UPDATE: The fix was in, the vote wasn't even close. Sad day for California Democrats who value winning.

California is beyond crisis. Yet unfortunately, there has not been an appropriate effort by the California Democratic Party establishment to respond. The complete and total failure to respond to the budget crisis was malpractice, but now it seems the CDP doesn't even want to bother trying to win in November. The issue in question is California's Proposition 19, to tax and regulate marijuana, which has become the latest test of whether the CDP wants to win elections. A vote today by the state party Resolutions Committee showed the fix to be in against incorporating all of the new energy around Prop 19 into Democrats' GOTV program. When it came down to trying to win, or trying to be "very serious people" who are content to lose, they decided they value propping up Mexican drug cartels more than they value electing Jerry Brown.

There's more...

The California Democratic Party "split the baby" on the six propositions for the May 19th ballot - endorsing Propositions 1B, 1C and 1F, while not supporting Props 1A, 1D and 1E.  This shifts the dynamic for the last three weeks.  No longer can Prop 1A's defeat be a mandate against tax increases - because the measure's "spending cap" is why progressives oppose it.  Likewise, "no" on Props 1D and 1E is now a vote for the state to fund children's health programs and mental health services.  And while many liberals fear the short-term "budget gap" if the measures all go down, the Party endorsed a "yes" vote on Prop 1C - which would have the most immediate impact.  The Party's support for Prop 1B is a mandate for public schools - and while Prop 1A's defeat would prevent 1B from going into effect, a "yes" vote could pressure Governor Schwarzenegger to stop gutting education money.  Democrats in the legislature promoted all six measures as a "budget package" to avert fiscal disaster.  But it was a rotten deal, and the strategy would leave us no better off on May 20th towards a long-term solution.  With this new dynamic, we can build momentum for scrapping the "two-thirds rule" in the state budget.

There's more...

This is one straight out of Karl Rove's political playbook. A group of Republican political operatives and their powerful special interests have hatched a desperate scheme to rig California's electoral process to their advantage. They're proposing a statewide ballot initiative to change how California casts its electoral votes for President. They've cleverly labeled it the "Presidential Election Reform Act," which would sound credible if it weren't so cynical.

But make no mistake, this wolf-in-sheep's-clothing has nothing to do with reform or protecting voters' interests or preserving the integrity of our Constitution. It's an audacious power grab by the GOP as it spirals into irrelevance leading up to the 2008 Presidential race.

There's more...

I am fairly surprised that more has not been made in the blogosphere of the unwelcome news that Chevron is doing everything it can to buy off the California Democratic Party and some of its top legislators.  Outside of this small item in The Oil Drum, pretty much nobody has said a word about the fact that the CDP accepted a $50,000 check from a company that is attempting to artificially depress capacity and manipulate the energy market in a way that is shockingly similar to how Enron made themselves a fortune during the 2000-2001 energy crisis.  You can read the details here.

As a delegate to this party, I feel personally tainted by this donation.  I feel like there is a concerted effort to buy my silence.  It will not work, and I want to outline why I am respectfully asking this party, of which I am a member and to which I pay dues, to return the money.

There's more...

For Anyone who wondered why California only gained one congressional seat in the 2006 election, and gained nothing else, the following article will give you the straight scoop:

    http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id =5664

Art Torres, the party chair, would clearly prefer to give back $4 million in UNSPENT money on election day, so that lame-duck house speaker Fabian Nunez can wine and dine lobbyists and consultants.   He sure doesn't want to give the money to assembly district candidates because that might disrupt the cozy spoils system the CDP has with Republicans (The CDP gave money to only 2 out of 32 challengers in Republican-held AD seats).  Bob Mulholland, the welfare queen of the Sacramento consultant aristocracy, encapsulates the CDP thinking best when he expresses this tender concern for Republican campaign budgets:

    "As soon as you send in 10 or 20 or 50 thousand dollars],
      the other side says `Incoming!' and they pour the money in."

Gosh, we sure don't want Republicans to WORK to win their seats, do we?   Better to let them win!

There's more...