Re-election speculation: After
Maria Shriver's appearance last week on Oprah where she said
"I want him home" referring to the frustrations of balancing the governor's schedule and family life, the cards the governor was showing yesterday in San Diego pointed to re-election. The San Diego Union-Tribune
reports "'We don't want to wait another year because next year it gets all caught up in politics,' [the governor] said. 'We want to have reform this year because
next year's re-election and there's other elections going on, so let's do it this year.'"
In
"Best Damn Political Rally, Period" News, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is hosting a rally for the guv on the west steps of the Capitol tomorrow. "Please join us at a rally to thank Gov. Schwarzenegger for standing up to the special interests that want to raise our taxes by billions of dollars," reads the invite. "On Wednesday, April 13, California taxpayers are coming together on the west steps of the State Capitol from 10:30 a.m. to noon to express their gratitude to the governor for having the courage to put California back on track. Guest speakers include actor and comedian
Tom Arnold, local radio personality
Eric Hogue, State Senator
Tom McClintock and Assembly Member
Bonnie Garcia."
Tom Arnold's voice has apparently been used to make robo-calls in support of the governor's agenda. Are we the only ones who think that's a bad idea? The governor gets taken down for going after police widows and his response is ... Tom Arnold?
Meanwhile, others on the governor's right flank say his
spending cap proposal, like his pension plan, is
deeply flawed. "It doesn't do what it purports to do because of significant drafting errors," said state Sen.
John Campbell, R-Irvine, a staunch Schwarzenegger supporter who wrote a competing spending-cap initiative that the governor chose not to endorse.
But Dan Weintraub says the governor's experience on trying to overhaul the state's pension system has, if nothing else,
gotten local governments and public safety leaders engaged on the issue, and could lead to
major reform in the months ahead. "If the groups that stood next to Schwarzenegger last week stand behind him in the months ahead, the governor might soon be proposing some solid reforms that promise Californians a sound public pension system that is fair to employees and won't break the bank. One could argue that his first plan did that as well, but the
next one should have far broader support."
In "
Why Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Put Off Until the Day After Tomorrow" News, the Legislature seems poised to
delay the vote of the high speed rail bond -- again. "If the bill, authored by
Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, is approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, voters will have to wait until 2008 to decide on a $9.95 billion bond that will pay for the primary route of the rail. The bond currently is scheduled to go before voters in November 2006."
On the same day that the
California Nurses Association unveiled new billboards critical of the governor over his uphill fight to loosen nursing ratios, Corrections chief
Rod Hickman announced the end of alternative parole strategies that have been blasted in television commercials by victims groups. The announcement came one day before today's annual lobby day for crime victims.
Meanwhile, the State Senate
approved the overhaul of the corrections system yesterday, although observers are divided as to whether the governor or
Gloria Romero emerges as the bigger political victor. The Merc News
reports on objections raised by senate Republicans "'This measure regrettably is a big step backward in promoting public safety,' said Sen.
Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield."
Dan Morain writes the political science column on the
dos and don'ts of California's initiative process, using the governor's experience with pension reform as a subject case. "Initiative promoters make mistakes when they write them. Backers miscalculate their support; foes outflank and outspend them.
Initiative promoters can't control their ideas once they become public. And for the most part, voters are skeptics."
LA Mayor Race: Former Los Angeles Lakers star and local businessman
Magic Johnson endorsed Antonio Villariagosa yesterday. "'Don't get me wrong,' Johnson said. 'Mayor Hahn is a good guy. He just doesn't have the energy for the job.'"
Kevin Shelley fundraiser
Julie Lee pleaded not guilty to eight felony and two misdemeanor charges yesterday.
For those waiting for the governor's dirty laundry to be aired in public, forget it. Apparently,
he doesn't have any, according to one British tabloid. "The Terminator star is so passionate about living an unsullied life that he
burns any dirty clothes he finds lying about the house, according to the First Lady. "He goes around the house taking the kids' clothes that they leave. He throws things in the fire or he hides things and they don't ever get them back. And he is serious about it – I am scared to death too."
Don't know much about geography: Yesterday, we mentioned a Bay Area bridge shooting, but mentioned the wrong bridge. The shooting was on the Golden Gate, not the Bay Bridge.
And finally, it's time for today's
Sexy Cheerleading Update. Our little item about a San Jose State alumnus's angry response to the school's dance team maneuvers, and the subsequent suspension of the dance team by the university, has piqued the ire of another SJSU alum. Former Assemblyman
Fred Keeley sent us the details of his exchange with the school, which resulted in Keeley
removing the university from his will until the dance team is reinstated. In a press release, which is marked to be distributed "as needed," the school says after further review, "we concluded that
the team's infrastructure was inadequate and inconsistent with our mission," whatever that means. The team will be back next year, but "will remain under our structural umbrella. We will take
a much more active role supervising and managing the dance team. We will produce
a defined set of guidelines, parameters and expectations.
Keeley responded by notifying the school, in writing, that they were out of the will -- literally. "I think that cheerleading, athletic team support 'dancers' and other similar activities
tend to objectify women and is therefore
not something that I particularly like, it is
well within the bounds of free expression," he writes. "Also, the notion that the entire dance team activity has been suspended while some kind of review is conducted, is plainly absurd. It seems to me that this
implies some kind of guilt or violation by the team. If that is the case, it would seem that the presumption of innocence should apply."
Read the entire sordid story, by downloading
the university's statement, and
Keeley's full response. 
