Jim Kellogg, a veteran California labor leader and chairman of the California Fish and Game Commission, will be honored as “Labor Leader of the Year” by the Contra Costa Building Trades and Contra Costa Central Labor councils.

The Discovery Bay resident was characteristically modest about the award.

“There are an awful lot of people out there more deserving but I am honored,” said Kellogg, the international representative with the United Association of Journeyman and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada.

He will be recognized at the 2010 Labor 2 Labor Dinner on Sept. 17 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 45 John Glenn Drive, in Concord. A n0-host reception begins at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Jerry Brown has been invited to deliver the keynote speech.

Others scheduled to receive honors include a legacy award to Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez and a community services award to the Rosie the Riveter Trust. The activists of the year are HERE Local 2850 and the corporate leadership award will go to the Crowne Plaza.

Tickets are $150 per person. To purchase or for more information, call 925-228-0161.

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Congressional District 11 Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney and GOP challenger David Harmer are in a statistical dead heat, according to a poll released late last night.

The New York-based American Action Forum, a conservative policy think tank led by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, surveyed 4,000 likely general voters in 10 western Congressional districts including 400 each in districts 11 and 47 in California. (Check out Hotline’s analysis of the overall survey results.)

The poll was conducted on Aug. 23-29 by Ayres McHenry Associates Inc. The likely voters were selected randomly and the pollster factored for age and  gender and minimally weighted for party. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent. Click here to view American Action Forum’s press release and view links to the polling memos for each district.

Among the 400 likely voters surveyed in District 11, 45 percent favor Harmer while 44 percent prefer McNerney. Eleven percent are undecided.

Much of the poll is standard. The polling firm is widely respected.

But some the poll questions clearly come from a conservative viewpoint and contain loaded terminology, particularly those that deal with McNerney’s record on earmarks, cap and trade and health care legislation. For example, in one of the questions, the pollster asks if the following information would make the respondent more or less likely to vote for McNerney: “He voted for card check, which would eliminate secret ballots for employees in union elections, and has received over $700,000 in campaign contributions from big labor.” Click here to read the questions.

The pollsters asked no questions of respondents about whether Harmer’s positions on issues  would make them more or less likely to vote for him, or if they did, they did not include them in the materials posted on the Web site.

The poll is somewhat skewed toward the right, with 48 percent of respondents identifying themselves as Republican while only 37 percent called themselves Democrats. The actual party registration gap between the two major parties is less than 1 percentage point.

On the other hand, McNerney does not fare well in these numbers. When asked to choose between the two candidates, McNerney’s GOP challenger came within one percentage point  even though 74 percent of those surveyed had never heard of Harmer or had no opinion of him.

Unhappy about the economy and persistent unemployment, 73 percent of those surveyed in the 11th District say the nation is on the wrong track and unfortunately for McNerney, voters may well be looking for someone to blame in November.

In other findings:

• 57 percent view the economy as the most important issue facing the country, far surpassing any of the other choices.  The closest result was 8 percent who view government spending and the federal deficit as the most critical issue.
• 26 percent say the factor most likely to affect their choice for Congress is creating new jobs, 26 percent, followed by controlling government spending at 23 percent.
• 51 percent oppose federal health care reform legislation signed into law while 40 percent support it.
• 53 percent have never heard of Harmer, while only 7 percent have no knowledge of McNerney.
• 35 percent say McNerney deserves re-election, while 52 percent say it is time to elect someone new.
• Half the respondents identified themselves as very or somewhat conservative, 27 percent as moderates and 20 percent as liberals.

The respective national partisan organizations had this to say about the poll.

“The more California voters learn about David Harmer’s support for outsourcing American jobs, privatizing Social Security and eliminating public schools, the more it’ll become clear just how out of touch David Harmer is,” said Andy Stone, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“It’s no surprise that Jerry McNerney finds himself in a tough battle for reelection,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Joanna Burgos. “California families have clearly had enough of McNerney’s support for the job-killing Obama-Pelosi agenda and know that David Harmer is the only candidate in the race who has what it takes to put Californians back to work.”

