CALL: Atkins. Bloom. Mitchell. Water. Lies. Money. August 29th

If you live in these districts we need you to call your Assembly & State Reps:

Assemblyman Richard Bloom's District  Tel: (916) 319-2050
State Senator Holly Mitchell's District Phone: (916) 651-4030
President of the Senate Toni Atkins District Phone: (916) 651-4039
Speaker of Assembly Anthony Rendon District   Tel: (916) 319-2063

Food&Water Watch & Restore the Delta have alerted us all that nonsense is going down in Sacramento.  

We have 1 day to stop a hearing that is scheduled for August 30.   This informational  hearing (at the direction of Holly Mitchell) if it goes forward will allow a contract with water agencies to go until the year 2085.    That is nearly 70 years from now.  What makes it even worse is that they don't have all the financial studies in hand before they are having this hearing.   It is misguided.  

Their goal is simple.  They want the hearing to go forward so that contracts can be AUTOMATICALLY extended without a vote.  Which happens after a hearing.   

That is hideous.    And once that happens it goes to Toni Atkins who can sign off.   

And if that was not bad enough,  Assemblyman Richard Bloom has added an amendment to bill 2649 that removes oversight of this project.    
Removing oversight on a project that uses funds that can go until 2085 is unconscionable.   

Stop it.  Only you can do it.  

Tell Atkins, Mitchell & Rendon: 

"Your upcoming decision on the State Water Contract will impact taxpayers and our water throughout the entire State of California. I urge you to delay the informational hearing until all information regarding financing of the Delta tunnels has been provided to the legislature and public input can be given. It is completely irresponsible to give no notice of a public meeting, and by proxy discourage input from constituents. It is also irresponsible that legislators are expected to make an informed decision without access to contract amendments and no idea what the cost impacts would be for taxpayers and water ratepayers.” 

Tell Bloom:

I urge Assemblyman Bloom  to pull the bad bill he introduced   AB2649  to remove basic oversight on the DELTA TUNNELS  and the state water contract. It's outrageous that CA elected democrats are considering this when the Trump administration is trying to take control of California Delta water! We need more oversight and public transparency on the state water contract and tunnels – not less! Pull AB2649!
   

Do You Want Citizens United in California? ---It's About to Happen and Our Friends Are Doing It To Us

UPDATE:  Call your Reps today Aug 20 & Aug 21.   We hear they are voting on this on 21st or 22nd.

AB 84

What is it?

It is a mini me version of Citizens United and it passed the Senate 3-2 and is now in committee.

If you do not want dark money in campaigns in California you must call your Assemblyperson and your State Senator.    It is right now in a committee but if you put the heat on your representative then when it comes out for a vote your Rep will feel too much pressure to sign off on it.

If you don't know your Cal State Reps  GO HERE. 

This bill was generated by Senate Pro Tem Mullin who is Assembly District CA22 ---  Obviously if you know anyone in South San Francisco encourage them to call Mullin's office and tell them how disappointed they are in this bill.

And for the rest of us........

Here is an article in LA Times
And this is a cheat sheet on what AB 84 is all about---.

Assembly Bill 84 Fact Sheet

Lead Author: Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Kevin Mullin (D-22)

Principal Coauthors: Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-63)/Minority Leader Brian Dahle (R-01)

What AB 84 Does:

●       Allows the Speaker of the Assembly, the Assembly Minority Leader, the Senate President Pro Tempore, and the Senate Minority Leader to each establish “Legislative Caucus Committees” that would operate the same as current political party committees, but without any oversight by the elected Party organization. 

●      Requires party committees to file 12 monthly disclosure reports in election years if they raised or spent $50,000 or more in the previous calendar year, as opposed to the 8 to 10 they currently do.

How Does This Compare To The Status Quo?

●       The campaign fundraising committees permitted to the leadership under current rules are subject to strict caps, limiting them to donations of up to $4,400form a single source.

●       Political party committees, however, can raise up to $36,500from a single source, and are allowed an unlimited amount in independent expenditures for and against candidates. AB 84 would create four new committees with these higher limits. 

                                                                                                                                Current Law        With AB 84

Contribution limits TO committees directed by caucus leaders for state candidates	$4,400	$36,500
Contribution limits TO committees directed by caucus leaders for candidate IEs	$4,400	Unlimited
Contribution limits FROM committees directed by caucus leaders to legislative candidates	$4,400	Unlimited

*source of table: California Clean Money Campaign.

