Is Muratsuchi Afraid Yet?

Al Muratsuchi

Republican contender David Hadley's slight 66 vote lead over incumbent Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) has grown to 552 votes over the last three weeks.

The latest tally from the Secretary of state (as of June 23, 7:32am) should give the Muratsuchi campaign more cause for alarm.

The Democratic machine will pour two million dollars to keep the South Bay seat in Democratic hands.

However, a new machine is growing in the South Bay, the South Bay One Hundred, which has put the fundraising and grass-roots organization of the Democratic Party on guard.

Is Muratsuchi throwing in the towel?

He tried to run for the state senate earlier this year, and then published a press release announcing that he would run for reelection.

Why?

He doesn't want another bruising election?

Maybe he feels a sense of remorse for the nasty slash-and-burn campaign he ran against businessman Craig Huey.

He should.

Muratsuchi probably finds himself running against friends as well as making more enemies.

The tense political atmosphere in Sacramento has turned the stomachs of many politicians.

Gardena Mayor Paul Tanaka was offered the chance to run for state assembly against Muratsuchi, but he turned it down to run for Sheriff, but also because partisan politics bothers him.

"You don't vote the party line, even if you don't agree with it, and you end up in a broom closet as your new office."

Partisan politics pulls a politician not just according to what the constituents want, or the dictates of the Constitution (state and federal), but also the demands of one's caucus in the legislature. Vote-trading is crucial, and a legislator who wants to accomplish anything has to work with both sides, and sometimes has to support bills which he is personally  and politically opposed to, but must vote on to get votes on other crucial legislation.

Constituents, oath of office, and then the demands of the political leaders of one's party can drive a man's allegiances into the ground.

Muratsuchi has experienced a great deal of this pressure, one must assume.

During the primary season, his campaign put out yard signs, but no mailers or fliers. Maybe the Democratic Party won't be sending in the $2 million that Muratsuchi needs to bury his opponent and win reelection, after all.

The former school board member touted himself as a moderate voice, "not an ideologue",  yet his votes are consistently left-leaning compared to the values of his South Bay constituency. He voted to permit transgendered students to enter public school bathrooms; he supported the government forcing the state minimum wage. He also voted for drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants as well as expanding the authority to perform abortions to non-physicians.

He has also support gun control measures and other environmental laws which will hinder business rather than expand economic opportunity. Plus his endorsement for a local control funding formula which has deprived highly qualified and excelling South Bay schools of much needed state revenue.

Muratsuchi has been quite the ideologue and reliably left-wing vote in the state legislature despite his protestations during the 2012 campaign.

Is Muratsuchi afraid yet?

He should be.