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As per usual, there was a lot more to the story of tonight’s semi-epic debate between U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican senatorial nominee Carly Fiorina debate than I could fit into the story for tomorrow’s editions, so here’s some of the rest.

Asked about the minor flap in which she had reprimanded a general testifying before Congress to call her “Senator” rather than the military honorific “ma’am,” Boxer said “people absolutely have a right to criticize me for anything I do” but she’d thought it appropriate that they address each other by their proper titles. She said she called the general afterward and asked whether she should apologize, and he said that wasn’t necessary. Fiorina said she was “pleased to hear” that Boxer and the general had that conversation.

The candidates were asked about a federal judge’s decision declaring unconstitutional Proposition 8 of 2008, California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, and about inequalities same-sex couples experience under federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Fiorina said she believes marriage is only between a man and a woman, but supports civil unions for same-sex couples; DOMA was passed with bipartisan support, she noted, while “the voters were quite clear about their views” in passing Prop. 8 and to have one judge overturn those views “seems perhaps not appropriate.” Boxer said our system of government relies on the courts acting as a check on legislation, and she believes “people are coming around to see” that marriage equality is a matter of equal civil rights.

Boxer was asked about her reputation as being more partisan and less able to work across the aisle than her fellow California senator, Dianne Feinstein; she replied that she has cosponsored about 500 Republican bills, and worked with Republicans to pass legislation enabling afterschool programs and helping veterans.

“We both need to run on our records and I am proud to run on my record at HP,” Fiorina replied, calling Boxer’s record “long on talk and very short on achievement” because of her partisanship; she noted that climate-change legislation that Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, had idenfitied as a top priority was taken out of her hands and given instead to U.S. Sen. John Kerry, who has more of a reputation for working across the aisle. “I think it’s telling that her bitter partisanship prevented her from getting her top priority accomplished.”

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September is National Voter Registration Month and would-be voters are reminded to fill out the paperwork before the Oct. 18 registration deadline.

“Californians have just a few weeks left to register to vote in the Nov. 2 general election, but there’s no need to wait,” said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, the state’s chief elections officer. “Registering takes only a few moments and National Voter Registration Month is the perfect time to mark the task off your ‘to-do’ list.”

People may register to vote in California if they are United States citizens, reside in California, are at least 18 years old by Election Day, are not in prison or on parole for a felony conviction and have not been judged by a court to be mentally incompetent.

A voter must re-register to vote after changing names, permanent residence or political party choice.

Voters who want to check their registration status should check out a new feature on the Secretary of State’s website — www.sos.ca.gov/elections/registration-status/index.htm — for a list of county Web sites and phone numbers dedicated to registration verification.

People who would like to register to vote may fill out a form online at www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/, print, sign and mail it. Californians may also pick up a voter registration form at any county elections office, public library or U.S. post office.

Voter registration forms, vote-by-mail applications and the Secretary of State’s “Guide to Voting” can be found in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_multi.htm.

Voters who wish to cast their ballots by mail and have not requested a vote-by-mail ballot have until Oct. 26 to make that request.

To request a vote-by-mail ballot, a voter can use the application printed on the sample ballot booklet mailed by his or her county elections official or go to www.sos.ca.gov/elections/vote-by-mail/pdf/fill-in-vote-by-mail-app-instruct.pdf.

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Secretary of State Debra Bowen today cleared a Sacramento man to take a second crack at putting before California voters an initiative that would bar the state’s gigantic public employee pension funds from investing in companies engaged in certain business activities in Israel.

The Attorney General’s official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

PROHIBITS STATE RETIREMENT FUNDS FROM INVESTING IN COMPANIES ENGAGED IN CERTAIN BUSINESS ACTIVITIES IN ISRAEL. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires the Public Employees’ Retirement System and State Teachers’ Retirement System to identify investments in companies that do business related to the construction or maintenance of Israeli settlements, including those in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, or that provide military supplies and services to Israel. Requires retirement funds to urge these companies to stop these business activities, and, subject to fund fiduciary responsibilities, to divest from companies still engaged in these activities. Prohibits retirement funds from making new investments in these companies. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: Potential increase in state and local government pension contributions, the amount of which would vary from negligible to more significant based on how this measure’s divestiture requirements are interpreted and implemented. (10-0020.)

