California Political Desk
October 09, 2008
A battle of political superstars for the dominance of San Bernardino County is shaping up this weekend with back-to-back events featuring Ed Asner and Karl Rove.
Asner, Congressman Joe Baca, and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will headline a cast of political all-stars on Saturday, Oct. 11, at Bob Molina Memorial Park, Brotherhood of Teamsters local #63, 379 West Valley Boulevard in Rialto.
California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, and Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman round out the program which begins at 4 p.m.
Tickets and more information are available at http://www.sanbernardinodemocrats.org/
The Democrats have been planning their event since mid-August, but kept its promotion quiet to allow candidates and local clubs to ramp-up their campaigns and events with less competition.
The Democrats hosted the largest Obama acceptance speech party in Southern California on Aug. 28 where County Party Chair Carol Robb announced the confirmation of Asner and Garamendi.
County registration had been dramatically shifting in favor of the Democrats until the last week of August when more than 5,000 new Republicans were turned in during a four-week period.
The Democrats bought a list of new registrations from the County Registrar, designed questionnaires as legal affidavits, and called hundreds of the new voters which had switched from Democrat and "decline to state" to Republican.
They found roughly 95% of the new Republicans either had been "slammed" – switched illegally to Republican without their knowledge – or had invalid phone numbers, apparently to meet the Republicans' requirement for getting paid up to $15 for each new card.
The Democrats followed the money for the cards from the subcontractors in San Bernardino, to a satellite office in Anaheim and to its corporate office in Arizona, which was hired by the state Republican Party with funding from the highest elected Republican official in the state, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
The fraudulent voter registration cards, each of which could be prosecuted as a felony resulting in up to 16 months in prison for the contractors who filled them out, are now under investigation by the Public Integrity Unit of the County District Attorney's office.
The matter is also being closely watched by the State Attorney General's office, the Secretary of State, key state legislators and the California Democratic Party.
The state Republican Party's attorney filed a counter-complaint this week with the U.S. Attorney's office accusing the Democrats of interfering with their registration efforts and requesting a 'cease and desist' order.
While the Democrats were busy investigating the Republican voter fraud, a local reporter who attended their Obama watch party in Aug. scooped the story and reported Sept. 6 the confirmation of Asner and Garamendi to appear Oct. 11.
The county Republican party, caught by surprise but not to be outdone, quickly sprung into action and booked former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove for a fundraiser at Etiwanda Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga.
By the time the Democrats announced their Oct. 11 event on Sept. 17, the Republicans had already confirmed Rove, and, in an effort to upstage the Democrats, the Republicans announced Sept. 21 they had scheduled Rove for Friday, Oct. 10, the night before the Democrats' event.
The Riverside County Republican Party hosted Tom Delay for a fundraiser last Saturday night to a half-empty house. The event was planned for mote than two hundred, but only about a hundred people attended.
Code Pink and several other radical left organizations have announced a series of massive demonstrations outside the Rove event Friday night while adamantly claiming independence from any political party or candidate.
Local bragging rights and national prominence are at stake as the Republicans have long laid claim to San Bernardino as the "largest red county in the nation."
But the county has likely turned blue this week because the Registrar's weekly report on Monday, which counted 100 less Democrats than Republicans, did not include registrations Democratic volunteers collected over the weekend at numerous events.
Regardless of the attendance or funds raised by either event, the Democrats are good bets to win the war for county dominance, largely due to the corruption of locally elected Republicans, the massive voter fraud recently committed, the state of the region's economy and the national popularity of the Obama Presidential campaign.
When the new registration statistics are released on Monday, San Bernardino County will officially be a "blue" county – a feat which political scientists and campaign consultants throughout the nation would have considered impossible just a few short months ago.
Now, just as the county is on the verge of turning "blue" with more Democrats than Republicans registered for the first time in more than six years, the drama unfolds as the two biggest political events in the county's history are about to happen this Friday and Saturday nights.
Asner, Congressman Joe Baca, and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will headline a cast of political all-stars on Saturday, Oct. 11, at Bob Molina Memorial Park, Brotherhood of Teamsters local #63, 379 West Valley Boulevard in Rialto.
California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, and Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman round out the program which begins at 4 p.m.
Tickets and more information are available at http://www.sanbernardinodemocrats.org/
The Democrats have been planning their event since mid-August, but kept its promotion quiet to allow candidates and local clubs to ramp-up their campaigns and events with less competition.
The Democrats hosted the largest Obama acceptance speech party in Southern California on Aug. 28 where County Party Chair Carol Robb announced the confirmation of Asner and Garamendi.
County registration had been dramatically shifting in favor of the Democrats until the last week of August when more than 5,000 new Republicans were turned in during a four-week period.
The Democrats bought a list of new registrations from the County Registrar, designed questionnaires as legal affidavits, and called hundreds of the new voters which had switched from Democrat and "decline to state" to Republican.
They found roughly 95% of the new Republicans either had been "slammed" – switched illegally to Republican without their knowledge – or had invalid phone numbers, apparently to meet the Republicans' requirement for getting paid up to $15 for each new card.
The Democrats followed the money for the cards from the subcontractors in San Bernardino, to a satellite office in Anaheim and to its corporate office in Arizona, which was hired by the state Republican Party with funding from the highest elected Republican official in the state, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
The fraudulent voter registration cards, each of which could be prosecuted as a felony resulting in up to 16 months in prison for the contractors who filled them out, are now under investigation by the Public Integrity Unit of the County District Attorney's office.
The matter is also being closely watched by the State Attorney General's office, the Secretary of State, key state legislators and the California Democratic Party.
The state Republican Party's attorney filed a counter-complaint this week with the U.S. Attorney's office accusing the Democrats of interfering with their registration efforts and requesting a 'cease and desist' order.
While the Democrats were busy investigating the Republican voter fraud, a local reporter who attended their Obama watch party in Aug. scooped the story and reported Sept. 6 the confirmation of Asner and Garamendi to appear Oct. 11.
The county Republican party, caught by surprise but not to be outdone, quickly sprung into action and booked former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove for a fundraiser at Etiwanda Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga.
By the time the Democrats announced their Oct. 11 event on Sept. 17, the Republicans had already confirmed Rove, and, in an effort to upstage the Democrats, the Republicans announced Sept. 21 they had scheduled Rove for Friday, Oct. 10, the night before the Democrats' event.
The Riverside County Republican Party hosted Tom Delay for a fundraiser last Saturday night to a half-empty house. The event was planned for mote than two hundred, but only about a hundred people attended.
Code Pink and several other radical left organizations have announced a series of massive demonstrations outside the Rove event Friday night while adamantly claiming independence from any political party or candidate.
Local bragging rights and national prominence are at stake as the Republicans have long laid claim to San Bernardino as the "largest red county in the nation."
But the county has likely turned blue this week because the Registrar's weekly report on Monday, which counted 100 less Democrats than Republicans, did not include registrations Democratic volunteers collected over the weekend at numerous events.
Regardless of the attendance or funds raised by either event, the Democrats are good bets to win the war for county dominance, largely due to the corruption of locally elected Republicans, the massive voter fraud recently committed, the state of the region's economy and the national popularity of the Obama Presidential campaign.
When the new registration statistics are released on Monday, San Bernardino County will officially be a "blue" county – a feat which political scientists and campaign consultants throughout the nation would have considered impossible just a few short months ago.
Now, just as the county is on the verge of turning "blue" with more Democrats than Republicans registered for the first time in more than six years, the drama unfolds as the two biggest political events in the county's history are about to happen this Friday and Saturday nights.
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