Looking Back on Ellen Corbett's 2006 Race for State Senate

These photos were taken on Election night June 2, 2008, when Ellen Corbett won the Democratic primary election for Senate District 10 for the State Senate. It was this victory that led to her return to Sacramento and eventually rising to the top of the Democratic leadership in the State Senate.

Ellen had an amazing victory against two well-funded opponents (fellow Democrats John Dutra and Johan Klehs). At this time, California had a primary system by political party for electing representatives. Given the significant edge in registered Democrats in the East Bay, the Democrat who won the June primary would win the general election in November.

For over a year, I volunteered extensively for Ellen's campaign for State Senate. I can confidently say that I volunteered and assisted her 2006 primary campaign more than any other resident of San Leandro.

Here is an analysis on the election that I wrote to members of the Consumer Attorneys of California. I was a member of the group at the time and they supported Ellen in her race.

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June 7, 2006

Dear Fellow Consumer Attorneys,

It is with great pleasure that I report Ellen Corbett won a convincing victory yesterday in Senate District 10. The seat held by Bill Lockyer and Liz Figueroa will remain in the hands of a legislator committed to protecting consumer and employee rights.

Her margin of victory (without provisional ballots) is about 4,000 votes over both Klehs and Dutra. In race marked by a record low turnout, Corbett secured 38.7% of vote to 31% for Klehs and 30.3% for Dutra. Of note, Corbett even beat Dutra in Santa Clara County (which comprises about 10%) of the distict and was Dutra country.

What Corbett, her campaign staff and consultant Parke Skelton achieved is simply remarkable. It's a stunning victory. The local political establishment saw no chance for a Corbett victory going into the race. Dutra was the clear favorite because of his money and geographic advantages (the base for Corbett and Klehs was AD 18, Dutra formerly represented AD 20). Klehs was a stronger candidate too because of his fundraising skills and the advantage of incumbency.

Corbett was outspent by her opponents and the anti-Corbett Independent Expenditures committees (IEs) by over $2 million. Of course, our direct donations to her campaign and the work of the California Alliance played a critical role in her victory.

Corbett was the only candidate to accept the voluntary spending limits of Prop. 34, which meant her primary campaign spending was capped at $669,000. Corbett had a single-minded focus on reaching likely voters (and no one else) through the mail box. She dedicated her money to mail and operated with minimal staff and overhead. Corbett had 3 staffers at the end who were probably doing the work of 15 to 20 people that Dutra employed. Corbett also was the only candidate not to employ paid phone bankers.

As a result, despite being far outspent, Corbett had the most extensive mail campaign of the three candidates, and did not spend money on other forums of advertising (e.g. signs, radio and TV). Corbett's mail campaign commenced first, helping fix her image in the mind's of the voters prior to CJAC launching its negative campaign against her. The Senate District was literally filled with Dutra (and a lesser extent) Klehs signs. If there is ever proof of the saying that "lawn signs don't vote," this election was such proof.

[Ed Note - CJAC refers to Civil Justice Association of California, which is a lobbying and political group dedicated to advancing the interest of massive corporations by seeking to change the legal systemto restrict individuals from bringing lawsuits and asserting their rights.]

One dynamic that I expected to occur never materialized. I thought Klehs and Dutra would go after each other, Corbett could stay entirely positive and coast to victory as Klehs and Dutra threw mud at each other. As it turned, Klehs and Dutra chose to remain positive and let the IEs go after the other candidates in the race. But that ultimately did not work to the advantage of Dutra and Klehs. Instead, it proved to be a huge mistake for them because CJAC's attack on did not cripple Corbett.

I have no doubt our spending (through the California Alliance) inflicted a serious blow on Dutra (often when I phone banked for Dutra I heard voters say "anyone but Dutra," including voters in AD 20, his prior assembly district).

[Ed. Note - the California Alliance was a group of environmental organizations, the California Nurses Association and the Consumer Attorneys of California.]

CJAC's spending against Corbett (including a $300,000 TV buy the weekend before the election) also peeled away support from Corbett (but may have actually ended boosting support for Klehs, not necessarily Dutra). Without this TV buy, Corbett may have finished above 40%.

But the relentless hit pieces against Corbett - that vilified her in deeply insulting and personal terms - did not cause her base of female and liberal voters to abandon her.

Instead, Corbett chose to control her own destiny by not relying on IEs for taking on Klehs and Dutra. Corbett went after Klehs and Dutra directly and inflicted serious damage, but without turning off voters to her positive image and message.

One Corbett mailer against Dutra had a cartoon of an elephant putting on a donkey's mask on the cover, and inside was one factual charge against Dutra after another. A mailer against Klehs took photos from Klehs mailers (depicting him as a boxer) and undermined the entire rationale for his campaign by criticizing his effort to punish the oil companies through higher taxes - noting it would backfire on consumers because the oil companies would simply raise gas prices. Not only did Corbett have more mail than Klehs and Dutra, the quality of her mail was far superior. Corbett proved to be true "boxer" in the race by showing how to counter punch, without coming off as too negative.

