Dirt Digger, Author at CalDirt

March 7, 2019

Exclusive: The RNC is treating Kamala Harris like the 2020 Dem frontrunner

Who’s the frontrunner to win the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination? We’ve made some arguments before for Sen. Kamala Harris, focusing on social media buzz and other less-used metrics. But here’s another: A tipster who receives all RNC press releases and “one-on-one” emails tells us that a survey of emails sent between January 1, 2019 and today shows more focus on Harris than on Sen. Bernie Sanders– a typically popular punching-bag for the GOP. A ton of these RNC emails naturally focus on things like bashing the Green New Deal or undercutting former Trump lawyer/”rat” Michael Cohen. The RNC also sends press releases out when its Chairwoman, Ronna Romney McDaniel, appears on TV (party chair TV appearances usually get about 30 viewers, so the committees like to bump up the numbers in any way they can, including with “In Case You Missed It” (ICYMI) emails with YouTube links to appearances). But…

February 14, 2019

YAAAS KWEEEN: Kamala continues to dominate social media among 2020 Dems

We previously wrote about how Kamala Harris was dominating social media among 2020 Democratic presidential contenders, giving her a potentially huge leg up in the contest. But today, there’s fresh data showing the true extent of Harris’ clout. Via CrowdTangle (as reported by Axios): Instagram interactions: Harris: 8.3 million Sanders: 4.6 million Warren: 2 million Twitter interactions (combining Senate and personal accounts): Harris: 14.4 million Sanders: 8 million Warren: 4.1 million On Facebook, Harris doesn’t fare as well– Sanders gets about 10x the interactions with 22.1 million to Harris’ 2.4 million and Warren’s 2.3 million. Still, per analytics firm NewsWhip, articles about Harris have earned “16.5 million interactions on Facebook and from shares on influential Twitter accounts.” Warren comes in second with 14.2 million and Sanders third with 10.6 million. And Harris has added more fans on Facebook according to CrowdTangle in the last quarter than any other 2020 prospect (123,000; Beto O’Rourke is next with 51,000). Ditto Instagram…

February 12, 2019

BREAKING: Newsom ditches California high-speed rail

In a blow to California progressives, newly-installed Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced today that he is ditching plans for high-speed rail connecting San Francisco and LA. High-speed rail had long been a major transportation objective of California progressives, and a project championed by environmentalists. In addition, it was a project that many flying-averse travelers had hoped would come online in the next few years. Newly-sworn in US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” calls for the eventual elimination of airplanes and a shift to green-powered trains as a method of trans-continental and long-distance travel. Newsom abandoning high speed rail between California’s two major population centers threatens to make that objective significantly harder to achieve, long term.

February 11, 2019

Has Gavin Newsom lost his progressivism?

Water: With ever more climate change underway, drought in parts of California and years of horror stories regarding toxic water coming out of Flint, Michigan, progressives know water policy is important. In the Golden State, progressives are rightly making water policy a priority. But there’s a problem: Newly-inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to be going about it in a way that could turn out to actually be regressive. Newsom could end up hurting the same poor Californians he’s trying to help. Where water is concerned, Newsom’s progressivism seems to have gone missing-in-action. If you haven’t heard about Newsom’s plan, the Sacramento Bee has a summary: Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on drinking water Thursday to help disadvantaged communities clean up contaminated water systems. Newsom’s plan for a “safe and affordable drinking water fund,” included in the new governor’s first budget proposal, attempts to revive an idea that died in the Legislature…

January 15, 2019

Garcetti facing political peril as LA teachers’ strike enters day two

Los Angeles teachers began a strike Monday that could imperil LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s possible run for president. Garcetti, looking happier than he probably is this morning. Photo via Wikipedia. The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second-largest school district in the country. It serves approximately half a million students. Parents want a short strike. Taxpayers want few to no concessions. And unions want higher pay and at least some concessions. If not resolved on its own and quickly, it’s a political conundrum for Garcetti. According to The Hill, “In internal debates about how to build a campaign, Garcetti’s aides have acknowledged he cannot possibly launch a bid while teachers in his own city are on the picket line, according to sources involved in the conversations.” However, Garcetti has little control over how this plays out. The Los Angeles Unified School District is an independent body. It is accountable to…

