Stop the Recount!

From the Sac Bee, by two Democratic stalwarts. Thanks for letting me reprint:

By Becky Curry and Jamie Beutler
Special to The Bee

Published: Tuesday, Jul. 15, 2014 - 12:00 am

Nearly all who followed the close race for second place in the state controller primary know that Democrat Betty Yee prevailed after the last ballots in Lake County were tallied in late June. But fellow Democrat John A. Pérez has now called for a time-consuming recount in hopes of overcoming his 481-vote deficit.

That’s a decision we hope he reconsiders.

First, the protracted recount process threatens to drag on for weeks. It covers hundreds of precincts in 15 counties and could take long enough to hamper preparations for the Nov. 4 general election.

Second, a recount threatens to undermine what most Democrats consider a core value of our party – putting the public interest ahead of self-interest. This is not the first time Pérez has put his own goals ahead of party unity. This spring he ignored advice from party elders not to demand a vote seeking endorsement over Yee at the party convention in Los Angeles. Pérez, from Los Angeles and then still the Assembly speaker, pressed ahead with the motion to endorse – and lost, capturing less than 50 percent of the ballots. Calling off the recount now would only work to his advantage. It’s not too late to show party unity and back Yee with all the resources he’s got.

Third, Yee, a state Board of Equalization member, should not be left stuck in proverbial limbo. The grace and restraint she has shown amid the questioning of her winning margin and the call for a recount are admirable. In the race for controller, Republican Ashley Swearengin, Fresno’s mayor, finished first and will be a formidable opponent. A complete Democratic slate with Yee getting full and undivided statewide support needs to proceed now, not whenever a prolonged recount wraps up.
We understand the desire by a candidate who comes up short by a very narrow margin to pursue a recount. But existing California law has no provisions for an automatic recount, and the process it does outline raises questions of fairness over who can foot the bill and how long it might last. One candidate can pay to pursue newly counted ballots in some areas and another candidate might then pay for and pursue newly counted ballots in others. The recount could stretch on for several weeks. Even then it could end in court.

Such is the Pandora’s box that Pérez has opened. The middle of a general election season, with county clerks facing a tight timeline to ready and release the fall ballot, is a particularly bad time for this to happen. The Legislature should not be called into special session to adopt new rules now, with the specific circumstances of this race weighing on their judgment.

Pérez can avoid this collateral damage by canceling the recount. The time for reviewing and reconsidering state policy for very close elections is in a future regular session of the Legislature.
Close elections can always inflame passions, especially when counting of ballots takes weeks. But that count happened. Yee finished as the top Democrat and is ready to make her case to win the general election. We strongly encourage Pérez to do the right thing and call off the recount. We would count this to his benefit if he ever seeks our vote again.

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/07/15/6555863/viewpoints-perez-should-pull-plug.html 

Recount Day 3

So the recount in the State Controller's race is now in its third day. Already in those precincts counted, Assembly Speaker Emeritus John Perez has picked up three votes. If this keeps up at this glacial pace, it could last for months, past the date the the election. Please, please Mr. Speaker, stop counting. Think of the Party (Now backing Betty Yee, as the official winner of the June primary) and the State. Think of your own image and legacy.

Stop the counting, because even if you find those votes you so desperately crave, you may still look like a loser come November 4th. Be gracious. Let Betty Yee run her race already.

Recount Redux

More on the messy recount going on as we speak in the California Controller race. Think a Controller race is dull? Think the job is a big bore? Think again. The Controller controls the State budget. Whoever sits in that seat has an awesome responsibility. With Emeritus Speaker of the House John Perez unwilling to concede defeat to Betty Yee, who won when all the ballots were accounted for by a slim 481 votes our of more than 4 million cast, he plunged the Party into angst and the State into uncertainty.

Because of the arcane way California's recount laws are written, the loser, in this case Perez, has the right to a recount in what ever Counties and whichever precincts he chooses. He has to pay for it, but with what's left in his Primary campaign warchest, he can afford it.

As you might suspect, this has made the Republicans, whose candidate Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearingen finished in first place with 24% of the vote (Perez and Betty Yee finished with 21.7% each), rub their hands together with glee. Nothing like a divided Party to cast the voting public into confusion and frustration, not to mention deepen an already heavy cynicism.

The result of all this is to suppress the vote, giving Swearingin an edge in what should be a solid Democratic seat. And that edge is like the camel's nose under the tent. Republicans are snorting and pawing the ground with every passing day.

