Presidential wannabe
John Kerry comes to Los Angeles today to rally against Proposition 75, the union dues initiative. Hmmm, we can't possibly imagine why Kerry would want to come to California to kiss the collective butt of organized labor...
Meanwhile, conservatives are trying to
rally their base by focusing on Prop. 73, the parental consent initiative. "State Republicans are moving to rally Christian conservatives behind an abortion measure on the November special election ballot in hopes that, once drawn to the polls, they will back the rest of Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's fall agenda.
The party has hired
Gary Marx, a top liaison to social conservatives in President Bush's reelection campaign, to assemble up to 10 organizers to build support among evangelicals and other religious conservatives for Proposition 73. The measure on the Nov. 8 ballot would require parental notification when minors seek abortions. In mailers sent to Republican voters, the party also has trumpeted Schwarzenegger's endorsement of the abortion proposal. "Arnold says vote yes," one glossy party mailer says about Proposition 73.
Capitol Weekly's Shane Goldmacher reports the governor's team says they have
sent out 10 million absentee ballots, the largest such effort in California history, in hopes of squeaking out a win on Election Day. The piece also looks at the governor's Latino strategy, and the reasons why he is no longer appearing in most of his campaign ads.
Capitol Weekly also has a story on the recent
dust-up over public opinion polls, and
compares the methodology of the Field Poll, PPIC and the governor's private pollster, John McLaughlin.
George Skelton trains his eye on Prop. 76, the governor's budget initiative, and he
distills the measure to a simple sentence. "It comes down to
raising taxes or whacking schools — neither popular with voters."
Today's initiative breakdownsThe Bee on Prop. 77
SF Chron on Props 78, 79In a rare piece of good news,
state revenues are up more than $1.2 billion over projections for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. "
"'This is good news,' said Department of Finance spokesman
H.D. Palmer. 'But we don't want to make the mistake of assuming this will continue month after month…. One good month doesn't necessarily guarantee these trends will continue.'"
The Capitol got a scare yesterday when word emerged that former Capitol reporter
Dion Nissenbaum had been kidnapped while covering a story in Gaza. Nissenbaum, who is now Knight-Ridder's Jerusalem bureau chief, was released unharmed after a few hours in captivity.
Fresh out of politicians to protest,
Cindy Shaheen is now set to picket ... Gov. Schwarzenegger? Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville anti-war protester whose son was killed in Iraq, turned her attention to the state Capitol on Wednesday, saying Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger should bring California's National Guard troops home. ""What's going to happen if we have an earthquake in California or a fire? Who's going to protect California?" she asked. "The natural disasters we have had in this country prove that having our National Guard troops overseas has made our country more vulnerable."