Capps Wins Primary, Will Face Maldonado in November for 24th Congressional District Seat

» Overtaxed Taxpayer on 06.06.12 @ 09:03 AM

Capps is a rubber stamp for the corrupt government unions.

She promised three terms, what a liar!!!!!!!

» Wireless on 06.06.12 @ 06:16 PM

Hate to tell you guys she is likely to win again.  Abel will not beat her.  Probably 25% of the people voting for Mitchum won’t vote for Abel, they won’t forgive his shenanigans and betrayal in Sacramento.  That alone dooms his chances.

Then you throw in his tax issues and its not going to be pretty.  “Abel voted to raise your taxes and dodges paying his own”.  Game over. 

Too bad, a lost opportunity to get rid of our bobble-head nitwit Congresswoman.

» lou segal on 06.06.12 @ 07:37 PM

Wireless,

I voted for Mitchum, but let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face. I will vote for Maldonado because he can’t be as bad as our nitwit Congresswoman. I hope Conservatives won’t sit out this election because we still have a chance to retire her.

» citizenSB on 06.06.12 @ 08:15 PM

Me too. I voted for Mitchum, but I will vote for Maldonado!
Is there anyone that voted for Mitchum that will vote for Capps? I can not image it, but would love to hear if there is anyone that would?
The good thing is Maldonado is liberal enough for many democrats that want Capps out, and given the choice even harden conservatives will vote for Maldonado.

» Wireless on 06.07.12 @ 12:18 PM

I will make a prediction right now:  Abel will not beat Lois.

I think you guys underestimate the level of animus for Abel.  He is unprincipled, self-serving and untrustworthy and a tax cheat to boot.  He may put an R after his name but he’s not a Republican.  If he was why would he proudly help found the ill-fated “No Labels” group which such losers as Charlie Crist and Michael Bloomberg and incompetent fools like Antonio Villaragosa:
http://gawker.com/5713046/the-fierce-ideology-of-no-labels

He also wrote the open primary law in a way that would allow candidates to claim a party preference.  Gov. Brown would have none of that but Abel clearly wanted to run as an independent, there is no other reason to do that.

He also signed a no tax pledge and then back stabbed every citizen in CA with the largest tax increase in history for his own selfish political reasons:
http://atr.org/abel-maldonado-voted-largest-state-tax-a6929

A significant number of Mitchum voters will never forgive Abel for this and simply won’t vote for a corrupt, lying weasel like Abel.  They won’t vote for Lois but they won’t vote for him.  They still have some principles.

Lois is 74, she’s nearly done regardless.  Abel is like 44 and super ambitious.  You’ll need a crowbar to get him out of there until he wants to run for Senate or Gov or some new scandal breaks.  The guy is bad news.

This alone I think will make it tough for Abel to win in Nov but what will make it impossible is this:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/31/local/la-me-maldonado-taxes-20120531

Abel owes huge back taxes and has stretched the tax laws beyond any rational or defensible limits.  The money line in here is “The taxpayer has demonstrated a pattern of deducting expenses … which have no business purpose whatsoever,”.  Some examples were country club memberships, re-tiling his bathroom, re-roofing his house, cars for family members, and buying horses for obvious personal use.

Capps will absolutely crush him with this:  “Abel voted to raise your taxes but dodges paying his own”.  Game over.

And that’s not all the dirt on this guy, there is lots more that will come out unless Capps’ political team is totally incompetent.  If Capps won’t go negative the DCCC certainly will.  They will bury Abel in negative ads. 

I was watching the returns coming in Tuesday and Abel took a big lead on the absentee ballots which were sent in early.  The people that voted on Tuesday started breaking heavily towards Mitchum.  What happened was this story broke late last week and Mitchum finally started advertising and making people aware of Abel’s tax issues.  Had this story hit two weeks earlier Abel would have lost on Tuesday.  This is a fatal political problem.

You want to vote for him go ahead, but if he wins you’ll come to regret it.  A Pyrrhic victory.  Guys like him are the reason we are in the mess we are in, I’m not going to reward him with higher office where he can do even more damage.  We’ll take another shot a Lois in 2014.

» Wireless on 06.07.12 @ 01:35 PM

Overtaxed, Abel has a similar record in case you weren’t aware.

-He voted, and in fact was the enabling vote, for the biggest tax increase in CA history.  It has hurt our economy while doing nothing to improve our fiscal disaster.
 
-He opposed repeal of the disastrous AB-32 (CA’s idiotic global warming law) which is chasing business out of CA at an alarming rate.  This is the single most destructive piece of business legislation passed in this state and he opposed the effort to repeal it in 2010.

-He also wants to give illegal immigrants in state benefits/tuition and opposes strict border regulation.

Sounds a lot like Lois if you ask me.

Lois did lie about serving 3 terms and she is a brain dead liberal.  She is also 74 and near the end of her career, one way or another. 

Abel also lied about not raising taxes.  Which impacts us more, not keeping a term limit pledge or shafting everyone with higher taxes? I think raising taxes is worse.

