MadProfessah Endorsements: June 8, 2010 Primary

Finally, the moment you have been waiting for! Here are MadProfessah's positions on how I will be voting in the June 8 Statewide Primary Election, compared with endorsements from other organizations like the Los Angeles Times, Calitics.com, CA Democratic Party, Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Stonewall Democratic Club (LGBT group) and Courage Campaign's Progressive Voter Guide (pdf).

Proposition Number (Topic)        MadProfessah  LA TIMES  CALITICS CA DEMS
13 (Seismic Retrofit Assessment)        YES          YES        YES      YES
14 (Top 2 "Open" Primary Amendment)     NO           YES        NO       NO
15 (CA Fair Elections Act)              YES          YES        YES      YES
16 (PG&E Utility Monopoly Protection)   NO           NO         NO       NO
17 (Mercury Insurance Premium Change)   NO           NO         NO       NO

Statewide Constitutional Officers   MadProfessah  LA TIMES  STONEWALL   CA DEMS
Governor                               Brown         None        Brown       Brown
Lieutenant Governor                    Newsom        Newsom      Hahn        None
Attorney General                       Harris        Harris      Lieu        None
Secretary of State                     Bowen*         None        Bowen*      Bowen*
Treasurer                              Chiang*        None        Chiang*     Chiang*
Controller                             Lockyer*       None        Lockyer*    Lockyer*
Insurance Commissioner                 Jones         Jones       De La Torre Jones
Superintendent of Public Instruction   Romero        Aceves      Torlakson   None

Statewide Legislative Races

AD-43. MadProfessah, LA CDP, Stonewall Dems and Los Angeles Daily News have all endorsed Mike Gatto.
AD-44. The incumbent here is Anthony Portantino* and has been endorsed by Los Angeles Democrats and Stonewall Democrats but NOT MadProfessah.
AD-45. MadProfessah lives and votes in the 45th Assembly District but can not, in good conscience, endorse State Senator Gil Cedillo's cynical attempt to hold on to elected office for two more years by switching seats with current Assemblymember Kevin De Leon. Especially after he ran an unnecessary (and losing) campaign against Judy Chu in the 32nd Congressional District Special Election last year.
AD-46. Openly gay speaker of the Assembly John Perez* is the incumbent here and is endorsed by MadProfessah.
AD-47. One of the toughest primary fights this summer is between Holly Mitchell and Reggie Jones-Sawyer. MadProfessah, Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass (current officeholder), CA Democratic Party and LA County Dems have all endorsed Holly Mitchell, while Stonewall Dems have endorsed Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
AD-48. The incumbent here is Mike Davis*, who was outed recently by a friend at a recent Stonewall Democratic Club meeting but who has not been endorsed by that club or MadProfessah.
AD-49. The incumbent is Mike Eng*, husband of strong LGBT ally Congressmember Judy Chu, and is endorsed by MadProfessah, Stonewall Dems and Los Angeles County Dems.
AD-50. Openly gay Ricardo Lara is trying to become the second openly LGBT person of color elected to the California Legislature.
AD-51. Strong ally of LGBT rights Steve Bradford* is the incumbent here and is endorsed by MadProfessah, Equality California, Los Angeles Dems and Stonewall Dems.
AD-52. The incumbent here is Isadore Hall* who has NOT been endorsed by MadProfesah, but who has been endorsed by LA County Dems and Stonewall Dems.
AD-53. MadProfessah has endorsed openly gay, African-American Mitch Ward. Equality California and Stonewall Dems have endorsed Betsy Butler. Honor Pac (LGBT Latino group) has endorsed Kate Anderson.

Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County Assessor. MadProfessah endorses openly gay John Noguez. The Los Angeles Times has endorsed John Y. Wong.

Measure E. MadProfessah endorses a Yes position on this County measure to benefit Los Angeles Unified School District. It is a $100 increase per parcel which LAUSD says will go to save the jobs of teachers. The Los Angeles Times urges a NO vote, while the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Stonewall Democrats urge a YES vote.

Superior Court Judges.
I know it is really hard to make an informed choice about the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge races, so I always try and include what people who follow these races are saying about them. The Los Angeles County Bar Association has a page where they rate, but do not endorse, judicial candidates.

               LA DEMS          STONEWALL LA TIMES         MadProfessah  
Office 28:    Mark  K. Ameli      Ameli      Randy Hammock     Ameli
Office 35:    Soussan Bruguera*   Bruguera   Bruguera          Bruguera
Office 73:    None                None       Matz              Matz
Office 107:   Valerie Salkin      Salkin     Tony de los Reyes Salkin
Office 117:   Alan Schneider      Schneider  Schneider         Schneider
Office 131:   Maren E. Nelson*    Nelson     Nelson            Nelson

If you don't vote by mail (like I and the Other Half do) then please make sure to get out and vote next Tuesday.

