The Merc's Mike Zapler
analyzes the ongoing budget stalemate. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
can't persuade a mere two senators in his own party to vote for a state budget that is now nearly four weeks overdue. Far from being treated like a celebrity,
Schwarzenegger's popularity among GOP legislators and activists seems to have ebbed to a new low.
"
Both Schwarzenegger and GOP senators insist their differences are philosophical, not personal. And some observers believe the impasse has more to do with internal Republican politics, and the lack of moderate legislators from either party, than the GOP's feelings about Schwarzenegger.
"Even so, the 15 Republican holdouts have reached a conclusion that would have been unthinkable a few years ago:
They have more to gain by defying the governor than by siding with him.
"For all of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's cheery talk of newfound 'post-partisan' collaboration among Californian lawmakers, this month's impasse over state spending
shows that fractious political jockeying, personal distrust among leaders and individual electoral ambitions still can derail business at the Capitol," report Jordan Rau and Evan Halper in the Times.
"Senate GOP leader
Dick Ackerman's reluctance to sign off on a state budget, now 28 days overdue, has been hardened by his need to appease disgruntled conservatives in his 15-member caucus.
"That group's resolve has also stiffened compared with previous years as some of its members seek better jobs that rely on the party base's support.
"And Schwarzenegger's ability to negotiate a compromise, which has never been great, has waned further as he has staked his second term on an alliance with Democrats, leaving legislators from his own party feeling abandoned. It hasn't helped that Democrats earlier this week called the GOP holdouts guilty of 'fiscal terrorism.'"
Dan Walters writes that the Democrats
should have involved Republicans earlier in the budget negotiations. "A good case could be made for dropping the vote to a simple majority and allowing the majority party to have its way. If nothing else, it would improve accountability; if the state's finances collapsed, the majority would have to bear the political onus, not shift some of the blame to the minority.
"But changing the vote requirement for the budget -- and the two-thirds vote margin for raising taxes -- would require voter approval of constitutional amendments, which is highly unlikely. In fact, voters overwhelmingly rejected lowering the tax vote margin three years ago.
"Given the unlikelihood of change, it would behoove the Democrats to recognize much earlier in the annual budget process the reality that the final product will need Republican votes and pay attention when GOP members of the budget committees suggest changes.
Giving them relevancy earlier might forestall the theatrics of a budget stalemate later.The Merc News's Steven Harmon writes that
fingers can also be pointed at the cool relationship between Don Perata and Fabian Nuñez.
"The feud - mostly played out in the Capitol corridors beyond public earshot - burst into the open last week when Perata fired off an open letter slamming Núñez for coaxing Assembly Republicans to support the budget with a series of tax cuts. In strong words typically reserved for partisan opponents, Perata dressed down Núñez in public, raising questions about whether the two most powerful Democrats in the Legislature can effectively accomplish an ambitious agenda that includes health care and prison reform.
"Perata was enraged, also, because Núñez surprised him, said Sen.
Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, by taking up the budget a day earlier than they'd agreed - without consulting Perata or Senate Minority Leader
Dick Ackerman.
"'It was kind of a thumb in the eye to both,' Kuehl said. 'I think the speaker wanted to get the jump on us.'
"
Núñez shut down the Assembly until mid-August and took off for Europe on a family vacation, leaving Perata and the Senate to stew in a standoff with recalcitrant Republicans."The gamesmanship - which fits into the long tradition of spats between Democratic leaders - can be traced back to last year, though it was largely muted as Perata and Núñez worked with Schwarzenegger on an agenda of mutual interest that included a landmark bill to curb greenhouse gases, a record $40.1 billion in infrastructure bonds, and a minimum-wage increase."
"California lawmakers personally will feel no pain from any multimillion-dollar cuts made to end this year's budget impasse:
Nobody's targeting the $15 million increase for their offices," writes Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"Even when state coffers are bare and legislators are fighting over funding for public services from transit to prisons, the Legislature's own budget rises, year after year -- automatically.
"The number of lawmakers -- 120 -- never changes, but their spending has jumped by 41 percent since 2000, a rate higher than the general fund's 32 percent increase since then. The state's average annual rate of inflation was 2.9 percent during the same period."
"State-sanctioned teams of computer hackers
were able to break through the security of virtually every model of California's voting machines and change results or take control of some of the systems' electronic functions, according to a University of California study released Friday," writes John Wildermuth in the Chron.
