California to issue 1.4 million driver's licenses to illegal aliens

Illegals Welcome

If you can fog a mirror the People's Republic of 

California will give you a license.

California Division of Motor Vehicles is preparing for roughly 1.4 million new driver’s license applicants after Jan. 1.

That’s when Assembly Bill 60, or the Safe and Responsible Drivers Act, goes into effect.

To prepare for all of the new applicants, the Department of Motor Vehicles has hired about 900 new employees and opened several temporary offices across the state reports Fox News Latino.

The DMV is encouraging all eligible applicants to start preparing for their drivers tests early.

When Nevada adopted a similar law, about 90 percent of undocumented immigrants failed the written exam.

On the front, the license will say “Federal Limits Apply.”  On the back it reads: “This card is not acceptable for official federal purposes” and that it can only be used as a license to drive.

The requirements are: proof of California residency, fingerprints and proper identification.

“Our challenge has been to identify documents that are produced by other countries that are secure enough.  That means that they verify that the person who is getting them is actually the person who is applying for them,” California DMV spokesperson Armando Botello said.

California will become the 11th state to allow undocumented immigrants to get drivers licenses.

SHOCK - 530 votes apart with 52,000 ballots to be counted

GOP Assemblyman Jeff Gorell
Jeff is a Lt. Commander in the Navy Reserve.

It Ain't Over Yet

• This is one of those solid middle class districts that are a must win if the GOP is to continue to exist as a viable party.
• What is shocking is how narrow the race is when the GOP has everything in the world going for them. That speaks loudly about how middle class voters look at the GOP.

Update  -  The Republican is losing ground in the counting and in now 1,000 plus votes behind.

In one of the nation’s closest and most closely watched races for the House of Representatives, Democrat Rep. Julia Brownley is locked in a tight contest with Republican Assemblyman Jeff Gorell to represent the 26th Congressional District which includes Ventura County and western Los Angeles County.

Semi-official results from Tuesday’s election showed Brownley with 50.2 percent of the vote, with 63,811 votes, to Gorell’s returns of 49.8 percent and 63,281 votes — a margin of 530 votes.

Gorell has refused to concede the election, which became a battleground race in the national contest between Republicans and Democrats over control of the House reports the Los Angeles Daily News.

Both sides have observers looking to oversee the processing of uncounted ballots. Officials estimate there are more than 52,000 vote-by-mail and provisional ballots left to be tallied.

“We won election night and are confident we will win when the process is played out,” Brownley spokeswoman Rachel Estrada said. “But we do want to make sure all votes are counted.”

Gorell aides said they also will be closely monitoring the processing of the ballots.

Republicans have been in control of the House but were looking to expand their numbers to beyond the record 246 it had at the end of World War II.

Democrats put a lot of money and effort in trying to keep Brownley in office including a get-out-the-vote rally last week with former President Bill Clinton in a district with a long history of being represented by Republicans.

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and an expert in campaign law, said she believes the Brownley-Gorell race says more about the district.

“I think it is an example of having a competitive district in an area that has always been more right of center,” Levinson said. “I think, from the start, everyone thought this would be a toss-up race and Gorell has proven to be a palatable Republican for California.”

Democrats lose supermajority in state Senate, on way to losing it in Assembly

Republican Janet Nguyen
The Orange County Supervisor
Crushed the Dem 60% to 40%
for a State Senate seat.

Not Exactly a GOP Wave, but it is better than nothing.

(San Jose Mercury News)  -  The Democratic Party's bid for a new supermajority in the state Senate has failed, thanks to Republican victories in a few key races, and it was on the way to losing its supermajority in the Assembly on Wednesday morning as elections officials finished counting ballots in pivotal campaigns across California.

Republicans prevailed in two races, one in the Central Valley and the other in Orange County, that were viewed as crucial to preventing Democrats from regaining a python's grip on the Senate.

State Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, defeated Democratic challenger Luis Chavez, a Fresno Unified School District trustee, in the 14th district, which includes all of Kings County and parts of Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties. The district tilts Democratic among registered voters.

In the 34th district, where Republicans have a slight edge in voter registration, Republican Janet Nguyen, an Orange County supervisor, crushed Democrat Jose Solorio, a former assemblyman. Nguyen will replace termed-out state Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana.

