Governor Schwarzenegger reportedly
collected $2.5 million at a Beverly Hills fundraiser, raising money for both his reelection campaign and the state Republican Party. However, there were some uninvited guests.
Michael Finnegan writes for the Times "In Beverly Hills on Monday,
unions held their first major protest of the year against the Republican governor's collection of campaign money. About 200 nurses, bus drivers, school clerks and other union members marched outside a private Schwarzenegger reception and dinner for donors,
who paid up to $100,000 for seats near the governor and his guest speaker, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)."
ElectionTrack provides a partial
guest list.
The Chron's Mark Martin writes that Senator
John McCain's participation in the event
is still drawing controversy.
"'
From a voters' point of view, here is John McCain raising soft money and appearing to sidestep his own law,' complained
Derek Cressman, director of the nonpartisan watchdog group The-RestofUs.org. McCain, re-elected to his fourth six-year term in 2004, raises money for and spends money from his campaign committee -- as do all members of the Senate and House -- which by definition makes him a candidate for federal office. Federal Election Commission records show the senator's principal committee, Friends of John McCain, had $1.1 million in cash on hand at the end of 2005, the most recent reporting period."
While Schwarzenegger's
spending campaign cash almost as fast as it comes in, he's outraising his Democratic counterparts.
"Schwarzenegger's fund-raising this year has far outpaced that of the two major Democrats running for governor in the June primary.
He had collected at least $5.2 million by Friday, state reports show. One of the Democrats, state Treasurer
Phil Angelides, had raised
just under $2 million by then, and the other, Controller
Steve Westly,
had collected $3.4 million, including $2.5 million of his own money."
Westly picked up a $10,000 contribution from New Jersey Governor
Jon Corzine yesterday. The Roundup will defer to your favorite Jersey joke.
Speaking of the dynamic Democratic duo, Daniel Weintraub writes that Angelides and Westly are
avoiding the state's biggest issue by airing commercials primarily about character. "All of that is interesting,
but neither candidate so far has been willing to confront - in his ads - the elephant in the room: the ongoing gap between the state's tax revenues and its spending. California's next budget is expected to spend about $5 billion more than the state takes in from taxes. Whoever is governor next January is going to have to confront that reality, and if the economy falters, they could be facing a shortfall twice that size."
"California desperately needs straight talk about its habit of demanding more and more services from government while refusing to pay for them. So far, neither Democrat seems to have the stomach to offer that kind of brutal honesty."
For brutal honesty, we turn to the chairman of the Fresno County Lincoln Club, who talks about Gov. Schwarzenegger's Fresno visit today.
The governor will be in Fresno today "a visit that only months ago would have been enough to excite most any Republican," reports the Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz. "But if you ask one of Fresno's leading Republicans, the governor will get a reception today that is just "extremely lukewarm."
""The problem he's got is the [Republican] base is just dead — it's dead and lifeless," said
Michael Der Manouel Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, a GOP group."
Speaking of GOP electeds with a tough road ahead, the Orange County Register reports Orange County Sheriff
Mike Carona lost his Republican Party's endorsement Monday night by one vote, signalling a tough primary fight for the two-term incumbent. A vocal group that supports challenger Lt.
Bill Hunt reminded the GOP Central Committee of the
ongoing scandals involving Carona, pushing the vote to 31-17. Carona needed two-thirds of the 48 people gathered at the Irvine Hyatt Regency for the election year endorsement."
Speaking of ongoing scandal, in light of the controversy surrounding
Rob Reiner and Proposition 82, the Bee's Laura Mecoy looks into the First 5 Commission's
history of using television advertising to influence pending ballot issues. "First 5 California Children and Families Commission launched its first ad campaign - a $14 million bilingual media buy - just six weeks before a March 7, 2000, vote on a ballot measure to repeal Proposition 10, the initiative that created the agency."
"The ads said nothing about Proposition 28, the initiative seeking to repeal Proposition 10. But they did tell voters that Proposition 10 had paid for the messages about the virtues of early childhood education and the dangers of smoking."
"The commission's staff had rushed to get those ads on the air, avoiding the lengthy state competitive bidding process to hire the public relations and advertising firms to carry out the campaign, according to transcripts of testimony in a 2000 lawsuit challenging Proposition 10."
"
Roger Salazar, Yes on Proposition 82 consultant, said some of the same interests that opposed Proposition 10 are once again joining forces to defeat the universal preschool initiative Reiner placed on the June 6 ballot."
"'If there's a pattern anywhere, it's on the part of the opponents who are against programs for our kids,' he said."
And on to developing scandal... "The state attorney general's office will review the practice by some top Southern California law enforcement officials of
issuing honorary badges and identification cards to political supporters and other members of the public, authorities said Monday," write Stuart Pfeifer and Lance Pugmire in the Times.
Not to worry John Burton, we don't think they're looking at the badge that graces the dash of your Prius.
"Riverside County Dist. Atty.
Grover Trask requested the state inquiry saying that a 'clarification of the law is necessary' because of the controversy the badge programs had created statewide."
Meanwhile, "A $900 million maintenance backlog and a shrinking budget critically
threaten the 278-unit state park system, according to an annual report released Monday by a nonprofit park foundation," writes M.S. Enkoji in the Bee.
"With less help each year from state coffers, park managers will be forced to increase fees, said
Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation."
"'It could make it prohibitive for some folks to access state parks,' she said."
Kate Folmar reports on a
controversial state program that prepares tax returns for taxpayers. "In the face of opposition from the makers of TurboTax, Controller
Steve Westly is pushing to expand a small pilot program that began last year and gave 50,000 taxpayers with the simplest returns the option of letting the state prepare their taxes for them. All taxpayers had to do was check their state-prepared return for accuracy, make any necessary changes and click a mouse or sign a form to file. Or they could continue to do their taxes solo."
Sounds dandy, who could oppose that?
"The program may have saved headaches for some, but others --
including Mountain View-based Intuit, which makes TurboTax -- say it's wrong to have the state play both tax collector and tax preparer. Competing ReadyReturn bills --
AB 2905 by Democratic Assemblyman
Dario Frommer of Glendale, which expands the program, and
SB 1355 by Republican Sen.
Dennis Hollingsworth of Temecula, which kills it -- are both due for their first legislative hearings by late April."
The New York Times reports on the
GOP's national effort to woo firefighters, which has been met with mixed success. The national head of the firefighters union said his group will "back candidates, Republicans and Democrats, who have stood with the firefighters on issues like increased spending to hire first responders. He said his union would back the re-elections of Republicans like Gov.
Rick Perry of Texas and Senator
Mike DeWine of Ohio but
would seek to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Senator Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania, two other Republicans."
John Myers reports on
Maria Shriver's appearance on the Assembly floor yesterday to emcee Woman of the Year ceremonies. "The tone was set early, when Shriver took the Senate podium and noticed the women honorees from all 40 Senate districts lined up in front. Looking out, she said said, "What, no seats for the Women of the Year?"
After a few awkward moments, senators were quickly seen giving up the seats at their desks so the guests could sit down.