You can not defeat somebody with nobody. In California for Guv, the GOP has Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a Tea Party favorite—who the establishment will deep six if he wins the nomination to run against Guv Brown. Then you have Neel Kashkari, who seldom votes, but did in 2008, for Obama, since he thought McCain was too conservative. Most Republicans will either stay home or not vote for Governor if he is the nominee. He has $900,000 cash on hand and is having difficulty raising serious money. Brown has just under $20 million in the bank and can raise anything he wants.
The GOP is running candidates for the other Constitutional offices who are not known outside a Republican Party convention, long time ago legislators and controversial Mayors. Not a recipe for victory. For legislative races the moderate wing of the Party is working hard to eliminate conservatives—if the moderates are successful, conservatives will work for council members, Supervisors and other local races. They will not work for GOP’ers that will compromise on tax increases and not work to provide responsible government, including schools that educate instead of propagandize.
So, the Democrat scandals show the hypocrisy and corruption of the Democrat Party of California. But races will be determined on local issues and politics. Period.
“Yet Steinberg stonewalled about possible reforms: “We will continue looking to do whatever is necessary. But gun running? There’s no ethics reform that I am aware of to address, you know, that kind of allegation.”
California Dems Worried Their Corruption Scandals Will Benefit GOP
by William Bigelow, Breitbart, 3/22/14
The unethical and illegal behavior of Democratic state senators in California, where Democrats have total control of the state legislature, is giving the state’s Democratic Party concerns that the GOP may use the misbehavior to regain power. Since the beginning of 2014, every month has featured a Democratic state senator either being arrested or convicted.
The latest arrest came Wednesday, as Sen. Leland Yee of San Francisco was arrested on federal corruption charges. The federal government charged Lee with conspiracy to deal firearms without a license and illegally importing firearms.
In January, Sen. Rod Wright of Inglewood was convicted of perjury and voter fraud for lying about his legal residence in Los Angeles County. The GOP tried to expel him from the Senate, but the Democrats would not consider the matter.
In February, Sen. Ron Calderon was indicted on federal corruption charges; he had accepted roughly $100,000 for himself and family members as a trade for supporting laws to expand Hollywood tax credits as well as looking out for a hospital that wanted a provision of the workers’ compensation law protected.
On Wednesday, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (pictured), who leads the Democrats in California’s Senate, held a news conference. He urged Lee to resign or face suspension. He bluntly said, “He cannot come back.” Steinberg added:
I know what people are thinking. This is the third incident the Senate has had to deal with. We are going to do everything in our power to uphold the integrity of the Senate and do the people’s business and still have a great and productive year.
Yee’s hypocrisy was staggering; before his indictment he was well known for his efforts to promote government transparency and public records and introduced several bills in 2013 that limited gun possession.
GOP senators lined up to take shots at the Democrats over their moral turpitude. Sen. Joel Anderson, the leader of expulsion efforts, said, “If you refuse to act and you shirk your responsibility to act, is it a surprise that senators don’t take ethics as seriously as they should?” Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff tried to remain non-partisan, asserting of politicians, “We all get painted in the same brush. The problem is manifesting itself, but people hold us all to the same standards.”
Even Derek Cressman, a Democrat opposing Yee’s reelection, called the Legislature corrupt, saying, “The constant begging for campaign cash clearly has a corrosive effect on a person’s soul, and the only solution is to get big money out of our politics once and for all.” He continued that the bar for public office “should be higher than the bar for staying out of prison.”
Dan Schnur, who gave up his GOP affiliation in 2011 and also is opposing Yee, remarked that Yee’s arrest should “prompt the Legislature to take much more aggressive and meaningful action to fix a broken political system than they have been willing to do to date.”
Yet Steinberg stonewalled about possible reforms: “We will continue looking to do whatever is necessary. But gun running? There’s no ethics reform that I am aware of to address, you know, that kind of allegation.”
Not popular, but here goes: What's the big deal here? That Yee has been accused in no way justifies Steinberg's rush to punish this guy when Steinberg still refuses to do the same for Calderon and Wright. Even if Yee is guilty of what he's accused of, so what? Gun charges shouldn't disqualify him from being a politician. There's no indication this in any way influenced his vote. CA voters put Dims in charge with a supermajority. Yee isn't perfect, but his alleged shortcomings in no way diminishes the expressed intent of the public to have a leftist government. In short, what's the harm here when you already have others that have done far worse to no punishment?
March 28, 2014 at 10:03 am