In today's Sacramento Bee newspaper Dr. Bill Durston finally got some press coverage about his race against one of the most well-known California Republicans, Dan Lungren. You can decide whether it was a positive article or not, but one thing is for sure: Bill Durston is putting up a fight for this seat.

Part of Durston's fight to "take back our government from the special interests that control it, and to restore government of, by, and for the people" is online. He has recently created a video that pieces together clips from a debate he had with Lungren in 2006 about corruption and a more recent ABC News segment in which Lungren is found to be taking luxury vacations paid for by special interests, despite House ethics laws which prohibit such trips. If that video gets you riled up about Lungren, please consider sending Durston some love on his ActBlue page.

(So I do these every month for Calitics, but it occurs to me that I've never cross-posted it here.  So, um, here.)

Getting this one in under the wire.  On the last day of April, with just over a month to go until the June primaries, and six months to go until Election Day, there's a lot going on all over the state in the Congressional races.  Of the 19 seats in California currently held by Republicans, 17 will be contested in the fall, and some strongly so.  And we now have a full 34 Democrats with the election of Jackie Speier early in the month, and only one of them is a serious challenge.  We also have the first quarter of 2008 fundraising numbers, which will raise some eyebrows.  You can track these races yourself with the 2008 Race Tracker wiki.

A note: I'm mainly getting my numbers on cash-on-hand competitiveness from the Swing State Project.  Fundraising information comes from the FEC.

Here we go...

Greetings, Gentle Readers and fans of Northern California, and Happy Start of Irrigation Season! Have you glued your pvc pipe today?

The April Quarterly FEC financial reports for candidates running to replace  the scandalized and retiring before he gets indicted John Doolittle, (R, Friend of Abramoff)  were finally showing up in the electronic retrieval bins, and I went dumpster diving.

It never fails, I finally go to post something and my slightly faster internet dial up goes pffffffffflllllltt like a flat tire. I really meant to illustrate this with cute pictures, but I'm going to try throwing the text up first and see what happens.  

Dan Lungren (R CA-03) continues to have an abysmal voting record on the environment.  Lungren just received a shameful 5% rating from the League of Conservation Voters.  I wonder how he scored so "high" with his continued voting for the Bush Party line?  Now that the Republican registration margin over the Dems in his congressional district is the lowest in CA (less than 5%), this seat is more vulnerable than ever!  Will Lungren be the next Pombo?

All the more reason to vote for him as a member of the League of Conservation Voters' Dirty Dozen.  Your vote for Lungren will help us get Dr. Bill Durston elected to Congress.

Please take a moment to nominate Dan Lungren as one of the worst of the worst when it comes to protecting our environment!

You can nominate him here: http://lcv.org/...

Why nominate him?  Read on...

If you thought we didn't have media bias here in more "liberal" California, compared to say, Fox News, think again. This is what I see in the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" section   http://www.sacbee.com/... ( registration req.) this morning, so I'll copy it for you:

Doug Ose will hit the air waves next week in an advertising blitz introducing himself to 4th Congressional District voters, spokesman Doug Elmets said Tuesday.

The Sacramento Republican and former 4th Congressional District congressman announced last week that he was running for the seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle, whose role in the ongoing Jack Abramoff investigation is sending him into early retirement.

Now, who posted this? The SacBee's Political Editor.  And why should you care? Because Ose has never represented our CA- 04 Congressional District.  He spent 3 terms repping a different district to the south. CA- 03. Three is not Four. Was this deliberate? Absolutely.  She didn't bother to fact check Elmet's press release or verbal statement.

Friday, February 1, 2008.  Republican Doug Ose, the formerly retired Representative of a different district, announced his candidacy on the steps of the Placer County, Auburn Courthouse for the CA- 04 Congressional seat being vacated by scandal- plagued John Doolittle

In a rare moment of unusual candor, a wanton display of unrestrained recklessness, an attempt to wag his "strong-on-Terra" manhood (or a combination of some or all of the foregoing), the absentee chickenhawk congressman of the 3rd congressional district of California reached into the darkest crevices of his soulless   being and bravely declared as follows:

I cannot say, per se, that waterboarding is torture.

We need to impeach and remove Richard Cheney and George W. Bush.  I'm not here to argue this proposition with anybody.  If you don't agree, then you don't need to read any farther.  I'm here to talk about how we can get serious about accomplishing it.  

