Capitol Alert

A top Democratic recruit for the swing 26th Congressional District shocked supporters Saturday by dropping out of the race, one day after party leaders touted his race as a top pick-up opportunity.

Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, who was the top candidate for a pre-primary endorsement recommendation, announced during the state Democratic Party Convention in San Diego that he will drop his congressional candidacy to run for re-election to the Board of Supervisors.

Signs waved, insults flew and upsets occurred as rival Democratic campaigns went head-to-head for coveted endorsement recommendations at the state party's annual convention in San Diego.

The battle royale of the Saturday night balloting was the vote for the 30th Congressional District, which pits Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman against one another.

The two exchanged verbal blows in front of a crowd of several hundred delegates assigned to the district gathered to make a recommendation for Sunday's full floor vote.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said today she is "doubling down" on prosecutions of predatory lending and other cases of lender misconduct in the wake of the $26 billion mortgage settlement announced last week.

"We're just now starting to lace 'em up," the state's top law enforcement official told delegates during the state Democratic Party convention in San Diego.

Harris said she is expanding her mortage fraud task force to continue fighting for relief in what she called "a crime perpetrated against the middle class."

"California wasn't just the epicenter of the crash," she said of the housing crisis. "Let's call it what it is, the scene of the crime."

Harris said the settlement reached between banks, the Obama administration and 49 state attorneys general will provide Golden State home owners with $18 billion in relief, which she hailed as " 900 percent more than the crumbs they were putting on the table when we first entered the door."

"After more than a year of standing tough against the banks and standing alone when necessary, we have won a California commitment," she said.

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton praised Harris' role in the settlement, saying "without this one person that deal wouldn't have happened because that deal would have been done in a back boardroom."  

Harris, who was first elected to statewide office in 2010, received some of the loudest cheers and applause of the day and a standing ovation from delegates as she argued that California's ideas and dreams are "too big to fail."

SAN DIEGO -- Backers of a "millionaire's tax" proposed for the November ballot got a boost from activist and former Obama adviser Van Jones last night.

Jones, the guest speaker at the Friday night kick-off of the state Democratic Party convention in San Diego, told attendees that a tax on top earners would motivate young voters facing large student loan debt and dismal job prospects in a down economy.

"That will get their attention," he said. "The idea that the people who have already climbed that ladder have to give back to them, that's the pathway forward I think to electrify that generation."

The California Federation of Teachers and the California Nurses Association are trying to qualify an income tax hike on Californians earning more than $1 million for the November ballot to fund schools and other services. Jones did not specify whether he was referencing that proposal or the general idea of a millioniare's tax, but the remarks drew applause from the crowd gathered at the Friday night reception. Supporters of the initiative have been out in full force during the annual party gathering, distributing signs and campaign literature promoting the plan.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who has filed his own tax initiative to help balance the state budget, is scheduled to address the convention delegates later this morning. He has argued that a ballot with multiple tax initiatives will increase the chances of failure for all measures aimed at budget relief. His proposal would temporarily raise income tax rates for California's top earners and enact a half-cent sales tax increase.

SAN DIEGO -- Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez may be nowhere more popular than at a labor caucus meeting at a Democratic convention, and so it was that he received a standing ovation here this afternoon and tried out a one-liner on the crowd.

"This year you've seen Mitt Romney and others talk about the fact that corporations are people," the former labor organizer said. "I won't believe corporations are people until Texas executes one of them."

Labor interests are a major force in the California Democratic Party, and as party activists arrived in San Diego today for their annual convention, Pérez said defeating a so-called "paycheck protection" measure is more important than any candidate election this year.

The ballot initiative would block unions and corporations from using automatic payroll deductions for political purposes. Supporters of the initiative say it will curb the influence of special interests in elections, while labor unions say it is a targeted effort to reduce their political clout. Labor unions spent millions of dollars helping Gov. Jerry Brown defeat billionaire Meg Whitman in the 2010 election.

"This ballot measure is a fraud, it's phony and it's a lie," said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. "Imagine, just for a moment, a California where your mouths were taped the next time a Meg Whitman ran for governor."

Pérez, D-Los Angeles, said Democrats will "fight like hell" to defeat the measure.

"Thank you, brothers and sisters," he said. "It is good to be in the house of labor."

SAN DIEGO -- California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton agrees with Gov. Jerry Brown that Molly Munger's November tax initiative could hurt the governor's bid to raise the state sales tax and income taxes on California's highest earners.

Too many tax measures on one ballot, the thinking goes, and wide-eyed voters might look at all of them and say, "No."

But the powers of a party chairman are not without limits.

"What are you going to do, you know, go get a hit squad to tell Molly Munger, 'We'll burn down your house if you don't do it?' " Burton told reporters this afternoon in San Diego, where state Democrats arrived for their annual convention.