January 15, 2019

Kamala Harris is the Queen (almost) of Twitter

As U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris launches her bid for President, new data shows she is the third most powerful politician on Twitter, besting both former President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to data assembled by CrowdTangle, a social media analysis tool, and published by Axios Harris gets more retweets and likes than every politician and political news handle bar Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Donald Trump. That prominence in social media could be a huge advantage to Harris as she launches her presidential campaign. Social media presence correlates strongly with overall media coverage. Presidential campaign veterans view a candidate’s proportion of media coverage, or “media share” as arguably the most important metric in determining who will win a nomination, and a general election. According to Jeff Roe, former campaign manager for Sen. Ted Cruz during his presidential campaign run, the two most significant metrics are media share and small-dollar fundraising. U.S.…

January 8, 2019

How “Oakland tough” is Kamala Harris? This much, you gigantic wuss.

U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is determined not to let fellow Democratic presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren have the limelight all to herself this week. Warren may have been stumping in Iowa. But Harris is putting out a book. And it’s already got people including CNN’s Maeve Reston, formerly of the LA Times, talking about it. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris: Ready and willing to beat the shit out of bank executives and anyone else who wants a piece of her. A major focus of the book, apparently, is making sure everyone knows exactly how “Oakland tough” Harris is on a scale of one to ten. A scale on which she wants you to know, she comes in at about a fifteen. “I took off my earrings (the Oakland in me) and picked up the receiver…He yelled… I gave it right back…We were like dogs in a fight.” — Kamala Harris, in…

December 20, 2018

Labor in the firing line again, thanks to a Cal State professor and Virginian anti-union group

Remember this year’s narrow 5-4 Supreme Court decision barring public employee unions from charging non-members for their portion of collective bargaining costs? Well, based on that ruling, one William Brice, a Cal State professor, is suing the California Faculty Association in a federal court, aiming to get back thousands of dollars he’s paid to the union over the years. Brice contends that the union has taken a bunch of stands that are “so far to the left” of his own opinions that he deems his contributions to amount to forced speech contrary to his First Amendment rights. But of course, Brice isn’t doing this alone. And perhaps he didn’t come up with the idea himself. Also involved is Virginia-based, anti-union National Right to Work (NRTW). It filed the suit. NRTW has previously been involved in similar efforts, including in Minnesota where a union was forced to return money to workers…

December 17, 2018

Devin Nunes won with less than 53 percent; says it’s all down to “ballot harvesting”

Rep. Devin Nunes, who normally wins his races with 70 percent of the vote but ended up squeaking a win with just 52.7 percent in 2018, has reportedly been telling conservatives in Washington, DC, and around the country that the reason his Democratic opponent got within six points of him wasn’t his bevy of ethics problems, him hitching his wagon to Donald Trump, his total non-focus on local issues, or his family’s exposed move years back to Iowa. In fact, according to Nunes, his 2018 close run was all down to “ballot harvesting.” Devin Nunes tries hard to think of any plausible excuse beyond mere suckage for his bad 2018 midterm performance. Ballot harvesting is a practice by which third parties collect paper votes and then deliver them to election officials (or, if you live in North Carolina’s 9th district, by which said third parties totally do not collect and…

December 17, 2018

2020 Watch: CNN/Des Moines Register: 2x as many Iowa Dems view Sanders unfavorably as Harris

There’s more detail on that CNN/Des Moines Register poll relating to the 2020 Iowa caucus we covered here. While Sen. Kamala Harris, California’s leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 2020, isn’t faring that well in Iowa, she does have an arguable numbers advantage over Sen. Bernie Sanders– one of the big dogs in the 2020 nomination fight. Check out these numbers, cited by data whiz Josh Jordan: Notice how Harris’ unfavorable number is less than half that of Sanders, while her favorable number is more than half what Bernie’s is? That suggests that while Iowa Democrats don’t know a ton about her, as it stands, based on what they know, she’s faring pretty well compared to an extremely well-known quantity. How will these numbers change as Harris’ profile rises– assuming she does run for President? It’s hard to say, but the probability is that as a second-time candidate, Sanders…