Courage Campaign

California is a blue state but the Republican wing of the Democratic Party is very strong in the state. There are 46 California Democrats serving in the House. Believe me, they're not all like Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu, Ro Khanna or Judy Chu.

I don't follow the California state legislature as closely as I should. My excuse is that I'm too busy watching Congress and don't have the time. Luckily, here in California we have the Courage Campaign doing to job for us. This week they released their latest assessment of how the individual members of the state legislature are doing.

Overall, Jim Frazier is the worst Democrat in the California AssemblyYesterday, the Courage Campaign released their annual ratings of California legislators. I don't follow the state legislature as carefully as I follow Congress, so I find the Courage Campaign's work invaluable... even if I don't agree with everything. I'm guessing they base their ratings strictly on votes-- as ProgressivePunch does. That excuses bad behavior and poor leadership.

California needs more progressives like Senate President Kevin de León and fewer shady corporate shills like Gavin NewsomWonderful blue California, right? Well... yes, at least compared to the country as a whole. Hillary won the state's 55 electoral votes 8,753,788 (61.73%) to 4,483,810 (31.62%). She won the dozen most populous counties in the state; the only population center Trump won was the Bakersfield area. But California's legislature...

I only ever had one argument with Keith Ellison. He wanted the Congressional Progressive Caucus to endorse Patrick Murphy when Murphy first ran for Congress against war criminal Allen West in 2012. I pointed out that Murphy was a rich, spoiled, drunken Republican without a single Democratic value-- let alone progressive value-- in his simple, fogged little mind. Ellison didn't dispute the obvious but claimed that Murphy would take direction from him.

- 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.

Nanette Barragán and HUD Secretary Julián Castro talking about bringing federal resources to CaliforniaThe other day I heard KPCC interviewing California's new Assembly Speaker, Anthony Rendon. He sounded great, especially on the environment.

I was so happy to see that Paul Song had been elected to a non-profit board I serve on. Friday was our annual meeting and I got to meet him in person. He's done an incredible job as Executive Chairman of another organization, Courage Campaign. He started running Courage when Rick Jacobs, the founder, became Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles.