I went to the Grand Opening of Hannah-Beth Jackson's campaign office Wednesday night in Ventura. After the excitement outside and inside the Tony Strickland w/ Mitt Romney event I was let down. It was the standard office opening party.
When I was walking up I ran into Republican activist Steve Frank who was a lone protester outside the event. Steve was holding a Taxin' Jackson sign and keeping tabs on the amount of people or who was attending the event. I asked if he wanted to talk on a short video but he declined and had no comment as he was there for business.
Inside the event there was about 25 people total. I looked around for signs of liberalism and found this:
( Looks like the tomato crisis is over!)
I didn't find any MAC computers running Firefox, pilates mats, or Nalgene bottles.
There were local Democratic Activists ( Steve Cummings from the Ventura Democratic Club), labor union supporters, people from the education community, business people, and a few young people, and as far as I could tell no other media. But ask Steve Frank. He was keeping track of that stuff too from the outside.
For about 15 minutes Hannah-Beth Jackson spoke about the campaign thus far, her issues, and then she took questions.
She started off by expressing her shock at the shoving that happened outside the Tony Strickland fundraiser. She said she would not tolerate that from her campaign and went on about freedom of expression and the constitutional right to free speech. She even mentioned Steve Frank and his right to stand outside the meeting and talked about how that is a great part of our nation's freedoms.
At a past event I asked her if she would pledge to not take contributions from gambling interests and the prison guards' union being that she had talked about her budget priorities including funding education at a high level. She said it was wrong how much we spend on prisoners while we cut education. Hannah-Beth Jackson said she wasn't going t pledge to not take any money from them but she said her record shows that she isn't beholden to them. ( Rough paraphrase, I don't know if she used the word beholden or not).
Last night she said there was two industries that she wouldn't take direct contributions from: oil and tobacco. That reminds me of the movie Zoolander. Tobacco and Oil do not go together:
How many of you got the reference without watching the video?
On the issue of tobacco funding she said the major difference was not the money but the voting patterns. She discussed key votes where she and her opponent voted differently when they served in the state assembly together. If you want to read more about the tobacco issue click on continue reading to see her latest press releases.
She discussed the need for some regulations and the role of government in a free market economy to provide for infrastructure and an educated workforce.
The long drive back to Simi Valley gave me a chance to reflect how large this state senate district really is and how hard it is to organize events when the drive time along back and forth would be a few hours. It would be awesome if both campaigns opened offices in Simi Valley soon. Maybe they could team up with local Democratic or Republican clubs?
Trivia question: Being that Tony and Hannah-Beth served in the assembly at the same time and both represented parts of Ventura County can you name any legislation they worked on together?
If they are promising to work with members of the other party did they ever work together?
I will be very impressed with your research skills if you name the legislation or action.
Jackson Statement on Tobacco Campaign Contributions
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Over 440,000 Americans die early, costly, preventable deaths from tobacco, and over 2,000 children begin illegal tobacco use each day. In August 2006, after a criminal prosecution extending over 8 years, the US tobacco cartel was found guilty on federal racketeering charges for "marketing and selling their lethal product with zeal, deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted," (Judge Kessler). This same cartel spends over $1.8 million dollars a year in California in contributions to elected officials and candidates, to limit regulation of their products and stop effective tobacco control that would reduce smoking and thereby reduce the astronomical costs to the public of tobacco-related disease. It is deeply troubling to me that any candidate for public office would be complicit in so seriously undermining the public interest and public health.
In light of the extraordinary dangers posed by tobacco products and the tobacco industry's defense of their use, I call upon my opponent in the race for the 19th Senate District to return all contributions received from tobacco companies or their representatives, including
ü the over $6,000 received directly by Strickland for Senate for the current campaign;
ü the $50,000 received by the Ventura County Republican Party which is clearly earmarked for this State Senate contest;
ü the over $85,000 which Tony Strickland campaign committees have received directly from tobacco interests throughout his career in the State Assembly
By returning the contributions, my opponent Republican Tony Strickland can reassure the public that his voting record in the Assembly was not in any way influenced by contributions from the tobacco lobby, and that he has no intention of allowing contributions to influence his legislative behavior.
· In the Assembly, he failed to vote on a measure which would have prohibited self-service sales of cigarettes or free distribution of tobacco products on publicly accessible property. (SB 1510, 2000)
· He voted against allowing the Department of Health Services to conduct stings on business selling tobacco to minors (SB 757, 2001). Passed into law anyway.
