It’s fitting that I had dinner with Michele Ruiz and our spouses just a few weeks after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo began investigating debt settlement companies. Michele and I met 6 years ago when she was an unstoppable investigative reporter for KNBC and I was Deputy Corporations Commissioner for the State of California. She had come across a unscrupulous “credit counselor”:

In the past, overextended consumers have had two choices: bankruptcy or credit counseling. Now, a new option, debt negotiation companies tell financially strapped customers that if they can’t repay their bills they may be able to negotiate.

Warren said he works with politicians, even presidents, to advocate for people in debt. Warren told Ruiz, “I’ve said, look someone needs to be a responsible voice out there. It needs to be a nonprofit organization speaking on (the) consumer’s behalf.”

Warren was a scam artist and Michele wanted someone to say it on TV. I was happy to comply.

Ruiz asked Pineda, “So you are saying no matter how you look at it they are violating the law?”

Pineda replied, “They are not just breaking it by a little but a lot.”

Thanks to Michele, the Department of Corporations began an investigation that ended up with the FTC securing a suspended monetary judgment of $84.3 million against Warren for the fees received from consumers. In their press release, the FTC wrote that Warren and his fellow swindlers “are permanently barred from making deceptive claims about debt-related services.”

Problem is, Harvey Warren is still around, peddling his wares on the web:

Andrew Cuomo has his work cut out for him. And consumers need to do their due diligence. Scam artists view this economy as an opportunity.

Michael Wines writes in today’s New York Times about the wife of a Chinese dissident who produced a tract so subversive that it got him jailed and her 24-hour surveillance.

Here are the “Fundamental Principles” from Charter 08, the document signed by Liu Xiaobo and 302 others:

OUR FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

This is a historic moment for China, and our future hangs in the balance. In reviewing the political modernization process of the past hundred years or more, we reiterate and endorse basic universal values as follows:

Freedom. Freedom is at the core of universal human values. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom in where to live, and the freedoms to strike, to demonstrate, and to protest, among others, are the forms that freedom takes. Without freedom, China will always remain far from civilized ideals.

Human rights. Human rights are not bestowed by a state. Every person is born with inherent rights to dignity and freedom. The government exists for the protection of the human rights of its citizens. The exercise of state power must be authorized by the people. The succession of political disasters in China’s recent history is a direct consequence of the ruling regime’s disregard for human rights.

Equality. The integrity, dignity, and freedom of every person—regardless of social station, occupation, sex, economic condition, ethnicity, skin color, religion, or political belief—are the same as those of any other. Principles of equality before the law and equality of social, economic, cultural, civil, and political rights must be upheld.

Republicanism. Republicanism, which holds that power should be balanced among different branches of government and competing interests should be served, resembles the traditional Chinese political ideal of “fairness in all under heaven.” It allows different interest groups and social assemblies, and people with a variety of cultures and beliefs, to exercise democratic self-government and to deliberate in order to reach peaceful resolution of public questions on a basis of equal access to government and free and fair competition.

Democracy. The most fundamental principles of democracy are that the people are sovereign and the people select their government. Democracy has these characteristics: (1) Political power begins with the people and the legitimacy of a regime derives from the people. (2) Political power is exercised through choices that the people make. (3) The holders of major official posts in government at all levels are determined through periodic competitive elections. (4) While honoring the will of the majority, the fundamental dignity, freedom, and human rights of minorities are protected. In short, democracy is a modern means for achieving government truly “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Constitutional rule. Constitutional rule is rule through a legal system and legal regulations to implement principles that are spelled out in a constitution. It means protecting the freedom and the rights of citizens, limiting and defining the scope of legitimate government power, and providing the administrative apparatus necessary to serve these ends.

—

The New York Times also has a piece today about the authoritarian governments (like the Chinese and Iranian) that filter internet content and the tech-savvy rebels that lead their people around the firewalls. The 20-year anniversary of Tiananmen Square is rapidly approaching (June 4) yet I have often read that most young Chinese didn’t even know it happened. Peter Hessler, in his book Oracle Bones, wrote of being a cub reporter sent to cover the 10th anniversary: “On the day of the fourth, the Wall Street Journal correspondents and I took turns going out to Tiananmen, to see if there were any commemorations. We missed the two most prominent demonstrations, each of which involved exactly one person and lasted only a few seconds.”

The power and the limits of the internet when it comes to political mobilization are being defined every day all around us. June 4 will be a very interesting test. I thought I would play my small part in the global play by writing a blog post about Charter 08 and Tiananmen Square from a computer in Pasadena, California.

For good reason, many political observers considered yesterday’s race in L.A.’s 5th city council district too close to call. But not the students in my political science class at USC. After having them research all the candidates and issues in January, I asked them who they thought would be the top finisher in the March election. Almost two-thirds said David Vahedi. I disagreed. Foolishly in retrospect.

On February 23-25, the class and I fielded a survey of 406 likely voters. The top three finishers in the poll ended up being the top three finishers in the election (graph above). It was still a close race with a week to go (34 percent undecided), yet all but 5 students expected the top two finishers to be Vahedi and Paul Koretz. They were exactly right.

