The Jill Martinez campaign is promising a campaign altering endorsement to be announced at a press conference tomorrow.
Who would she need to endorse her to really make a big impact on the primary or general campaign?
Democrat Marta Jorgenson has dropped out of the race and has endorsed Jill Martinez.
I have some quick questions:
1. What is up with the debt Jill Martinez's campaign has built up?
2. How has this campaign been any different than her 2006 run?
UPDATE: Jill Martinez has announced she has been endorsed by The California Teachers Association ( CTA).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 22, 2008DEMOCRATS UNIT TO UNSEAT
CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE ELTON GALLEGLY
A Press Conference is being called by the Jill Martinez for Congress campaign to announce a major endorsement of her efforts to unseat the 12 term Republican incumbent, Elton Gallegly.The press conference will be held tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at the Ventura County Government Center and immediately thereafter at 12:00 noon on the Santa Barbara courthouse, sunken garden steps at Anapamu and Anacapa.
Martinez has recently received the endorsement of former Governor Michael Dukakis, Lt. Governor John Garamendi, Santa Barbara Supervisor Janet Wolf, Mayor Marty Blum, Council members, Roger Horton, Grant House, Helene Schneider and Das Williams. She is also endorsed by the, Former Lompoc Mayor Joyce Howerton, the Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County, the California Labor Council, the Tri-Counties Labor Council, and is recommended for endorsement by the California Teachers Association along with many others. However, she prizes the endorsement she will be receiving Wednesday as an indication that politics as usual is over and efforts to unify the party will ensure a win in November.
UPDATED PRESS RELEASE from Marta Jorgenson:Marta Jorgensen pulled out of the race today and is throwing her support to Jill Martinez. Here is Marta's statement:
Today I am announcing that the Jorgensen For Congress Campaign will be joining up with the Jill Martinez for Congress Campaign. I endorse her candidacy because I believe she is the best person to represent us in the 24th Congressional District. I am asking that my supporters, in turn, look to Jill for leadership in winning this race and unseating the current Republican incumbent, Elton Gallegly.
I do not do this lightly. I would have preferred to finish this campaign for the sake of my supporters who believe in my issues and platform. But, we must be realistic. I do not have the high-level backers and endorsements needed to be successful, and I believe that Jill does. I am sorry that our political system is not easily navigated and even though I cannot continue, I do not want my platform to be lost. I believe Jill will carry these values, interests and issues forward.
My candidacy has been one to make an impact in two areas: 1. That anyone can and should run for office; and 2. That my platform emphasize environmental and health issues, and insist that they be lifted in to the public arena in a significant way. I do not want the environment to be an isolated question in a debate. I intend to continue that part of my campaign. I believe I can do this with Jill's help.
Even so, I believe we all have the same objective and that is to change the Congressional Representation in the 24th District from Republican to Democrat. Democratic Party members are working very hard to put aside philosophical differences and increase their voting base. It's a team effort, and as we continue to work cooperatively, we will win in November.
I urge all citizens in this election year to get involved in local campaigns, in important issues and to reinvigorate our national conversation of democracy.
We can no longer afford the luxury of standing on the sidelines waiting to be rescued by this Party or that Party, this candidate or that candidate. We must learn to rescue ourselves. In these times it is important that we realize that it is not about ME, it is about WE. I am asking that you support Jill Martinez's candidacy for Congress. I believe her leadership will inspire us to participate in democracy in a real way.
I called and tried to get clues but very little success.
Any guesses?
Hey, how does someone get something posted here? I tried last night and still nothing posted.
Well, I looked up at the sky today and didn't see the skys parting so I suppose it just more political hype.....
Endorsements are nice, but what is more important is what is coming out of a candidate's own mouth.
Jill Martinez has been and is a notorious name-dropper. Because of her unsuccessful foray in 2006 she was able to rub elbows with a large number of mucky-mucks within the Democratic establishment.
To listen to the actual candidate is like listening to sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. After listening to the "Reverend Jill" describing how the world is a much better and a less bitter place because of her humanitarian (and profit-making) ventures, she will then lay out a series of political goals as her agenda.
She wants to end the war but has no serious plan to make it a reality.
She wants to improve and fix the economy but hasn't any big ideas or economic philosophy which would guide her proposals, if she had any.
She is in favor of Universal Healthcare. Big deal! How does she propose making it happen? She wants to form a committee!
In fact, all of Ms. Martinez's priorities seem to be patterned after Mary Pallant's Four Pillars for a newer and fairer deal for the American people. “Me-too” Martinez is all fluff and no stuff. Mary Pallant is the real deal and offers Democrats the best chance of defeating Elton Gallegly this fall because she has not just goals, but real plans and ideas for solving some of our nation’s most vexing challenges.
Gallegly has had elections resembling cake walks in years past because of the poor choices in candidates that the Dems have nominated.
I do not believe that an endorsement by some celeb in 2008 would help Martinez get any more than 39% of the vote she got in 2006.
Pallant, I think, would make the race very interesting for a change.
