Leland Yee Update for June 5, 2014

I’ve been busy with other things, so until Dwight covered it, I didn’t realize that indicted California state senator Leland Yee’s suspended campaign still came in third in the race for California Secretary of State, pulling in a quarter-million votes.

Yee finished ahead of ethics watchdog Dan Schnur, a former chairman of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, who framed his campaign around cleaning up Sacramento. Yee also finished ahead of Derek Cressman, a Democrat and former director of the good-government group Common Cause.

“Sure, he’s been indicted on a gun trafficking and murder-for-hire scheme, but I really liked his opposition to banning shark fin soup.”

Alternately, maybe all California voters just naturally assume that all Democratic office holders in their state are crooked.

In other Leland Yee news:

  • California’s Senate Rules Committee refuses to release his legislative calendar. Because you puny peasants have no right to know what slimy deals your betters are making behind closed doors.
  • The presiding judge has ordered the material released to the defense attorneys sealed, as per Yee’s wishes, but over the objections of the lawyers for Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.

    “There are sensitive materials identifying numerous individuals who are not believed to have engaged in any criminal activities, but who were nonetheless captured on FBI surveillance or documented in FBI reports, for example after being introduced by charged defendants to undercover agents. Such materials, if improperly disclosed, could be used to besmirch these otherwise innocent individuals,” noted the April 8 motion for a protective order.

    Chow’s lawyers, Tony Serra and his team, who claim their client is innocent, take issue with this reasoning.

    ”He knows the politicians, the celebrities who were investigated and through this order of his gagging us, there’s an implication he’s almost protecting their reputation,” Serra said about Breyer.

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  • 2 Responses to “Leland Yee Update for June 5, 2014”

    1. lelnet says:

      “naturally assume that all Democratic office holders in their state are crooked”

      I’m not even in California (PRAISE JESUS!!!!), and I assume that. Hell, I generally assume it of the Republican ones too. (Sure, they’re mostly better than the Democrats. But that ain’t exactly a high hurdle to clear, ya know?)

    2. Dwight Brown says:

      It’s Chinatown, Jake Lawrence.

      Okay, I just wanted to use that reference. But from the reporting I saw:

      * Much of Yee’s support came from his home bases of San Francisco and Sacramento. Could this be the Yee Machine in action?

      * There was an implication that lots of “low information” voters went for Yee. “Leeland Yee? I recognize that name! I’ll vote for him!” without any consideration as to why they recognized his name.

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