Jeff Denham: Proudly Protecting California From Himself

I wasn't able to get to a vomitorium that was open early until just now, so I'm finally able to post about this ad Jeff Denham's putting out:



He's fighting to protect teachers, you see. And kids! He's touting this amendment that would do nothing but prolong the budget battle. He's counting on the low-information voter with this one. But in the Central Valley, they're not buying it. They would rather not see child care centers and services for the poor shut down to feed one man's ego (and to stop any meaningful regulation on global warming issues, let's not forget. Here's Assemblywoman Caballero:

Senate Republicans argue that the $3.4 billion reserve in the Assembly budget is not enough. Yet Republican senators voted for last year's budget, with a reserve of $2.1 billion - 40 percent less than this year's reserve. They argue that they don't like CEQA, California's premier environmental protection law. CEQA is not a budget issue and never has been.

The Assembly did its job; we compromised and passed a budget. The hold-up is in the Senate. Only one Republican - Senator Abel Maldonado, from Santa Maria - was willing to compromise. One more vote is needed, and the remaining Republican senators are refusing to provide it, even though the governor has asked for their support and made promises to make more cuts.

It's time for all Californians to tell the 14 Senate Republicans, including our own Sen. Jeff Denham, to put personal ambition aside. Tell them we need to get Californians back to work. Tell them it is real people that are being hurt.

I think Denham's losing the plot on this one.

As a side note, a big thanks to Health Net of California, which provided an interest-free loan in a time where there's a real credit crunch to keep two rural county clinics in Tulare County open. Would that the Republicans had such compassion.