'Top Two' Election in California next Tuesday

[desrt]

After reading up on the GOP's battle over who gets to lose to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown in November, I believe there is some validity to a recent assertion here that, "Twitter is for idiots."


http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/05/donnelly-apologizes-for-tweet-tangles-with-kashkari-adviser-on-air.html

"Republican Tim Donnelly, defending his campaign's social media posts linking rival Neel Kashkari to Islamic law, was on a conservative talk radio show Wednesday when a Kashkari adviser called into the station to protest, resulting in more than 10 minutes of unusual, head-to-head bickering and an apology by Donnelly for a tweet he acknowledged was inaccurate......Donnelly was confronted on air by Aaron McLear, a political adviser to Kashkari.

"It sounds like the assemblyman is once again a bit confused about the truth, and so I thought it'd be helpful to educate him on exactly what's going on," McLear said. "Neel Kashkari, first of all, is a Hindu, not a Muslim, as Mr. Donnelly is trying to insinuate."........."


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=312332408

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Republicans who have been trying to rebrand their party as more inclusive and attuned with the issues that Californians care about had hoped this year to offer a candidate for governor who fit that image.

Now, however, the party faces the prospect of a conservative gubernatorial nominee who is on probation for carrying a loaded gun into an airport, is accused of race-baiting and is best known for his opposition to gun control and any relaxation of immigration laws.

While Republicans do not expect to unseat Gov. Jerry Brown in November, tea party darling Tim Donnelly's rise over businessman Neel Kashkari has alarmed party leaders who worry that the assemblyman's candidacy is setting back the rebranding and could hurt other candidates on the ballot.

"He will simply drag down massive numbers of Republicans who think they are safe today," said Tony Quinn, a Republican and co-editor of the Target Book, which analyzes legislative and congressional races in the state.

Donnelly's popularity in public opinion polls ahead of the June 3 primary had already elicited concern from Republicans when he began trying to link Kashkari, who is Indian-American and Hindu, to Islamic Shariah law.

The New Majority, a moderate Republican group that includes well-heeled business leaders and other donors, said in a statement that "there is no place for this kind of divisive rhetoric in the Republican Party or American politics."

[desrt]

...........ahead of Italy and Russia.



Jerry Brown to face off with Neel Kashkari in November

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Jerry-Brown-to-face-off-with-Neel-Kashkari-in-5526962.php#/0

"Gov. Jerry Brown sailed to an expected landslide win Tuesday in the California gubernatorial primary while GOP moderate Neel Kashkari eked out a narrow second-place victory over Tea Party favorite Tim Donnelly in one of the lowest turnout elections in state history.

Kashkari's win came with the help of party heavyweights and $2 million of his own money in the first test of California's top-two primary system in the governor's race, in which the first- and second-place finishers advance to the November election, regardless of their party affiliation.

Assemblyman Donnelly, at the close of a dogged campaign run mostly on a shoestring, conceded the race at 11:45 p.m., telling disappointed grassroots supporters he had called to congratulate Kashkari, a former Treasury official.

"This journey has been incredible," he said. "Unfortunately, the numbers don't lie."

With 49.1 percent of the precincts reporting, Brown, a Democrat, dominated with 55.2 percent of the vote. Kashkari was in second place with 18.1 percent, and Donnelly was in third place with 14.7 percent of the vote.

Brown declared victory in an energetic statement delivered just 30 minutes after the polls closed outside the historic Governor's Mansion in Sacramento.

"Someone once told me you win elections the year before," said Brown, speaking to a crowd of relaxed, upbeat supporters. "What won this election tonight is curing a $27 billion deficit, keeping my promise not to raise taxes unless the people themselves voted for it, and bringing government closer to the people."

In the liberal Bay Area, the returns showed Donnelly taking a surprising lead over Kashkari for the second-place spot in San Francisco, Contra Costa, Alameda, Solano, Napa, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.

Earlier, Donnelly addressed supporters in the historic and trendy Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, just steps from the Walk of Fame.

'Fear and trembling'

"Until you have stood for election and until that clock strikes eight, you will never know the absolute fear and trembling," the Assemblyman from Twin Peaks told them. "Your heart is caught up in your mouth and you just pray that everything you think is going well did."

Kashkari told about 40 supporters gathered in Corona del Mar (Orange County) that he expected a "long night," but said he received a call from 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, an endorser, who was "very encouraging" about the outcome.

The contentious second-place contest between Kashkari and Donnelly was seen as a crucial test of the Tea Party strength in November - coming a week after voters rejected Tea Party candidates for more mainstream Republicans in Kentucky, Georgia and Oregon.

Both Republican candidates struggled to make themselves known to most voters in California, where the turnout was anemic in an election lacking any big dramatic contests or crucial ballot measures.

But the June primary laid bare the ideological divide and sometimes bitter intra-party battles that have shrunk the embattled state GOP to a minority in both houses of the Legislature and just 28 percent of registered voters.

Kashkari, a first-generation Indian American and first-time political candidate, aimed to downplay his profile as a pro-choice, pro-gay-marriage candidate who admitted voting for Barack Obama in 2008.

