Not yet.  Matt's a good guy!

YUP. got one yesterday from bill thomas - was on my voice mail - i deleted it. I hate that kind of crap.

I did too.  Scratch two votes for the guy the machine is pushing.  (Mine and spouse's.)

Kevin McCarthy and Bill Thomas called the last 2 nights.  So now I know who *not* to vote for.

I have received these calls.  I will vote for Matt Brady.  Even if Kevin McCarthy, or Bill Thomas, called and said "Don't vote for Matt Brady", I'd still vote for Matt.

A judge is an important part of our government system.  We need qualified judges who will follow the laws and constitutions (state and federal).  Since when do we follow the legislator's advice when it comes to appointing judges?  Seriously, find the best guy and vote for him.  I believe it really is Matt Brady.

never vote for anyone kevin or bill endorse, i dont like either one, and i dont appreciate them calling on my cell phone

I was furious as I got ANOTHER one on my cell too.  What are these people thinking?   Our last bastion of privacy from telemarketers (and they ARE telemarketing)  ....GONE !

not on my home or work phone, but on my cell phone, wasting my minutes!  i dont even know what they want me to vote for, i keep hanging up when i realize its a recording.

does anyone know if there's a way to get on a do not call list for these types of things?

As soon as I see it came from a blocked call, I knew it was from one of those a-holes and deleted it.

 Matt may be a good guy, but a lot of people are getting turned off by the repeated robocalls on his behalf.

Bill called last night.   I invited him over for a intimate rendezvous over a glass of Chablis but he kept blathering on about a judicial appointment so I hung up on him. 

We've been getting these calls at work for the last 3-4 days. Very annoying.  We hear it's a recording and we just hang up.

After I got a call on my cell phone, I called McCarthy's office to be taken off his call list that I never requested to be on.  The girl that I spoke to sounded like she has gotten a lot of calls like mine recently...good.

msemily..that's my complaint too.  Their calls can end up cositng ME money and I'm sick of it.  Anyone have a list of email addresses where we can let ALL our politicians know "We're mad as hell and aren't going to take it any more!"

Nancy,

Call their office direct...It worked for me.

All we have in our family are cell phones (when you have 5 you don't need a land line!) and even my kids are getting those calls. I, too, will let my vote speak for me, and vote for someone who did NOT have a computer call us.

Good one, Audrey. Sounds like his loss. ;P

Do not vote for Matt Brady or Olaf Landsgaard! They are easily the two LEAST qualified candidates running for office. Also, I'd just like to point out that judges are supposed to be NONPARTISAN. How do people not understand this? We aren't even supposed to know whether any of the candidates are Democrat or Republican and I don't understand why we're allowing the Republican Party of Bakersfield to politicize this race. It's an absolute embarassment. If you really want to vote for good candidates who are qualified and who will be fair and balanced (not in the Fox News way either) then please vote for Frank Butkiewicz and Larry Errea. They're very qualified and two of the judges as well as multiple attorneys I've spoken to have come to the same consensus. Those two candidates may not have as much hype or visibility but I trust them both to be fair, excellent judges. Plus, neither of them calls my cell phone with an annoying pre-recorded message. :)

 Whatever happened to "Do Not Call" lists? 

One thing I find effective in dealing with nearly anything that goes wrong with a product or service is to find the name of the Chairman and CEO of the company (and I realize we're not talking about products or services here), then write them a nice little letter, as concise as possible, listing every item wrong with the product or service, and assuring them that in the future you will be more discerning.  You may be surprised at the result. 

Political calls?  Ask them politely to spell the name of the candidate or office holder hopeful so that you will be sure not to vote for them simply because they pestered you.  Just be polite.  Make sure you get proper spelling of first and last names.  They'll get the message.  Unless they're terminally obtuse. 

You might check their address, too, so that you may send them a bill for the unsolicited self-advertising.  Tell them that's why you want the address. 

Twice on the home phone and twice on my cell phone. Like what the hell....?

Alicen, as I recall, the legislation behind "do not call" list explicitly excludes politicians from being bound to it. That being said, this is yet another advantage to being registered "decline to state". I rarely receive political phone calls.

I haven't got any of the phone calls, but I operate on the basic premise that you don't vote for corporate attorneys to be a judge. That's a whole different kind of law that has almost nothing to do with what judges do.

BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN run an article on this.  People are outraged.  Politicians are costing us money with cell phones taking up minutes.  I share a plan with two family members and we're ALL getting calls so this is eating into our minutes.

This has never happened to me on the cell phone before and the arrogance, as well as the total unconcern for voters cell phone bills is astounding!

https://www.donotcall.gov/register/reg.aspx

You can register at the above website for the National Do NOt Call Registry.

MICHELE1075:  I have registered my phones with do not call and I STILL get cold calls. Granted, not as many as before, but I still get them. Fortunately I have called ID and if it is an "out of the area" with no number or an 800 number I simply do not pick up.  Of course they NEVER leave a message!

Political calls are exempt from DoNotCall, as are charities and telephone surveys.

Even if you put your number on the do not call list, it probably won't matter.  Doesn't the info they get come straight from a voter registration form?  I'm pretty sure it does.

For everyone who says they won't vote for anyone who sends them automated calls, I think that's silly.  Let's take a hypothetical case here.  Say there was a candidate running who shared your exact views.  You could even call them another "you".  Also, let's say that you don't know that yet because you haven't had time to research that candidate much.  So, you get a call from Bill Thomas and Kevin McCarthy telling you to vote for this guy.  Well, you just assume "I'm not voting for that candidate because Bill and Kevin sent me an automated call about how they endorse him.  He sure won't get my vote now."

That's the silliest thing I've heard in awhile.  Just another example of the stupid way some people vote.  Do your research.  If Bill Clinton had called you personally in 2004 and said, "I think you should vote for George Bush" what would you have done?  Would you have been like, okay since Bill likes him?  This whole kind of thinking makes me sick.

I would sure as hell not have voted for George Bush...

I received a call from both our former and current Congressmen. I just have a very hard time voting for someone so intimately involved in partisan politics. Mr. Brady has served on the Kern County Republican Central Committee from 2000 through 2006. Judging from his background information that The Californian published back in February he also worked for Bill Thomas in 2000 as Counsel to Committee on House Administration in the US Congress.

This type of political in-breeding is the reason for the toxic political and social climate we see in our society today. This is the most vile type of cronyism at work, which only promotes a partisan view of justice and governance that ill serves the greater public. 

Justice demands impartiality not political dogma. I personally  will vote for Tony Heider, whose experience in defense of the most vulnerable in our society gives him tremendous perspective when sitting in judgment on our local bench.

Chip Brehmer appears to be the candidate with the most experience in the judicial arena.  I've heard him speak and his points are well-reasoned and do not appear to lean to one side or the other.  He's supported by firefighters unions, law enforcement and the judge whose seat he is running for.  Brehmer's got my vote for sure!

Steve, that's exactly right. The court system is most in need of judges with a criminal (either prosecution or defense background). That's where they're backed up the most.

Adam, I completely agree. Partisan politics have no place in this race and it's an absolute travesty that political party affiliation is being exploited to put someone on the bench who might not be as partial as the other candidates.

There are areas which mandate that such calls begin, at least, with a live voice.  I wonder if that could be done on a county level, or if it has to be statewide.

Don't vote for Matt Brady!  He got fined by the FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) for accepting illegal campaign contributions.  Go the the FPPC's website and see the actual charge and fine.  If he can't understand simple campaign finance laws, then how is he going to sit on the bench and rule.  Oh yeah....he was just like Ken Weir (of course, all Abernathy folks are) he blamed SOMEONE ELSE for the problem!

Here's the website:  http://www.fppc.ca.gov/inde...

KERN COUNTY REPUBLICAN CENTRAL COMMITTEE AND MATT BRADY, 2003/475, (2004)

85303 – Two (2) counts
$10,000.00 fine

Matt Brady is the best choice out there if we want a judge who will rule according to the laws and constitution.  I don't know how to make this any clearer.  The last thing we need is a judge legislating from the bench.  That doesn't work, especially in California when we are built up around a direct democracy.  It's about as close as it can get with our size.  We have elected legislators to make our laws, and the people can do the same.  The judges need to rule according to the laws, and ensure that the laws are constitutional.