If the reaction to Betty Yee's presence at this weekend's State Executive Board meting is any indication, Perez' tactics are not going over well with his own base. Betty got standing O's wherever she went, including at the Labor Caucus meeting. Perez sits on the board and didn't bother to make the meeting.

Oh, yeah, pressing State business, or vote counting, whatever. As State Party Chair John Burton said in the SF Chronicle yesterday, "John [Perez] is a young guy with a political future ... and I don't think he's going to thwart that for the controller's job."  Make his words come true, Mr. Speaker. Be a gracious loser on this one, and there will be another chance for a solid political career.

Your author and Betty T. Yee ar this weekend's meeting.

How to lose money on your campaign and then lose your race

                     So, you think you can't afford a campaign consultant. 

You think you can't even afford a consultation with one to find out what you need to know to at least have a fighting chance.

You think you need to save every penny in your meager bank account to print a flyer you and your army of eager volunteers will walk to every door in the district.

Let me let you in on a dirty little secret:

                      That is how to lose money and to lose your race too.

Why?

Because just like they tell you in business school, you have to spend money to make money, or in the campaign context you have to spend money to make the money you need to get the votes.

If this sounds like I'm turning campaigning into a crass commercial venture, I'm not. I'm just dealing
 in reality-based reality. Why do you think they also say "Money is the mother's milk of politics"?

Because you need money for a number of things essential to your campaign. even without the cost of a consultant or any paid staff. For starters,  you have to pay a printer to print your flyers. Yes, you can do it on your computer, but it will  look like crap, even if your cousin's buddy donates his time designing it.

It will look like crap and it likely will be seen as crap by the people who get it.

                     It will cost more and be more hassle than doing it right.

Why?

Ink costs money. Paper costs money. Shoe leather costs money. Your volunteers are likely to flake out (Sorry, they just do, even those most eager and in love with your issues). You will go to homes where no one votes, or no one votes in your election.

Your message will not be read because it will be too long; believe me nothing turns off voters than too much information. It's counteractive, I know, but oh so true.

                    Campaigning by the stars.

 

 
Yes, it is possible to win your way, if a number of factors line up on your side. It's kind of like doing your horoscope. Were you born under the right sign? Are the stars lining up on your side?  Like, is there no opponent? That would be a big plus and yes, one way to win. Don't count on it. Is your District 1000 homes or less? If so, I agree, get out there and door knock. You can meet every single voter, maybe twice. Most Districts are larger than this.

Are you a rock star; is your name a household word (and not a bad one)? If so, you probably don't need to do anything. But if so, you can probably afford to enhance your name recognition by hiring a consultant, a campaign manager, and the best printers in your area to craft your message and make sure the voters see it with your beautiful mug plastered on the front page.

                  Why not do it right and maximize your chances to win?

What is the right way you say? At the least, you need to target your mail and/or handouts to those voters who vote frequently in your race. You need a message that can be broken down into bullet points and that will resonate with those voters. You need a good picture or two of yourself, preferably interacting with others. You need a design with punch that won't be lost in the morass of mail voters pull out of their boxes every day during election season.

You need a print shop experienced with campaign mail (there are different rules and timeline than for regular bulk mail) and a mailhouse who can safely and quickly print and mail your material with the proper indicia in a timely manner to get delivered before election day.

You will need a list of frequent voters, not the list of all voters you can buy from your Registrar of Voters office. Unless one of your ace volunteers is a computer whiz and can sort the information into frequent voters and create the proper forms and keep the data base you need to keep track of everything. 

You will need a kitchen cabinet, to advise you on the issues of importance in your race. Will these people also pound the pavement for you, hit the phones? Maybe some will. But you need to plan a carefully calculated field campaign so you are making the best of what volunteers you have. 

                       Take a workshop.

At the least, spend a few hundred dollars on a worskshop with a seasoned consultant who will point out these things to you and your campaign team, show you the places to go for maximum impact, train you in field and help you develop your message.

Better yet, take a workshop with a campaign fundraiser, who can show you how to raise the money you need to do it right and win your race.

Hint: If you hire a campaign consultant who helps plan your strategy and develop your message, target your voters and point you to the right printer, you are likely to save money by simply not mailing or walking/phoning to the wrong households.

Mail is expensive. We recently consulted with a local candidate who had already spent at least a third more than he needed to for sending out a flyer (with way too much information in it) to every voter in his district.  Besides being too early to register with the voters, with what he would have saved by targeting his mail, he could have paid for our time to help him deliver the right message and get it to the right voters at the right time.