Bailout administrator

His experience as a former Goldman Sachs banker who became the administrator of the federal $700 billion bailout of Wall Street - known as TARP, or the Troubled Asset Relief Program - presented a daunting challenge with a GOP primary electorate that was historically older, whiter and more conservative, and that did not favor the bailout.

Kashkari offered a pared-down platform of "jobs and education. That's it" - and promised Republicans to deliver on two goals: beating Brown in November and reshaping the embattled California Republican Party into a Reaganesque "big tent."

Donnelly's campaign, fueled by grassroots passion and defiant conservatism - as well as a penchant for headline-making - panicked the GOP establishment. Party leaders across the country issued warnings that the election of a gun-rights advocate who was a co-founder of the California Minutemen, a self-styled border patrol group, would irreparably damage the party's chances in November if he were the party's standard-bearer in November.

The staunchly antiabortion and hard-line conservative Donnelly celebrated the Second Amendment, urged grassroots Republicans to "stop compromising" in battles against the Common Core standards in public education and environmental climate change legislation, and promised to do away with regulations and make California "the sexiest place" to do business.

But Kashkari, as second-place winner, will face what most political observers say is a quixotic quest to take on Brown, who appears all but assured of victory in November - thanks to robust popularity and a $20 million campaign war chest.

Still, even with his robust showing, the governor said Tuesday he was loath to predict a shoo-in for a historic fourth term.

Voters' 'choice'

"Well I think the other party, although it is slipping, still has an opportunity to present an alternative candidate," Brown said. "And then I think the people will have a choice - and I think that is good."

Kashkari, with the help of a veteran team of GOP operatives, promoted himself as a political game-changer by visiting homeless shelters and working in California's strawberry fields - places he said GOP stalwarts rarely go.

By contrast, Donnelly, sans entourage, crisscrossed the state in 18-hour days in a well-worn 2002 Toyota Sequoia, delighting conservative gatherings and GOP grassroots events.

Kashkari attracted independent expenditure help from a host of wealthy friends, including Republican mega-donor Charles Munger - who put in $350,000 to help introduce Kashkari to voters in TV spots. The wealthy former executive for Pimco, or Pacific Investment Management Co., initially promised that he would not self-fund his campaign.

But for months, he failed to get traction against Donnelly's grassroots effort and he shifted strategies, sinking an estimated 40 percent of his stated $5 million wealth into his campaign. He bought TV spots and targeted his GOP counterpart in mail attacks.

Kashkari's mailers reminded GOP voters, among other things, that Donnelly was still on probation for a 2012 conviction for trying to bring a loaded gun onto a plane - after he said he forgot that it was in his carry-on bag.

But in his largely one-man campaign, Donnelly himself was responsible for some of the most damaging headlines. A post on Donnelly's Facebook page that suggested that Kashkari, a Hindu, supported Islamic Shariah law drew widespread condemnation.

And after a newspaper dug up a 2006 speech to anti-illegal-immigration Minutemen in which he referred approvingly to the number of Mexicans killed at the Alamo, Donnelly was anything but apologetic, saying, "People will respect you if you stick to your guns."

By the finish, the total funding spent by Kashkari and Donnelly barely registered in California, where Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman spent $109 million battling each other in the GOP primary four years ago.

[teko]

(jungle primary), is a good term that describes all of em imo! lol

[brice1967]

Can't you write in a candidate?

[orphanedhawk]

I so wish I could vote for 'none of the above'.

[desrt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpartisan_blanket_primary

"A nonpartisan blanket primary, usually referred to as the "Open Primary" concept and used in Louisiana, Washington, and California, is a primary election in which all candidates for elected office run in the same primary regardless of political party. It is also known as a qualifying primary, top-two primary, Louisiana primary, Cajun primary or jungle primary.

Under this system, the two candidates receiving the most votes advance to the next round, as in a runoff election in a two-round system. (In some cases, this second round of voting is only necessary if no candidate receives an overall majority on the initial ballot.) However, there is no separate party nomination process for candidates before the first round, and parties cannot thin the field using their own internal processes (such as a convention). Similarly, it is entirely possible that two candidates of the same party could advance to the second round. It reduces the election cycle cost in campaign costs and balloting costs, as there are two elections but no partisan primaries............"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gubernatorial_election,_2014

"The 2014 California gubernatorial election will take place on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor of California. Incumbent Democratic Governor Jerry Brown is running for re-election to a second consecutive and fourth overall term in office. Although Governors are limited to lifetime service of two terms in office, Brown previously served as Governor from 1975 to 1983 and the law only affects terms served after 1990.

A primary election will be held on June 3, 2014. Under California's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates will appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. The top two finishers — regardless of party — advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate manages to receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary election. Louisiana and Washington are the only other states with this system, a so-called "jungle primary".

[teko]

All this rebranding talk? Yeah, well it was all talk it turns out. They may pick up seats in November, but trying to win a national election with some of these goofballs. Good luck!