You watch Abel, he’s going to start running to left and will sound like Lois on drilling, the environment, immigration, etc.  The guy is a total phony.  His loyalty is first, second and third to Abel.  I don’t want this corrupt phony in office for the next 10 or 20 years.  Trust me, you won’t like it.

» lou segal on 06.07.12 @ 02:33 PM

Wireless,

This link shows every vote he has cast since 2006:

http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/16814/abel-maldonado

I noticed a couple of things. First, on every global warming vote, he voted no. On AB 32 (the vote you cited), he actually voted no.  His record on taxes is mixed. To his credit he voted no on internet sales taxes, suspending carrybacks and net operating loss deductions and MTA sales tax.

He also voted against minimum wage, single payer health care and many of the crazy regulations our Democratic legislators routinely pass.

However, he did vote for the budget compromise, which included the tax increase you alluded to, against oil drilling and voted to allow the high speed rail bond.

So, definitely a mixed record for sure, but certainly better than Capps. I still don’t understand your argument for sitting out this election.

» Wireless on 06.07.12 @ 05:24 PM

Lou,

Abel did vote against AB-32, what I said he opposed was Prop 23 in 2010 which would suspend AB-32 indefinitely.  Why did he think it was a bad idea to pass AB-32 but not favor getting rid of it?  That’s like voting against Obamacare but not favoring repealing it. No difference.

The reason he opposed Prop 23 was because he was running for Lt. Gov and wanted to appear like he was a big greenie.  More important to appear green than stop the destructive law that is AB-32.  That law is killing this state. 

This is what I mean about him, he will take any position that benefits him politically, at any given moment.  He has no principles, he has no philosophical grounding.  Its all about Abel.  Sign a tax pledge promising not to raise taxes then vote to raise taxes so he could get the open primary put on the ballot.

Throw in there that he is a tax cheat and has numerous other skeletons and I just can’t support him.  Trust me, you don’t want this guy in Congress or any other elected position.

Capps is going to kill him with the tax stuff, mark my words.

» Wireless on 06.07.12 @ 06:22 PM

On a brighter note, the wheels are totally coming off the Obama campaign.  What a goat rope.  Romney is out raising him, polling keeps degrading, he’s behind in Michigan of all places.  Won that by 17% in 2008.

Hard for me to see how how Obama wins this, all the trends are bad and there isn’t time to turn the big trends around.  Of course our fellow voters in CA will still go for this disaster of a President.

» AN50 on 06.07.12 @ 08:06 PM

Unless and until democrats divorce them selves from unions and this liberal/progressive orthodoxy, California is doomed. This state, once the sixth largest economy on earth and now ninth and dropping ever faster, is a laughing stock.

At some point you have to grow up and start behaving like an adult. Being the dopy dodo loony lefty liberal queen is no longer an amusement. The embarrassment of it now equates to misery and suffering by the state’s most vulnerable.

Wisconsin had a moment of clarity last Tuesday. They saw that more of the same was not working and that throwing a governor out simple because he was actually doing the right things was not in the best interests of their future. Californians need to do the same thing. They had a chance in the last election and blew it. Now 2 years later we see nothing but the same crap, corruption and degradation.

Lois, bless her wonderful heart, does not have what it takes. Able is only marginally better, but better is not the same and we cannot do the same.

» Wireless on 06.07.12 @ 10:24 PM

John Locke,

From a political standpoint even allegations of a $4M magnitude are likely a fatal vulnerability.  Where there is that much smoke there is fire and this has been an ongoing pattern with Maldonado and Agra-Jal where Abel was supposedly the controller/auditor.  Claiming business deductions for so many things that were clearly for personal use is toxic.  Even if he settles and pays some reduced amount this issue is in the public domain.  There is no way to weasel out of this problem.

Capps will just hammer away at the message of how hypocritical Abel is to raise our taxes and not pay his own.  Very simple and effective message.  Abel will spend all of his time trying to defend this and explain the intricacies of tax policy when he should be on offense.  It is a losing argument.  When you are explaining you are losing. 

For all her many and manifest faults, Lois is at least honest so Abel can’t even counterattack her personally.  Besides personal attacks on Lois’ intelligence, etc. will backfire.  People like her personally, even if they know she is a dope, but she’s their dope.  Lois will have more money than Abel and the Democrat Congressional committee will put whatever it takes to keep this seat.  This message is like cheating on your wife, you only have to tell it one time.  No amount of cheesy ads like Abel ran in the primary will overcome this relentless and effective assault on his character.

This tax issue has been polled and it is devastating.  In the poll it cost Abel well over 10 points as soon as voters knew about it.  You could see that evidence itself Tuesday night.  Abel did very well with the early absentees as Mitchum had not started his ads about Abel’s tax issues.  The people who voted on Tuesday voted more for Mitchum than Maldo because many of them had seen or heard the ads and had gotten mail talking about Abel’s tax issue.  Capps will poll this and get the same answer and wail away.

Political ads don’t have to be 100% true and voters hate hypocrites.  He’s toast IMHO.  They will grind him to a pulp.  Just prepare yourself for that likely reality.