 Why Is This A Problem?

●       Under AB 84, special interests will now have a larger pipelineto donate massive amounts to those who direct the activities of the California legislature. This will dramatically expand the influence of undesirable special interests like fossil fuels, charter school, and the private prison industry. Because of pressure from activists and delegates, the Democratic Party currently does not accept donations from these sources. AB 84 provides Legislative leaders a work-around to accept large cash infusions from polluters and prison profiteers. 

●       Under AB 84, Legislative leaders could flood races with money for their preferred candidates, no matter who is endorsed by the Party. Party committees are overseen and accountable to elected delegates who vote on important questions like candidate endorsements. AB 84 is an undemocratic end-run.

●       Passage will likely result in a siphoning of resources from the State Parties to Legislative leadership, which could have an adverse effect on the efforts of State Parties to build infrastructure and encourage participation. 

Sample Opposition Phone Call Info & Script

"HI my name is ___________ and I'm from _______.  I'm calling to urge ____ to oppose (or abstain on) AB84 in the Senate Elections Committee.  This bill would lead to more corporate money flowing into our election system and consolidates far too much power in the legislative leadership.  I fear this could lead to my representatives being more responsible to leadership or corporat interests than my fellow constituents and me,  along with democratic principal and values.  I ask ____ to oppose or abstain on the bill as it is written. "

CA22: Nunes Land --The Latest Polls and there is more....

CA: 22 is congressional district in Central Valley California. 

Devin Nunes is the representative for this farming and rural district with the three mid size and small towns of Visalia, Clovis (& Eastern Fresno) and Tulare.   

Forget the constitution, which he swore an oath, Nunes for all intents and purposes stopped being a real representative when he became Donald Trump's operative and chief protector.  When Nunes obsequious nonsense started to come out in 2017 pundits suggested it did not matter because his constituents 'loved' Nunes and point out his win at 34 percentage higher than the Democrat in 2016. 

Those in the district who have lived and breathed the lack of support by Devin Nunes for over a dozen years knew that pundits in NYC and DC were not plugged in.   These constituents (of all parties) have a lot to say about their sorry representative who has not even had a town hall in eight years.   During the last 18 months they have been meeting every Tuesday at a vigil at Nunes' Clovis office (where he does not show) and they have been rallying around Andrew Janz the Democrat candidate who is challenging Nunes in this November's election.   

And here's the truth, the results of the primary and the polls are tracking that something is going on in CA 22.   Nunes not so safe.  

California is a huge state and it took several weeks for all the primary votes to be counted but this was what we saw happen in potential swing districts.  

Democrats showed up in CA22 by 120.6 percentage points.   In general CA voters showed up more than they normally do in a primary year.  This includes both Democrats and Republicans.   But the least percentage of GOP in the up tick is CA22.   Nunes not so loved this year?   And note, Donald Trump did a shout out for Nunes constituents telling them to get out and vote and yet---this was his number? 

And now the latest PPP poll for Nunes has him only up by 8 percentage points.  And that poll is from the last week of June.   Since then there has been more information coming out about Russia and Trump and even members of the GOP ( Sen. Burr) question Nunes and his memo. 

None of this is good for Nunes in CA 22 on the other hand Andrew Janz shared some important information today.   He shared that when constituents are told Andrew Janz bio and compare it against Nunes bio the 8 percentage point lead drops to 5%.   And when constituents are told that Andrew Janz takes no PAC money the percentage point drops to 3% which is the margin of error.   And this is of July.  

What nonsense will Nunes do between now and November?   

What nonsense will Trump do between now and November and how will that impact CA 22?   

Who is sitting out Nunes?  

Is it middle age women?  

Maybe the wives of the die hard Nunes fans? 

Unclear.  

More will be revealed but the tea leaves suggest CA22 is in play, Mr. Nunes.    

Stop Selling #ShutThemDown

Hello World, 

Help.  

Please help us bring back democracy to the USA and help your own country by implementing this plan. 

Stop selling stuff to Oligarchs. 

No more luxury properties.

No more fine art. 

No more designer clothes. 

No more high-end furniture. 

No more jewelry.  

No more fancy meals at restaurants. 

No more fancy hotels. 

No more luxury cars.

No more luxury airplanes. 

End their luxury, fancy buying spree.  

All of you proprietors of luxury wares and properties in London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Nice, Cannes, New York, Berlin, Hamburg, Tokyo, Sydney, Bermuda, Miami, Los Angeles, Buenos Aries, and Rio…and on and on and on… STOP selling them anything! 

