Rupf

Contra Costa Country Sheriff Warren Rupf, who considered running for the 11th Congressional District himself, has endorsed Lodi grapegrower Brad Goehring in the 2010 Republican primary.

“Brad Goehring is a candidate that understands the nature of the law enforcement mission and the tools we need to accomplish it.  I trust Brad to work with local law enforcement and to be a voice for fiscal sanity and job creation in Washington DC.  I am proud to endorse Brad Goehring for the Republican nomination and as our next Congressman,” Repf said in a prepared release.

Read on for the full release from Goehring’s campaign:

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Environmentalists will hold a fundraiser next month for the state Attorney General campaign of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, right in one of his chief rivals’ backyards.

The Sunday, Dec. 9 event – for which tickets cost $100 to $500 each – will be held at the San Francisco home of environmental attorney Trent Orr and University of San Francisco Law Professor Brian Mikulak, just over two miles from the office of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who also is a Democratic primary candidate for Attorney General.

The event’s other co-chairs are Steve Block (this one, I believe) [UPDATE: It's California Coastal Commissioner Steve Blank, not Block; the initial news release contained a typo]; Stanford Law Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program director Meg Caldwell; former California Coastal Commission Chief Counsel Ralph Faust; California Coastal Commissioner Patrick Kruer; Sierra Club California Coastal Program Director Mark Massara; former Sonoma County Supervisor and former California Coastal Commission Chairman Mike Reilly; Committee for Green Foothills San Mateo County legislative advocate Lennie Roberts; California Coastal Conservancy project manager and recent Half Moon Bay City Council candidate Deborah Ruddock; California Coastal Commission Chief Counsel Hope Schmeltzer; and California Coastal Commissioner Mary Shallenberger.

Nava by June 30 of this year had raised $202,351.02 for his campaign, and hasn’t reported much in big-ticket ($5,000+) contributions since then. Harris had raised $751,675.46 by June 30, and looks to have raised at least about $240,000 more in big-ticket contributions since.

Also in the Democratic primary for Attorney General are Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Newark; Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance; former Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly; and former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. State Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, is the only declared Republican candidate.

I met with Damon Dunn, the professional athlete-turned-businessman-turned Republican candidate for Secretary of State, this morning at Tully’s Coffee in downtown Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza — but caffeine is the last thing he needed.

Dunn, 33, is a live wire, a mile-a-minute speaker drawing on his energy as a former NFL player and perhaps on the cadences of his experience as an ordained Baptist minister to explain why he’s the right choice to be California’s chief elections officer despite not only never having held an elected position before, but also never having voted in an election until this May.

In short, he said the election should be just as much about life experience, authenticity and leadership as about one’s history in office and the voting booth.

Dunn said he wants the job in part because his status as a “recovering non-voter” with a “unique posture and demographic” gives him an edge in reaching out to people – especially minorities – and convincing them to register and vote.

He also said the Secretary of State – and all statewide elected officials – should take a more activist role in improving California’s business climate in furtherance of job creation he said. As custodian of corporate records, the Secretary of State is in a particularly effective position to analyze data and make recommendations to the Legislature on tweaking tax and regulatory policy to recruit and retain business. “If you want to get more out of that office … I can do that.”

Faith is a big part of his life and he describes himself as conservative on social issues, but he said he’ll not make hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage a part of his campaign. Too many people on both sides of the aisle have done so rather than making strong cases for how they’ll do the jobs they seek, he said.

For now he’s the only Republican who has declared candidacy for this office, but if his refusal to stump on social issues causes problems for him with parts of the GOP’s base and a struggle in the primary election, so be it, Dunn said.

“If people don’t want leadership, if they want ideologues, then that’s OK … but I’m a prinicipled guy,” he said. “I’m going to continue to run a solutions-oriented campaign.”

More after the jump…
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Kramer

Nejedly

Contra Costa Community College Director John T. Nejedly has declared his intent to challenge Contra Costa County Assessor Gus Kramer.

Nejedly, son of the late state Sen. John A. Nejedly and sibling to Supervisor Mary Piepho and Central Contra Costa Sanitary District Director Jim Nejedly, had been considering a run for District Attorney but his short tenure as an attorney — he passed the bar in December 2007 — was a significant barrier.

This could get very interesting.

Kramer already had one declared opponent, Bob Brooks. And Kramer has suffered some bad publicity in the past year after a Times series chronicled allegations that the avid real estate investor misused his office for personal gain. The District Attorney’s Office has launched an investigation but Kramer has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing.

Nejedly has seen his share of negative press, too. The 14-year veteran of the college board sued his siblings after their late father disowned him, alleging they conspired to cheat him out of his share of the senator’s Walnut Creek estate. Court documents revealed Nejedly’s history of drug abuse and marital problems; Nejedly has said he has overcome those issues.

