From the Huffington Post:
[rssinpage rssfeed=’http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=spencer-critchley’]
Prepare for Republican Dirty Tricks in the California Attorney General Squeaker
Written with Zach Friend for the Huffington Post.
As we watch the final vote count in the oh-so-close contest between Steve Cooley and Kamala Harris, watch for a California replay of Bush-Gore 2000. Already, Cooley consultant Kevin Spillane has promised to fight any supposed “manipulations of the ballot counting process by the Harris campaign.”
There is of course no evidence of such manipulations. Republicans are by far the most aggressive practitioners of ballot chicanery, up to and including the shameful intervention by the Supreme Court in 2000. And they are always first off the mark with charges of same against the other side. Kamala Harris received more votes on Election Day than Cooley did, so it’s predictable that Republicans would immediately launch their usual program of FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
The Democrats this time appear more prepared to protect the vote and more willing to recognize that they have a reason to take ownership in this race’s outcome. California Democratic Party Chair John Burton has put out an appeal to have election monitors present at all county vote counts, and Harris campaign officials have been actively fighting all Republican smears.
Unlike Republicans, Democrats have reason to be worried about dirty tricks. The Cooley campaign had major support from Karl Rove, who of course had a leading role in the 2000 travesty. Rove has made his career on dirty tricks since he won a bitter 1973 campaign for Executive Director of the College Republicans — in part by getting votes for his opponent disallowed. Although Rove was caught on tape counseling other young Republicans on how to cheat, then Republican National Committee chair George H.W. Bush chose Rove as the winner and later, fatefully, connected him with his son, George W.
As we have noted previously, Kamala Harris is a logical target for Rove and company. She has had an impressive rise on the way to her current post as District Attorney of San Francisco. She is California’s first African-American DA, and has scored big successes in that office, showing a combination of toughness and brains. She would be the state’s first female Attorney General. It seems obvious that Rove (and partner Ed Gillespie) should fear Harris’ potential to win higher office. Many former Attorneys General have been governors, members of congress, and presidential candidates.
Democrats need to stick to their guns and fight hard for a clean result, because it’s the right thing to do, because of what’s at stake politically, and — not least — because voters want to see that they have the gumption to do it.
Ice Cream Tells the Story of How the Stimulus Worked (VIDEO)
Written for the Huffington Post. Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent, and millions of words were argued. And now a little ice cream shop in Santa Cruz, California has made it clear why the stimulus program was worth it.
The facts say the stimulus worked, as in the recent Congressional Budget Office report showing millions of jobs saved or created plus solid increases in GDP.
But more powerful than facts are stories, like the one told in this video, by the owners of the new Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz:
Kendra Baker and Zachary Davis, the owners of the shop, describe how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) made it possible for them to get the loan they used to open their business. They hired service providers and employees, bought equipment (US-made) and supplies (from local vendors), and now have a thriving store that’s helping to boost the economy of downtown Santa Cruz. They made the video because they wanted to thank President Obama; their senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer; and their congressman, Sam Farr.
These ice cream entrepreneurs make the case that many a politician has struggled with. They drive it home simply by cutting from one person to another saying, “They hired me… and they hired me… and they hired me.”
That’s basically the way stimulus spending should work when credit stalls in a recession, and that’s the way it did work this time.
Why Karl Rove Wants to Buy the Race for California Attorney General
Written with Zach Friend for the Huffington Post. And now, the empire strikes back.
So far, the story of the 2010 election has been dominated by the Tea Party and its imitation of the grassroots organizing techniques of Obama for America. But in the late stages of the battle, raw corporate power is revealing itself, aiming to win the old-fashioned way: with a well-directed torrent of money.
And that money is being aimed not just at races for Congress and state houses but, to a surprising extent, at down-ballot campaigns — most remarkably, at the campaign for Attorney General of California.
An article in Monday’s Sacramento Bee notes that the Virginia-based Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) has dropped more than $1 million in last minute attack TV ads against Democrat Kamala Harris.
What is the Republican State Leadership Committee? A corporate front group, one of several being coordinated by old school Republican kingpins Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie.
It may be the first time that a national organization like the RSLC has entered into the state’s attorney general race, especially with such a large outlay. That race, between Harris and Republican Steve Cooley, is just outside the margin of error.
Why would Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie care so much who ends up as the California AG? It looks like they’re looking well beyond next Tuesday, and trying to resurrect the long game Rove boasted about when he steered George W. Bush to power: the promised decades of Republican dominance.
Kamala Harris is a logical target. She has had an impressive rise on the way to her current post as District Attorney of San Francisco. She is California’s first African-American DA, and has scored big successes in that office, showing a combination of toughness and brains. If she wins next week, she would be the state’s first female Attorney General. She is also a friend and early supporter of Barack Obama. It seems obvious that Rove and Gillespie should fear Harris’ potential to win higher office. Many former Attorneys General have been governors, members of congress, and presidential candidates.
