Heath Flora and other stuff. A throrways from last week I didnt post w/errors

Heath Flora “Trouble in Camelot but which one?”

It must be difficult being a Republican in California. Years ago I worked for a group called Californians for Voter Turnout and Education, which was an independent expenditure with the goal of registering Democratic voters. The more specific goal of the group was to register voters in State Senate District 5. I should point out the objective was not to get the person Cathleen Galgiani elected but rather to create a super majority in the State Senate which would allow Democrats the voting power to override a constitutional amendment to raise taxes. 

So in this environment of overwhelming dominance by Democrats in the state enters a young firefighter from Ripon named Heath Flora. The 12^th Assembly District is a Republican stronghold having voted for Donald Trump and Mitt Romney in recent history. Flora had one hiccup in his campaign when a dispute arose over his occupation being listed as “Farmer”, which is the golden ticket in the Valley but whatever.

Actually that’s not true about the hiccup. In fact Flora is an odd position being a Republican facing the Republican Ken Vogel in that he did not get ANY of the establishment Republican support.

I went into the lion’s den to write this and found out some curious stuff about the local Republicans.

They are a lot more organized then Dems are and having worked on a couple Republican campaigns I can tell you there is a noticeable difference. Democratic campaigns are filled with young volunteers who don’t actually get that much work done.

Being conservative by nature Republicans are strict and I hate to say more mature, which is why they often make better political consultants. Their groups are serious, as in they meet regularly, have minutes, take votes on endorsements and such. This is to say they aren’t just a bunch of clowns on Facebook. And there are a lot…

Republican Central Committee (RCC): This is the official Republican Party and actually appears on Ballots. Because they are elected from the GOP electorate at large they are more moderate. For example Tea Party leader Gordon Rupp appeared on the ballot in a field of 11 candidates where the voter got to pick 8. He came in 2^nd to last. HA HA!!!!

San Joaquin County Republican Assembly (CRA): When I asked what this group was I was told by Jeff Acquistapace “CRA is a side organization. They are the conservative wing of the party. The CRA has a meeting every 3rd Thursday of the month.”

Conservative Republicans of San Joaquin: This is yet another real group, a  legitimate group who meets regularly and is even more to the right, of the party to the right of the right wing party. A gentleman named Jim Shoemaker runs this.

There are a lot of other groups but they seem to be ethnic of gender orientated. As a Republican you need to sort of “come out” as being a minority AND a Republican because it’s so unusual people would support a group against their own interests. The analog would be if Bill Gates and Warren Buffet started a group called “Older Rich Successful White Men for the Democratic Party” I kid the Republicans, poor guys.

None of the previously mentioned groups supported Heath Flora and it didn’t matter. He outspent his opponent  5 to 1 and won a decisive victory.

A few weeks ago the CRA put money into attacking him, calling him a RINO posting this;

“Republican Heath Flora Shamefully Joins Gas Taxers Democrats Galgiani, Eggman, and Cooper for a Second Gas Tax Hike in Three Months under Cap-and-Trade Extension (AB 398).
“In 2016, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said Cap-and-Trade added 11 cents per gallon of gasoline and 13 cents to diesel. This year the LAO estimated that extending cap-and-trade will add 63 cents per gallon by 2021 and 73 cents by 2031. All in the name of fighting Global Warming, which has been non-existent for at least 20 years, based on junk science and heavily manipulated data that serves to justify empowering Big Government (to regulate and tax) at the expense of the average working Californian. THANK YOU Assemblymembers Heath Flora, Jim Cooper and Susan Eggman and State Senator Cathleen Galgiani. Just three months ago (April 6), Cooper, Eggman, and Galgiani teamed up to pass the massive $52 billion gas and car tax hike (SB 1) that raised the gas tax by 12 cents. See the following articles for more information. San Joaquin Republican Assembly holds all politicians accountable for their votes, regardless of party affiliation, Republican and Democrat.”