The candidates will appear on the June 2010 ballot. If any one candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote, he or she will win the seat outright. If not, the top two voter-getters will compete in a runoff in November 2010.

A few choice tidbits from today’s rollout of a proposed ballot measure to hike the state’s cigarette tax by a dollar per pack to fund cancer research, for which I didn’t have room in the article I wrote for tomorrow’s editions…

Don Perata, who said he conceived of the measure while still in the state Senate and well before being diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer earlier this year, said he’s not sure he wants to become the “face” of this campaign, a task better left to allies such as the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association. “Whatever I am, I’m still a politician. If you’re an old Catholic, it’s kind of like original sin.”

Nor will he serve on the “Californians for a Cure” campaign committee’s steering board, which will be made up of representatives from the health advocacy groups. “None of these people have vested self interests, none of these people are going to make a dime.”

Perata noted own cancer treatment seems to have been successful. “Some might question my mental health, but my physical condition is really good.”

And, from the nascent measure’s likely opponents…

From Bill Phelps, spokesman for Altria, the parent company of tobacco giant Phillip Morris USA:

“It’s important to remember that the Legislature just passed a budget a few months ago that includes more than $12 billion in tax increases, and this latest idea would raise taxes by almost a billion dollars. Given the state of the economy, we don’t think this is the time to be raising taxes again.”

From California Taxpayers’ Association communications director David Kline:

“We have not yet taken a position, but I anticipate that the California Taxpayers’ Association will oppose the measure based on our view that Californians already have been hit with major tax increases this year, and another tax increase would hurt the economy. With unemployment over 12 percent in California, we need to be looking for ways to improve the economy, not hold it back. Also, the tobacco tax is a declining revenue source, and we have historically opposed initiatives that base ongoing spending on declining revenue sources, because this is a recipe for more budget problems in the future.”

From Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal:

“We have opposed tobacco tax hikes in the past and will almost certainly oppose this one as well.”

UC Berkeley cognitive linguistics professor George Lakoff’s ballot initiative calling for the reversal of the two-thirds voting requirement for a state budget and tax increases has been cleared for the signature-gathering process.

Lakoff describes the initiative as the restoration of democracy in California, a return to majority rule and end to tyranny of the minority.

According to the Secretary of State, Lakoff will need 695,000 signatures ofregistered voters in order to qualify the initiative for the November 2010 ballot.

Read on for the full press release.

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Damon Dunn

Former NFL player and Stanford football star Damon Dunn cast his first vote ever in May.

But in the world of politics, where up is down and down is up, the wealthy, 33-year-old Irvine businessman says his status as a recovering non-voter makes him uniquely qualified to serve as the head of California’s election system.

He officially entered the 2010 Republican primary race today for California Secretary of State.

“There is no excuse; there is no justification,” he told me this afternoon via telephone. “But I have an explanation.”

Dunn was born in Texas to a 16-year-old teen-aged mother who handed him over to two sets of grandparents to raise. His father died when he was 3 years old. He grew up dirt poor. And his family never voted, a trait he emulated throughout his adult life.

“I am uniquely qualified to reach non-voters, particularly in the demographic of people who don’t vote,” said Dunn, an owner of an Irvine-based real estate firm. “I can empathize with them. They feel their votes don’t count. When was the last time (incumbent Secretary of State Debra) Bowen was in Watts or South Los Angeles or any inner-city community?”

Dunn is tackling his voting record at the same time two other major Republican candidates, Meg Whitman and Carla Fiorina, running for governor and U.S. senate respectively, are trying to combat their spotty appearances at the polls.

But it’s a big leap from casting a vote to winning statewide office. He will need money and lots of it. Despite his personal wealth, Dunn ruled out a self-financed campaign and says he is approaching donors up and down the state.

Dunn, an articulate speaker and licensed Baptist minister, says he will use the Secretary of State’s pulpit as a place to advocate for job-friendly state policies. In addition to elections and state archives, the SOS oversees the registration of all businesses in California.

“The Secretary of State can go to the industries who are leaving this state, talk to the CEOs and find out which tax policies  or regulations forced them out, then go back to the Legislature,” Dunn said.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced proponents of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for their measure:

REQUIRES PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO OFFER CHRISTMAS MUSIC. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Requires public schools to offer an opportunity for students to listen to or perform Christmas music during the holiday season. Requires schools to notify students’ parents or guardians twenty-one days before the music will be played or performed so that students can opt-out of listening to or performing the music. Provides that a civil lawsuit may be brought to enforce these requirements. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Probably minor annual costs to school districts. (09-0030.)

