Celebrity Friday: Pougnet Decides Not To Run For Congress

 Steve Pougnet is the openly gay Mayor of Palm Springs. He was also the Democratic nominee for the 45th Congressional District of California in the 2010 federal elections. He was widely expected to seek a rematch in 2012 but recently he announced that he would seek re-election as Mayor of Palm Springs in Fall 2011 and would suspend his 2012 Congressional campaign.

Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet announced Thursday he will not seek to unseat Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, in the 2012 election.

Instead, Pougnet told friends and supporters at the Hyatt Regency Suites that he wants to focus on finishing his job as the city’s mayor.

“The new congressional district is one that a Democrat can win," Pougnet told Patch. "There are some wonderful things happening here in the city of Palm Springs.”

Good luck to Mayor Pougnet on winning a second term. Let's hope some ohter Democrat steps up to the plate to challenge Chaz Bono's step-mom, the odious Rep. Mary Bono Mack.

CA-36: Hahn Barely Leads Huey In Special Election

Janice Hahn (D) has a lead of 8 points over a Tea Party Republican
 in tomorrow's Congressional special election in the 36th District

Daily Kos has a new poll of the 36th Congressional district special election which should scare the bejeezus out of every Democrat in Southern California! In the special election between Democratic Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn and Tea Party Republican businessman Craig Huey

Here are the poll results:

Janice Hahn (D): 52 

Craig Huey (R): 44 

Undecided: 4 

Margin of Error: ±3.9%

The margin of error is important. The spread between the candidates is a mere 8 points but the margin of error is ±3.9 which means that Hahn's lead could theoretically be 0.2 percentage points (or it could also be 15.8 points). Another interesting factor there is the undecided number: just 4 percentage points. That is pretty low, as it should be, since election day is tomorrow Tuesday July 12th. However, people in the 36th district have been voting absentee-by-mail for weeks. However, there is not so good news there for Hahn either.

Dave Catanese of Politico has these totals by the party registrations of those people who had requested vote-by-mail ballots as of Friday July 1st:

Republican/Libertarian — 13,343 

Democratic/Green — 14,035 

Non-affiliated — 5,512

Democrats/Greens outnumber Republican/Libertarian absentee voters by a mere 692 votes! However, in California, it is more likely than not that Hahn is winning the vast majority of the Decline To State ("Non-Affiliated") voters so in that case she should be going into tomorrow's election with a lead, but that's a BIG IF.
The 36th is a pretty tricky district, even if Obama carried by 30 points (64-34), which is a bit less than the 69-31 longtime incumbent Jane Harman had carried it by.

I fully expect Janice Hahn to replace Harman in Congress representing the 36th District tomorrow. It should be interesting to see what happens to the 36th District in the final round of redistricting and if Huey will have a better chance of unseating Hahn in a less partisan district.

Election Results for tomorrow can be found here at LAvote.net.

MAP: Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Discrimination in U.S.

This map is what the state of play in sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment looks like in the various states as of March 2011. There are 29 states that have no protections for LGBT people in employment in any way (so your boss can say, "I'm firing you because you're a fag!") and you have no recourse what so ever.

As of July 6th, there are now 15 states which ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and there are 21 which ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (all the states which ban gender identity discrimination also ban sexual orientation discrimination). The six states which do not overlap are: New York, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland and Delaware. (One should note that 3 of these 6 states have already enacted marriage equality!) Wisconsin is  ahead scratcher because they passed sexual orientation non-discrimination way back in 1982, the first state in the country to do so. There was gender identity nondiscrimination legislation pending  in New York and Maryland which died when those legislative sessions ended this Spring.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would prohibit employment discrimination nationwide on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Significantly, A version of ENDA (without gender identity protection, thus some people called it "SplENDA") passed the U.S. House under Democratic control in 2007 but failed to be brought up for a vote in the 2009-2001 111th Congress. With Republicans in majority control of the U.S. House it is very doubtful that ENDA will pass that body in the 2011-2013 112th Congress.

Anthony Weiner To Resign

U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner has let it be known that he intends to resign from Congress today.

Politico reports:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will resign from his seat in Congress, heeding calls from President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and dozens of other congressional Democrats, sources confirm to POLITICO.

The resignation ends nearly three weeks of tumultuous political controversy since the New York congressman sent a lewd picture of himself over Twitter on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. After spending over a week claiming that the photo was sent by someone who hacked his account, Weiner admitted last Monday that he had sent it himself, and that he had carried on online sexual relationships with at least six women in the last three years. 

Weiner is expected to make his resignation official in a statement to the press at 2 p.m. at a senior center in Brooklyn where he announced his first run for the New York City Council in 1993.

I agree with Rachel Maddow that I don't understand why a progressive Weiner has to resign over a virtual sex scandal when it took years for U.S. Senator John Ensign (R-NV) to resign after committing an adulterous affair with a subordinate's wife and then paying hush money AND U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) who repeatedly paid prostitutes to have adulterous, kinky sex refuses to resign and has been re-elected!

Why are Democrats such wimps?

CA-36: Hahn Leads Primary, Bowen Currently 3rd

The preliminary results from yesterday's election in Los Angeles County are in and there are some surprises in the race to replace Jane Harman in the 36th Congressional District of California, CA-36.