We can pressure our Democratic Congresspeople on impeachment until we're blue in the face.  We can stage sit-ins in their offices, we can call, fax and mail them urging they move on impeachment.  And I can appreciate all these efforts -they've done all they can do.  But they can't overcome the fear of Congressional Democrats that impeachment will be a partisan, divisive, embarrassing affair and will undermine their ability to do good things, and more importantly for a politician, undermine their ability to be seen doing good things.  Until that fear can be overcome, there's very likely not going to be any movement on impeachment.

But there is something we can do to fix this problem, and it's time for us to take this step.

Now, I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but my eyebrows have been raised. I live in California’s 4th Congressional District, sprawling from the suburbs of Northeast Sacramento to the Oregon border, west to Oroville and east to the Nevada border. It’s the home of Hewlett Packard, William Jessup Christian College, and the most beautiful terrain in the nation. It’s the home of Republican Congressman John Taylor Doolittle, quite possibly the nation’s most corrupt elected official. We are neighbors with Congressmen Mike Thompson (D) in the southwest, Wally Herger (R) directly to the west, Doris Matsui
(D) to the south, and Dan Lungren (R) to the south east.

Apparently, its also a location brimming with Halliburton activity.

On March 15th, 2006, the following amendment was offered to the House of Representatives by Wayne Gilchrest.

H.AMDT.701 (A001)
Amends: H.R.4939
Sponsor: Rep Gilchrest, Wayne T. [MD-1] (offered 3/15/2006)
AMENDMENT DESCRIPTION:
Amendment sought to delete section 3011 from the bill which contained language prohibiting the acquisition of certain United States seaports.

AMENDMENT PURPOSE:
An amendment to strike section 3011 of the bill. Section 3011 prohibits use of funds to take any action to approve or otherwise allow the acquisition of any leases, contracts, rights, or any other obligations of P&O Ports by Dubai Ports World or any other legal entity affiliated with or controlled by Dubai Ports World.

Long after the first shots of this situation occured. Long after the first clear holes were seen by most in Bush's homeland security. Long after Bush noted the standards for "Great British Companies", the fate of DPW was pretty clear.

It was publically dead. But, a few House Members decided to fight the DPW fight.

Those members are named under the fold. Apologies if it's dry.

As we all know President Bush vetoed his first piece of legislation this week.

Since President Bush claimed it was a moral issue that made him veto the embryonic stem cell bill, I think it is only fitting that he should publicly vow to never benefit in any way either physically or financially from embryonic stem cell research.
I have written him a letter requesting that he do just that.

Congressman Dan Lungren (R) CA-3 voiced his support for the President's decision based on the same moral grounds.
I wrote to him too.

(Flippo)

Like Kos, I am leaning in favor of supporting Proposition 77.  Perhaps the most compelling reason to support redistricting in California NOW is that the new districts are likely to give Democrats a better shot at retaking the House in 2006.

Consider what Republicans have to say about the 2001 remap (sorry, registration required):

Former Assembly Republican leader Jim Brulte says the 2001 California redistricting that has helped propel Proposition 77 onto next month's ballot was fueled by a GOP bluff.

"It was a bluff that we orchestrated well," he said.

Brulte said he talked with Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser.

"He wasn't pushing us; he just told me, 'If you can deliver 19 Republican seats, we'll hold the Congress of the United States,' " Brulte said.

Republicans currently hold 20 seats in California and nearly all of them are bats***t crazy Republicans.  California deserves better.

I found myself on the California Secretary of State's website looking at the Boxer-Bill Jones Senate results from 2004.  In my research, I began to notice that Boxer won or was competitive in a lot of districts currently represented by Republicans.  Now if it were just a handful of districts this would be mentionable but not a web-wide call for action.  However, the number of districts I came up was TWELVE!  Let me say that again: TWELVE!!!!!  OVER HALF of the California Congressional Republican delegation (20) represent districts with substantial Democratic/Boxer supporters, and in three districts Boxer got more votes than Jones.

This isn't that rare for strong statewide candidates with no-names as opponents, but the Republican nominee was Bill Jones, the former two-term Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate.  He had great name-recognition, and while he was outspent 2-to-1, he still raised $7.3 million.

If a Democratic tide is going to rise in 2006 to sweep in a Democratic Congress in the House it will begin in California.  

Take a look...