Bobby Digital posted:

California Politics Thread: On the California Sperg Highway

Jerry Manderbilt posted:

NorCal turns against whichever party starts the War on Hella.

Bizarro Watt posted:

And amusingly, LA county only has 5. Now I'm just wondering if 5 is the minimum required. Inane question, but I was curious.

SomethingAwful posted:

First they came for 'hella', and I did not speak out—
Because I'm not from NorCal.

Then they came for 'the O.C.', and I did not speak out—
Because I live in "Orange County", you rear end in a top hat. Get it right.

Then they came for 'ése', and I did not speak out—
Because we don't speak Mexican here in these United States! Learn to speak American!

Then they came for 'swole' sperg, and there was no one left to speak for me.

quote:

A parade of ambitious California public figures, who’ve spent years itching for a shot at the state’s top political offices, are anticipating a shake-up of the state’s political hierarchy that could begin in a matter of weeks with the possible retirement of Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. And some big names — including the mayor of Los Angeles — are already sizing up possible bids to succeed her.

Sources close to Boxer, 74, say the outspoken liberal senator will decide over the holidays whether to seek reelection in 2016 and will announce her plans shortly after the new year. Few of her friends believe she will run for a fifth term. Boxer has stopped raising money and is not taking steps to assemble a campaign. With Republicans taking over the Senate, she is about to relinquish her chairmanship of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

If she were to step aside, it would be the first big crack in the state’s upper political ranks in years. The last time the governorship was open was in 2010, when Jerry Brown, now 76, romped in a return to the job he first held more than three decades earlier. Boxer and California’s other senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, 81, were elected in 1992.

For a backlog of up-and-coming pols, their opportunity may finally be arriving — and it will be very hard to to pass up.

“There has been a bottleneck at the top,” said Mitchell Schwartz, a Democratic strategist who was Barack Obama’s California campaign director in 2008. “In a state of 37 million-plus [population] … elected officials either need to move up or they are out of the game and forgotten quickly.”

Democrat Eric Garcetti, the 43-year-old Los Angeles mayor, has had preliminary conversations about a possible campaign with Bill Carrick, a veteran political strategist in the state, according to one source. Carrick, who has served as Feinstein’s political adviser and helped guide Garcetti’s 2013 mayoral campaign, didn’t respond to a request for comment. A Garcetti spokesman, Jeff Millman, declined to address the discussions, saying only that the mayor “hopes and expects Senator Boxer will continue her strong leadership in the Senate.”

Others are being encouraged by supporters. At a New York City dinner last week sponsored by the League of Conservation Voters, liberal activists pressed Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge-fund manager and environmentalist from San Francisco, to consider a bid. Steyer, who poured over $70 million into this year’s midterm election, gave a coy nonanswer in response, according to one person familiar with the exchange.

Most of the attention, though, is expected to center on a pair of rising stars: state Attorney General Kamala Harris, 50, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, 47, both Democrats. For years, politicos have buzzed about a potential showdown between the two. Both hail from Northern California and rose through the ranks at the same time. They even share the same campaign consultant: Averell “Ace” Smith, a longtime Hillary Clinton adviser and top political hand in the state. In November, Harris and Newsom were easily reelected.

But as anticipation of a Boxer retirement has grown, the two have gone out of their way in recent months to tamp down talk of a rivalry. In September, they held their first-ever joint fundraiser at a San Francisco restaurant, where they lavished praise on each other.

Many Democrats believe that either Harris or Newsom might run for Boxer’s seat, but not both, recognizing that a bitter primary could leave them damaged. One of them is likely to wait until 2018, when Brown will be termed out of office and Feinstein might step aside. Newsom, who waged a short-lived primary campaign for governor against Brown in 2009, has been open about wanting to run again for the top job.

“They aren’t going to tear each other up,” said Joe Cotchett, a prominent Northern California trial attorney who counts Harris and Newsom as friends.“I don’t know anyone that thinks they’re going to run against each other. … They’ll work something out.”

