Before You Vote, Consider This . . .
By: Kevin Ausmus
Next week a new president will be elected and no matter who wins it will be historic—the question is will it be the first African-American to helm the White House or the first woman to hold as Vice President? Already this race is one for the books, and not because of the amount of heated rhetoric swapped by both sides. This is the first time in American history that two members of the same Congress have opposed each other for the highest office.
For that matter, you’d have to go all the way back to 1960 and John F. Kennedy to find the last Senator to win the presidency. No matter if it’s McCain or Obama, the new president will inherit the worst economic slide since the Great Depression along with two wars yet to have decisive outcomes. Whoever the next president is, chances are they’ll suffer through an unpopular first term and find the road to re-election fraught with peril. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Here’s a look at some electoral odds and ends as we head to the final days of Campaign 2008. For the record, there are six presidential candidates for California voters to choose from.
I thought Georgia was a Russian province
What are the chances of one former Georgian congressman on the ballot? Okay, how about two? Pay attention . . . this gets a little complicated.
Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, was the Republican 7th District Rep from 1995 to 2003. While in office, Barr was a staunch advocate on the War on Drugs and the War in Iraq, vociferously opposed same sex marriage and supported the Patriot Act. He also famously started impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, and then saw his own extra-marital affair outed by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.
Cynthia McKinney, the Green candidate, was the Democratic 11th District Rep from 1993 to 2003 and the 4th District Rep from 2005 to 2007. She spoke out against the Gulf War (Herbert Walker Bush’s war), insisted that George W. had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and attempted to introduce articles of impeachment against him. McKinney was infamously the principal figure in the 2006 Capitol Hill Police Incident, where she caused a stir by walking around a security checkpoint without her Congressional I.D., getting roughed up by police officers in the process.
Not only has Barr flip-flopped from most of his previous positions to be the Libertarian candidate, some feel he will duplicate the Ralph Nader spoiler role, siphoning off votes from McCain in battleground states.
Haven’t we seen this act before?
Speaking of Ralph Nader, most Democrats still loathe him for allegedly screwing up the 2000 presidential race. Even the Greens are through with him. But Nader soldiers on, this time as the Peace and Freedom candidate. The mainstream media wouldn’t cover Nader’s campaign if he lit himself on fire, so the former consumer activist has to be content with whatever attention he can get, even if it’s a staged bit with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on the Conan O’Brien show.
Alan Keyes, the American Independent nominee, is the only challenger who has already lost an election to Barack Obama. Keyes, an ultra-conservative that at times makes Pat Buchanan come off as liberal, was drafted into the 2004 Illinois Senate race after Republican front-runner Jack Ryan was revealed to have a predilection for public sex with his wife, Star Trek: Voyager actress Jeri Ryan. After saying that “Jesus wouldn’t vote for Obama,” Keyes and his anti-abortion, anti-gay platform lost to Obama by almost 50 percentage points.
And you thought Palin was unqualified?
Much has been made of Sarah Palin’s lack of experience, but compared to some of the other V.P. picks, she could be the fifth face of Mt. Rushmore. To wit:
Wayne Allyn Root—Libertarian Party
Root is a sports handicapper who hosts the cable TV program Wayne Allyn Root’s Winning Edge. (And Bob Barr has been quoted as saying Palin is not qualified for the job. And by the way, Root says take Obama and the points, and parlay that with the No on Prop 8.)
Rosa Clemente— Green Party
A community activist (no snickers, please), independent journalist and hip-hop artist who once tore Russell Simmons a new a-hole with her screed, You Are Not Hip-Hop.
Matt Gonzalez—Peace and Freedom Party
On the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2000 to 2003, functioning mostly as a pain in the neck to then-mayor Willie Brown.
Wiley S. Drake Sr.—American Independent Party
The only candidate for executive office that doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Nice.
Show California the money
The California Initiative Process, implemented close to 100 years ago by Progressives seeking a way to wrest political control from the railroad barons, has become a flawed morass of big money special interest donors, foisting upon voters choices they generally call upon elected officials to make.
According to Ballotpedia, initiative proponents spent over $16 million on signatures alone. Once placed on the ballot, there’s no limit to what can be spent to enact or defeat a proposition. Here are the big money players for 2008:
Peter Sperling lives in Arizona and with his father, John, created the University of Phoenix. Sperling has spent over $7 million on Prop 7, the renewable energy statute. Why? No one seems to know for sure. Sperling has no known energy experience.
Not to be outdone, and running scared, are California’s energy monoliths, Pacific Gas & Electric and Edison, both putting up over $13 million apiece to defeat the measure.
