Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

What comes between the Giants and the World Series? A single game.

The Giants showed their mettle again on Wednesday night and beat the Phillies in the bottom of the ninth inning. Keeping our expectations low, we were rooting for just the kind of fly ball that scored the runner, not necessarily a hit.

Tomorrow night it’s the aces on the mound — Lincecum and Halladay — for what could be the clincher.

I’m excited for Tim, because he’s been pumped up since the start of the playoffs.

On this blog, I think Kate Hancock is the most excited of all to see The Freak pitch the Giants into the World Series. BTW, do you think Michael Anderson and Bruce Bochy are “separated at birth”?

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the baseball equivalent of Prop. 23 — San Francisco vs. Texas — were played out on the ballfield?

Exit question: Where do you get one of those orange cumberbunds worn by the violinist in a tux who played “God Bless America”?

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I haven’t read this in the local press but British-based Pace has completed its acquisition of 2Wire, the high-tech firm that has offices in the Nevada City Tech Center.

The proposed acquisition was announced earlier this summer. 2Wire is a leading provider of routers and related software for broadband.

Pace is a leading technology developer for the global pay TV market and was recently recognized as the world’s largest developer of digital set-top box technology.

It’s a good fit, and I would expect Pace to keep 2Wire’s offices here intact. 2Wire is based in Silicon Valley.

AT&T has said it looks forward to continuing its working relationship with 2Wire under Pace’s ownership.

It comes in the wake of another deal I am bullish about: The sale of Grass Valley group to Francisco. The details are here.

I wonder what Pace would think about Prop. 23 in our Golden State. “Poppycock” and “rubbish” are the first words that come to mind. LOL.

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Actor/Activist David Arquette and the Green Technology Leadership Group premiered three unique No on Proposition 23 videos this week aiming to protect California’s economy and air quality.

Arquette joined Academy Award-nominated director Matthew Cooke in Sacramento to screen the short videos and urge Californians to vote No on Proposition 23.

This one reminded me of some of the campaign tactics from the Yes on Prop. 23 side, AKA the “my way or the highway approach.” Even GOP candidate Meg Whitman is opposed to Prop. 23, preferring to work out some compromises along the way when it comes to the issue.

“So are you going to vote yes on Prop. 23?” one guy asks. “No,” Arquette responds. It’s intense — just like some of the campaign rhetoric and tactics we’ve heard from the proponents. And quite honestly, it’s what a lot of campaigning has come down to nowadays, a knuckle fight. Sometimes it’s scary to look in the mirror.

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“It is always fascinating to witness the lengths some people will go, and the depths to which they will stoop, for a big salary,” as Judith Lowry commented here this morning in a blog post about the — ironically enough — Treasurer’s race. “Neither of these candidates inspires respect. It’s all about the money. But, that’s politics.”

Much of this would go away if the candidates just said “no” to the negative campaign tactics. I think it’s doable here. We just need somebody to lead by example. I’m not a big fan of campaign consultants, as I’ve written before.

I always figured that in a small town, principles were going to win out. The big city rat race? Well that was for “rats.”

It was a very naive perception, because it’s just as true here as there — and in many cases, more so. Money changes everything, as Cyndi Lauper reminds us.

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For newcomers, it doesn’t take long to figure out the county candidate’s and campaign manager’s playbook for many of our small-town elections:

1. Letter-writing campaigns to The Union from the candidate’s supporters, whether factually correct or not. As the election approaches, you flood the paper with letters, including negative, personal ones. (The letter-writer might just sign their name and city, but when you dig a little deeper, you find they are closely tied to the candidate. “Who’d have thunk it?”)
2. Funneling campaign contributions from one neighborhood to another to help elect a candidate, even though our elections system is district by district, not district-wide.
For example, a liberal in Nevada City donates money to a candidate for a south county race, perhaps to unseat a right-wing incumbent. (But the South County is conservative).
It’s perfectly legal but was it the intent? Perhaps we ought just to hold district-wide elections instead and admit the reality.
3. Political “cross dressing,” if you will, where a Republican becomes a Democrat and vise-versa as the race approaches. This one always amuses me.

The county Treasurer’s race — now reaching a mudslinging crescendo — is no exception.

•Tina Vernon was a Democrat until she registered as a Republican in 2008.

•Dai Meagher is registered a decline to state. But he switched from Republican to Democrat in 2008.

We still have more registered GOPers than Democrats, but we have a growing number of Decline to States who decide the election. To hear Tina and Dai explain it, they just changed their political philosophies, as people do over the years.

But I’m skeptical.

Voters ought to ask the candidates and their campaign managers if they take the voting public as stooges.

I’m becoming dissatisfied with both of these candidates after following their campaign antics.

Treasurer is a position where the candidate should lead by example and set a higher standard. Is that too much to ask?

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Though Tom McClintock has been a “no show” at two candidate forums in his district (our county and Plumas), he appeared at a county Republican Women’s luncheon this week.

Local right-wing bloggers Russ Steele and George Rebane accompanied their spouses to the event and filed reports based on Tom’s remarks. (Tom also patted them on the back for their blogs, as well as the GOP women who wrote letters to The Union).

What can we expect if McClintock is re-elected and the GOP wins control of the House? Not work toward compromise but merely short circuit Obama’s policies.

As Rebane writes: “Even though gaining Republican control of the Senate may be a tough call, the almost assured control of the House will allow Republicans to short circuit Obamacare, follow-on stimulus bills, student loan federalization, and the so-called financial reform by not passing the enabling legislation required to fund their implementation.  Repeal and revision of these legislative obamanations may have to wait until 2012.”

Democratic challenger Clint Curtis, has merely made hay out of Tom’s record to bring money to the district. You can see why.

Here’s that video again:

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