California legislature

#NeverReznik-by Dorothy ReikCalifornia’s Senate District 27 comprises some of the most beautiful and valuable real estate in the country. From the beaches of Malibu to the Santa Monica Mountains to the flat lands of the San Fernando Valley and beyond into Ventura County, it is treasured by environmentalists and coveted by their mortal enemies-- the developers. The district's registration is 43% Democratic, 27% Republican and 24% decline-to-state.

An actual endorsementFake endorsement by L.A.'s most dishonest politicianThe other day I got a piece of mail disguised as a Democratic Party slate card with prominent pictures of President Obama, who isn't running for anything and Kamala Harris who is running for U.S.

I live in the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A. Our state Assemblyman, Mike Gatto, is termed out and we have a hot election here in the 43rd district. The favored candidate is Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian, a values-driven, long-time progressive, but he's coming under all the withering fire a secret SuperPAC can provide, this one from the charter school billionaires and their puppet candidate, Laura Friedman.

- by Dorothy Reik,President, Progressive Democrats if the Santa Monica Mountains"You even spelled my name wrong!" Matt Dababneh’s voice echoed from my cell phone speaker as a crowd of Democrats gathered around while we waited to check into our hotel for the E-Board meeting. They were listening to Matt raging about one of my diatribes, one that called him out.

Bad news for conservative Democrat Cheryl Brown and his lobbyist buddiesYesterday the Courage Campaign released its report card for the California legislature-- and if you're laboring under the delusion that a Democratic majority and a Democratic governor means everything's going to be hunky-dory... a look at the scores will soon disillusion you.

An old friend of mine is running for the state Assembly. I've discouraged her and told her the legislature in Sacramento is so riven with corruption and cronyism that nothing meaningful can get done. Fortunately, she's chosen to ignore me.

TPP shill Ami BeraCorrupt conservatives-- often recruited or at least heavily supported-- by the DCCC are constantly betraying progressive values in return for campaign contributions. Few are as bad as New Dems Patrick Murphy, Sean Patrick Maloney and Gregory Meeks.

Just over three months ago, we looked at how Sacramento Democrats plan to get rid of their most corrupt member, state Senator Isadore Hall, by backing him for an open congressional seat. Hall, who just became a state senator last year, won a special election when just 7% of the voters in his district chose to participate.

In the House there are currently almost no Republicans voting more progressively than even the most right-wing Democrats and there aren't many Democrats voting as far to the right as even the most moderate Republican.