Eric Bauman, the Los Angeles Democratic Party Chair, emphatically urged Angelenos to vote for Barack Obama and Mark Ridley-Thomas at a Get Out The Vote (GOTV) rally in front of City Hall this afternoon:

“You know, I feel hope in the air. But why do I feel hope in the air? Because, since the 1st of January, one million new Democrats registered to vote in the state of California. One million new Democrats!

And that one million new Democrats says, “yes we can, si se puede”. And tomorrow night at 8 o’clock we are going to say, “yes we did, si se pudo”. Because one million new Democrats means victory in California.

But, one million new Democrats needs to know they can’t stop at the top. You can’t just vote for Barack Obama. You have to vote for Mark Ridley-Thomas for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. We have to win the Board of Supervisors.”

1. Rick Orlov writes in the Daily News that Barack Obama is so far ahead in California that “eager volunteers” are being asked to make calls on behalf of “state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas in his bid for the county Board of Supervisors against Councilman Bernard Parks.”

2. The L.A. Times writes about Governor Schwarzenegger’s checkered environmental record. While the Governor wants to be “known as the greenest governor in America” his record is decidedly mixed. For example:

“The governor vetoed SB 775, sponsored by Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) to increase screening and tracking of childhood lead poisoning. The bill would also have required that information about lead, which can cause retardation, be given to pregnant women.”

3. The L.A. Times issued a correction to a Thursday piece that claimed Senator Ridley-Thomas had gotten a cash infusion. “The money raised by an independent union committee, did not go to the state senator’s campaign for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, as the brief said, the committee is using it to help him win.

4. And the L.A. Times issued another correction to an article which misstated Mark Ridley-Thomas’ victory margin in the June primary. For the record, Ridley-Thomas won the primary with 46% of the vote while Bernard Parks finished a distant second with 40%.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

5. The Mark Ridley-Thomas for Supervisor Gardena satellite office grand opening is today at 5 p.m.! Come out for refreshments and to meet the Senator at 2500 W. Rosecrans Ave. Gardena, CA 90249.

L.A. City Councilman Bernard Parks used his official 8th District electronic newsletter — distributed at public expense — to promote a website dedicated to attacking Senator Barack Obama’s character.

The newsletter, which went out last night, links to a Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas smear piece on the anti-Obama website The Union News. Below are a couple recent examples of the disgraceful anti-Obama headlines and rhetoric from the site:

This is the kind of hate one would expect from the American Independent Party not from a fellow Democrat. Oh wait, that’s right, Parks was a longtime member of George Wallace’s pro-segregationist American Independent Party.

UPDATE: This appears to be a clear violation of city ethics law.

Back on January 31st, Illinois Senator Barack Obama visited L.A. Trade Technical College and singled out his “great friend,” Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas, at the beginning of his remarks.

Speaker of the California State Assembly Karen Bass, Senator Barack Obama and Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas.