Political Fix (16 April, 2015)

 Six things you didn’t know about Marco Rubio

Well finally we have some officially declared presidential candidates.  The first to announce was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, then Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Hilary Clinton and now Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has announced that he is definitely going to announce, so we have that to look forward to.

The freshman senator, Mr. Rubio was the latest to jump into the race, so let’s review six thing you probably didn’t know about him.

1. Mr. Rubio sponsored a comprehensive immigration reform law that passed the senate and included amnesty.
2. Rubio’s election to the senate in 2010 was partly due to the Tea Party whose influence convinced him to withdraw support from his own immigration bill and it died in the house.
3. Mr. Rubio is giving up the chance to keep his senate seat to run a very long-shot campaign for the presidency.
4. Ms. Clinton’s advisors are watching Mr. Rubio very closely as her potential opponent. Her announcement on Sunday was an attempt to draw attention away from Mr. Rubio and eclipse it.
5. Mr. Rubio graduated high school with a 2.1 grade point average.
6. Mr. Rubio’s family was Mormon while they lived in Las Vegas. He is now Catholic.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul jumped into the race in April also. Here are his little known facts.

1. Mr. Paul spent his second day as an official presidential candidate trashing Ms. Clinton.
2. Ms. Clinton spent her second day as an official presidential candidate barely aware of Sen. Paul’s existence.
3. Rand Paul said in a campaign video that, “he will do anything to defend America from ‘Haters of Mankind,’ you know- like the Klingons.
4. He is afraid of heights.
5. Sometimes he cuts his own hair.
6. Sarah Palin declared that she is on “Team Rand.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, I predict, will never disappoint in providing material for this column, and is the barer of many unknown facts. 1. While at Harvard Law, Cruz reportedly refused to study with anyone who hadn’t spent their undergrad years at Harvard, Princeton or Yale. 2. His favorite boots are black ostrich-skin cowboy boots. 3. He argued in front of the Court of Texas to keep the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds. 4. He memorized the Constitution as a teenager and recited it across the state. 5. James Carville called Mr. Cruz “the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years.” 6. When you Google “the most hated man in congress” Ted Cruz is the first name to pop up.

Hilary was our latest to declare. The New York Times said, “the prolonged prologue to Hilary Clinton’s second run for the White House will reach its suspenseless conclusion on Sunday.”

There is no need to make a list like the above. With a 500 million ad campaign already started by the Republicans they will make sure you get the list. Besides, Hilary is expected to collect 2.5 billion in campaign cash and that is just about all you need to know.

No Party Preference is the California’s third political party

After reviewing our choices for president, to date, is it any wonder that “No Party Preference” (NPP) is the fastest growing political party in the state? Well it’s not exactly a political party, and the registrants probably couldn’t agree on the time of day, but NPP has made the largest gains in registered voters throughout the state and in Kings and Tulare County. The current in-fighting in the Tulare County Democratic Party won’t hurt NPP’s numbers either.

From 2005 to 2015, the number of those registered NPP in Kings County increased from about 10 percent to 16 percent. As for Tulare County the newest numbers are, 46 percent of the registered voters are Republican 31 percent are registered Democrat and 18 percent are registered NPP.

Statewide the numbers are close to opposite of what is going on here. In California 28 percent of the registered voters are Republican and 24 percent is No Party Preference. Democrats are 43 percent of the registered voters.

According to the Hanford Sentinel, “Allen Hoffenblum (Republican commentator) thinks the decline-to-state category will eventually surpass Republican registration in the Golden State. He noted that, if you add up all the people in the decline to state category plus all the third-party registrants, it surpasses the number of people calling themselves Republicans.”

Even though the state’s numbers do not reflect the political make up in Tulare and Kings Counties, both parties locally are losing members to those registering NPP.

The Hanford Sentinel said, “noting the national polarization between Republicans and Democrats in recent years, Ken Baird, formerly of the Kings County Registrar of Voters, said both parties ‘need to take a really hard look at who they are. I think people are just pretty dissatisfied with what they’re seeing.’”

