This Election Season’s New Fad?

May 19, 2008

Double-endorsing is the New Endorsement
According to Northbayist, Mark Leno is claiming that my Supervisor, Susan Adams has endorsed him, and Carole Migden has Susan as an endorser. In an earlier post, I pointed out an article that has Susan announcing that she is endorsing Joe Nation, but it appears that there are two Susan Adams, one being my Supervisor and one of Rohnert Park. Doh! I did think it was weird that Susan would be involved in Rohnert Park business. My BAD.

According to Susan Adams’ aide, Rick Freites, Susan originally endorsed Carole Migden, since Carole has done so much for this county. Carole Migden’s recent problems with campaign finance lead Susan to endorse Mark Leno as well, because she believes he too can do just as well for this county. Susan does not want to abandon Carole Migden because of everything she has done.

Nevertheless, it appears that Susan may have seen that Woolsey can get away with double endorsing in this race. I have recently talked to JudyArnold, and she is sticking with Carole Migden, but if it becomes between Nation and Leno she prefers Leno. She stopped short of a double endorsement.

Is it that easy? You mean I have been agonizing over who to endorse when I could just say “A and B” or “all of the above”? Maybe I can make triple-endorsements in vogue!

The thing about double and triple endorsing is that it ceases to be useful. If I cannot endorse one candidate I am going to tell you why and give you as much information on all of them and let the readers decide.

There are people who are sincerely are balancing Migden’s ability to deliver funds for our district versus her campaign finance and reckless driving scandals. Ultimately, those voters will have to either pick her or not. Endorsements should enlighten people where each public figure or publication would come down on that issue. There are voters who will have to weigh Mark Leno’s idealistic progressiveness with concerns with how he will fight for Marin and Sonoma voters concerns. There are also people who have to balance Joe Nation being the first local politician to become State Senator in 30 years, who knows our issues versus his moderate views and his outsider status among the progressives.

The Marin IJ Unmasks A Joe Nation “Hit Man”

I told you about the huge glossy hit piece against Joe Nation from Opportunity PAC. The Marin IJ talked with the guy who financed similar hit pieces which I received today.

Jonathan Frieman of the North Bay Progressive Alliance and Douglas Kerr of Larkpur were motivated by the belief that Joe Nation is not progressive enough for Marin and Sonoma. Frieman’s piece is not as bad as the Opportunity PAC piece. At least, there is a group name and local address.
I have no problem if a group creates literature for or against politicians, but only if they present their case in an open and fair way. If you are going to spend money, filling the landfill with these ads they better provide real information that enlightens people. I get cheesed off regardless of what politician the piece is targeting, because they just clutter out real information. Hit pieces take a grain of truth and skew it to the point where truth is undermined.

This particular source of hitpieces stated that 30% of Joe Nation’s contributions are from corporations, but Joe Nation has stated it is only 10%. Joe Nation has also made the claim that his opponents receive far more corporate contributions (in the 50%-60% range). A cursory check of the sources cited by the attack ad shows that Leno has received almost double or triple of contributions that Nation has. For instance, Attorneys and Lawyers gave Leno 141k whereas Joe Nation recieved 33k. Leno has received 30k in real estate interests and 36k from investors, while Nation got none. I pointed out that when he has received contributions from corporate interests his voting record was 14%-39% which suggests he really wasn’t a good deal to those interests. Whereas his contributions from unions yielded a 91%-93% voting record.

Unless you take a look at the legislation that makes up these percentages, you don’t know if these numbers mean anything. The hit piece I received had plenty of room to cite the bills he voted for and against that backed up their claim that he is bought by insurance companies and doing their bidding.

Why did the first piece I received have to hide behind Opportunity PAC from Pasadena? I have asked around political circles in the county and no one seems to know who they are. That is another pet peeve. If you are making claims you should be a real organization with full disclosure of your goals and purpose. Who are you and what makes you qualified to speak to our issues? If you are a faceless PAC with a generic name, in my mind there is no accountability and no credibility.

If I receive stuff like this for Migden, Leno or any candidate, my disdain will extend to those materials. I will notify the campaigns like I did in Nation’s case, so they can fairly respond.

It Should Be A Law

It should be a law that all printed campaign materials are compostable and printed with soy ink, so you can at least use it on your edible garden. It is not enough to print on recycled paper anymore. I’m just saying.

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