Leading up to the election, Democrats were expected to maintain their supermajority in the Assembly. But Republicans emerged victorious on Election Day in several closely watched Assembly races, including an Orange County tilt in the 65th Assembly District, where Republican challenger Young Kim took down the Democratic incumbent, Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton.

That defeat, and another in Southern California's 36th Assembly District, left Democrats trailing in their attempt to retain their Assembly supermajority early Wednesday morning.

Two close races will decide the Democrats' fate. If Republicans can hold on to their leads in the 16th and 66th districts, where an unknown number of mail and provisional ballots must still be counted, Democrats will be left with 53 Assembly seats, one short of the threshold for a supermajority.

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, was trailing Wednesday morning in his re-election bid in Los Angeles County's 66th district with 48.6 percent of the vote. Republican challenger David Hadley had 51.4 percent.

Republican Young Kim defeated the Democrat 56% to 44%.

In the East Bay's 16th district, Republican Catharine Baker was in position to score a rare Bay Area victory for her party. With 51.9 percent of the vote, Baker had a solid lead over against Democrat Tim Sbranti.

The Democratic Party gained a supermajority in both houses in 2012 but lost its two-thirds control in the Senate this year after three senators, including Bay Area lawmaker Leland Yee, were brought down by corruption scandals. Having a supermajority in both houses would allow Democrats to pass legislation without Republican votes and prevent the GOP from blocking Gov. Jerry Brown's appointments to boards and commissions.

The supermajority threshold is 54 in the Assembly and 27 in the Senate. Going into Tuesday's election, the Democrats had 55 seats and 25 seats, respectively, in those chambers.

In the Bay Area, a couple of Democrat-vs.-Democrat campaigns were tightly contested.

Republican Catharine Baker is winning her Bay Area
Assembly race 51.9% to 48.1%.

Convicted Democrat Spends Half an Hour in Jail

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• If an average person robs a 7-11 they go to jail. But a Democrat Senator convicted of eight felonies spends a big 1/2 hour in jail.

A former Los Angeles area State Senator convicted of perjury and voter fraud served half an hour of a 90-day sentence behind bars.

Democrat Rod Wright appeared Friday at a Los Angeles County jail to begin serving his sentence. But the 62-year-old former lawmaker was released almost immediately after the paperwork was completed -- just 34 minutes after he was booked reports NBC News.

Wright was convicted earlier this year on eight felony counts, including perjury and voting fraud, for lying about where he lived when he ran for office.

He had said he moved into an Inglewood property he owned so he could run in 2008 to represent the 25th Senate District, but jurors found that Wright actually lived outside the district.

Wright resigned his seat rather than face possible expulsion. In separate cases, two other Democratic state senators have been indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges.

We Are Better Than You
"Jail is for the common folks, not for Democrat Senators."

Independent voters outnumber the GOP

Voters Increasingly Reject Both Parties

• They may reject the two large parties, but independents have no choices on the ballot.  They are force-fed a "choice" of only the two largest parties.
• In the corrupt California top-two system all independent candidates and small opposition political parties have been banned from general election ballots and all write-in votes have been declared illegal and will not be counted.
• Statewide Registration  -  Independent voters & 3rd parties now have a combined 29% of the registered voters in California but 0% of elected officials.  The GOP registration has collapsed to 28% and Democrats to 43%.

(Desert Dispatch)  -  Voters without a party preference comprise roughly 22 percent of the electorate in San Bernardino County, the third-largest group of voters here, while parties outside the major two remain minute in numbers, election data shows.

Of the 852,026 registered voters in the county, 38.2 percent are Democratic, 34.5 percent are Republican and 21.9 percent have no party preference, according to a county Election’s Office report of voter registration updated Oct. 26.

American Independents (3.6 percent) are the only other party or group who make up more than 1 percent of the countywide electorate, the report shows.

The article is about San Bernardino
County but it applies to all of
the People's Republic.

Neither the Americans Elect, Green, Libertarian or Peace and Freedom parties count more than 5,476 voters, and just less than 2,000 voters identify as being in “other” parties.

Looking at races for state Assembly and U.S. Congress, Democratic candidates John Coffey and Bob Conaway would have a difficult time, by numbers alone, competing with GOP rivals Jay Obernolte and Rep. Paul Cook if it were not for unaffiliated voters.