"The researchers 'were able to bypass physical and software security in every machine they tested,' said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, who authorized the "top to bottom review" of every voting system certified by the state.
"Neither Bowen nor the investigators were willing to say exactly how vulnerable California elections are to computer hackers, especially because the team of computer experts from the UC system had top-of-the-line security information plus more time and better access to the voting machines than would-be vote thieves likely would have.
"'All information available to the secretary of state was made available to the testers,' including operating manuals, software and source codes usually kept secret by the voting machine companies,
Matt Bishop, UC Davis computer science professor who led the "red team" hacking effort, said in his summary of the results."
Shane Goldmacher looks at how
Assembly candidates are padding their warchests with their own money to look legitimate. "As the calendar neared the end of June, the secretary of state's office began reporting one $100,000 donation after another -- each to relatively unknown candidates in California politics, the likes of
Richard Holober and Robert Rao and Neil Blais.
As the six-month fundraising deadline approached, at least 11 candidates for state Assembly and one for state Senate in the June 2008 primary injected roughly $100,000 into their own campaign coffers. Another gave himself $100,000 more than 18 months ago.
"The donations are part of what has become a biennial money dance in which newcomer candidates try to prove their viability to the chattering class of Sacramento and the well-heeled lobbyists in the Third House.
"'It's become an epidemic,' said
Dave Gilliard, a Republican campaign strategist who works on Assembly races. '
Candidates are so desperate to look viable to the Third House and the legislative leaders -- a lot of the time ... it's all for show.'
"
Matt Rexroad, a GOP political consultant, who managed the Assembly Republican efforts in 2002 and 2004, said, 'If you look back into the primaries of two years ago, you will see that there were very few people elected to the Assembly who didn't put their own money in there.'"
"Representatives for hotel and casino workers and two leading California horse racing tracks Friday
announced a petition drive to force a statewide vote on four major tribal gambling expansions in Southern California.
"Officials for the UNITE HERE union and the Hollywood Park and Bay Meadows racetracks filed papers with the state attorney general's office late Friday seeking a Feb. 5 referendum on agreements that would add 17,000 new casino slot machines.
"If the groups succeed in gathering 443,971 valid signatures of registered voters by Oct. 10, Californians can count on one of the most expensive and combative ballot fights in recent years.
"'
We are doing this because the largest single expansion of gambling in American history does not provide appropriate worker rights,' said
Jack Gribbon, political director for UNITE HERE. 'It's clear these compacts just make a small gambling cartel in Southern California rich and do nothing for poor Indian tribes.'"
And from our
Fifth Time's a Charm Files, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
vetoed for a fifth time legislation that would have made it easier for news reporters to arrange interviews with prison inmates.
"Schwarzenegger said the latest bill, by Sen.
Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), would 'glamorize murderers' and 'traumatize crime victims and their families.'
"Romero disagreed. 'The media have been the eyes and ears in how the system is run and the mismanagement of the system,' she said.
"The state began limiting media interviews in 1971 and has toughened the regulations over the years."
Matier and Ross report, "Those close to state Sen. Carole Migden say they fully
expect the erratic-driving lawmaker to be hit with some kind of charge within the next two weeks for the road misadventure that ended with her plowing into the rear of a Honda sedan.
"They're hoping the charge will be minor -- and if it is, they won't fight it.
"
It's one of those cases where even if we fight and win, we lose," said one source close to the senator.
"
The California Highway Patrol has recommended that Migden, D-San Francisco, be charged with reckless driving after a wild ride May 18 in which she was spotted speeding upward of 80 mph and bouncing off the guardrail along Interstate 80."
And from our
Schatzi, Strudels and Schnitzels -- Oh My! Files,
today is the guv's 60th birthday, and
in Austria, they're already partying.
"Austrians threw a party for one of their most famous sons, Arnold Schwarzenegger, celebrating his 60th birthday with
strudels, schnitzels and an unusual gift - the original street number from the house where he was born.
"'A Day for Arnold,' proclaimed officials in the southern village of Thal Bei Graz, the California governor's birthplace.
"A brass band played, a priest held a special birthday Mass and 59 locals joined Mayor Peter Urdl onstage in a ceremony to wish Schwarzenegger well.
"Urdl said he sent a birthday present - Thal 145, the enamelled number of the house where Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 - and announced the number would be terminated."
Just couldn't resist, could they?