As expected, the governor appointed
Susan Kennedy as his new chief of staff at a Capitol press conference yesterday afternoon.
Peter Nicholas
writes in the LAT "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger picked a former Democratic Party activist as his new chief of staff after concluding that his current team was trying to push him in the directions they wanted to go, rather than embracing his more centrist ideas, sources familiar with the governor's thinking said Wednesday."
Jordan Rau writes in the LAT that Susan Kennedy is
not as partisan as her resume suggests.
"Over the course of her career, Susan Kennedy, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new chief of staff, moved from a Democratic Party partisan and abortion rights advocate to a pragmatic dealmaker with a trust in the free market and limited tolerance for stridently liberal approaches to government."
"'I can't believe how conservative, even right wing, I've become on these issues,' she said last year about her efforts on the Public Utilities Commission, where she has been reviled by consumer activists for her pro-business position"
"'She claims to be absolutely convinced that competition will serve everyone's best interest, but when it came to things like these recent mergers of phone companies consuming each other, that didn't seem to bother her at all,' said
Bob Finkelstein, executive director of TURN, a utility reform network based in San Francisco."
"'It seemed to boil down to whatever the utilities asked for, they got.'"
George Skelton opines that the move is another example of the governor's
pattern of extremist actions, one which might hurt him with conservative voters.
"The smart move for Schwarzenegger might have been to recruit a conservative chief of staff who could cover his right flank while he moves to the middle."
"
But Schwarzenegger considered Kennedy the best available. And what's that say to Republicans? That none is worthy?"
Carla Marinucci
looks into the GOP response for the Chron.
"
The question is: Do we challenge him for re-election,' said
Steve Frank, longtime political activist and publisher of the California Political News and Views, an influential conservative blog. '
I believe it won't come to that, because this sets a signal that he's not running."
"'He can't run as a Republican, because his administration has hired some of the key people we recalled with Gray Davis in the first place. And even should he run, he has no base left ... who is supporting him. Because what does he stand for?'"
"
Michael Spence, who heads the California Republican Assembly, a conservative grassroots organization, said that within hours of the news of Kennedy's appointment, the buzz from the right included talk of finding alternatives to the GOP governor who has 'betrayed the loyalty of people who worked for him in the special election.'"
"Already, he said, there is talk of an effort to draft state Sen.
Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks (Ventura County), a favorite of conservatives who ran in the recall election. And calls have gone out to gauge the interest of possible high-profile GOP alternatives, including another well-known film action-hero and director,
Mel Gibson, he said."
Still, the conservatives used Wednesday to vent. Laura Kurtzman
gets the Randy Thomasson quote for the Merc News. "'
By placing a leading homosexual, pro-abortion Democrat activist in charge of his entire administration, Arnold has taken a disastrous turn to the left,' Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, which opposes gay marriage, said in a statement."
"'Conservative voters who supported him are waking up from their dream and stepping into reality -- and the reality stinks.'"
And, of course there's a Web site,
www.stopsusankennedy.com.
Meanwhile,
Jon Fleischman is
giving the governor a bit of breathing room. Fleischman received a phone call from the governor and wrote in his blog yesterday "I’ll absorb our conversation a bit more before I ramble on here – look for more thoughts in my commentary tomorrow. I will make two initial observations, though.
One is that I admire the Governor for calling me directly. It shows respect for me as a person, and that is classy – and respect for this website!
The second is that I am thoroughly convinced, from the brief conversation, that the Governor is 100% behind this appointment, and feels that Kennedy will do a great job for him - that her qualifications as a professional operative, and her pledge of loyalty to him, totally mitigate her partisan background, and ties to Gray Davis."
Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court
turned down a last-ditch appeal by lawyers for
Stanley "Tookie" Williams. "The court ruled on a
4-2 vote, with justices
Marvin Baxter, Ming W. Chin, Carlos Moreno and Kathryn M. Werdegar voting to deny the defense request, and Chief Justice Ron M. George and Associate Justice Joyce L. Kennard voting to grant it. The one-sentence order contained no explanation."
The governor holds his private hearing with attorneys for both sides on December 8.
From our
Bill, We Hardly Knew Ye Files, GOP millionaire Bill Mundell announced he would not in fact be challenging Sen. Dianne Feinstein in November. Instead, he will focus on a new non-profit organization dedicated to pushing redistricting reform. In related news, the GOP is now looking for another unknown millionaire to take on Feinstein in the fall.
And those of you who know
Bob Mulholland as simply a Democratic Party pit bull, he is now the Angelides campaign's pit bull. Mulholland joined the campaign as a "senior advisor," teaming up with the man he worked along side at the state party in 1992.
Capitol Weekly reports that Assemblywoman
Fran Pavley and Sen.
Sheila Kuehl are backing different candidates in the race to find Pavley's successor. The result of the liberal split may be that a moderate Democrat,
Barry Groveman, emerges from a crowded Democratic field in June.
CW also profiles Univision jefe
Jerry Perenchio, and
his pattern of political giving. For those of you who want the Cliff's Notes version: he gives lots of money to the winners.
Reactions are mixed to the
governor's court-ordered plan to revamp the state's juvenile justice system, which was released yesterday. "'The state worked hard on this plan, and I know their intentions are good,' said
Donald Specter of the Prison Law Office, the nonprofit firm that sued the state over its management of juvenile corrections. 'But there are too many unanswered questions for us to feel confident that we will eventually have a system that keeps kids safe and protects the public.'"
A nonprofit advocacy group
released a report arguing that the state should invest more in higher education, writes Hanh Kim Quach for the Register. "A study released Wednesday by the Campaign for College Opportunity found that for every $1 the state invests in education, it gains $3 in return through additional tax revenue from better-educated, higher-income people, or in savings from decreased social services and prison costs."
Meanwhile, K-12 schools are facing a
possible funding boom, writes Dan Weintraub. "The bottom line: As long as California's economy doesn't stumble badly, the schools are going to be getting a major boost in per-pupil revenue in the years ahead. Policymakers need to recognize the coming windfall and seize the opportunity to use the new money as leverage to enact dramatic change, not just keep spending more money on more of the same."
From our
Cause and Effect Files, LA Observed comes up with
this little gem. "I received several reports that computer system troubles plagued the Times yesterday. A big chunk of the IT staff was laid off last week."
And finally, a Roundup congratulations to Assemblyman
Rick Keene who was named Legislator Of The Year by the Mosquito And Vector Control Association Of California. Way to go, Rick!