Boxer’s office declined to comment on the jockeying for her seat, or, for that matter, on her future plans. A spokesman, Zachary Coile, pointed to Boxer’s previous statements that she would announce her plans early next year. Boxer’s lack of fundraising — she has just $150,000 in her campaign account, a fraction of the $3.5 million she had at this point before her most recent campaign — has fueled the speculation that she will leave the Senate.

What is a near-certainty is that Democrats will keep the seat. Republicans have been shut out of every statewide office and lack a bench of strong candidates. In 2010, Republican Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, lost to Boxer by 10 percentage points. The same year, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman spent $144 million as the Republican nominee for governor and lost to Brown by 13 points.

With their quasi-celebrity status, statewide name ID and deep fundraising connections, either Harris or Newsom would enter the race as the front-runner, handicappers say. But with a prize as rare as a California Senate seat in play, it’s assured that a long line of other Democrats in the liberal-friendly state would be in the running, too.

Since Harris and Newsom are both from the Bay Area, it could create an opening for someone from the much more population-rich southern part of the state. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is often mentioned as a potential candidate, as is his successor, Garcetti.

Other possible candidates include Rep. Jackie Speier, incoming California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and John Chiang, the outgoing state controller.

Some in the state are even buzzing about the possibility that Sheryl Sandberg, the Facebook chief executive and women’s advocate, might also jump in. A source close to her, however, said she “isn’t interested.”

As for Steyer, the wealthy environmentalist’s political consultant, Chris Lehane, wouldn’t say one way or the other.

“Tom has consistently said that he will consider the best ways to have the biggest impact,” Lehane wrote in an email.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/california-quake-113380.html#ixzz3LKvQ6gJf

Leperflesh posted:

Feinstein's exit can't come soon enough, I am so sick of her. I don't mind Boxer as much, but they're both super-old and calcified.

FCKGW posted:

Here's that image in huge version



Makes a nice wallpaper.

Sydin posted:

Agreed. I don't mind Boxer much either, but at the same time we're quite liberal with our federal level politics here in California. If Boxer steps down, there's a rare opportunity for a strong left candidate to move into a secure senate seat. All the better if it isn't yet another member of the rank-and-file Dem core, but I guess we'll see.

Leperflesh posted:

Feinstein's exit can't come soon enough, I am so sick of her. I don't mind Boxer as much, but they're both super-old and calcified.

Newsom is kind of a prick, but I guess he'd be OK. I'd love to see Camila Harris elected, and actually Jackie Speier might be my dream candidate. I happen to have had dinner with her (before she was elected to congress, we were at a fancy christmas party held by someone my wife works with, and she and her husband were randomly seated at our table), she's a genuine person, and she's very liberal. I had the opportunity to vote for her a few years ago, before we moved.

However, although she's fairly well-known as a member of congress for a district on the San Francisco peninsula, she might not have the name recognition in the southern part of the state like the politicians who have held statewide office. I doubt she'd win a primary against Newsom or Harris.

Zeitgueist posted:

So an entire city block of Los Angeles caught fire over the night.



A major part of what burned down was controversial luxury housing development where they most recently got approval to build a bridge over the top of the homeless population so the gentrifiers wouldn't have to dirty themselves.

A dude I know wanted to open a business in one of their buildings but they have no street level retail, it's all internal.

Family Values posted:

Clinton administration

quote:

Speier entered politics by serving as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of his November 1978 fact-finding mission organized to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown, Guyana, with Jones in 1977 and 1978.[5] Speier was one of two members of the mission who made wills before traveling to Jonestown.[11] Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While trying to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.[12] That same day, over 900 of the remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown in a mass murder-suicide.

Leperflesh posted:

Feinstein's exit can't come soon enough, I am so sick of her. I don't mind Boxer as much

Zeitgueist posted:

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/12/05/camp-pendleton-marines-to-conduct-training-in-downtown-la/#.VIJX9n74ntM.facebook

Possibly related to giant fires in LA, the Marines are doing exercises downtown.