· He voted against restricting non face-to-face sales of cigarettes (SB 1016, 2003). The measure passed anyway and was signed into law by Gov. Schwartz.)
My record as a public official is clear. Tobacco Industry money has no influence on my vote. As a member of the Assembly and as a candidate for the 19th State Senate District I have not and will not solicit or accept contributions from tobacco companies. I received one of the highest scores in the legislature on tobacco control issues from independent reviews by the UCSF Medical School. As a representative of the 19th Senate District I will advocate for a return to the public health strategies first implemented in the early 90s in California, which included highly effective media communications and public education on the dangers of tobacco, and caused immediate and significant decreases in the rates of smoking among Californians.
The American Medical Association recommends that its members, state and local medical societies, to determine whether candidates for federal state and local offices accept gifts or contributions of any kind from the tobacco industry, and publicize their findings to both their members and to the public (AMA Resolution CSA Rep. 3, A-04). I urge California AMA Chapters, doctors, nurses, everyone in health related professions and in the media to carefully monitor the spending by the tobacco industry in the campaign for Senate District 19, so that the public can safely predict how their representative will vote and advocate on tobacco control related issues.
--Hannah-Beth Jackson, June 17, 2008
Hannah-Beth Jackson served in the California State Assembly from 1998-2004 during which time she authored over 60 pieces of legislation that were signed into law by both Republican and Democratic Governors, improving public education, increasing public safety, improving access to health care, protecting the environment as well as protecting the rights of consumers. She is the Democratic Party nominee to replace term-limited State Senator Tom McClintock in an open seat in the 19th Senate District, which includes large parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, and a small part of Los Angeles County, and cities of Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, Camarillo, Moorpark, Lompoc, Ojai and many others.
It was a good event. I knew nearly everyone there and it was much more than "Democratic activists," Brian. There were three Ventura city commissioners, a school board member and lots of education folks, as well as local business people. I counted more than 25 with the comings and goings.
Marie,
You are right. I normally don't go through the whole list of people without asking them but I will correct the statement.
Part of the problem is that I don't know Ventura as well as you do.
If I understand correctly Hannah-Beth Jackson also has an office in Santa Barbara too, yes?
If you count staff, kids, and people that might have been there before I was I would guess the number could of been about 35.
Does that sound closer?
I'm glad to hear Steve was there holding down the fort. "Taxin Jackson", huh? Now where have I heard that before...
Surprised you weren't there next to him.
That is your part of the district, no?
Yes, I think it was 35-40 maybe. It was a wide range of folks, though. Not just Democratic activists, that's for sure! Some of my friends from the Ventura Education Partnership were there. We are a very diverse lot of business people, parents and education professionals. There are many Republicans on our board and honorary board, too! At our big donor event, we had a representative from every elected in the area. Gallegly's rep was there, too. A very nice gentleman.
OK. That was just a really shameless plug for my own group. :-)
Brian,
Unlike Steve, I have an aversion to stepping into Democratic territory. He's been in politics a lot longer than I and has developed a much thicker skin. With my personality, it might turn into another "Westlake melee" (jk).
Last night she said there was two industries that she wouldn't take direct contributions from: oil and tobacco.
Does this mean she will take them indirectly through a proxy?
A proxy? I don't know but are you arguing that tobacco is so untrustworthy and shady they purposefully are giving money to other people that is designated for her?
If that is your conclusion then you should be against direct contributions from them as you seem to think they are tying to avoid detection when buying access.
Are you voting for some other candidate then? You wouldn't vote for a candidate that takes money from an industry that acts like that would you?
I'm not warm and fuzzy about any contributions from them. To imply that she would accept monies from an indirect source is what has me puzzled. Don Perata, who is widely known to take money from them and is under investigation, is a big supporter and contributes to her campaign. Isn't she having a fund raiser with him? Could be wrong, but that sounds like someone who uses the "out of sight, out of mind" theory for fund raising. Its like buying stolen merchandise while speaking out against the thieves.
The problem is the influence money buys. Hannah-Beth Jackson for many years took money from her party. You could argue that she took tobacco money in this way. With all of that money she vote against them time after time.
She isn't arguing that taking money alone is bad. it is the influence it buys. I bought no influence over her vote. End of story.
Got it! Its ok to take the money as long as you stand against it.