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This round-table is for Californians who are tired of the hundreds of worthless threads about pointless shit in the WR, when we have an Election in full swing right now in our own state.
Posters from elsewhere are welcome to participate, as long as they are capable of discussing about the serious issues pertaining to the California Election 2018.
Thread Index:
- Gavin Newsom, Dianne Feinstein lead in UC Berkeley pre-election poll (Nov 2, 2018)
- DMV registers 1,500 voters by mistake, including non-citizens (October 8, 2018)
- Leads shrink for Democrats Gavin Newsom, Dianne Feinstein in top California races (September 26, 2018)
- California prepares for a new fight over soda taxes, this time in the 2020 election (Sep 7, 2018)
- Obama speaks at rally for Democratic congressional candidates in California (September 8, 2018)
- Four Democratic candidates are turning against their own party over California's gas tax (Aug 27, 2018)
- Gavin Newsom Reveals Plan For Single-Payer Healthcare In California 'Regardless Of Immigration Status' (August 29, 2018)
- Poll finds Newsom has a commanding lead over Cox in California governor's race (Jun 19, 2018)
- The Feinstein Problem - California’s primary showed why the Democratic Party is stuck in place (June 06, 2018)
- What’s at stake for Southern California voters in Tuesday’s primary election
- Sexual Indiscretions Are on the Ballot in California’s Primary for Governor (June 04, 2018)
- 27 Candidates Are Running to Replace California Gov. Jerry Brown. Meet the 3 Frontrunners
- California Primary Election: Will Democrats Be Able to Flip House Seats? (June 4, 2018)
- CA Debate with all candidates
- A California governor’s race filled with unrealistic promises (March 23, 2018)
- California gubernatorial front-runner addresses past scandal (02/05/2018)
- Newsom settles in as center of his rivals' attention in first major debate of California governor's race (JAN 13, 2018)
- In blow to Diane Feinstein, CA Dems wouldn't endorse her Senate run
Sexual Indiscretions Are on the Ballot in California’s Primary for Governor
By Christina Cauterucci | June 04, 2018
On Tuesday, California voters will finally go to the polls to decide a gubernatorial primary in which 27 candidates are battling to replace retiring Gov. Jerry Brown. The primary is a “top two” primary, meaning that the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to the general election. Currently, two of the three top-polling candidates—the two leading Democrats in the race—are men who have admitted to extramarital affairs while in office.
As the rest of the country cheers what looks like a wave of women running for, and winning, political office, California’s very male gubernatorial field stands out, particularly for its front-runners’ past behavior. The leading candidate, lieutenant governor and former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, had an affair with his appointments secretary while separating from his wife in 2005. Ruby Rippey Gibney, the secretary, was married to Newsom’s campaign manager at the time. Newsom moved on to then-19-year-old “model and restaurant hostess” Brittanie Mountz; she was a registered Republican and he was more than twice her age. Newsom recently told the New York Times that “Dating is not a term I would use” to describe his relationship with Mountz, “but friendship, yes.” He was re-elected in a landslide in 2007.
Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles, is currently running in third, behind Newsom and Republican businessman John Cox. In 2007, during his tenure as mayor, Villaraigosa had an affair with TV news anchor Mirthala Salinas and his wife filed for divorce. A New Yorker profile published around the same time reported that he’d also cheated on her with the wife of a friend while Villaraigosa’s wife was fighting cancer.
At the time of Newsom’s affair and relationship with Mountz, political analysts wondered whether it would hamper his ambitions within the Democratic Party. So far, it hasn’t. Rippey Gibney said recently she wouldn’t lump her affair with Newsom in with kinds of behaviors the #MeToo movement is calling into question: “Yes, I was a subordinate but I was also a free-thinking, 33-year-old, adult married woman & mother,” she wrote on Facebook in February. “Also happened to have an unfortunate inclination toward drinking-to-excess and self-destruction.”
But some of Newsom’s opponents have wielded his indiscretions against him. In March, Amanda Renteria, called for Newsom to resign from his post as lieutenant governor in light of both relationships. Renteria insisted that even a consensual sexual relationship between a mayor and his employee isn’t completely benign.