Here are the numbers right now (as of 05/17/2011 23:27):

JANICE HAHN        DEM            13,137    24.66 
CRAIG HUEY         REP            11,648    21.87 
DEBRA BOWEN        DEM            11,442    21.48

Only the top two vote getters regardless of party advance to the July 12th run-off election, thanks to the nonsensical Proposition 14 which was passed by voters in June 2010 and is now in effect.

MadProfessah had endorsed California Secretary of State Debra Bowen as the true progressive in the race (U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein endorsed Hahn, blech!) so I was distressed to see her in 3rd position behind a self-financed Tea Party Republican candidate. However, there does seem to be some kind of indications that she may be able to pick up the 207 votes she needs to reach the #2 position. If that doesn't happen, then presumably Hahn would be the next Congressmember from the 36th District, and would set up another special election to fill her then-vacated Los Angeles City Council seat.

In better news, Scott Svonkin has almost certainly won his run-off against another tea Party Republican (named Lydia Gutierrez) for a seat on the Los Angeles Community College District Board. That race was the only contest on the ballot when I voted yesterday.

Saturday Politics: Hahn and Bowen Battle Over CA-36

LA. City Councilperson Janice Hahn ((left) and CA Secretary of State Debra Bowen
are competing for a rare open Congressional seat

Open congressional seats  in California are like "blue moons": they don't come around that often. The last open seat was CA-33 when Diane Watson retired and was replaced by former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. With the retirement of U.S. Representative Jane Harman, who was a hawk and a Blue Dog, progressives are salivating over the prospect of getting a true liberal to replace her in the 36th Congressional District which Barack Obama carried by over 30 points.

The Washington Post's Rachel Weiner notes:

The likely result of the May 17 primary fight, which features 11 total candidates including 2010 primary loser Marcy Winograd, is a July 12 runoff. Under California’s new primary system, if no candidate gets 50 percent in the primary, the two top vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to a runoff.

“I think its clear there’ll be a runoff,” said Joe Trippi, a longtime Democratic consultant who is advising Hahn’s campaign.

Bowen holds statewide office and represented most of this district in the 1990s as a state legislator. Yet to hear her campaign tell it, she’s the outsider against Hahn.

The argument: Hahn has more endorsements and more money while Bowen has more grassroots support. A majority of her donors gave $200 or less. Democracy for America, a leading liberal organization, endorsed her after polling their members in the district. Her campaign is also quick to point out that Hahn has taken contributions from lobbyists.

As secretary of state, Bowen has been behind a number of initiatives that appeal to liberals, including work on ballot security. She has a long history of advocacy on environmental issues. She’s positioned herself as the anti-war candidate, trying to take some of the space occupied by Winograd, who ran against Harman in 2010 and took 41 percent.

The only poll of the race I have seen is an internal poll released by the Bowen campaign indicating a tie between Hahn and Bowen with 20 percent of the vote each, and Winograd back at 6 percent and openly gay Republican Mike Gin at 8 percent.

MadProfessah doesn't really know either of these candidates well, but I have been unimpressed with Hahn in the past when she ran (and lost) against Gavin Newsom for  Lieutenant Governor last year while Bowen has been endorsed by LGBT super-ally U.S. Representative Judy Chu (CA-32). Hahn has been endorsed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and enemy-of-true-progressives everywhere U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

ENDA Introduced in US Senate

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was introduced in the 112th Congress today with lead co-sponsors Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL).

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force sent out a press release praising the action:

Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

"An overwhelming majority of Americans know it is wrong to deprive their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender friends, family and neighbors of the ability to earn a livelihood and provide for their families simply because of who they are. They know our entire country benefits when all people are allowed to contribute their talents and skills free from discrimination. ENDA will simply help ensure everyone is allowed to participate on a level playing field in the workplace, a core value of this nation. Let's get ENDA passed. Our community has provided statistics and shared personal stories; we've seen LGBT workers lose their foothold in a struggling economy, not because of downsizing or poor performance, but solely because of prejudice. Our country can and must do better. We thank Senators Merkley, Kirk, Harkin and Collins for reintroducing this critical legislation, and urge Congress and the administration to work toward its passage."

2012 U.S. House Distribution With 2010 Census Data

Factoring in the data from the 2010 Census, the above picture shows what is likely to be the electoral map that the 2012 national elections for the Presidency (just add +2 to every state to get the number of electoral votes it has, plus 3 for District of Columbia to get to 538) and the U.S. House of Representatives will be fought over.

Some good things are that Florida will be an even bigger deal than usual, and the influence of Ohio, Michigan and Missouri will be reduced. Unfortunately, the influence of Georgia, South Carolina and Arizona will be increased.

Hat/tip Joe.My.God.

CA-36: Rep. Harman Announces Retirement

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman

Congressmember Jane Harman, Democrat representing California's 36th Congressional District, announced on Monday that she will be resigning from Congress to assume leadership of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Congressional seats are not subject to term limits and become available very rarely. The last open seat was the 33rd Congressional District seat won by Karen Bass in a barely contested race in June 2010. The last contested  Congressional seat was the 32nd Congressional District seat won by former State Assembyperson Judy Chu over former State Senator Gil Cedillo.

The names which have been bandied about as replacements for Harman are Los Angeles Councilmember Janice Hahn, Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Assemblymember Warren Furutani.