In CA, Democrats like Leeland Yee

[wctriumph]

EDIT UPDATE: Nearly 300,000 vote for Yee for in CA primary.

I am so glad to not live there any more, they just get more and more stupid as the years go by.

Charles C. W. Cooke (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/379536/leland-yee-receives-10-percent-vote-california-charles-c-w-cooke) and others note that being indicted for multiple felonies that include accusations of arming mafia members and arms smuggling doesn’t turn off about 10% of California’s Democratic voter base, at least based on the results of yesterday’s election. Nearly 290,000 primary voters thought these accusations made Leeland Yee a great candidate for Secretary of State worthy of their support.
Perhaps what’s more interesting is that Yee was only polling at 8% before he was arrested (http://www.field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/Rls2465.pdf), so he actually performed better with California Democrats after the charges came to light. In fact, the same polling firm found that even after he was arrested and the charges against him were disclosed, 15% of voters maintained a favorable view of Yee.

http://www.pagunblog.com/2014/06/04/california-democrats-like-leeland-yee/

[KestrelBike]

that is... hilarious. God bless California.

[BPTactical]

They have watched "Idiocracy" too many times.

[Great-Kazoo]

Voting against a D / anti gun, asian in CA is racist, If he was of hispanic descent, he'd be elected governor . No matter how many kiddie porn videos he was caught watching.

[theGinsue]

They have watched "Idiocracy" too many times.

It was supposed to be a humorous little film; unfortunately, so many these days feel compelled to make it a roadmap of our near future.

[Bailey Guns]

This proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Liberals are stupid.

[stevelkinevil]

I am reminded of a favorite tune of mine.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neGdoqsuiN8

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Give Cali back to Mexico.

[Great-Kazoo]

Give Cali back to Mexico.

They already own it, never asked for the title. Anchor babies, a failed medical system and high taxes. O was happy to swap some straw purchased guns for it.

[jhood001]

This reinforces the fact that the majority of people out there vote D or R straight across the line regardless of the candidate.

Baaaaaahhhhh.

[HoneyBadger]

People are stupid.

[BPTactical]

People are stupid.

Industrial Strength

[HoneyBadger]

How is this guy not in jail???

[BPTactical]

How is this guy not in jail???

He's a politician, you know-above us and the law

[HoneyBadger]

He's a politician, you know-above us and the law
But seriously. How is he not in jail? Everyone knows he committed the crimes, but he's not being tried for them?

[hatidua]

No such thing as bad publicity.

[battle_sight_zero]

This reinforces the fact that the majority of people out there vote D or R straight across the line regardless of the candidate.

Baaaaaahhhhh.


Colorado does this as well, were becoming Cali-lite. Soon we will have bullet buttons and all the cool things from their gun laws. At least I can smoke pot.

[HoneyBadger]

At least I can smoke pot.
It might ease the pain. [off-yourself]

[BushMasterBoy]

Or stop the nausea...

[hatidua]

Analysis that I've read on this seems to indicate it's a case of the electorate not remembering things much past 48 hours ago, much like many of us have no clue who won the superbowl most recently - not everyone is politically aware or follows that kind of thing. There are a metric $#!^load of Asians in CA and just like Obama had an edge with the black vote, I suspect that those who speak Mandarin daily in SF would vote for Yee even if he bar-b-qued small children daily on TV and kicked puppies for his campaign ads.

[SamuraiCO]

Plus the local and national media have conveniently left it off their narritive. Only R's can be guilty of crimes before being proven innocent then that is never reported on.

