by Dante Atkins (hekebolos) [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Field,  5/16/08-5/27/08 (1/08):

Obama (D): 52 (47)

MccAin (R): 35 (40)

Clinton has opened up a similar 53-36 lead, up from 45-43 in the January field poll.  Yeah...about that "John McCain will carry California" garbage we've had to hear so much about?  Don't buy it.

California Democrats are also coalescing around Obama as the Democratic nominee (no trend lines)

Obama (D): 51

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

For the first time in the poll's history, the Field Poll reveals that gay marriage is favored by a majority of Californians: 51-42. On the ballot initiative, it seems to be going down at a 43%-51% clip. The full poll should be out tomorrow morning.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Californians are concerned with protecting education by not increasing the size of classrooms, cutting the number of classes or laying off teachers. People recognize education is vital but while we need to protect education we can’t do it on the backs of people in need of vital services like health care. The reality is we need to use a balanced budget approach. We need both cuts and new revenues to make this budget work. Voters want fiscal responsibility, not smoke and mirrors.

Parents, teachers, students and all Callifornians need to be part of the budget process because so much is at stake with the education of our children. Please watch this YouTube and get involved.

by davej [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

In California Hannah-Beth Jackson is running for the State Senate.  This is a key race because this is the Senate seat that could flip from Republican to Democrat, finally giving the Dems a 2/3 majority and enabling them to finally pass budgets. Her website is: Meet Hannah-Beth
Hannah-Beth is a former member of the California State Assembly who founded Speak Out California, where I post once or twice a week, and the Institute for the Renewal of the California Dream (which does not yet have a website) where I am a Senior Fellow.  This should tell you that she is a solid progressive, concerned with advancing democracy, community, and the mutual prosperity of all Californians instead of the benefits of our work and investment being funneled to the corporations and wealthy.  So she has my endorsement and I hope she can earn yours.

by Assemblymember_Levine [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

It's becoming predictable every election season. California's anti-gay groups are attempting to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the November ballot. They presume Californians will agree with them and flock to the polls, erasing years of progress.

My hope is this November California voters will be galvanized and electrified by a sense of hope for the future, not limiting it. That's why I am STRONGLY supporting the "Decline to Sign" campaign fighting to keep the same-sex marriage initiative off the ballot. Whether or not they succeed, California voters will be put on notice that this potential ban would write discrimination into the state's Constitution.

It's certainly not lost on most voters that the anti-gay marriage initiative is also a shameless tactic used by Republicans before to get voters to the polls. Recently, Arizona voters saw they were being played for fools by the Republicans and defeated a similar same-sex marriage ban.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

A few months ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger unleashed his "cuts only" budget onto an unsurprised Sacramento. He said all the right things for a Republican: "we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem" yada, yada.  But, underneath it all, many observers thought that the budget was some sort of ploy to get Republicans to actually put everything on the table.  The logic went that the Republicans needed to know that it wouldn't be cuts on the Democratic-favored programs. It would mean closing schools in their districts, axing future water projects, etc.

If the Democrats are going to put their sacred cow on the table, education, at least the Republicans should do the same with their sacred taxation cow. But the Republicans in the legislature were slow to get the message, so Arnold is being a little more direct these days.

"I said and I made it very clear that everything is on the table," Schwarzenegger said.

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read more »

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Advocacy group Families USA has put out a shocking report (PDF), "Dying For Coverage," detailing how Californians are impacted by a lack of health insurance.  The number "47 million" that designates Americans without health insurance is too abstract and detached from meaning.  Californians are dying because of their inability to afford or acquire insurance.

? Families USA estimates that more than eight working-age Californians die each day

due to lack of health insurance (approximately 3,100 people in 2006).

? Between 2000 and 2006, the estimated number of adults between the ages of 25

and 64 in California who died because they did not have health insurance was

nearly 19,900.

?Across the United States, in 2006, twice as many people died from lack of health

insurance as died from homicide.