The Senate yesterday confirmed
Bruce McPherson for Secretary of State, but the Assembly continues to
play hard to get.Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuņez has told the governor that he will support McPherson's nomination, but "there is uneasiness among the caucus," said
Steve Maviglio, Nuņez's spokesman.
Debra Bowen, a likely candidate for the job next year, took the high road, urging her colleagues to support the nomination, which she described as an
"interim appointment." "If it were (an election) I'd be voting for myself," she said. "In the meantime, a lot has to be done to comply with (federal election law) and put in place the paper audit trail that Californians demand. The sooner we have a real secretary of state ... the faster we can get about that work." Apparently, the Assembly isn't heeding Bowen's advice.
Meanwhile,
Dan Walters writes that Democratic Party pit bull
Bob Mulholland is feeding the fire by sending out missives alleging that McPherson wants the job "so he can ram through the Bush-Schwarzenegger initiatives."
Mulholland clearly doesn't believe in choosing one's battles.
Speaking of which, the
California Republican Party hit the airwaves yesterday with
a TV spot championing the governor's education initiatives. The spot is meant to counter ads from the
California Teachers Association, currently on the air.
The state courts notch a victory for
slacking off. The LA Times reports: "Striking down a recent dictate of the Schwarzenegger administration, a judge ruled Thursday that political appointees can work from their homes instead of at government headquarters."
British Petroleum has agreed to
pay a record $106 million fine to the
Southern California Air Quality Management District. "The settlement ends two lawsuits filed by regulators over pollution from the BP West Coast Products refining plant in Carson, where neighboring residents have complained for years about hydrogen sulfide and other emissions from the facility just west of Interstate 405," reports the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
The inaction on the Bay Bridge continues to
rack up the costs, writes Mike Adamick in the Contra Costa Times. "An eight-month stalemate between Bay Area lawmakers and the Schwarzenegger administration over paying for overruns on the new Bay Bridge has
led to $100 million worth of construction delays and terminated contracts, according to internal Caltrans estimates."
The Orange County Register's Kimberly Kindy
launches her new weekly Capitol Watchdog column today. The first installment looks at a series of fundraiser invites from legislators that "crossed the line."
"An unwritten code in Sacramento says these invitations shouldn't emphasize what lawmakers can do for contributors in the Capitol ... The Orange County Register reviewed more than 200 invitations - all faxed or mailed to lobbyists over the past three months - and found
six that highlighted lawmakers' important committee assignments in the Senate or Assembly."
Could LA be heading for a recount? Hertzberg attorney
Fred Woocher is going to
take a look at the ballots that city clerk
Frank Martinez had "overmarked," to make up for the inability of Angelinos to mark the box.
Los Angeles city councilman
Jack Weiss, who's
mentioned as a possible Assembly candidate, will have some explaining to do after being accused by the city's Ethics Commission of
more than 40 campaign violations.Meanwhile, in San Francisco, the city's ethics commission ruled that former mayoral candidate
Matt Gonzalez would be
exempt from the city's ethics laws.Could the
Governor Girlie Man bobblehead be replaced by a
John Laird action figure?Finally,
Capitol Bites throws accolades the Roundup's way, but is
disappointed in our readers.