Saturday Politics: CA-33, AD-43, SD-15, CA-AG and CA-LG

Kamala Harris

In today's edition of Saturday Politics we have stories about Karen Bass's run for Congress, developments in the California Attorney General race and details about the new (and the next) Lieutenant Governor of California.

CA-33. Assemblymember Karen Bass path to the United States House of Representatives has been cleared by the decision by a deep-pocketed rival named Howard C. Mandel to not challenge the former Speaker of the Assembly for the Democratic nomination for the 33rd Congressional District, currently represented by retiring Diane Watson. Multiple sources tell MadProfessah that the good doctor, who had been prepared to spend up to $500,000, has been quietly convinced by leaders in the Jewish community that they support Ms. Bass's run for the Congressional seat. This leaves Bass' only remaining challenger the perennial candidate Felton Newell.

AD-43. Following his decisive win in the April 13th special primary election and his primary opponent's withdrawal from the race, Mike Gatto has secured the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club in both races happening June 8, 2010: the special election run-off and the Democratic primary election.

CA Attorney General. While MadProfessah endorsed San Francisco District Attorney on Wednesday, the same day that former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly wrote a check for $4 million to double his campaign war chest for the Democratic nomination for the Attorney General.

CA Lieutenant Governor. The race between Los Angeles City Councilmember Janice Hahn and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has gotten pretty tense. The two ad elaborate, duelling parties at the California Demorcratic Convention in Los Angeles, where neither was able to gather the state party's official endorsement. At the Equality California statewide candidates forum last Sunday, the two refused to share a stage. Interestingly, Hahn easily earned the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club on Monday, despite the fact that Newsom is well-known in the LGBT community as an early champion of marriage equality.

SD-15. In other Lieutenant Governor news, State Senator Abel Maldonado was sworn in this week as the new Lieutenant Governor after winning confirmation a few months after the Assembly rejected his nomination, giving the Republicans 3 of the 8 statewide constitutional offices (including Governor and Insurance Commissioner). Maldonado's ascension leaves his seat in State Senate District 15 open, and openly gay former Assemblyman John Laird has made no secret of his desire to switch the seat to the Democrats. If he wins, he would become only the second openly gay man to serve in the State Senate, following Mark Leno.

That's it for this week. Feel free to send tips for future Saturday Politics stories by twitter (@madprofessah), email or in the comments!

AD-43: Gatto Prohibitive Favorite As Main Rival Exits

MadProfessah-endorsed candidate for the 43rd Assembly District seat and top vote-getter in the Tuesday April 13th Special Primary election Mike Gatto is now the prohibitive favorite to win the seat after his main rival Nayiri Nahabedian announced that she is suspending her campaign.

MadProfessah actually heard the news at the California Democratic Convention on Saturday from multiple sources but since it had not been confirmed in writing until the Daily News printed a story about it today and the candidate's website was not updated with the information, I waited until today to report the news.

From the Daily News article:

A consultant to Nahabedian said Tuesday the Glendale school board member won't campaign for the June 8 primary for the next full two-year term in the Assembly's 43rd District. Her name, however, will still appear on the ballot alongside Democrats Gatto and Chahe Keuroghelian and Republican Sunder Ramani because it is too late to remove it.

[...]

Paul Mitchell, a campaign consultant, said Nahabedian decided to stop campaigning after talks that included Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles. Mitchell said Nahabedian wanted to create "unity among the Democrats" and avoid "confusion" for voters in the Gatto-Ramani runoff.

[...]

"While I'm pleased to have one less opponent in the race, I'm taking nothing for granted," Gatto said. "These races are not done yet."

Having placed first in the special primary election, Gatto would be the only Democrat to be eligible to fill out the rest of Paul Krekorian's term in the June 8 run-off election. Additionally, he is now the prohibitive favorite to win the legislative primary election (also on June 8) to be the Democrat on the November ballot to win his first of three two year terms to represent the 43rd Assembly District.

Congrats, Mike!

AD-43: Gatto Is #1!

In yesterday's special election to replace Paul Krekorian in the 43rd Assembkly District, MadProfessah-endorsed Mike Gatto not only placed first among the three Democrats, he received the most votes over all:

As of Date: 04/13/2010 Time: 23:04                            Votes  Percent
                                                                         
STATE ASSEMBLY               43RD TERM ENDS 11/10                          
                                                                         
 MIKE GATTO             DEM                                10,584    32.34
 SUNDER   RAMANI        REP                                10,403    31.79
 NAYIRI NAHABEDIAN      DEM                                 7,298    22.30
 CHAHE KEUROGHELIAN     DEM                                 4,444    13.58
                                                                         
TOTAL PRECINCTS        225            PRECINCTS REPORTING       225   100.00
REGISTRATION       201,352  

This means that on June 8, Mike will face the Republican candidate in the run-off to fill the rest of Krekorian's term through November 2010. He will also probably be the favorite to win the Democratic nomination (against Nahabedian) in the primary election which happens on the same day.