Munger, the daughter of a business partner of Warren Buffett, has contributed nearly $1 million to her campaign, an initiative to raise income taxes on all but the poorest Californians.

Burton said he hasn't talked to her and wouldn't know her if he saw her. But if he called her about her initiative, he said, he thought the conversation might go something like this:

"You really want to do this?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"'Cause I wanna."

"OK."

Burton should know. He has proposed an initiative of his own, a tax on oil production, though even he said today that he is "of the opinion that more people would look favorably on the governor's proposals than the others."

A reporter asked Burton if he thought Munger's initiative, should it qualify, would doom Brown's.

"That's a good question," he said. "How in the hell would I know?"

SAN DIEGO -- While California may not see much action from presidential hopefuls, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said today she believes a handful of competitive districts will make the state a "battleground" in Democrats' effort to win back control of Congress.

Democrats could pick up as many as five or six seats here next November under the state's new political maps, according to some political analysts. Victories in a handful of GOP-held districts could help Democrats win the 25 seats they need nationwide to reclaim the majority.

Pelosi said strong candidates and registration edges in some of California's new districts will work to Democrats' advantage in 2012.

"We have many opportunites here because we were able to out-recruit the Republicans to run candidates who are real problem-solvers," she said during a news conference at the state Democratic Party convention in San Diego.

The party has identified nine seats that are potential pick-ups. Pelosi focused on three swing seats that have attracted only one high-profile Democratic candidate, including the newly drawn 7th Congressional District in the Sacramento region.

That race will be a rematch between GOP Rep. Dan Lungren and Democrat Ami Bera, a doctor and public health official from Elk Grove.

Bera attracted headlines for strong fundraising in his 2010 bid, but lost by seven percentage points in the swing district. Pelosi said she believes the now "battle-tested" candidate will be able to win under the new district lines, which give Democrats a one-point voter registration advantage.

"He has a personality and an agenda that really invigorates the grassroots and one of the most positive, enthusiastic grassroots operaitons in the country," she said. "He will have that again, even more so, more Democrats and (this year's) president at the top of the ticket." 

CDP Chairman John Burton said high turnout in a presidential year and voters' disappointment with the GOP majority in the House will benefit Bera and other Democrats running in the state.

"It's just going to be a whole different chemistry this election," Burton said. "In fact, there are some pollsters that say ... this could be an absolute flip of 2010, that the people voted Republican, and they saw what they got, and they're suffering from what they call the buyers' remorse." 

Lungren strategist Rob Stutzman said later that while the new district is more favorable to Democrats than the 2010 lines, he's "very confident still that Lungren is a vote-getter."

"It's going to be a very expensive race, but we're confident in prevailing," he said.

Stutzman said Democrats' pick-up prospects could be dimmed by their need to defend incumbents who are vulnerable under the new lines, such as Reps. John Garamendi and Lois Capps.

Democrats' optimism about the election outcome might not translate to big spending by House Democrats in California's targeted seats. Pelosi said while she expects candidates here to be well-funded, focus and resources will also be concentrated in other states with pick-up opportunities, such as New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas.

Allan Hoffenblum, a former GOP strategist who now tracks California congressional and legislative races, said it's too early to tell whether Democrats will pick up many House seats here next November. Much of the outcome, he said, will depend on which Republican is on the top of the ticket.

"Right now, I (think) it could go either way, depending how strong the Republican candidate for president is," Hoffenblum said. "There is going to be significant turnover, but I don't want to place bets yet on is it going to be plus 'D' or plus 'R.'" 

EDITOR'S NOTE, 4:02 p.m.: This post was updated to add comment from Rob Stutzman.

California Democrats are starting 2012 with an $8.7 million fundraising advantage and 13-point voter registration edge over their rivals in the Republican Party.

The cash edge was reported in year-end campaign finance filings released Tuesday. The California Democratic State Central Committee ended 2011 with $9.3 million in the bank, after raising $2.77 million in contributions in the final three months of the year. The California Republican Party came close to matching Democrats in contributions, raising nearly $2.34 million, but reported having just shy of $439,000 cash on hand due to heavy spending on an effort to repeal the new state Senate maps via a referendum drive.

The campaign cash numbers were reported on the same day as Secretary of State Debra Bowen released updated voter registration figures showing that Democrats continue to hold a 13-point lead statewide, 43.63 percent to 30.36 percent. Both parties saw slight declines in registration in the last year, while the percentage of voters registered as decline-to-state rose to an all-time high of 21.24 percent.

CRP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro downplayed the registration numbers in a statement issued by the party, saying that Californians continue to show their support for the party by voting for fiscally conservative measures on the ballot. He said that he expects the party to make gains in closing the registration gap ahead of the 2012 election.