I'm sure Matt Brady is the best candidate for this reason.  He will not legislate from the bench.  I say forget about Kevin McCarthy and Bill Thomas, even that Abernathy guy, and vote for Matt Brady.  He's the best out there.

************************************************* *

Any judicial candidate who is a member of the Thomas/Abernathy "Political Machine" will be beholden to the Machine for his entire career. 

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BoonyLoon, clearly you have no idea how the court system in this town works. He is running for a SUPERIOR COURT position. This has nothing to do with legislation! The superior court deals with criminal law, family law, civil law, etc. but they do not touch legislation at all. I'm sure you're only voting for Brady because he was endorsed by the Republican Party of Bakersfield. But seriously, the position he is running for is nonpartisan. His job, if he wins, would be overseeing preliminary hearings or criminal trials or family law cases. You exhibit an extreme lack of understanding about what his position as an elected official would be. He can't legislate anything from our county courthouse! And, just in case you want to listen to the advice of someone who knows something about our local court system, I just want you to know that what we need now is another judge who can do criminal law. Brady is a corporate lawyer and the local courts don't see much action in that field at all. What you're proposing is that we elect someone who will do nothing to help with the backlog of criminal cases currently clogging our court system. You need to be a little less ignorant and try to learn the facts before you endorse someone out of hand.

Everyone should vote Errea and Butkiewicz if they want the candidates who will be fair, who have experience, and who can alleviate the pressure being felt in our criminal courts from too few judges being assigned too many assignments to make up for all of the recently retired judges and the judges who are using their vacation time (which they rightly earned) before retiring.

Old Ways, what do the Superior Court Judges use?  Do they not look at laws during trials?  Do they not look at legislation?  Do they have the ability to ignore a law that they disagree with?  Does legislation not reach the criminal, family, and civil courts?  How do the judges know how to rule if legislation is not a part of their court system?  Sounds to me like you exhibit the extreme lack of understanding here.

BoonyLoon, your ignorance is staggering. Let me lead you through a day with a judge (in this case, one of my female friends who is currently assigned to criminal court). Depending on the day, she will preside over about 100-200 preliminary hearings. At these hearings, the people being accused of a crime will either speak with a public defender or a private defense attorney and decide whether to plead guilty and take a plea bargain or go to trial (this can range from misdemeanor to felony). There is a prosecutor from the DA's office present to tell the accused the amount of time being offered on a plea bargain or to argue that a case should not be thrown out if a defense attorney argues it should be thrown out. The judge simply presides over this. If the judge is assigned to a trial (either misdemeanor or felony) he or she will have little say in the outcome of the case as trials are decided by a jury. All lawyers in the state of California must pass the bar exam to practice in this state. They have to study all of the laws in place. They in no way "legislate from the bench." I suspect that you were confused about the job description and are trying to cover up your embarrassment by implying that judges can "legislate" in a simple DUI wherein the accused is deciding with the advice of his attorney whether to cut a deal or go to trial. If you have the chance, get down to the courthouse and watch some preliminary hearings or a DUI trial. Cases like the one involving Vincent Brothers are few and far between. The only power Judge Bush had in that instance was to decide whether or not to commute his sentence from the death penalty to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Judges are in charge of sentencing in most cases but they have to follow certain guidelines. I think you simply want to elect Matt Brady for the sake of electing a Republican. For your information, most of the candidates running for that position are Republican so don't vote for Brady just because he's a Republican.

Go down to the courthouse and take a look at the huge backlog in the criminal courts and then come back here and tell me we should elect a corporate attorney over an attorney with criminal experience (either as a prosecutor or a defender) who can actually help with that backlog. What you're suggesting is that we should elect someone who does not have enough experience in criminal law that could be helpful in this time of crisis. And really, ask most attorneys and they'll tell you that it is a time of crisis down there. But I'm obviously not going to change your mind. You're going to vote for a Republican just because you want to and if he gets elected he'll just be another judge that I waste my taxes on when I'd rather waste my taxes on helping the system work through criminal cases that have been continued for months and sometimes years.

OK, so the do not call list doesn't apply to politicians.  Perhaps a letter directed to the person being represented, informing that person that no vote will be forthcoming, might be effective in cutting down on the numbers of calls to your telephone.  I write letters all the time to organizations and individuals who need my input, and it seem to be effective.