Proponent Chris Yatooma has until Jan. 31 to collect 433,971 valid petition signatures from registered voters in order to place the divestiture measure on the 2012 presidential primary ballot.

According to this Examiner article from earlier this year, Yatooma had tried earlier this year to gather enough signatures to put the measure on this November’s ballot, apparently to no avail.

“We believe the ballot measure is needed so Californians may express their displeasure with Israel’s illegal settlements and Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” says Yatooma’s Israel Divestiture Campaign website. “We hope California will be the first state to apply a comprehensive divestment strategy that other states will follow. This divestment approach looks to mirror the divestment strategy embodied by the worldwide anti-apartheid movement that toppled white rule in South Africa.”

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) manages retirement benefits for more than 1.6 million California public employees, retirees, and their families; its investment portfolio’s market value was $200 billion as of June 30. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) had 847,833 total members and beneficiaries and investments with a market value of about $118.9 billion as of mid-2009.

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Here is a roundup of political events and news:

Concord

The two candidates vying for California’s 15th Assembly District, Democratic Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan and GOP challenger and San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson, have agreed to debate on Sept. 10.

Organized by the Contra Costa Council, the candidates will answer questions from a moderator and the audience at a luncheon set for 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at Round Hill Country Club, 3169 Round Hill Road, in Alamo.

Lisa Vorderbrueggen, political columnist and reporter for the Contra Costa Times, will moderate the discussion.

Event co-hosts are the Engineering and Utility Contractors Association and IBEW Local 302, and the sponsor is AT&T.

The cost is $35 for members and $45 for nonmembers.

For reservations, call 925-246-1880 or fax 925-674-1654 by noon on Sept. 7. Visit www.contracostacouncil.com for more details.

The Contra Costa Council is a nonpartisan private sector, public policy organization with a membership that includes business, government, education and labor.

Livermore

GOP candidates invited to meet-up: All Republican Candidates for federal, state and local offices have invited to a Livermore ranch for a Sept. 25 meet-and-greet and fundraiser sponsored by the Alameda County Republican Party.

The 2010 Republican Roundup features a barbecue and live music on a working cattle ranch overlooking the Livermore hills. Invited candidates, who have not necessarily confirmed their attendance, include all GOP nominees from the U.S. Senate to governor and other statewide offices, along with Congress and the California Legislature.

The event will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at the Rao Ranch on Mines Road in Livermore. Owner Robert Rao ran for the Assembly in 2008.

To RSVP, contact the Alameda County Republican Party at 510-638-3414 or info@alamedagop.org.

Pleasanton

The office of Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, is accepting internship applications.

Students interested in public policy, civics and government are encouraged to apply for the unpaid positions in his Stockton, Pleasanton and Washington, D.C., offices. Interns may also be eligible for academic credits.

College and postgraduate students are eligible to apply for any of his three offices. Applications from high school students are considered on a case-by-case basis for internships in the Stockton and Pleasanton offices.

To apply for a position in either the Stockton or Pleasanton office, mail or fax a cover letter and resume to the respective office. Mail delivery to D.C. is delayed due to security, so applicants are encouraged to fax a cover letter and resume.

The addresses and telephone numbers are as follows:

Stockton Office, Attn: Staff Assistant, 2222 Grand Canal Blvd., No. 7, Stockton, CA 95207. Phone 209-476-8552 or fax 209-476-8587.

Pleasanton Office, Attn: Staff Assistant, 5776 Stoneridge Mall Road, No. 175, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Phone 925-737-0727 or 408-744-0727 and fax 925-737-0734.

Washington, D.C., Attn: Staff Assistant. Phone 202-225-1947 and fax 202-225-4060.

Richmond

Contra Costa Supervisor John Gioia, of Richmond, seeks volunteers for the 27th Annual California Coastal Cleanup at Richmond’s Marina Bay on Sept. 25.

Gioia has volunteered since 1990 and his office reports that in 2009, hundreds of volunteers helped pickup everything from tires to cigarette butts and plastic bottles along the shoreline and marsh areas.

