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CA-Gov, CA-10: Garamendi Considering Bid to Replace Tauscher

by: James L.

Mon Apr 06, 2009 at 4:32 PM EDT


With Ellen Tauscher set to join the State Department soon, it seems that her soon-to-be-vacant seat is drawing interest from a major player in California politics -- Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who is currently making a bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nod in 2010. From the Contra Costa Times:

[...] Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is looking at it - he lives on the edge of District 10 in Walnut Grove.

Garamendi called Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, a few days ago, although the congressman offered little encouragement. Miller reiterated his unflagging support for state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord.

Wait, isn't Garamendi running for governor? Yeah, although reports of a faltering campaign circulated recently after one of his top campaign staffers quit.

In a statement late Friday, here is what Garamendi said: "A number of people suggested I consider this seat. Of course, I will check it out. As a former undersecretary of the interior, there is a lot of exciting work going on in Washington. Much is possible with Barack Obama.

"But I am focused on California and my campaign for governor."

Sounds more like he's focused on finding a ripcord.
James L. :: CA-Gov, CA-10: Garamendi Considering Bid to Replace Tauscher
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CA-Gov, CA-10: Garamendi Considering Bid to Replace Tauscher | 59 comments
Yeah
there are just too many Dem heavy-hitters running for governor already.  Despite being Lt. Gov., Garamendi isn't one of them.
Bummer. I've actually decided to like Garamendi.
Newsom is a flake who will let us down one way or another.  Jerry Brown is way past his expiration date and has drifted quite a ways to the right since 92.  Villaraigosa seems alright, though his judgment with women is as poor as Newsom's.  Most importantly, I don't think any of the three have the profile to enable them to take on the 2/3rds rule head on, which is the single most important ability in a governor, short of the need to get 50.1% of the vote.  I can't see any of them successfully championing such a ballot measure.

Garamendi, maybe.  He came from the more business-friendly side of the party, and he's actually spoken about the need to revisit 2/3rds.  That's more than anyone else has done, from what little I know (all of which I read at Calitics).

So, reading that his campaign has failed and he's bailing out to CA-10 doesn't please me one bit.  In fact, his origin on the business side of the party is a downside in my eyes when it comes to CA-10, vs an upside in the 2/3rds fight.

28, gay guy, Democrat, CA-08

Agreed.
Garamendi was the best of the bunch. That's not really saying much, but now our field's even more mediocre. We really need someone else to run (and not DiFi).
[ Parent ]
ca-gov
Speaking of needing someone else to run, is there any chance that Loretta Sanchez runs?  Or is it more likely that she waits for either DiFi or Boxer to retire and then goes for that opening?  I've read many times that she harbors statewide ambitions, I just wasn't sure if it's in the cards for 2010.
[ Parent ]
sanchez
she had formed an exploratory commitee, but from what i understand she is more then happy to let the y chromosomes duke it out and to wait for difi to retire. maybe shell even run for ag or lt gov if brown or garamendi get the nod

on that case... is ne one concerned that the primary may come down to a regional fight? villaraigosa is la, newsom is san fran, brown is oakland and garamendi is from the sacremento area. if villariagosa takes the latinos and southern costal ca, newsom takes the liberals, gays and environmentalists, brown takes the old school dems and garamendi takes northern ca and party loyalists... who gets it? i have no qualms bout ne of them beating whitman... but who wil it be?  

25. gay jewish male. amherst, ma

[ Parent ]
The 2/3 fight needs to come from the grassroots
The Dem establishment will embrace it once it is on the ballot.
[ Parent ]
If Feinstein got in...
then I'd probably support her.  Just to get her out of the Senate, if nothing else.
[ Parent ]
She has the credibility and political capital to take on 2/3rds successfully.
That's true of very few people.

I don't know if she has the inclination to actually take it on.  She might.  She's been in the Senate long enough to see what 60% can do to tie up a legislative body; 67% is an absurdity.  If she signaled any kind of willingness to take on 2/3rds once in office, I'd support her, even despite everything else about her I dislike.

Ending 2/3rds is an imperative that trumps all else in Cali.  It's such an important and difficult nut to crack that I'm even open to voting for Feinstein, for the first time ever, and in a Democratic primary no less!  I wrote in Russ Feingold last time she was on my ballot.

28, gay guy, Democrat, CA-08

[ Parent ]
whym I really, really like Feinstein
she votes Dem on most of the important issues and only serves as a moderating force. She's not even a conservative Dem. I jsut don't know what the problem is that Dems have with moderate, thoughtful liberals like Feinstein and prefer demagouging radicals like Boxer that might be little different than Republicans in how accurate and well thought out there actions might be.  

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
I feel
she is a moderate for the wrong reasons.  She is just tool quite frankly.

And what was that one vote she REALLY screwed us on?  In the Judiciary Committee.  