Then posting this a few days later;

“SJCRA would like to thank Health Flora for attending our July meeting last night. Assemblyman Flora spoke in defense of his vote for the Cap and Trade Gas Tax, arguing that it was the best deal we could get. We disagreed with the assemblyman pointing out that he should not have compromised by supporting a tax that will hurt all Californians, especially the poor and middle class, and further the radical Democrats would have had a difficult time passing Cap and Trade without Republican support.”

Him and his team obviously saw the ad and came to address the group in the next couple days. It didn’t seem to work because they are still attacking him, with sponsored ads. I should remind people that this is not just a Facebook group; they do meet in person regularly and discuss these things.

But does this actually mean anything? Could Heath Flora be primaried? All the previously mentioned Republican groups are counting on it but If you ask local political consultant who ran Flora’s opponent in 2016, Ken Vogel’s campaign, Jeff Acquistapace  he will tell you no.

Acquistapace says that “Flora is backed by a large group of lobbyists in Sacramento who are going once more outspend any opponent to their guy so there likely won’t be a change.” So far as the idea of this being a time for Democrats to sweep into this seat seeing a weakness in Republican ranks I also think it is unlikely. Republicans are not going to vote for a Dem out of spite and third party candidates don’t exist after June.

So for the time being I say good show to Heath Flora who was responsible enough to work across the aisle. Lee Neves (SJ Counties most eligible bachelor according to Karima Magazine) says that Flora “worked to get what he thinks was the best deal possible for his constituents.” The Republican Assembly is far to the right and isn’t doing that great of a job if they can’t even get a candidate elected in a red district.

Whatever it is and how disorganized Republicans look in regards to this Flora debacle the Dems in the area are worse. The leadership at the only noteworthy Democratic group, the SJDCCC, is the most ineffective political majority group I’ve seen. Whoever is running the SJ Democrats is obviously a douche and should resign.

In a city where Democrats hold an overwhelming majority and candidates have had to run city wide only 3 out of 6 city council members are registered democrats. To put this into perspective we have the same diversity and crime problems as city such as San Franciso but Democrats contiunely sweep the city/county government hybrid there. On  a county level while Democrats are a majority in all buy Bob Eliot’s rural district Dems have on 2 of five seats.

Although I disagree with policy issues with the Republicans I admit they are way more organized 

then Dems. Whoever is running the San Joaquin County Democratic Party should obviously step down as look at their work is obvious “F”.

Heath

Mircale Mile Mimi is not telling the full truth

So here is this 

by guest anonymous;

Mimi Nugyen - Executive Direction for MMIP took a trip to Portland Oregon paid with MMIP funds to bring Dutch Brothers to the Miracle Mile to help a board member get a commission on the parcel of land that he was brokering. Huge conflict of interest.

 Carol Hirota, SUSD employee and member of the MMID, requested the board support Mimi without getting approval from SUSD Board of Trustees or Superintendent Davalos, Her shouts of support could be heard outside of the meeting held at PME Real Estate offices at Pacific and Harding. MMID Board doesn't want to press charges because then their unethical practices will be exposed. 

Gil Somera is a MMID member and NOW Mimi Nugyen's attorney. Isn't that a slight conflict of interest? Why would anyone hire this guy after he says publicly that "It (embezzlement) happens in ALL organizations"? I feel bad for majority of organizations in which this does NOT happen

Businesses near the MMID office said that the blinds to the office have only recently been closed and bags of trash have been removed. Some have suggested that there has been a lot of shredding going on of documents. What is on those documents, no one knows.

Paul Marsh, owner of Mile Wine, has recently put his business up for sale on the Miracle Mile because of the recent negative occurrences on the Miracle Mile. It is just too hard for businesses to survive under this black cloud.

Three Years of Elections in Stockton through a Domino Effect

Since no one really seems to be talking about this except in back rooms I will point the domino effect that could happen in the area that would add 2019 to election calendar for Stockton area politics. 