So, basically you will need to vote for Mike twice on that day.

AD-43: Gatto v Nahabedian, round 1 is today!

Nayiri Nahabedian	Mike Gatto

Today is the special election in the 43rd Assembly district. MadProfessah has endorsed Mike Gatto, while the Stonewall Democratic Club (of which I am a member of the "board" or steering committee) has endorsed Nayiri Nahabedian. However, the LGBT community is clearly split between the candidates.

In the very likely event that no candidate gets more than 50%, the two will continue to battle on until June 8, 2010 when there are two simultaneous elections: a run-off between the top Democratic vote getter in today's election versus the top Republican and a primary election where the top Democratic vote getter adavances to the November 2010 ballot in this overwhelmingly Democratic district. The person who wins the first election only gets to serve until Janauary, while the person who wins the second election will get to serve either 2 (or more likely 6) years.

We'll know which one has the advantage going into the June 8, 2010 elections when the returns come back today, but already one thing is clear, this race will probably break records for turnout in a special election. As of last Wednesday, more than 16,000 absentee ballots had been received by the Los Angeles County Recorder-Registrar (8% of the electorate).

For updates through the night, check lavote.net.

AD-43: One Week Until Election Day

Hans Johnson, president of Progressive Victory; Mike Gatto, Democratic Party-endorsed candidate for California's 43rd Assembly seat; Luis Lopez, president of HONOR PAC; and Jimmie Woods Gray, UTLA and former chair of the L.A. County Democratic Party

It's one week until the special primary election in the 43rd Assembly district to replace Paul Krekorian. The two main candidates are Mike Gatto (who MadProfessah and the CA Democratic Party has endorsed) and Nayiri Nahabedian (who the Stonewall Democratic Club has endorsed).

The above picture was taken at an event (in the district) at the site of The Black Cat, a gay bar in Silverlake steeped in Los Angeles pre-Stonewall gay history which now houses Le Barcito.

Hans Johnson was one of the primary organizers for an LGBT fundraiser for Mike Gatto which raised over $4000 for the candidate. Luis Lopez, president of the leading Latino LGBT political organization in the state is Johnson's domestic partner and Jimmie Woods Gray is with the United Teachers of Los Angeles.

The picture demonstrates that teachers and "teh gays" are supporting Mike in the race to fill the 43rd Assembly District. If you live in Glendale, Burbank, Silverlake, Atwater Village, you should too!

AD-43: Shock! Nayiri Wins Stonewall Dems Nod

Nahabedian	Gatto

In a shock to most political insiders, Nayiri Nahabedian, Glendale School board members and AD-43 candidate, won the endorsement of the Stonewall Democratic Club, one of the oldest and most prominent LGBT democratic clubs in the country, despite the fact that her main opponent Mike Gatto, has been a longtime paid member of the club for well over a decade and a strong LGBT ally.

MadProfessah is a Stonewall Democratic Club board member (technically, elected Steering Committee member) of Stonewall, and although I have participated in other endorsement panel hearings, I was not on the committee that recommended an endorsement for Gatto by a vote of 4-3. However, at the meeting of the membership on Monday March 22nd, the vote was 23-10 to endorse Nahabedian, which observers chalked up to an impassioned speech by former Assemblyperson Jackie Goldberg, who is openly lesbian and best well-known for the primary author of AB 205, California's Comprehensive Domestic Partnership Act. Stonewall does not allow candidates to speak at a club meeting in which their race is being considered by the membership, but allows 3 people to speak in favor and in opposition to motions on the floor.

Gatto has been endorsed by yours truly, but more importantly he has been endorsed by the California Democratic Party. This surprising result at the Stonewall Democratic Club is the second time that Nahabedian has mobilized (some would say "packed") a Democratic club meeting to overturn the recommendation of a club's endorsement committee for Gatto. DPSFV (Democratic Party of San Fernando Valley) had recommended Gatto but the endorsement was changed to open endorsement by a vote of the membership.

The special primary election will be help on April 13th to see who will replace Paul Krekorian and then on June 8th the Democratic primary will be held for who gets the nomination for the November election to represent the 43rd Assembly district in January 2011.

Saturday Politics: AD-43 and AD-53

Saturdays are local politics days at MadProfessah.com

Today there are stories about two Los Angeles area State Assemby races that I have been following closely, AD-53 and AD-43.

