Patterico's Pontifications

11/25/2010

Cooley Concedes in California A.G. Race

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:25 am



I heard this yesterday around noon but didn’t get a chance to post until now:

Democrats completed a clean sweep of California’s statewide offices Wednesday as Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley conceded the race for attorney general, ending weeks of uncertainty in one of the closest statewide elections in California history.

With the number of uncounted ballots dwindling and his rival’s lead at more than 50,000 votes, Cooley telephoned San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris early Wednesday to congratulate the Democratic victor.

She opposes the death penalty and will likely take no further action to defend Proposition 8.

I guess California gets what it asked for.

38 Responses to “Cooley Concedes in California A.G. Race”

  1. Stunning what has become of the state of my birth, where I lived for 41 years.

    Get our while you can, and “thank” Bill Clinton for forever altering the demographics of California.

    shipwreckedcrew (436eab)

  2. I guess California gets what it asked for.

    And all I want for Christmas is to not have to bail them out…

    steve (116925)

  3. We didn’t all vote for these liberal loons. I didn’t, but since I can’t sell my house because of the economy, I’m pretty much stuck. I’m going to have to live with this craziness.

    But if they hike property taxes the way they want to and I lose my house, I’m outta here.

    Lee (3fa26e)

  4. It’s just sad. At least here in NY the Rs have taken back the state Senate. Not that I’m expecting anything from them; the state Rs are almost indistinguishable from the Ds.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  5. It is quite disturbing that Californians seem oblivious to how their choices as voters have been leading their state to failure.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  6. well, given the massive effort to ensure no illegal alien misses a chance to vote, this was a forgone conclusion…. look at a map of how the state votes by area, and you’ll see that a majority of the areas are red, but the population in the cities are blue… voting for free stuff and guilt.

    we’re screwed.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  7. Well Milhouse, this time they didn’t Espada and Monserrate, to do it. Whenever one things of repeating the 17th Amendment, one looks at various
    state legislatures, and the notion passes

    narciso (82637e)

  8. In 2002 California lost a chance to right the ship a bit. Bill Jones was a conservative who had won his election to statewide office. I forget the office but he was the only Republican in the state executive branch. His mistake was to support McCain in the 2000 primary. In 2002, he was the best candidate for governor but the Bush people stiffed him. Riordan, the former Mayor of LA and Bill Simon, a rich dilettante, eliminated him and Simon won the primary. He lost to Gray Davis when Jones might well have continued the pattern of Republican governors mitigating the lunacy of the Legislature.

    A year later, the electricity crisis showed how inept Davis was and he was recalled. The crisis was created by stupid legislation and aggravated by Davis when he refused to allow utilities to sign long term contracts for power.

    California ended up with the amateur Schwartzenegger and the decline accelerated.

    Mike K (568408)

  9. I was expecting the California Republican Party to highlight how the choices they were given by the Democrats were its leftiest wing in the greater Bay Area; Oakland’s Jerry Brown, San Francisco’s Gavin Newsom, and San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris, all of whom are objective failures and undeserving of greater responsibility. I was hoping that Californians would be asked by the state GOP if they wanted a 70’s retread who switches out of his honesty mode when it’s time for him to run for office again (and there’s always another office to run for), a smarmy, slick philanderer and problem drinker who ran up a $1.5 billion deficit in a city of less than 850,000 residents, and an activist prosecutor who refused to file capital murder charges against a man who executed a police officer (Rose Bird, anyone?).

    Instead of such a challenge issued after displaying the stark contrasts, the GOP rolled over and played dead (at least in the Bay Area). Good going, guys — especially you, $teve “Bull” $chmidt. You did just as good a job guiding Meg Whitman as you did for John McCain.

    BTW – I briefly tuned into the Lt. Gov debate between Newsom & GOP incumbent Abel Maldonado, installed by Ahnuld after he stabbed fiscal hawks in the back and agreed to tiebreak a “bipartisan” tax-raising budget deal (I think that was … four budget crises ago). Believe me when I tell you I have NEVER heard so much unadulterated bull/horse/chicken in my life. I had to flip it off (in both senses) after five minutes, it was so maddening. I’d rather have watched a Justin Bieber concert — LIVE.

    L.N. Smithee (05d080)

  10. That’s all true, Mike K., but California’s real problem is a legislature that is so gerrymandered that it is run by an irresponsible pack of whacky leftists.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  11. Mike K — gotta disagree with your recitation of history. The RNC wouldn’t support Simon b/c he was too conservative for Bushies, being in favor of Wilson’s efforts to fight illegal immigration and its inherent costs. All the polls said Simon was dead in the water by election night and would get swamped by double digits, but the margin late in the evening was as close as five points. Davis’ campaign had to delay its planned concession speech until Simon’s surge petered out.

    L.N. Smithee (05d080)

  12. That’s all true, Mike K., but California’s real problem is a legislature that is so gerrymandered that it is run by an irresponsible pack of whacky leftists.

    At least that part is ending.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (b41011)

  13. Well, hopefully Brother Bradley.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  14. Willie Brown celebrated the initiative that gave the redistricting back to the legislature. After that election, about 15 years ago when Willie was still in the legislature, the retired judges plan was scrapped. Willie admitted that the voters had been hoodwinked.

    I disagree about Simon. He was an inept candidate and Bill Jones, if he had had help, would have been a much better choice. He was a central valley farmer who had been elected Sec State. Simon was spending his father’s fortune.

