The Bee's Andy Furillo
looks at the message coordination between the governor's public schedule and the advertising campaign that hit the airwaves this week. "From Riverside to San Francisco to Bakersfield, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is spending the week touting his economic record at taxpayer expense, taking credit for California's job growth on his watch and patting himself on the back for reducing the state's structural budget deficit."
Economy week ain't quite
Shark Week, but it's what passes for coordinated political programming Sacramento in March.
"At the same time, Schwarzenegger's political team is highlighting the Republican governor's economic batting average in its first television advertising blast of the spring."
"Schwarzenegger campaign strategist
Matthew Dowd drew no distinctions between the campaign ads and Schwarzenegger's official state business when he told reporters Monday, '
We're talking about the economy this week, and this ad is about us highlighting that as the governor travels around the state into various media markets.'"
...on the public's dime.
"'These are official events,' spokeswoman
Margita Thompson said of Schwarzenegger's economic tour. 'The governor is talking about his record of accomplishment. He's going to continue to talk about what his goals are going forward, and that's governing.'"
"The governor, of course, isn't the only politician trying to score some good on-the-job press. On Tuesday, state Controller and Democratic gubernatorial candidate
Steve Westly traveled to Modesto to give Stanislaus County a check for $1.2 million out of state coffers to cover the costs of the
Scott Peterson trial."
"Today, Westly's rival for the Democratic nomination, state Treasurer
Phil Angelides, in his official capacity, is scheduled to hand over a $9.1 million check to the University of California, Davis, Children's Hospital as part of the proceeds from Proposition 61, the Children's Hospital Bond Act."
But not all of Angelides' visits are as politically gratifying as handing out checks to sick kids.
"Amid a national debate and protests on immigration, state treasurer and potential Democratic gubernatorial nominee
Phil Angelides said he was unaware of core issues before Congress and was
trying to repair the politically damaging comment Tuesday," writes Steve Geissinger in the Oakland Tribune.
"Asked one of the questions he's bumbled about illegal immigrants on KGO Radio in the Bay Area, Angelides said, 'I'm prepared for you today. I did my homework.'"
"On Friday, Univision TV says it asked Angelides about a House of Representatives bill that would make it a felony to be in the United States illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegals and build more fences along the U.S.-Mexican border. '
I'm not familiar with it, but if you send me some information today I can give you an answer later,' Angelides answered."
500,000 protestors later, we're guessing he's heard about it.
"Though Angelides' aides later told reporters the treasurer opposes the House bill, Democratic gubernatorial campaign for controller
Steve Westly accused Angelides of dodging the question of where he stands on immigration issues."
"Westly spokesman Nick Velasquez said the controller opposes the House bill."
"'It criminalizes undocumented workers in this country, which isn't good for public safety, the budget or the problem of illegal immigration at all,' Velasquez said."
The Press-Democrat puts together an
immigration Q&A so you can impress your friends at cocktail parties this weekend.
The LAT's Jim Newton looks at the
opportunity and the challenge created for
Antonio Villaraigosa by this week's protests. "For Villaraigosa, these days of protest have offered huge promise: The streets of his hometown have teemed with hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, energized by politics and overwhelmingly Latino, offering inescapable evidence of the assertive place that Villaraigosa's political base is claiming in American politics."
"At the same time, there is danger for Villaraigosa in being too closely associated with these demonstrations. He aspires to run Los Angeles schools, and as such can hardly champion skipping class. And he covets a national reputation of leadership, a claim that requires him to rise above his own past as a student activist, to show maturity even in the face of a protest whose message he endorses and to demonstrate that he is not captive to ethnic politics or limited to left-wing views."
"'This is the first real test for him in some ways,' said
Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of a nonpartisan election guide known as the California Target Book. '
This is where we discover whether he's a leader or just another pretty face.'"
While Washington grapples with immigration reform, Republicans in Sacramento have
introduced dozens of bills to address the issue, writes Edwin Garcia in the Merc News. "Assembly and Senate Republicans have proposed 25 measures this legislative session that would restrict illegal immigrants' access to college, block state-funded benefits and encourage police officers to act as immigration agents."