[ Parent ]
I'd be fine with her in Louisiana
but I think we could get a more liberal senator representing California.  
[ Parent ]
Louisiana?
Come on she's way more liberal than Landrieu and would never get elected here.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Yeah, I know
I was exaggerating.  Sorry.  I'm mainly still hung up over  the flag-burning amendment.
[ Parent ]
For one she doesn't even support the EFCA.
In one the most unionized, bluest states in the nation she refuses to support the right to organize. She has absolutely no excuse.

I'd rather have a "demagogue" like Boxer than a coward like Feinstein who refused to lift a finger against Bush only to practically threaten a filibuster against Leon Panetta (who is not exactly a DFH, to say the least).

Do not confuse reflexive centrism with thoughtfulness.

[ Parent ]
i don't like Panetta
either, for a number of reasons.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Oh please.
Panetta is about the least offensive choice Obama could make. I thought you liked sensible centrists like him.  
[ Parent ]
I'm not a centrist, I just a thoughtful liberal
on issue. I just don't like Panetta's past positions on torture.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
and i say that full on a statement
full of grammatical mistakes and errors.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Uh huh. So you don't like that he opposes torture.
Pretty sure that precludes you from being a liberal.  
[ Parent ]
Dkos did not present him very favorable
and he flip flopped considerably on that issue and was inconsistent.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
LOL. we certainly have different perspectives.
For starters, I don't think Feinstein is thoughtful or moderate, though she does play one on TV pretty well.  I would call her a captive of the class of extreme wealth, except she's not actually a captive of that class but rather a part of it.  She's married to a bajillionaire defense contractor, and has primarily advanced the interests of bajillionaires from her days on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, back when her main enemy was Harvey Milk, all the way to today.  

You could also google "Feinstein MILCON" and learn about how she was forced to give up her chairmanship of the Military Construction Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee (the equivalent to being a cardinal in the House), due to behavior that had the appearance of corruption.  She is a big player in the military-industrial complex, and from that perch has aided in the graft and legal theft of untold billions of our taxpayer money, that could have gone to progressive purposes.

None of these are things I admire.

Boxer's not my favorite senator (those would be the midwesterners, Harkin Feingold Dorgan Durbin, plus Sanders Whitehouse and Webb), but she doesn't hurt the party or progressive causes any.

If you want a moderate, I say Webb is a good, thoughtful, true moderate, who takes his positions out of principle, and consistently makes arguments that hurt his electoral prospects but that he believes are important for the country (income inequality, criminal justice).  The editorial he put in the Wall Street Journal after he was elected, and his SOTU response, were amazing.  He legislated successfully on the New GI Bill, he does cast moderate and conservative votes periodically (FISA), will be an independent actor on future Iraq and Afghanistan votes, and generally is a real Senator, who serves the national interest as he sees it.   Feinstein is a partisan for the rich and well-connected, and all her "moderate" votes arise from her similarity to Rs in that respect.  I won't vote for that.

(Unless she'll help repeal 2/3rds, in which case evidently I will!  lol)

28, gay guy, Democrat, CA-08

[ Parent ]
She's also an egomaniac
Don't you remember the hissy fit she had when Obama nominated Leon Panetta as CIA Director because he dared not to consult her first? She was fine with it once she got her ego soothed by a private visit from Obama or Biden, I don't recall which.
[ Parent ]
well, I still don't like Panetta
much myself from the pospective of what direction I want the CIA taken in and experience.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
I love me some moderate Democrats but wholly dislike Feinstein.
[ Parent ]
Whoa!!???!!
Let me count the way Feinstein is "thoughtful":
AUMF
NAFTA
Anti-EFCA
Lieberman-Warner
TARP

Those are the major issues that Boxer and Feinstein have differed on.  On everyone Boxer was right, and very much inline with her constituents.  Feinstein is often just flat out dismissive of her constituency.  We can do so much better.  Boxer is right on the money.  In the last DKos poll Boxer beats the gov 2-1.  

Cali isn't Arkansas.  DiFi is to the right of most of us.
Hopefully our end goal hear as democrats is to have representation that is not to the right of their constituency.
 

26, D, MO-05, Hispanic

[ Parent ]
wow
bad grammar and spelling!!! it is late

26, D, MO-05, Hispanic
[ Parent ]
difi
we all know she wont run cuz now shes all comfy as the intelligence chair, but id love to get her out of the senate. she has always been to moderate/conservative for my tastes, espically for a girl commin outta san fran, and its only gotten worse as she aged

the real reason i want he out is this. she would get to appoint her own sucessor to her senate seat. could u imagine if she appointed gavin, her fellow penisular mayor. the thought of feingold, franken and newsom all sitting on the judiciary panel gives me a liberal mind boner...