Henry T. Nicholas III is the Broadcom billionaire tycoon who fancies himself a modern-day criminal justice maverick. Nicholas has sunk over $5 million into Props 6 and 9, the Safe Neighborhoods Act and Victims Right Act, respectively. Should they pass, Nicholas might find out firsthand how effective they are. He’s facing indictment on a variety of vice and drug charges, many violations allegedly taking place in an underground playhouse dubbed “Nick’s Café” (no relation to the former Claremont cappuccino institute of the same name—at least, not that we know of). The case is pending.
James Holman owns the San Diego Reader newspaper and has pored in $1.5 million to pass Prop 4, or Sarah’s Law. If the law sounds familiar—it’s another abortion parental notification/waiting period measure—it should. Two similar measures have been defeated in the last three years. The difference here is that a substitute adult relative can stand in for the parents, but only if child abuse is alleged. Not to be outdone, Planned Parenthood has contributed over $4 million itself to defeat Prop 4.
T. Boone Pickens is the Texas oilman who once aspired to corner the world market on fossil fuels. Now he’s singing about alternative fuel vehicles. Clean Energy Fuels, owned by Pickens, has ponied up close to $8 million to get Prop 10 passed.
The most controversial initiative is of course Prop 8, the California Marriage Protection Act. It’s quite possibly the shortest law ever put up to a vote, fourteen total words: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Prop 8 is the costliest in the country this year, with nearly $60 million raised collectively by both sides. That comes out to a little more than $4 million raised for every word in the proposition.
Even Manny Ramirez can’t claim to be worth that much.
The real October surprise
Every election season, wary pundits try to warn of an imminent October Surprise, a catch-all phrase invoked to describe a last-minute political stunt designed to influence the outcome of the election. It’s generally floated in terms of presidential elections.
Who would have thought, however, that a true honest-to-god October Surprise would surface in the Pomona mayoral race?
Though there are eight candidates on the ballot, the race has been mostly focused on City Council bitter rivals George Hunter and Elliott Rothman. During a candidate’s forum earlier this month, Hunter brought out a pro-Rothman mailer that blasted Hunter and also suggested Pomona Police Chief Joe Romero endorsed Rothman. Romero later insisted this was not true and that as a public servant he was not allowed to make any such endorsements.
All of this was political campaign business as usual. That is until less than a week later when Rothman was pulled over by Pomona police and charged with a DUI. Political payback?
No one knows for sure. Hunter is a big supporter of Romero and is endorsed by the Pomona Police Officers Association. But if anyone has any special insight on the arrest, they aren’t saying. The city and police department have adamantly refused to release any details, not even Rothman’s blood alcohol level. Even vet city reporters David Allen and Monica Rodriguez of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin have come up empty for answers, with Allen writing “If we worked as slow as Pomona City Hall, we’d be the Inland Valley Yearly Bulletin.”
At least that case is still pending
Rothman’s legal woes are still pending, but Corona Mayor Pro Tem Steve Nolan is running for re-election under the cloud of his conviction last year of misdemeanor hit-and-run stemming from a traffic accident in Oct. 2006.
Nolan was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after his 2006 Chevy Silverado rear-ended a Mercedes Benz at the intersection of Serfas Club and Palisades Drive. According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, “Nolan said he didn't realize he had hit another car at the time, an account the investigating officer said is inconsistent with the evidence.”
Nolan was convicted to three years probation, 80 hours of community service and fined $520. In California, someone convicted of a misdemeanor hit-and-run can be sentenced up to six months in jail and fined $1,000.
Not surprisingly, the conviction is not listed on Nolan’s Corona City Council bio.
No One Beats the IE in Corrupt Incumbents
The Inland Empire is constantly on the defensive for its perceived peccadilloes, but there’s one area where it can hold its head high: Corruption.
According to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a D.C.-based watchdog group that, among its many actions and projects, has a Top 20 list of “The Most Corrupt Members of Congress.” Crashing the list are three familiar names to Inland Empire residents: Ken Calvert (R-44th District), Jerry Lewis (R-41st District) and Gary Miller (R-42nd District). Not only that, they are all triple winners, having made the list three years running.
Here are capsule summations of their alleged ethical sins:
Ken Calvert: “His ethics issues stem from his use of earmarks for personal gain and his connections to a lobbying firm under investigation. Rep. Calvert was included in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.”
Gary Miller: “His ethics issues stem from his relationship with Lewis Operating Company and the sale of property. Rep. Miller was included in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.”
Jerry Lewis: “Currently the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, his ethics issues stem primarily from the misuse of his position as chairman of the committee to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to family and friends in direct exchange for contributions to his campaign committee and political action committee. Rep. Lewis was included in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.”
