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Jeff Drobman
Jeff Drobman was a Democratic candidate for California Secretary of State in the 2014 elections.[1]
Elections
2014
Drobman ran for election to the office of California Secretary of State.[2] Drobman sought one of two possible nominations in the primary on June 3, 2014. The general election took place on November 4, 2014.
| California Secretary of State, Blanket Primary, 2014 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Alex Padilla |
30.2% | 1,217,371 | |
| Republican | Pete Peterson |
29.7% | 1,194,715 | |
| Democratic | Leland Yee | 9.4% | 380,361 | |
| Nonpartisan | Dan Schnur | 9.2% | 369,898 | |
| Democratic | Derek Cressman | 7.6% | 306,375 | |
| Republican | Roy Allmond | 6.4% | 256,668 | |
| Democratic | Jeff Drobman | 4.4% | 178,521 | |
| Green | David Curtis | 3% | 121,618 | |
| Total Votes | 4,025,527 | |||
| Election results California Secretary of State | ||||
Race background
Primary election
Stances on top-two primary system
One of the key issues of the 2014 secretary of state primary was the signature and filing requirements for minor party candidates under California's top-two primary system. Under new qualifications implemented with the top-two primary system, minor party candidates must collect 10,000 signatures to waive a filing fee equal to 2 percent of the first year's salary for state offices or 1 percent for members of Congress. Prior to implementing the top-two system, the number of signatures required to waive that fee was 150, so most minor parties opted to file petitions.
After launching their campaigns for California Secretary of State, California State Senator Alex Padilla (D) and ex-state Sen. Leland Yee (D), who later withdrew from the race following his arrest in March 2014, expressed concerns about ballot access limitations for minor parties under the top-two primary system. Yee opposed the top-two system during his time in the California State Senate and Senator Padilla said his office was looking into legislative solutions.[3][4] Green Party candidate David Scott Curtis campaigned against the top-two system while independent candidate Dan Schnur, who was designated "no party preference" on the ballot since California’s Proposition 14 took away candidates' "independent" label option, was in favor of the system. Democrat Derek Cressman opposed the system but did not focus on the issue during his campaign.
Also in the race, Democrat Jeff Drobman and two Republicans, Pete Peterson and Roy Allmond, did not made their stances on the top-two system known prior to the primary.
Candidates not involved in debate
California non-profit association the Sacramento Press Club faced criticism from Green Party candidate David Scott Curtis after not inviting him and two other 2014 secretary of state candidates to participate in an April 23 debate.[5] With seven candidates in the running, the Sacramento Press Club said they wanted to restrict the size of the event by only including "top contenders in a crowded field," whom they determined to be Pete Peterson (R), state Sen. Alex Padilla (D), Dan Schnur (I) and Derek Cressman (D). By the time Curtis learned of his exclusion, back-to-back Field Polls had been released showing Curtis ahead of both Schnur and Cressman. In response, Curtis expressed his objection on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, arguing that the decision reflected political bias by a tax-exempt organization. Curtis also filed an IRS investigation request related to the group's tax-exempt status.[6] A press club representative said Curtis's actions were a "tirade of insulting and threatening social media posts" against the organization. The Green Party candidate questioned what such selectivity meant for the state of journalism, arguing that it highlighted the broader implications of the exclusion. Curtis also noted that some of the major-party candidates had existing relationships with the media. Schnur, for example, was known for regularly providing content to the Capitol press, whose members make up a large portion of the Sacramento Press Club. Although trailing Curtis in the polls, Schnur was among the candidates invited to the debate. Joe Mathews, the California editor at Zócalo Public Square, wrote, “Of course, I’m for Dan Schnur for Secretary of State. I’m in the media, and he’s our candidate...He’s the favored candidate of our state’s political media, which feeds us polls and old, bogus narratives about the state.”[5] Northern California's chapter of The Society of Professional Journalists honored Leland Yee with its Public Official Award shortly before Yee's arrest forced him to exit the race.[5]
Yee Arrest
On March 26, 2014, Democratic candidate Leland Yee was arraigned on seven charges of corruption and firearms trafficking. Yee, along with 25 others, was involved in an FBI operation to uncover those suspected of illegal activities involving drugs, guns and arranging murder for hire. Yee's alleged illegal activities stemmed from his debt acquired in a failed run for San Francisco mayor in 2011 and money raised for the Secretary of State race. Authorities believed Yee accepted money for official actions performed while in office. These actions included asking an agency to accept a software contract from a specific vendor in exchange for $10,000, writing a Senate proclamation to honor the Chee Kung Tong group for $6,800 and introducing a medical marijuana businessman to state legislators working on the issue for $21,000. Unknown to Yee, all of these paying contacts were undercover agents. In other attempts to raise money, Yee allegedly promised to help other undercover agents obtain illegal guns from an international arms dealer.[7]
Despite no longer being in the race, Yee's name remained on the primary ballot.
Campaign finance summary
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Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Jeff + Drobman + California + Secretary + of + State"
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Voter Guide: Voluntary Campaign Spending Limits for Candidates for Statewide Elective Office," accessed March 28, 2014 (dead link)
- ↑ Jeff Drobman for California Secretary of State, "Facebook Timeline," accessed March 28, 2014
- ↑ CalNewsroom.com, "Padilla, Yee looking at 3rd party ballot access issues," February 20, 2014
- ↑ Calnewsroom.com, "In statewide debut, top-two primary blocks third parties from June ballot," February 14, 2014
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 CalNewsroom.com, "Sacramento Press Club excludes Green Party candidate from Secretary of State debate," April 20, 2014
- ↑ CalNewsroom.com, " Re: Exclusion of Green Party Candidate from Secretary of State Debate," April 20, 2014
- ↑ The Sacramento Bee, "FBI: California Sen. Leland Yee took bribes, trafficked guns," March 27, 2014
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