State senate Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg will pass the baton today to new leader Kevin de León. The Bee’s AM Alert notes the transition.
“Tonight Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, takes the oath of office. And while de León’s Assembly counterpart ascended during a bipartisan hosanna-filled ceremony at the State Capitol, de León will be taking advantage of the legislative recess and marking the occasion on his home turf. That means a gala at the swooping Los Angeles Music Center. The California Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation is hosting the event at a cost of about $50,000.”
De León, the first Latino to lead the senate since 1883, first came to note as a leader of 1994 protests against Prop 187 – now, thirty years later, he is ascending to one of the state’s highest offices. Patrick McGreevy offers an in depth look at the incoming Pro Tem in the Los Angeles Times.
“Raised in poverty by a single mother from Mexico, De León — single with a daughter in college — has carried his activist agenda through eight years in the Legislature. He has championed affirmative action programs, and salvaged a bill providing driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally.
“At an event last week sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California, De León voiced support for expanding state healthcare benefits to such immigrants. But he added a major caveat: finding an acceptable way to pay for it — pragmatism more indicative of a seasoned politician than a young ideologue.”
Rep. Tom McClintock traded blows with challenger Art Moore at a feisty debate at the Auburn city hall last night (complete video here). The intra-party race between a lifetime pol and a new-to-politics Iraq War vet has been testy from the start, but in the reverse of Tea Party attempts to unseat GOP incumbents, Moore is a moderate attacking McClintock for championing gridlock. To block the attack, McClintock has cited his bipartisan bonafides. Not so fast, says Dan Morain in the Sacramento Bee.
“The website govtrack.us reports that McClintock signed on as co-sponsor of 136 bills in the most recent Congress. Only 15 of those bills, 3.7 percent, were introduced by Democrats. That was the lowest percentage of bipartisan co-sponsorship among California’s 53 House members. No. 52 on the list was the paragon of bipartisanship, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, at 4.3 percent.”
And, speaking of house races, the Ro Khanna-Mike Honda race for CD-17 is much tighter than expected according to a new poll released by Khanna’s campaign showing the candidates virtually tied. Those results conflict with earlier polls and show tremendous movement from the primary, where Honda garnered 48% of the vote to Khanna’s 28% showing. Many observers are simply shrugging the poll off as an outlier, but Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine at Calbuzz take a deeper look at the results.
“[W]hen the Ro Khanna campaign touted a new poll showing their guy even at 38% with U.S. Rep. Mike Honda in Silicon Valley’s 17th CD, we were willing to take a look, if they gave us the entire thing, from San Francisco pollster David Binder. Which they did.
“According to Binder’s poll, the Khanna-Honda race is – against the odds — up for grabs, with Khanna pulling 33% plus 5% of leaners and Honda drawing 34% and 4% of leaners. That leaves about one-fourth of the voters – 24% — undecided and up for grabs with less than three weeks to go.”
As a Latino Los Angeles lawmaker prepares to take over the Pro Tem’s office, another era ended in San Francisco’s Bay Area today: The San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper published its last issue after 48 years of progressive muckraking. The paper was a political powerhouse right up to the end, according to John Wildermuth and Vivian Ho atSFGate.
“’Because of their willingness to advocate most strongly for their causes, at their apex they were probably the most influential newspaper in San Francisco,’ said [Eric] Jaye, whose campaigns often found themselves targets of the Bay Guardian’s ire. ‘Even when they were wrong, they were doggedly wrong.’
“’In many ways, whether you agree or disagree with them, the Guardian has assumed the role of social conscience’ of the city, [Democratic state Sen. Mark] Leno said. ‘They had the wherewithal to stake a position, make a case and unapologetically push for it.’”
