Independent Expenditure Committees Pick Their Targets
Some key Independent Expenditure Committees (IEs) have jumped into targeted Assembly races in attempt to influence their outcome come November.
The biggest player, thus far, is an IE titled Opportunity PAC, which is being funded by the CA Faculty Association ($350,000), CA State Council of Service Employees ($300,000), SEIU 1000 ($250,000), Political Action for Classified Employees of CA Schools ($400,000) and the CA Federation of Teachers ($100,000).
As of this writing, they have spent:
- $167,612 in support of Democrat ALYSON HUBER, an attorney running in the 10th Assembly District (AD10) against Republican JACK SIEGLOCK, a former member of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.
- $331,000 in support of Democrat JOAN BUCHANAN, a San Ramon Valley School Board member running in AD15 against Republican ABRAM WILSON, the mayor of San Ramon.
- $159,670 in support of Democrat MANUEL PEREZ, a Coachella Valley School Board member running in AD80 against Republican GARY JEANDRON, the former Chief of Police of Palm Springs.
Going on offense is an IE titled Faculty for Our University’s Future, which is funded totally by the California Faculty Association.
Rehab for the Bush Haters
What seems like the longest election cycle in history will mercifully be over in three weeks. President Bush is down to his last three months in office and I am sure that after eight long and difficult years he is ready if not eager to go home to Crawford, Texas and let someone else see if they can govern this restless and divided country.
But what about the foam-at-the-mouth Bush-haters? What will they do with themselves? How will Keith Olberman, Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, MSNBC, NBC, CNN, CBS and the New York Times cope with this situation? To say nothing about the late night comedians like David Letterman who will have no material.
And what about the insipid and vacuous Hollywood celebrities? Who will they trash from the safety of their mansions in Beverly Hills and the Cannes Film Festival? And the Democrats in Congress will have lost their favorite punching bag . The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert will be dropped from the Comedy Central due to drastic ratings drops without Bush and the Republicans in power providing fodder.
Drowning in Debt, Brought to You by Jack and The Beanstalk
Well, Jack, where are you off to?" said the man Jack met on the road one fine morning while taking his cow to market.
"I ‘m going to market to sell our cow here."
“Would you trade your nice, fat cow here for these beans,” asked the man.
Jack just laughed out loud.
“Here they are, the very beans themselves," the man pulled out of his pocket a number of strange-looking beans. Jack said he was not interested.
"Ahhh! But, you don’t know what these beans are," said the man; "if you plant them over-night, by morning they grow right up to the sky.
"Really?" said Jack.
Every morning when we open our newspapers, or fire them up on our Internet Browsers, we are living through the sad tale of some most peculiar financial ‘beans.’ Credit Default Swaps, financial hedging instruments run wild on steroids, like in Jack’s fairytale, have landed us- the entire world, it seems- into really big trouble.