Of the 74,183 registered voters in the 33rd Assembly District, Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 9,000. But with more than 42,000 voters, the no-party electorate figures to play a significant role in Tuesday’s election.

The same can be said in the 8th Congressional District, where 284,807 total voters there include 112,336 Republicans. But even with 20,000 less Democratic voters, there are 61,561 voters who do not claim a party.

In California, 23 percent of registered voters have no party preference, up from 10 percent two decades ago, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In the county’s 1st District, including the Victor Valley and outlying areas near Barstow, Republican voters are more prominent than their Democratic counterparts by a margin of 37.2 to 33.8 percent. No-party voters make up 22 percent of the electorate.

A wider margin exists in the county’s 3rd District, which encompasses Barstow, where 40 percent of the electorate is Republican and 33 percent of voters are Democratic, the report shows. About 21 percent of voters there have no party preference.

Reviewing city-by-city voter data, Apple Valley is by far the most GOP-leaning with 44 percent Republican to 28.3 percent Democratic. In Hesperia, 36.5 percent of voters are Republican and 33.8 percent are Democratic.

Victorville has the second-highest percentage of Democratic voters (42.8 percent) in the High Desert, while 27.8 percent of voters are Republican. Barstow maintains a 39.7 percent Democratic electorate, compared to 28.4 percent Republican.

Adelanto is the only city in the High Desert where no-party voters (25.4 percent) outnumber Republican voters (20 percent). Nearly 48 percent of voters there are Democratic.

The electorate in unincorporated areas of the county leans Republican (40.2 percent). About 32 percent of voters in outlying county-controlled areas are Democratic.

Election Reform Now!

.
The elections in the People's Republic are corrupt beyond words.  In most districts the "contests" are pretend show elections as phony as any election held in Communist China or Cuba.  In the few competitive elections around the state the candidates are bought and paid for by mountains of outside cash provided by Billionaire Cartels of labor unions and businesses looking to suck down tax money.

Independent and 3rd party candidates are effectively banned from all November ballots by the two larger parties.
.
One Proposed Reform  -  Currently California's 80 State Assembly members are "elected" from un-competitive seats with cash from outside special interest groups.

To reintroduce some small form of democracy into our elections I say we add 40 new members to the State Assembly.

Have the top ten candidates elected on an at-large basis from each of the four State Board of Equalization districts (above).  Allow each voter ten votes for this at-large regional election.

With each voter having ten votes he or she has the opportunity to spread their votes around to many different independent candidates or smaller opposition political parties.

It would be nice to see California's lower house with a mix of independent members and perhaps even a few members of the Green, American Independent or Libertarian parties.  That is called free elections in the rest of the world.  Maybe we should try freedom in California.

How to Buy a City: Chevron money rains down on Richmond election

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• Yeah, free speech, blah, blah.  But something is very, very wrong when a single multi-national corporation tries to buy every elected official in a San Francisco Bay Area small town.

RICHMOND -- With its mighty East Bay refinery under attack from environmentally minded politicians here, Chevron is pouring staggering sums of money into this blue-collar town's local election -- raising eyebrows across the nation and questions about the role global corporations should play in local politics.

Council candidates who accept matching funds in this city of 107,000 people are limited to raising $65,000 for their election campaigns. Chevron has contributed $3 million to three local political action committees, roughly $72 per registered voter. That is about seven times the amount tech billionaire Meg Whitman spent per voter on a losing 2010 governor's race that was the most expensive nonpresidential race in U.S. history.
.
The investment -- more than double Chevron's then-record-breaking $1.6 million spending on the last election cycle -- reflects the company's strained relationship with a community where it was historically embraced as an economic engine before a slate of progressives rose to prominence, including a Green Party mayor reports the San Jose Mercury News.

"I can't even point to a race where something like this is happening," said Thad Kousser, a political-science professor at UC San Diego who specializes in California state politics and elections.

Kousser added that because campaign expenditure laws vary by state and city, it's impossible to compare the numbers and definitively say whether, as many have suggested, this is the most money spent by a company in a local election.

"It's not at all unusual for businesses that have a lot at stake in elections to spend money; it's the scale of the donations. You rarely see the kind of money that people spend in U.S. Senate campaigns all coming from one source, on one political side, in a city as small as Richmond."