Leperflesh posted:

Shbobdb posted:

I don't get all the dithering. She looks pretty awesome to me. I don't agree with all of her platforms, but not all disagreements are equal. This is a problem with the left: your middle paragraph disagreeing with her is longer than the two paragraphs where you do agree with her. It reads like someone saying, "I'm not racist, but [the most racist thing you've ever heard]. But it's not about race, it's about culture." Just own it and represent the folks you like. The enemy is doing a good job cribbing from Alinsky. I'm cool with us cribbing from Goldwater.

quote:

A staffer for a San Diego city councilwoman reacted to protesters who interrupted inauguration proceedings with “hands up, don’t shoot” by referring to the disruptors as “f*cking idiots,” before adding “I wanted to shoot them,” reports KPBS.

Shirley Owens, who serves as a community liaison to Councilwoman Lorie Zapf, made the comments in the front of members of the public and the press as they waited for an opportunity to speak with the councilwoman after she was sworn in to serve a new term.

The protesters began their rally outside San Diego’s Golden Hall, chanting “hands up, don’t shoot,” before entering the building. Once inside they rotated between gestures of raising their arms up, putting their hands around their throats, and staging a “die in” by lying down on the ground.

Following the inauguration ceremonies, a frustrated Owens was heard saying, “f*cking idiots with their hands up” and “I wanted to shoot them.”

...

Mark Jones, the 33-year-old Marine veteran who led the protest, said Owen’s comments were an example of the “bigotry” and “racial discrimination” that he and other members of the group were protesting against.

“I know that I have to go through this very system to produce change. I have to fight against that just so I can get our human rights,” he said.

Jones handed a list of demands calling for changes in how police and prosecutors deal with deadly force cases to each of the city council members he could reach. Unable to speak with Zapf, Jones said, “Just imagine, what if I couldn’t get to the council member and I got to (Owen) instead and it was her job to relay this to the council?”

According to Owen’s city biography page, she went to work for Zapf’s office bringing over thirty years of customer service experience working for Nordstrom.

FRINGE posted:

Good old SD. The less-failed cousin of Orange.

http://www.alternet.org/ca-city-council-staffer-fcking-idiot-ferguson-protesters-i-wanted-shoot-them


She worked retail for Nordstrom! Obviously quality government material.

ComradeCosmobot posted:

So the final counts for the gubernatorial votes are in. Only 7,317,581 votes were cast for governor in the unexciting first Election under the Top 2 system for governor, down from 10,095,183. And that means it will only take ~365,880 signatures to get a proposition on the ballot in the next 4 years (585,407 for an amendment), down from 504,760 signatures (807,615 for an amendment) in the past 4 years. Combine that with the new legislation mandating the Assembly hold hearings on any proposal that gets 25% of that figure (~91,470 signatures) and giving proponents an extra month to get signatures, and it looks like it could get pretty interesting. So look forward to a lot of fun propositions in 2016 and 2018...

FRINGE posted:

100,000 signatures is basically free to the industries that hate sustainable progress.

CopperHound posted:

In my experience, signature gatherers seem to have 2 or 3 initiatives. At least one will sound good on the surface and another will be a regressive bill with big business backing. I had one of these guys get pretty irate with me when I signed one initiative, but refused to sign the union busting one a couple years ago.

Jerry Manderbilt posted:

I remember two of these guys going to me for the Six Californias initiative, and when I told the second one I'd throw myself off a cliff before I sighed his petition, he tried guilt-tripping me by saying "I get paid based on how much signatures I get...I'd like this to happen, but I know it probably won't make it to the ballot anyway..."

etalian posted:

It's funded by Tim Draper which is pretty much a perfect head in the clouds loathsome techie.

CPColin posted:

Signatures submitted to fight California bag ban

It'll cost us joooooobs.

Can the bag manufacturers not retool to produce other plastic stuff?

CPColin posted:

And plastic bags are better? Do you have any reusable canvas or recycled plastic bags?

Leperflesh posted:

I only buy free range eggs anyway. They cost like twice as much, but that's still like less than four bucks for twelve eggs that last me and my wife for at least a couple weeks.