CA Sec. of State race: Bowen (D-sane) vs. McPherson (R-Diebold)

Debra Bowen is running for Secretary of State here in California against current Sec. of State Bruce McPherson.

The really funny sad thing is that after debating Bowen publicly once, McPherson refused to show up a 2nd time. Here's a link to video of the first debate. McPherson, like many current Republican candidates for office, is suddenly embracing cut-and-run style campaigning.

From a Bowen press release (read the whole thing, it's great):

Republican Secretary of State candidate Bruce McPherson has decided to ignore California's voters by skipping out on radio debates with his Democratic opponent, state Senator Debra Bowen.

. . .

Bowen can be heard solo, without a debate opponent, on KOGO Radio in San Diego on Wednesday, October 25, at 4:00 p.m. People can listen to by going to http://www.kogo.com/main.html and this interview should be archived on the site in the event people can't listen live. She'll also be on KPCC Radio in Los Angeles on Wednesday, November 1, at 10:00 a.m. - again without McPherson, who could not find time for a public discussion of his decisions to the pull the rug out from under California's voters. People can listen to a webcast of Senator Bowen on the 30th by going to http://www.scpr.org/ and this, too, should be archived for people who can't listen to it live.

Last February, Kevin Drum invited some of us L.A. based bloggers to meet with Debra, ask her questions, and get a sense of what she was all about.

We learned quite a bit:

In 1993, a law co-authored by Bowen unlocked the Legislature's computer files and has given computer users worldwide Internet access to information about bills, committee analyses, legislators' voting records, and much more.

And:

Bowen's landmark, first-in-the-nation law passed in 2001 makes it much more difficult for criminals to commit identity theft by banning companies from using Social Security numbers as public identifiers and by giving consumers the right to freeze access to their credit reports.

We also learned that she's an expert on electronic voting and Diebold voting machine failures, and has challenged McPherson on his continued support of Diebold:

"Mr. McPherson continues to spout the Diebold company line, but the elections systems he's certified for use in California can't walk the walk," said Bowen. "He called his agreement with the Bush Administration to set up a statewide voter registration database a 'model for the nation' even though it prevented over 26,000 eligible Californians from registering to vote in the June primary election. He certified Diebold voting machines for use in the state even though they don't comply with state law and study after study has show the machines don't meet the most basic security standards. When polls didn't open in Kern County for three hours thanks to problems with the Diebold machines and as many as 500 people were prevented from voting during the June primary, his response was to take his guidelines that caused the problem in June and order them to be used again in November."

Here's the link to her State Senate office. And here's the blog at her campaign site: http://www.debrabowen.com/blog/

And here's a link to her page showing the endorsements she's received. Pretty big list.

SteveAudio.blogspot.com