Other event sponsors include The Watershed Project, city of Richmond, and Citizens Shoreline Response Team.

The cleanup starts at 9 a.m. and free lunch will be served to the volunteers at noon. Meet at the Shimada Friendship Park at the end of Marina Bay Parkway.

For more information, contact Kate Rauch at 510-374-3231 or kate.rauch@bos.cccounty.us.

California

September is National Voter Registration Month and voters are reminded to check their registrations or send in their applications and vote.

The registration deadline is Oct. 18 in order to vote in the Nov. 2 general election.

To be eligible to vote, a California resident must be a United States citizen, reside in California, at least 18 years old by Election Day, not in prison or on parole for a felony conviction, and have not been judged by a court to be mentally incompetent.

A voter must re-register to vote after changing names, permanent residence or political party choice.

To check registration status, take advantage of a new feature on the Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/registration-status/index.htm for a list of county Web sites and phone numbers dedicated to registration verification.

People who would like to register to vote can download a form online at www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/, print, sign and mail it. Californians can also pick up a voter registration form at any county elections office, public library or U.S. post office.

Voter registration forms, vote-by-mail applications and the Secretary of State’s “Guide to Voting” can be found in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_multi.htm.

The last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot is October 26. Use the application printed on the sample ballot booklet mailed by his or her county elections official or go to www.sos.ca.gov/elections/vote-by-mail/pdf/fill-in-vote-by-mail-app-instruct.pdf.

Sacramento

Center for Governmental Studies President Bob Stern, the former state political watchdog agency counsel who helped write the California Political Reform Act, will serve as co-chairman of a panel that will recommend changes to campaign finance laws.

Stern was appointed to the 25-member panel by the Fair Political Practices Commission to the Chairman’s Advisory Task Force.

He will lead in the panel with Republican political attorney Chuck Bell.

The panel has been asked to make the state’s complex 1974 Political Reform Act clearer and more accessible for candidates and the public, according to the FPPC.

Stern, who leads the nonpartisan Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, is the co-author of a number of campaign reform proposals, including the initiative that established the Fair Political Practices Commission. He was the commission’s first general counsel, from 1975 to 1983, and previously served as an attorney for the Assembly Elections and Reapportionment Committee and the Secretary of State’s office.

Co-chairman Chuck Bell is the senior partner of Bell, McAndrews and Hiltachk, LLP. He has practiced election and campaign law for over 30 years, and was the founding chairman of the California Political Attorneys Association.

The task force is scheduled to unveil its recommendations January and the commission hopes to place its suggested revisions on the 2012 ballot.

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My oh my. I guess I should have gone to this East County Tea Party candidate event for Congressional GOP nominee David Harmer after all.

A blogger at Patch.com wrote that a jealous husband of one of the event organizers lept onto the stage in Brentwood and put a choke hold on a man who inadvertently touched his wife’s rear. Check it out at http://danville.patch.com/articles/god-guns-and-guts-david-harmer-to-speak-at-tea-party-forum-today

As an aside, we typically don’t cover candidate events where only one candidate or candidates of only one party will speak. There are many meet-the-candidate events and too few of us. More important, of course, they rarely produce actual news, the Brentwood alternation notwithstanding. There are coverage exceptions, of course, such as the local appearances of candidates for major offices such as U.S. Senate or governor.

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A Tri-Valley Green Business Conference will be held Sept. 8 in Dublin to provide residents with information about federal, state, local and private resources to grow local green businesses.

Sponsored by Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, the conference will take place from 1:30-4 p.m. at the Shannon Community Center, 11600 Shannon Ave., in Dublin.

Speakers include Erik Stenehjem, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Industrial Partnerships Office. The office partners with the private sector to create jobs and businesses from technology developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The event will also feature a series of panel discussions with Elizabeth Echols, Region IX Administrator with the U.S. Small Business Administration and  Bob Borchers, general partner, Opus Capital.

Echols oversees SBA programs in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. She previously served as Director of the Northern California chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council as well as Director of Policy at Google.

