Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections, by Richard L. Hasen (Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 2016, 241 pages).

Book Review by Dennis Moore

May 28, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) - Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections, this scholarly and insightful book by Richard L. Hasen, a leading expert on election law, gives a compelling answer to the dilemmas of money in politics, and comes at a time when presidential candidates such as Bernie Sanders has as his mantra campaign finance and reform. Hasen, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, has written this book in the midst of one of the most unusual presidential campaigns in memory, where the character and personas of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders seem to shape our political history and agendas.

East County News Service

May 25, 2016 (San Diego) – Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will hold a rally at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego this Friday, May 27th at 2 p.m.  You can register for tickets here.  The stop is one of several for Trump in California in anticipation of the June 7^th primary.

The billionaire businessman and reality TV star’s visit has also sparked a counter-protest planned by San Diego County Democrats.  A “Stop Trump” rally will be held starting at 12 noon (gathering at 11:30) in the plaza at the southeast corner of the Convention Center across from the Bayfront Hilton.  You can RSVP here, sign a Stop Trump petition here  and visit a Facebook page for the event here.)

East County News Service

Photo, left, by Leon Thompson: Sanders speaks to overflow crowd in National City

May 22,2016 (San Diego) -- The Democratic presidential candidates’ campaigns both held rallies and other events in the San Diego region over the weekend in anticipation of California’s June 7^th primary.

Senator Bernie Sanders drew about 10,000 people at a rally at Kimball Park in National City on Saturday, the San Diego Union-Tribune estimates. On Sunday, he held a second rally at a high school in Vista.  Earlier, he toured Friendship Park at the international border, a meeting place for separated families between San Diego and Tijuana.

Trump gets 66% of Oregon votes in uncontested Republican primary

By Miriam Raftery

May 19, 2016 (San Diego) – Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders will each pick up 27 delegates in the Kentucky primary where with 100% of precincts counted,  Clinton received 46.8% of the vote and Sanders 46.3%.

In Oregon, Sanders scored victory with 56% of the vote, while Clinton took 44%. Sanders will get 34 delegates and Clinton 25, as of the results with 96% of the count tallied, Associated Press reports.

By Leon Thompson, Tribal Beat reporter

May 5^th, 2016 (Up State New York) – Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and his new campaign manager, super-lobbyist Paul Manafort, first collaborated in 1993 to halt the construction of a casino by the St. Regis Mohawks in the Catskill Mountains.

Trump feared completion from the casino would hurt his investments in Atlantic City, so Trump poured money into a shell group called the New York Institute for Law and Society. The group existed solely to publish ads smearing his potential Indian competition.

Update May 5, 2016: Ohio Governor John Kasich has announced he is also dropping his bid for the presidency, after winning only his home state of Ohio. This leaves Trump as the only GOP candidate still in the race.

By Miriam Raftery

May 3, 2016 (San Diego) –Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced that he is pulling out of the Republican presidential race.  Cruz made the announcement after losing the Indiana primary, all but assuring that Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination.

Cruz said, “From the beginning I’ve said that I would continue on as long as there was a viable path to victory. Tonight I’m sorry to say it appears that path has been foreclosed. With a heavy heart but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”

By Miriam Raftery

April 29, 2016 (San Diego) – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump was forced to cross a barricade and walk into the Republican National Convention hall in the Bay area, California today amid heavy Secret Service protection after hundreds of protesters blocked the street, preventing his motorcade from reaching the Hyatt Regency hotel.

By Miriam Raftery

April 20, 2016 (San Diego) – Frontrunners widened their leads in yesterday’s New York presidential primary, where three of the five contenders had strong New York ties.

New York’s former Senator Hillary Clinton won with 58% percent of the vote, picking up 139 delegates.  But Senator Bernie Sanders, who was raised in Brooklyn, got 42% and picked up 106 of the delegates.

On the Republican side, New York businessman Donald Trump scored a resounding victory with 60, winning 89 delegates. In second place, Ohio Governor John Kasich got 25% and earned 3 delegates.  Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with just 14.5%, was shut out of receiving any delegates.

Reprinted with permission from The Moderate Voice, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

By Joe Gandelman, Editor-in-Chief, The Moderate Voice

March 30, 2016 (San Diego) -- It’s common in the United States to call talk show hosts or DJs who try to be outrageous “shock jocks.” It’s abundantly clear now that Republican businessman and showman Donald Trump — who at this point seems to be the GOP’s likely nominee — is a shock politician. In yet another match thrown on the GOP’s post 2012 Presidential election “autopsy” that outlined things the party should do to win national elections, Trump now suggests there should be some form of punishment for women who abort.

By Miriam Raftery

March 29, 2016 (San Diego) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has been arrested and charged with  battery of a reporter. 

East County News Service

March 21, 2016 (San Diego) – Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is having some unintended consequences: motivating immigrants to become citizens so that they can register to vote against Trump if he is the Republican party’s nominee in November.

Trump supporter arrested for punching black protester in face at North Carolina rally; Trump event in Chicago shut down by protesters

By Miriam Raftery

March 12, 2016 (San Diego) — A supporter of Donald Trump has been arrested for punching a black protester in the face at a Trump rally in North Carolina, later stating, “The next time we see him, we might have to kill him,” CNN reports. John McGraw, 78, has been charged with assault, disorderly conduct and making threats.

84 Republican national security and foreign policy leaders say they won’t back Trump if nominated

By Miriam Raftery

March 3, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – An open letter signed by 84 Republican foreign policy and national security leaders condemned Donald Trump, stating, “We are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at its head.”

The leaders’ letter comes on the heels of former CIA director and ex-National Security Agency director Michael Hayden stating that if Trump ordered torture which violates the Geneva Convention or ordered the killing of family members of suspected terrorists, the military would disobey his orders.   Hayden told Bill Maher, “If he were to order that once in government, the American armed forces would refuse to act.”

The 84 Republican letter signers included Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Security director under George W. Bush and former Under Secretary of Defense Policy Eric Edelman who served under the senior George Bush.

Sanders, Rubio and Cruz also score wins as a dozen states hold primaries or caucuses

By Miriam Raftery

March 2, 2016 (San Diego) –Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and businessman Donald Trump strengthened their positions as frontrunners in the Democratic and Republican presidential race, each scoring wins in seven out of twelve states that held primaries or caucuses yesterday.

 Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders also picked up four key wins (Colorado, Minnesota, his home state of Vermont and Oklahoma, a conservative state) , leaving the door open for an upset on the Democratic side-- but only if he can produce landslides across the west and  populous states that have not yet cast ballots.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz picked up three wins to continue his challenge to Trump, while Florida Senator Marco Rubio, also a Republican, won his first primary victory to keep his candidacy tenuously alive.