The spending -- which can be seen in mammoth billboards, stuffed mailboxes and relentless online and television commercials -- comes as the company battles a lawsuit by the city over damages stemming from a major 2012 fire at its 3,000-acre refinery that sent thousands of nearby residents to hospitals. It also comes after eight years of city leadership by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, who has protested outside the refinery's front gates and battled the city's largest taxpayer and employer at every turn.

For the company's part, spokesman Braden Reddall defended the enormity of Chevron's contributions.

"The amount of money we spend to inform voters must be viewed in the context of the more than $500 million in local taxes, social investment and spending on local vendors from Chevron over the past five years, and our $90 million social and environmental commitment to the city that will follow once our $1 billion refinery modernization is allowed to proceed," he wrote in an email.

The result of all that money flowing from Chevron's coffers is a sophisticated campaign that promotes its preferred candidates -- Nat Bates, Charles Ramsey, Al Martinez and Donna Powers -- while attacking a slate of candidates -- McLaughlin, Jovanka Beckles and Eduardo Martinez -- supported by a grass roots political activist organization known as the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
.

The campaign mailers and advertisements, sent out by the Chevron-backed Moving Forward committees, make no mention of the refinery or the candidates' positions toward it. Instead, they largely focus on the travel habits, attendance records and leadership qualities of the people they oppose, often in sharply critical terms.

Billboards and mailers portray McLaughlin, who is running for City Council after being termed out as mayor, as a jet-setter who spent her tenure traveling the world, including lobbying for the release of Cuban spies, while ignoring the city she leads. Mailers call Eduardo Martinez a "radical anarchist" and place his face on milk cartons and missing pet signs as a criticism of his attendance on city and school district boards; and a television commercial done in the style of the once-popular reality show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" lambastes Beckles for expensive dinners (including a $39 lamb chop) while traveling on city-supported trips.

Read the full article . . . .

California Cops Steal Naked Photos of Women

(Contra Costa Times)  -  The California Highway Patrol officer accused of stealing nude photos from a DUI suspect's phone told investigators that he and his fellow officers have been trading such images for years, in a practice that stretches from its Los Angeles office to his own Dublin station, according to court documents obtained by this newspaper Friday.

CHP Officer Sean Harrington, 35, of Martinez, also confessed to stealing explicit photos from the cellphone of a second Contra Costa County DUI suspect in August and forwarding those images to at least two CHP colleagues. The five-year CHP veteran called it a "game" among officers, according to an Oct. 14 search warrant affidavit.

Harrington told investigators he had done the same thing to female arrestees a "half dozen times in the last several years," according to the court records, which included leering text messages between Harrington and his Dublin CHP colleague, Officer Robert Hazelwood.

Contra Costa County prosecutors are investigating and say the conduct of the officers -- none of whom has been charged so far -- could compromise any criminal cases in which they are witnesses. CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said in a statement that his agency too has "active and open investigations" and cited a similar case several years ago in Los Angeles involving a pair of officers.

"The allegations anger and disgust me," Farrow said. "We expect the highest levels of integrity and moral strength from everyone in the California Highway Patrol, and there is no place in our organization for such behavior."

Rick Madsen, the Danville attorney for the 23-year-old San Ramon woman who was the first to report Harrington, said the implications of the case are "far-reaching and very damaging."

"The callousness and depravity with which these officers communicated about my client is dehumanizing, horribly offensive and degrading to all women," he said. "It's going to lead to another level of mistrust and skepticism to the motive of law enforcement in general."

The San Ramon woman's DUI case has already been dismissed because of the investigation into Harrington's conduct, and the CHP confirmed that one of its officers, a 5-year veteran, has been placed on "administrative duties" and is not on patrol, although they did not mention Harrington by name. Deputy district attorney Barry Grove said he expects a decision about charges against officers in the CHP probe to be made next week.

In the search warrant affidavit, senior Contra Costa district attorney inspector Darryl Holcombe wrote that he found probable cause to show both CHP officers Harrington and Hazelwood and others engaged in a "scheme to unlawfully access the cell phone of female arrestees by intentionally gaining access to their cell phone and without their knowledge, stealing and retaining nude or partially clothed photographs of them." That behavior constitutes felony computer theft, the affidavit said.

