Al's Back! (But We Don't Want Him!)

David Hadley's stunning upset in the South Bay dealt a further humiliating blow to the California Democratic Party.

They had lost their supermajority power in Sacramento after four state senators were arrested, indicted, and/or convicted of felonies. Hanford, CA cherry farmer Andy Vidak's upset victory in the Central Valley, following suspicious ethical moves then the resignation of state senator Michael Rubio, further signaled that the Democratic Party was peaking and heading downward fast.

If anyone was paying attention earlier this year, two more state senators have fallen into the crosshairs of scandal, including Kevin De Leon and Carol Liu, whose office was raided by the FBI in further connection with the

Now, hoping to take back their receding influence in the South Bay, Democrats are lining up behind recently deposed Al Muratsuchi, who wailed about the undue influence of outside money in the 66th Assembly District race.

Al has been making the rounds with local and state party leaders, trying to line up support to unseat David Hadley.

Al's back, but does the South Bay want him?

Eric Bauman, Chairman of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=802257516490137&id=350558538326706

Tim Goodrich

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Torrance-Democratic-Club/350558538326706

Nannette Barragan

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=802257319823490&id=350558538326706

John Perez

https://www.facebook.com/almuratsuchi/photos/a.605818899487665.1073741827.279679702101588/807231802679706/?type=1&theater

Muratsuchi Coming Back in 2016? (From Rafu Shimpo)

http://www.rafu.com/2014/11/muratsuchi-plans-to-run-again-in-2016/

Former Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) issued the following statement to his supporters on Dec. 2, the day after Republican David Hadley was sworn in as the new representative of the 66^th Assembly District.

The final count in the Nov. 4 election showed Hadley with 54,401 votes (50.3 percent) and Muratsuchi with 53,695 (49.7 percent), a difference of 706 votes.

 

Thanks to you, I had the privilege of representing the beautiful South Bay as a California State assemblymember for the past two years.

Al Muratsuchi (Rafu Shimpo photo)

With all the votes counted, I came less than one percent short of re-election. While I am confident of my record, I could not overcome a historic low voter turnout in a competitive district, combined with an unprecedented $1.4 million smear campaign bankrolled by billionaire outsider Charles Munger and other special interests.
Regardless of the election outcome, I am proud of my record of working across party lines to focus on common sense priorities like jobs, education, the environment, and fiscal responsibility. Some highlights of my record:
• Delivering balanced budgets with over a billion dollars in reserves, without voting for a single tax increase
• Enacting job-creator laws such as AB 777, which cuts taxes to help the aerospace industry create jobs, and AB 2188, which streamlines regulations to incentivize solar energy and support small businesses
• As chairman of the Budget Subcommittee on education funding, restoring over $10 billion in funding for our schools, community colleges, and universities, and saving career technical education programs like the Southern California Regional Occupational Center
• Receiving the Legislator of the Year Award from the California Solar Energy Industry Association, American Veterans (AMVETS), Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Global Automakers Association, California Community College Association for Occupational Education, and the Boys and Girls Club of the South Bay
I could not have done all this without your support. I thank you with all my heart.
As for me, I’m not done fighting. I am preparing for a comeback in 2016, and I would appreciate your ongoing support.
Happy Holidays!

Anti-Tribute to Al Muratsuchi

Albert Muratsuchi, state prosecutor and school board member, jumped into the 66th Assembly at just the right time.

He had money from all over the state (most outside of the district), and the national election improved his chances, too. Despite his small registration advantage ( 36% Dem, 33% GOP), Muratsuchi and his special interest hordes relentlessly, immorally, and falsely attacked the Republican challenger.

The lies were so bad, Huey filed a lawsuit against Muratsuchi. Despite the best efforts, and extensively volunteering, Huey did not carry the seat.

From the moment the former prosecutor and school board member unloaded on conservative Republican Craig Huey in 2012, I wanted to see him tank.

In 2014, tank he did.

As soon as he announced his intentions of the 66th Congressional district in 20120, Al Muratsuchi got into a mess he was never prepared for.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission did an adequate job of evening out the seats, and removing the partisan gerrymandering which had marginalized South Bay voters for decades. The seat leaned slightly Democratic based on registration, but with the right ground game, a Republican had a strong opportunity of taking the seat.

