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Denise Moreno Ducheny, Democratic Candidatefrom the "Did not just fail to vote for single-payer health insurance" wing of the party.
I have taken an interest (a political interest) today in a woman whom I have never met. Her name is Denise Moreno Ducheny. She is an immigration lawyer and lives in Imperial Beach, San Diego County. She is a veteran of the California State Legislature. She has announced that she will run for California’s 51st Congressional District this year. This district includes Imperial County and far Southern San Diego County. It does not include, or even come near to, Orange County.
Why is she on the front page of this blog?
Her opponent in the race, which is all-but-certain to stay within the Democratic Party, is the man who replaced her in the State Senate. His name is Juan Vargas. (I’m not going to provide a link to his campaign site.) A week and a half ago, Vargas received the recommendation of voters within the 51st Congressional District for the California Democratic Party’s endorsement in this race — although, like all who did so (including me), he can be removed from the party’s consent calendar and voted on directly by the entire assemblage of delegates.
But why is former Sen. Ducheny on the front page?
In 2010, then-State Sen. Ducheny voted for California to adopt a statewide single-payer health care system.
Today, State Sen. Vargas was one of four Democrats who abstained on the vote on SB 810, which would have sent our state’s single payer proposal to the State Assembly, making it possible for the Governor to sign it. The bills would not only have saved lives, but would have boosted the state’s employment environment (as employers would no longer have to factor health care costs into salaries) and saved the state money in the long run.
Aside from Vargas, the other three who abstained were Alex Padilla, Michael Rubio, and Rodney Wright. The bill therefore failed to clear the Senate; it needed 21 votes but failed on a vote of 19 for and 15 against.
Two of those “no” votes were State Senate Democrats. One, Lou Correa, has a district entirely within Orange County. The other, Ronald Calderon, will next year begin to represent Buena Park within the State Senate. Meanwhile, he’s running in a district that includes the City of La Palma to try to oust Rep. Linda Sanchez from Congress. She is the younger sister of Loretta Sanchez and is one of the best Representatives we have in Southern California.
You’ll be hearing a lot more about that race in the months to come.
So — why is Sen. Ducheny on our front page? It’s simple.
She’s not one of the day’s villains who doomed countless California residents — including many in Orange County and many of them Latino — to an existence without adequate health care, just to get campaign contribution from the state’s bloated insurance industry. And her opponent is.
(If Lou Correa were running for something this year, his opponent’s photo would be here.)
So, in addition to our other coverage this year, we may be adopting Sen. Ducheny’s campaign for Congress. This is the day that California single-payer was killed for the two-year session — and we will not let it go unmarked.
Our best wishes of the day to Sen. Ducheny, for not being Sen. Vargas. We’ll have more on Sens. Correa and Calderon when the time is right.
Thanks for the info on Ducheny.
You got it right – this time! Why oh why do people vote to endorse a candidate they haven’t completely vetted? Or learned about the opponent? I do hope you will move to rescind the recommendation for CDP endorsement at the upcoming convention.
Vargas does have a fair record on other issues of interest (Women’s rights, LGBT, Labor) BUT CANNOT BE TRUSTED! He has done this “no show” act before precisely so he can maintain those favorable ratings and yet support his “sugar daddy,” the Insurance Industry. (And let me state here: THE Insurance INDUSTRY is not representative of all insurers; I actually know good people in the business, but the INDUSTRY is overly greedy and perhaps, corrupt!)
Ducheny was an a good, hard-working representative who had termed out and was happily “retired” when she was asked by many to oppose Vargas. After much consideration, she decided to take it on for US! She is tops on the things we care about – especially job creation, environmental and borders issues.
Yes, you should champion her in blog!
Thanks, Maureen! You’ve got the link to the post — run with it!
Good news on the Calderon front – he’s dropped out and is endorsing Linda Sanchez. Now SHE is a progressive.
This means Linda will be one of Orange County’s Congresspeople now! Maybe .. we get one of her love handles or something. A future in health insurance lobbying perhaps awaits Mr. Calderon.
Wow — I can’t believe that I missed that! Great news. Worth its own story!
Caught it on the Nooner …… (sounds like song lyrics)
I have never met Denise Moreno Ducheny, but I don’t like her for one simple reason: When she was in the state legislature, she voted to keep it legal for the Latino Culture to kick horses. Although I am not familiar with that particular custom, I have been told that the horses have to be euthanized after being tortured. This is simply disgusting no matter your culture. Anyone who condones mistreatment of animals is NOT ok.
I will help Juan fight to keep his endorsement at the convention. Yes, we need single payer health care and yes, he voted against our desires, but have any of you looked into the reason he did it? I agree that it was a mistake on his part, but at least he isn’t abusing helpless animals.
See, my Orange County friends? THAT’S how you do it! Accusations of horse-kicking! Anyone from the Ducheny campaign want to come in and give their side of the horse-kicking story? I too am not familiar with that particular custom, but we’re going to drill to the bottom of this!
To Lori — what is the reason he did it? I sort of thought it had to do with lots and lots of contributions from the insurance industry, but if he was just trying to bring forth a popular revolution by heightening the contradictions of capitalism or something, I’d certainly want to know.
I have no idea why he did it Greg. I’m not happy about it either. However, that said, cruelty to animals will always make me angry. I work my butt off every day to rescue animals from horrible treatment/conditions. Why not get Denise to respond? She’s the one I’m accusing.
Lori Kern-Greenberg saves animals on one hand and promotes the killing of unborn babies on the other. Wow what an honorable citizen you are posting hateful comments on blogs all over the internet and then deleting your pages when your confronted.
They’re not “unborn babies,” they’re fetuses. Sometimes embryos or blastocytes. They’re not mentally developed to the level of an animal until relatively late in pregnancy. What you believe about them before that time is a matter of religion rather than science, so it should be treated as a personal choice.
Welcome to the blog, of course.
This is a very sad little statement.
From the multitude of possible corrections, I’ll select this one:
“. . . before that time is a matter of religion . . .”
No, it’s a matter of philosophy. Religion may or may not add to the conclusion reached by the individual. Labeling it “religion” is a very cheap way of short circuiting a complicated argument that includes all five branches of philosophy’s tree. Dr. D, you’re attempting to bias readers’ opinion of religious fanaticism with the rationality of science in your duality. It’s not appropriate and more importantly– it’s just not accurate.
In other words, one’s relationship and understanding of God, or lack thereof, has little to no bearing on how one sees humanity beginning and ending.
Quite frankly, it’s offensive and arrogant to label it “science” or “religion” as you’ve done, Dr D. Your comment warrants revision.