As this newspaper first reported earlier this week, the investigation began with a single incident: Harrington's conduct during the Aug. 29 arrest of the San Ramon woman. The woman discovered that photos had been stolen from her phone five days after her release, when she noticed on her iPad that the photos had been sent to an unknown number. A record of the messages had been deleted from her iPhone, but the phone had been synced to the iPad.
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Read More . . . .

The top House races in California

MOST COMPETITIVE RACES IN THE STATE:

7TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (SUBURBS TO THE SOUTH AND EAST OF SACRAMENTO):

Democratic Rep. Ami Bera versus Republican Doug Ose, a former congressman. Bera won this district by just 2 percentage points in 2012.

Big money from outside interest groups are flowing into this race, making it clear the district is up for grabs, just as it was two years ago.

Among the groups helping Ose with television ads are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, $600,000; Karl-Rove backed CrossRoads GPS, $900,000; and the American Action Network, $750,000. The outside spending should reduce the substantial fundraising advantage Bera enjoyed after the June primary. On the Democratic side, the House Majority PAC has said it has reserved nearly $1 million worth of air time.

The campaign arms for House Republicans and House Democrats also have reserved big ad buys.

Bera is trying to distance himself from Washington. He’s emphasizing that he gave up his pay during the government shutdown last fall and has reimbursed the treasury for the nearly $5,000 he accrued in pension benefits last year.

Ose served three terms in Congress before declining to seek re-election in 2004. He’s calling for tax cuts and repeal of the health insurance law that Democrats pushed through in President Barack Obama’s first term.

52ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (SAN DIEGO):

Democratic Rep. Scott Peters versus Republican Carl DeMaio.

Peters serves a congressional district in which Republican voters outnumber Democrats by about 6,000. He is one of the few Democrats serving in Congress to get the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

DeMaio served on the San Diego City Council from 2008-2012. He helped lead ballot campaigns to privatize services, defeat a sales tax and reduce public pensions before narrowly losing a race for mayor. He also is openly gay and has challenged the GOP to be more inclusive on social issues. He has been the most adept fundraiser among the California Republicans who are challenging Democratic incumbents.

The campaign arms for House Republicans and Democrats have each reserved more than $1 million in air time in the San Diego market.

COMPETITIVE:

21ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (FRESNO, KERN, KINGS AND TULARE COUNTIES):

Republican Rep. David Valadao versus Democrat Amanda Renteria.

Valadao represents a largely rural district that skews Democratic. The freshman lawmaker is the lead sponsor of legislation that would set aside environmental laws and allow more water to be pumped for irrigation. While the bill had no chance in Congress, it’s popular with many constituents.

Valado is one of the few Republicans in the House openly supporting comprehensive immigration reform, a nod to the composition of a district in which Hispanics make up nearly half of registered voters. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent $300,000 to boost Valadao before the primary, but outside interest groups have largely stayed away in the general election.

Republicans are growing increasingly confident of retaining the district, pointing out that national Democrats had delayed a round of television ad buys. The chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says the GOP’s interpretation of the delay is “nonsense.”

26TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (VENTURA COUNTY):

Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley versus Republican Jeff Gorell.

Democrats enjoy a 6 percentage point edge among registered voters, but Republicans have a candidate with strong name recognition who has served as a local prosecutor and as a member of the state Assembly. Gorell also is a war veteran who served in Afghanistan.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has weighed in with ad buys critical of Gorell and the House Majority PAC has spent about $46,000 on fliers, showing that Democrats are taking the race seriously. In all, the DCCC has reserved nearly $1 million worth of air time in the expensive Los Angeles-area market.

Republican groups have so far stayed out, which is not a positive sign for a candidate going up against a well-financed incumbent.

31ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY)

Republican Paul Chabot versus Democrat Pete Aguilar.

Republican Gary Miller retired, giving Democrats one of their best chances nationally to flip a Republican-controlled seat.

Chabot emerged from the primary as the top vote-getter, even though three other candidates in the primary spent more money. Chabot is emphasizing his military service, which included a tour in Iraq. He also once worked in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has taken out ads criticizing Chabot, but national Republicans have so far not reciprocated with their own spending.

