Capitol Weekly examines the hold software maker Intuit has over the Senate Republican Caucus.
While Intuit, makers of the popular Turbo Tax software program, has largely tried to remain behind the scenes in the state’s political battles, their five-year long crusade to eliminate the state’s free tax-filing system, Ready Return, essentially brought business in the Capitol to a stand-still.
Since 2001, Intuit has spent more than $1.7 million to lobby lawmakers.
The company’s lobbying firm, Lang, O’Malley, Hansen and Miller, is one
of the most well-connected firms in the state, and has close ties to
Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth.
"Intuit has also been an active player in the political
arena, spending nearly $2 million on campaign contributions – mostly to Republicans, but with some money going to
Democrats as well – since 2001. Most of that money was spent in the 2006 race for state Controller, when the company shelled
out $1 million for an independent expenditure campaign to
help Republican Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, in his race against Democrat John Chiang.
From our The More Things Change...Files, Malcolm Maclachlan reports Rep. Laura Richardson is churning through staff.
"In her two years in Congress, at least 18 full-time staffers have left the office of Rep. Laura Richardson,
D-Long Beach, a turnover rate that appears to be far
out of line with other representatives.
"This figure was determined by using Legistorm, an online database of congressional salaries and staffing, as well as calls to Richardson’s office and interviews with former Richardson staffers. Those who used to work for Richardson, many of whom are now working for other politicians, declined to be publicly identified.
"Richardson is already on her third chief of staff.
The second, John Bowman, lasted less than two months
in late 2008. The first, Kimberly Parker, spent six years as chief
of staff for Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, before joining Richardson in
September 2007, shortly after she won a special election to replace
Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, who died in office in April, 2007.
Parker was one of the highest-ranking African American female staffers
in Congress.
Neither Bowman or Parker has worked in Congress since,
according to Legistorm."
CW reports the Legislature will likely be reconvening on Oct.
13 for special sessions . "Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, sent an e-mail to his members this week telling them to prepare
to return to Sacramento for a special legislative session
beginning Oct. 13. Not coincidentally, that is one day after the governor’s deadline for acting on the hundreds of bills before
him."
And from our Bank Error in Your Favor Files, Jim Sanders reports on the lottery's $2.8 million mistake . " Oops – Josefina Sineriz may owe her $2.8 million in lottery winnings last winter to a mistake by the California Lottery's staff.
The 61-year-old Bakersfield woman was given the opportunity to win the top prize by an inadvertent transposition of contestants' names.
If not for the mistake, Sineriz apparently would have been eligible only for the TV show's consolation prize of $2,000.
The development came to light Wednesday in a lottery oversight hearing by the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review. "This is significant because it goes to whether the game is run properly," said Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, a South Gate Democrat who chairs the committee."
And from our Carlyfornication Files, the would-be Senate candidate's new Web site is opening up to, er, mixed reviews from the national medial. Holly Bailey reports, "Former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman Carly Fiorina is out with a new site today previewing her not-yet-official run against Sen. Barbara Boxer in California next year. And it is, how should we put it, a little weird. The site is fairly bare-bones─perhaps not surprising considering the “Is she running or not?” dance that Fiorina has been doing the past few weeks.
"It features a somewhat puzzling Flash sequence that we are guessing is aimed at illustrating the vast differences between Fiorina and Boxer: “It’s day & night. It’s dogs & cats. It’s good & bad. It’s Carly vs. Boxer.” Wait a minute─it’s dogs and cats? It’s day and night? That’s followed by an even more puzzling message: “Coming Soon?” Um, Carly, shouldn’t you be telling us that? And then there is the kicker: Carlyfornia Dreamin’!!!” That’s either the worst pun we’ve ever seen or a stroke of brilliance aimed at getting Internet eyeballs on the day when people are scouring Google for gossip about John Phillips, the lead singer of the Mamas and the Papas."
Not exactly the rollout she was looking for, we're guessing.
Andrew Macintosh looks at Meg Whitman's voting record
" Almost 9 million Californians cast ballots in the 2003 special election that swept movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger into the Governor's Office.
"Meg Whitman wasn't among them.
"The billionaire businesswoman now running for governor herself in 2010 didn't vote in that special election, even after Business Week listed her among a group of top executives with "worse than spotty voting records" in a 2000 magazine story, public records show.
"Whitman apologized for failing to vote "on several occasions" as she introduced herself earlier this year as a candidate to replace Schwarzenegger as governor at a state Republican Party convention in Sacramento. She said her failure to vote was a mistake for which she had no excuses.
"Every citizen should take time to vote, and on more than one occasion, I didn't," the former eBay chief told the GOP activists. "Voting is a precious gift handed down by generations of Americans. I regret not having delivered my vote on several occasions."
In fact, however, a Bee review found Whitman regularly skipped elections in California and several other states where she lived and worked.
The review covered six states and a dozen counties, including towns and counties in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California where public records indicated that Whitman lived, worked or attended college.
Joe Garofoli previews this weekend's GOP convention.
"There will be a coming-out party for the three Republican candidates for governor
starting Friday at the state GOP convention.
But analysts don't expect these Bay Area social moderates to
appease the conservative faithful in attendance who
hold hard-line
positions on issues like abortion or same-sex marriage.
The candidates "don't want to say anything that would come back to
haunt them next November (2010) with middle-of-the-road voters," said
Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the nonpartisan California Target Book,
which tracks state races. "They can't win without them."
Sounds like an exciting weekend.
And congrats to Jerry Lewis and Ken Calvert who again were named to be among the most corrupt members of Congress.
"The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, cited questions about earmarks, campaign contributions and land dealings, as well as a Department of Justice investigation of Lewis, in placing the two lawmakers on the list.
Lewis and Calvert brushed off the CREW report, saying it repeats years-old allegations without offering any new evidence of corruption."
Solid, solid journalism.