Love it or hate it, Carly Fiorina's got the political world talking with her new Internet attack ad on Tom Campbell. Between this ad and the Steve Poizner press conference, this has been the weirdest week in California Republican politics since Mike Duvall...
Abel Maldonado cleared his first obstacle to confirmation Wednesday, getting a 4-0 vote from the Senate Rules Committee. Steve Harmon reports " After grilling Maldonado, of Santa Maria, on his positions on the two-thirds vote requirement on budgets, offshore oil drilling and cuts to health and human services, Democrats on the Senate Rules committee rewarded him for his history of bipartisanship, which included a vote for a tax increase last year.
"My vote is not a political endorsement," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the chairman of the Senate Rules Commitee. "It is an acknowledgment of the fact that you crossed over last year, and other times, but last year, to help avoid $25 billion of even deeper cuts to vital public investments."
Capitol Weekly looks back to the Republican glory days of 1994. Could happy days be here again for the GOP?
"In California that year, Democrats pinned their hopes on a scion of the state’s best-known Democratic political family, the Brown clan, to try to take back the governor’s office. Going into those elections, Democrats held 48 Assembly seats. When it was over, Republicans had taken back nine seats, and eventually took the speakership back for the first time since Bob Monagan held the gavel in 1970.
"In 1994, Four Democratic incumbents – Margaret Snyder, Betty Karnette, Bob Epple and Julie
Bornstein – lost bids for reelection. The other five Republican
pick-ups that year were in open seats held by Democrats.
"Democrats held registration advantages in all of the
nine seats Republicans picked up in 1994. Four of those seats had Democratic registration advantages
for 9 points or less. Today, only two Democratic seats – the 10th Assembly District in El Dorado and San Joaquin counties
and the 15th Assembly District in Contra Costa County – are within 10 points."
John Howard looks at the lackluster fundraising from would-be constitutional reformers.
"Despite well-heeled backers, two groups pushing for a constitutional overhaul of California’s government appear strapped for cash and must come up with millions of dollars to qualify reform initiatives for the November ballot.
"Both groups, Repair California and California Forward,
say they can do it in weeks – an April deadline looms – and a quick infusion of cash could change the picture
dramatically.
But financial disclosure documents filed with the state
paint a bleak picture.
"Repair California, the reform group backing a state constitutional convention, raised more than $352,000 during 2009 – a significant amount but far less than the millions of dollars typically needed in California to gather signatures to qualify a pair of initiatives for the November ballot. Some $300,000 of the group’s $352,141 came from two donors – San Francisco corporate management consultant Lenny Mendonca and the California Tribal Business Alliance.
"Meanwhile, fundraising for California Forward also appears soft. The group has $82,000 on hand and raised just $3,000 last year."
Shane Goldmacher looks at the efforts by a public relations firm to attract applicants to the redistricting commission.
"The state awarded a $1.3-million contract for minority recruitment to
Ogilvy Public Relations. The company's proposal called
for a statewide
radio campaign that began this week and for "barbershop and beauty
salon outreach" for African Americans, among other
methods.
Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who opposed Proposition 11 and is
organizing opposition to a proposal to expand the commission's
reach to
congressional districts, called such language "ludicrous
and
laughable," showing "no sensitivity to the African
American community."
Of course, Lehane is also rumered to be involved in an effort to repeal Prop. 11, but that's neither hear nor there, we supose...
And finally, opponents of a carbon credit trading system have something new to scare people about. Wired Magazine reports on widespread carbon credit theft.
"The hackers launched a targeted phishing attack against employees of numerous companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan, which appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority. The workers were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority, where carbon credits and transactions are recorded.
"When workers entered their credentials into a bogus web page linked in the e-mail, the hackers were able to hi-jack the credentials to access the companies’ Trading Authority accounts and transfer their carbon credits to two other accounts controlled by the hackers."