All eyes are on South Dakota (pop. ~792,000) and Montana (pop. ~992,000) today. That is probably inevitable. We wonder whether Obama will have enough superdelegates to declare victory outright this evening, what he will say, whether what he says will upset Hillary, what she is going to do in New York -- and unless you are actually in those states or on the phone making calls or a Clinton confidante, there's really nothing you can do about it.
But a lot of you out there can do something in California, where we are also having a primary today.
For one thing, you can vote NO on Prop 98 and YES on Prop 99, to foil landlords' schemes to stick it to renters.
And, if you live in CA-42 (pop. ~639,000), you can vote for a longtime fellow Kossack, Ron Shepston in his contested primary for Congress. Today is the day -- get out and vote!
Updated to note: This diary is my own effort and was not coordinated with nor reviewed by Ron's campaign, for which I used to work and for which I am now a humble volunteer and occasional unpaid informal advisor. Although yes, I can take a hell of a photograph.
This is Ron Shepston, whom some of you have long known as CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream:
Here is the diary I wrote yesterday about his primary battle. Quick summary: he's running against a nice guy -- but not a netroots figure, not someone who has a substantial money advantage in the general election, and -- not an appealing characteristic -- not someone who lives in the district. His opponent's campaign website lists endorsements of a fair number of public officials along with the cities they represent -- all but one of which are outside of the district. Ron, on the other hand, has lived in the district for decades and has the support of many top Democrats in the district.
The incumbent in CA-42 is the ethically challenged Rep. Gary Miller; you can read about him in the diary linked to above. With some good luck -- the kind that Jerry McNerney had against Richard Pombo -- he's beatable.
Regardless, we want to have one of our own out there trying to defeat him.
As for Ron -- you can read about his support for the Responsible Plan to End the War here, or the time he spent fighting last fall's California wildfires here, or how he is personally implementing calls for party unity in his campaign here. He is one of us. And today, he needs our help.
If you live in CA-42 -- if you know anyone in CA-42 -- please make sure that Ron gets as many votes as possible today.
Come volunteer today to help Get Out the Vote for the Democratic primary
For more information, call the Mission Viejo office, (714) 709-4413 , or their Diamond Bar office at (909) 860-6391
The Diamond Bar office is at 21308 Pathfinder Rd., suite 119 Diamond Bar, CA 91765. If you want to stay closer to home, visit Ron’s campaign at 22151 Los Alisos Blvd. (corner of Los Alisos & Trabuco), Mission Viejo, CA 92691.