25. gay jewish male. amherst, ma

[ Parent ]
DiFi and Gavin
I think you'd have a better chance of seeing the sun rise in the West and set in the East than you would of having having Feinstein appoint Newsom to her Senate seat. Remember her comments some years ago blaming the Democratic losses on Newsom's stance on gay marriage. To her, Gavin's a young whippersnapper who still needs "seasoning."

And even though I like him a lot, I still disagree with his environmental policies.  For whatever reason, he is too pro-PG&E for my taste. (That relates to attempts to municipalize utilitities).  For that reason alone, Newsom will have problems with the environmentalist crowd in his quest for Sacramento.

[ Parent ]
Good move for him, but sad
California is the home of mediocre retreads moving from running for one office after another in a basically random pattern.  Garamendi is the worst.  He's been running for Gov for 20 years, and now he switches to Congress?  

He wouldn't be terrible, but California needs new people running for office who seek to be leaders, not people who run for office just because they have been term limited.

On the positive side, a bit more room might persuade some new face to join the race with the giant dwarves now running.

Gov race I mean

[ Parent ]
Make that 27 years
He ran in 1982 and 1994, as well as briefly in 2004.

In terms of the Governorship, he's California's Harold Stassen.

[ Parent ]
I hate to see him go
He was the most politically savvy candidate and would have beaten the Repubs. I cannot trust the remaining candidates. They may be as good as Bustamante in the general election and then do a Deval Patrick if elected.
Couldn't Garamendi
run in the special election for CA-10 without resigning as Lt Gov?
And if he loses that race (although he has as good a shot as anyone right now in the Dem field), still run for the CA-Gov primary (again, he has as good a shot as anyone in that weak field)?
Sure
Would seem rather tacky though.

22, Democrat, AZ-01
Peace. Love. Gabby.
[ Parent ]
been there done that
From the Wikipedia:

"Seven months into his term as Insurance Commissioner, on August 7, 2003, Garamendi announced his candidacy for Governor...."

"Halfway through his term as Insurance Commissioner, on July 16, 2004, Garamendi announced his candidacy for the 2006 race to replace the term-limited Bustamante as Lieutenant Governor..."

[ Parent ]
well in 2003
you're talking about the recall, and a bunch of people did that.

Call no man happy until he is dead-Aeschylus
[ Parent ]
Shut Down by Congressman George Miller
Definitely tacky, and so far, he doesn't come out looking so good either. According to the Contra Costa Times:

"Garamendi called Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, a few days ago, although the congressman offered little encouragement. Miller reiterated his unflagging support for state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord."

If you're going to leak your interest to the press, at least don't let it leak that you got shut down by the neighboring Congressman!

[ Parent ]
If I were to bet, I think Feinstein's in.
She voted for reconciliation on cap 'n trade in the budget debate.  Why do that when her support for such legislation has been tepid at best, in the past?  The tea leaves seem to say Guv.

The problem is that she'd probably appoint another conservadem to her seat like Harman.  Any reason to think otherwise?

On Garamendi and Feinstein
As a resident of California, I doubt Diane Feinstein is in. She's "interested" alright, but only if the field is completely clear for her. And I mean completely clear. No Democratic primary, and no Republican challenger in the general. Of course, that's unlikely to happen. Progessive Democrats are wary of her because of unusually conservative voting for California Dem (but which isn't actually unsual for Feinstein), and Republicans do not want her either. Plus, does she want to deal with the budget problems right now?

On John Garamendi... I have no idea who he is or what his positions are. And that's not good for Garamendi, who has ran for state office many times and has been in state offices many times. He trails in primaries because he has no strong constituencies. You'd think a statewide official would easily clear out city mayors, but that simply shows his lack of name of name recgonition.

If you read his political career on Wikipedia, this guy should be entrenched already, but taking a look at his electoral history suggests he's simply not that good at campaigning. It also suggests he's polarizing figure, but I don't find anyone have that much of a strong opinion, or an opinion, of him. He's just not that deeply known.

It seems John Garamendi has always been looking to upgrade. That's fine, but I don't have any actual confidence in him.  

[ Parent ]
DiFi
I am definitely NOT a DiFi supporter, but polls show her the overwhelming favorite if she got in  

