CW's Malcolm Maclachlan peeks behind the scenes at a major new player in the Capitol water world.
The California Latino Water Coalition is one of several
groups that have sprung up in recent years as the Golden
State has tried to address its water woes. But according
to critics, those blue signs are hiding another color: the green of
Astroturf. In politics, “Astroturfing” means creating and financing a
group to make it appear
to be a real grass-roots organization when, in fact, it isn’t. It is a
common practice in the high-stakes world of Sacramento lobbying and
communications
strategy.
“The Latino Water Coalition is about as real as Schwarzenegger’s
hair color,” said Democratic political consultant Steve Maviglio.
Documents on file with the secretary of state show
that the Coalition was formed as a nonprofit and registered
by influential Sacramento lobbyist George Soares, whose
A-list of about three dozen agricultural clients include
the California Rice Commission, the California Cotton
Growers and Ginners Associations, the Friant Water
Authority, the Nisei Farmers League and The Grape and
Tree Fruit League, among others.
John Howard takes a last look at the tax commission before saying goodbye.
"Before the Legislature is the most dramatic state tax plan in decades, crafted by a bipartisan commission after months of hearings, selected leaks, voluminous testimony and internal bickering. Assailed by the left as an assault on the poor, by the right as an assault on the service and retail industries and by just about everybody as a perilous leap into the unknown, the plan now goes to lawmakers – who are likely to dismantle it in a special session called immediately by the governor."
George Skelton also weighs in.
"True, the commission's tax recipe isn't cooked. Perhaps it should be tweaked and tested. Or dumped and redrawn. Those are tasks that full-time legislators are hired to perform -- without fretting about special interests. You don't have to please them all, just a few more than the tax commission did."
Variety reports Jerry Brown has a major Hollywood fundraiser planned.
"DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen are endorsing Jerry Brown's gubernatorial bid and will be co-hosting a fundraiser for him on Nov. 18."
"This will be a big launching pad for his campaign here," says Andy Spahn, their political consultant.
Although the 2010 election is still not on many radar screens of Hollywood donors, the endorsement of Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen sets the stage for a significant battle for industry support against Brown's chief rival, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Newsom has already held multiple events in Los Angeles, and will host a fund-raising reception on Monday at the Biltmore Hotel with former President Bill Clinton.
Spahn said that the trio all have known Brown for various lengths of time.
"They all believe he knows the job inside and out and is the best qualified candidate to fix the mess in Sacramento," Spahn says. "He was way ahead of his time in promoting the environment and renewable energy, on bringing diversity to government, and in championing the arts."
The U-T looks at the fundraising of Assemblyman Joel Anderson.
"Assemblyman Joel Anderson has engaged in a series of curious campaign financial transactions as he prepares to make an expected bid for the state Senate.
In some cases, business supporters in the East County Republican's district have contributed money to the Fresno County Republican Central Committee, which, in turn, donated similar amounts to Anderson within days.
The sums were well in excess of the $3,900 limit that candidates for the Legislature can legally accept from individual donors. There is no limit to what political party committees can give to candidates.
"In other cases, Anderson sent tens of thousands of dollars left over in his Assembly campaign fund from the 2008 election to Central and Northern California Republican committees, which sent like amounts to his 2010 fund. In each case, the transactions were within days or weeks of each other."
Anderson refused to talk to the paper about the story.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and timber giant Sierra Pacific Industries on Wednesday evening announced the nation's largest forest carbon-offset project , meant to keep millions of tons of climate-warming gases out of the atmosphere over the next century," the Bee's Jim Downing reports.
"Forestry and some conservation groups said the deal shows the state's new rules on forest offsets, adopted last week by the Air Resources Board, will be attractive to landowners.But some environmental advocates said it's a sign that the timber industry is poised to capitalize on a provision that allows clear-cutting on land enrolled in carbon-offset programs.
Climate change is all the rage in Washington, as the EPA vows to go after polluters, and Barbara Boxer introduces a federal climate change bill. AP's Dina Cappiello reports, "The Environmental Protection Agency moved for the first time Wednesday to control the emissions from the power plants, factories and refineries that are blamed for global warming.
"The announcement came hours after Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, unveiled legislation that would set mandatory, nationwide limits on the amount of greenhouse gases from large industrial sources.
"Backed by President Obama, the EPA's proposal would require polluters to reduce six greenhouse gases by installing the best available technology and improving energy efficiency whenever a facility is significantly changed or built. The rule applies to any industrial plant that emits at least 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year."
The govenror broke his self-imposed bill-signing embargo just in time to sign a bill delaying hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to the state's universities and community colleges. The governor is still playing coy about the 700 or so other bills on his desk that he must act upon in the next 12 days.
And finally, "Dalton Chiscolm is unhappy about Bank of America's customer service -- really, really unhappy. Chiscolm in August sued the largest U.S. bank and its board, demanding that "1,784 billion, trillion dollars" be deposited into his account the next day. He also demanded an additional $200,164,000, court papers show.
"Attempts to reach Chiscolm were unsuccessful. A Bank of America spokesman declined to comment.
"Incomprehensible," U.S. District Judge Denny Chin said in a brief order released Thursday in Manhattan federal court."
Perhaps. But unreasonable?