Meanwhile, Aguilar has amassed enough money to allow him to air positive television commercials about his life story, which includes serving as the mayor of Redlands. Democrats have a 6 percentage point edge over Republicans among registered voters in the district.

36TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (RIVERSIDE COUNTY, MOSTLY THE COACHELLA VALLEY):

Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz versus Republican Brian Nestande.

Ruiz, a former emergency room doctor, defeated Republican Mary Bono in 2012. He now faces her former chief of staff, who serves in the state Assembly. Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 5,000 in the district, but Ruiz held a huge fundraising edge after the primary.

Strategists say a key factor will be whether Republican-aligned groups weigh in to counter Ruiz’s financial edge. The campaign arm for House Republicans reserved about $500,000 in air time in the Palm Springs market, but it’s unclear whether they will follow through as the election approaches.

Other interest groups appear to be staying clear.

POTENTIALLY COMPETITIVE:

3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (EIGHT COUNTIES NORTH AND WEST OF SACRAMENTO.):

Democrat Rep. John Garamendi versus Republican Dan Logue, a former county supervisor and member of the state Assembly. Garamendi won 53 percent of the vote in the primary and has a substantial fundraising edge.

10TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (STANISLAUS AND SAN JOAQUIN COUNTIES):

Republican Rep. Jeff Denham versus Democrat Michael Eggman, an almond and honey farmer.

This is one of the more closely divided districts in the state with Republicans enjoying just a 2 percentage point edge in over Democrats in voter registration, but Denham looked strong in the primary, winning nearly 59 percent of the vote.

Republican Chris Mitchum looks like his dad.

24TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (SANTA BARBARA AND SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTIES):

Democratic Rep. Lois Capps versus Republican Chris Mitchum, son of the late actor Robert Mitchum.

Chris Mitchum emerged from a jumbled primary that included nine candidates, five of them Republicans. He will be greatly outspent, and outside groups seem to be staying out of the race. That said, the district did become somewhat friendlier toward Republicans after redistricting, with Democrats maintaining a 3 percentage-point edge.

TOP SAME-PARTY RACES:

4TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT (PRIMARILY PLACER AND EL DORADO COUNTIES, BUT STRETCHING AS FAR SOUTH AS YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK):

Rep. Tom McClintock, one of the nation’s most conservative Republican lawmakers, faces fellow Republican Art Moore, an Iraq war veteran.

McClintock easily won the primary and had a huge fundraising edge going into July. But Moore could make it a race if he can hold his own among Republicans and dominate with Democratic voters and independents.

17TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: (SANTA CLARA COUNTY AND PART OF ALAMEDA COUNTY):

Rep. Mike Honda, serving his seventh term representing a district in the heart of Silicon Valley, faces fellow Democrat Ro Khanna, an intellectual property lawyer who stunned observers by raising $2.8 million going into the July fundraising quarter and spending even more.

Honda is supported by a host of Democratic-aligned groups, such as unions and Planned Parenthood, as well as the vast majority of California’s Democratic hierarchy.

Khanna is backed by some of Silicon Valley’s most influential movers and shakers, including Google’s Eric Schmidt and Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer.

The race has attracted a lot of national attention, but not because the candidates differ on many issues. Instead, the interest is in watching a long-term incumbent who is steeped in the traditional ways of political power try to fend off someone from his own party who has a strong grounding in a technology sector that plays an increasingly important role in the nation’s economy and politics.

From San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Union drives 300 jobs out of California town

A Democrat Union Strikes Again

Even light rail jobs (the darling of Democrats) have 

been driven out of the People's Republic.

The California city of Palmdale in Los Angeles County was ready to roll out the red carpet this summer when a Japanese company agreed to build a $60 million factory on a city-owned, vacant parcel on the southwest side of town -- but now the company is taking its project out of state and critics say union greed is to blame. 

As many as 300 people were slated to work at the 400,000-square-foot plant, painting and wiring light rail cars under a huge contract with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was a coup for Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, and a plan that seemed to suit Kinkisharyo International, which last year moved its U.S. headquarters from Boston to El Segundo, Calif. 

"I believe this is just the beginning of a manufacturing renaissance here in the Antelope Valley,” crowed Ledford in June reports Fox News.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time,” added Palmdale Economic Development Director Dave Walter. “So many people and organizations played huge roles in making this a reality."

