Assemblyman John Perez (D-Los Angeles) will take over as Assembly speaker in a swearing-in ceremony this morning on the assembly floor. Perez takes over for Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), who is running for Congress.
Rick Orlov reports,"In a ceremony being compared to an inauguration, Perez will outline his priorities - jobs, jobs, jobs and perhaps a bit on education and, oh yeah, that multibillion-dollar budget problem. He is expected to be speaking to a full house, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Gov. Gray Davis and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - Perez's cousin.
"Outgoing Speaker Karen Bass is running for the
congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Dianne Watson, D-Los Angeles,
but had planned to step down as speaker in any case
to give Perez time
to transition into the post. "Perez, who making history as the first gay speaker,
has four years left in the Assembly before he is ousted
by term limits."
Jack Dolan and Patrick McGreevey look at Perez's deep ties to the labor movement, and political donors.
"Pérez, a Democrat who was chosen as speaker in December and will be sworn in Monday, has something that left-leaning former labor leaders and freshman lawmakers usually lack: a financial pipeline to billionaire developers and white-shoe investors who rank among the most politically active power brokers in the state.
"In 2009, his first full year as a lawmaker, Pérez carved a lucrative exception into state law for billionaire developer Philip Anschutz. He also introduced a bill at the request of Enterprise Car Rental that would have helped boost the company's bottom line by stripping away a significant consumer protection.
"Before his election to the Assembly, while a member of the Los Angeles redevelopment commission, Pérez voted to give millions in government subsidies to a giant real estate firm that contributed heavily to his union's political fund."
Kevin Yamamura says the govenror's adherence to a no-new-taxes pledge depends on your definition of a tax.
"Since becoming governor, Schwarzenegger has learned that tax promises are situational when it comes to resolving the state budget.
"Schwarzenegger spent his first term as an ardent opponent of new taxes. He won the recall election partly on a promise to cut the state's car tax, which he fulfilled his first day in office. Schwarzenegger also won re-election on a no-new-taxes pledge in 2006.
"But with the state battered by the recession and facing a $42 billion deficit last winter, Schwarzenegger proposed new taxes on everything from alcohol to veterinary services. He ultimately signed $12.5 billion in temporary tax hikes on income, sales and vehicles, the last of which was the very tax he came to Sacramento to reduce."
Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will make it official Monday when he files his paperwork to place his name on the June ballot as a Republican candidate for governor. Poizner has invited the press to join his this morning at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, where he is expected to do the deed.
George Skelton pens the post-mortem on the constitutional convention effort, and contemplates the future of political reform.
"Legislative leaders are about to unveil some bipartisan
internal
changes -- eye-glazing but potentially productive -- plus proposed
restraints on the scourge of ballot box budgeting.
"The tentative
package includes two constitutional amendments that
would be offered
voters in November. One, by Sen. Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego), would
require any citizen initiative that creates new spending
to also raise
the needed revenue. That measure worries some Republicans,
who fear tax
increases.
"The companion proposal, by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee
(R-San Luis Obispo), has wider support. It would require any initiative
bond proposal that exceeds $1 billion to specify its funding source."
Califorina Watch's Christina Jewitt reports, "Three California officials who oversee billions of dollars in Medi-Cal prescription drug spending have failed to disclose free flights, hotel rooms and meals paid for by nonprofit groups funded by drug makers, records and interviews show.
"One of those officials, Pilar Williams, accepted free travel even though she has a direct role in negotiating rebates with drug makers. Williams, the pharmacy division chief at the Department of Health Care Services, also helped decide which drugs were among the $8.5 billion worth of medications the state dispensed to low-income patients in the past three years."
Cathleen Decker looks at the lingering power of Proposition 13 -- especially in a Republican primary.
"In 1978, as now, the political environment swirled with grass-roots
anger; Jarvis could be the psychic grandfather to the "tea
partyers."
And the Democratic governor who first opposed Proposition
13, then
embraced it with a convert's zeal, is likely to be
the Democratic
nominee for governor again this year.
"Jerry Brown had been
governor for less than a full term when Proposition
13 hit the ballot
in June 1978. He was running for reelection that November. Like
many
other establishment politicians, including future governors
(and
Republicans) George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, he feared that
by
sharply curtailing property taxes, the measure would
starve government.
A "rip-off," he was quoted as calling it.
"But when it passed by
a 2-1 margin, Brown became such an advocate, so quickly,
that other
Democrats railed that he had become Jarvis' best advocate.
"Government
spending must be held in check," he said days after
the election. "We
must look forward to lean and frugal budgets."
Talk about your flash-forwards...
The Republican candidates for U.S. Senate will meet in a radio debate this Friday -- the first verbal showdown of the election season. Seema Mehta reports, "The three Republican U.S. Senate candidates will debate for the first time Friday on Sacramento radio host Eric Hogue's show. The topics will be national security, terrorism and foreign policy, which is notable because one of the candidates, former Congressman Tom Campbell, came under fire this week for his record on Israel.
"Carly Fiorina's campaign manager Marty Wilson was accused of calling Campbell an anti-Semite, a charge he denied."
And finally, talk about your on-the-job training. "Law enforcement officers in southwest Ohio were chugging down alcoholic drinks this week as part of a training exercise on how to give field sobriety tests. Several police officers and deputy sheriffs in Montgomery County volunteered to drink so colleagues could practice conducting the tests given to suspected drunk drivers.
"Dayton officer Will Wright says officials wanted officers to drink until they had slurred speech, glassy eyes and a lack of coordination. One test required intoxicated officers to walk heel-to-toe down a line and then hold up one leg to demonstrate balance."
Ohio's tax dollars at work...