Rep. John Garamendi

House Democratic leaders have recommended Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, be appointed to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The House Democratic Steering Committee has also voted to place Garamendi on the Science and Technology Committee.

The full House Democratic caucus is expected to ratify the appointments when it reconvenes.

Garamendi, like his predecessor, Ellen Tauscher, will be the only Northern California representative on the transportation panel.

Congress is scheduled to reauthorize its national transportation spending blueprint in the next year. The legislation typically contains formulas that spell out the return of gas tax dollars to states. Committee members have considerable influence over its contents as well as earmarks for specific projects.

Garamendi was elected to District 10 on Nov. 3. The district includes Walnut Creek, Lamorinda, Livermore and smaller segments of Solano and Sacramento counties.

Read on for Garamendi’s press release on the subject.

Read the rest of this entry »

Miller

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, has been in Pakistan the last few days and he sent this report this morning:

With the excitement of passing the health care reform bill still echoing in my ears, I left Washington on Monday night for Pakistan — my third trip in a year to this region that is so important to American security interests.

Along with three other members of Congress, we came here to review the effort against the Taliban, who continue to attack our troops in Afghanistan, to look into the extent to which the Pakistani government is willing to be helpful to the United States, and to check on the effectiveness of restrictions that Congress put on the use of American military aid by the Pakistan military.  The previous Administration was letting Pakistani generals use our money like their personal piggybank. It appears now that there are better controls and the money is being used to train the military and fight the Taliban.

We arrived in Pakistan at 2:00 am Wednesday (local time). We started our meetings with the U.S. Ambassador and American intelligence officials for a briefing on efforts to find and destroy the Taliban in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. We also met with the Pakistani Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to discuss the impact of American efforts in Afghanistan and the impact on Pakistan. There seems to be a split in the government about the likelihood of the success of our efforts.  We finished by having dinner with a friend from the lawyers’ movement that took to the streets earlier this year to save democracy in Pakistan from a corrupt Supreme Court and a military dictator. As you may know, they were successful in getting rid the corrupt judges and the dictator.  New elections were held, at great personal risk to those involved.

Thursday morning we took a helicopter for an hour north of Islamabad to Peshawar to visit a displaced persons camp. Since the fighting began last year almost 2.5 million Pakistanis have been forced to leave their homes due to the violence. We met with refugees and humanitarian workers.

It was very hard to see so many families and children forced to live in such distress. The international aid community does an unbelievable job to help these people.  We were fortunate to be able to deliver over $400,000 in medical supplies from the people of the United States for the displaced Pakistanis. We were also able to deliver invaluable medical pressure packs that have been remarkable in savings the lives of our troops and civilians injured by roadside bombs and other explosives. Our delivery came none too soon; as we were doing this, a bomb killed 3 people while we were in Peshawar, a grim reminder of the daily threat to civilians’ lives here.

With additional security we continued our meetings with government officials and then flew back to Islamabad to meet with USAID representatives to discuss building schools for girls and training teachers so young people will have an alternative to the Madrassas (schools) set up by the Jihadists.  It was a very long day but we learned a lot and I think we did some good in a tough part of the world with a lot of violence and suffering.  Leaving Pakistan at 2:00 am local time to return to the States.

I just hung up after two hours of listening to health care telephone town hall forums  hosted by reps. George Miller, D-Martinez, and Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton.

McNerney’s office reports 5,000 callers on the line for the discussion, while Miller says he had about 1,500 respond tonight and about the same number last night.

What’s a telephone town hall? It’s an automated system that puts out calls to a congressmember’s constituents and invites them to participate in a large conference call. The legislator takes questions and everyone on the call hears the questions and the answers.

McNerney answered about a dozen questions while Miller addressed about 20. (Why the difference? Miller’s staff did not interupt the call repeatedly with the congressman’s office phone numbers and instructions on how to get a tour of the White House. But I digress.)

Callers could also leave questions on a voice mail system at the end of the telephone town hall. Miller’s office receive about 100 messages on Tuesday night and expects a similar number tonight. The legislative staffers will transcribe the questions,find the answers and return the calls in the next few days.

Of all the calls to both congressmen, only about 10 expressed outright opposition to the Democrats’ bill and a similar  number said they favored the legislation. The others asked a variety of questions and may or may not have been critics of the bill.

As chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Miller is one of the principal authors of the legislation and he clearly had very strong grasp on the details of the 1,000-page bill.

Questions ranged from how the legislation will impact small businesses and skepticism about its promise of reduced costs and greater access. The legislators heard from folks concerned about the future of Medicare, too, and Miller repeatedly reassured them that the new bill will have little to no impact on the national insurance for the elderly.

Miller also directly addressed the controversy over the rowdy eruptions  at many of his colleague’s health care town hall meetings across the country.

