In today's financial news....
The daily late contribution report at the Secretary of State's Web site is a must read for political watchers this time of year. Among the info gleaned from today's reports:
* The contest in the 61st Assembly District, once a targeted race by Republicans, is no longer a contest. Democratic incumbent Gloria Negrete McLeod is confident enough of victory that she donated $26,600 to the San Diego County Democratic Central Committee.
* Democrats still see the 35th Assembly District race in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties as a major struggle. The Riverside County Democratic Central Committee contributed $10,000 to the campaign of Pedro Nava. Earlier, Nava had been the beneficiary of a $75,000 contribution from the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee.
* It turns out that $10,000 Democratic contribution to Ferial Masry reported in today's Ventura County Star (see story,) came not from the state Democratic Party, but from the Sacramento County Democratic Central Committee.
Republicans showed the way in 2002 in how to use county central committees as conduits for receiving and making contributions, and the Democrats have picked up the tactic this year. They are important because, as a party entity, the county central committees can recieve and make unlimited contributions to candidates.
"Major struggle" in the 35th Assembly District ??
Seems more like the Dems are just hedging their bets by dumping more funds into this race. But the spectre of the nearly limitless OilPAC funds and an anticipated flurry of commercial TV ads for Pohl are why the Dem party funds are coming in steadily. Pick your poison: party funds or PAC funds. A good news analysis would be to add up outside IE funds for a candidate plus the party and campaign funds. It probably will be even in this race.
The real test on who is ahead is the conspicuous absence of the Governator appearing on behalf of Pohl. Pohl's campaign slid away from him once he started complaining in all his own ads about the aggressive comparison (i.e., "attack") ads by Nava instead of Pohl talking about whatever he believes. Of course, the Star breaking the news (or at least strongly insinuating) on the Pohl campaign coordination with OilPAC also slid his campaign down the slope of no return....
Thursdays debate with Adrienne Prince, Audra Strickland, and Ferial Masry proved to be quite the event. Not only did a lot of students turn out but time after time Ferial and Adrienne brought up the hypocrisy of Audra’s Statements:
-Claiming she is against illegal immigration yet taking money from companies that hire illegal immigrants (Boething Tree Farms).
-After hearing Audra whine for the third time about how the brother of her husbands company Fidelity National Title left the State for Florida, Ferial slammed Audra by highlighting how Fidelity really left the state due to unethical business practices causing it to loose its bond.
-When it came to choice Ferial stated the effects of a culture obsessed on sex and how hard it is for the 14 and 15 year old girls she knows in her classes. She stated those claiming they are pro life are really just “pro birth” since they don’t want to protect life from conception until the age of maturity at 18. She also stated her support for a womans right to equal pay for equal work and to raise her family in dignity.
-Ferial brought up the gridlock that her husband contributes to working as an obstructionist politician that has authored no significant legislation.
-Ferial brought up how the Stricklands consistently use our safe streets as if Audra is out there fighting like wonderwoman. This community was safe far before the 6 years since Audra came to this district and even before the 23 years in which Ferial came to this district.
-Ferial brought up how Stricklands campaign flyer is really a gross representation of our district giving us a bad name as if its flooded by crime, one must wonder though why Audra fails to use her solutions in Chatsworth or Fillmore with this magic recipe of hers…..
-Ferial showed how out of step Audra is with the governor on things like Stem Cell Research, Choice, Civil Unions, and the bond issue (Ferial supported it, Audra opposed it.)
All in all a great debate that pitted a far right ideologue against a common sense candidate that has been endorsed by the Ventura County Star, VC Reporter, LA Weekly, Ojai News Press and even the staunchly Republican Fillmore Herald.
Thankfully Audra refrained from distorting Ferials record with previous lies such as saying that Ferial supports gay marriages (supports civil unions), or Is against the death penalty (only supports the death penalty with a higher threshold supported by things like DNA evidence, and only for heinous crimes).
The day that Ferial Masry recieves 10,000 from the State Democrats, the Republicans get desperate and send 46,000.
Late Contributions Made
NAME OF RECIPIENT CITY STATE/ZIP
CA CLUB FOR GROWTH THOUSAND OAKS CA / 91361
AMOUNT TYPE TRANS. DATE FILED DATE TRANS #
$20,000.00 INITIAL 10/26/2004 10/27/2004
NAME OF RECIPIENT CITY STATE/ZIP
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY SACRAMENTO CA / 95814
AMOUNT TYPE TRANS. DATE FILED DATE TRANS #
$26,600.00 INITIAL 10/17/2004 10/18/2004
Tim,
One correction should be noted in your column regarding the two political parties working with their county central committees.
While it is true that state and local (read: County)parties may make unlimited contributions to candidates for state office, state and local parties are limited in the amount of money they may accept from any entity.
Prop. 34 set the contribution limits for state and county parties at $25,000 per calander year, adjusted for inflation the contribution amount is $26,600 for the '04 cycle.
I keep listening to the news speak about getting free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the best site to get one.