about $2.8 million of $7 million total to support Proposition 64, a measure to legalize marijuana.

The committee opposed to legalizing pot, the Coalition for Responsible Drug Policies, sponsored by California Public Safety Institute, has raised $141,000.

A
Democrat Party Condom Police
Will Democrat run California send condom inspectors to the sets of porn movie shoots to make sure the condoms are properly installed and snug with no leakage? Moron Democrats want to get a firm grip on both our wallets and deployed condoms.

A measure requiring actors in adult films to wear condoms, Proposition 60, has raised more than $1.6 million from its only financial supporter, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

"People like Tom Steyer and Reed Hastings have already written large checks,'' said Melissa Michelson, professor of political science at Menlo College. "I think this is the tip of the iceberg and we'll see massive amounts of spending.''

But Michelson believes many of the measures are tied to core values "and glossy mailers are probably not going to change your mind,'' on something like gun rights or the death penalty.

"I think Californians are used to the idea that some of these initiatives attract a huge amount of spending,'' she said. "But what I don't think a lot of people know is that so much depends on whether you can sow doubt into voters' minds. Then, the safe thing to do is vote no.''

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Cash-flush California GOP allows chairman to seek third term

GOP delegates only represent the corrupt wealthy special interests

The California GOP

The party that represents no one

• The GOP delegates met in California for their convention. I mean really, who the Hell cares?
• Simply, no one elected even one of these "delegates" who pretend to represents GOP voters. They are all appointed by Oligarch insiders based in Sacramento and Washington. The actual Republican voter is, as usual, totally ignored.
• A Radical Thought  -  If the party cares about their voters (which they don't) they should hold 80 mini-conventions in each of the 80 state assembly districts. GOP grass roots voters could attend and elect delegates to the state party convention. But the paid off Oligarchs want nothing to do with the pitch fork carrying peasants.

BURLINGAME, Calif. (Reuters) - The Californian Republican Party voted on Sunday to extend its term limit to allow the former lawmaker who brought the party back from near-bankruptcy in an increasingly Democratic state to seek a third term as chairman.

Buoyed by a flush bank account and the prospect that members' votes will matter in a presidential primary for the first time in decades, GOP members at their annual convention near San Francisco voted for a change to longtime party bylaws to allow former state Senator Jim Brulte to run again next year to be the party's chairman.

"I think he's a great chairman and he's done a lot for the party," said Michael Escoto, 35, a delegate from Los Angeles.

Brulte's strong hand guiding normally fractious California Republicans was clear throughout the three-day convention, where newly energized members were courted by all three candidates vying for the national party's presidential nomination - Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz - along with Carly Fiorina, who is joining Cruz' campaign as his potential running mate.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump supporter Luisa Aranda speaks with members of the press during the California Republican Party Convention on April 29, 2016 in Burlingame, California. Trump is preparing for the California Primary on June 7. (Photo by Ramin Talaie/Getty Images)

Since Brulte took the helm of the then-faltering party in 2013, the California GOP has gone from having less than $200,000 in the bank to its current cash on hand of $4.5 million, according to state campaign finance records.

Now, positions cut during layoffs a few years ago have been replaced, and the party's annual convention - previously a sleepy affair - was packed with delegates and guests.

The possibility that California's June primary will matter in the presidential race for the first time in decades if frontrunner Donald Trump does not secure enough delegates before then has energized members.

Still, Brulte will face a difficult road in a state where Democrats hold all statewide-elected offices and dominate both houses of the legislature.

The Californian Republic Party has become fractured, splitting among Tea Party conservatives, anti-immigration activists, libertarians and an increasingly alienated moderate old guard.

There were just under 4.8 million Republicans registered in the state as of Jan. 3, bringing the total down to 27.6 percent of the electorate from 30.4 percent in 2012.

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