Commentary: Lois Wolk To Run For Senate, Now She had Better Be Prepared to Win

Now the fun has truly begun. The Davis Enterprise reported yesterday that Lois Wolk, Assemblywoman who currently represents Davis in the 8th Assembly District will run for the state senate. She is unopposed for the Democratic primary.

Her opponent will be fellow Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian--who also figures to run unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Now it is time to get serious for Wolk. Frankly I was appalled when I saw the campaign finance figures that came out of the recent reporting period. Lois Wolk has raised all of $140,831. What has she been doing for the last year and two months? Was she really expecting to be able to run for reelection to the Assembly by way of passage of Prop 93.

Her opponent has already raised $656,675 and a good chunk of that has come directly from the Republican party--which means that they are targeting this race.

The Enterprise reports that Wolk has accepted campaign spending limits, but Aghazarian has not. That's actually misleading, what this really means is that Aghazarian has passed the limits already in the amount he can spend. The law provides for a candidate to amend that form at least twice during the course of the campaign, so as soon as the candidate passes the finance limit, they will simply file an amended statement.

But let us not kid ourselves. This is a district that produced in 2004 the most expensive Senate race in state history. And it figures to surpass the $10 million mark this time. Simply math will almost insure that since there are very few senate district that have any sort of district that are in play.

Some have suggested that this race figures to be easier than the one that Machado eked out by a 13,000 vote margin.

However, we need to examine a few things before we anoint Assemblywoman Wolk the winner. Other than a contested Democratic Primary in 2002 where she faced a young West Sacramento Mayor, Christopher Cabaldon and former Vacaville City Councilman Steve Hardy, Wolk has really never had a contested race that she had to win. Even then, she was the best known and most experienced of the candidates.

She has not had to run in a contested partisan election. She has not had to run against a candidate who is on equally footing as she is. She has not had to defeat a better financed candidate than herself. She has not been a virtual unknown in the vast part of the district.

These should not be read as criticisms, they should be read as warnings that she had better take this fight as a life or death fight, because her opponent will fight her to the death. She has plenty of time to equalize those campaign finance numbers, but she had better getting cracking on fundraising.

Make no mistake, this is a race that a Democrat can and probably should win, especially in a year like 2008. However, it should not be taken for granted. This is a political fight, the likes of which, Lois Wolk has never faced and she had better be ready for it.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Wednesday Briefs

Vacaville Councilmember Steve Hardy Named To "ABC" Board

For those who missed the news, Steve Hardy, a councilmember from Vacaville who finished third in 2002 in the 8th Assembly Democratic Primary was recently appointed to head California's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). The ABC is responsible for licensing and regulating 75,000 businesses statewide that sell, manufacture or distribute alcoholic beverages.

This move does two things. It ends his tenure as City Councilmember in Vacaville and it ends speculation that he would enter the 8th Assembly District Race. The council in Vacaville will decide in the next 30 days whether to hold a special election or to appoint a replacement.

Currently that race remains a two person field--with West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon and Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada. The other three potential candidates have officially now bowed out with Supervisor Mike McGowan and Davis City Councilmember Don Saylor both having endorsed Cabaldon.

To this point Mayor Cabaldon appears to have vastly outworked Supervisor Yamada, this work showing up largely in the lopsided endorsement totals. This would appear to give Cabaldon an edge.

Cabaldon at this point would be the prohibitive favorite, however, the race would change drastically should a strong contender emerge from Solano County where two-thirds of the vote reside.

Valley Oak Charter School Issue Tonight

There will be a meeting to explore the idea of creating a charter for Valley Oak Elementary School. All members of the community and school staff are invited to attend.

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007,

Valley Oak Multi-purpose Room

7:30-9:30 p.m.

More on the Gang Injunction Decision

For some reason unbeknownst to me I have read a few of the comments in the Sacramento Bee under the gang injunction articles.

This is kind of a typical comment:

"Liberal thinking has once again given the upper hand to criminals. Wouldn't want to offend any gang-bangers, would we?"

