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“Final Word” forum, Saturday, Nov. 3

The Final Word Forum was challenged by the Valero/Labor PAC but went on as scheduled.  See the video here:  youtube.com/watch?v=9CB2Dd6qcS0  


[PREVIOUS NOTICE] – Mark your calendar and plan to attend this Saturday – this could be a VERY interesting forum, and your last chance before the election to ask questions and express your thoughts about recent negative campaigning by corporate giant Valero Services, Inc. and its affiliates.

Please show up WAY EARLY!!  We’ve learned that oil industry people will try to pack the house and dominate the debate. 

Details…

CITY TO HOST CANDIDATES FORUM TO ADDRESS NEGATIVE MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN AND “HIT PIECES”

“The City of Benicia code(Sec 1.42.110) allows for a last minute candidate forum to allow candidates to address last minute “hit pieces” and to respond to inflammatory statements and misinformation.

This forum does not always happen but, given the amount of negative campaigning happening in the City Council race, the City’s Open Government Commission will sponsor such a session this Saturday, Nov. 3 from 9-11am at the City Council chambers.

The event will be televised live on Ch. 27, and rebroadcast at 7pm on Sunday and Monday nights, Nov. 4 and 5. It will also be streamed on the City website.

The forum will be moderated by Open Government Commission Chair Bonnie Silvera, with assistance from two other OGC members.  Questions from audience will be written on 3×5 cards and selected by OGC members. Questions will be addressed to all candidates.  Only questions that deal with the purpose of the forum will be addressed.  Candidates are asked to speak to the issues and not make personal comments about other candidates, especially in a negative manner.

KQED: Valero-Backed Group Spends Heavily to Sway Benicia City Council Election

Repost from KQED, The California Report

Valero-Backed Group Spends Heavily to Sway Benicia City Council Election

By Ted Goldberg, October 30, 2018
The Valero Benicia refinery. (Craig Miller/KQED)

The Valero Energy Corp. and several allies have spent more than $165,000 to influence the Benicia City Council election, an amount that’s close to three times as much as all of the candidates have raised combined.

The San Antonio-based oil company, which operates a refinery that’s one of the city’s largest employers, has joined with five state and local labor organizations to donate to a political action committee formed to oppose an environmentalist candidate and back two others the group sees as friendly to the company.

The committee has funded ads and an aggressive telephone campaign to influence the city’s 19,000-plus registered voters.

Experts say the magnitude of the spending in a small municipal election is unusual but that the Benicia campaign is part of a trend.

“We’re going to see a lot more of this spending,” Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School specializing in money in politics, said about corporate political contributions in local elections.

“Even though they are closer to constituents than a gubernatorial or Senate race, voters tend to know less about them. A little bit of spending … can make a difference,” Levinson said.

Valero’s actions are reminiscent of an effort several years ago by Chevron to sway voters in Richmond, where it operates a massive refinery. In 2014 the company spent millions in an unsuccessful attempt to elect a slate of its allies to the City Council.

Some of the PAC’s activities have led Benicia officials to call on the state’s political watchdog to investigate claims that the committee has violated some of California’s laws regulating campaign contributions.

The company’s political activities, first reported by the Vallejo Times-Herald and Roger Straw, an activist and blogger with the Benicia Independent, come 18 months after a major release of toxic sulfur dioxide caused by a power outage at the Valero refinery.

The incident prompted calls for city regulation of the refinery and deepened a divide between the city’s mayor and the company.

The Candidates

The election involves four candidates vying for two open spots on the council.

The 34-word name of the independent expenditure Valero is helping to fund explains clearly who it wants to win. It’s called “Working Families for a Strong Benicia, A Coalition of Labor, Industrial Services Companies, Public Safety and Local Leaders Supporting Christina Strawbridge and Lionel Largaespada and Opposing Kari Birdseye for Benicia City Council 2018.”

The Valero-backed committee calls Birdseye “a yes man” for Mayor Patterson.

“Birdseye is bad for Benicia,” one of its ads says. “We don’t need another job killer.”

Birdseye is a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy organization.

