“The freshmen who joined Pérez didn’t have to report the value of their tickets because the gathering was hosted by the state Democratic Party.”

So “Bob Whittaker” is there something wrong with a democratic legislator going to a basketball game hosted by the Democratic Party? And in Levine’s case, uh, that same party spent a million bucks to defeat him and lost. The party, I’d say, has a hell of a lot of making up to do.

This is the kind of situational complaints we usually hear from Lisa Maldonado and Laura Gonzales. I guess they’ve gone underground for a while. If they are just adopting new fake names, look out everybody because the sour grapes losers over at the North Bay Labor Council are scheming to launch another campaign with their favorite hack…Michael Allen.

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Michael Allen lost by less than 2 percent. Do you think having a bad record with the FPPC caused him to lose? I do. So, which crooked politician wants to be next? While the press may write hit pieces on good people who tell the truth and turn in corrupt politicians, it is the criminals who have the most to fear in the end. So let this be a wake up call to any politician who thinks they are above the law and illegally feeds at the public trough.

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http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/22/local/la-me-perks-20121122

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What does Michael expect, trying to make working conditions better for farm workers?

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Why, yes, it looks like a glimmer of organic real democracy.

Public discernment.

Surviving special interest money and propaganda.

Haven’t seen you in a while.

Welcome home.

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“We walked. We phoned. You name it, we did it,” said Lisa Maldonado, executive director of the North Bay Labor Council.

She estimated as many as 400 volunteers were working on the race, which she called a “priority” for the organization.”

The North Bay Labor Council headed by Lisa Maldonado recruited 400 “volunteers” to walk precincts and make phone calls in addition all the money they gave Allen because it was a “priority” for them. So all those comments left here on Watch Sonoma County, tweets,letters to the editor and other efforts must have been coordinated by someone and the time they spent managing and participating in that campaign would have to be reported as an in kind contribution to the Allen campaign in order to be legal. Has anyone checked the financial reports to see if Allen reported the “gift” of inkind staff support, i.e., the value of Lisa Maldonado’s time to the state?

If Allen “mustered” resources under the table then that would be consistent with the way he “won” in 2010 and the way he ran his losing campaign for City Council in 2007.

But think about it. Is Michael Allen the biggest loser in California? It has been reported elsewhere that when the Independant Expenditure money is added onto what the Allen campaign spent, more than $2.1 million was spent to attempt to re-elect him. He had an enormous list elected officials endorsing him. Now we learn that Allen also had 400 “volunteers” helping him. And yet,with all this help and all these resources, he lost. It would have been a landslide for Levine absent all the artificial “support” for Sacramento.

This election could not be bought. Voters rejected the guy with a reputation for corruption in favor of a fresh face. Rejecting corruption is bipartisan.

The PD in the story above also says the 2010 race with Allen was eked out with the same resources. Right. With a huge amount of support from the North Bay Labor Council that went unreported as in kind donation. But there was a second issue in 2010. Prior to the election, Allen denied and blew off the accusations against him related to his influence peddling with the Water Agency and his appointment to the Planning Commission. The accusations of a quid pro quo were not made last minute nor in the form of a “hit piece” from either of the two candidates opposing Allen. In fact the only hit pieces and negative campaigning via push polling in that 2010 race came from labor “resources” supporting Allen. The checks for the 2010 push polling were signed by Lisa Maldonado (copies are on file in the Sonoma County Registrar’s office)even though she was falsely blaming other candidates here on Watch Sonoma County for weeks prior to the 2010 election. And, as a result of the denials from Allen, some voters gave Allen the benefit of the doubt. Only after the election did Allen “cooperate” with the Fair Political Practices Commission and sign a stipulation to the accusation that he had a serious conflict of interest during his appointment to the Santa Rosa Planning Commission. If voters had known the influence peddling was a fact prior to the 2010 primary and knew Allen and his “resources” were the source of the negative campaigning while blaming others, we would have had Assemblyman Michael Wilson for the past two years. So in a way the voters in 2012 were correcting a mistake made in 2010 and denying reelection to the guy who lied to them directly and through his “resources” at the North Bay Labor Council.

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This guy has been living off the public for far too long. He is from another era in politics.

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Run for 2nd District Assembly, Wes Chesbro is termed out in 2014. Run Michael Run!!!

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While we can regret that he was ever elected to the State Assembly in the first place, we can rejoice that voters recognized his sleazy behavior and rewarded him by giving him the boot. Perhaps it took Marin County voters to recognize that a man who threatens his opponent and takes money to vote shouldn’t be (re) elected.

Michael Allen and Lisa Maldonado are disgraced, and they should be. The only disappointment is that it took so long.

Rosa Koire
Santa Rosa Neighborhood Coalition

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Whats a low life politician to do ?

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Our 12 yr.old daughter Gwen met Michael in Sacramento one day. He was so sincere and friendly, gave her his card…I think she’ll always remember that day.

Michael was never afraid to go beyond the ‘comfort level’ of Sacramento to advocate for his constituency. He carried a bill for Ca. conventional farmers to transition to organic agriculture as well as a bee-protecting resolution and much more. Michael was our great champion of sustainable agriculture. Sonoma and Marin were lucky to have him as they prepared to transition from one superbe sustainable food/ag champion, Jared Huffman, to Michael.

Will Marc continue in these 2 men’s footsteps, who were in tune with their constituency?

As Marc Levine becomes my official Assemblymember shortly, I hope he can prove that he also is a “Regular Guy” and doesn’t turn into a “Sacramento Guy”…the exact think he personally campaigned viciously against with the help of the most powerful Big Ag lobbying group in Sac.-Western Growers.

We’ll see. We’ll be watching.

Yannick

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