U.S. Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack will have a strong Democratic challenger next time around: Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet.

According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the mayor will run a strong campaign that will appeal to both parties. He says he'll keep things positive, but he knows what the district's residents know: Bono Mack has Potomac fever, and hasn't tended to her district well. That, coupled with her right-wing voting record in a district that has becoming increasingly Democrat, is putting her in the cross hairs for the first time in ages.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already called Pougnet a “formidable candidate.”

This will be a race to watch.

Two California Congressmen have made the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's target list: Reps. Dan Lungren and Ken Calvert. The two will be hit in phone calls to their district, noting that they voted against the wildly popular stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama last week.

Here's an excerpt from the DCCC's press release:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), chaired by Congressman Chris Van Hollen, announced the DCCC is launching the third phase of the Putting Families First campaign on Tuesday targeting Republicans who opposed President Obama's economic recovery bill, the largest component of which is middle class tax cuts to 95 percent of Americans.

During this phase of the campaign, the DCCC is taking the message of middle class tax cuts and economic recovery directly to Republican Members by mounting a major grassroots campaign that includes phone calls, e-mails, and text messages directly to targeted Republicans' constituents.

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Image courtesy AFP/Getty/Daylife.

There’s some truth to the conventional wisdom about special elections: lots of voters stay home. But that simple truth can lead to some pretty shaky conclusions.
 
Take the 32nd Congressional District seat held by soon-to-be Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. More than a few early handicappers have made the logical leap from “low turnout special” to “advantage Judy Chu.”
 
With many voters skipping the election, the thinking goes, Chu can cobble together enough Republican and Asian support to overcome the district’s heavily Latino bent.
 
Don’t bet on it.
 
Why?  Because even after narrowing the district’s voters down to those who rarely miss an election, Latino voters still outnumber Asians by more than four to one. The GOP? Not much help there, either, with likely Latino voters also outnumbering Republicans by nearly two to one.
 
Put them both together and you still come up way short.

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When the 111th Congress convenes today, the Democratic majority will increase by 20 seats to 256 – yet none of the gain can be attributed to California.  The Golden State’s two new House members are Tom McClintock (CD4) and Duncan D. Hunter (CD52), both Republicans. 

The 53-member California House delegation consists of 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans, unchanged from the 110th Congress (2007-09).  The California delegation had a higher Democratic share (64%) in just six congresses in the past century (1935-39, 1945-47, 1963-65, 1975-79).  California’s 34 Democrats – larger than any other state (Texas has 33 total House members) – comprise the largest Democratic congressional delegation of any state in history.  (Pennsylvania elected delegations of 34 to 36 Republican congressmen in the 1920s.)

Barack H. Obama won 8,274,473 votes in California, more than any person has ever won in any statewide election in American history.  Obama shattered the record of 6.96 million votes set by Sen. Barbara Boxer in her 2004 re-election, who had beaten Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s record of 5.93 million set in her 2000 re-election.  Obama’s California vote total is more than the national popular vote of any presidential candidate from the beginning of the presidency in 1789 up to and including 1912 (George Washington through Woodrow Wilson’s first election).

The total vote for Democratic congressional candidates (including official Democratic write-in candidates) in California was 7.38 million (compared to 8.27 million votes for Obama), 59.3% of the total statewide congressional vote.  The total vote for Republican congressional candidates (including official Republican write-in candidates) in California was 4.51 million (compared to 5.01 million McCain votes), 36.6% of the total statewide congressional vote.  In terms of the two-party split, Democratic candidates won 62.0% of the total statewide congressional vote versus 38.0% won by Republican candidates. 

Democrats ended up capturing a higher share of House seats (64.1%) than their statewide vote because many Democratic districts (especially in the Los Angeles Basin) have low turnouts due to slower population growth rates, low voter registration, citizenship status, age, education and a dearth of viable challengers.  The turnout contrast is stark; whereas 370,000 cast votes the CD4 congressional race (Tom McClintock vs. Charlie Brown), a mere 111,000 voted for Rep. Xavier Becerra (running unopposed) in CD31 – for every CD31 congressional vote, 3.33 voted in CD4.

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By a close 25-22 vote, the House Democratic Steering and Policy panel voted today to oust Michigan Rep. John Dingell as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and replace him with California Rep. Henry Waxman. Tomorrow, the entire House Democratic caucus votes to uphold or reject the recommendation.

If this move stands, chalk it up as a win for California and a win for the environment. Dingell, while a helpful Democrat on most issues, has used his chairmanship to block key climate change policies, including stricter fuel standards.

Californians may remember Dingell for his efforts last year to block a dozen states, including California, from setting more stringent climate change standards than the federal government. It was a move that was sharply criticized by Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Dianne Feinstein, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and environmentalists.

