Jerry Brown said weeks ago during the campaign that he would call a special session to deal with the budget crisis, but Gov. Schwarzenegger beat him to it: The governor is declaring a fiscal emergency and called a special session for for the incoming Legislature.The LAT's Shane Goldmacher and Anthony York have the story.
"Schwarzenegger's announcement comes one day after the state’s chief budget analyst said the shortfall has grown to $25.4 billion."
"By declaring a fiscal emergency and calling the special session, the governor hopes that the new legislators can tackle many of the problems left from the budget that he and the outgoing Legislature approved 34 days ago. That spending plan -- passed 100 days into the fiscal year -- is the latest in modern California history. The goal of the session is to address the estimated $6.1-billion shortfall in the current budget, said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear."
Incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney, who was high on the hit list of national Republican strategists, declared victory in the hotly contested 11th Congressional District.
"The two-term Democrat, the only member of Congress who holds a PhD in mathematics, upset former congressman and rancher Richard Pombo in 2006 to first win the seat."
"He issued a statement late Wednesday saying his lead was insurmountable because there are only about 11,000 provisional ballots left to be counted in the four counties that make up the district. Harmer, however, did not concede the race."
Here's a twist on the statewide campaigns: Lt. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom may delay his swearing in as lieutenant governor in order to have an impact on who is selected to replace him as mayor of San Francisco.
From the Chronicle's John Cote: "Right now, Newsom is slated to start his term as lieutenant governor on Jan. 3. The current board -- with a progressive majority that has clashed with Newsom, a San Francisco-style moderate -- has a meeting scheduled on Jan. 4. That would be their last chance to fill a vacant mayor's office before the new board is sworn in Jan. 8."
"While Newsom says he has made no decision on when he would seek to be sworn in -- "We'll be leaving in early January," he said. -- there appear to be only two possibilities to ensure the current board doesn't pick his successor..."
Arnold Schwarzenegger took office promising to fix the budget mess in Sacramento, but he leaves an even greater mess to his successor, writes the Bee's Dan Walters.
"The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, calculates that the sham budget Schwarzenegger and legislators enacted scarcely a month ago – 100 days late, by the way – is already about $6 billion out of whack, largely because its rosy revenue assumptions and its other gimmicks are collapsing."
"Furthermore, as the nearly $9 billion per year in temporary taxes that Schwarzenegger and the Legislature imposed last year expire, and as the state's economy continues a slow – at best – recovery from recession, the state is looking at annual shortfalls in the $20 billion range for years to come, Taylor noted."
How did Jean Quan manage to topple Don Perata's A-list backing and get elected mayor of Oakland? The Bay Citizen's Zusha Elinson and Gerry Shih take a look.
"Campaign strategists said Quan had taken advantage of a ranked-choice system that was used in Oakland for the first time. She singled out Perata, a conservative Democrat who had outspent everyone, and aligned herself with the other nine candidates, particularly the other major challenger, Rebecca Kaplan. She came to be seen as the leader of the “anybody but Don” coalition, appealing to voters who were wary of Perata."
“We talked to everybody, and if you had a sign for Joe Tuman or Rebecca Kaplan or Don Perata, we wanted their No..2” or to convince them to switch, said Quan, who will become Oakland’s first woman and Asian-American mayor. Jim Ross, a consultant for Kaplan, the councilwoman who finished third, said Quan’s strategy had worked well."
Meanwhile, a hearing officer in Los Angeles County says D.A. Steve Cooley retaliated unfairly against union hearing officers. That news comes as Cooley and rival Kamala Harris are locked in a tight count in the attorney general's race.
"Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley waged an illegal anti-union campaign in which he and his staff harassed and unfairly disciplined union officers, a county hearing officer has decided in a labor dispute."
"In a sharply worded decision issued Wednesday, Thomas S. Kerrigan found that veteran prosecutors with outstanding evaluations were transferred to less desirable assignments in retaliation for their union work. The conclusions follow more than a year of legal wrangling at the county Employee Relations Commission between Cooley and the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys."
And finally, we turn to our "South of the Border" file to find that the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. wants the National Rifle Association to help curb gun-running into Mexico. Uh, say what?
"Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States, said the NRA needs to help combat the illegal trafficking of guns into Mexico by educating American gun owners and sellers about how it threatens security in Mexico."
"This would be a win/win for the NRA," Sarukhan told the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. "They ensure they are not being criticized for ... either complicity, overtly or covertly allowing guns to go into the hands of drug traffickers who then cross them over the border into Mexico."
"...About 90 percent of the guns seized and traced in Mexico last year were initially sold in the United States. This "iron river" of weapons flowing south to the cartels includes assault rifles and decorative pistols popular with drug kingpins."
Arturo, don't hold your breath...