Board of Equalization D2

The first thing that needs to happen is that our current representative in the California State Senate Cathleen Galgiani D5 needs to run and win the Board of Equalization D2 seat being vacated by Fiona Ma who is running for State Treasurer. Galgiani has already filed and raised a large sum of money to run for this seat but it isn’t necessarily “in the bag” for her as her last State Senate race against Allan Nakanshi was. Because the BOE 2nd district encompasses the Bay Area and California Coast we can assume a Democrat will surely win but we can’t be sure that would be Galgiani (in 2014 Fiona Ma beat Republican James E. Theis 68.7%-31.3%).

Within the last few months Galgiani has been critical of proposed changes to the BOE stripping it of much of its power, something that could alienate her from fellow Democrats. Typically the Board has been comprised of 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats with the State Controller being the head. Many on the right see the changes to the BOE as being another attempt for Democrats in California to solidify their power in the State. On the other hand former State Assemblyman Rich Gordon recently dropped out of the race for BOE D2 stating he didn’t feel the board should be elected at all. He told Bloomberg news

 “At the end of the day, if you’re performing an administrative role and a quasi-judicial role yet you get there through a political process, it creates an inherent conflict,” Gordon said. “For me, it became an ethical dilemma.”

Board of San Francisco Supervisor Malia Cohen has also filed to run for the seat and at a quick glance has raised more than $200,000 this early in the race. And of course there is also a ton of other candidates who could pop up in the next few months making this a crowded field. Galgiani probably has big advantage in the race in terms of fundraising since she is a sitting Democrat State Senator but she is still lagging a bit behind Cohen with $168,000.

               

                But all things being equal let’s assume that Galgiani is successful and wins the race. This means that she would have to step down two years early from the Senate leaving a vacancy and triggering a special election to occur early in 2019.

               

Senate District 05

In this race to fill Galgiani’s seat one would assume that Susan Eggman is the heir apparent and probably is but nothing is written in stone. Eggman has already filed for SD05 for the 2020 election and she is not without company as San Joaquin County Supervisor Bob Elliot has also filed for the 2020 election. Eggman has been an outstanding representative in the Assembly and crushed her last opponents but in SD05 she is not going to be able to cruise through by any means. Of the roughly 460k voters in the district 43% are Dems, 33% Reps, and are 20% DTS.

A Republican certainly has a chance in the district for a number of reasons including the backlash from the recent Gas Tax, and the fact that off years and especially special elections tend to favor Republican turnout. This is all without mentioning that in 2012 Galgiani barely squeaked into office winning by 2,643 votes in an election that wasn’t called until close to Christmas. Wildcards in this election could be a number of other candidates entering the race like Heath Flora.

                But once more, all things being equal let’s assume that Galgiani wins, and then Eggman wins. By mid-2019 we would have yet another special election.

State Assembly District 13.

There is very little chance that Republican could win in this district but if there was chance it would be this special election. Although one must recognize that the makeup of the district is Dems 50%, Reps 25%, and DTS 21%. So since we have no shortage of qualified Democrats in the area this race would be similar to people trampling each other at Wal-Mart on Black Friday.

Of course rumors for this race include those such as Moses Zapien, Carlos Villapudua and Lange Luntano to name a few. Past candidates have included Jennet Stebbins (who seems to run for a lot of things with little to no money, and who knows with which alias) Sol Jobrack, Kevin Lincoln, and K. Jeffery Jafri. At any rate whoever wins this race would be taking office well into the start of the 2020 United States Presidential Election putting us into three years of political campaigning without a break. Of course for all this to happen Galgiani has to win first.

Reccomendations on Fed and State Elections for Stockton.

President of the United States of America

Bernie Sanders

Although I will not hesitate to back Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump and am concerned a lot of people will. Bernie Sanders having as many delegates as possible to attend the DNC is still important even though he can’t win because he can liberalize the party platform.

US Senator

Kamala Harris

US Representative District 9

Kathryn Nance

This may seem odd because I am so liberal. I am not breaking party lines on this. I would however like to see a different race then we have seen before. Amador ran a couple years ago and even though Democrats were not showing up to the polls he lost. Amador is a relic from the past and I almost forgot N. Allen Sawyer started recently posting on Stockton Safe Streets his endorsement of Amador and thus is suspect.  

