With Tuesday's unofficial deadline for submission for a November 8 special election, backers of ballot measures converged on county clerks offices to get their items on the voters' agenda. The Alliance for a Better California
announced it was submitting signatures for two measures, and "the next bit of suspense is whether [the governor] decides to call for the vote."
Certainly, this is more riveting than any Schwarzenegger flick, with one or two possible exceptions.
The LA Times reports: "Schwarzenegger's poll numbers have slid precipitously as he has pushed his plans. 'If the governor prevails on most, if not all, of his proposals, this will give him a resurgence of momentum and likely break the back of the Democratic opposition,' said
Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University. 'If he loses, after putting all of his prestige on the line, this will cut the legs out from under him. We're really looking at a crossroads here.'"
(Directors note: Insert bad sports/casino metaphor here)Dan Walters
agrees that this is the deciding point of the governor's political career. "He will either emerge from this year with enhanced stature, having confronted the state's most influential political interests and won, or be on his way to becoming a footnote to history,
California's version of Jesse Ventura."
Walters continues on to say that, if Schwarzenegger can't do it, no one can. "Could it be impossible for a Democratic governor to succeed? Ask [
Gray] Davis."
If a November election is called by Governor Schwarzenegger and the measures that have been submitted are certified as having enough signatures, the ballot would have
eight measures: budget reform, two prescription drug initiatives, energy re-regulation, parental consent for abortion, redistricting reform, teacher tenure reform and union political dues checkoff.
Yesterday's decision by ABC to go ahead with their prescription drug plan, and PhRMA's decision to move ahead with theirs, shows that not even PhRMA lobbyist
Willie Brown has the negotiating power to stop this train.
After seeing two of their bills defeated by the legislature yesterday, opponents of gay marriage announced that they hope to gether signatures to
place a gay marriage ban on the June 2006 ballot.Passive death penalty: "'A federal judge took the first formal step Tuesday toward
placing the California prison health care system in receivership, saying it
has killed 'a significant number of prisoners' and is sure to kill more without drastic intervention." The Bee's article doesn't mention what we've heard...that the governor's office has sent a memo to the University of California informing UC that it will assume responsibility for prison health care next year. UC is understandably not crazy about its new client.
Formal tolerance: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has
adopted a resolution banning derogatory terms at its board meetings. "'The intent of this resolution is to make a clear statement that discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, weight, height or place of birth will not be tolerated in San Francisco city government,' said [supe
Aaron] Peskin, who himself has endured unkind comments about his short stature, and the
little old lady who lives in a shoe, who is a wee bit sensitive about where she was born.
In response, Joe O'Donoghue, the head of the Residential Builders Association, said "
It's the angry dwarf, that's all this is," O'Donoghue said, using one of his derogatory monikers for Peskin. He added that he had another name for the supervisors' president: Heinrich Peskin -- as in Heinrich Himmler, Adolf Hitler's top aide.
Why, oh why, can't the world be more like San Francisco politics?
From our
Jane, You Ignorant Slut Files, for all of who who don't get along with somebody in your office, check out
this very public flame war between two LA Weekly writers,
Marc Cooper and Nikki Finke courtesy of LA Observed.
Among the highlights, Cooper to Finke: "If it makes you feel better to pull ur pants all the way down and start claiming what I said and I didnt say would merely expose your own miserable ethical code."
So
that's where reporters keep their ethical code.
Finally, in Inland Empire news, drivers are preparing for
this weekend's Soap Box Derby. Unfortunately, actor
Tony Danza was eliminated in an early qualifying round.
Click here to see the video.