When asked whether the RSLC wants to block Harris’ further ascent, their spokesman told the Bee “if that is a byproduct of defeating her, we’re perfectly happy with that.”
Recent campaign expenditure reports show the RSLC has raised well over $60 million. Factcheck.org notes that they are funded by the largest of large corporations and their friends, including Wal-Mart, Pfizer, Devon Energy and the US Chamber of Commerce.
Although its activity in California is apparently a new development, the RSLC has roots in the Bush Administration, having been founded in 2002, with the objective of defeating Democrats in state campaigns, including for lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state. According to a recent Politico article, it is one of five related groups Gillespie and Rove are now steering. They are all benefiting from the huge amounts of corporate cash freed up in part by the egregious Citizens United decision earlier this year, which enabled anonymous donations by corporations and organizations. Compare the RSLC’s $60 million in fundraising this cycle to expenditures of about $20 million in each of 2006 and 2008, according to Factcheck.org.
It all may add up to a restoration of the good old days, before the GOP had to pretend it cared about the grassroots: the days of massive corporate-funded attacks in the media, safely away from all that messy face-to-face campaigning. Picking up where they left off, Rove and Gillespie are now able to direct their fire broader and deeper than they ever have before.
What If Democrats Could Just Say What They Believe?
Written for the Huffington Post. Less than two years after Barack Obama ran a free master class in political communications, too many Democrats act like it never happened. Too many are back to parsing polls, searching for what they should say to connect with voters. A little less about the economy? A little more? Better check a poll!
You know what connects with voters? The sense that you’re saying what you actually believe.
A recent Democracy Corps memo got a lot of attention for reporting that voters are not responding to the Democrats’ message of “go forward, not back.” According to the corps’ polling, Democratic candidates need to focus on frames of “change Washington, pro-middle class, against Wall Street.”
Maybe so. But I’m reminded of an earlier Democracy Corps poll, from 2005, which found that 55 percent of voters knew what Republicans stood for, and only 27 percent knew that about Democrats.
It wasn’t a judgment of honesty — people just actually didn’t know.
I think it’s because too many Democratic candidates are unable to make clear, simple statements of their heartfelt convictions — it’s not that they don’t have them, they just can’t say them. Instead, they choose from a menu of policy positions, emphasizing this one or that one depending on what the polls say that week. But policy positions, no matter how worthy, say nothing about what’s in your heart. And it’s what’s in your heart that voters want to know about.
No matter how modern we think we are, elections are still about choosing a tribal leader: We want the strong, trustworthy one.
That is the meta-message of all political communication, and it out-weighs the actual message. It’s why confident absurdities like Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell or Glenn Beck have followers. For all their (you would think) obvious failings, they can at least act like they’re stating deeply held beliefs.
Imagine if more Democrats were crazy enough to just stand up for health care reform because it was the right thing to do. Nuts, right? Well, let’s try it on for size anyway. Imagine if Americans heard a few more speeches that went something like this:
You’re damn right I voted for health care reform. I’m proud of that vote. Who wouldn’t vote to reform an expensive, wasteful system that denies care to sick people — to sick children? These people who are trying to scare you with talk of death panels — they know it’s a lie. And they know we already have death panels — at insurance companies that deny coverage to the people who need it. Who wouldn’t vote to reform a health care system that kills people unnecessarily?
I’ll tell you who: people who work for the insurance companies, not for you. That would be the Republican Party. When the health insurance companies need something, Republicans come running. When you need something, forget it.
The poll-driven among us might say, “Oh no, health care isn’t testing well in this district.” Maybe not surprising, when it’s read by a pollster’s phone caller. But how about when it’s delivered with passionate commitment by someone who, we hope, projects some personal authority? In September, we saw Democratic numbers improve, with some pundits suggesting it’s because more Dem candidates were counter-attacking. I’d bet it wasn’t because of any magic new messaging, but because you simply look stronger when you stop letting bullies stick your head in the toilet. (That and the often overlooked effects of good old fashioned field organizing, but that’s another post.)
I’m not naive enough to think polls can be ignored. But polls can’t tell you how to be a leader. Just like yesterday’s financial news, polls are a trailing indicator, and chasing them is a loser’s game. In politics, like in finance, there’s no reward without risk.
In politics, though, you can be rewarded for simply being seen to take a risk, even if that risk is not the right one. How many times did George W. Bush get a pass for that?
I think Democrats have a hard time figuring this out — precisely because they’re trying to figure it out. We’re the party of reason. A lot of us want to believe there’s a science to this, and polls seem to promise that.
Well, there is no science that can make a leader. Leadership is about character. And if people can’t find real character, they’ll settle for a character, like from a bad movie.
But look what happened in 2008, when the real thing came along: swept aside every poll there was, and led all the way to a landslide.