Nineteen days before Election Day, national political figures are flocking to California to help their allies, and the clogged campaign trail is getting even more crowded.
From the L.A. Times' Seema Mehta: "The onslaught of top draws from both sides of the
political aisle benefits both the candidates receiving
the help and the celebrities offering it. The interest
is prompted by several factors, chief among them the
fact that the gubernatorial and Senate contests in
blue-leaning California are so tight this close to election
day."
"The stakes are even higher than normal," said Jack
Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna
College and former national GOP official. "It's an unusual amount of attention. These
elections are more competitive than we've seen in a
long time."
The behind-the-scenes negotiations over the budget included a deal
on some nonbudget items -- a deal that some in the Capitol believe was breached by the governor.
Capitol Weekly's Anthony York has the story: "But there was grumbling in the Capitol that Schwarzenegger deliberately cut deeply into the spending plan because there were items unrelated to the budget that Schwarzenegger wanted approved – and lawmakers failed to pass them."
"The items on that wish list included allowing a major media company, ClearChannel, to use freeway signs for advertising. The signs, familiar to motorists, currently carry alerts about missing children, fleeing felons and safety information for drivers, among other information."
One of the year's most interesting legislative campaigns is going on in Orange County, where long shot Long Pham -- who was out once -- is back as a write-in, reports CW's Malcolm Maclachlan.
"A young Vietnamese-American Democrat is taking on a white Republican — with a Vietnamese-American Republican running a write-in campaign that could potentially shift the balance in what is shaping up to be a very close race."
"But shift it which way? Long Pham is a 59-year-old engineer who lost the GOP primary against Costa
Mesa Mayor Allen Mansoor with a mere 31 percent of the vote. Since deciding to re-enter the race as a write-in in mid-August, Pham has mainly been campaigning in the Vietnamese
community, which makes up nearly a quarter of likely
voters in the district. This would imply that he would
be more likely to take votes away from Phu Nguyen,
the 33-year-old who beat out another Vietnamese-American candidate, Joe Dovinh, with 59 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary."
The political fight over insurance commissioner typically pits business interests and insurers and against the trial bar, but another political force -- organized labor -- is increasingly being felt in the race, notes Capitol Weekly's John Howard.
"In part, that’s because the insurance commissioner could be playing a larger role as the federal health-care reform program unfolds in California. Also, labor groups see health care benefits as a collective bargaining issue – a position that potentially could conflict with the soon-to-be-created Health Insurance Exchanges – and want a powerful ally in the commissioner’s office.
“Everybody in the fabric of the community where our members live is impacted by the decisions that the commissioner makes,” said Willie L. Pelote Sr. of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which supports Jones. “It’s not about ‘labor versus the insurance industry,’ it’s that the community should win and not the insurance industry."
When the National Organization for Women in California demanded that Jerry Brown fire the aide who made the "whore" slur, eyebrows were raised. When NOW quickly rescinded that demand, the eyebrows went up further.
From Politico's Andy Barr: "Hours later, however, they backed away from that position, calling the incident "a teachable moment."
"Neither Manatt Phelps nor Anderson's firm, Platinum Advisors, was licensed to work on pension fund investments, according to New York officials."
And finally, from our always exciting "Teen Tales" file, comes the story of the young motorist who just passed his driver's test at the DMV and then crashed -- into the DMV.
"The accident happened Wednesday afternoon as the teen was trying to leave the parking lot of a driver license center in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bridgeville. Officials said at least three people were injured, but their injuries were not considered serious."
"Township police Sgt. Brian Halbleib told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the accident happened when the teen pulled into the parking lot of the driver license center to drop off the man who had administered the test. Halbleib said the teen thought the car was in park but it wasn't."