Democrats didn't seem too worried about that prospect.

"With these kind of numbers, I think California Democrats can really start to get used to the Del Beccaro era," CDP spokesman Tenoch Flores quipped.

U.S. Sen. Al Franken will speak live from San Diego next month as California Democrats gather for the state party's spring convention.

The Minnesota Democrat and former comedian will keynote a dinner event during the three-day confab, party spokesman Tenoch Flores said today. The $120-a-plate dinner will be followed by a separate event featuring a performance by Eli "Paperboy" Reed.

Flores said Franken's work on health care and financial regulation since winning election to the U.S. Senate in 2008 made him a good fit for the convention, which will be held Feb. 10-12 at the San Diego Convention Center.

Democrats across the state gathered over the weekend to make early picks for candidates the party should support on the June primary ballot.

The pre-endorsement votes, held each election year ahead of the state Democratic Party convention, garnered extra interest this year due to the number of competitive races and the unknowns of running under the top-two primary system, which will send the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, to a November runoff.

A candidate must receive 70 percent of the vote from participants in the pre-endorsement process, which includes Democratic State Central Committee members, county central committee members and representatives of chartered clubs and organizations, to snag a recommendation and a spot on the consent calendar at next month's state party convention in San Diego. Recommendations for districts where one candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote but failed to hit the 70 percent mark will be decided during caucuses at the convention, including the 30th Congressional District showdown between Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman

In seats where no candidate won more than 50 percent of the vote, such as the Sacramento-area's crowded Assembly District 8 race, no recommendation has been made.

The preliminary results are posted below. A final tally will be released once party officials receive and certify results from the regional meetings.

Preliminary Pre-Endorsement Conference Results

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, perhaps best known for pushing the Assembly to release member budgets after leaders threatened to furlough his staff last year, has decided not to run for state or federal office this year.

"I hope you understand that this decision in no way ends my political career," Portantino said in a written announcement Wednesday night.

"Placing it on 'hold' allows me to focus on my family while they need me. I will continue to work to put trust and accountability back into public service, now and in the future."

The D-La Cañada-Flintridge Democrat, who is termed out of the Assembly in December, has about $46,000 in a campaign finance committee named "Portantino For Senate 2016."

John Burton, chairman of the California Democratic Party, is adding his own tax proposal, on oil production, to an already crowded field.

Burton filed paperwork with the state Tuesday that proposes a ballot measure for the oil severance tax. It comes as Gov. Jerry Brown is trying to place his own tax measure -- temporarily increasing the state sales tax and income taxes on California's highest earners -- on the November 2012 ballot.

A few other groups have filed other proposals to raise revenue.

Burton, who is proposing the oil severance tax to fund higher education and the state's sagging general fund, said in an interview this evening that his proposal would not interfere with the Democratic governor's.

"It's two separate deals," he said. "Two ain't too many."

Gov. Jerry Brown, surrounded by business and government leaders, talks about his efforts to reach agreement on a state budget this week.

Martha Fluor, a member of the of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board and president of the California School Boards Association, pleads with Republican legislators to make a deal.

A typically low-key event on the last day of the California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento became hostile Sunday when May Day march organizers turned on Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers after they gave her the microphone.

Speaking in Spanish, Huerta told the protesters that their anger should be focused on the Republican Party, whose members voted for Arizona's SB1070, an anti-illegal immigration measure approved a year ago.

She asked Sacramento delegate Paramo Hernandez to let her speak as he shouted in Spanish: "We're fed up. The Democrats voted as well." Huerta got off the chair on which she was standing and walked away."Stop lying to people," Huerta yelled at Hernandez. Huerta also asked Al Rojas, a march organizer, to stop using Cesar Chavez' name. "She's trying to bait us," Rojas said in Spanish. He said he would debate her any time.

California Democrats adopted a series of predictable positions as their convention this afternoon - supporting Planned Parenthood, healthy oceans and the California Dream Act, for example - but a shot at one Orange County Republican caused a minor stir within the ranks.

A resolution condemning Marilyn Davenport for an e-mail depicting President Obama as an ape was the only item whose approval was not at least near-unanimous. Some delegates raised concerns about free speech and suggested it is not the party's place to call, as the resolution does, for Republicans to remove Davenport from her position on a local GOP board.

The item was approved after brief debate on the convention's final day. Alice Huffman, president of the state NAACP, said the resolution was not about free speech, but a response to "racism, hatred."

The three-day convention, at the Sacramento Convention Center, ended without an appearance by Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown, who was scheduled to speak today, had a cancerous growth removed from his nose on Friday and is skipping public events until his stitches are removed, his office said.

Brown was not replaced on the agenda. But his case for tax extensions was made by California schools chief Tom Torlakson. He said California's education system is at a "tipping point," threatened by further spending cuts and already with one of the shortest school years in the modern world.

"I'm a proud Democrat, but funding our schools is not a partisan issue," he said. "It should simply be our top priority."

Delegates trickled out as the day wore on. A small group of protesters demonstrated outside the convention center. They demanded better protections for immigrant workers, among other things.

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton has an offer for the protesters who paid five-figures to interrupt a recent San Francisco fundraiser for President Barack Obama .

"They pay $78-grand, they can come back and insult me... they can take a dump in my salad for $78-grand," the famously foul-mouthed former Democratic legislator and congressman quipped to a group of reporters on the opening night of the state party convention.

On a more serious note, Burton laid out the challenge Obama faces in firing up his base and winning over critics within his own party as he gears up to seek a second term.

"I think a lot of our people are very concerned about the three wars. They're concerned about the spending, too," he said. "They're concerned that that we're spending all this money on three wars and cutting funds for education and poor people and those are cases that have to be made by the president and his campaign."

Burton said he believed the president would win California 53 percent to 47 percent without any added effort -- compared to the 61 percent share he took in 2008.

Whether Obama can generate a high level of enthusiasm for his second bid could matter for California Democrats. Burton said spillover from a successful presidential campaign could help sweep down-ticket Democrats to victory in 2012, a boost that could matter more if the congressional and state legislative district maps drawn by the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission produce more competitive races.

"The president's the guy on the ballot and the motivation's got to come from Washington," he said.

But Burton also said he expects Democrats to turn out to fight back against policies being pushed by Republicans controlling the U.S. House and statehouses across the country, saying proposals to cut Medicare and Wisconsin GOP Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan should be "enough to scare the bejeezus out of anybody."

Just as important as hitting the GOP platform, Burton said, will be highlighting success of the health care law and other political victories in Obama's first term.

"The challenge for us in the Democratic Party is to tell people what the deal is in a positive way," he said.

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton unleashed his famously colorful rhetoric this morning against conservative activist Grover Norquist, who's repeatedly criticized Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators for seeking to ask voters to extend tax increases to balance the budget.

In a news release, Burton honed in on a statement by Norquist made to The Washington Post, in which he said about the budget battles in Washington, "I think golf and cocaine would be more constructive ways to spend one's free time than negotiating with Democrats on spending restraint."

Burton's response: "I have always considered golf a good walk spoiled. As a recovering cocaine addict, I am surprised that anyone would think that it is at all constructive to spend one's free time using that drug.

"One would think that Mr. Norquist made this comment with a straw in his hand bending over a mirror full of white power." The state Democratic Party confirmed Burton meant to say "powder" in the news release.

Norquist's Washington, D.C.-based group Americans for Tax Reform has not yet responded to a request for comment from The Bee about Burton's statement.

Americans for Tax Reform has warned California Republican legislators who have signed its anti-tax pledge that approving any move to put tax extensions on the ballot would be considered a violation of the pledge. That position has drawn heavy criticism from Democrats and Brown himself, who called Norquist's stands "pathetic" earlier this month.

Burton echoed some of that criticism this morning as the state GOP gathers for its three-day convention.

"Californians must be trusted to exercise their right to vote - that's how things work in a democracy. What remains of the sensible part of the Republican Party needs to speak loudly against out of touch, and out-to-lunch Republicans like Grover Norquist."

Photo: Randy Pench/Sacramento Bee

The top bosses at California's major political parties squared off today at a Sacramento Press Club luncheon on which party will wake up Nov. 3 as the winner.

California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring pointed to national and state trends that he said show political winds in the GOP's sails, including leads in polling on generic congressional ballots, President Barack Obama's declining approval rating, gubernatorial elections in West Virginia and New Jersey and the special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts.

"The political jet streams will be in our favor," he said, pointing to GOP victories in 1994 as an example of how the national political environment can affect California races.

But state Democratic Party Chairman John Burton wasn't so sure.

"Changes of winds and winds of change, who the hell knows where the wind goes. It tends to change," Burton said. "Do you ever watch the weather report? The wind's coming here, but they go there?"

There was little agreement today when John Burton, the state Democratic Party chairman, and Ron Nehring, his Republican counterpart, made a joint appearance at the Sacramento Press Club.

One of those disagreements was on how to pronounce the name of Carly Fiorina, the GOP challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. While Nehring pronounced it correctly, Burton repeatedly pronounced it as if it were spelled "Fiorino."

But Nehring may have compensated for that verbal faux pas by repeatedly referring to Burton's side as the "Democrat Party," using the standard GOP nomenclature that irritates members of the Democratic Party to no end.