She refers to the company’s executives as “the suits from San Antonio” who “sully our election” and are engaged in a “smear campaign” involving “dirty ads with lies.”

“Benicia deserves better than to be bullied and bamboozled by big money like this,” she said in an interview.

As a member of the city’s Planning Commission in 2016, Birdseye was among those who helped defeat a company plan to expand refinery operations to include crude oil shipped by rail. Birdseye is also a supporter of Mayor Elizabeth Patterson’s failed 2017 proposal to create new local regulations for the refinery.

She said with the Trump administration pulling back from regulating the oil industry and California’s goal of sharply reducing its dependence on carbon-based energy sources in the coming decades, local governments need to take action.

“It’s up to the counties, cities and towns to plan for a clean energy future,” Birdseye said.

“I don’t want Valero to shut down tomorrow,” she said. “I drive a gas-powered car, and our economy still needs Valero in our community, but I do see the need for more transparency with our largest industrial neighbor.”

Birdseye has raised about $20,000 for her campaign, nearly all from individual donors in Benicia and other Solano County communities, and none from businesses.

Pair Supported by Valero-Backed Group

Strawbridge and Largaespada, the two candidates supported by the Valero-backed coalition, emphasize that they have no ties to the independent expenditure group and have worked hard to keep their campaigns positive.

Largaespada chairs the city’s economic development board and works as director of marketing and business development at F3 and Associates, a firm providing advanced surveying and visualization services to a wide variety of customers — including some in the oil and gas industry. Among its clients is Valero.

Largaespada said Valero’s involvement in the election has more to do with the company’s frustration and its deteriorating relationship with Mayor Patterson.

“But that doesn’t give Valero and its various associates permission to launch a negative campaign,” Largaespada said.

“When this all started to come out I went on record, rejecting all of it,” he said. “It’s not the kind of campaign I support at all.”

Largaespada said Valero has a responsibility to keep Benicia safe and that the city and the refinery need to improve communication.

He said he opposed the mayor’s proposal for city oversight of the company, noting that the ordinance was similar to regulations the state has already adopted.

Largaespada has raised close to $21,000, mostly from individuals. He said he returned more than $1,000 he had received from a local labor PAC.

Candidate Christina Strawbridge served on the council from 2011 to 2016, owns a clothing boutique in downtown Benicia and has been involved with community groups for 30 years.

Like Largaespada, she said she’s wary of the support she’s getting from the Valero-backed group.

“I think they think they’re helping me,” Strawbridge said, stressing that she’s not aligned with any group or other candidate. “I’m an independent person, as I proved when I was on the City Council for five years.”

Strawbridge notes that Valero’s taxes account for a large part of Benicia’s budget and have attracted businesses that support refinery operations to the city’s Industrial Park. She said the company “has always stepped up” to help community groups and to do volunteer work in the city.

“That said, I believe there needs to be better communication between Valero and the city of Benicia. It has gotten to be at an all-time low in our relationship,” Strawbridge said.

While she likes certain parts of the mayor’s Industrial Safety Ordinance proposal, including its push for more air monitors, she said Patterson brought it to the council without gathering enough input from others.

“The public didn’t get a chance to review it when it was introduced. Nor did city staff. They had less than a week,” Strawbridge said.

Strawbridge has received close to $24,000 in donations from a mix of individuals, businesses and political action committees. She said she returned more than $1,000 from political action committees associated with Valero’s independent expenditure.

Also in the Running

The fourth candidate running, William Emes, is a retired carpenter who has received no donations or endorsements.

“The only endorsement that counts is your vote,” his website states.

Emes said he has worked in refineries and has a direct understanding of “what safety means.”

In an email he emphasized that he wants to be on a team that “gets things done” and that he places great value in being transparent and objective.

“The manner in which the unions and Valero involved themselves in our election was completely unprincipled and contrary to any meaningful public discussion,” Emes said.

Valero’s Stance and Labor Allies

A Valero spokeswoman did not answer questions about the committee’s involvement in the council election but instead pointed out the company’s viewsin an Oct. 16 letter to the Vallejo Times-Herald.