26, D, MO-05, Hispanic
[ Parent ]
I agree
I agree, she's definitely the favorite. But like I said, the field isn't clear for her. And I doubt she wants it THAT badly in the first place. She's in the Senate, which has no term limits. She can serve as long as she wants to, at this point. She's not going to get primaried anytime soon, and California is tending more Democratic. Her Senate seat is her's to keep.  
[ Parent ]
She's 76
I really doubt that she'd be interested in more than another term in the Senate.
[ Parent ]
Feinstein
How the heck did she ever get elected Mayor of San Francisco?  Was she always such a moderate or did she only become on after being elected statewide?
good question - times change and Feinstein is OLD
Good questions, although I don't think San Francisco was always as liberal as it is now, even compared to the rest of the country.  I watched Milk a couple of months ago, and San Francisco didn't seem like that liberal of a place.  Now, the Bay Area is the most progressive area of the country, but it wasn't always that way.  Feinstein became mayor after Milk and Moscone were assassinated, and after that she became entrenched.  I really think the times have passed her by; California is a more progressive place now than the California she started her political career in.
[ Parent ]
heh
Growing up in San Francisco in the 90's a lot did change. I noticed the cost of living was going up every a couple of years. A lot of people that were burdened by the cost of living, but could move, did move out of San Francisco. What was left was the rich, young professionals, the super-poor, and, well, the non-heterosexual (I don't know a politically correct word for it) community left. A lot of the San Francisco that Feinstein represented is gone.

That said, the whole surrounding area around San Francisco has become more liberal too. I live in the bottom portion of a black majority district (guess which it is ;) ) that wasn't so liberal or Democratic, but now is definitely very Democratic. My congression is to the left of the corrupt former Congressman Richard Pombo.  

[ Parent ]
there are no black majority districts in northern-cali
not 1

26, D, MO-05, Hispanic
[ Parent ]
There aren't any in California at all anymore
but he must mean the 9th (Barbara Lee)

16, Male, MI-01
[ Parent ]
Correct!
But I'm wrong about Black Majority District, I guess. BTW, do you know any website to easily to check up such info?
[ Parent ]
Wikipedia
Wikipedia will give you the demographics of any district in the country, so will CQ Politics, and if you want it in precise detail, check the U.S. Census.

16, Male, MI-01
[ Parent ]
Wow, really?
I thought Oakland at least had one.
[ Parent ]
Yep
The 9th (Lee) is 35.2 White, 26 Black, 15.4 Asian, and 18.7 Hispanic
The 33rd (Watson) is 34.6 Hispanic, 29.9 Black, 19.9 White, and 12.1 Asian.
The 35th (Waters) is 47.4 Hispanic, 34.1 Black, and 10.4 White
The 37th (Richardson) is 43.2 Hispanic, 24.8 Black, and 16.6 White

16, Male, MI-01
[ Parent ]
The Oakland-based 9th district
is a "coalition" district, with blacks, Hispanics, and Asians combined making up about 75% of the district. Blacks alone are about 26% of the district.

And the city of Oakland itself is also a "coalition" city, being about 65% non-White and blacks being 36% of the population.

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28, New Democrat, Female, TX-03 (hometown CA-26)

[ Parent ]
Bay Area
In the Bay Area, and maybe San Francisco itself, maybe alot of the change is because the younger generations (those around 40 and younger) simply wanted to be staunchly progressive, whereas many of their parents were moderates or conservatives. I bet thats the case in certain areas of Contra Costa and Alameda. There was a time when alot of communities there use to be Republican. Sure alot is probably because liberals just chose to move there but i bet also is also because the younger generations are just simply more liberal
[ Parent ]
Reminds me of the debates
On certain ancient, medival and dark age civilizations. Where historians, archaelogists, ethnologists, etc. cant agree on why certain civilizations developed a certain culture. Whether its because of the 'migration/invasion' theory or because the people there simply adopted a different culture. Anglo-Saxon era Britain is a great example. Kind of the same in American politics. Are some areas now culturally liberal simply because of mass migration or because the younger generations just adopted something different than their parents or a hybrid of both.
[ Parent ]
Dianne being elected Mayor of San Francisco
She was old before her time.  In 1980 the posters against the Feinstein campaign were "Don't Manhattanize San Francisco."  She was then, and still is, a tool of the real estate industry. And in one of her elections, she ran against one Quentin Kopp, President of the Board of Supervisors, a man who could make Louisiana's and Nebraska's Democratic Senators look like flaming liberals by comparison.  He was San Francisco's very own Dr. No.  He now is a judge, but weighed in on the wrong side of BART's extension to the San Francisco Airport.
[ Parent ]
SF
I know SF had, back then, alot of working class white Catholics (such as Irish and Italian) and probably alot of fiscal conservatives, too.  
[ Parent ]
Dan White made her Mayor
She inherited the office when Moscone was murdered.

Then as the incumbent she ran to the left, slightly, of conservative Quentin Kopp.

If it were not for Gan White she would have peaked out as Chairman of the SF Board of Supervisors.

[ Parent ]
She became the mayor when Moscone was assassinated
the irony is, she was considering leaving politics when that happened.
[ Parent ]
Well I'll be damned
I havn't seen the movie Milk yet.  Never knew the Mayor was assassinated along with Milk.
[ Parent ]
CA-Gov, CA-10: Garamendi Considering Bid to Replace Tauscher | 59 comments

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