Yesterday, when I was watching the CNN/YouTube Democratic debate I noticed that there was a significant number of Californian's questions that were selected to be asked of the candidates. Out of the 38 questions that were asked, eight came from Californians. No other state even came close to matching that total. Minnesota, Michigan, South Carolina and Pennsylvania had two each. The rest were single digits and two came from unknown locations.

Everyone in the country was eligible to submit a question. A state by state breakdown of the origin of all of the 2,000+ questioners is impossible to find, since we only know user names. However, during the debate they listed the hometown of almost all. So we can't know if this was a representative sample of the questions asked. Regardless, it is great to see so many Californians get a chance to ask the candidates questions during the debate. Wouldn't it be ironic if there were more CA questions asked during this debate than the one in LA?

Below the fold are the Californian questions and the name and hometown of the questioner.

Over the weekend, MoveOn hosted one of a series of virtual townhalls, where the presidential candidates answer questions of concern to MoveOn members. This one was on the climate and timed to coincide with Live Earth.

All of the Democratic contenders participated and were asked three questions:

1. How does your plan on climate crisis differ from other candidates?
2. Do you support the use of an subsidies for liquid coal?
3. How will Americans, not just corporations, benefit from new energy economy?

The responses were video taped and put up on YouTube. Nobody really made any real news in their comments, but it is an easy way to compare the candidates in a non-traditional format. The candidates often use the initial questions to address their broader environmental and energy policies.

Here is the highlights video.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit was that while Senators Edwards and Obama stated their support for a carbon emissions market (cap-and-trade variation), Clinton said that it would be one of several things she would consider.

[UPDATE] 5:30 pm Check out this quick and snarky overview of the top five Democrat's plans on the environment by Grist. It is well worth a read.

Once again, Iraq is sucking up all of the oxgygen, so it's time to go into the YouTube archives. Here is Joe Biden on global warming.

The AFL-CIO continued its series of appearances by presidential contenders yesterday with Sen. Joe Biden's speech to a packed Plumbers and Pipe Fitters hall in Florida. AFL-CIO blog:

In his opening remarks, Biden went after the Bush administration’s appalling record on workers’ rights.

This president didn’t just declare war on Iraq, he declared war on the union movement in this country…for this (administration), labor reform means get out of the way.

Biden went on to praise the union movement as “the only thing that keeps the barbarians at the gate.”

“There is a middle class in this country for one reason and only one reason: the union movement,” Biden said to roaring applause.

Salladay reports that the DNC is set to announce shortly that California has been picked to host one of the six officially sanctioned DNC debates. CBS will broadcast the debate live from LA on December 10th. It will be a great opportunity to hear more from the candidates on the issues Californian's care about most.

We have been working hard to keep Choices for Working Californian's stocked with the most up to date information on the presidential contenders. Let me run down the new and updated items just this week.

Updates

• Barack Obama on Environment: Now includes his new energy plan announced yesterday. Highlights: higher CAFE standards, fuel carbon intensity reduction modeled on California's plan and incentives for fuel efficient vehicle construction.
• Joe Biden on Environment: New video of Biden addressing global warming.
• John Edwards on Environment: New video response to DfA's question on global warming.

In the News

• NYT: More Than Just Talk: Edwards and poverty.
• WaPo: Obama Makes Push for Fuel Efficiency
• AP: Obama visits Detriot to address energy policy
• TNR: Chris Dodd's Low-Carb Diet
• Obama's Speech on Energy Plan: Warning it is long, but it's a transcript as prepared for delivery.

More fun than informative. The AP asked what one thing would the candidates would want on a desert island.

John Meyers spent some time going through the policy stances of Edwards and Obama with regards to a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is not just those two who favor that approach, Biden and Dodd do as well. Clinton has not talked about the issue, but Richardson has pushed it forward in recent weeks. This is one case where the Democratic nominees are more conservative than mainstream Democrats here in California.

In yesterday's speech by Sen. Barack Obama and today's speech by former Senator John Edwards, there was a small policy point that didn't quite register on first blush.

And that is that Obama and Edwards sound as though they basically agree with Schwarzenegger on the issue of a "cap and trade" system for carbon dioxide emissions.

On Saturday, Obama told the delegates about his stance on energy and environmental issues. And the man from Illinois promised-- if elected-- to enact the same kind of mandatory "cap and trade" program of carbon emissions favored by Schwarzenegger, but viewed with skepticism by many environmentalists, during last year's debate over AB 32.

That portion of Obama's speech, interestingly, received one of the smallest rounds of applause... in a presentation that elsewhere garnered several standing ovations.

Californians may not have one top candidate who is aligned with them on the issue to side with during the primary. It makes it more difficult to talk about environmentalism with activist crowds like they addressed this weekend. California is ahead of much of the country on attitudes towards environmental legislation. It is impressive that not one of the candidates crafted their plan after AB 32 and instead stuck with cap-and-trade.

Mark Mellman conducted a fabulous poll and an even better memo, complete with graphs on likely Democratic primary voters in California. Error margin is +/-4.9%. Overview:

Our just completed statewide poll shows Hillary Clinton with a 19 point lead in the California Democratic primary. Despite Senator Clinton’s lead, however, the race is far from over. Her advantage is based importantly, but not completely, on two malleable factors: her higher name recognition and the belief that she would be the strongest general election candidate. She is the best known contender, but Obama and Edwards are more popular among Democratic primary voters who know them. Furthermore, a plurality (27%) of Democratic primary voters would support Barack Obama’s candidacy if their first choice candidate were no longer running in the primary. There is room for other candidates to break through to the California Democratic primary electorate between now and February 5, 2008; the race is very much still up-for-grabs.

The fat lady has not sung. There is much greater detail in the memo, but here is the graphical representation of the candidate's favorability rankings.

We want "Choices" to be your one-stop-shop for tracking the 2008 Presidential candidates on key quality-of-life and economic security issues. Why? Because our polling shows these will be key to determining voters' choices for President, along with the dominant issue of Iraq. But thus far, likely voters report hearing strikingly little from the candidates on anything other than Iraq.

The site should be a two-way street -- a place for voters to track the candidates, and a place for the candidates to speak directly to voters about core quality-of-life issues that so many voters rank as their greatest concerns. So we're engaging the campaigns to encourage them to provide Californians with their plans for quality education, economic security & good jobs, the environment, energy & and sustainability, and health care.

To start, you can read about the strategic research, see the pollster's two memos -- the issues and the horse race. You will see statistics from that poll sprinkled throughout the site.

Political Wire has a nice preview of tonight's activities.