The letter, signed by refinery general manager Don Wilson, emphasized the refinery’s long-standing presence in Benicia and its strong safety record. It also directly criticized Patterson.

“Unfortunately, at City Hall, the mayor has decided to make our operations, employees’ jobs and the city’s tax revenue her target,” Wilson wrote.

The five unions that have donated to the super PAC are the Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 16, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 549, the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, the California State Pipe Trades Council and the District Council of Iron Workers.

The groups who have contributed to the committee represent workers at various refineries, among other industries.

Donald Zampa, president of the Iron Workers District Council, which contributed $30,000 to the committee, said his organization’s involvement in Benicia is aimed at saving jobs.

Zampa said he was not familiar with Patterson’s safety ordinance but believes she is putting the city’s economic health at risk.

“If it was up to her, she would close down the number one job provider in Benicia,” Zampa said.

Push for Investigation into Valero-Backed Group

Mayor Patterson, who supports Birdseye, calls the oil refining sector “a fading industry” that Benicia should pivot away from.

“Valero is trying to bully and buy its way into politics in Benicia,” Patterson said. “I had not seen it so vicious and ugly as it has been this year.”

Heather McLaughlin, Benicia’s city attorney, has filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against the Valero refinery in connection with a series of phone calls made to Benicia residents about the election.

The so-called push poll involved a questioner laying out negative statements about Birdseye and positive ones about Largaespada and Strawbridge.

In September McLaughlin emailed the firm believed to be behind the phone calls, Research America, warning them that the calls may appear to violate Benicia’s municipal code requiring certain disclosures for campaign communications funded by independent expenditures.

On Oct. 18, McLaughlin requested an FPPC investigation, alleging that Valero sponsored the poll and “did not disclose they were behind the poll during the telephone calls.”

FPPC spokesman Jay Wierenga said the commission is in the process of deciding whether to open an inquiry.

Josh Harder District 10 – GOP tactics

Repost from McClatchy DC Bureau

How the GOP tries to combat anti-Trump sentiment in a tossup district

BY KATE IRBY, October 31, 2018 04:42 PM
President Donald Trump holds up a “Presidential Memorandum Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West,” after signing it during a ceremony, Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Standing behind the president from left, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Carolyn Kaster AP

WASHINGTON Rep. Jeff Denham’s closing argument in his fight for political survival is all about water — and mostly pretending that President Donald Trump doesn’t exist.

While Democratic opponent Josh Harder — like so many other Democrats vying to win Republican-held house seats — tries to bind Denham to Trump while also emphasizing health care issues, Denham is battling back by going local and trying to convince voters that Harder isn’t local.

Trump is staying far away from the district. Even when signing a memo focused on Central Valley water policy on Oct. 19, Trump flew in Denham and others to sign the bill in Arizona.

Water matters a lot in California’s 10th congressional district, where water-dependent agriculture makes up a substantial part of the local economy and a State Water Board is threatening to siphon off some of its supply in a vote the day after the election.

California’s Central Valley is constantly at risk of not having enough water, if it isn’t experiencing an all-out drought. Farmers in Denham’s district consistently worry whether they’ll have enough to grow their crops as environmentalists accuse them of using too much of the state’s water resources.

“Pollsters across the country have it wrong. This isn’t a blue wave or a red wave, it’s a Valley wave,” Denham said. “It’s us against those people trying to take our water.”

Denham’s race will be a key test of how much momentum the so-called blue wave can gather, as Democrats and Trump try to make the election a referendum on the president. The district went to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by three points in 2016 as Denham won by three points.

Trump isn’t popular in the district — even among Republicans — and that’s likely to drag Denham down, but the congressman thinks he has the edge on local issues.

Democrats disagree.

“The foundation of this race is Donald Trump, even though he’s rarely mentioned,” said Mike Lynch, a Democratic political strategist in the district who said he’s received 37 mailers about the House race so far. “But this is also an area where local issues are at the tops of people’s minds, because it’s underserved.”

