With the backdrop of the
latest PPIC poll showing the governor's approval rating continuing at 40% (45% among likely voters) and major trouble for his reform efforts, thousands of people from labor and other Democrat-friendly organizations
converged on the Capitol yesterday.PPIC's Marc Baldassare says perhaps the angry hordes, 15,000-strong, who converged on the
Capitol and Los Angeles yesterday may actually be a reflection of California voters at the moment. "People are just in a rotten mood right now,"
Baldassare tells Dan Weintraub. "There's no forgive and forget in them at the moment."
But there is a touch of that California schizophrenia in what may be the only hint of silver lining for the governor: "By a margin of 61 percent to 33 percent, they said they
didn't see any need for the special election Schwarzenegger has threatened to call for this fall. His proposals to change the way the state draws political boundaries and to overhaul the budget process, meanwhile,
still lead by small pluralities."
Note that Weintraub said "pluralities," not "majorities." Both ballot props are currently polling with less than 50 percent support, not a good spot for initiatives to be six months before an election.
(Cue
Proposition 66 story here)
Meanwhile, the beginning of the long-awaited
Horseshoe Shuffle is underway. Months after her resignation was published in the LA Times, Schwarzenegger Deputy Chief of Staff
Cassandra Pye is leaving the administration to work for the PR firm APCO (who counts, among others, PhRMA as a client). Smart money has Pye being replaced by former Bush aide
Mindy Tucker Fletcher. Look for an official announcement by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the governor lit into the legislative pay raise while speaking to the Chamber of Commerce breakfast: "'Isn't that interesting?' Schwarzenegger said as he addressed 2,000 applauding business leaders at the annual California Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Sacramento. '
They have agreed to a 12 percent salary increase even though they say we are short of money.'"
From the Chronicle, "'Yes, they deserve a raise! That's fair!' he said, drawing laughs from the crowd. 'Under any normal circumstances, they would be fighting to keep their jobs and keep their salaries.'"
That's one thing the governor has on them, since he doesn't take a salary, he's only got his job to lose.
As the Bee points out, "The Republican governor didn't point out, however, that the legislative raises were unanimously approved Monday by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. The panel was created by voters in 1990."
Spokesman
Rob Stutzman tried to respond "'
He didn't misstate a process,' Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's communications director, said in response to an e-mail question. 'He captured the public response (to) the spectacle of these guys taking a pay raise in the current situation of (the) state.'"
In other words, he was trying out a new advertising message.
Though, technically Stutzman is correct. Individual lawmakers have refused pay increases in the past, when other state workers did not receive pay hikes. But so far, we haven't seen many legislators clamoring to give the money back.
Continuing Education: If you're still confused about what the education community and the governor are fighting about, the Merc News's Kate Folmar and Dana Hull provide a
great backgrounder on the education spending fight.Meanwhile, the Register's Hanh Kim Quach writes up the difficulty Democrats are having trying to provide
more Proposition 98 education spending without raising taxes. "'We have not abandoned the idea that the money is owed to districts. We don't think we can afford not to fund the minimum (education) guarantee," [Assemblywoman
Jackie] Goldberg said. "But I can't give you an answer on how it's done."
Jill Stewart provides
the governor with three pieces of unsolicited advice in the News and Review:
"First, your focus should be on getting a budget passed through the Legislature before mid-summer, which is when California voters start getting upset about missed deadlines."
(Are you listening, Mr. Ackerman?)
"Second, you need to find a new way to present yourself that isn’t so in-your-face. Remember when you made Twins and Kindergarten Cop so the ticket-buying public wouldn’t think of you only as a hulking killer? Something along those lines would be good.
Third, you can’t do either of those if you spend your time gearing up for a nasty special election this fall.
You’ve got too much on your plate, babe."
Perfect strangers Two investor-owned utilities and the consumer group The Utility Reform Network (TURN)
joined forces yesterday to voice "complaints about the administration's call to take away the Public Utility Commission's siting authority over placement of natural gas and electricity transmission lines."
Legislative UpdateFrom our
In like a bottle rocket, out like a sparkler files
The bill to allow cities and counties to authorize the sale of fireworks for New Year's
died in Assembly Appropriations yesterday.Another of
Paul Koretz's animal kingdom of bills died yesterday, as the Assembly Appropriations committee held
his bill to
ban the clipping of dogs' ears.Well, we know what we're going to be doing this holiday weekend...
Among the dozens of bills in Senate Appropriations Committee today:
SCA 13, the proposed constitutional amendment that would (gasp)
give the state some oversight over the $3 billion check they're about to write to the Stem Cell Institute. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the members of the institute led by Proposition 71 author
Robert Klein are against the measure, and working hard to kill it.
Here's hoping stem cell research leads to some kind of cure for Klein's megalomania...