Butler began her career as a union organizer
Later…
Butler also advised Uber in its dealings with organized labor
Good temporary appointment by Newsom, though, highlighting abortion rights.
I think the smart thing he did was settle it quickly. Some people will be mad, which was inevitable regardless, but letting it linger would have been bad for him.
1 Like
https://mattbruenig.com/2023/10/02/alarmgate/
So in this theory, Bowman pulled an alarm in a building other than the one where the vote was happening, in order to stop the vote on something he wanted to pass, and then, rather than not showing up to the vote and blaming the fire alarm, actually went to the vote. What?
3 Likes
The CADEM endorsement convention is coming up in November (17-19, in Sacramento). It is going to be very interesting.
As a delegate, I’ve been fielding calls from all 3 trying to get my endorsement vote. I am undecided. Honestly, I prefer the party not endorse at all and let the voters decide, but I’m a minority, apparently.
I think it’s going to be a very close vote between Schiff and Lee. Porter will be a distant 3rd. Lee might even get it. The DSCC delegate population trends more progressive than the average CA Dem voter. From the inside, there is a lot of internal momentum for Lee, and she’s been doing a LOT of on the ground campaigning and vote whipping, especially in areas the others don’t seem to pay attention to (San Diego, Central CA, rural districts)
Because delegates tend to be a lot of insiders, staffers, etc, Porter’s treatment of her staff is a HUGE turnoff and the number one reason I hear from folks who have already endorsed one of the others.
If the party does endorse Lee, it will be incredibly interesting to see how it affects her poll numbers, and based on that, how the party reacts.
Also, if Butler does decide to try for reelection, throw all of the above out the window because no one will know anything.
1 Like
Nobody cares that Barbara Lee is very old? If she gets reelected you have another possible Feinstein on your hands.
Don’t seem to. She is definitely the progressive darling in this race.
I mean, the same people want Bernie to run for president again.
People only have an issue with age if it’s not their candidate.
How much does this stuff matter? I recall this (2018)…
I absolutely have an issue with anyone over 70
katie porter is the most progressive candidate, which is why she’s third
Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?
The party seems to think that its endorsement can drive votes, as do the candidates, who work very hard (too hard, imho) to win it.
The real issue is what the candidate and the party does with it. In 2018, CADEM didn’t have nearly as robust of an organizing or media game as it does now. A lot of internal changes have been made (in the staff organization, not the delegation) in the way the party does business, so it will be interesting to see if the increasing emphasis on the state party helping its endorsed candidates in more ways than it used to would make a difference in this case.
For example, in 2022, CADEM basically gave our campaign free access to an auto-dialer for phone banking, which usually costs 2-5 cents per call. This just didn’t happen before 2020. They also had volunteers using that auto-dialer for our campaign at times when our local vols were out canvassing or doing other things. My vols made ~3000 calls without the autodialer. Once we had it, we made 15000.
Will Lee win with a CADEM endorsement? who knows.
Also, Lee and Porter are about the same level on the “progressiveness” scale.
3 Likes
Barbara Lee was literally the only anti-Iraq vote in Congress, she’s fine for another decade or so imo.
That’s actually a good point.
One woman has made her entire political career based on a platform of increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy - the other has not.
It is not surprising which candidate of these two the CA Dem has backed.
She’s not endorsed yet.
Like I said, it will be close between her and Schiff, from what I’ve been seeing.
I’m no Lee stan, but her record is pretty progressive.
It’s easy to forget how rock-hard America was for the Afghanistan/Iraq wars. Probably the biggest political consensus in my lifetime is Americans all agreeing that George W Bush should start a couple of wars. Highest presidential approval ratings in history.
2 Likes
Yeah I remember it much more clearly than most people because I had pretty deep reservations about it.
Barbara Lee has a more progressive voting record. But she’s in a safe district and Porter is in a 50/50 district.
It’s easy to forget now but he telegraphed starting the Iraq war in advance of the 2004 election for 2 full years. And it was extremely obvious at the time he had Jack shit on WMD.
Porter has already said she’s not running for her house seat
I totally get it and if Lee were maybe 10 years younger, it might swing my support to her because I’d rather support a kind person with good character. But if I have a choice between two good progressives, with one who’s an asshole, and the asshole is maybe slightly better politically and 28 years younger, that’s an easy choice.
The part where she’s better politically is just being more aggressive imo, especially against corporations.
I don’t think that’s necessarily fair, or at least it’s lacking context. If you reversed the ages here, I’d support Lee over Porter. I don’t want Bernie to run for POTUS again because I’d prefer someone younger in the progressive lane. But I hope he runs for re-election as many times as possible, as long as he’s still supporting progressive policies. That’s despite thinking Feinstein is awful for staying on so long.
The difference is, when someone like Feinstein retires there’s about an 80% chance they’ll be replaced by a run of the mill establishment Dem supporting the same stuff. There are maybe six progressives in the Senate, and there’s maybe a 20% chance each will be replaced on the ticket with another progressive when they step down. So the calculus is a lot different, and the reason they’re staying in power is a lot different.
Likewise, even though he’s not progressive, if Tester manages to win again, I’ll hope he keeps running for as long as he physically can. Because once he’s done, that’s a red seat. So I want that VORP for as long as we can have it.
Treatment of her staff? what is that based off of? Man CA dem politics are wild. total hit job. I volunteered for her campaign and the only notable thing about it to me was that compared to the previous campaign I volunteered for, despite the race being one of the largest in the entire house in terms of $$$ being spent, she seemed to have much less help from the state party than in the prev election. Could’ve been my imagination, but it felt completely different.
At no point did i hear a single person talk about her treating staff badly, if you’d mentioned it I think people would have been confused. I only ran into her one time but she was perfectly pleasant.
sorry, to me based on what I’ve seen, the way politics works in CA is utterly and completely corrupt and broken. Katie porter is the best candidate by a billion in my view. The fact she’s seemingly not being seriously considered by the party is completely expected and on brand but really sad to me. The fact we’re sitting here seriously discussing electing another party-loyal dinosaur is nauseating to me too, regardless of what her voting record is.
At this point I’m not sure what you have to do to gain any power as a progressive. All the money comes from the people that dont want you there, and without money, you cannot win.
2 Likes