They want all the money in the world to shop in the entire world.  Let them buy everything they want in Moscow.   Where they don’t want to shop.   

Their money is not worth jeopardizing democracy.   

#ShutThemDown

Announcing New Democratic Party Slogan for 2018

The Status On SB 822 -- Two Words: Shit Show

The Status of SB 822 starts with Miguel Santiago (d)  in AD 53.

Here is his district:

The abundance of Santiago's constiuents are good, hard working people who are disconnected from the political process.   Most of them have no idea who is their assembly person.  So, the Assemblyman can do whatever he wants without much fear of push back.    

On Wednesday June 20 at 9:30am the committee of which Santiago was chair presented their amendments to SB 822.  The strongest Net Neutrality Bill in CA. 

They gutted it.  

State Senator Weiner (SF) (d)  asked that they pull the bill from the vote.  Santiago pushed back on him (with anger) Weiner stood his ground.   Eduardo Garcia (d) from Imperial Valley used a procedural move and with the help of Evan Low (d) from San Jose, the bill was voted and it passed with all the gutted amendments.   

It was a heinous act.  

Every member of the committee has taken big Tele donations.   You do the math.  Santiago sold out for AT&T.   

As California Democrats we should be ashamed.    

As Los Angeleno Democrats we should be angry. 

For any parent with a child in LAUSD schools you should be horrified. 

LAUSD & UTLA are headquarted in AD 43 and yet they remained mute.   

Why?  

SF schools showed up at the hearings.  UC Berkley showed up.   

Where was the second largest school district in the country?  

600,000 students who mainly come from marginalized community were just sold down the river for AT&T.  

And one last thing, if we had saved Net Neutrality in CA we would ostensibly be saving it for the USA and the world.  

Sleep well, Assemblyman Santiago.   This one is on you. 

For a list of how the vote went down go to THE VOTE ON JUNE 20

LAUSD & UTLA --Only you can save Net Neturality

Los Angeles Unifed School (UTLA)  and Los Angeles Teachers Union (UTLA).
ONLY YOU can save Net Neutrality in CA (& USA).  It is down to you!!!


Parents, UTLA & LAUSD   Net Neutrality is in our hands right now. Many of you live in Miguel Santiago's district. There is a CA bill SB 822 on Net Neutrality, which has no loop holes. It passed the state senate and is now in committee in the assembly. Unfortunately, every member of the committee (both parties) has taken money from big Tele. They are amending SB 822 and watering it down with major loop holes. In the mean time over the weekend Sen. K DeLeon and Weiner both who drafted sb 460 & 822 have joined the bills and asked Santiago to aprrove that one. This morning He said NO. Nancy Pelosi asked him as well to accept it and he said NO.
There is no LAUSD student that benefits by NO Net Neutrality. Marginalized communitites will be further marginalized. I am asking of you three things. 1 look at this map. If you know anyone who lives here please have them call Miguel's Sacramento office and tell him to leave SB822 as it was written no amendments or accept the new bill by Weiner & KDL. He's getting away with this because he thinks no one is paying attention. 2) Also please call UTLA political director and tell them to CALL SAntiago and push back on him. And3 call your LAUSD board member and tell them as well to push back on Santiago. It has to be done TODAY!! The vote is tomorrow. He's feeling no pressure. We have got to give it to him. It is worth it. If he won't protect our community than we will do it! Here are the numbers:
Miguel Santiago 916-319-2053 Sacto office. Constituents call!
UTLA EV Vaughn. 213 487-5560
And the rest of us who may not live in AD 53 we need to call our LAUSD Board member
District 1 - George McKenna 213 241-6382
District 2 - Monica Garcia 213 241-6180
District 3 - Scott Schermerelson 213 241-8333
District 4 - Nick Melvoin 213 241 - 6387
District 5 - Ref Rodriquez 213 241-5555
District 5 - Kelly Gonez 213 241 - 6388
District 6 -Richard Vladovic 213 241-6385
Thank you! Tracy Cook

UPdate Over The Weekend

Keep the HEAT on Santiago.   By the way---you all should know the GOP Assemblypeople will be voting NO on SB822 because they are carrying water for Trump.   If you live in their district you should be pushing back but in the meantime we need to focus on our Dems to do the morally right thing and that means focusing on Assemblyman Santiago!

Our partners in this fight for Net Neutrality have this update:

Over the weekend, Senator Wiener and Senator De Leon reached an agreement that will resolve the conflict between two net neutrality bills.