» Rambler on 06.07.12 @ 10:51 PM

I voted for Mitchum because he IS a laughingstock. I wish he had made it. It’s like watching a track meet where the GOP are the only ones who think their in the Special Olympics.

» Wireless on 06.08.12 @ 12:54 AM

Rambler,

You have to be kidding me.  Mitchum would run circles around Capps intellectually.  My youngest elementary school child would run circles around Capps.  She’s an idiot.  Talk about the Special Olympics.  If your candidate of choice is one of the stupidest people in Congress (and that’s saying something) I wouldn’t be casting too many stones.

Let’s take a look at some of Lois’ brilliance shall we?  Yes we shall.  In this first one she tells us that the Constitution says health, liberty and happiness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FpD5SA0csc&feature=relmfu

Of course being a good little marxist like you are, you probably think it says that as well, or more likely you don’t care what the Constitution says.  Apparently Lois doesn’t either.

In this gem she is talking to Doctors at Cottage about Obamacare.  In a moment of rare candor between an hour of utter and complete incoherence she informs us that it is a big gamble right before she says the government is good at cutting red tape.  This is just unbelievable.  You can see all the Docs sitting there in stunned amazement at her incompetence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF-tsu4QQtU&feature=player_embedded

This woman is a sad excuse for a Congressperson.  Its an embarrassment.  But at least she’s not a tax cheat, I’ll give you that.

» lou segal on 06.08.12 @ 02:07 AM

I agree the tax issue is going to very difficult for him to overcome. He will have to explain the personal expenses he deducted as business expenses. I am not sure what to make of this. I generally have a lot of sympathy for anyone who has to fight the IRS, but without some explanation from him, it certainly doesn’t look good for him. Considering that they are willing to go to court, which must be very expensive, they must believe they have justifiable reasons for these deductions.

You would think anyone who has had to deal with the IRS as he has, would be sympathetic about lowering taxes or reforming the tax code. At least you would hope so.

» lou segal on 06.08.12 @ 02:32 AM

One thing about his tax situation: Obviously, I am not familiar with the issues of his case, but I read the IRS is disputing the cost of renovating a part of his house. Now, I could see where there may be a legitimate justification for treating these expenses as business expenses if his office was in his house. Basically, you are allowed to prorate the square footage for your office and deduct all expenses, including depreciation and remodeling expenditures for this portion of the house. Of course, it gets very complicated because the rules for claiming an office in your house can be very subjective.

The tax code is an abomination and needs to be radically reformed, because it causes so much grief for so many people. Again, I don’t have any inside information on his situation, but my first reaction is usually sympathy for people having to deal with the IRS. Remember, this is the only place in our justice system where you are guilty until proven innocent. The IRS is the closest thing we have to the Gestapo in the US.

» Wireless on 06.08.12 @ 03:25 AM

Lou,

Look at the contortions you are going through trying to come up with some rational explanation for Abel’s tax problems.  He’s going to spend the next 4-5 months trying to make the case its not as bad as it looks.  That is a loser.  Unfortunately for Abel, it is very likely as bad as it looks.  Tax court isn’t that expensive and they will likely settle before then.  In my opinion he was trying to run the clock out till after the election but the LA Times blew the lid off the story.  Now he is scrambling around blaming everyone else for his obvious cutting corners. 

They are all out to get him.  Being mean to Abel because he’s running for office and dragging his family through the mud.  Yeah right.  If he had a legitimate case he could have used it to his political advantage.  Everyone hates the IRS, make an issue of it.  He didn’t because he can’t.  They got caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

The tax code is an abomination, no argument there.  But we all have to follow it and if you are going to run for a high office like Congress you simply can’t do the kind of stuff Abel has been doing.  Charlie Rangel couldn’t get away with stuff like this and Abel can’t either.  This is a fatal political problem regardless of the merits of the IRS case against him.  There is politics and there is reality.  Abel has a major political problem and quite possibly are very real, and very expensive financial problem.  Put this message in context with the average unengaged voter:  “Abel voted to raise your taxes but won’t pay his own”.  That, my friend, is a disaster in politics and that is the game we are playing here.

» publius with a small p on 06.08.12 @ 09:22 AM

I might vote for Maldanado if he lacked the weird tax problems.

Lois Capps is not deviant, corrupt, or downright weird, like the vast majority of Congress members.  No fake tan or crying in public, and she was a school nurse.  We could do a whole lot worse… like Michael Huffington.

And she voted against the Iraq war resolution.  History showed there were no weapons of mass destruction, and that Hussein was mainly posturing to impress his corrupt neighbors.  When all the costs are added up, the tab for that ridiculous misadventure will be in the trillions… which of course, Wireless and lou segal think is a few dollars more than a million.

As for Stoker, gosh I know him, wouldn’t vote for him to be the town dog catcher.  HB Jackson is an attorney.  I’ll probably write in Gumby or Pokey.

» John Locke on 06.08.12 @ 01:12 PM

Wireless, I agree with your response to my post.  Unfortunately “innocent until proven guilty” is part of this nation’s lost innocence.

My “noooooooo” was that of the dying man falling off a cliff knowing the inevitable is coming:-)