Don't let this happen to you. Call for a consultation with an experienced consultant before you start your run. You won't regret it in the long run. Even if you lose, you'll know you did everything right and have positioned yourself for another run in the future.

Recount!

In a close race, sometimes the one on the short end of the stick asks for a recount. This can be a costly and time-consuming tactic that can delay the outcome from being certified for days, weeks, even months.  If the recount is in a primary election, imagine the chaos ensuing as the November General election day rolls around without knowing which two people will be facing off. Campaigning is either at a standstill or continues as if the primary has not happened.

This is the situation today as California Assembly Speaker John Perez has announced that he is requesting a recount in the Controller's race, usually a sleeper of a campaign, that has attracted attention because of the mere 481 votes separating Perez from State Board of Equalization member Betty Yee in a race in which 4 million votes were cast.

Betty Yee making a fiery speech about the Democratic process at the Cal. Dem. State Convention

Because of California's top two open primary system, put into place just two years ago, these two Democrats are vying for a chance to face off against Republican Ashley Swearingin, Mayor of Fresno.

Many observers feel that Yee has a better chance of besting Swearingin in the General than does Perez, for a number of reasons; she's a popular Bay Area politician whose current seat encompasses the entire north coast from San Francisco to the Oregon border, a notably liberal area, while Perez represents a very small District in Southern California.
 This recount however is a selective recount, counting only those votes in the Counties and the precincts where Perez did well.  It's the law, he has that right, but it ain't right.

He also has the money to pay for the recount. Betty Yee has called foul, and is now weighing her options should he pick up enough undercounted votes in southern California (and Lake County) to pull ahead.

Isn't it only basic fairness to count all the votes, if you really want to know the true count?

Abstention musical chairs on the Assembly floor

The dance is in full swing. The musicians are playing hard and the dance floor is aglow with lights shining on the party clothes of the whirling dancers.

Then the music stops. Someone is without a chair and that person is "it" in the now commonplace game of Abstention musical chairs, the Assembly Democrats latest craze.

Look closely and you will see who is calling the tunes; it's the Chamber of Commerce. The one who is without a seat is the one who abstains, in a high stakes game that has Democrats pitted against their own constituents.The Chamber likes this strategy for those Dems it controls who would not feel comfortable voting no on a bill important to their constituents.

In round one, we saw Marc Levine (District 10, a solidly liberal District) without a chair when the dance tune ended and his fellow Assembly members were voting on whether to give the Coastal Commission the power to levy fines on those who don't play by the rules.

That was the vote that kept the bill from going through.

And now, we read in Beyond Chron about Southern California Democrat Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) taking his turn at being odd man out, abstaining on the bill that would have raised the minimum wage in the state to $15 an hour. Dead bill. Happy Chamber.

One can only think this is an orchestrated move, keep the targets moving, get a different so called moderate Democrat to abstain on important bills, and maybe the people won't catch on.

And maybe they won't as Levine sailed to first place in a hotly contested primary election, facing the lone Republican in the race. (Three Democratic challengers virtually guaranteed the result, especially after some of Levine's top donors sent out a nice flyer on behalf of the frugal Republican). The top two primary is the best gift the Republicans ever got. Now, they don't need a majority in the legislature; they just need willing corporate Democrats who are happy to dance to their tune.

And a complacent, or distrustful, electorate. The perfect storm?

The right to worship the almighty dollar is now inalienable

Well, they've done it again; chalk another one up for the corporations. Today SCOTUS said that corporations, since they are people, have the right to their religious freedom, just like you and me. In light of the Citizen United ruling finding that money is speech, this was the next logical step.

You can't deny someone their right to worship in the way and to the god of their choice. In the case of corporations, this means that if the almighty dollar is your god, genuflect away. No one can take that away from you. Certainly not your employees who want to exercise their Constitutional right to privacy and equal protection or association or all those other pesky rights. No, if you have the right to hire and fire, you have the right to dictate, that is to exercise, your religion. Never mind that the employee's religion may differ from yours in some small way, such that their religion allows them the right not to have children if they don't want to and to use the contraception of their choice.

Choice!? Bah, humbug. Profits come before choice. You don't let them choose their own hours or their own pay, do you?

No, so why let them choose their own method of family planning? You're in business to make money, not coddle employees, not give in to the socialist demands of the government. So why should you have to use your hard earned profits, the profits earned for you by those same employees, to pay for their medical mistakes? Your god, the almighty dollar says so. And now, so does the U.S. Supreme Court.