Miller is working on his sixth term, Calvert his seventh and Lewis is going on sweet 16 in his district. Corruption, shmruption.
For that matter, you’d have to go all the way back to 1960 and John F. Kennedy to find the last Senator to win the presidency. No matter if it’s McCain or Obama, the new president will inherit the worst economic slide since the Great Depression along with two wars yet to have decisive outcomes. Whoever the next president is, chances are they’ll suffer through an unpopular first term and find the road to re-election fraught with peril. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Here’s a look at some electoral odds and ends as we head to the final days of Campaign 2008. For the record, there are six presidential candidates for California voters to choose from.
I thought Georgia was a Russian province
What are the chances of one former Georgian congressman on the ballot? Okay, how about two? Pay attention . . . this gets a little complicated.
Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, was the Republican 7th District Rep from 1995 to 2003. While in office, Barr was a staunch advocate on the War on Drugs and the War in Iraq, vociferously opposed same sex marriage and supported the Patriot Act. He also famously started impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, and then saw his own extra-marital affair outed by Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.
Cynthia McKinney, the Green candidate, was the Democratic 11th District Rep from 1993 to 2003 and the 4th District Rep from 2005 to 2007. She spoke out against the Gulf War (Herbert Walker Bush’s war), insisted that George W. had advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and attempted to introduce articles of impeachment against him. McKinney was infamously the principal figure in the 2006 Capitol Hill Police Incident, where she caused a stir by walking around a security checkpoint without her Congressional I.D., getting roughed up by police officers in the process.
Not only has Barr flip-flopped from most of his previous positions to be the Libertarian candidate, some feel he will duplicate the Ralph Nader spoiler role, siphoning off votes from McCain in battleground states.
Haven’t we seen this act before?
Speaking of Ralph Nader, most Democrats still loathe him for allegedly screwing up the 2000 presidential race. Even the Greens are through with him. But Nader soldiers on, this time as the Peace and Freedom candidate. The mainstream media wouldn’t cover Nader’s campaign if he lit himself on fire, so the former consumer activist has to be content with whatever attention he can get, even if it’s a staged bit with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on the Conan O’Brien show.
Alan Keyes, the American Independent nominee, is the only challenger who has already lost an election to Barack Obama. Keyes, an ultra-conservative that at times makes Pat Buchanan come off as liberal, was drafted into the 2004 Illinois Senate race after Republican front-runner Jack Ryan was revealed to have a predilection for public sex with his wife, Star Trek: Voyager actress Jeri Ryan. After saying that “Jesus wouldn’t vote for Obama,” Keyes and his anti-abortion, anti-gay platform lost to Obama by almost 50 percentage points.
And you thought Palin was unqualified?
Much has been made of Sarah Palin’s lack of experience, but compared to some of the other V.P. picks, she could be the fifth face of Mt. Rushmore. To wit:
Wayne Allyn Root—Libertarian Party
Root is a sports handicapper who hosts the cable TV program Wayne Allyn Root’s Winning Edge. (And Bob Barr has been quoted as saying Palin is not qualified for the job. And by the way, Root says take Obama and the points, and parlay that with the No on Prop 8.)
Rosa Clemente— Green Party
A community activist (no snickers, please), independent journalist and hip-hop artist who once tore Russell Simmons a new a-hole with her screed, You Are Not Hip-Hop.
Matt Gonzalez—Peace and Freedom Party
On the San Francisco Board of Supervisors from 2000 to 2003, functioning mostly as a pain in the neck to then-mayor Willie Brown.
Wiley S. Drake Sr.—American Independent Party
The only candidate for executive office that doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Nice.
Show California the money
The California Initiative Process, implemented close to 100 years ago by Progressives seeking a way to wrest political control from the railroad barons, has become a flawed morass of big money special interest donors, foisting upon voters choices they generally call upon elected officials to make.
According to Ballotpedia, initiative proponents spent over $16 million on signatures alone. Once placed on the ballot, there’s no limit to what can be spent to enact or defeat a proposition. Here are the big money players for 2008:
Peter Sperling lives in Arizona and with his father, John, created the University of Phoenix. Sperling has spent over $7 million on Prop 7, the renewable energy statute. Why? No one seems to know for sure. Sperling has no known energy experience.
Not to be outdone, and running scared, are California’s energy monoliths, Pacific Gas & Electric and Edison, both putting up over $13 million apiece to defeat the measure.
