The LAT's Mark Barabak
profiles the governor's bipartisan reelection team, and credits the shift to First Lady
Maria Shriver. 'She is in charge of the rescue committee,' said one Schwarzenegger advisor, referring to the governor's sagging political fortunes. '
Maria has a number of I-told-you-so chits from last year that she is cashing in.'"
"Schwarzenegger's latest strategy team is his third group of political consultants in a little more than two years. Gone are most of the advisors who helped him win the November 2003 recall election, as well as several who steered Schwarzenegger through a disastrous 2005, when his popularity plunged and voters overwhelmingly rejected his ballot proposals."
A big part of that change has been
Susan Kennedy. The Chron's Carla Marinucci takes a look at
her role, both in the administration and the campaign, and
catches up with the guv's controversial chief of staff in San Francisco.
Kennedy is not only thinking reelection for the governor, she's thinking big. 'I truly believe that it needs to be a landslide,' Kennedy said confidently during a recent interview in San Francisco, where she was addressing business groups. 'Because marginal wins create paralysis.'"
Kennedy also set off the needles of the
Roundup Sarcasm Detector with this quote about her former boss,
Gray Davis. Davis criticized Schwarzenegger for allowing Kennedy to do campaign work, and supplementing her state salary with campaign funds. "The former Democratic governor 'had such a thick wall between the campaign people and the government people,' [Kennedy] said, 'that the government people did not know -- when they were presenting a bill to the governor -- that there was a fundraiser (on that issue) the next night.'"
Dan Walters looks at the latest voter registration data and argues that, with a growing influence of independent and cross-party voters,
California is more purple than blue. "California's 15.8 million registered voters now divide themselves into 6.7 million Democrats (42.68 percent), 5.9 million Republicans (34.68 percent), 2.9 million independents (18.8 percent) and a smattering of minor party adherents."
"Schwarzenegger's most likely Democratic re-election opponent this year, Treasurer
Phil Angelides, faces the flip side of the same dynamic. The more he caters to his party's liberal factions - by advocating large tax increases, for example - the more he risks alienating the all-important independents.
And his fellow Democrats in the Legislature may be doing him no favors as they pursue their very liberal agenda."
Speaking of...the Peace and Freedom Party is
back on the ballot.
After initial meetings to
review the governor's infrastructure plan, "[t]he differences between the Republican governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which have been revealed over two weeks of legislative hearings, are so significant that
it remains unclear whether agreement can be reached before the March 10 deadline to place bond measures on the June ballot," writes Lynda Gledhill in the Chron.
"'The good news is that we're in the same chapter of the book,' said Sen.
Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch. 'We're not yet on the same page, but at least everyone agrees investing in our infrastructure is long overdue.'"
"'I do not believe we should do this over multiyear election cycles,' said Sen.
Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, who will chair the conference committee on the bond proposals. 'I do not think it should be as general as what the governor laid out.
I think there should be a single, unified infrastructure plan that is presented to voters in one election cycle.'"
"'My own initial sense is that the governor proposed too high a number for the general fund to responsibly support,' said Assemblyman
John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who will also serve on the conference committee. '
I think it is politically impossible to think that we will bind future governors and legislators over five election cycles.'"
Looks like all the Democrats are on the same page, at least, trying to position themselves as more fiscally conservative than the governor. We'll see how that one goes...
George Skelton writes that "another anti-crime brawl is roaring that has all the signs of a
potential win-win outcome for Republicans. For Democrats, it's looking perilously like they have two options: capitulate or risk condemnation." The bill and possible ballot measure is "Jessica's Law."
"Basically, the measure would require that child molesters — if the victim is under 14 — be imprisoned for at least 15 years. Penalties would be increased across the board for sex crimes, including luring minors through the Internet. If released from prison, sex offenders would have to wear global positioning system trackers for life. And they couldn't live within 2,000 feet of a school or park."
"Says GOP consultant
Ray McNally, who managed a 2004 ballot defense of 'three-strikes' penalties: '
Pity the poor politician who decides to stand up against this initiative. They'll be roadkill by morning.'"
Could this be to Gov. Schwarzenegger what Three Strikes and illegal immigration were to
Pete Wilson? Tune in this fall to find out...
Matier and Ross
review the cars driven by state legislators, finding that one-fourth now drive hybrids. Legislative leaders, however, are "behind the green curve." "Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, is still sporting a gas-motored 2005 Dodge Charger, while Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, is driving a 2003 Eddie Bauer edition Ford Explorer.
It gets in the neighborhood of 17 mpg."
Here's
the chart.
LA Observed reports that the
LA Times reporter who wrote the controversial series on the United Farm Workers is leaving the paper. "
Miriam Pawel, the reporter on this month's L.A. Times' series about the United Farm Workers union,
applied for the employee buyout back in November and was accepted. Her departure was delayed so she could see the UFW series into the paper, but she will be leaving shortly, according to a senior journalist in the newsroom. There's some concern at the Times that the union will try to claim it forced her out or spin her exit as a bad reflection on the stories.
To that I say: you think? They're pissed."
Finally, from our
Are You Going To Eat That? Files a man was arrested for
taking his mother's morphine drip soon after she died. "
Robert S. Peatie, 37, was arrested last week after a nurse at Cape Cod Hospital caught him pouring the morphine into a water bottle, the Cape Cod Times reported Friday. His 62-year-old mother,
Linda Peatie, had just died from an undisclosed illness."