Posts Tagged: yee

Bay Area advantage — Is being from LA a statewide political liability?

A view toward the Bay Bridge, via Chinatown. (Photo: Christian Mehlfuhrer)

by ANTHONY YORK posted 04.23.2014

ANALYSIS: Los Angeles County is home to more than 26% of all Californians. But when it comes to running for statewide office, being from Los Angeles may be more of an obstacle than a political advantage. While the people may be in Los Angeles, the largest chunk of the state’s voters – those who actually cast ballots — come from the nine counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Senate scandals dim voters’ view of Legislature

State Capitol, Sacramento. Photo: Wikimedia

by MARK DICAMILLO and MERVIN FIELD posted 04.10.2014

In the aftermath of the corruption scandals now affecting three State Senators, California voters have changed their views about the performance of the Legislature. During the week immediately prior to Yee’s arrest, 46% of voters approved and 40% disapproved of the Legislature’s performance, a finding that showed continuing improvement from previous Field Polls conducted over the past two years.

Suspended state Sen. Leland Yee, caught in a years-long FBI undercover investigation into a Chinatown-linked criminal network, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on corruption charges, wire fraud and conspiracy to smuggle guns. Yee, 65, is one of 29 people named in the indictment handed down Thursday and unveiled Friday. Yee, arrested March 26 in a pre-dawn raid, is free on $500,000 bond.

Lawmakers who seek or receive bribes face a boosted level of fines and penalties, under a plan that is getting renewed attention because of the scandals rocking the Senate. The proposal by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a Bell Gardens Democrat, also bars the use of campaign funds to pay restitution fines in bribery convictions.

It’s right out of Hollywood: The FBI affidavit detailing the far-flung undercover probe that snared state Sen. Leland Yee on gun-running and corruption charges has colorful characters, plots within plots, new underworld slang, global connections and deep-cover operatives — just for starters. During the past nine months, the Capitol has been rocked by corruption charges. But the dramatic, 137-page document unveiled this week goes far beyond the Capitol-linked corruption allegations against Yee, who withdrew Thursday as a candidate for secretary of state.

Three state Senators – one convicted of voter fraud and perjury and the other two facing federal corruption charges – were suspended from office Friday effective immediately. The Senate voted 28-1 to suspend Sens. Leland Yee of San Francisco, Ron Calderon of Montebello and Rod Wright of Inglewood – all Democrats.

CAPITOL WEEKLY INTERVIEW: Assembly Speaker John Pérez would like to stay in the Legislature but he’s got a problem: The law won’t let him. He’s termed out next year under voter-approved term limits and it’s time to move on. Pérez heads into the controller’s race with a $1.5 million campaign war chest. He likely will face fellow Democrat Betty Yee, a former chief deputy in the Finance Department, the office that writes budgets for the governor. Yee currently serves on the state Board of Equalization.

Less than a month after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed restoring the protections.

“I was particularly disappointed with the statement in the oral arguments that Congress passed the Voting Rights Act only because it had a nice name,” Minnesota Sen. Al Franken

With his announcement Monday that he is leaving public office in January 2015, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer ends 40 years as a lawmaker and statewide office holder.

“I need to do something different that’s challenging and interesting,” Lockyer told Capitol Weekly in announcing he won’t seek the job of controller in 2014 for which