I see the cover letter for the initiative says it’s “allowing for Christmas music in the public schools,” and the new section of state law the measure seeks to enact would be entitled, “Freedom to Present Christmas Music in Public School Classrooms or Assemblies.”

But the measure’s actual language clearly states “shall provide opportunities to its pupils for listening to or performing Christmas music at an appropriate time of year.” (Emphasis added.)

That’s “shall” as in, “I’ll be able to sue you if you don’t.”

Proponents Merry Susan Hyatt – the cover letter says she “moved to Redding but I will keep my registration in Riverside County,” a neat trick – and David Joseph Hyatt – Merry’s brother, in Shasta County – must collect valid signatures from at least 433,971 registered voters by March 29 in order to qualify their measure for the November 2010 ballot.

S.K. Seymour LLC, the partnership that runs Oakstersdam University and its related “cannabusinesses,” last Tuesday gave $10,000 to Hope 2010, a ballot measure committee (formerly known as Leadership California) controlled by former state Senate President Pro Tem and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata. Perata in September publicly endorsed the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010,” the marijuana legalization ballot measure co-proposed by S.K. Seymour LLC partner and Oaksterdam University President Richard Lee. Hope 2010 is supporting the California Cancer Research Act, a proposed ballot measure that would raise the state’s tobacco tax to fund grants and loans for reaearch; to create, staff and equip California’s research facilities; and to boost efforts to reduce tobacco use. The measure is now awaiting preparation of its title and summary by the state Attorney General’s office; it looks like the campaign has a Web site being built but not yet ready for public viewing.

In other news, Palo Alto physicist Charles T. Munger Jr., son of Warren Buffett’s billionaire investor partner, last week put another $701,260 into his “Voters First Act for Congress” ballot measure, bringing his total so far to $1,003,030. The measure would remove authority for setting California’s 53 Congressional district boundaries from the state Legislature, and would give that authority instead to the same Citizens Redistricting Commission that will soon be setting state Legislative boundaries (as required by last year’s successful Proposition 11).

Pacific Gas & Electric on Friday put another $500,000 into its somewhat euphemistically named “Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote” committee, pushing a ballot measure which would require local governments to obtain the approval of two-thirds of their voters (rather than just a simple majority) before providing electricity to new customers or expanding such service to new territories if any public funds or bonds are involved, or before providing electricity through a community choice program if any public funds or bonds are involved. Critics say PG&E is playing on populist themes in order to block local governments from abandoning the utility giant in favor of power contracts with smaller, greener energy producers – a movement that’s been gaining steam in recent years. The proponents have until Dec. 21 to gather the 694,354 signatures needed to place this on the ballot next year. This contribution brings PG&E’s stake as the committee’s sole donor to $3.5 million so far.

And Livermore optometrist Scott Kamena on Friday put $23,000 into his own Kamena for Assembly 2008 committee, which had indicated in its mid-year report having $60,749.39 in outstanding debts. Kamena ran in the June 2008 Republican primary for the 15th Assembly District, coming in fourth behind nominee Abram Wilson and candidates Robert Rao and Judy Lloyd.

I’ll have a story in Sunday’s editions about what legalized marijuana might look like were any of the proposed ballot measures now circulating for petition signatures, or a bill now pending in the Legislature, to be enacted. In trying to characterize law enforcement’s opposition, I decided to check in with all of the candidates for California Attorney General. And, don’tcha know, all the folks who responded are dead set against legalization.

From Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Newark:

“Cannabis is a powerful medicine appropriate and necessary to treat the side effects of many serious illnesses, from HIV/AIDS to cancer. It is not, and should not be made into, a legal recreational drug or a new revenue source. We need to support the appropriate medical use of marijuana with strong new regulations and oversight of medical marijuana collectives.

“Even in the midst of this terrible fiscal crisis, the last way we want to balance our budget is by putting the state in the position of profiting from recreational drug use.”

From Brian Brokaw, campaign manager for San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, a Democrat:

“As a career prosecutor, District Attorney Harris believes that drug selling harms communities; it is not a ‘victimless crime,’ as some contend. While the D.A. supports the legal use of medicinal marijuana, she does not support the legalization of marijuana beyond that.”

From former Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly, a Democrat:

“California led the nation in passing the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Now that the U.S. Justice Department has said they will not enforce the federal law against states, we should ensure that existing state law in California on this specific issue is appropriately implemented, including building the necessary regulatory structure, before we take any next steps. Therefore, I oppose all 3 measures and the Ammiano bill.”

From Tim Rosales, campaign manager for state Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach:

“Tom Harman does not support any further liberalization of drug laws, including marijuana.”

Spokespeople for Assembly members Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, and Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, didn’t return my e-mail, nor did former Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo’s campaign.