We are still in the age of Obama, and hence Reagan. Progressive ideas do not frame our debates as a whole. But in California this past week there have seen definite signs of a tentative turning taking place, and one of the most important came out of the echoes of Meg Whitman’s undocumented housekeeper scandal, when Jerry Brown fell back on his Catholic upbringing to support the California DREAM Act and call Whitman’s disposable people attitude “immoral”.
I wrote about Whitman’s scandal Last Tuesday in “As California goes…???”, where I quoted Robert Cruickshank from Calitics:
This scandal has the potential to do big damage to Whitman on at least two levels. First, it shows her right-wing immigrant-hating base that she is no different than the other corporate hacks who hire undocumented workers instead of “real Americans.” ….
Second, and more ominously for Whitman, this could crush any remaining hopes she had of winning significant portions of Latino votes….
Still, there’s more to the story than the immigration issue. Santillan also told of her exploitation at the hands of Whitman, including overworking her, engaging in “emotional and financial abuse,” and even denying Santillan family leave when she was pregnant. The term “pregnancy discrimination” was used by Santillan’s attorney, Gloria Allred, which is itself pretty damning if proven.
Over the weekend, Brown and Whitman held a second debate, in Fresno, carried live statewide on Univision. What grabbed the most attention, immediately, was Whitman’s attempt to shift blame to Brown, and his scathing push-back (via HuffPo):
“The real tragedy here is Nicky. After Nov. 2, no one’s going to be watching out for Nicky Diaz,” Whitman said, referring to the former housekeeper, and turning to face Brown directly shortly after the start of their second debate. “And Jerry, you know you should be ashamed, you and your surrogates … put her deportation at risk. You put it out there and you should be ashamed for sacrificing Nicky Diaz on the altar of your political ambitions.”
Brown responded by saying Whitman, the billionaire former chief executive of eBay, was trying to evade responsibility.
“Don’t run for governor if you can’t stand up on your own two feet and say, ‘Hey I made a mistake,'” Brown said in a moment fraught with tension as the two candidates, neck-and-neck in the polls, turned away from the audience and faced each other directly. “You have blamed her, blamed me, blamed the left, blamed the unions. But you don’t take accountability.”
But as Robert noted, again at Calitics, (“The Debate Exchange That Really Matters”):
[T]here was a far more meaningful moment later on, pertaining to immigration, that showed a huge contrast between the candidates and the cruelty of Whitman’s approach. If it gets the attention it deserves, it might even cost Whitman the election….
This is a CEO who, in the words of another right-wing Republican in the form of a former GOP presidential candidate, was too ego-driven to successfully run a company. She was a great self-promoter, but not so much on the actually getting the job done at HP thing. The board hated her, after all she was spying on some of them. The employees hated her, she laid off thousands of them, so no surprise there. And, oh yeah, the stock value of HP halved while she was the CEO.
Certainly we can agree that the last thing California needs is somebody too concerned about their own ego to focus on the very real problems we have to deal with today.
And this ad by Senator Boxer does nothing other than turning a mirror on Carly Fiorina’s career. She’s running as the former CEO of HP, so she has to face those facts. She was fired as CEO, and as David W. Packard, a son of one of the founders of HP, said, nobody has hired her since.
Let’s not let Carly Fiorina use the Senate as a rebound gig.
Carly Got Upset!
And, as follow-up, Robert Cruickshank from Calitics wrote:
It’s Only Class Warfare When We Fight Back
by: Robert Cruickshank
Fri Sep 17, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM PDT
Barbara Boxer’s newest ad is a damning attack on Carly Fiorina’s record of destroying jobs in order to make herself richer – including enjoying her million-dollar yacht.
The ad is devastating because it shows that instead of being someone concerned about creating jobs for Californians, Fiorina is just out to make herself richer at everyone else’s expense. The 30,000+ workers who lost their jobs during Fiorina’s failed tenure as HP’s CEO are testament to this, including those who saw their jobs sent overseas.
In short, Boxer is pointing out to Californians that Fiorina has been conducting class warfare against us for years – leading the charge of the wealthy against the jobs and basic economic security the rest of us are barely clinging to.
So how does Fiorina react? By claiming Boxer is engaged in “class warfare”:
The Republican candidate, speaking to The Chronicle’s editorial board, added: “Given that (Boxer) is choosing to play class warfare, I think it is wholly relevant that she is, in fact, a millionaire, and that she chooses to scapegoat.”
In other words, it’s perfectly normal and acceptable to destroy the middle class by laying them off and sending their jobs overseas so you can buy a yacht and run for the US Senate, but when someone like Boxer stands up for working people and fights to create good jobs here in California, well suddenly it’s class warfare.
This is the typical reaction of the wealthy whenever anyone points out that their policies are little more than piracy, raiding our prosperity and economic security for their benefit: they react by saying we’re engaging in “class warfare” merely by pointing out what is going on.
This is really all the complicated it is: An utterly failed, utter pirate (who only a clueless doofus like John McCain would choose to elevate to national political status) tries to run for high office, has the truth told about her & feels too upset for words.