In addition to the trial heat, the students tested the issues that matter to voters in the 5th (note to observers: billboards isn’t high on the list). If Vahedi or Koretz want to talk to my class, I’m sure they could get some good advice.

Update (3/24/09): The Vahedi campaign saw the post above and came by our class yesterday. The Daily Trojan has the story.

I don’t know Congresswoman Solis very well but I am a big fan. Growing up just north of her district, I have watched its transformation from a collection of white working class bedroom communities to the sort of Latino and Asian melting pot distinctive to Southern California. With her focus on issues like immigration and green jobs, she has done a fabulous job of taking the lead on national issues while also looking out for her constituents.

The one time she and I worked together was in 2005 when she asked me to testify before the DNC commission that was considering shaking up the presidential primary schedule. I love the political romance of Iowa and New Hampshire but there is no way I think those states should always be first — they don’t come anything close to resembling the rest of America. In the hearing, I was singing the praises of Arizona and Nevada. Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton, wasn’t buying any of it.

MR. PINEDA: So that’s the opportunity here, to work out a primary schedule, especially with a state like Arizona, where it could be at some point first. I recognize the political consequences of doing that right away. But if we could have a state like Arizona going first, where percent of the population is Latino, where 17 percent of the primary electorate last time is Latino, then what we will have is candidates going there and really putting their money where their mouth is in terms of speaking to the issues that matter to the Latinos.

MR. PINEDA: Right, because I say it’s completely different to be first than to be early; that the level of energy that I saw and that I know that you’ve seen as well, that the level of energy in New Hampshire that comes from being the first state, that comes from the level of organization that is there, is much, much higher than anything that was in Arizona.

The irony of his resistance is that if either of those states went first instead of Iowa, Hillary Clinton’s strength with Latino voters would have probably carried her to a victory. And she would likely be president today.

But Iowa went first, Obama won and the rest is history. Including the appointment of Congresswoman Solis to the Obama cabinet as Secretary of Labor. Earlier this month local politicians were all aflutter over the prospect of Congressman Becerra’s seat opening up if he were to accept Obama’s offer to be United States Trade Representative. With his decision to stay and the nomination of Solis, attention moved a few miles east to the 32nd congressional district. Mike Soraghan of The Hill newspaper in Washington DC interviewed me about the candidates that are being mentioned:

The state senator who succeeded Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) in Sacramento is considered to be the leading contender to replace her in Congress, local political observers say.

Romero, Chu, or Cedillo would likely be popular with labor, he said, while one of the Calderons would draw more business support. The question, Pineda said, is whether local labor leaders – heads of the Service Employees International Union and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – will try to clear the field to avoid splitting the labor vote in a crowded primary and handing the race to one of the Calderons.

More than three years ago, I wrote about a client’s attempt to get government to wake up to the need for cyber-security:

The work that CSIA does goes beyond just making your computer safe from viruses. The Executive Director, Paul Kurtz, and I have had discussions of the larger issue here: our ever-increasing connectedness, from information to electricity to most everything you can think of. How this connectedness relates to politics I will leave for a future post. Suffice to say for now that I’m glad smart people like Paul are thinking about these issues, because they affect us all in more ways than most of us ever consider.

Already the public took the issue very seriously, with 64 percent of adults in a survey I conducted in May of 2005 agreeing with the statement that “Government needs to make protecting our information systems and networks a higher priority.” But according to a New York Times story on a Center for Strategic and International Studies report, government didn’t get very far:

“The damage from cyber attack is real,” the report states. “Last year, the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security, and Commerce, NASA and the National Defense University all suffered major intrusions by unknown foreign entities.”

The report describes a laundry list of serious break-ins ranging from the hacking of the secretary of Defense’s unclassified e-mail to the loss of “terabytes” of data at the State Department.

Thank goodness the Wall Street Journal is reporting that President-elect Obama is bringing change in the form of my old friend and client:

Mr. Obama, who promised to make cyber security a top priority, has created a separate group on his transition team dedicated to cyber security, led by Paul Kurtz, a member of the commission and a former cyber-security aide to the National Security Council in the Clinton and Bush administrations, according to several people familiar with the transition. A handful of other commissioners also are working for the transition.

Some of the commission’s recommendations parallel proposals Mr. Obama made on the campaign trail. Mr. Obama criticized the Bush administration for being too slow to address cyber threats and vowed to create “a national cyber adviser” who would report directly to the president.

Mr. Obama knows what the public has long known: government has some catching up to do.

I do not buy into the idea of Barack Obama’s election marking our country’s entrance into post-racial politics. But I am always heartened when related thresholds are crossed, whether it is an African-American to the presidency or an Indian-American to the short list of 2012 GOP nominees. I still think the best thing we can do to improve life in America is get more Americans to vote and I believe that the political success of the previously disfranchised can help boost participation.

