Stateside With Rosalea Barker
California Campaign
::Los cuatro amigos::
Sharon Quirk, Anthony Villaraigosa, and Gavin Newsom board a limo bus that is part of "the largest green clean-air fleet
in the country" at Merritt College, Oakland.
Merritt College in Oakland, CA, was the starting point for a trip by a quartet of Democratic mayors putting their
support behind Hillary Clinton's campaign today. Ron Dellums (Oakland), Gavin Newsom (San Francisco), Sharon Quirk
(Fullerton, Orange County), and Anthony Villaraigosa (Los Angeles) held a press conference at Merritt's Landscape
Horticulture department. The trip will end at the Clinton campaign's East Los Angeles field office this evening, where
supporters will be phoning likely voters.
One supporter I spoke with afterwards said that he was reinforced in his view that Dellums is a far better spokesman for
the Clinton campaign than the candidate's husband is. He had seen them both speak at an event a week or so ago, and
feels that Dellums is more concise at addressing the issues.
Oakland Mayor, and former Congressman, Ron Dellums, who is chairman of Clinton's urban policy committee
The venue was chosen to highlight the green jobs training program at Merritt, and program participants spoke about that
program before the mayors gave their speeches and took questions.
::Drop outs::
Big day here in both of the races. John Edwards dropped out early in the day without endorsing either Obama or Clinton,
and Rudi Giuliani dropped out in the afternoon. His speech was taken live by BBC World's 3 pm (PT) broadcast. The news
anchor was very bemused by the love-fest as Giuliani endorsed McCain in his speech, delivered at the Reagan Library,
where tonight's Republican debate will take place.
ENDS
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rosalea.barker_AT_gmail.com
--PEACE--