ABC 30 Blogs

Welty: Politics & Prop 30

You better "work on getting a thick skin."

That's the advice from retiring Fresno State President Dr. John Welty to his successor at the University.

Fundraiser-in-Chief

President Barack Obama returns to California tonight (April 3rd) to headline four fundraisers in the Bay Area.

Hernandez Back in the Hunt for Congress

Just four months after being soundly defeated by David Valadao… Democrat John Hernandez is back on the campaign trail… planning to challenge the Freshman GOP Congressman in 2014.

Hernandez lost to Valadao (in rounded numbers) 58% to 42%.

He won the vote in only one county in the 21^st District…Kern County. Hernandez focused the majority of his campaign efforts there. He didn’t have the funds or resources to mount a major campaign throughout the District.

Hernandez told me… he believes his late entry into the race hurt his fundraising and eventual showing on Election Night.

Valadao had a huge advantage in fundraising and received hundreds of thousands of dollars from an outside PAC to launch TV ads against Hernandez.

Hernandez’s 2012 House Election Committee came out of the General Election with a campaign debt of $40,500.  Hernandez says more than half of that red ink is from money he lent to his own campaign.

Hernandez is holding a fundraiser tonight (March 14^th) in Fresno to help retire that debt and hopefully, start adding to a 2014 campaign war chest.

Sequester Poll: Spreading the Blame

President Obama and Congressional Republicans are both getting the blame for the political stalemate over the $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts also known as the Sequester.

How Liberal or Conservative is Your Congressman?

Who is Central California’s most liberal Congressman?

Who’s the most conservative Representative?

How does your Congressional Rep vote on issues of economic, social, and foreign policy?

You may find the answers you’re looking for in the new 2012 Congressional Vote Ratings report from the National Journal. For three decades, one of the favorite magazines for Washington insiders and political pundits rated the members of Congress based on their roll call votes from the second session of the past year and then compared those results based on ideology. The National Journal claims to put no spin on how each member of Congress should have voted.

Dead Fish & Water Deliveries

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week partially restored the flow of water through the state and federal pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta near Tracy, after reducing water exports late last year.

Pres. Obama’s Immigration Overhaul

President Obama calls the country’s immigration policy badly broken and out of date. This week, he pitched his plan for immigration reform to create a more direct path to citizenship for the estimated eleven million undocumented immigrants now living in the U.S.

Back in June of 2012, the President gave us a few clues on what he might propose when I asked him during our exclusive one on one interview at the White House about reforming the nation’s immigration policy and its impact on agricultural workers here in the Central Valley.

Election Rewind: Obama's Valley Victories

One month after the November Presidential Election, all the counting is finally complete at Elections offices across the Central Valley and the rest of California.

California Election by the Numbers

Elections are all about votes, numbers, and percentages. For example... 270... the Electoral College votes needed to elect a U.S. President. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen must dream about votes and numbers ... and counting votes. Her office has released a fact sheet regarding the November 2012 General Election in California. Take a good look at those numbers, but before you do, know that the 18 million plus registered voters is an all-time high in California. That's 950,000 new voters since the 2008 Presidential election. All those new voters plus a huge number of vote-by-mail ballots may turn Election Night... into Election Week according to some elections observers. Also, you'll see Republicans have now fallen below 30% registration in the Golden State. Looks like California is staying "Blue" for some time and the GOP has their work cut out for them. Nearly 21% of those registered declined a party preference and they'll be the most courted voters in California.

Election Night: Beyond the Big Race

After a campaign season that seemed like it would never end.... Election Day is almost here. Everyone will be watching the big race for the White House, but here are a few candidates and issues you may want to keep your eye on as Action News reports the returns on Election Night.