Stephen Frank, California Political News and Views, 8/5/19
“A people that wants to remain ignorant and free … wants what never has been and never will be” ~ Thomas Jefferson.”
BIG STORY: CONTROLLED FAILURE?
Ten days ago the Board of Directors agreed to an extremely limited “BOUNTY” program for voter registration. Limited? It is ONLY for September 1-30. It is run through the County Central Committees—but as of last night, except for a few county Chairs notified it is going to happen due to Regional Vice Chairs sending the message..NO ONE knows about it. Since it is August many Committee’s and volunteer clubs are not meeting. Then you have Labor Day and the CRP convention ending on September 8. That gives three weeks, in total for a very limited program. A friend called this CONTROLLED FAILURE. It is not meant to do a serious job, it is meant to say you had bounty, did not get many sign ups and that declare bounty a failure type of program.
The good news is that it does not matter. Volunteers throughout the State are doing voter registration NOW. At Bass Sporting Goods, at DMV offices at retail stores, Fairs and Festivals. The volunteers do not need to be told or get permission to register voters—they are doing the job. Oh, at the Napa County Central Committee event on August 1, CRP Vice Chair gave me credit for getting the Board to pass this limited program—which he then said could be extended 60 to 90 more days.
CONTENT
- Key races without GOP candidates
- Erin Cruz for Congress in Coachella Valley
- Candidate money reports
- Republican Party vs. Democrat Party money reports
1.We need candidate for office. But since our voter registration is so low, and the Party has not done anything in 6.5 years, good candidates are hard to find. Worse, in swing districts, districts we want to get back, we have NO candidates. I do expect that we will have solid candidates in these races—but it is getting late.
“In short, it looks like there are no declared challengers in AD16 (Bauer-Kahan – D), AD35 (Cunningham – R), AD38 (Smith – D), AD60 (Cervantes – D), AD65 (Quirk-Silva – D), and AD66 (Muratsuchi – D). Does anyone know differently?
All but one of these districts have switched parties during the decade. There are others (i.e. AD36, AD76), but there are challengers in 2020.” (h/t/ Scott Lay)
2. Looks like a GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018 is now running for Congress in the Coachella Valley. CA36 (Coachella Valley): added entrepreneur Erin Cruz (R) – likely Dem – challenge to Raul Ruiz (D)
3. Money is a key to victory. How are we doing? Thanks to the great work of Scott Lay and his “NOONER” Urge you to subscribe—great source of information
CAMPAIGN SEMI-ANNUAL REPORTS: Last night was the deadline for the semi-annual campaign finance reports. I provided a spreadsheet of select races to Nooner Premium this morning. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but the work with the reports was truly late night/early morning work only possible because of Premium subscribers.
I have, however, added links to many of the candidates listed on the district pages directly to the Secretary of State page of each candidate, and will continue to add them. It’s a laborious process, as even the Secretary of State’s page of candidates doesn’t have links (likely because the candidate didn’t file an SOI) and thus require manual searches.
In the five Assembly seats that flipped from Republican to Democrat in 2018 (AD16, AD38, AD40, AD74, AD76), the new incumbents are doing very well, averaging $466,696 net cash-on-hand. In AD77, where Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) switched from Republican to Democrat in January, the money has followed in Sacramento where Democrats have a chokehold fundraising advantage over Republicans. Here are the numbers for that district:
| District | Candidate | Cash-on-hand | Unpaid Bills | Net cash as of June 30 |
| AD77 | June Yang Cutter (R) | $69,564 | $16,763 | $52,801 |
| AD77 | Sunday Gover (D) | $10,953 | $485 | $10,468 |
| AD77 | *Brian Maienschein (D) | $969,447 | $0 | $969,447 |
In the most competitive Senate races, we have:
| SD13 (San Mateo) | Josh Becker (D) | $532,074 | $19,847 | $512,227 |
| SD13 (San Mateo) | Michael Brownrigg (D) | $264,583 | $35,520 | $229,063 |
| SD13 (San Mateo) | Sally Lieber (D) | $180,679 | $250 | $180,429 |
| SD13 (San Mateo) | Shelly Masur (D) | $154,125 | $17,056 | $137,069 |
| SD13 (San Mateo) | Annie Oliva (D) | $186,879 | $43,760 | $143,119 |
| SD29 (Fullerton-Diamond Bar) | *Ling Ling Chang (R) | $337,683 | $70,443 | $267,240 |
| SD29 (Fullerton-Diamond Bar) | Joseph Cho (D) | $2,015 | $0 | $2,015 |
| SD29 (Fullerton-Diamond Bar) | Josh Newman (D) | $233,909 | $26,200 | $207,709 |
| SD15 (San Jose) | Nora Campos (D) | $188,482 | $11,141 | $177,341 |
| SD15 (San Jose) | Dave Cortese (D) | $592,864 | $0 | $592,864 |
| SD15 (San Jose) | Tim Gildersleeve (NPP) | $0 | ||
| SD15 (San Jose) | Johnny Khamis (NPP) | $258,152 | $0 | $258,152 |
| SD15 (San Jose) | Ann Ravel (D) | $159,622 | $12,039 | $147,583 |
| SD37 (Irvine) | Katrina Foley (D) | $181,986 | $5,084 | $176,902 |
| SD37 (Irvine) | Dave Min (D) | $245,092 | $6,933 | $238,159 |
| SD37 (Irvine) | *John M.W. Moorlach (R) | $233,925 | $0 | $233,925 |
In SD21, another competitive race, incumbent Scott Wilk (R) ended June 30 with $445,212, while his three competitors did not have reports.
4. How is the State GOP doing, money wise? Please note this is Cash On hand—does not include unpaid invoices or invoices that came in after the report day\
Because of special elections, the parties have newer reports closing July 13. They reported net cash of:
- California Democratic Party: $11,590,454
- California Republican Party: $1,034,328
Again, thanks to The Nooner by Scott Lay
(Periodically the California Political News and Views will publish tidbits of political news, to keep you in the loop of what the pooh bahs know. The phrase “tom/tom’s” comes from my mentor, Lorelei Kinder who never passed a rumor, just called to tell me what she heard on the “Tom/Tom’s”. This column is named in her honor.)
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