Still, from the first week of January, two Republicans were ready to fight for the seat, and Muratsuchi could take advantage of the divide and conquer.

Representing a fiscally conservative seat in a Democratic Party which has been coopted by the left, the school board trustee had not reason to trust that his ride would be an easy one.

What was Muratsuchi thinking?

I am glad to see him gone.

One has to wonder - what was the Democratic Party thinking in vetting his guy to run for state Assembly in 2012?

They judged Muratsuchi by the color of his skin, not the content of his character, pure and simple. The California Democratic Party has referred to the South Bay as "The Asian Seat" for years. Now, we can remind them that this seat, like every other, belongs to the voters, and seeks representatives who take their oath of office seriously.

For a man who claimed to uphold the Constitution, he spent an excessive amount of time denigrating people who care about this nation's founding document. He also spent a great deal of his campaigning and legislative work ignoring the charter, too.

Muratsuchi supported drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. He voted to allow boys to go into girls' bathrooms in public schools, and vice versa. He helped cut key funding to local schools, as well. He claimed to promote aerospace investments, then turns around and votes with the tax-and-spendthrift state legislature which pushed away strong businesses like Toyota, Charles Schwab, and Tesla.

This man was pro-Sacramento, not pro-business. This man was  a union puppet, not a man of the people.

With the anti-incumbent, and anti-Democratic sentiment in the 2014 election air, no wonder Muratsuchi tried to bail on this seat and run for state senate seat vacated by Ted Lieu. Democratic Party leaders pushed him back into his seat, and dumped millions of dollars on his race.

Yet he still lost. For all the talk about the corrosive influence of money in politics, the 66th Assembly race in Election 2014 proves once again that no politician can buy a seat anymore.

Muratsuchi lined up purported support from Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Yet flashy fliers and big name endorsements do not an election win create. Voters are worried about their future, the economy, the opportunities for their kids. Local schools are still suffering brutal neglect and financial mismanagement from Sacramento, and public sector unions are still calling too many of the legislative shots on both sides of the aisle.

Muratsuchi was the poster boy for upstart liberalism trying to play the game. He had 2012 momentum, but by 2014, even liberals soured on the Obama brand, and Muratsuchi's chances soured with it.

Muratsuchi Desperation: "Hadley Belongs in Jail"

I have seen desperate campaign ads in the past.

This year, the Democratic Party across the country is pulling all the last-minute stops.



Southern Democratic candidates and incumbents are resorting to the race card to turn out the minority vote which propelled Obama to the White House in 2008 and propped up his reelection in 2012.

A mailer targeting North Carolina Republican challenger Thom Tillis weakly tied his support for stand your ground laws to the death of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

Even liberal Fox News contributor Juan Williams found that mailer offensive.

Louisiana incumbent Mary Landrieu shamed her Big Easy constituents by suggesting that she and President Obama are unpopular because of the sexist, racist animus which persists in the South.

Yet there she is, a white Southern woman running for office, seeking the black vote. Thad Cochran resorted to similar race-baiting tactics to win the black vote in Mississippi, and then there's two other female Senate candidates, incumbent Kay Hagan in North Carolina, and challenger Michelle Nunn in Georgia.

Nunn's campaign office had prepared an offensive "minority hit list" to replenish Democratic coffers, too. Other mailers distributed in the state suggested that a Republican victory would bring back the ante-Bellum lynching culture which intimidated black voters.

These mailers are deeply offensive and historically flawed, since the Democratic Party sponsored institutional racism against black voters for decades.

Now turning to a lesser-highlighted state assembly race in Southern California, one finds an incumbent Japanese-American Democrat in the fight of his political career against businessman and party activist Republican David Hadley.

The race card has not come up in this district, apart from Muratsuchi's support for SCA 5, which would have reintroduced race as a key factor in college admissions. A large cohort of Asian-Americans, Republican and Democrat, resisted this reactionary policy, and Democratic minority voters threatened to vote GOP to intimidate the legislature away from the policy. State Senator Ted Lieu, one of Sacramento's most left-leaning lawmakers, voted against the proposal, and loss key support in his primary fight for the 33rd Congressional District.