At Opus Capital, Borchers focuses on investments in mobile applications and services as well as adjacent opportunities in both hardware and software. He previously served as Apple, Inc.’s senior director of Worldwide Product Marketing for the iPhone and has over 20 years experience in mobile and consumer marketing.

Representatives from the following organization will also be participating in the panel discussions: California Energy Commission, Tri-Valley Business Council, Workforce Incubator, Alameda County Green Business Program, and the cities of Dublin, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Livermore.

To reserve a seat, call 925-737-0727 or email ca11districtschedule@mail.house.gov.

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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca will co-chair the campaign against Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure on November’s ballot – largely honorary positions meant to leverage the pair’s widespread name recognition to mobilize votes against the initiative.

Feinstein – who had announced her opposition to the measure in July, perhaps dooming efforts to get the California Democratic Party’s executive board to endorse it – said in a news release today that the state “California will not see a single positive result if Proposition 19 passes. It is a poorly constructed initiative that will cause harm to Californians on our roadways, and in our schools, workplaces and communities. I look forward to working with Sheriff Baca to ensure we defeat Proposition 19 in November.”

Baca said the measure “places a huge burden on law enforcement. It would create a patchwork of thousands of conflicting local laws, with no state standards. I agree with Senator Feinstein that no good can come from this jumbled legal mess.”

This year’s Democratic and Republican nominees for U.S. Senate, governor and state attorney general all oppose the measure, too.

The “Yes on 19” campaign did, however, announce today the endorsement of the California Council of Churches, representing 21 denominations and 1.5 milion members from the mainstream Protestant and Orthodox Christian communities.

“Proposition 19 is the moral choice for California,” the Rev. Rick Schlosser, executive director of California Church IMPACT, the council’s affiliated lobbying and advocacy arm, said in a news release. “The prohibition of marijuana has failed. It’s created a culture of criminality around a substance that is less harmful than both alcohol and tobacco, which are both legal, controlled, and taxed. Let’s control marijuana like alcohol by passing Proposition 19 in November.”

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There’s not enough room in the print editions to include all there was to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s appearance today at the Commonwealth Club of California, so I figured I’d put some of the Q&A segment – moderated by former club board chairman Bob Saldich – up here.

It was largely a friendly crowd, as one might expect from San Francisco, and the first question was about how President Barack Obama could be convinced to listen more to the advice of Nobel laureate economist and columnist Paul Krugman. Boxer said she’s not sure how to get the President on board, but for herself, “I think the Krugman idea of more stimulus is a very good idea. The question is, how do you get it to move?”

That is, any such additional stimulus would face opposition not only from Republicans, but from Democrats feeling gun-shy in advance of November’s midterm elections. Boxer added she believes it’s possible to create more jobs in a fiscally responsible way; she said none of her current proposals would add to the deficit.

Asked if she would vote to eliminate the filibuster – a parliamentary procedure used by the minority party to stymie legislation – Boxer replied that’s a “complicated question.” The founding fathers intended that the House of Representatives would move quickly on legislation while the Senate would see more deliberation and compromise, but abuse of the filibuster “has gotten out of hand” and all of Democrats’ accomplishments of the past two years – health care reform, college loan reform and others – have been made more difficult by the tactic. She said she would support reforming the filibuster so that those staging one would have to physically remain on the Senate floor for the duration, and by lowering the threshold to invoke cloture and break a filibuster from 60 votes to 55.

Asked if she still supports California’s high-speed rail project given the hardships it could impose upon neighborhoods along the route – in the Bay Area, along the Peninsula – Boxer replied she respects local governments’ role in helping to plan such projects. “We can change the routes, it’s not impossible, it’s been done before so everyone can be made happy,” she said, but a majority of Californians believe high-speed rail would be an asset and so she still supports it.

One audience member sent up a question card asking if, given Boxer’s liberal spending record, there are any government programs she would consider eliminating in order to reduce the national debt. “The biggest one would be to end the wars,” she replied, adding she’d also like to see more enforcement to avoid rip-offs by government contractors; everyone paying their fair share in taxes; and no subsidies for companies that send jobs overseas.

Boxer noted that the biggest tax cut in U.S. history was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act economic stimulus, given to working people and families rather than millionaires and billionaires.

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