CalWatchdog Morning Read – July 11

by CalWatchdog Staff | July 11, 2016 9:18 am

• Senate race competitive, but…
• VP Biden may be about to endorse the frontrunner
• More on lawmaker giving Veteran of the Year award to her BF
• Dark money dip in CA
• AG wins big settlement against for-profit university

Good morning! Happy Monday.

New polling and a surprise endorsement light up the path to victory for Loretta Sanchez’s quest for the U.S. Senate — but both also illustrate the challenges ahead.

Sanchez — a Democratic congresswoman from Orange County — is hoping to cobble together enough votes from a mix of Latinos, Republicans, independents and Democrats to carry her past Democratic Attorney General Kamala Harris, the frontrunner.

Harris won first place in the June primary by a wide margin — 40 percent to 19 percent — with the vote split between 34 candidates. Polling released Friday gives a clearer picture of how the two candidates stack up head to head, showing Harris in a comfortable, yet surmountable, lead.

And while the polling suggests Sanchez still faces significant difficulties winning over Republicans, Hugh Hewitt, a popular conservative radio host from Orange County, endorsed her on his show on Thursday, giving Sanchez her second high-profile Republican endorsement since the primary.

CalWatchdog[1] has more:

In other news:

• Speaking of high-profile endorsements in the Senate race, Vice President Joe Biden is considering endorsing Harris. The Los Angeles Times[2] has more. 
• The Voice of San Diego[3] dissects Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s decision to present her boyfriend an award for Veteran of the Year, finding trouble with the decision and hypocrisy with the reaction. 
• A new report finds the use of “dark money” dipped in California recently, reports Capital Public Radio[4].
• “Facing a torrent of accusations, a for-profit company that operates taxpayer-funded online charter schools throughout California has reached a $168.5 million settlement with the state over claims it manipulated attendance records and overstated its students’ success,” writes The San Jose Mercury News[5]. 

Legislature:

• Gone ’til August.

Gov. Brown:

• On vacation.

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Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2016/07/11/calwatchdog-morning-read-july-11/

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