But a newly formed environmental group -- which critics say is a front for a local union -- had other ideas.

The "Antelope Valley Residents for Responsible Development," a group backed by the International Brotherhood Workers Union Local 11, produced a 588-page appeal claiming that construction of the proposed factory would violate state environmental laws, by, among other things, kicking up spores. What the union really wanted, according to Kinkisharyo officials, was clearance to organize the plant without any interference from the company. When Kinkisharyo officials balked, the project suddenly became a potential environmental hazard.

“They are using California’s environmental laws as a pretense to put leverage on the company to get what they want,” Kinkisharyo spokesman Coby King told FoxNews.com. “It’s unfortunate when groups that don’t care about the well-being of the environment use the laws to delay, and even kill, good business development.”

Kinkisharyo, the El Segundo-based U.S. subsidiary of Kinki Sharyo Co., is currently assembling 78 light rail cars for Metro, with delivery of the first car expected this month. The company has exercised an option to build an additional 97 cars under a 10-year, $891 million contract with the MTA. For now, the company is doing the work from a hangar in Palmdale. But after delays the company has said have cost it $2 million, Kinkisharyo is looking out of state for a site to build its plant.

“The company is disappointed," King said. "They would have liked to stay in Palmdale.”

Driven from California
Japanese rail company Kinkisharyo agreed to build a $60 million factory on a city-owned, vacant parcel in Palmdale, Calif. It would have been similar to this facility operated by the company in Phoenix, Arizona. (Kinkisharyo)

Dems & GOP pour millions into Sacramento Congressional district

Harmeet Dhillon, right, speaks with fellow Sikh volunteers Guri Kang, Ravi Kahlon, and Indierjit Kallirai, left, to right, during a precinct walk to gather support in the Sikh community for GOP Congressional candidate Doug Ose in Elk Grove, Calif. 

The GOP Wave Cometh

The Republican wave is picking up steam in 

districts all over the country.

Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) has suddenly emerged as one of this year’s most vulnerable incumbents. 

The freshman lawmaker, now in a fight for political survival against former Rep. Doug Ose (R), was never going to cruise to reelection in his perennial toss-up district. But an unfavorable climate for Democrats has made his climb that much harder.

“Ami Bera’s had a target on his back for two years. He’s known this was going to happen,” said Sacramento-based Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio. “It’s always been a swing district,” reports The Hill.

California’s 7th District has become the third most expensive House race in the country, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Candidates have spent nearly $5 million, while outside groups like the Chamber of Commerce and American Action Network and the national party organizations have poured in more than $7 million. 

Sikh-ing a GOP Win
Republican candidate for Congress Doug Ose, left, shakes hands with Harmeet Dhillon, and fellow Sikh volunteer precinct walkers Ravi Kahlon and Guri Kang.
See Modesto Bee.com

Earlier this month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee even pulled a $2.8 million ad reservation from the race to fill retiring Rep. Frank Wolf’s (R-Va.) open seat, which Democrats once viewed as a pickup opportunity in northern Virginia, to instead use the funds in Bera’s district.

Even with high Democratic turnout for President Obama’s reelection in 2012, Bera only defeated then-Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) by a slim margin of 51 percent to 49 percent.

“We’ve been preparing for a close race in this district for a long time,” said Bera campaign manager Danny Kazin, noting that “in 2012, it was one of the closest races in the country.”

Kazin argued that Bera would be able to turn out enough voters despite the nature of the midterm cycle, pointing to the higher-than-expected turnout in the primary where Bera won 47 percent of the vote compared to 40 percent in 2012. California’s primary system pits all candidates, regardless of party, against one another and the top two advance to the general election.

“There was a lot of talk how low turnout would be in the primary,” Kazin said. “We got more votes in the primary that he’d gotten before.”

Republicans have tried to turn that message against Bera. Earlier this month, the National Republican Congressional Committee ran an ad slamming Bera for voting against every spending proposal during consideration of the House GOP budget resolutions in 2013 and 2014.

Protect Our Water - Doug Ose for Congress   

California's 7th Congressional District
In the 2012 Obama landslide election the Democrat House candidate won
a narrow 51.7% victory over a Republican incumbent.
Voter registration is 39% Democrat, 37% GOP and 24%
independents and smaller political parties.