Isadore Hall Announces Intention To Run For Congress

Assemblymember Isadore hall has announced his
intention to run for a South LA Congressional seat

The decennial redistricting will lead to a lot of turnover of the California congressional delegation, especially since a non-partisan commission is drawing the boundaries of every congressional and state legislative district in the state. This means that every current officeholder will be running in a brand new district. Many ambitious politicians will seize this opportunity to run for higher offices.

One such politician is Assemblymember Isadore Hall III, an African-American pastor who represents the 52nd Assembly District which includes part of North Long Beach and all of Compton. Hall recently announced his intention to run for a new Congressional district which is intended to be "majority-minority." There are currently 4 Black members in the 53-member Congressional delegation, all women: Maxine Waters (CA-35), Karen Bass (CA-33), Laura Richardson (CA-37) and Barbara Lee (CA-09). The district that Hall is eyeing would probably be one that Waters would be expected to run in, unless the 72-year-old Congresswoman decides to retire instead.

Hall's staff sent out a press release about his political intentions:

Compton, California – California State Assemblymember Isadore Hall announced his campaign for Congress today. Hall intends to run in a new Congressional District, which according to the first draft of maps released by the California Citizens Redistricting Committee on June 10th, might include the cities of Compton, Carson, Lynwood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Lawndale, portions of the City of Los Angeles and Unincorporated Los Angeles County.  

“As a local School Board Member, Councilmember and Assemblymember, I have worked tirelessly to make a difference in this community,” said Hall. “Our district needs a representative that will fight cuts to education and gang prevention programs, protect critical frontline services, and partner with President Obama to create family wage jobs.” 
“I have spent the past few days talking with friends and community leaders about running for this new seat,” Hall added.  “The response has been overwhelming and I am energized by the grassroots support we have already received.”

Hall is a former two term President of the Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees. He was elected to the Compton City Council in 2003 where he served in various leadership positions including Mayor pro Tempore.  Hall was elected to the California State Assembly in 2008 and served as Assistant Speaker pro Tempore during his first term. He currently serves as a member of the Appropriations, Elections and Redistricting and Human Services Committees. He chairs the Assembly Committee on Government Organization.
The youngest of six children, Hall was born and raised in the City of Compton. Hall holds a bachelors degree in Business Administration, a Masters Degree in Management and Leadership from the University of Southern California, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from National University and will be conveyed his Ph.D. from Next Dimension Bible College later this summer.

No incumbent member of Congress currently lives in the proposed Congressional District; however, Hall will not seek election to Congress in the event that Congresswoman Maxine Waters seeks to represent the new district.

I'm pretty confident that this will be the first of a lot of similar announcements.

Gov. Brown Ends Budget Negotiations With Republicans

Could have seen this coming a mile away. Governor Jerry Brown has ended THREE MONTHS of budget "negotiations" with Republican legislative leaders after it became increasingly clear he was simply dealing with hostage takers who were not really interested in the ransom. The California Republican Party will now become absolutely irrelevant to the governing of the state of California, since they have decided not to negotiate in good faith to provide the four votes necessary to reach two-thirds of both houses of the state legislature (Democrats have 52 of the 54 seats they need in the Assembly and 25 of the 27 seats they need in the Senate). NOTE: Although it only takes a majority vote to pass a budget now that Proposition 25 passed in November 2010, it still takes a two-thirds vote to enact any taxes, thanks to the odious Proposition 13.

Capitol Weekly has the call:

Brown, a Democrat, in a letter to Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton, said the negotiations had focused for weeks on a spending cap, public pension issues and regulatory reform. Brown posted a YouTube video of his position here.

But, he said, Republicans late last week added dozens of separate demands, “many of which are new and have no relationship whatsoever to the budget.”

“From my count, your list today added almost two dozen new topics, including obscure aspects of labor law and shifting the presidential primary to March. In addition, your list of demands, if met, would undermine my entire budget proposal by undoing major elements and extending the taxes for only 18 months,” Brown wrote.

Recent figures show that the Republican Party currently has 30.4% party registration in California, compared to 44% for Democrats and 20% for Independents (a significant fraction, possibly a majority, are probably ex-Republicans). By abdicating any responsibility for acting reasonably to fix California's $26 billion 18-month budget deficit, Republicans have pushed themselves even closer to political obscurity.

Hopefully, Gov. Brown will have a better result in winning ballot measures to implement his vision of the California budget than former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger did. The Governator tried legislating by ballot box in 2005 and 2009 and was humiliated both times by the California eletcorate. Brown is a much smarter and talented politician, and is in his first year of office, so Californians may give him what he wants: a common sense balanced budget with shared sacrifice and contributions from all California constituencies.