Do You Know the Way to San Jose ... er, Albuquerque?

October 26, 2006 @ 9:14 AM

So what do Mark Z. Barabak (LA Times), LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and I all have in common? Besides the fact that we all have last names that are often misspelled. Instead of hitting the campaign trail in our home state of California this week -– we are all converging on Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is ground zero for the battle to take back the House, in one of the most hotly contested races in the country that pits incumbent Republican Rep. Heather Wilson and Democrat Attorney General Patricia Madrid.

I have to say it is weird not be in my home state in the final stretch (of course I fly home in the wee hours on Election Day to vote). But Barabak put it best at a press conference today: We’re not in California because, well ... the action isn’t in California -- it is in places like Albuquerque, New Mexico (I’m paraphrasing, it was something like that).

And why is that? Well having spent the majority of my time post-June 6th in places like Bellevue, WA and Reno, NV and Albuquerque, NM -- I have some thoughts. As I have stated in previous posts, most of the newsworthy CA activity happens in the 18 months leading up to the primary. With term-limits and redistricting, competitive is a word rarely used post-primary. Most of the battleground seats are in districts that are genuinely competitive by the very nature of how they were drawn, which means not in California (although it is good to see some late-breaking developments in CD-11 and CD-4).

That really only leaves the downballot statewide offices as the competitive races this year.

And, to be brutally honest, what is making some statewide races in California competitive in the 11th hour is that for some reason many insiders just assumed Democrats running for statewide downballot office would have an easy go of it in the fall. There were a few exceptions who were desperately clamoring for a more strategic approach to "clearing the field" heading into June. Why? So we could have the strongest general election candidates who didn’t expend resources in June.

Aside from Bill Lockyer and Jerry Brown who had sizeable war chests and strong name ID, we knew every other likely nominee would have their own unique challenges. Still, most people refused to be strategic and now people are scrambling. But yet, I still (!) don’t understand some of the spending decisions I am hearing about. Aside from the Governor and AG, what are the next important seats that have the greatest impact on real people’s lives? Hm, let me ponder ... Treasurer, Controller, and Secretary of State. Since we can safely put the Treasurer’s seat in the win column, that leaves John Chiang and Debra Bowen. The Controller is a critical seat, especially given its role on the CalPERS Board, and the Secretary of State is the chief elections officer -– and if you don’t think the integrity of the vote doesn’t matter to real people, then you’ve spent too much time in your office. To be having a discussion about where to put resources as it relates to the down ballots that doesn’t have these two at the top of the list is silly at best and irresponsible at worst.

If elected, John Chiang will be the highest-ranking Asian-American statewide officeholder in the country and Debra Bowen, the only woman elected to statewide constitutional office in California.

As activists and operatives, we have a responsibility to make sure that the Party reflects the diversity of our state and constituencies that should be valued and embraced as they are critical to our future success. Luckily we have two qualified and impressive candidates who really do embody the next generation of leaders in our state.

I know, I know that’s just crazy talk -- thinking about the future leaders of our state and investing in them now. But 18 months ago winning back Congress was crazy talk and yet here Barabak and I are in Albuquerque, NM awaiting Pelosi and Villaraigosa to arrive on Saturday.