Cooper Courage, 'Equity Driven' mailers hit Democratic voters as primary voting closing quickly approaches
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2020/02/cooper-courage-equity-driven-mailers.html
With a little over one week until voting in the March 3 primary concludes, Democratic voters in Elk Grove are receiving a fair amount of mailers. Along with at least four from the Mike Bloomberg and one from the Tom Steyer presidential campaigns, there were a couple worth noting.
The first was sent on behalf of Democratic Assemblymember Jim Cooper who is seeking a fourth term representing the 9th District which includes all of Elk Grove. Democratic voters have received at least two mailers from Cooper or a special interest group.
The most recent one traded on his law enforcement experience as a retired Sacramento County Sheriff's Department captain. We call this the Cooper Courage mailer and it is sent by a group calling itself "Keep a Cop in the Capitol."
One the Courage now side it notes Cooper's experience as a deputy sheriff and his experience prior to the assembly as an Elk Grove city council member and notes "while his beat may have changed, he's still bringing the same sense of justice, decency, and dedication to service he brought to the badge."
On the Courage then side Cooper's role in the 1991 infamous Good Guys siege in south Sacramento is highlighted.
Cooper, who has an enormous financial advantage over primary rivals including fellow Democrat Tracie Stafford and Republican Eric Rigard and is expected to finish first in the primary, has supporters who are nonetheless leaving nothing to chance. Not surprisingly, as of Friday, February 21, according to information compiled by Political Data, only 9-percent of ballots in the 9th Assembly District have been returned, and Republicans have submitted 9,277 ballots, Independents have submitted 4,435 ballots, and Democrats have returned 9,399 ballots.
According to filings with the California Secretary of State, Keep a Cop in the Capitol is funded by a variety of law enforcement interests. The group also received significant funding from pharmaceutical interests, and charter schools groups like EdVoice and Charter Schools PAC.
One of the contributors to Keep a Cop in the Capitol who donated $15,000, was Californians For A Jobs and a Strong Economy. This group, which has spent $557,414 since January 1 has received its funding from a vast array of political action committees and corporate titans ranging from Chevron to Walmart.
Independent expenditure like Keep a Cop in the Capitol cannot coordinate efforts with candidates they support. As of February 15, Cooper had $1.3 million in his campaign fund.
The other mailer of note for Democratic voters in Elk Grove was from a group calling itself Equity Driven Democrats. The mailer is putting forth four candidates for the Sacramento County Central Committee, District 5 which includes all of Elk Grove and other portions of Sacramento County.
There are 15 candidates competing for six positions. See the list of candidates below.
According to a California Form 460 filed with Sacramento County for the six month period ending December 31, 2019, the Equity Driven Democrats received $7,000, of which $4,000 came from California 8th District Assemblymember Ken Cooley. Their most recent disclosure was filed on Thursday, February 20 but it is not immediately available.
The slate features Donald Terry who is a Rancho Cordova City Councilmember and Jack Zwald who is running for the Rancho Cordova City Council.
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Couragescore.org gave Cooper an F on his courage. Specifically, they stated, "Assemblymember Jim Cooper has a well-documented reputation for trying to intimidate anyone who stands in the way of his crony-capitalist, mass-incarceration agenda. In countless interviews, people refuse to go on record with criticisms of Cooper, fearful of attacks from the Assemblyman. One activist even cautioned that if we were to print but one false word about Cooper, he’d sue us “into oblivion.”
Asm. Cooper acts as a bully in all kinds of ways, although you see it most in how he legislates — consistently putting corporations before communities, prisons above people, and voting for regressive, draconian crime policies instead of common-sense reform. Those misguided priorities have earned him a Courage Score of 17 and a spot in our Hall of Shame for the 5th straight year. No Democrat in Sacramento deserves it more or is more shameful."
This election is between David and Goliath. Only this time, Goliath wins not because of his physical size, but because of the size of his war chest is so much greater than his opponent.
"Time and again, Jim Cooper protects the incarceration industry at all costs. He doesn’t want to shrink jails, he wants to grow them. Might that have something to do with the massive donations corrections officers unions and the bail bonds industry make to his campaigns? Cooper is, indeed, notorious for accepting truckloads of gifts from lobbyists hoping to curry his favor. When Jim Cooper isn’t voting to protect the powerful, most of the time he just isn’t voting at all. Cooper registered “no vote” on over 60% of the bills we graded on this year’s scorecard. No single member of the Assembly failed to vote more frequently than Cooper. How does a guy who thinks truancy should be a crime get off playing hooky when he’s called on to do his job?"
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