[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The endorsement yesterday by popular Marin and Sonoma County Member of Congress Lynn Woolsey of San Francisco Assemblymember Mark Leno for the Third Senate seat speaks volumes of where the race now stands and what it means. In fact, it may be the deciding factor in this three way primary contest.

In giving Leno her support, Woolsey, an eight term Congressmember, cited Leno’s commitment to issues that matter most in the North Bay part of the district: "Mark Leno has built a strong record on behalf of the issues the people of my district care deeply about. I am proud to announce my support for him today. We can count on Mark to go to Sacramento and provide progressive leadership on the issues we all care about—a cleaner and more sustainable environment, universal, single-payer health care, better schools and access to affordable higher education."

In the 3rd Senate District Democratic primary, Leno faces incumbent Carole Migden and former Assemblyman Joe Nation. The district includes all of Marin County, southern Sonoma County, and the eastern portion of San Francisco. In the June primary a plurality rules. This is the election. The results will determine who holds this seat for at least the next four years as this is a heavily Democratic district.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In the tight race for Senate District 3, Assemblymember Mark Leno scored a major endorsement today: Marin Congresswoman and progressive's progressive Lynn Woolsey.

"Mark Leno has built a strong record on behalf of the issues the people of my district care deeply about. I am proud to announce my support for him today," said Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey. "We can count on Mark to go to Sacramento and provide progressive leadership on the issues we all care about—a cleaner and more sustainable environment, universal, single-payer health care, better schools and access to affordable higher education."

"Congresswoman Woolsey's unwavering, progressive principles and steadfast leadership in Congress have proven invaluable to the families of Marin and Sonoma Counties," declared Assemblyman Mark Leno. "I am deeply honored by the faith and trust Congresswoman Woolsey has in me to represent the progressive democratic values of the North Bay in the State Senate. I look forward to partnering with her and working together on the challenging issues we face."

Woolsey's endorsement is a big deal, because she helps Leno corral the voters most out of reach for the Assemblymember. Leno is polling well, particularly in San Francisco proper, but Marin is former Assemblymember Joe Nation's turf, and of course, incumbent Senator Carole Migden has represented the region for the past four years.

by WhatAre Progressive Values [courtesy of Blog for America]

 America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.  Walter Cronkite

Patricia Player volunteers for  OneCareNow.org, the California single payer health insurance initiative.   I interviewed her at a street fair in El Cerrito, California where she was staffing the One Care Now booth. She didn't identify as being progressive because she doesn't like labels. She did talk about the value and importance of security and from her talk, I realized the relationship between security and caring. When people don't have health care and are feeling anxious and insecure, it causes them to become more concerned about themselves. When they feel secure, knowing they don't have to worry about having health care, it's easier for them to care about others. If progressives want to create a caring society, we need Single Payer Health Care.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Reform efforts continue in 2008 on individual market reform and transparency
• Consumer protection measures focus on balance billing and rescissions
• Health advocates oppose bills to lower coverage standards

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

Undaunted by last year's failure to pass comprehensive health reform legislation , health advocates statewide are forging ahead on a three-year effort to win universal health coverage in California.

A number of bills have been introduced this year, which attempt to address various aspects of the health care market, and build upon last year's momentum and policy discussions. Many of the topics will be familiar to advocates who have worked on reform. In fact, many of the ideas being pushed this year were present -- in some form -- in ABx1 1 (Nunez). Those ideas include the disclosure of cost and quality data by health providers, a statewide public insurer to compete with private plans, and the organization of the individual insurance market into tiers and an ultimate ban on "junk" insurance.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sara Rogers
Health Consultant
Office of California State Senator Sheila Kuehl

“Politically feasible” is just another way of saying that folks are scared to stand up to insurance companies. I don’t accept that. It’s time to take a stand for what we really want. It’s time to have hope.
- Senator Sheila Kuehl

SB 840 is alive and well in the Assembly Appropriations committee, much further along in the legislative process than it was in 2006, just before its historical passage out of both houses of the legislature and onto the Governor’s desk. Legislative deadlines for passage out of fiscal committees aren’t until August 15th and, between now and then, grassroots organizing and education efforts are really taking off. Every day, Senator Kuehl and her staff receive requests for presentations regarding SB 840, the truly universal healthcare bill.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor

Advocates of single payer health insurance in California are saying that the collapse of the Nuñez-Perata-Schwarzenegger health care bill is a good thing and are moving forward with reviving their own single-payer legislation.

“We were opposed to the Nuñez bill,” Vote Health representative Kay Eisenhower said by telephone this week. “We considered it a step backwards.”

Vote Health is an Alameda County-based health care activist organization.

Eisenhower said statewide single-payer health care advocates will be holding a two-day conference in Los Angeles later this month to talk about ways to put State Senator Sheila Kuehl’s (D-Santa Monica-Los Angeles) SB 840 single-payer health care bill back on track. “SB 840’s not dead,” she said. “It’s only on ice.”

Two years ago, it seemed dead. After SB 840 passed the state legislature in 2006, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

Kuehl revived her single payer bill a year later, and the bill passed the Senate on a 23-15 vote and the Assembly Health Committee on a 12-5 vote last summer, but it stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as attention in the Assembly turned to a compromise bill being put together by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

It's official: Maverick Congressman Dennis Kucinich has dropped out of the Democratic Presidential race.

Though my politics don't square with his, I've always admired Kucinich since my days working in Congress. He's a scrapper and not afraid to put new ideas on the table, no matter how unpopular. His run, in this cycle as well as the last cycle, always has been quixotic. But this year he was so AWOL from his Congressional district that he attracted some serious primary opposition. One opponent even sent a "Welcome Home" gift basket to his house after one of his campaign swings. Kucinich was not amused.

I should also note that Kucinich was the only proponent of single-payer health care in the Presidential race. So much for that becoming a reality anytime soon.