"Some of the measures will be vetted at committee hearings in the coming weeks, and it's almost certain that most will be blocked by the Democratic majority. But supporters of the measures are counting on new momentum coming from the U.S. Congress, which is debating this week whether to criminalize illegal immigration, or approve amnesty for as many as 12 million undocumented people. And, even if their measures fail,
Republican incumbents up for election can use fighting illegal immigration as a popular issue to rally their base in the November elections."
"'Every year that has gone by since Prop. 187 was not enforced means there's a bigger problem,' said
Mike Spence, president of the influential California Republican Assembly, a grass-roots group that supports conservative policies. 'I think some legislators are reacting to that.'"
But, there's something in it for both sides, comments
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe.
"'Both sides are looking at it as an issue that can mobilize their base,' she said. 'For the Republicans, that base is the conservative activists. For the Democrats, it's labor, Latino voters.'"
The Chronicle's political team takes a look at
the issue of immigration in the upcoming elections. "With thousands of Californians taking to the streets in the national debate over illegal immigration,
the candidates for governor are starting to hear tough questions on the volatile issue that has dramatically influenced past statewide elections.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of his Democratic challengers, Treasurer Phil Angelides, at separate appearances Tuesday criticized the federal government for failing to adequately secure the borders."
Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a bill by Sen.
Jim Battin yesterday that would "
send millions of dollars to about two dozen California counties that are home to Indian casinos," reports the Associated Press.
The bill "restores $20 million to the Special Distribution Fund, which helps non-gambling tribes and reimburses counties with casinos for extra police and fire services and road improvements. About 40 percent of the money would go to Riverside County, home to several of the state's most lucrative tribal casinos..."
...and Jim Battin.
"Thousands of Californians who register to vote or update their records
may not receive sample ballots or be able to vote as absentees because of the state's new method of verifying identities, election officials say," reports Jordan Rau in the Times.
"A new statewide database designed by Secretary of State
Bruce McPherson to authenticate voter registrations
has blocked otherwise valid registrations because of computer glitches, slight discrepancies in spelling or incomplete applications."
"In Los Angeles County,
the database rejected 14,629 people — 43% of those who registered from Jan. 1 to March 15. Officials are trying to resolve the problems in time for municipal elections April 11 in 14 cities in the county. They say the challenge will be far larger for the June 6 primary, which will involve many more voters."
"A Sacramento County Superior Court judge Tuesday
upheld Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa's right to be on the June ballot, dashing Assemblyman
Tom Umberg's hopes of eliminating his opponent in the Democratic primary for the
34th Senate District," reports Brian Joseph in the Register.
"Umberg had alleged that the supervisor violated elections law by submitting more than the maximum number of signatures allowed to qualify for the June 6 ballot."
Former Schwarzenegger Chief of Staff
Pat Clarey has landed back at her old employer, this time as
Health Net's California COO. Of course, we needed to read a German press release site to figure this out, but that is neither here nor there.
"
Caspar W. Weinberger, the San Francisco native whose tenure as President Ronald Reagan's defense secretary was caught in the Iran-Contra affair,
died Tuesday at age 88 from the complications of old age," reports Edward Epstein in the Chronicle.
"In five-decade career in the public eye, Mr. Weinberger
went from being a reformist state Republican state Assemblyman from San Francisco in the years before the city became a Democratic bastion to his service as a top cold warrior of the Reagan White House, to serving as publisher of a top business magazine."
Today in the Legislature:The
Senate Industrial Relations Committee takes up the
myriad minimum wage proposals, while Senate Health will debate
SB 1414,
Carole Migden's bill that would force WalMart to offer health insurance to employees.
Where the candidates areGov. Schwarzenegger is in Bakersfield today, where he "will tour AARC Technology. He will then hold a roundtable to discuss California's economic resurgence with California women business executives."
Phil Angelides will be joining
Al Franken at the Crest Theater for a live broadcast of Franken's radio show on the "Air America" network.