There has been a slight buzz in the veepstakes of late, one that I, admittedly have helped foster. That buzz is about a Senator named Graham, but it's not Lindsay i'm talking about.

While it seems like any sitting Senator or "red state" governor is constantly mentioned by nature of their high profile, I think that we might be barking up the wrong tree.

I also go crazy every time I hear Bill Nelson from Florida mentioned, or... even worse... Sam Nunn. Let me explain why, because the better choice, the FAR better choice that meets the criteria and is balancing AND reinforcing is Former Governor of Florida, and former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, former Senator Bob Graham.

Graham is one of the rare candidates that both balances and reinforces.

I will explain why beneath the fold:

Why is no candidate talking about Verified Voting?

It's sad really, that a topic that everybody pretty much agrees on, that everybody should have the ability to vote and know their vote accounted, has turned into something divisive and fracturing.

I used to have high hopes that Rep. Holt's bill in the house would pass in the Republican congress, after all it had plenty of Republican co-sponsors, and there had been multiple companion bills in the Senate. That didn't happen, the Republican leadership would never let it come to a vote.

Now we have a Democratic congress, and while we hold only a bare majority in the Senate, still the legislation never ends up coming to a vote.

Moreover, anytime "irregularities" show up, people are immediately divided up into "deniers" and "fraudsters".

While it is true that you can't blame every electoral loss or mishap on "Diebold", it is also foolish to pretend that the problem doesn't exist or that "the states have it under control."

In some cases this is true, but why fight 50 battles when we don't have to?

I am thrilled at our upcoming Democratic majority in both houses of congress. The fact that we are going to see some real Democratic legislation passed is exciting and it makes all of the many, many hours of work and toil totally worth it.

There is something that needs to be addressed immediately, it is a problem that eats away at the very core of our Democracy and American Values. We need some to be able to address the problem of voting machines and unverified voting.

Hi everybody, so I filled out my absentee ballot and already sent it in, it's the only way to fly in Oakland since our know nothing Elections Supervisor bought a bunch of Sequoia systems fraud machines despite popular outcry... anyway here's how I voted:

Partisan Offices - statewide
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Governor - Phil Angelides
Lt. Governor - John Garamendi
Secretary of State - Debra Bowen
State Controller - John Chiang
State Treasurer - Bill Lockyer
Attorney General - Jerry Brown
Insurance Commisioner - Cruz Bustamente (with waffling)
United States Senate - (blank) or Diane Feinstein (see below)
United States Representative - Barbara Lee
State Assembley - Sandre Swanson
Judges - re-elect
Statewide propositions.
Proposition 1A-NO!
Propositions 1B-1E Yes.
Proposition 83 - NO!!
Proposition 84 - Yes
Proposition 85 - FUCK NO!!!
Proposition 86 - Yes
Proposition 87 - HELL YES!
Proposition 88 - No
Proposition 89 - YES YES YES! HELL YES!!
Proposition 90 - NO!
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City of Oakland
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Measure M - yes
Measure N - YES!
Measure O - YES YES YES!

The "why's" are below the cut.

This is a cute idea from the Angelides camp.

You can send an "invitation" to Phil's opponent to participate in more debates:

There's also a diary on dkos from the Angelides camp that's worth a read and a recommend.

For those that haven't been following our coverage on GovernorPhil, there has been only one debate set, and it's been on Arnold's terms... the moderator for the one scheduled debate is a former Republican legislator... come on now!

This is a big deal, because Arnold has never really had to debate before (the ONE recall debate he participated in was a circus and didn't count). Right now the Schwarzenegger team has managed to turn a story about how the governor is a racist, misogynist ass, into an alarmist story about website "hacking" that rivals Joe Lieberman's primary website problems for sheer ridiculousness.

-C.

(X-posted from GovernorPhil.Com)

Frank has a real winner of a post in his CA Progress Report today. Specifically progressive darling, verified voting activist and all around awesome lady State Sen. Debra Bowen, (our next Secretary of State) has proposed a bill that would bring some much needed reform to the proposition process. It would require disclosure whether signature collectors are volunteers or being paid and most importantly show who is paying for it.

Considering how Republicans, who can't get legislators elected in California based on their ideas, have utterly hijacked the proposition process. This is huge. Recently CA Republicans main strategy seems to be throw as much money as possible into paid signature collection for bogus bills designed to castrate Democratic support, and bring out touchy feely issues that will turn out the Conservative base.

SB 1598 passed the California Assembly this week on a strict party line vote of 43 to 28 with all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. It has previously passed the Senate on a similar partisan vote and that body will vote on concurring in minor amendments made in the Assembly before it goes to the Governor.

This could be seriously bad news for Phil's opponent the recall Governor as well... read on for more.

Interesting that the tradtional media only seems to pay attention to "events" when they are officially sanctioned and have the "right people". It reminds me of the rock world, where a band can be instantly famous if they have the right "members of..." in the group, whether the music is any good or not. Check out this article in the Sacramento Bee over a political website created by insiders that is launching on tuesday:

Thirty Democratic operatives -- pollsters, consultants and spokespeople -- will launch the "California Majority Report" at midnight Tuesday at www.camajorityreport.com. The big launch party is Tuesday night at Mason's in downtown Sacramento, complete with a "special guest," former Gov. Gray Davis.

Oh wow! Gray Davis... (yawn), how exciting. Heh, I guess it's good that he's keeping busy, anyway, the site CA Majority Report is billed as an alternative to the right wing Flash Report. Which is fine, I mean i'm all for more voices being added to the discussion, but it is interesting that the story acts like it's coming out of a vaccuum and totally ignores the previously existing California blogosphere.

more on this below, including some action:

You may remember Bill Bradley from Dday's adventures: Wherein the biggest media insider in CA (Bill Bradley) flips out on me: UPDATED, if not... well you missed out on a hell of a diary, and you should really open that up in a new window just to check it out, and not just because Dday is a great writer either. Bradley sometimes posts on dkos, runs a side called New West Notes, and is most definitely NOT the former Senator who ran for President in 2000. Garry South is one of the most famous campaign consultants in California, he ran Gray Davis's winning campaigns, but ditched town during the recall to help Joe Lieberman with his (ahem) Presidential bid in 2004.

Anyway, as most of you in CA already know... a bunch of us have started a site called GovernorPhil.com. You might remember us from that whole Angela Bradstreet fiasco from last week that made it to the mydd front page and prompted a response from Dianne Feinstein, and had DiFi showing at Phil's economic event on wed. Anyway, today Dan Ancona and I had a real "crashing the gates" moment on New West Notes today. Where among other things, Ned Lamont's candidacy is defended, Jim Webb's record as a netroots draftee is and I got to personally call out Garry South for being the instigator in the horribly negative Democratic gubernatorial primary in California. You know, the one that probably cost us CA-50?