by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

read more »

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

The AP is reporting that Barack Obama has "effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination." Their calculus is based on publicly and privately committed delegates and a minimum number of delegates won today in Montana and South Dakota.

Assuming AP is right, I'm licking my chops for moving on to McCain.

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

SwingStateProject beat me to the punch on yet another example of Dana Rohrabacher being awful.  Discussing his reelection bid with a Long Beach newspaper, he said of challenger Debbie Cook:

"She's a very attractive person, physically, and has a title, so I'm taking it seriously."

Translation: "Isn't it cute that a woman would try to challenge me."

Even in a district so oddly willing to being represented by an utter nutjob, it's hard to believe that such naked sexism directed at a popular mayor will fly. Throw in his commentary about "steely-eyed radicals" pushing some hidden agenda beneath the notion of man-made climate change, and it's the whole Crazy Dana package.

It's tough to really guess what the tipping point of mean-spirited insanity might be for Rohrabacher, but now that he's getting pushed, perhaps the process will at least speed up a bit.

read more »

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Not for nothing, but um... Dean Andal raised $11K between 4/1 and 5/14? That's... not so good.

(h/t SSP)

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

A quick bit of meta for you this Thursday morning. Occasionally people want to use the name Calitics for promotional purposes. As in "Calitics said X about Candidate Y." That's ok, but only if Calitics did actually say that. "Calitics says" can only be attributed to our editorial board speaking as a whole. The following 6 people, who make up our editorial board, are also allowed to speak for Calitics, and should be attributed to "Editor Name of Calitics":

Robert (from Monterrey) Cruickshank	David Dayen
Brian Leubitz	Lucas O'Connor
Julia Rosen	Jeremy Woodburn

If one of those 6 people did not write it, then please make it specifically clear that no one speaking for Calitics said whichever statement you are intending to credit, rather say "a diarist JohnDoe wrote at Calitics" or something equivalent.

read more »

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

AD-40 is up first. Blumenfield got 65% yesterday, but the cards just went up and it's gonna be tight.

[Update by Lucas] Endorsement fails, endorsement is vacated. Art Torres is noting that a substitute candidate can come from the floor, would need 75%.

SD-03 will be coming next.  The Leno signs are out in force, not seeing the Migden troops yet.

[Update by Lucas] Migden supporters are now swarming in as well.  UFW representative speaks in favor of Migden, pitching on her union connections and support for farmworkers.  Sen. Migden reels off the endorsements.

[Update by Lucas] Speaking for non-endorsement is Speaker-Elect Karen Bass (nice!). And Mark Leno speaks next with Kamala Harris doing her best to establish her star.

read more »

by Lucas O'Connor [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Perhaps not surprising, but certainly striking nonetheless, is the explosion of press and outside-the-center activity now that Bill Clinton's arrival is near at hand.  Where once the blogger riser was empty, now there's no room for everyone.  Leno/Migden and Blumenfield/Healey/Waldman will apparently be kicking things off this morning- presumably catching everyone while they're half asleep and/or hungover from last night.  Frank Russo kinda stole my headline before I could write it, but it's a good one- Migden-Leno Endorsement Fight May Overshadow Bill Clinton Speech at California Democratic Party Convention Today.  As a few of us were discussing earlier, it'll be a story for the ages if Carole Migden manages to steal the spotlight from Bill Clinton.

...and we're off.

[Update by Lucas] To clarify how this vote is going down, a "Yes" vote would be for the initial winner of yesterday's endorsement (Migden and Blumenfield) while a "No" vote would mean no endorsement of anyone.

read more »