Henry T. Nicholas III is the Broadcom billionaire tycoon who fancies himself a modern-day criminal justice maverick. Nicholas has sunk over $5 million into Props 6 and 9, the Safe Neighborhoods Act and Victims Right Act, respectively. Should they pass, Nicholas might find out firsthand how effective they are. He’s facing indictment on a variety of vice and drug charges, many violations allegedly taking place in an underground playhouse dubbed “Nick’s Café” (no relation to the former Claremont cappuccino institute of the same name—at least, not that we know of). The case is pending.
James Holman owns the San Diego Reader newspaper and has pored in $1.5 million to pass Prop 4, or Sarah’s Law. If the law sounds familiar—it’s another abortion parental notification/waiting period measure—it should. Two similar measures have been defeated in the last three years. The difference here is that a substitute adult relative can stand in for the parents, but only if child abuse is alleged. Not to be outdone, Planned Parenthood has contributed over $4 million itself to defeat Prop 4.
T. Boone Pickens is the Texas oilman who once aspired to corner the world market on fossil fuels. Now he’s singing about alternative fuel vehicles. Clean Energy Fuels, owned by Pickens, has ponied up close to $8 million to get Prop 10 passed.
The most controversial initiative is of course Prop 8, the California Marriage Protection Act. It’s quite possibly the shortest law ever put up to a vote, fourteen total words: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Prop 8 is the costliest in the country this year, with nearly $60 million raised collectively by both sides. That comes out to a little more than $4 million raised for every word in the proposition.
Even Manny Ramirez can’t claim to be worth that much.
The real October surprise
Every election season, wary pundits try to warn of an imminent October Surprise, a catch-all phrase invoked to describe a last-minute political stunt designed to influence the outcome of the election. It’s generally floated in terms of presidential elections.
Who would have thought, however, that a true honest-to-god October Surprise would surface in the Pomona mayoral race?
Though there are eight candidates on the ballot, the race has been mostly focused on City Council bitter rivals George Hunter and Elliott Rothman. During a candidate’s forum earlier this month, Hunter brought out a pro-Rothman mailer that blasted Hunter and also suggested Pomona Police Chief Joe Romero endorsed Rothman. Romero later insisted this was not true and that as a public servant he was not allowed to make any such endorsements.
All of this was political campaign business as usual. That is until less than a week later when Rothman was pulled over by Pomona police and charged with a DUI. Political payback?
No one knows for sure. Hunter is a big supporter of Romero and is endorsed by the Pomona Police Officers Association. But if anyone has any special insight on the arrest, they aren’t saying. The city and police department have adamantly refused to release any details, not even Rothman’s blood alcohol level. Even vet city reporters David Allen and Monica Rodriguez of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin have come up empty for answers, with Allen writing “If we worked as slow as Pomona City Hall, we’d be the Inland Valley Yearly Bulletin.”
At least that case is still pending
Rothman’s legal woes are still pending, but Corona Mayor Pro Tem Steve Nolan is running for re-election under the cloud of his conviction last year of misdemeanor hit-and-run stemming from a traffic accident in Oct. 2006.
Nolan was charged with leaving the scene of an accident after his 2006 Chevy Silverado rear-ended a Mercedes Benz at the intersection of Serfas Club and Palisades Drive. According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, “Nolan said he didn't realize he had hit another car at the time, an account the investigating officer said is inconsistent with the evidence.”
Nolan was convicted to three years probation, 80 hours of community service and fined $520. In California, someone convicted of a misdemeanor hit-and-run can be sentenced up to six months in jail and fined $1,000.
Not surprisingly, the conviction is not listed on Nolan’s Corona City Council bio.
No One Beats the IE in Corrupt Incumbents
The Inland Empire is constantly on the defensive for its perceived peccadilloes, but there’s one area where it can hold its head high: Corruption.
According to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a D.C.-based watchdog group that, among its many actions and projects, has a Top 20 list of “The Most Corrupt Members of Congress.” Crashing the list are three familiar names to Inland Empire residents: Ken Calvert (R-44th District), Jerry Lewis (R-41st District) and Gary Miller (R-42nd District). Not only that, they are all triple winners, having made the list three years running.
Here are capsule summations of their alleged ethical sins:
Ken Calvert: “His ethics issues stem from his use of earmarks for personal gain and his connections to a lobbying firm under investigation. Rep. Calvert was included in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.”
Gary Miller: “His ethics issues stem from his relationship with Lewis Operating Company and the sale of property. Rep. Miller was included in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.”
Jerry Lewis: “Currently the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, his ethics issues stem primarily from the misuse of his position as chairman of the committee to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to family and friends in direct exchange for contributions to his campaign committee and political action committee. Rep. Lewis was included in CREW’s 2006 and 2007 reports on congressional corruption.”
Miller is working on his sixth term, Calvert his seventh and Lewis is going on sweet 16 in his district. Corruption, shmruption.
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