by PeteB2 [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[crossposted at Daily Kos]

The Courage Campaign and the Democratic party establishment are pushing back against the Dirty Tricks Initiative.

What can we as individuals do to help fight this campaign and hopefully prevent it from getting on the ballot?

Let me make a few suggestions:

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In case you missed, the Los Angeles Times on Sunday covered freshman Congressman Jerry McNerney's efforts to win re-election in a tough, Republican leaning Central Valley district. McNerney wasCalifornia's dragon slayer last year, defeating seven term incumbentRichard Pombo, an anti-environment, right wing ideologue moreinterested in gutting clean water laws than getting to know hisconstituents. McNerney has emerged as a thoughtful, earnest andattentive representative who has frantically gotten to know as manyconstituents as possible—and he's going to need it too: McNerney is atop GOP target in 2008 and has already drawn a strong challenge informer Assemblymember Dean Andal.

McNerney has done a particularly fine job of tuning out the backgroundnoise and listening to his district, even it means distancing himselffrom some of the left-wing groups that helped get him elected. And, asthe LA Times points out, he's won a lot of accolades, even fromdied-in-the-wool Pombo fans. We're proud of you, Congressman McNerney.

Photo courtesy of Mother Jones.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Just a short note and in many ways an update to yesterday's post.

Despite the attempts by the Los Angeles Daily News to target his leadership, Brian D'Arcy, General Manager of IBEW Local 18 and Working Californians Co-Chair, was overwhelmingly reelected for another three year term earlier this week. Brian received 89.9% of the votes cast by Local 18 members. Brian's reelection is a strong rejection of the attempts by the Daily News to lower wages and to privatize and outsource jobs.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(cross-posted from my personal blog Ruck Pad)

I spoke with my contact at UNITE-HERE a few weeks ago and he indicated that signature gathering was on target.  That indeed appears to be the case.  They delivered over 700,000 signatures for 4 separate ballot initiatives today to the Secretary of State.  SacBee:

Backers of referendum drives to block casino expansions for four of California's richest gambling tribes said Monday that they have delivered some 700,000 signatures for each of four proposed ballot measures.

Al Lundeen, a spokesman for the coalition seeking to repeal the gambling agreements, said the last signatures were submitted Monday to meet an Oct. 8 filing deadline for the Feb. 5 ballot. Some 433,971 valid signatures of registered voters are required to qualify each referendum.

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

1)       Make a Note…, clarionledger.com

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070930/FEAT05/709300303/1023 

2)       Pre-empting the Next War, opednews.com

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_paul_rog_070930_pre_empting_the_next.htm 

3)       Pickets to Target Fox News for 'Tell the Truth' Campaign, newsblaze.com

http://newsblaze.com/story/20070929082449nnnn.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html 

4)       Pre-empting the Next War, huffingtonpost.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-loeb/preempting-the-next-war_b_66554.html 

5)       Critical 9-30 Fundraising Goal Approaching, clint-curtis.blogspot.com

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Until recently, water policy discussions underway at the State Capitol were only "extraordinary" in the purely legislative sense of the word – they're taking place in the context of the Second Extraordinary Session of the State Legislature (sometimes referred to as a "special session") called by the Governor earlier this month to focus on water issues.

As an example, the Governor's proposed water bond doesn't advance "exceptionally" good ideas. In fact, it proposes spending over $5 billion on costly and environmentally destructive dams that would do virtually nothing to address the very real water quality, water supply, and water reliability problems confronting California.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Californians for Fair Election Reform unveiled two new radio ads today highlighting the potential consequences of the GOP effort to change the Electoral College to benefit the Republican candidate for president in 2008.

The ads highlight two key messages. The first ad, entitled "TAXPAYER ALERT" focuses on how the GOP initiative will actually lead to a dilution of the state’s political power in the United States. 

And second, entitled "CENTRAL ISSUE" highlights how the GOP initiative would affect the effort to end the War in Iraq.

The simple fact is that the GOP’s efforts to rig the Presidential election, if successful, would lead to a continued Republican failure to end the War in Iraq. What’s more, this initiative would lead to a dramatic dilution of California’s political power nationally.

The ads are scheduled to run through the next week in key markets across the state.

Audio files of the ads can be found at www.fairelectionreform.com. Written scripts follow below.