“Workplace impacts of this type of behavior has real implications on the lives of everyone in the office,” she tweeted. “The more power you have, the more responsibility you have to ensure a positive culture where everyone is empowered.”
Villaraigosa, who has a much better chance than Renteria of advancing in Tuesday’s primary, has chosen shade over outright attack in his mentions of Newsom’s relationship history. When asked if he thought his own affair hurt his chances in the gubernatorial race, Villaraigosa told the New York Times that he doesn’t think people “see the connection” between his romantic exploits and his political work—“because in my case, it wasn’t somebody working for me and it wasn’t a 19-year-old.” But Villaraigosa’s affair still had a detrimental impact on his partner’s work, in large part because of his stature. He stayed in office, while Salinas’ career at Telemundo came to a premature end.
Villaraigosa’s career may meet its end on Tuesday, but Newsom appears almost certain to advance. Progressives in San Francisco forgave him his moral transgressions in 2009 when they re-elected him as mayor, and he’s been a popular figure ever since. Historically, the country has been forgiving of politicians who cheat on their spouses with underlings, inappropriately young women, or both—as Bill Clinton reminded us on Monday, two-thirds of Americans wanted him to stay in office at the time of his impeachment trial. Skeptics of the #MeToo movement have worried that the movement could ruin a man’s career over an office dalliance. A Newsom win would suggest that California voters’ views on the issue haven’t changed much at all.
May the best sleazy adulterer wins!
In blow to Dianne Feinstein, California Democrats won’t endorse Senate run
February 25, 2018
Senator Dianne Feinstein suffered a setback in her effort to win a sixth term representing California as the state Democratic Party declined this weekend to endorse her re-election bid.
Ms. Feinstein is way ahead in most polls, and has a huge fund-raising advantage over her main opponent, Kevin de León, the California State Senate’s Democratic leader. Still, the vote here, at a raucous and well-attended party convention, is the latest indication of disenchantment with Feinstein, 84, among the party’s grass-roots advocates.
A candidate must garner the support of 60 percent of the delegates to win the party’s nomination. None of the candidates running for statewide election met that threshold.
Still, Ms. Feinstein’s showing was particularly stark given her status as a Democratic institution. Mr. de León drew 54 percent of the vote, or 1,508 votes, compared with 37 percent, or 1,023 votes, for Ms. Feinstein.
The vote came after Mr. de León, who has been running an insurgent campaign, delivered a blistering speech that reflects deep divisions among Democrats here — and across the nation — about how to respond to President Trump. Mr. de León questioned, among other things, remarks Ms. Feinstein had made that were interpreted by many Democratic activists here as sympathetic to Mr. Trump, and suggested she was too conventional in taking on the White House.
“The days of Democrats biding our time, biting our tongue, and triangulating at the margins are over,” he said.
His speech also reflected a feeling among many Democrats, particularly younger ones, that it is time for the old guard of Democratic leaders here to step aside. Gov. Jerry Brown, 79, is stepping down at the end of the year because of term limits.
“California’s greatness comes from acts of human audacity, not congressional seniority,” Mr. de León said.
Ms. Feinstein, in her remarks, talked about her success in the Senate in pushing through a ban on assault weapons, which was later phased out. She pledged to do it again if elected. But the pledge was clearly not enough.
Throughout her career, including when she served as mayor of San Francisco, Ms. Feinstein has been more of a centrist and has struggled for support in the most liberal wing of the party. Still, for all her difficulties, she has appeared to be in a dominant position leading into the June 5 primary with Mr. de León. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California this month found her leading Mr. de León by a margin of 46 percent to 17 percent.
The vote took place Saturday evening and was counted overnight as party leaders took care, in tabulating the results, to avoid the chaos and challenges that came after the election of Eric C. Bauman as party leader in the face of a challenge from the party’s insurgent wing.
On Sunday morning, Mr. de León hailed the vote as “an astounding rejection of politics as usual.”
“California Democrats are hungry for new leadership that will fight for California values from the front lines, not equivocate on the sidelines,” he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Ms. Feinstein.
Don't cheer yet. Her successor might be that toolbag Kevin de León of the "30 magazine clip in half a second" ghost gun and "half of my family would be deported for having fake social security cards/IDs/driver licenses" fame.
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