Jill Martinez has spent her life on the front lines fighting for the things that are important to the American people. Jill Martinez served in law enforcement. Jill Martinez served as Deputy Director/Operations, Area Housing Authority of County of Ventura, Support Services Supervisor/Community Relations Director, Board of Directors, Statewide Community Advisory Council,Corporation of Affordable Communities and Homes/Treasure Coast Community Development, and as a California State University Professor of Professional Ethics.
I think the voters of the 24th District are ready for a fighter. Jill Martinez is a fighter. The Ventura County Firefighters Association knows a fighter when they see one that's why they endorsed Jill Martinez for Congress in the last election.
The 24th District needs a fighter not a talker. Jill Martinez is a fighter and when elected she will fight for us.
Why would an endorsement be held "secret" and exactly what is the big deal about Jorgensen dropping out of the race? Sounds so childish.
I wonder....
Actually I am wondering about this Martinez gal. I have been watching this primary closely. I have heard little of Jorgensen. Pallant seems strong and knowledgeable. However Martinez appears as a question. Iguess mostly it's because I don't trust her or her tactics.
For one thing, she had her 2006 website up until just a few days ago.
She appears to have just moved the endorsements from her 2006 election over to her new site, are those "new" endorsements or just those dragged along from when she had no challengers?
How does one know, what these "endorsements" have been told and from where they came.
I guess I'm so sick for dishonest politicians, it just makes me
suspect when I see stuff like that going on. Why hype an endorsement and not state it anyway? Don't politicians usually blast that as soon as it happens? Why even bring it up if not wanting to speak about it? As far as the "ending politics as usual", this "release" sure sounds like politics as usual to me. Haven't we all had enough of this?
Please Ms. Martinez, spare us these games! This is cheap. How about
actually starting by moving to the district you aspire to represent?
That would be a good first start, and certainly a sign of true
commitment. As far as Gov. Dukakis, I'm wondering of the connection
between Martinez and Dukakis. Is the former Governor aware of a
primary in this district? For what purpose does he specifically
"endorse" Ms. Martinez?
Finally, I question how Ms. Martinez intends to fight the battle
against Gallegly with the amount of debt she has accumulated in the
past? Wouldn't any current donations simply go towards paying off the sizable debt she has amassed?
One can simple visit the FEC to view open campaign finance data and scratch their head on her intention:
http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/mapHSCandDetail.do?detailType=cand&cand_id=H6CA24253&category=disH&stateName=CA&congressId=24
Here is the bottom line of Ms. Martinez' financial status from that site:
III. CASH SUMMARY
Ending Cash On Hand $3,034
Net Contributions $21,433
Net Operating Expenditures $20,876
Debts Owed By $97,702
Debts Owed To $0
Please take a close look at "Debts Owed By" and the number next to it. After paying this sum off with new contributions, just what does Ms. Martinez have in her war chest to run against our long seated
incumbent? She will have to raise $97,702 to pay off prior debt before she even buys a stamp for her participation in a general election. Or I have missed something here?
Personally, I would say Ms. Martinez does more to hurt the Democratic Party then any other candidate. I would assume based on the above information, clearly found at fec.gov, Ms. Martinez is running to pay off her debt and the heck with the rest of us. Given she doesn't even live in this district, certainly what does she care? In my analysis of this, Martinez is clearly starting out way behind any of the other candidates. Did Jorgensen realize this before she threw her support behind Martinez?
I don't know about the rest of your readership, but I intend to put my support behind a candidate that clearly has the ability to face
Gallegly and bring THIS district home to us. Given our pool of
candidates, I find that person to be Mary Pallant. She appears quite well spoken and has the integrity that can better serve us, and certainly less of these childish games.
Jorgenson was a surrogate candidate this whole time. Simply another Martinez manipulation.
You guys aren't going to get angry every time Jill Martinez receives an endorsement are you? If you are you're in for a lot of frustration.
I refuse to make Jill Martinez's opponent's lack of accomplishments and endorsements become an issue in this campaign. Mary is a fine person with honest intentions trying her best to serve her community. I wish there were more people like her.
The fact of the matter is Jill Martinez's team has learned a lot from the last election. Simi Valley isn't even safe for Republicans.
We don't need an unknown starting from scratch.
In my opinion if the local Democratic leadership had a little faith and looked past Jill Martinez's Scots-Irish heritage she would have won.
Whoever wins the nomination should be supported by the Party leadership. It's not about the candidate that one person had the most to personally gain from them winning. It's not about credit for finding candidate. It's about doing your job supporting all Democratic candidates. I hope that happens this time.
Are you guys talking about me again?
Are you saying local Democrats didn't support her because of her ethnic heritage? Can you name these Democrats?
Who are her biggest supporters in Simi Valley?
What kind of nonsense is nobody talking about? I cannot support a politician like Ms. Martinez.
I always vote for the candidate that demonstrates the best character and clarity on the issues, not the blather of the party line. Now is a time when eyes, ears, and minds need to be open rather than a time to close rank. The campaign is just getting started. This was a contrived event. It is sad to see Marta being used like this. She actually had something to say. Too bad she was silenced by the Martinez machine.
Vote for hope and change. Vote for Mary Pallant.
I am not convinced either candidate plans to really do something different then local Democrats have done in the past.
