CA-25

In the 2010 redistricting, some residents of Simi Valley objected when they became part of the newly drawn 25th CD, which is primarily a Los Angeles County district. They wanted to remain as part of Ventura County. Tony Strickland's part of Simi Valley stayed behind with the rest of Ventura, in CA-26 and he ran, unsuccessfully, for the open seat there against Democrat Julia Brownley. She beat him 53-47% and he immediately began his rematch campaign.

If you missed me putting Buck McKeon's resignation from Congress into context for KPFK listeners yesterday, here's a short, abbreviated version above.

Although Politico leaked the story yesterday, this morning, Buck McKeon officially-- finally-- announced he wouldn't be running for office again. If you're even a semi-regular DWT reader, you've known that for months. Buck's family has started a war industries lobbying firm and he'll be moving over there.

Get used to seeing pictures of New Jersey teabagger Steve Lonegan yellingSteve Stockman's deranged "John Cornyn-is-a-liberal" campaign really is something to behold.

Over the weekend, Lee Rogers, a nationally known surgeon and the former spokesperson for the National Diabetes Association, sent out a notice to his Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Antelope Valley neighbors that today (Monday) is the deadline to enroll in Covered California for insurance in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act. "As a doctor," he wrote "I have a strong interest in making sure everyone gets affordable health insurance.

This week the Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly posted a resolution they had just passed on their Facebook page. Short version: "thanks, but no thanks." Santa Clarita Republicans-- not to mention normal people in Santa Clarita, absolutely detest Tony Strickland, the carpetbagger who switched districts from CA-26 to CA-25 this month. (People in CA-26 who contributed money because they preferred him to Julia Brownley, are just out of luck. He's not giving anyone their money back.) Anyway, here's the resolution:

Although he hasn't announced it yet-- maybe because his spokesperson has other issues to deal with-- it's an open secret in Santa Clarita that Buck McKeon is retiring from congress to become a lobbyist for arms manufacturers.

People in Santa Clarita are breathing a sigh of relief that after more than 2 corruption-marred decades Buck McKeon is finally retiring from Congress to further disgrace himself as a lobbyist for the arms manufacturers and military contractors who have funded his congressional career. Good riddance! But if it were only that simple!

Santa Clarita Assemblyman Scott Wilk is the kind of commonsense, mainstream Republican from the old days-- not hopeless... and still worth reasoning with. Today he's the co-chair of elections for the Assembly GOP Caucus and he's worried that some of his sleazy colleagues, particularly the ones in Washington, are spoiling his party's brand even more than it has already been. He was optimistic about holding three Republican seats against strong Democratic attacks next year.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman and founder/chairman of the congressional Drone Caucus Buck McKeon is always boosting wars on behalf of the arms manufacturers who are fianncing his career and his family's wealth. (They have a lobbying firm working with war industries.) His hatred and disrespect for President Obama, on the other hand, sometimes gets him in a muddle.