The Republican’s have called for a repeal of almost every piece of legislation passed by Democrats, which is, of course, no surprise.  But what about the Democrats own Progressive base?  As Chuck Todd says, why does each major legislative victory for Obama seem to push his poll numbers down and not create any political capital?  Progressive leaders continue to speak out against many legislations, arguing that they usually don’t go far enough.  Are Progressives expecting too much from Obama?  Is Obama letting Progressives down?  Is there a fight between the Democratic Party’s more moderate establishment wing against it’s left leaning base?

Chuck Todd fills in for Chris Matthews on today’s edition of Hardball and talks politics with Jonathon Alter from Politico and Katrina Vanden Heuvel from The Nation Magazine:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As Chuck Todd says its never too early to talk about the 2012 presidential election and who will be the GOP nominee to run against Obama. Chuck Todd talks with Jonathon Martin of Politico and the always animated Chris Cillizza from The Washington Post on this topic next:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

November Preview

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Interview with Jerry Brown

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Prop 14 establishes an open primary in California. Essentially, it will be like having two general elections. The first general election is a “qualifying round” where only the top 2 candidates with the most votes in each race will face off in the November general election, regardless of party affiliation. So potentially two Democrats or two Republicans could battle it out in a November election for the their respective seats.

Check out this MSNBC video on the passage of Prop 14.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Interestingly enough, both the Democratic and Republican Parties both staunchly opposed this proposition and for good reason. Sure, it weakens the major parties and they have self-preservation to think about (especially the Republicans), but also because its really just a bad idea.

You all of a sudden have two general elections to run. Running campaigns in California is expensive and when you have to talk to everyone in the state, the numbers add up really fast. Primary elections are usually cheaper because they only target their party affiliates. But now they will have to do the entire state twice.

Now, some people think this may be a good thing because it will force candidates to moderate themselves to appeal to all of California, thus, becoming more democratic. But people are really only thinking of the big ticket races and don’t see how this is actually wholly undemocratic because it actually encourages deal making and a smaller candidate field.

Votes are a finite resource. There are only so-many votes in California to fight over and when you have everyone and their mother fighting for votes in an open primary, you essentially shrink everyone’s piece of the pie. You then end up with situations where there top 2 vote getters in a race only represent a small percentage of the entirety of the region or district. Now that youre thinking about that, think about this…

Picture a place like Orange County. We all know the OC is filled with Republican voters. Many more Republicans than Democrats. But in a place like this under this system, an election involving the OC in its district could easily end up going Democrat. Sure, as Democrats we would love to see this, but think about how un-democratic this is. If there were five candidates in a race, 2 Dems and 3 GOPs and votes were distributed roughly evenly among their party affiliates, you would end up with a situation where the top 2 vote getters in orange county are actually the 2 Democrats. Then in the November general election, the people of Orange County, a very heavily GOP county, would have no choice but to vote for either one of the 2 Democrats or not vote at all.

Do you see where i’m going with this? Better order another drink because the bar is closing.

In the past, the East Bay Young Democrats have put in substantial work for our endorsed candidates. We’ve spent countless hours phoning and walking, educating voters, and getting out the vote.

This year, for the first time in our club’s history, EBYD will be educating voters in another way – we are mailing our voter guide to more than 3,000 young Democrats in the East Bay.

Please donate today to help us send out this important voter guide.

The EBYD voter guide is particularly important for the June 8th election, as many voters know little about the candidates and issues that are on the ballot. With instant runoff voting being implemented in November, some people don’t even know there is an election in June!

Local races could be decided by just a few hundred or a few thousand votes so this mailer could push our endorsed candidates to victory.

We plan to expand our mailing universe for the November election, but we need your financial support to do so. Please donate to help us educate young Democrats!

Please share our voter guide with your East Bay friends, and remember to vote on June 8th!

Woot!  We are excited because President Obama is in town on a two-day trip to the Bay Area.  Yesterday, Obama lent a boost to Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is in a tight re-election campaign., speaking at a fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.  You can watch KTVU’s report from that event here.

At one point during his speech, Obama was interrupted by a heckler who demanded Obama move faster on repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  Obama replied by saying that the man probably didn’t read the morning paper.

On Wednesday, Obama will promote green jobs at the solar panel manufacturing plant, Solyndra, Inc., in Fremont.  His visit also comes after the announcement that Tesla Motors, Inc. and Toyota teamed up and will re-open the NUMMI plant to build Tesla’s electric cars.  All very good news to the East Bay and we are happy to have POTUS highlighting the accomplishments.  We need to keep up our momentum as a hub for green technology and green jobs in cities like Oakland.  Watch his speech below:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Live in Fremont or other city in South Alameda County?  Interested in getting more involved with Young Democrats?  Please visit our sister organization, South County Young Democrats!

The Oakland mayoral race will probably be one of the more interesting races to watch in 2010.  As such, it is important that young voters get to know the facts about the candidates and learn the issues that important to each candidate.  Here at EBYD, we have not endorsed a candidate for this position (yet).  So here are the people running and places where you can learn more about what they want to do for Oakland.

***Oakland’s First Mayoral Forum***

There will be a mayoral forum in Oakland on Thursday, June 10th at the First Unitarian Church at 685 14th St. in Oakland.  You can RSVP at the Facebook page.

All three candidates should be there and it would be a great chance to learn about all three and hear them debate on the best way to bring Oakland forward.