Corbett also defended herself well at the end of the race. She issued a mailer that made fun of the claim she drove an SUV and had a photo of her in front of her Prius. That one photo served to tell election day voters that the entire negative campaign by CJAC against her was a lie.

Finally, Corbett displayed tremendous grace and strength under pressure. I was greatly impressed with personal skills and strength of character. I was at her campaign office multiple times over the course of the race. Corbett kept the attacks to herself, tried to laugh them off, and didn't let her volunteers see what I'm sure was an extremely stressful time for her. That helped keep a positive, feel good atmosphere to the campaign and phone banking effort.

In closing, thank you for your support of Corbett. For the next eight years, we will have a friend of our clients holding the SD 10 seat. Myself and my family will have great legislator keenly aware of the interests of my community serving as State Senator.

Stephen Cassidy

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Press on the SD 10 Race:

From an SF Chronicle Editorial, June 7, 2006:

The "independent expenditure" advertising was so out of control in the East Bay's 10th Senate District that the corporate group targeting Democrat Ellen Corbett saturated the Bay Area airwaves on the final weekend with a late $300,000 outlay. Viewers from Santa Rosa to Saratoga must have been scratching their heads wondering why they were hearing about how Corbett, who was not on their ballot, bought extravagant office furnishings as San Leandro mayor. The third-party spending in that race was in the neighborhood of $2 million.

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From Matier & Ross, June 7, 2006:

In the East Bay, the California Senior Advocates League political action committee spent $21,000 to send out a last-minute mailer on behalf of John Dutra in his race against Ellen Corbett for the Democratic nomination in the state Senate 10th District. California Senior Advocates, it turns out, is funded by Farmers Insurance and porn king Larry Flynt's Hustler Casino in Southern California.

The Dutra-Corbett slugfest, in fact, could wind up being the most expensive state Senate primary in California history -- thanks to the work of independent committees representing "progressives" (teachers, nurses, public employees and consumer lawyers), which lined up behind Corbett, and the "moderates" (real estate agents, auto dealers, utilities, insurance and tobacco interests) that backed Dutra.

The cash flowing into the race from independent committees could top $2 million by the time the counting is done.

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Daily Review, June 7, 2006

Corbett appears headed for win

Former Assembly member has narrow lead in Senate District 10

By Tasha Bartholomew, STAFF WRITER

Inside Bay Area

It's been a long and arduous 10th District state Senate race — one filled with lots of mudslinging and bushels of money that have been poured into campaign accounts in support and opposition of favored and hated candidates.

And the Democratic candidates — former Assembly members Ellen Corbett and John Dutra, and Assemblyman Johan Klehs — likely will have to wait until at least this morning for a final result.

Corbett kept a lead over her political rivals Klehs and Dutra Tuesday night, but it wasn't a comfortable one most of the time.

As of midnight, Corbett led with 13,423 votes, or 39.3 percent; Klehs had 11,096, or 32.5 percent; and Dutra trailed with 9,660, or 28.2 percent. That was with 84 of 91 precincts reporting in Santa Clara County, and 295 of 566 precincts plus absentee ballots counted in Alameda County.

In Alameda County, Corbett had 40.3 percent, followed by Klehs with 32.7 percent and Dutra at 26.8 percent. In Santa Clara, Corbett's lead was much tighter, with 34.5 percent, followed by Dutra at 34 percent and Klehs right behind him with 31.2 percent.

If Corbett can hold her lead, she likely would face Republican Lou Filipovich in the general election in November. Neither Filipovich nor his opponent Laura Riffle raised any money in the primary election.

Filipovich dominated Riffle in both counties. In Alameda County, Filipovich garnered 57.4 percent of the votes and Riffle received 40.3 percent. In Santa Clara County, he accumulated 54.8 percent of the votes versus 43.53 for Riffle.

Final vote results are expected to be released today.

The heavily Democratic district is being vacated by termed-out Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, who is running for lieutenant governor. District 10 serves Fremont, Hayward, Milpitas, Newark, Pleasanton, San Jose, San Leandro, Union City and the unincorporated areas of Ashland, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, San Lorenzo and Sunol.

"We are just so grateful for the support shown so far, and the absentee ballots are a great indication," Corbett said Tuesday night. "We're very hopeful that the outcome is going to be a good one. I'm just so thankful that people happen to see through all the nasty hit pieces that were attempted."

Although Corbett was winning, Klehs said he thought the negative campaigning between she and Dutra turned some voters off. "We feel that we are doing very well. We thought we were going to come in third and are extremely happy that we're a close second," Klehs said early on.

In the end, Klehs said, "I'm assuming we're going to win with a very small margin of votes."

Several calls made to Dutra's campaign Tuesday night were not returned.