Yesterday, Newsom For California Campaign Manager Nick Clemons slammed Attorney General Jerry Brown for his appearance last Thursday as a guest of honor at a fundraising event for the right-wing Republican San Bernardino District Attorney Mike Ramos. The event raised nearly $100,000 for this former appointee of George W. Bush and former Campaign Chairman for Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Newsom Campaign has launched an online petition campaign to protest Brown’s actions in addition to their statement.
In his email statement Clemons said:
In his introductory remarks for Ramos, Brown called the Republican incumbent, “a real fighter.†But exactly whom has Ramos been fighting for?
Well, in 2006 Ramos served as Chairman of Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign. And Ramos served on the National Hispanic Steering Committee to Re-Elect President George W. Bush in 2004.
At a time when the state Republican Party refused to help solve the crisis that pushed California to the brink of collapse and forced draconian cuts in higher education, health care and vital services, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor is headlining a fundraiser for one of California’s Republican politicians?
I have to wonder what exactly Jerry Brown is thinking. He recently launched his “exploratory” committee for his run for Governor. Having been an all but announced candidate for Governor for more than a year, this move is sure to not play very well with the Democratic Party base, from whom he needs to win the nomination should he “decide” to actually run for Governor.
As Sam Clauder, a San Bernardino County Democratic Party activist, said in an email yesterday:
We Democrats in San Bernardino County have busted our ass to turn this county blue, and to keep this county blue.
We hosted a celebration of turning the county blue last October, featuring Ed Asner, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres, and Los Angeles Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman, and became a national news story as the most prominent county in the nation to turn blue.
We are the ones who first busted the Republican Voter Registration Fraud of Young Political Majors which resulted in the arrest of Mark Jacoby in Ontario for four felonies, and became a national news story.
We are the ones who promoted the ‘Obama Bucks’ story last September from a confidential joke memo among the members of a Republican women’s club in Rancho Cucamonga to a major international news story.
Politics is war, and our enemies in San Bernardino County are clearly the corrupt, conservative Republicans whom we have been so successful fighting and beating for the past two years.
Last Thursday night, Democratic Gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Jerry Brown came to San Bernardino County and raised $100,000 for corrupt, conservative Republican District Attorney Mike Ramos.
This $100K can now be used by Ramos — who already had $350K in his war chest — to give to any other Republican candidate and/or the San Bernardino County Republican Party to use against us to beat our Democratic candidates and to rebuild the San Bernardino County Republican Party.
Jerry Brown has never come to San Bernardino County to campaign or raise money for Democrats!
Politics is war, and Jerry Brown gave aid and comfort to our enemies by raising $100,000 for the San Bernardino County Republican Party last Thursday night.
This act of Jerry Brown’s is treason! Treason against Democrats in San Bernardino County and throughout California! Treason to Democrats everywhere!
For four decades now, we Democrats have been living by a common set of rules, and Jerry Brown has been living by a different set of rules.
I can certainly understand why Sam and other Democrats in San Bernardino are upset. To put this into context, how would Orange County Democrats react if Jerry Brown were to come to Orange County to raise money for AssemblymanVan Tran?
Oh please Chris. Van Tran sits in a partisan office and is running for another partisan office. Last time I checked the District Attorney for each county in California is a non-partisan office. Maybe the analogy you would want to use is ” how would Orange County Democrats react if Jerry Brown were to come to Orange County to raise money for Janet Nguyen?” If he had done that during the last election cycle for the 1st S.D., would you have put up this post?
If your analysis had something to do with the way Ramos performed as District Attorney rather than regourgatating a Newsome press release talking about his political endorsements your post might have some argumentative value. And quoting Sam Clauder without giving your readers a context as to his potential motivation for making these charges is not like you.
Newsome has his campaign manager make this attack instead of doing it himself. Nice. Maybe trying to avoid the obvious questions which you should have asked :
Mr. Newsome, why did you give the Republican Party of San Francisco $500 in 2000 to be on a slate card which featured and supported George Bush against Al Gore? And given that you gave money which was used to support George Bush against Al Gore, aren’t you being hypocritical in attacking Brown in this context? Perhaps this is one of the reasons why polling in San Francisco shows Brown ahead of Newsome in every District except the Marina in San Francisco.
When you’re behind in the polls I understand you’ll throw a lot of crap on the walls and hope some of it sticks. The problem is Newsome threw this one into a fan and it is going to stick right on him.
NCS:
Answer to your First Question, Possibly, although we really didn’t have a credible Democrat in that race.
A better comparison however would be Brown coming to OC to raise money for Shawn Nelson.
And really, you are comparing the purchase of a space on a slate card in an election to headlining a fundraiser for Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign Chair?
This from the people that offered ZERO support for McMurray or to unseat Dirty Garry!
Shills!
DuploJohn,
What are you talking about?
We covered the Miller race extensively in 2008 and MacMurray’s last two challenges did not have much chance, and there wasn’t a great deal to cover.
Chris- You say you didn’t have a credible Democratic candidate in the race against Janet Nguyen. Putting aside that some may differ with that analysis, is whether there is a credible Democratic candidate in the race your yardstick for measuring whether an endorsement of a Republican for a non-partisan office is bad, or treasonous or worthy of regourgatating a campaigns press release? If so, who is that credible Democrat running against Ramos? If Brown had come down and endorsed Janet would you have put up this post and made your own comments as above? If brown came down now and endorsed Nelson(who unlike Ramos is not the incumbant)I would be all over him given that a) its not a law enforcement seat, b) Nelson has been clear he is no friend of County employees, and c) he has three Democrats to choose from.
I’m not sure whether either Brown’s or Newsome’s decisions deserve anything more than passing note. But if Newsome is going to going to throw stones he needs to cast the beam out of his own eye first. Ag’s often endorse district attorneys. In this case you’re not naive enough to put any weight into the title of the Governor’s re-election chair? It was a paper, ceremonial title. Steve Schmidt ran the Governor’s campaign. Newsome, on the other hand, gave $500 to the local GOP for placement on a slate card featuring Bush, when newsome didn’t even have opposition. So yes, I’ll compare them. And while this is a sideshow issue and not one I think people will base their support for a candidate on, if weighing the venial sins of the two, Gavin’s is more questionable. And based on his attacking Brown, certainly more hypocritical.