Knowing that people were potentially planning to come and disrupt any town hall meetings he might have held, Miller told those on the call that he switched to the telephone town hall format so that he could hear from his constituents and answer their questions rather than subject folks to a mob intent on shutting down the debate and attracting television cameras.

He said much the same to me earlier in the day when I met with him in his office to talk about health care.

And frankly, anyone who thinks Miller is hiding from his critics on this issue doesn’t know the guy.

Miller

McNerney

I arrived at the office this morning to find a half-dozen voice mail messages on my machine full of criticism of reps. Jerry McNerney and George Miller for the legislators’ failure to host town hall meetings on health care reform.

It’s a curious thing. Other than Lafayette resident Jason Bezis, who repeatedly smacked former Rep. Ellen Tauscher over what he viewed as her skimpy town hall schedule, I have never had calls demanding town hall meetings.

Ironically, Miller and McNerney are among the most accessible members of Congress in the Bay Area. Miller frequently holds town hall meetings and McNerney has hosted more than 50 “Congress on Your Corner” events.

So, what’s up?

The health care furor is this year’s keynote issue in the traditional public relations blitz known as Congress’ summer recess, where representatives travel home to their districts and attempt to sell or thwart the latest policy. (Does anyone remember the Republicans’ plan to privatize Social Security?)

But the level of vitriol related to health care has clearly exceeded what most of would consider civilized public  discourse. National news sources such as the New York Times and MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow are abuzz with reports of orchestrated, GOP-endorsed, extremist behavior among opponents of the Democrats’ health care reform package such as a Maryland representative hung in effigy and a talking points memo that outlines harrassment methods.

No wonder Miller and McNerney have no wish to stand up at a local school gym or a church hall and face an angry mob intent on shutting down discussion rather than promoting debate. A hostile confrontation might make for good television footage but does little to advance the public’s understanding of this highly complex issue.

Instead, the congressmen are planning to hold telephone-style town hall meetings where neither they nor the attendees have physical contact with each other. (Contact the members’ offices for the times, which have not been finalized.)

Elected officials like tele-town halls because hundreds, if not thousands, of people can call in, ask questions and listen to the discussion. Compare that with a a physical town hall, which is limited by the large geography of Congressional districts and, in this care, carries the potential for major disruptions.

Critics dislike them because congressional staffers screen the callers and block people they view as hostile extremists and it does little good to carry protest signs because no one can see them.

But Miller and McNerney should take care not to alienate constituents based on the false assumption that all opponents of the Democrats’ health care package are mindless Rush Limbaugh dittoheads.

“I work in the health care industry and I am adamantly opposed to the Democrats’ proposal,” said an angry  voter in the district who wants face-time with McNerney. “But I’m not some mindless puppet of a Sean Hannity or a Rush Limbaugh and it’s insulting to be categorized as some kind of nut job because I disagree with what the Democrats are doing. I have legitimate issues to discuss and I want the opportunity to make them to my elected representative.”

San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson

San Ramon mayoral and council candidates in the Nov. 3 election will face voluntary campaign spending limits of $33,919 or $1 per registered voter. See Contra Costa Times reporter Sophia Kazmi’s story here.

What? San Ramon has an election this year? Yep, it’s the last odd-year election holdout in Contra Costa County. The rest of the cities consolidated with even-year elections, largely because it costs less to run an election in conjunction with other entities due to cost-sharing.

Mayor Abram Wilson is up for re-election along with councilmembers Dave Hudson and Jim Livingstone.

Wilson has said he will seek re-election and he has also said he will run again for state Assembly in 2010. Wilson, a Republican, is the city’s first directly elected mayor and he has never faced significant opposition. But it  one wonders if the Democratic Party will attempt to field an opponent in the mayoral contest in an effort to weaken Wilson’s chances for success in the Assembly.

Pete McCloskey

A film on the life of former California Congressman Pete McCloskey, the charismatic war veteran from the Bay Area who famously ran for president against Richard Nixon, will air on KQED public television next month.

The first showing is July 5 at p.m. Click here for KQED’s full airing schedule.

Filmmaker Robert Caughlan has been working on “Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front” film for several years but his 81-year-old subject refused to slow down long enough for Caughlan to finish it. First, the former politician decided to run for Congress against Richard Pombo in 2006 and then McCloskey, an environmental lawyer, took on a high-profile case.

Caughlan’s efforts were further complicated with the death last year of the film’s narrator, Paul Newman.

I met McCloskey for the first time in 2006 when he ran for Congress and found him to be an extraordinarily charming man. I visited McCloskey at his Rumsey property, where he persuaded me to interview him while I drove a tractor through his orange grove. The tractor’s bucket was loaded with horse manure and he walked ahead of me and talked while he threw shovelfuls of the stuff onto his trees.