[wctriumph]

This is amazing:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-leland-yee-california-election-shocker-explained-20140606-story.html

[facepalm]

In a largely sleepy California election, there was one startling result: nearly 300,000 ballots cast for Leland Yee for secretary of state, good enough for third place even though he dropped out after being accused of gun running and political corruption.
Yee’s tally, which is likely to grow as more than 750,000 uncounted ballots are processed, pushed him past a pair of good-government candidates also vying to be the state’s chief election officer--a bit of irony adding to a widely held notion, especially outside the state, that Californians are a bit nuts.
None of his opponents ran ads saying, 'Don't forget: Don't vote for Yee.- Richie Ross

Yet while vexing and a cause of no small amount of ridicule, state Sen. Yee’s surprising vote total can be explained by several factors beyond the supposed shallowness and stupidity of the California electorate.
Most have to do with the size and sprawl of the state and the lack of attention, by voters and the media alike, paid to so-called down-ballot offices like secretary of state.
Coincidence may have also contributed: another candidate named Yee, Betty, was on the same ballot running for state controller, also a relatively obscure office. She received a number of endorsements, including the support of several newspapers and labor unions, and some voters may have simply confused the two.
Above all, the results speak to the ephemeral nature of news — even events that are widely covered or hugely hyped — in this age of perpetual information.


“People can’t even remember who won the Super Bowl,” said Richie Ross, who managed Leland Yee’s campaign before Yee dropped out of the race in March, after his indictment but too late to remove his name from the ballot. “And people are surprised that ordinary voters--not the political insiders and smarty-pants who follow this stuff-- can’t remember who was indicted three months ago?”
“None of his opponents ran ads saying, ‘Don’t forget: Don’t vote for Yee,’" Ross added. “I didn’t see one newspaper story say, ‘Remember, voters, this man has withdrawn after he was indicted.’"

It takes a small fortune — literally — for a political candidate to become well known in California. There are 24 million eligible voters and 18 million registered; the latter figure is larger than the population of all but four states.
Most political contests, outside of races for governor or mayor of cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, receive scant attention beyond their immediate vicinity.
It takes a minimum of $3 million or so to run a meaningful advertising campaign for a little-noted position like secretary of state, political professionals say.No one running had those kind of resources for Tuesday’s primary. (A candidate lacking the celebrity of a Jerry Brown or Arnold Schwarzenegger needs $25 million to $30 million to wage a viable race for governor.)

Without much information to go on, voters tend to rely on other cues in picking their way through down-ballot races and that, too, probably contributed to Yee’s surprising vote total.
As a Democrat, he starts with a built-in advantage in this overwhelmingly Democratic state and his Asian surname doubtless brought him support within the large Asian American community. His ballot designation, state senator, also offered validation for some who may have thought government experience was good for secretary of state, an administrative position.
Many voters were probably aware of the corruption case – one of three involving Sacramento lawmakers suspended this session — but the details may have been hazy.
(http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-despite-dropping-out-indicted-sen-yee-remains-on-ballot-for-secretary-of-state-20140602-story.html)

“If you walked into a bar and said, ‘By the way, three legislators got in trouble,’ people would probably remember,” said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican strategist and publisher of the “Target Book,” a nonpartisan guide to California elections. “But if you asked the names of those three state senators, most people probably wouldn’t know.”
Federal prosecutors have accused Yee of consorting with an alleged Chinatown gangster, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, in a scheme involving alleged firearms trafficking, money laundering, murder-for-hire, drug distribution and what the law calls defrauding citizens of honest service, or political corruption. Yee is free on bail awaiting trial and could not be reached for comment.
There were two would-be reformers whom voters could have chosen over the indicted San Francisco lawmaker.


Dan Schnur, a USC political analyst and former chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, ran as an independent on a clean-up-Sacramento platform and finished fourth. Derek Cressman, a Democrat and former director of the good-government organization Common Cause, finished fifth.
The top two vote-getters, Democratic state Sen. Alex Padilla of Pacoima and Republican Pete Peterson, head of a public policy think tank at Pepperdine University, will face each other in November.
Schnur said he was neither embarrassed nor discouraged by the outcome, seeing it not as a personal rejection but rather the nature of California politics.
“If voters had made a conscious decision to reject my message and embrace an accused felon, yes, that would have been very discouraging,” Schnur said in an interview. “But most voters were dealing with almost no information about either one of us.”