Democrats start early in trying to unseat Valadao

Democrat Daniel Parra has announced his candidacy early for the 21^st congressional district against Rep.  David Valadao. His early entrance indicates the need to start fundraising and campaigning now against a formidable candidate. Mr. Parra, a longtime resident of the San Joaquin Valley, grew up in Parlier with his six siblings.

Mr. Parra has the registration edge in a Democratic district but still needs an early start because Rep. Valadao continues to crush his democratic opponents. Even though Kings County is in the 21^st district, 47.4 percent of the registered voters are Democrat and only 31 percent Republicans. This is because the 21^st district also includes Fresno and Kern Counties that lean Democrat.

Rep. Valadao’s successful campaigns in a Democrat district might be explained by his appeal to NPP registrants. Rep. Valadao is very effective in getting the swing vote, and the NPP may lean to the right, but is also considered the swing vote.

NPP might also explain why Democrat John Hernandez did so poorly in a presidential election year against Rep. Valadao in 2012. Although President Obama won the general vote in the 21^st district, Mr. Hernandez lost by a landslide. Democrats lost by a landslide again in 2014, when Rep. Valadao beat Amanda Renterial.

Good luck Daniel. You will need it.

Rants and Raves

Who is sick of all of the hyperbole surrounding water?

Representative Devin Nunes made an astute observation about the drought when he said, “It’s nice to see some media interest in the problem, though they’re coming pretty late to the game. It’s amazing how a decades-long crisis in the Valley turns into a big story once the effects hit San Francisco and other coastal enclaves.”

About a month ago, Governor Brown told urban users to cut their water use by 25 percent. Then the moans and cries started when he did not mandate that farmers cut their water use. Really? What part of 0 percent allocation don’t those crying foul understand? Last year, the Central Valley Project cut farmers and some communities’ water allocation to 0 percent. Actually, unless there is a flood, farmers’ never get their full allotment from the CVP or the State Water Project.

I have a problem with armchair environmentalists that are woefully ignorant of the state’s agriculture industry. But I also have a problem when huge irrigation districts and their mouthpieces complain about how much water is wasted on the environment. Just like a father cannot babysit his own children, you cannot give water to the environment. It is true that the agriculture industry should be frustrated that our water infrastructure has the capability to prevent water from escaping into the ocean. But when God created the earth I don’t think he had the Central Valley Plan (CVP) in mind. We all learned in first grade that it snows in the mountains and that snow melts and flows in the rivers. Those rivers then flow into the ocean. Then the water evaporates and it happens all over again.

It’s called the “cycle of water.”

When the environmentalist claim that agriculture uses 80 percent of the state’s water, and then the agriculture industry turns around and says that the environment uses 78 percent of the water, both sides have lost their argument. The agriculture industry is not going to convince any sane person that it is OK to dam up a major river and let it go dry. And lay people don’t have the right to tell a farmer that he or she has to fallow their land and lose their livelihood. Is it the best and most beneficial use of the water to let it flow into the ocean? Both sides have a point and both sides are right. They better just start dealing with it.

The elephant in the room is the fact that the Central Valley would be the poorest state in our nation behind Mississippi, if the “six states initiative” had gotten on the ballot last November and passed. If the families who work for the agricultural industry could send their children to college or, just the orthodontist, like their employers do, more people would care a little less about “a stupid little fish” like the Delta Smelt.

Now to end with the ridiculous

If you have been missing former state assembly member and former candidate for Governor, Tim Donnelly, as much as I have there is a remedy. He now has a three-hour a day radio talk show. Don’t despair, if you miss it, you can listen to his show on his website and take a gander at his new logo of a gun-toting figure that looks suspiciously like a Confederate soldier.

Here is the promotion for his show.

“Broadcasting from deep behind enemy lines in the occupied territory of the socialist republic of California. Welcome to The Tim Donnelly Show, where it doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, only whether or not you’re an American, no one cares if you are rich or poor, as long as you pay your own way, and the color of your skin is of no consequence here, the only colors that matter to us are the red, the white and the blue–the colors of freedom.”