Since the race card has not played much influence in this race, Muratsuchi has played the "Wall Street" card against Hadley. Has earning money and representing a financial firm turned into a stigma in this country?

Hadley's firm was unaware of obscure national security provisions when brokering a financial transaction in another state. His firm paid a fine, obtained a requisite license, then concluded the deal.  Another setback dealt with the Hadley's campaign setting up different committee accounts for funding outreach, messaging, and GOTV. The group's leaders had believed, understandably, that their group counted as a political action committee, and thus they could make unlimited donations to Hadley and other campaigns. Because of this mistake, Hadley returned the money.

Al Muratsuchi has made similar mistakes, and so has US Senator Dianne Feinstein. They both paid tens of thousands of dollars in fines. The double-standard on campaign funding has reached new levels of idiocy. How can one not break the law when seeking to collecting and spend money on political campaigns these days?

At any rate, these two errors have turned into a last-ditch desperate effort from the Muratsuchi camp to play the "Wall Street" card.

The latest mailer from AlForAssembly.com reads:

"David Hadley doesn't belong in the Assembly. He belongs in jail."

I burst out laughing when I read that by-line.



David Hadley

Really? David Hadley belongs in jail for two mistakes on financial management?

And what about the four Democratic state senators, who have been arrested, indicted, or convicted for felonies relating to public safety and corruption? Or Former mayor Bob "Filthy" Filner and his record of sexual assault?

Not a peep out of Muratsuchi about these flagrant crimes. Not only that, but Muratsuchi's support for AB 375, a bill vetoed by Governor Brown, indicates that Muratsuchi wanted to make it harder to jail bad teachers, too.


And yet he wants to throw Hadley in jail?

Not exactly the race card, and just as misleading and pathetic as charges of "Tea Party Extremism", Muratuschi's latest "Wall Street" attacks is another failing example of Democrats' flailing desperation to survive a rising GOP wave in California and across the country.

Real Education Reform for the South Bay

Responding to the disturbing, unethical pay package which now-fired superintendent Jose Fernandez was taking (including a $1 million no interest loan), Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi authored a bill which would limit salaries to school district superintendents.

Muratsuchi did nothing for our schools

For a man who trumpets his support for local schools, why did he approve Governor Brown's Local Control Funding Formula, which is depriving South Bay Schools of much-needed funding?

Hermosa Beach City School District is one of the highest performing school districts in the state, and now they get the lease amount of per-pupil funding. Torrance Unified will have to wait until 2020 until the district funding returns to 2007 levels. However, district leaders have stated repeatedly that even then, the district was drastically underfunded. Residents in Palos Verdes expressed outrage that in spite of supporting Prop 30, their schools are getting less money, yet the state legislature wants to extend those taxes indefinitely.

Why are strong districts in the South Bay getting less money? Al Muratsuchi did not deliver on his promise to fund our schools and spare them from the cost-cutting and spend-thrift failures of Sacramento.

Republican challenger David Hadley has pressed another issue in connection with local control: granting the cities of Lomita and Gardena the authority to establish their own school districts free from Los Angeles Unified.

This measure is a brilliant move, politically as well as economically and morally.

There is no issue which drives civic-minded minority communities than access to a quality education. Gardena High School has struggled with high dropout rates. In 2011, a student brought a gun on campus, which discharged and wounded students. The dysfunction in Los Angeles Unified has hindered local leaders from helping their schools in the area.



Add caption

Lomita is safe and welcoming community, yet wealthy families choose to downsize and live in Torrance because they do not want their children going to LA Schools. Granting the cities of Gardena and Lomita the opportunities to found their own school districts would ensure more accountability from local leaders. Families looking for a welcoming community will consider Lomita because many couples look for good schools when relocating.


Why hasn't Assemblyman Muratsuchi pressed this issue? Wiseburn School District leaders and parents worked tirelessly for years to break away from Centinela Valley Union High School District. Depite lawsuits and environmental reports, local activists persevered. Independent superintendent Donald Brann worked with lawmakers in Sacramento as well as bureaucrats in Los Angeles County Office of Education to bring more students into the district from underserved communities. This district had closed the achievement gap between white and minority students, yet lawmakers were not paying attention. While Centinela Valley was spending millions on lawsuits and administrative perks, Wiseburn continued to serve students and help them excel.

