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| | Posted on Saturday, October 14, 2006 - 08:19 pm: | |
Saturday Oct 14
Yee cruising in Senate race
Big money lead gives him time to reflect on "Pay to Play" TV AD: http://joinmichael.us/ads/index.html
By Will Oremus
After four years in the state Assembly, Leland Yee is expecting a smooth road to the California Legislature's upper house.
With a funding lead of $206,069 over his 18-year-old Republican opponent, Michael Skipakevich -- who has $51 in his coffers -- Yee is the heavy favorite to take the state Senate seat of Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo on Nov. 7.
So, he is taking the fall election season as an opportunity to reflect on his work in the Assembly, prepare for the possible transition to state Senate and campaign for other Democrats around the state.
While contributions continue to flow in -- the campaign raised about $156,075 in the campaign filing period that ended Oct. 5 -- Yee's expenditures were mainly on campaign consulting and fundraising events for candidates in other races.
The latest spending report showed money coming from a wide range of sources, including $3,000 each from several casinos across the state; $6,700 from the Service Employees International Union; $2,500 from Chapel of the Chimes, a funeral home chain based in Hayward; and $1,000 from the Association of School Psychologists.
Skipakevich did not declare any new money in the latest filing period.
"Not that we wouldn't love to have financial support," said campaign spokesman Oscar Braun. "But Michael thinks clearly our political system is broken, it's been corrupted by just the excessive amount of campaign funding by special interests. That's really spotlighted in this contest between Michael and Leland Yee."
While Braun characterizes him as a "pay-to-play" politician, Yee said his record shows otherwise.
"My work in the Legislature is about helping individuals who can't really help themselves," Yee said in an interview Tuesday. "They can't pick up the phone and call the governor and get what they want. They're not wealthy, they're not that sophisticated, English is not their first language."
Yee says he has authored 64 bills that have passed through the Legislature in his four years in the Assembly, 48 of which were signed into law. He pointed to last year's AB 800, which guarantees that patients' spoken language will be included in their medical records, and 2003's AB 938, which offers incentives to mental health workers in poor communities, as examples of the issues he cares about.
"I'm not shy about this: I am a liberal," Yee said. "I mean by being a liberal that I believe that government is important. We got out of the Stone Age and formed society because there are individuals within a community that need certain kinds of help."
If he wins, Yee will become the first Chinese-American ever to serve in California's state Senate.
VIEW Leland Yee on
E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com. |
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