She certainly has no idea what to say about Boxer. When a millionaire criticizes other millionaires for their cruel and callous behavior, she’s not engaging in “class warfare”. As FDR could tell you in a flash, she’s being a “class traitor.”
For civic ignorance alone, Fiorina ought to be disqualified from public office for life.
In fact, maybe, just like Meg Whitman, she shouldn’t even be voting.
The 2010 Senate picture continues to get wilder this morning. Three updates:
Connecticut; Rob Simmons has dropped out of the Republican primary, leaving WWE magnnate Linda McMahon to face Richard Blumenthal. Yesterday, Blumenthal apologized for exaggerating his military record. He still has a lead in the polls, but nowhere near the commanding, 30-point leads he once held.
South Carolina: The first trial heat poll out of South Carolina shows Republican incumbent and conservative movement icon Jim DeMint leading Democrat Vic Rawl by only 50%-43%. The only other poll on this campaign had been a generic ballot test from early December, showing DeMint up by 9%, with a lot of voters thinking DeMint spent too much time endorsing conservative candidates nationwide rather than paying attention in South Carolina. So, the poll is believable, and DeMint likely is in some trouble (until Rasmussen shows him up by 27% next week).
This campaign goes up on the competitive seats chart. The current winning percentage for Rawl sstarts at 3%. That figure is if the election were held today, and is not a projection on the future trends of the campaign.
California: In a hard to believe poll, Survey USA shows Carly Fiorina ahead by 23% in the Republican primary in California (and Meg Whitman back ahead by 27% for Governor). This poll isn’t like any of the others on the campaign so far, but combined with the others it actually gives Fiorina a 1.3% lead in the primary.. If Fiorina does win the Republican nomination,that is good news for Barbara Boxer. While Boxer only leads Tom Campbell by 4.7% (92% current win %), she leads Fiorina by 8.3% (98% current win %).
All told, these updates improve the Democratic position in the overall forecast by 0.09 seats, for a new total of 52.17 seats. This is another high, post-Evan Bayh’s retirement, for Democrats in the Senate forecast.
New polling shows that the June 8thh primaries could shake up the 2010 elections as much as Tuesday’s primaries already did.
California Senate, Republican primary and general election Two new primary polls in California show former Representative Tom Campbell’s lead over Carly Fiorina shrinking in the Republican Senate primary. M4 shows Campbell up 33%–28% (with 15% for Chuck DeVore), while PPIC shows Fiorina ahead 25%–23% (with DeVore at 16%). This puts the 15-day average at 30.3% for Campbell, 25.7% for Fiorina, and 15.3% for DeVore.
A Fionia win–or, for that matter, a shock DeVore win–would certainly be good news for incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. In the general election, Boxer now leads Campbell by 3.5% (87% current win %), Fiorina by 8% (98% current win %), and Devore by 8.5% (again, 98% current win %). Given Boxer’s 72% current win % in yesterday’s Senate forecast update, this improve the overall Democratic seante position by 0.13 seats (adjusting for slight error I made in Connecticut-should have been 98% win % for Blumenthal, not 100%). Democrats are now forecast at 52.20 seats, their best total since Evan Bayh’s retirement announcement.
California 36th Congressional district, Democratic primary Another interesting poll on a June 8th primary comes from the Marcy Winograd campaign. The poll, which was not released in full (not a good sign), shows incumbent Blue Dog Jane Harman at only 43% support. This conflicts significantly with an internal Harman poll released earlier in the week, showing her at 58%.
My takeways from these polls are that Harman is strongly favored in the campaign, but Winograd can score over 40%, improving on her 2010 performance. To win, she is going to need a huge improvement in name ID and favorables over the final three weeks, combined with very low Democratic turnout on June 8th. Given the relative lack of major statewide Democratic primaries in California compared to Republicans, this isn’t impossible. But it is a huge longshot.
Nevada Senate, Republican primary Another big primary to watch on June 8th int eh Republican Senate primary in Nevada. In the wake of her Chickens for Checkups fiasco, one-time Republican frontrunner Sue Lowden has crashed in the polls. The 18% lead she enjoyed from late February through early April has been cut to only 5% by wingnut fave Sharron Angle. Harry Reid is competitive with Sharron Angle in the general election, trailing by only 5.5%. If Angle were to win the Republican primary, Reid might be able to hang onto his seat.
Arkansas Senate, Democratic primary runoff Finally, to toot our own horn for a bit, the first poll on the runoff for the Democratic nomination in Arkansas Senate was first released here on Open Left yesterday by Democracy for America. It showed Bill Halter leading incumbent Blanche Lincoln 48%–46%. With Lincoln receiving less than 45% of the vote in the primary on Tuesday, there its a good bet that a a wave of anti-incumbent incumbent sentiment will lead to her defeat on June 8th.
****
Overall, while perhaps not quite as exciting as the May 18th primaries, June 8th seems ready to keep the anti-incumbent, anti-establishment buzz going strong.