Following a voting initiative 2013, 91% of Wiseburn residents voted to break away from Centinela Valley and form their own unified school district. Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento helped push these reforms through the legislature to the Governor's desk. Assemblyman Muratsuchi certainly could have done something to get the process started for Lomita and Gardena.

Yet he did nothing.

The South Bay needs representatives who will work as hard as Wiseburn residents to help Lomita and Gardena form their own school districts. Muratsuchi's claims of working across the aisle for the South Bay is hollow rhetoric, especially when residents face the grim prospects of moving to expensive neighborhoods or suffering in poorly-administered LAUSD schools.

The South Bay deserves better, read education reforms.

Al Muratsuchi: Tea Party "Extremist"

Before his election to the California State Assembly, Al Muratsuchi served as a prosecutor for the California Department of Justice, and then as a Torrance School Board member.

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi

Every lawyer in the state of California takes the following oath upon admission to the state bar:

I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney and a counsel at law to the best of my knowledge and ability.

Every school board member takes a similar oath once installed in their elected office:

"I, ______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter...."

In both of these oaths, whether for attorney or school board member, the supremacy and integrity of the United States Constitution is unquestioned and upheld.

Muratsuchi took these two oaths. Regardless of whether he lived up to the promises he made in those oaths, he served in two public capacities with the express intention of upholding and defending the United States Constitution.

Where does the Tea Party Movement stand on the United States Constitution?

From the Tea Party Movement Platform:

5. Abide by the Constitution of the United States - The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land and must be adhered to without exception at all levels of government. This includes the Bill of Rights and other Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and their provisions designed to protect states’ rights and individual liberties.

The Tea Party Movement respects the Constitution, and recognizes the instrument as the final legal authority, one which must be adhered to. In contrast to a federal government which has overreached into education (Bush), health care (Obama), military interventions (Bush and Obama), as well as aggravated deficit spending and soaring national debt (Bush and Obama), the Tea Party Movement mobilized across the country demanding that politicians in Washington abide by the clearly enumerated powers delegated to the federal government in the United States Constitution, and nothing more.

Tea Party "Extremist"

So, on this essential and crucial element, Muratsuchi and the Tea Party are actually in full agreement.

Therefore, Muratsuchi himself is a Tea Party "Extremist", even though he has cast his opponent under a negative pall with Tea Party taunts in mailer after mailer.

How can he attack a movement, and a support of that movement, when by his words and his office he supports the same causes?


Hirabayashi - Tea Party Extremist?

On another note, a well-known Japanese-American dissenter, Gordon Hirabayashi, refused to obey the federal government's curfew during World War II. Acting on his strong beliefs, including his fervent stance in the Constitution, he found that friends and family did not support his decision to resist unjust, prejudiced curfews.

Notwithstanding the setbacks he faced, he claimed a higher authority:

The United States Constitution is supposed to protect us.

He was eventually jailed for violating curfew, and spent time in federal camps. In the decades which followed, Hirabayashi challenged the convictions, which were later vacated, although the federal government never overturned the laws which criminalized individuals for their presence in public places in connection with their ethnic status.

Hirabayashi resisted those laws by appealing to the United States Constitution. He recognized that document as the supreme law of the land.

Would Muratsuchi have branded Hirabayashi a Tea Party "Extremist" as well?

Peaceful dissenter Gordon Hirabayahi
Would Assemblyman Muratsuchi consider him an extremist, too?

Muratsuchi for Better Skools

Oh my goodness.

This advertisement gaffe escapes rational discussion.

Democrats have a disdain for neighborhood harmony, anyway, as well as local control.

But for them to expose their disrespect for neighborhoods with spelling errors . . . this is just sad.

Maybe Assemblyman Muratsuchi does not hate the Tea Party Extremists.

Maybe he opposes the Tee Party or the T-Party extremists.

There are those who cannot play baseball properly, so they are dependent on having a batting tee in front of them in order to play ball.

Then there are those people who shouldn't be batting at all.