Today's rally by the
Alliance for a Better California has big expectations to live up to, as rally organizers have been circulating e-mails claiming between 10,000 and 15,000 people will converge on Sacramento.
GOP spokeswoman
Karen Hanretty is preempting positive coverage the rally might get. "Teachers from across the state get the day off. They get to fly into Sacramento and they will protest the governor," the Contra Costa Times reports
Hanretty said at a San Ramon Valley Republican Women's Club meeting yesterday.The Bee's Amy Chance delves into the
world of education funding politics from the perspectives of political consultants
Mike Murphy and
Garry South.
Murphy: "'I don't think [CTA is] interested in talking. Too bad. It's a disservice to the people of California, so we might just have to go settle this at the ballot box.'"
(We're sure Murphy, not known for turning down either a good paycheck or a good fight, let alone both, is heartbroken at that prospect.)
CTA wasn't exactly
Gray Davis's favorite interest group either, but South has a slightly different take on the governor's war with the teachers' union.
South: "'But the fact is, [Prop. 98 is] in place. I just think for any governor to go to the people of this state and basically say, 'Give me the right to rip $2 (billion), $3 billion out of the schools and put it somewhere else,' I think is a very, very tough thing to do, whether it's the right thing to do or not.'"
Dan Walters writes "the very liberal Legislature is
processing dozens of Big 4 bills aimed, their sponsors say, at protecting ordinary people, but that business opposes. Many are destined to land on Schwarzenegger's desk, probably to be vetoed."
If you're wondering if you're in the "Big 4," the group includes "unions, personal injury attorneys, consumer activists and environmentalists."
Meanwhile, Peter Schrag
lashes out at the Uhler paycheck protection and Live Within Our Means initiatives. "More important, these two reforms don't address the vastly more complicated dysfunctions of government. [California Business Roundtable chief and LWOM co-sponsor
Bill] Hauck says, "You have to start somewhere." But these starts smack more of Norquist's ideology and Wilson's 10-year-old hatred of the teachers unions and his gubernatorial frustrations than of any serious attempt to fix the system."
Speaking of things in need of reform, from our
The Suspense is Killing Me Files, today is Suspense File Day in the Assembly.
The fate of more than 500 bills, and who knows how many umpteen millions of dollars in potential new state spending, will be decided today in a marathon session that is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Be sure to get there early. And bring a pillow.
Tomorrow, the
Senate goes through the same drill, with
Carole Migden back in the saddle as Senate Appropriations Committee chairwoman.
From our Say it Ain't So, Joe Files, the Merc News reports "The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office has
opened an investigation into financial dealings between the East Side Union High School District and a charitable group run by its former superintendent, Assemblyman
Joe Coto." While Coto didn't respond to the Merc's calls yesterday, he "told the Mercury News last year that neither he nor
Ramon Martinez -- a district employee who managed the charity with Coto and sat with him on its board of directors -- received any payments from the institute."
Keeping it in the family: Joe Canciamilla's wife, newly elected school board member
Laura Canciamilla, announced that
she will seek his seat. But Joe claims he wasn't influential in the decision, "'Running is not something I encouraged Laura to do,' he said. 'She just feels very strongly about addressing education policy in a bigger arena.'" And with a bigger paycheck.
Meanwhile, the hushed talk around the Capitol is about
the new Arnold Schwarzenegger biography by
Laurence Leamer. Among the allegations are that
Sylvester Stallone started the rumors about the Schwarzenegger family's Nazi past in Austria after the now-governor had an affair with then Mrs. Stallone (and now
Flava Flav boy toy)
Brigitte Nielsen. The NY Daily News's
Rush and Malloy report "Leamer says Schwarzenegger "reluctantly" confirmed that he believed Sly orchestrated the campaign. He admitted, 'I felt somewhat responsible" because of his remarks in Playboy, which he insists were off the record.'"
When asked about the Leamer book at yesterday's press briefing, Schwarzenegger communications director
Rob Stutzman said "I haven't read all of it yet."
Now that
Janice Rogers Brown appears headed for the federal bench, it's time for Gov. Schwarzenegger to start making up a list of potential state Supreme Court appointees ...
From our Mixed Messages file, CSU Bakersfield students will consider
tripling activities fees this week from $51 to $168 to pay for the school's transition to Division 1 sports. Somehow, raising fees $117 for sports is different from raising fees by $186 for education, a move CSU students opposed when voted on by the Trustees.
Not satisfied with the state law prohibiting sex offenders from being within 1/4 mile of a school, Riverside County
passed an ordinance creating a 1.5 mile ban. The Press-Enterprise explains: "Twice-convicted rapist
David Allyn Dokich was released to a group home in the Southwest Riverside County community of Mead Valley earlier this month. The home is about a mile from Columbia Elementary School.
Supervisor
Jeff Stone said he hoped the stricter limit would allow Sheriff Bob Doyle to arrest Dokich immediately, but Doyle later said he is sworn to uphold the state constitution, and could not take any action until the conflict between the county's new ordinance and state law is resolved."