So I was happy to see two stories today about Vietnamese-American political accomplishments, even if Republicans are the party that are benefiting most directly. First, My-Thuan Tran of the Los Angeles Times reports on the Vietnamese-American political coming of age in Orange County:

Sixteen years ago, a 56-year-old Vietnamese refugee canvassed the streets of a conservative Orange County city with red, white and blue campaign posters.

And this week, after the last of the absentee ballots had been counted, Westminster — a blue-collar town that recoiled when the first waves of refugees moved in 33 years ago — became the first city in the nation with a majority Vietnamese American city council.

Meanwhile, Michelle Krupa and Frank Donze of The Times-Picayune report on the defeat of the Democratic congressman perhaps best known for having been caught by federal agents with $90,000 in his freezer:

Indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson suffered what may be the final blow of his storied political career in the most improbable way Saturday, when an untested Republican opponent took advantage of Louisiana’s new federal voting rules — and an election delay caused by Hurricane Gustav — to unseat the nine-term Democrat.

With the upset victory, Anh “Joseph” Cao, a eastern New Orleans attorney who fled war-ravaged Saigon as a child, becomes the first Vietnamese-American in Congress. He will represent a district that was specifically drawn to give African-Americans an electoral advantage and one in which two of every three voters are registered Democrats.

Five of my campaign clients had elections yesterday. Four won; one (Joe Alioto, San Francisco supervisorial candidate) is awaiting a final vote count.

Here are the winners:

LAUSD — It was interesting to see many press stories over the past couple months suggesting that Measure Q, a $7 billion school bond, was in trouble because voters would be unwilling to raise their own taxes in the current economic climate. My polls suggested that support for the school bond was really a values statement. Voters understood that despite all the new schools LAUSD has built, many old schools are rundown and making children attend those schools sends the message that we don’t care. Measure Q passed with 69 percent of the vote.

Lupe Valdez — I had no professional involvement with Proposition 8 — the gay marriage ban in California — but I am so disappointed that it passed. I derive what consolation that I can from the reelection of my Texas lesbian Latina law enforcement official client, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. She was outspent and unfairly trashed by her opponent, but her record and her integrity carried the day.

Veronica Gonzales — Texas Republicans, heirs to the Tom DeLay school of gerrymander, redrew the lines in Hidalgo County in an attempt to take out rising Democratic star and two-term state rep Veronica Gonzales. But they couldn’t take away her impressive accomplishments on education and health care. Gonzales won with 65 percent of the vote.

Barack Obama — In September, the Obama campaign asked me to do all their Hispanic polls. The findings were both fascinating and promising, especially the potential Obama was showing to gain tremendous ground with traditionally Republican Cuban voters in South Florida. Despite the vocal objection of local experts, the Obama campaign decided to deploy significant Spanish-language resources in that GOP redoubt. James Aldrete and Freddy Balsera did an excellent job of making sure Latino voters in Miami and elsewhere got to know who Barack Obama is and what he stands for.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and Gary Toebben, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, join together in endorsing Measure Q:

Rare is the opportunity to reap immediate economic benefits and realize long-term societal gains. This opportunity lies before Los Angeles voters Tuesday in Measure Q - the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Safe, Healthy Neighborhood Schools initiative.

Measure Q puts forth a 10-year strategy that not only ensures our children will receive a quality education in a safe school with 21st century technology, but also stimulates the economy with jobs - immediate construction jobs and jobs for the next generation of workers. At a time when our schools continue to rank among the lowest in the nation and more than seven percent of Californians are out of work, Measure Q is an investment that will deliver a decade of jobs and a lifetime of opportunities for our students.

I thought I would highlight some of the endorsements received by my current campaign clients, starting with the most recent.

In endorsing Barack Obama, the New York Times also does an interesting series on previous endorsements going back to Abraham Lincoln.

About Senator Obama, they write:

Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.

Former California Assemblyman Rod Wright and current Missouri State Representative Robin Wright-Jones were both running in state senate Democratic primaries in their respective states. In both races, I was brought on by independent expenditure committees to test the viability of their candidacies. Coincidentally, my polls showed that my clients’ preferred candidates were down — in Wright’s case, by almost 20 points. But my polls also showed a clear path to victory. Wright was endorsed by the California Teachers Association; his opponent, Mervyn Dymally, had been the president and CEO of a fraudulent charter school operation. Robin Wright-Jones, a teacher herself, was endorsed by the Missouri National Education Association and the Missouri State Teacher’s Association. Her Democratic opponent, Rodney Hubbard, was a wholly owned subsidiary of a wealthy Republican voucher advocate.

In both races, the independent expenditure committees highlighted our preferred candidates’ support for public education as well as their opponents’ flaws. And while our preferred candidates were outraised by their opponents, they both won (Wright-Jones’ victory was yesterday by just 111 votes). Public education, after all, is a powerful message.

Given that California’s 20th and Missouri’s 5th state senate districts are both very Democratic, Rod Wright and Robin Wright-Jones should win handily in November. Congratulations to them both.