State Senator District 5

Too early to tell and doesn’t matter.

Cathleen Galgiani has made some odd choices in her tenure and is supposedly good friends with N. Allen Sawyer and Mayor Silva, making her suspect. In 2012 The Stockton Record endorsed almost entirely Democrats to represent us but endorsed Galgiani’s opponent Bill Berryhill instead. The reason cited for the endorsement at the time was Galgiani being the California High Speed Rail Candidate, which has been a disaster.

Galgiani also did some odds things such as endorsing Republican Paul Canepa in his race against Kathy Miller (from what I understand based on a friendship) and endorsing GOP political consultant Don Parson’s candidate Russ Munson. Both of whom lost.

Alan Nakanishi’s dignity is without question on a high caliber. As a child Nakanishi was forced into a Japanese internment camp during WWII and later served as a doctor during the Vietnam War. If Nakanishi takes firm conservative view points during the campaign I would be forced to side with my liberal ideology and vote for Galgiani but it’s too early to tell and they will surely be in a race that lasts until November.

State Assembly Member District 13

Susan Talamantes Eggman

In the course of Eggman’s tenure as our representative in the Lower House of the California State Legislature she has been extremely effective and a person to be proud of.  She is smart, hardworking and set for higher things.

Crime, crime, crime

Crime, crime, crime.

If you ask the average person in Stockton what their three top concerns are in the city they will give you those answers. Of course some might say homelessness or lack of jobs but it all comes down to our high crime problem. The odd thing that would surprise most is that according to authorities the Stockton crime rate is at a 15 year low. Of course those that will tell you that, like Police Chief Eric Jones admit they don’t like to “tout” the number and there is tons of more work to do.

So enter the Mayoral race and competing solutions to tackling crime. Enter County Supervisor Carlos Villapudua who had is plan to tackle crime shoot off and get shot down in the last week. The Stockton Record reported that;

“City Attorney John Luebberke on Monday said a proposed ballot measure to increase the city’s sworn police officers should be withdrawn because it conflicts with the city charter. Stockton mayoral candidate Carlos Villapudua last week introduced an initiative he calls the “Stockton Public Safety Improvement Act,” which would appropriate $18.75 million from the City of Stockton’s general fund to hire 120 new police officers. The appropriation would be increased each year based on an annual cost of living adjustment. In addition, the ordinance restricts funds to public safety needs. Luebberke said Monday the proposal conflicts with Article XIX of the city charter regarding budgeting and fiscal authority. Article XIX of the charter states the city shall have the power to make and enforce all ordinances and regulations in respect to the conduct of its fiscal affairs.”

So not only is that plan not feasible but illegal according to the city attorney.

Thus Silva attempted to voice his plan tonight, before leaving early to attend a Carrie Underwood concert. In Silva’s long rant about Stockton he asked if in the future, with a better fiscal outlook, could Stockton reopen police annexes around the city to give a more deterring police role. Silva consistently stated throughout the night that people feel safer with a police presence and invoke the scare of the post 9/11 attacks  as an example of time when people felt safe.

Michael Tubbs, without hesitation, jumped in and said that he did not want to live in post 9/11 world of paranoia and that the places that Silva cited as having a great police presence, such as China, were not democracies and should not be mimicked in Stockton.

Silva himself stated that people “feel” more safe rather than are safe many times during his call for a resurfacing of police annexes. However the nail in the coffin for the night came in question and answer with Police Chief Jones right before Silva left for the Underwood concert.

Tubbs asked about the causation between stations and crime. Police Chief Jones stated clearly that there was a causation between more police cars and crime but not more annexes. So it would seem Silva seeks to perhaps make people “feel” safe, while Tubbs wants people to actually be safe. Even Gary Malloy did not like the Mayors plan and referred to lower limits of crime being due to community policing.