Nobody:
I think perhaps you are misreading the posts. They relate to a common viewpoint that Martinez has to raise nearly $100,000 just to pay off her prior campaign debt. You can easily see that with the link that is provided above.
I don't think being behind to that extent and continuing to run just to pay that off before moving forward is not quite fair, nor responsible, to the voters of the 24th Congressional district.
In comparison to this very important issue, any endorsement is meaningless.
She is not required to pay back that debt is my understanding.
She can raise and spend money on this campaign without ever paying back the old debt. The real question is if she intends to try to pay off that debt.
In this campaign which Democrat is more aligned with the left wing of the party?
Is CPAC going to tell us what they think?
If Jill were to win the nomination, and that's a big if, and get people to donate to her, another big if, of course she intends to pay off the debt before anything else, including $33K in salary for herself and a 25K loan from herself. It's all in the details of the FEC report. Then when she loses by double digits to Gallegly, she'll blame the party again for not supporting her enough. I bet she pays herself before her former campaign staff that got stiffed, or her campaign accounting firm that got stuck, or the printers that got stuck. I think it's outrageous to claim that you're owed 33K in salary for running, when you have staff, printers and others that haven't been paid what they're owed.
As others have pointed out, Pallant has no debt from her previous campaign and has more money raised in this one according to the last report than Jill. On the Republican side, Gallegly has a big stash of money, most of which goes to paying his wife and another staff person. Michael Tennenbaum has a little debt listed from his last campaign, but it's all to himself. If you look closely at his filings, you'll see that anyone like printers that were owed at the end of the campaign, he paid out of his own pocket, so no one is sitting out there being stiffed. He also returned over $100K to donors after he lost. He could have used at least some of that money to pay for the printers and other expenses, which were legitimate, but chose to pay for it himself, and return the money to his donors. He also doesn't have any salary listed for himself.
Now that is really unusual for a candidate.
The choices seem clear to me for both sides. Pallant for the Dems and Tennenbaum for the Reps.
Well if he's an attorney charging huge fees per hour, I would hope he has the common sense to pay back money. That would be most sensible. For myself, I've had enough of Republicans. Look where this nation has gone over the past 7+ years. Until Karl Rover is long history that party is nothing more than a bunch of slime balls. Sorry but look at Congressional voting records. Rove was only lucky during Watergate as he was too young and a little fish to get away with his dishonest behavior.
Clearly Republicans don't do anything for the middle class. Just check the size your Verizon and AT&T bill and corporate response to consumers for a whiff of that poor behavior that rolls down from the top of the corporate stratosphere.
The VCRCC brags about Elton Gallegly's campaign finances but they can't brag about our Nations finances. They can't advertise what Elton Gallegly and his Republican party has done to this Country in the last eight years.
Mary doesn't get to decide how many chances Jill Martinez gets. The People decide...
this is my second/third attempt to get this post up on Brian's blog. Really makes me wonder about the he's gotta log on and ok it. Why? Come on, let the public read this. She's been making some really vicious comments about this very subject, and slinging some real attitude behind it. Mary - DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLIC - OR both ways?
FROM MARY PALLANTS WEB SITE - MARY, ON HER OWN SITE, AND IN HER OWN HTML TAGS - IS IDENTIFIED AS A REPUBLICAN!
NO ONE STARTED THIS "RUMOR," BUT SOME ONE GOT THE TRUTH FROM HER OWN WEB SITE -
visit: www.marypallant.com/contribute.html
And use your browsers "View Source" button and see for your self!
"
U.S. Rep. Candidate Mary Pallant, CA24
"
Tah dow, tah dow, tah dow -
How you feel about Mary Now?
I don't get your point. Are you saying she is a closest Republican or that she was once a Republican?
I see where "nobody," Asked:
You guys aren't going to get angry every time Jill Martinez receives an endorsement are you? If you are you're in for a lot of frustration.
Well, DPSFV is the coordinating body for a coalition of 27 Democratic Clubs located in the seven Assembly Districts which are wholly or partially located in the San Fernando Valley. A very prgoressive group from over the hill,
and they are endorsing Jill.
http://dpsfv.com/endorsements
As are:
AFL-CIO Tri-Counties Labor Council
21 S. Dos Caminos Ave., Ventura, 93003, Phone 805-641-3712
California Teachers Association
The NEA Fund for Children & Publich Education. The Political Action Committee of the National Education Association, Washington, DC neafund.org
UAW Region 5.
45201 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538
TEL: (510) 656-9901
FAX: (510) 656-9904
From the UAW site: The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)-one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America, with members in virtually every sector of the economy. UAW Covers 17 states in the Western and Southwestern United States: Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Alaska, Washington and Hawaii. The UAW has approximately 640,000 active members and over 500,000 retired members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. There are more than 800 local unions in the UAW. The UAW currently has 3,100 contracts with some 2,000 employers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. uaw.org
Former Massachusetts Governor, Michael Dukakis
Lt. Governor, John Garamendi
Santa Barbara Mayor, Marty Blum
A partial and growing list may be seen at:
http://www.jillmartinezforcongress2008.com/Endorsements/