    Mike K (568408)

  15. This was an historic GOP surge year. If Democrats can sweep in a year like that, the GOP will never win.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  16. I love the Cowgirls’ uniforms today.

    JD (347174)

  17. Looks like California, like Connie Francis’s heart, has a mind of its own. Assuming of course it has actually a mind – which such results make me doubt.

    @L.N. Smithee:

    “a smarmy, slick philanderer and problem drinker who ran up a $1.5 billion deficit in a city of less than 850,000 residents”

    You have a source?

    Optimus Prime (0692b1)

  18. SPQR – the 2000 redistricting was an incumbent protection plan, not a get-the-most-leftwing-legislature-possible plan.

    If it had been the latter, the 2/3 majority rules in the legislature wouldn’t have mattered.

    ——-

    I voted for Cooley. In my mind, the death penalty and prop 8. issue are actually plusses for Harris, as was Cooley’s repeated insistence that Prop. 19 was unconstitutional. On the other hand: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202457720815 was inexcusable.

    aphrael (fe2ce4)

  19. Well, the smarmy slick philanderer part is well known. You can’t exactly get a source for ‘smarmy’, but it’s well known that Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife (see http://articles.sfgate.com/2007-01-31/news/17229155_1_newsom-alex-tourk-mayor-s-office). The number on the deficit seems to be wrong, though (http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-11-21/news/24843872_1_interim-mayor-budget-deficit-budget-bad-news) says only 400K.

    Disclaimer: I voted for Maldonado. (Maldonado and Cooley were my two Republican votes in this election).

    aphrael (fe2ce4)

  20. I’d have sooner voted for dead dog than the live weasel Maldonado!

    AD-RtR/OS! (3a846c)

  21. I think Cooley cooked his own goose when he played too nice with Roger “The Dodger” Mahoney, who should be rotting in a jail cell as we type.

    AD-RtR/OS! (3a846c)

  22. That was probably the first time he showed bad judgement, not the last by a longshot

    narciso (82637e)

  23. AD – that’s sort of how I felt about Newsom. The candidate with the best opportunity to beat him got my vote.

    aphrael (fe2ce4)

  24. I was running some numbers yesterday and found them disturbing.

    In the 2008 DA race, which Cooley won outright (without a runoff in November), he got ~400K votes.

    In the 2010 AG race, he got ~850K votes from LA County and still lost the county by 15%.

    Clearly very fre people (comparatively) vote in LA county’s primaries for DA … and those that do skew to the right of those who vote in the general.

    aphrael (fe2ce4)

  25. I did not see the Cowgirls today, JD, because I was cooking up a storm. I’m glad I didn’t because that way I didn’t have to see Roy Williams’ getting stripped in mid-stride. (FWIW he was taught better than that.)

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  26. You are fortunate, DRJ. It was painful to watch.

    JD (dc90b5)

  27. JD and DRJ…

    Respectfully, it was wonderful….

    reff (b43ea5)

  28. I don’t mind losing, reff, but I hate sloppy football. Speaking of which, good game, Ag80. The much better team won tonight.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  29. Reff – I loathe the Cowgirlz, but almost felt bad for them today.

    JD (dc90b5)

  30. I NEVER feel bad for the Blokes…and today was great….
    Maybe we’ll do just like last year…big comeback win in the stadium that hosts the Super Bowl, and we get to go back to the stadium…

    reff (b43ea5)

  31. Hopefully the GOP House will cut all bailout funds for California so that the leftards that run the state can face the consequences of their decisions.

    I know more and more people who are leaving the state and not looking back.

    iconoclast (bbd5ee)

  32. California needs to be about 4 states. SoCal, Frisco, San Joaquin and South Oregon.

    Kevin M (298030)

  33. I’d have sooner voted for dead dog than the live weasel Maldonado!
    Congratulations, you got the dead dog.

    Kevin M (298030)

  34. I’m another who could not stomach voting for Maldonado. Not that it would have affected the outcome.
    By now, everyone’s heard the quip–
    What’s the difference between California and the Titanic?
    The passengers on the Titanic didn’t vote to hit the iceberg.

    Crap. With a house, 2 jobs and kids in school, it’s tough to pull up stakes. Just hold together for a few more years, California, ….

    Jim,MtnViewCA,USA (9adb09)

  35. As a born-and-raised San Diegan and a guy who had never lived further than 15 minutes from the Pacific Ocean (but also a father and a lawyer) I can’t tell you how happy I am to have moved away from California 10 years ago. What a disgusting cesspool of (largely) Democrat-inspired corruption it has become.

    I lived through Governor Moonbeam once and I’m psyched I won’t have to do it again. I will, however, continue to hoard cash so that when Moonbeam and all the other corruptocrats are done razing the state, I’ll be happy to buy some ocean front property at a bargain.

    luke (216f6b)

  36. California needs to be about 4 states. SoCal, Frisco, San Joaquin and South Oregon.

    Yup. And there was a movement just before World War II toward that last one: State of Jefferson.

    You’d think that the rest of California would get tired of being ruled by our betters in the People’s Republic of Frisco …

    Mike G in Corvallis (fd5fcd)

  37. I hope the winning California Donks enjoy their little end zone dances while they can. Given the current situation in California, the Donks there are akin to the Second Officer of the “Titanic” getting promoted to Captain…while standing in waist-deep water.

    MarkJ (42fe5b)


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