In the Oakland Mayoral Race, there are three main contenders for the city’s top position:

	Don Perata – Former State Senate President – www.perata4mayor.com Don Perata is a candidate from the “Old Guard”.  And i mean that in a loving way.  He has a lot of support from the business community and will likely fight Kaplan for support from Labor.  Don Perata has been working the neighborhood scene with gusto.  Almost every other week, he holds a neighborhood meeting or “town hall” (he likes to call them “community conversations”) to discuss his vision for Oakland.  Don Perata will hold his next community meeting on Wednesday, May 26th at 7pm in the Glenview/Diamond Heights District at 4101 Park Blvd., Oakland.  Visit his website for more info.
	Jean Quan – Oakland City Councilmember, District 4 – www.jeanquanforoakland.org Jean Quan is leaving her City Council position to run for Mayor.  She spent many years as a well liked member of the Oakland School Board.  She has been trying to distinguish herself as the “Education Candidate” in this mayor race.  She currently has no events in the coming weeks to speak of.
	Rebecca Kaplan – Oakland City Councilmember, At-Large – www.kaplanformayor.org Rebecca Kaplan has a wave of enthusiasm behind her.  She is young and a political newbie compared to the other two candidates.  Only recently (2008) was she elected to her current position as Oakland’s only At-Large councilmember.  Before that she served on the AC Transit Board.   Rebecca will have a fundraiser on Thursday, June 3rd at the Bench & Bar in Downtown Oakland.  The cost is only $25.  You can RSVP at her Facebook event page.

For today’s Friday Funny, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the South in Los Angeles shouting “Go California!”  Why?  In an interview, Wednesday of this week, Arizona Energy Commissioner, Gary Pierce told the local ABC station that his state should cut the power from two plants in Arizona that provide Los Angeles around 25% of their total energy supply.  The move is in response to LA City Council’s decision to boycott Arizona over their racial profiling law (aka “Show Me Your Papers” law).

“I feel like if you’re going to boycott the candy store, you’ve got to leave all the candy alone,” said Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce. Arizona provides 25 percent of Los Angeles’ power. “I feel like Arizona is the candy store,” he added.

Pierce made his challenge after the Los Angeles City Council’s 13-1 vote earlier this month to boycott Arizona and Arizona-based businesses.

“If they’re really serious about this, then be true to your conviction,” Pierce told ABCNews.com. “I would be happy to help them to renegotiate the power agreements so they no longer receive power from Arizona. When temperatures rise over 100 degrees we’re going to love to have the extra power,” he said.

Arizona to Los Angeles: “Bring it!”

Austin Beutner, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, responded to Mr. Pierce’s comments with some of his own, reminding the over zealous commissioner that Los Angeles actually owns those power plants.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

General Manager’s Statement Regarding LADWP Power Generation Assets in Arizona

“I want to make clear that we support the City position regarding the recent law enacted in Arizona and the resolution adopted by the Los Angeles City Council.

On any given day, we receive 20 – 25% of our power from two power plants located in Arizona: Navajo, a coal-fired plant, and Palo Verde, a nuclear plant.

We are part owner of both power plants, which are generating assets of the Department. As such, nothing in the City’s resolution is inconsistent with our continuing to receive power from those LADWP-owned assets.

I might add that, as the City’s Job Czar, I certainly would welcome any conventions or meetings that were going to be held in Arizona to come to Los Angeles. We have fantastic facilities and incomparable weather and we’d welcome them to the City of Angels.”

- Austin Beutner, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Los Angeles to Arizona: “Oh, its already been brought!”

Cut. Print. OWNED!

—————————-

This story originally appeared on the blog “Max The Boy Lion 2.0” yesterday, May 20, 2010.  Please visit his site and give him props for keeping us entertained on this Friday.

Only in 2008 did Kaplan ride a wave of enthusiasm to win her current seat as Oaklands only At-Large (city-wide) Council-member.  Last month, Kaplan announced the creation of her exploratory committee, a must first step to run for any politcal office.  Though her run is not official just yet, it is all but certain to most observers that shes in the game.

Our friends at Oakland North were able to have a one-on-one chat with Rebecca Kaplan on her vision of the future for Oakland.  Here is a brief excerpt but be sure to read the full interview here.

Q: You talk about making changes at City Hall.  What is working and what is not working to attract businesses to Oakland?

In Oakland right now, you cannot apply for a business permit online. So the businesspeople come down to downtown and stand in the lines and lose time. We are wasting money, and we are paying people to sit entering the data, when instead, the businessperson could go onto the Internet and put in information to pay their fees and do their business licenses.  Meanwhile, we get complaints all the time when people try to call — they have questions about parking tickets and business licenses, and they say nobody is answering phones.  We are wasting all these staff [hours] typing data from a piece of paper that a businessperson can put in themselves online.

So when we look at how we are structuring the jobs inside City Hall, there are a lot of things where we are still not fully entered into the modern era in terms of technology and our systems. And if we change some of those, we could free up some staff time to do the things that people do need.

Read the full interview here.

The deadline to vote in the June 8th election is this Monday, May 24th

The deadline to vote in the November 2nd election is October 18th

If you haven’t registered, please check out the options below.  Remember, our future is worth the fight and our future is worth your vote!

• Register to Vote ONLINE!
• Print and Mail-In Registration Form
• Check Your Registration Status! (Alameda County Residents Only)

Don’t forget to visit our Election 2010 page and consider voting for our endorsed candidates this June!

$64 MILLION!! That’s a lot of cash.  As California suffers from the worst economic environment since the Great Depression, can you think of a few things CA could use that money towards?  Well, the California Democratic Party can:

Help EBYD stop Queen Meg from buying California and support Jerry Brown for Governor!

And just for fun… a little nostalgia…