In some ways the thinking is so simplistic that it is hardly worth a response, but in other ways it is emblematic of a mindset that fails to really scrutinize government actions.

The issue basically came down to the fact that for whatever reason, District Attorney Jeff Reisig decided to serve a notice to exactly one individual and once he did, a number of other individuals were placed under the injunction.

According to the logic above, the Bill of Rights is obviously a product of that liberal thinking--and in fact it is liberal thinking--the kind of 18th century liberalism that our nation's principles were built upon. Perhaps that individual did not take a civics course and read the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution ratified in the 18th Century:

nor shall any person... be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law

This is as clear a violation of that principle as I have seen in some time.

Why are protecting the rights of the accused and ensuring due process of the law so vital? Because without those processes the law is bound to make mistakes. Mistakes mean innocent people get punished for crimes or actions that they have not committed.

Moreover, our system presumes innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. While this is not directly in the constitution, it is derived from the right against self-incrimination in the fifth amendment and the right to a jury trial of one's peers in the sixth amendment. The due process of law is what determines that an individual is guilty, not presumptions based elsewhere.

These are the bedrocks of our society and the safeguards that we have against an arbitrary and oppressive government.

Rather than worrying about offending criminals, our chief concern is with respect to due process of law and fear of punishing innocent people.

If these safeguards make it more difficult to prosecute criminal activity, that is regretful, but ultimately I believe that security and liberty do not need to be zero-sum games. They do not need to be mutually exclusive. What they do require is commitment to both--the ability to create policies and programs that can prevent crime while protecting everyone's rights. That should be the exact goal that we strive for in a free and open democratic society.

We all fear the lawlessness of criminal activity, however, I also fear the danger that failure to safeguard our liberties under the constitution may engender us. I know to call the police when the bad guys come for me, it is a little harder to know what to do when it is the law that is improperly prosecuting you and violating the law itself.

In any case, I am a proud supporter of the ACLU and I refuse to run from my beliefs in the due process of the law.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting

Wednesday Briefs

Now that Cabaldon is in... What does the 8th AD Look Like?

Vacaville City Councilmember Steve Hardy was quoted in this morning's Fairfield Daily Republic as saying, "I haven't made the final decision but I probably will (run)."

Meanwhile, Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada is a bit more guarded in her statement, only stating "considering entering the race fairly seriously now" but said she had not made a decision either.

Don Saylor wrote a letter to the Davis Enterprise, "I want to clarify that I will not be a candidate for the 8th Assembly District in 2008."

Of course most of us already figured that out when he endorsed Cabaldon at yesterday's announcement in Davis.

Saylor continues, "However, I have come to the conclusion that I can be most effective by continuing my work here in local government."

Looks like an announcement for reelection to the city council.

Assuming Hardy and Yamada both jump in (a fair assumption at this point), how does this race shake out.

Supervisor Matt Rexroad blogged a few weeks ago that Hardy would have an advantage as the only Solano County candidate.

In fact in 2002, he was the only Solano County Candidate and he finished third (27.8%) to Lois Wolk (41.2%) and Cabaldon (31%). What's interesting is that Hardy finished first in Solano but a distant third in Yolo County.

Speaking of Matt Rexroad...

And let me say, we do not agree on a lot politically, but on a personal level I like him and I admire the fact that he has maintained a blog to communicate with his constituents. I think that is the wave of the future and I think all office holders should develop one as a means to communicate with their constituents.

That said, reading his blog on "The Choice for Woodland" perhaps it is time to remind him that he is no longer Mayor of Woodland, he is a Supervisor for the County of Yolo. As such, while he represents the interests of Woodland, he also has jurisdiction over the entire county and its operations. As such, his primary concern should be the choice for Yolo County, not the choice for Woodland.

It is somewhat academic since he is a Republican in a Democratic district, but the other supervisors do not speak merely about their home communities, they speak of the entire county especially when they are the representatives of the county on interagency bodies. If Mr. Rexroad wants to represent Woodland, perhaps he should go back to being mayor of Woodland.

---Doug Paul Davis reporting