 

Senator Wiener’s SB 822 will retain all of the substantive net neutrality protections as they are currently in print. Those are Sections 1 and 2 of the bill. Senator De Leon will take the provisions related to public agency contracting with ISPs and requiring that service to meet net neutrality rules. The bills will also have language that makes either bill’s enactment contingent upon the others passage—called “contingent enactment” language. Furthermore, Senator Wiener will now be a joint author of SB 460 and Senator De Leon will be a joint author of SB 822.

 

Again, the amendments that effectuate this agreement should be in print tonight, if the committee allows us to amend the bills.

 

We are still waiting to hear back from the Communications and Conveyance Committee about whether they will ask us to take amendments to SB 822 to reduce the protections in the bill. It is still very important to pressure the Committee not to water down the bill. We will be driving calls, social media pressure, and other organizing efforts toward Assemblymember Santiago to not weaken SB 822.

 

We are pivoting the messaging to urge the passage of BOTH SB 460 and SB 822 AND not weakening the protections in SB 822.

 

Please tweet and retweet articles about California net neutrality, SB 822, and help us create good visibility.

Tweet for Net Neutrality! Do it A LOT between now and June 20th.

ACTION:  Tweet & Retweet.

GOAL:  Twelve members of the CA Assembly need to be called out on watering down bill SB 822 before they vote this Wednesday, June 20.    And we need to reach out to media who can also call them out.    

Why?  This is the last stop to protect Net Neutrality.


Retweet:

California State Strong 

@SantiagoAD53 @Evan_Low @QuirkSilva65th @AsmCervantes @AsmEGarciaAD56 @ChrisHoldenNews @AsmKamlagerDove @AsmRodriguez52 @RobBontaCA

Also let these journalists know what's going on with SB 822 and any other journalists that you follow.

David Lazarus david.lazarus@latimes.com https://twitter.com/Davidlaz

Jazmine Ulloa jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com https://twitter.com/jazmineulloa

Levi Sumagasy lsumagaysay@bayareanewsgroup.com https://twitter.com/levi

Dan Morain dmorain@calmatters.org https://twitter.com/DanielMorain

Benny Evangelista bevangelista@sfchronicle.com https://twitter.com/ChronicleBenny

John Wildermuth jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com https://twitter.com/jfwildermuth

Casey Tolan ctolan@bayareanewsgroup.com  https://twitter.com/caseytolan

 If you want to make your own tweet you can use the letter from 50 progressive groups trying to protect Net Neutrality.    Which you can find HERE. 

Background:  Here is all what you need to know about SB 822 

HERE #1

HERE #2

HERE #3

ACTION: Understand the Importance of SB 822 in CA

The Toughest State Bill for Net Neutrality is in CA.
It is SB 822.   You are not hearing much about this bill on TV and Main Media outlets because all the major ISP are connected to news.   Comcast owns Universal and NBC and Comcast, AT&T etc want to dismantle Net Neutrality.    Do that math----

What you need to know is this:
State Senator Kevin De Leon who is running for US senate has a weaker bill SB460 which is full of loop holes.

SB 822 is the better bill.   It passed the CA Senate and it is now in the Assembly in a committee.   What's the difference between the two bills?     READ this NOW.

50 Progressive Groups Fight to Save Net Neutrality - Share THIS letter NOW

ACTION:  Share on Twitter, FB, Social media.    Call out Journalists!   Call out News Organizations!  

There is a WAR in Sacramento between NOW and June 19th.   On Wednesday June 20th the CA Assembly will vote on SB822.  This is a Net Neutrality Bill that the State Senate passed and is now in Committee of the Assembly.    

Unfortunately the committee who is voting on this bill is also watering it down.   

And more unfortunate they have all taken money from Big Telecom.  That's right.  They are Dems and Repubs and they have all taken money from Communication/Electronic sectors including   AT&T and other big guys.    This includes Committee Chair Assemblyman Miguel Santiago.  

    

And State Senator Kevin DeLeon who backed the weaker net neturality bill that is full of loop holes received many contributions from Big Telecom. 

Per LA Times. 

If Net Neutrality survives in CA it will help preserve neutrality in some manner for the USA and the world.    Wednesday is the last hope for Net Neutrality.  

50 Progressive groups who in particular fight for low income and minority communities have written the following letter.  If you need to read it in a larger format go HERE. 

If you are not on social media than go here for your action.