Hello,

The special election has been joined...Ventura County Grassroots, along with the other 8 county regionals in So Cal Grassroots (formerly the Kerry grassroots campaign, here, in LA, and the other southern counties) are lining up with the Alliance (ABC Alliance for a Better California) to defeat the Governor's attempted power grab through the ballot initiative process rather than working with our elected representatives.

Two candidates for State Assembly, Ferial Masry who came close to winning last time, from the 37th Assembly District, and Kelly Hayes-Raitt, from the 41st AD.

We need help getting the word out for this, our first fundraiser since the 2004 campaign. If you can help by distributing leaflets for this event, please contact our Event Chair, Heather Schmidt at HEATH48215@msn.com Leafleters are needed at public events around the county, such as this weekend's Salsa festival in Oxnard, or at Farmers Markets in Ventura this Saturday, in CI this Sunday and TO next Thursday.

Just say NO, Arnold, NO! Vote NO on 73-78 and YES on 79 and 80!

Thank you!
Chris Robson
Vice Chair
VC Grassroots

More on the 8-21 Back to School Bash...

Two candidates for State Assembly, Ferial Masry who came close to winning last time, from the 37th Assembly District, and Kelly Hayes-Raitt, from the 41st AD, will be our featured speakers at the NO, Arnold, NO bash. Please plan on joining us in this campaign and at this event!

I want to go to this event but yeah Im a libertarian. Being Arnold ideals close to being libertarian. I am somewhat supportive of Arnold plans except maybe the school issues. I want less money to go to public schools and money spent on vouchers being that I went to a Catholic school Brian has taught at. The event is in someones house so yeah they wll kick me out or something. But I would like to go to political events like this wether it be in favor of what i believe in or not.

Hi John,

No you won't be kicked out. We are progressives and Democrats, not right-wing neo-cons. We will, of course, be happy to take your donation and to discuss why we are opposed to the first five of the remaining 8 propositions (73, 74, 75, 76 and 78 and for the last two (79 and 80).

In general, we oppose the initiative-proposition process because it represents a failure of our democratic representational democracy. We elect, or "hire" legislators - Assemblymen and women and Sentors to make laws. We subvert the process of legal review and constituent response that the deliberative process in those bodies provides.

We are also opposed to the "special" election. What is the rush? Why not, if we have to have these on the ballot, wait until the regularly scheduled next election, in June 2006.

Why not: Because the right-wing neo-cons cannot stomach the fact that California, essentially a blue state, is immune to their inroads. This is nothing short of a power-grab by them and their cash-rich special interest supporters.

This election, costing an estimated $80 million - that is $800,000 for the County of Santa Barbara, for instance, is expected to be one of the most garishly expensive of its kind. Why: Because our governor is raising soft money (this is not a federal election and is exempt from McCain-Feingold election reform laws regulating such money) from all over the country.

Come to the event, and we will review the specific reasons we are opposed to 73-78 and for 79 and 80. We'll also discuss why this governor's approcal ratings are under 30%, documenting that it is not just Democrats and progressives who are disenchanted, but also a whole lot of Republicans, Libertarians and Decline to States...

I heard from a reliable source that as of August 1, it was under 30%.

However, doing a very quick Google search, I could only find an external source for 31%.

I am curious, why do you support the initiative process?

Cheers,

Chris

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/06/21/MNG56DBUNC1.DTL

An add-on:

Even if you support the ballot iniative process, why in the world would anyone call an $80 million special election?

What is the rush?

There is already a scheduled (and budgeted) election scheduled for next June...

Oh, I know why. It was yet another attempted power-grab: Redistricting prior to the 2006 election.

But, since Prop 77 was ruled out by the State courts, there is no longer any rush for any of the remaining issues.

So, why not cancel this silly election and reschedule the vote on the qualified props in June?

Chris

Brian,
Great Blog. I think I will hang out here for now on and I will stop trying to interject truth into Keaney's blog, I will leave Tim to his fantasy world. I wish I had heard about this Anti-Arnold event sooner as I will be out of town. Did you hear that the big drug companies will be spending 78 million to promote their prop 78 and to stop prop 79? They will spend 78 million but they claim they are too poor to lower drug prices, what a joke! Also the big corporations are pushing prop 75 to make it harder for working people to get their message out, but the big corporations never ask their shareholders if they can give their money away to Arnold and others. I think Arnold will wind up being a one hit wonder!

Brian,

With Dantona out now, who might be angling for Mikel's seat?

T

Hey Everybody.

If anyone is interested in seeing the debate Arleigh no longer wants to be a part of, click here:

http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/vcs/keaney/

Brian - feel free to post a link to your blog from mine!

Tim

p.s. School starts next week - remember to thank a teacher!

LOL