Like nearly all Democrats nationwide, the higher the turnout, the better Harder’s prospects are presumed to be. Early voting numbers are significantly higher than the primary, when Republican candidates earned 52 percent of the vote to Democrats’ 48 percent.

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Carol Whiteside, a former Republican political strategist in the district who changed her party affiliation in 2016, said voter turnout might be dampened by too much campaigning.

“Democrats keep saying it will be a big turnout, but people are tired of the race and the back and forth,” Whiteside said. “We’re getting one or two mailers per day lately. It could backfire on them.”

Democrats make up 37.4 percent of voters in the district to Republicans’ 34.1 percent, according to Political Data Inc., a California firm that collects such statistics.

The remaining 28.5 percent are mostly voters who declared no party preference, and polls have shown Trump’s approval rating among California independent voters in the high 20s. Latinos, who also have low approval ratings of Trump and tend to vote Democrat, make up 30 percent of registered voters.

But Denham has a reliable voting population of farmers lined up behind him that he’s been working to keep, constantly touting his work on getting more water storage in the district.

He appeared with Trump as the president signed the memorandum to speed up environmental impact reviews on dams, though such a memo won’t have much power on its own. The signing was widely considered a political move to help Valley Republicans.

Many farmers in the area who disdain Trump have lined up solidly behind Denham, partially because of his history of focus on water and his identification as a farmer. He used to grow almonds but now leases his farmland. Even the unpopular tariffs imposed by Trump that hurt farmers’ profits haven’t motivated many to switch their votes.

“There’s an intensity on the water issue here that I don’t know if you see in other areas’ local issues,” Lynch said. “It would be hard for anyone to break into that against Denham in a significant way.”

The most omnipresent threat to the Central Valley’s water resources is currently the Bay Delta Plan. The State Water Board postponed a vote on the proposal until the day after Election Day. It would direct substantial flows currently going into the Valley into the ocean, purportedly to save salmon populations. Denham has battled to block that plan at the federal level, with no success so far.

Denham has also helped pass congressional legislation to loan federal money to build needed water storage in the San Joaquin Valley. While plans for more water storage have already been lagging for decades, it will likely take years before that storage will be built or available for use.

Aiding the water initiative in the campaign is a message Denham’s troops have drummed into constituent minds repeatedly about Harder: Calling him a “Bay Area liberal,” because of his time living there.

While Republicans across the country have tried to tie Democratic opponents to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents a San Francisco-based district, that criticism has additional weight in the Central Valley, where many have an us vs. them mentality about San Francisco and how the city takes the Valley’s water.

Harder grew up in Turlock but went to college at Stanford University and spent much of his adult life working for a venture capitalist firm in the Bay Area, though he was only based in San Francisco for seven months.

Though Harder insists he’ll have support on the water issue too, local political strategists say he’s unlikely to get it. While Harder has taken the popular positions on water issues in the area — such as opposing the Bay Delta Plan — Denham has done the same. Unlike Harder, Denham has a record to support his positions.

Without the agriculture community, Harder’s base is still slightly larger in the district — but less reliable.

Harder has been working to drum up Democrats’ support by focusing on health care. The district has a higher than normal level of pre-existing conditions, as well as a large low-income population that depends on Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid.

Harder said people in the district will feel their vote matters more this time around becausehe’d push to assure insurers could not reject someone because of pre-existing conditions.

“The district is split on Trump, but it’s united on affordable health care,” said Harder, who has a Medicare-for-all health care platform.

Harder’s chances at overthrowing Denham lie with Hispanics and independent voters, and on-the-ground canvassing work by Democratic groups has been intense. Latinos tend to not have high voter turnout — though Democratic groups have been trying desperately to change that — and those who don’t declare a party affiliation are impossible to call in the 10th district, Lynch and other strategists agreed.

“On the West Coast, you can count on most of those votes to lean Democrat,” Lynch said. “Here they’re actually more independent — they’re Democrats on social issues and Republicans on fiscal issues, or some of them are vice versa.”

“They’re the key vote,” Lynch said. “And it’s a coin toss.”