In the 53rd Assembly District race to replace termed-out Ted Lieu (who is running for California Attorney General) openly gay Mayor of Redondo Manhattan Beach Mitch Ward has been endorsed by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Ward is competing in a crowded field which includes straight Equality California board member (and registered lobbyist) Betsy Butler, her ex-boyfriend Jim Aldinger, city prosecutor Nick Karno, enviromentalist James Lau, former staffers Kate Anderson and Edgar Saenz, and for good measure, a 22-year-old Tea Party activist named Neal Mintz. Only Aldinger and Ward have held elected office before. The big news this week is that HONOR PAC, California's Latino LGBT political action committee has endorsed Anderson in the race. MadProfessah has endorsed Mitch Ward. Lau has been the most successful fundraiser to date and still has the most cash on hand, closely followed by Butler, Anderson and Karno who each have close to 200,000 to spend before the June 8 primary.

In the 43rd Assembly District race to replace now-Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Krekorian, internal polls show a narrow lead for attorney Mike Gatto where the most popular candidate is "Undecided." Last week, we reported that Andrew Westall had dropped out of the race but in the poll conducted of 400 residents in the district he was included and the results were Gatto 16%, Nayiri Nahabedian 12%, Westall 10%, Chahe Keuroghelian 6% among Democratic primary voters with 56% undecided. Interestingly, when told information about the candidates, Gatto had the largest increase, rising 26 points to 42%, Nahabedian 19% (+7), Westall 14% (+4), Keuroghelian 8% (+2) and Undecided falling 39 points to a mere 17%. Gatto also leads the money race, but the path to victory is complicated by the three elections that one needs to win in order to claim the seat in November.

Feel free to send me any suggestions for future Saturday local politics stories!

AD-43: And then there were two!

Mike Gatto, candidate for AD-43

More local political news. In the race to replace former Assemblyman Paul Krekorian in the 43rd Assembly district, another candidate has dropped out and so there are now only two main candidates remaining: MadProfessah-endorsed 35-year-old Stonewall Democrat Club member Mike Gatto and Glendale school boardmember Nayiri Nahabedian, 40.

Councilmember Herb Wesson staffer Andrew Westall suspended his campaign after the sudden death of his colleague, Wesson's chief of staff of a brain aneurysm over the weekend. Westall endorsed Nahabedian as he exited the race.

The special primary election is on April 13th, and then there's a primary election and the special general election on June 8th. The candidate who wants to be the Assemblymember from the 43rd Assembly district should win all three, but the primary election on June 8th is the most important.

According to the Secretary of State's financial records, Gatto had $200,000 plus on hand as of 12/31/2009 while Nahabedian appears to have had significantly less than $100,000. Typically (but not always, Meg!) the person who spends the most and/or raises the most wins these elections.

AD-43: Gatto Leads Crowded Field To Replace Krekorian

After Paul Krekorian was elected to the 2nd District of the Los Angeles City Council numerous people have stepped up to replace him in representing the 43rd Assemby District. One of them is my friend Mike Gatto. The others are Glendale school boardmember Nayiri Nahabedia and City Councilmember Wesson's staffer Andrew Westall.

What is so wild is that in order to represent the 43rd District next year at this time the successful candidate will have to win four elections:

1) On April 13th, 2010 there will be a special election to fill the seat.
2) If no one gets more than 50% of the vote then there will be a run-off election on June 8, 2010 for the right to serve out the rest of Krekorian's term.
3) However, also on June 8, 2010 will be a primary election for the right to be on the ballot to represent the 43rd district for a full 2-year term.
4) November 2, 2010 will be the statewide general election for 43rd District

It should be interesting to see which candidate gets through this punishing gauntlet of elections, with the concomitant fundraising and public appearance demands such non-stop campaigning requires.

MadProfessah endorses Mike Gatto.

LA CD-2: Krekorian Wins City Council Seat

Yesterday's run-off election in the 2nd District of the Los Angeles City Council was won easily by MadProfessah-endorsed candidate Paul Krekorian (43rd District Assemblymember) over Christine Essel. Turnout was even lower than expected, with only 15.35% or less than 20,000 votes cast in a district which has around 125,000 registered voters. More than half of the votes were cast by mail and Krekorian had a nearly 60-40 edge in those votes.

The final results were:

VOTES	PERCENT
COUNCIL DISTRICT 2
	CHRISTINE ESSEL	8,304	43.44
	PAUL KREKORIAN	10,810	56.56

This means that there will be an upcoming special election to replace Krekorian in the 43rd District. MadProfessah friend (and hunky straight ally) Mike Gatto will be a candidate in a crowded field.