I also got to know Caughlan during that time period and found him a personable and good-humored foil to McCloskey’s sometimes mercurial personality. I had the chance at the time to see pieces of the McCloskey film that were adapted for use during the campaign.

I’m looking forward to seeing the final version. Someone remind me to set my DVR!

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo

Flanked by close friend and ally Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, received nothing but bipartisan praise and encouragement at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this morning.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO FILE OF THE 90-MINUTE HEARING.

Tauscher has been nominated for a State Department job as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security. The full Senate confirmation vote has not been scheduled but it is generally expected to occur before Congress leaves for summer break.

House Majority Leader and Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, spoke on Tauscher’s behalf and in the audience was her fiance, father and numerous friends.

Committee Chairman and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., touted Tauscher’s extensive experience as a member of the House Armed Services Committee and cited what he called his tremendous personal and professional respect for the California congresswoman’s expertise.

But the most significant sign of bipartisan support came from Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a lawmaker who passionately promotes U.S. policies that help reduce worldwide threats from weapons of mass destruction.

Tauscher’s new job entails work on the next generation nuclear arms treaty with Russia, the development of a worldwide treaty on the containment of fissile nuclear materials, protection of sensitive technology, and nuclear nonproliferation policies particularly as they pertain to North Korea and Iran.

While few things in politics are done until they are done, Tauscher’s confirmation appears highly likely given the tone and tenor of this morning’s 90-minute hearing.

Once Tauscher is confirmed and she resigns her position in the 10th Congressional District, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will call for a special election to select her replacement.

CLICK HERE TO READ TAUSCHER’S WRITTEN COMMENTS THIS MORNING.

CLICK HERE TO READ KERRY’S OPENING STATEMENTS

CLICK HERE TO READ LUGAR’S OPENING STATEMENTS.

We’re hearing that Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who was nominated earlier this month by President Barack Obama to serve as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, will have a confirmation hearing Tuesday, June 9 before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There hasn’t been much talk of opposition to her taking the post, and so confirmation would probably follow within a few weeks.

CD-10 candidates… start your engines.

As Lisa has reported, the first of the potentially two-part special election to replace Tauscher, D-Alamo, in Congress will take place about two months after she resigns from the seat. If a candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote, he or she will win the seat outright; if not, the top voter-getter in each party will compete in a runoff about two months later.

Bay Area folks who watched President Barack Obama’s press conference this morning on healthcare reform saw a familiar face standing directly behind the president’s right shoulder, that of Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. (I pasted a link to an MSNBC video of the press conference below.)

Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, is among the top House leaders involved in negotiations over changes in the nation’s healthcare system. Miller also appears in this New York Times blog piece today. The Times wrote, in part:

For the third straight day, the public focus of the White House was health care on Wednesday. A private meeting with the president and House leaders was intended to culminate the discussions among business leaders and health care providers about the urgent need to make changes to the system.

Mr. Obama said bringing down the cost of health care was critical to controlling the country’s debt. He sought to preempt Republican criticism of the cost of his health care plan – and how he would pay for it – by calling it an essential step in reducing lowering the deficit.

Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord

The Contra Costa County Central Labor Council, which represents 90 unions, sent out today its official endorsement of Sen. Mark DeSaulnier for the 10th congressional district.

Word of the council’s decision leaked out a few days ago although it was interesting to learn that the council also interviewed Lt. Governor John Garamendi, who has expressed serious interest in the race but has not officially said he would run.

DeSaulnier has been extraordinarily successful in locking down early endorsements in this race to replace Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who is still waiting official U.S. Senate confirmation of her new job as Under Secretary for Arms Control. A special election will be held later this year after Tauscher resigns.

DeSaulnier already has the blessing of Tauscher and Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, as well as the support of the Contra Costa Building Trades. While these endorsements cannot guarantee victory, they can translate into both campaign dollars and boots on the ground when it comes time to walk precincts and conduct get-out-the-vote activities.

Here is the council’s full statement:

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL ENDORSES DESAULNIER FOR CONGRESS

MARTINEZ, CA – The Contra Costa County Central Labor Council has unanimously endorsed Senator Mark DeSaulnier for California’s 10th Congressional District.

DeSaulnier seeks to succeed Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher should the seat become available.

In a special meeting, assembled delegates of the Council’s more than 90 affiliated unions heard from potential candidates. Senator DeSaulnier and Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi spoke to the assembled representatives before the vote.

Recounting the presentations from the potential candidates, Pam Aguilar, Executive Director of the Council remarked, “Mark understands the needs of workers in this district and has always fought to
maintain the wages and working conditions of the moms and dads trying to keep the mortgage current and food on the table.

“He knows that stronger workers in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano mean stronger communities and a better economy for all Americans. We are confident that he will put those values to work in Washington.”

Read the rest of this entry »