[UPDATE: MORE ON CASINO ISSUES]
Everybody says Laura Richardson is on her way to Congress. In the special election to succeed the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald. Richardson received a “whooping” 37.57% of the ballots cast. That is 11,956 out of 31,825 votes out of 265,102 registered voters.
In other words, Laura Richardson is presumed to be going to the Congress based on 4.51% of the registered voters.
On this Fourth of July no doubt the good folks in Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, and Iran are really, really impressed by the manifest superiority of democracy in America.
Follow the Votes
(Source: County of Los Angeles Department of Register-Recorder/County Clerk)
NAME: PARTY: VOTE: PERCENT:
LAURA RICHARDSON DEM 11,956 37.57
JENNY OROPEZA DEM 9,960 31.30
VALERIE MC DONALD DEM 3,027 9.51
JOHN M KANALEY REP 2,425 7.62
PETER MATHEWS DEM 1,125 3.53
TERI RAMIREZ REP 612 1.92
DANIEL A BREZENOFF GREEN 391 1.23
JEFFREY LEAVITT REP 386 1.21
ED WILSON DEM 362 1.14
L J "LJ" GUILLORY REP 361 1.13
HERB PETERS LIB 342 1.07
GEORGE A PARMER JR DEM 242 0.76
LEE DAVIS DEM 202 0.63
JEFFREY S PRICE DEM 142 0.45
BILL F GRISOLIA DEM 141 0.44
FELICIA FORD DEM 122 0.38
MERVIN EVANS DEM 29 0.09
REGISTERED VOTERS: 265,102 100.00
RICHARDSON VOTE: 11,956 4.51
What Does it Mean?
A clueless AP reporter actually gushed that "an energized black electorate proved the difference." Ha! If that is "energized" then next year the Republican won't have to campaign.
Follow the Money
Laura Richardson raised $105,000 for her campaign.
In addition, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor poured $275,000 into the Richardson campaign. They put 1,140 union members on the street and on the phone contacting 37,000 union voters, making 45,000 phone calls.
Follow the Tribes
MONEY RAISED: $105,000
MONEY FROM LABOR: $275,000
TOTAL MONEY: $380,000
RICHARDSON VOTE: 11,956
DOLLARS PER VOTE: $31.78
That’s not all. A huge proportion of the Richardson vote was a direct, unapologetic appeal for “racial” solidarity from the African-American community. Black residents make up 22.7 percent of the district's population, down from 33.6 percent a decade ago, while Latinos make up 47.6 percent. Among registered voters, however, African-Americans still have the edge.
Throughout the campaign Richardson repeatedly said creepy stuff like "no one can take our seat from us... " and persisted in this "party line" about "our community" and "our seat" even after being criticized. Los Angeles’ major African-American weeklies, The Los Angeles Sentinel and the Los Angeles WAVE quit pretending to be newspapers and became the Pravda and Izvestia for the Richardson campaign. At her victory party, gleefully reported by Pravda, there were high-fives all around over sending a "bad sister" to Washington.
Incidently, California casino gambling interests (which the MSM always refers to as "Indian Tribes" instead of as the profit-seeking capitalist businessmen that they are), spent $450,000 for Latina Jenny Oropoeza on account of Oropeza's vote on a controversial question about expanding casino slots. And so, Marc Cooper of the LA Weekly and The Nation, warns about "what might become a full-blown political war between labor and the tribes."
The Incredible Flip-Flopping Fabian Nuñez
Why did the unions come out so strongly for Richardson even though Oropeza had a strong labor record? Presumably, it was their anger over this casino business.
Check this out!
Do a search on Google News and this is exactly the way two items appear:
Richardson wins primary for congressional seat
By John L. Mitchell, Times Staff Writer Assemblywoman Laura Richardson finished ahead of her closest Democratic rival, state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, and a field ...
Impasse over tribal gaming accords ends
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) agreed to move ahead with the compacts, which the state Senate already had approved. But union issues were not ...
It was like: "The election is over now and Laura is in... Screw the unions!"
Here's what flip-flopping Fabian told the Los Angeles Times about his endorsement of Richardson:
Nuñez, a former labor organizer, said he had heard some of the complaints about his decision.
"There were some voices out there who think that because you are Latino, you should only be supporting Latinos, but we were able to lower the decibels a bit," he said. "The good thing about the job I have is that it carries a little bit of weight with it."
More important, Nuñez said, was the principle of supporting a strong African American candidate.
"I wanted to send a message loud and clear to the African American community of Los Angeles that we have got to work together to advance the Democratic agenda," he said. "The cause of African Americans is not a flag that African Americans have to carry on their own."
What a world-class Clintonesque double-talking hustler!
August Run-Off
Since Richardson received way below 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff election between the top vote-getters for each party in August. So, Green Party candidate Daniel Abraham Brezenoff gamely carries on as the last progressive left standing and the only candidate actually talking about issues like the war, healthcare, and the environment.
Big league politics in America is a big bucks dirty business. Nevertheless, this nonsense bodes ill for the future of the Democratic Party at least in a hugely diverse state like California. As a matter of practical politics Democrats will never be able to raised enough cash to "buy" more votes than rich Republicans in competitive districts. And Republicans are s-o-o-o-o much better at playing the divide-and-conquer game. I can see 'em now -- cackling over a "war" between the Black, Brown, and Red "Tribes."
So, as a member of the Black "tribe" I'm supposed to be "proud" of this?
I feel a little ashamed and frightened for my country when at this critical moment in the history of the world anybody can schlep into the United States House of Representatives in this way.
Our Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish friends in Iraq must be really impressed. Pray each night Laura Richardson is not another Harold Ford. Work like hell each day for Daniel.
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