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Image courtesy AP/Daylife.

It’s official: Dean Andal has tried to hide the full extent of his responsibility for the broken promises and construction delays that have plagued San Joaquin Delta College’s planned campus at Mountain House and wasted 50 million taxpayer dollars.
 
An in-depth analysis of Andal’s role in the boondoggle, published in today’s Contra Costa Times, makes clear that Andal’s involvement as the key project negotiator for mega-developer Gerry Kamilos is far greater than he has acknowledged.  

Andal, publicly identified as a key player in the San Joaquin County Civil Grand Jury’s report outlining misconduct by Mountain House developers (PCCP Mountain House), has come under months of scrutiny for his lobbying activities.  During this time, Andal has repeatedly dodged questions and provided dishonest answers about his business dealings. Andal repeats many of these false claims in today’s story.
 
Let’s take a look:

Andal Claim: “There have been bureaucratic boondoggles and delays and I haven't had anything to do with them.”   

FACT: Today’s Contra Costa Times story flatly rejects Andal’s claim of innocence, writing that “it is not true that he had no involvement.”

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Isn't our fondest wish that on November 4th that at 3 PM California time, the moment the first polls close in the Eastern portions of Kentucky and Indiana, the networks call the Hoosier state for Obama and announce the end of Mitch McConnell's Senate career? And, if those announcements are quickly followed at 4PM California time by news that Virginia, Georgia and Florida have all gone for Obama. we'll be popping the bottles of champagne, especially if the hateful Saxby Chambliss is also booted from the Senate. I don't want to be a party pooper, but NOT SO FAST.
 
As Art Torres and others have warned, if this is a blow out election and we do not stay on the job, turning out every voter in California, we might find ourselves living in a state where minors must get parental consent to have an abortion or gays and lesbians are deprived of their right to marry. We might find ourselves watching Congressman McClintock on CSPAN or Congressman Andal. We might find that we picked up no seats in the legislature and failed at our best chance to defeat Congressmen Bilbray, Rohrabacher, Dreier, Lungren and Bono Mack.
 
These warnings are not merely those of hysterical worrywarts. In the last blowout national election, 1980, the certainty of the result, long before California polls closed, cost us a fine Congressman. His name was James Corman. If you are somewhat new to California politics or have never been to the Federal Building in Van Nuys, you may not be familiar with that name. You should be.

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Image courtesy Phillips P.R. Review.

Shane Goldmacher has an amazing story over at the Capitol Alert about a robocall sponsored by GOP candidate Zane Starkwolf that, in erotic tones more suited for a pornographic film, accuses Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson of being a "bad boy" for supporting the Wall Street bail out. You've got to listen for yourself.

"Mike Thompson's been a 'baaaaaad boy'," the pornstar turned political sleaze merchant says. "We all said no to the bailout, but Thompson backed Bush, just like he did with the Patriot Act. *grunts* Vote "Yes!" for Zane."

I'm so going to find an excuse to use this clip in my next podcast. Meanwhile, Thompson can afford the privilage of a good laugh, since it's not like this race was ever going to be competitive anyway.

Southern California State Senator turned Northern California congressional candidate Tom McClintock has earned a dubious distinction: he was the only state lawmaker incapable of creating a single piece of legislation that was signed into law over the past two years, Shane Goldmacher at the Sacramento Bee reports. But don't worry, McClintock tells us, that was his goal all along:

"I came to the conclusion a long time ago that minority legislators have a choice," said McClintock, who has served for 22 years in Sacramento. "One is to tinker at the margins and win very minor victories on unimportant matters and the other is to try to drive the public policy debate on major issues, sacrificing legislative victories for broader policy victories."

Got that Congressional District 4? He's willing to sacrifice legislative victories for you so that he can pursue his broader ideological interests. So, you can either have earmarks or an earful. Your choice.

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Image courtesy Daily MVillos.

With Halloween right around the corner, it looks like the Republicans’ worst political nightmare is coming true. According to a report in Politico, campaign funds that national Republicans had set aside for "prized recruits" like Dean Andal "will likely go instead to protect GOP incumbents who once looked like locks for reelection."

Among the Republicans reported to be "fighting for their political lives" are four long-time members of California’s Republican Congressional Delegation: Dan Lungren, Dana Rohrabacher, David Dreier and Brian Bilbray. According to Politico, the news is especially bad for Lungren, who according to private polling leads his Democratic opponent Bill Durston by only three percentage points.
 
No matter how the GOP may spin it, it is never, ever a good sign when you have to spend precious campaign resources to protect incumbents who together have served nearly 70 years in Congress.
 
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Image courtesy Daylife/AFP/Getty.