Marc Cooper

Legally Corrupt

Marc Cooper
Phil Angelides has said he supports public financing of elections. Now he, and the rest of the California Democratic Party, have a chance to put their mouth where their money has been. The California Nurses Association, working with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, has formally qualified a clean-money......

The Sandbox Wars

Marc Cooper
SO ANTONIO IS STILL OFFICIALLY NEUTRAL in the gubernatorial battle between Arnold and Phil. And Phil still hasn’t endorsed Antonio’s plan to put the L.A. Unified School District under the mayor’s control. Antonio was once an organizer for the mighty California Teachers Association. But the teachers union doesn’t really like......

Blogotics As Usual

Marc Cooper
LAS VEGAS — THE THOUSAND or so keyboard punchers who showed up last weekend for the first-ever YearlyKos convention of liberal bloggers talk about helping to invent a new politics. And maybe they are. But if the $75,000 Friday-night party tossed for them by former Virginia governor and pre–presidential candidate......
Phil's gratitude: We all need pals like Angelo.

Rise of the Machines

Marc Cooper
You couldn’t walk 10 yards in any direction during last month’s Democratic State Convention in Sacramento without crashing into another clump of young volunteer groupies in campaign T-shirts chanting their lungs out. “Phil! Phil! Phil!” shouted the team in the blue-and-gold “Angelides for Governor” shirts, frenetically waving posters. “Steve! Steve!......

Bush the Alien

Marc Cooper
LET’S GET A COUPLE OF THINGS STRAIGHT about the immigration speech President George W. Bush unreeled Monday night from the Oval Office. His address had nothing to do with actual border policy and everything to do with domestic electoral politics. The real mission of the 6,000 National Guard troops he......

Mad Politicians' Disease

Marc Cooper
LET’S TALK COWS. THAT’S RIGHT, those big, smelly, cud-chewing, mooing oafs that are ruining the state of California. I mean, that’s what you want to talk about, isn’t it? That is the big issue on your mind as we lurk just three weeks out from a statewide Democratic primary, isn’t......
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A Protest of, for and by Workers

Marc Cooper
Standing by the dais at the Wilshire and La Brea rally, I was trying to figure out what accounted for such an overwhelmingly positive vibe. And then it hit me: This was actually a sea-size demonstration of workers, for workers and — most importantly — by workers. That’s truly an......

Party Pains

Marc Cooper
I SPENT THIS PAST WEEKEND in Sacramento, walking among the Living Dead — the 1,800 or so delegates to the convention of the California Democratic Party. Most reporters feel similarly about these events, though they are too reticent to say so in print and, therefore, too prone to concede more......

5 Pitfalls for Progressives to Avoid in 2006

Marc Cooper
Angry is not an answer There’s a myth out there that Democrats should be angrier. If they could just be nasty like the Republicans, and get their hands just as dirty, the Democrats would win. Wrong. It’s hope that wins elections. And sometimes fear. Never anger. Democrats lose not from......

Steve vs. Phil

Marc Cooper
THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY TO SELECT the official opponent to Governor Schwarzenegger was supposed to more or less end this coming weekend — well before anyone really paid much attention to the race. That’s the whole point of modern politics, isn’t it? Get things wrapped up before the voters have any......