Dual developments set the California political community abuzz yesterday: Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom announced (via Facebook) that he would not be running for Barbara Boxer’s senate seat, followed a few hours later by reports that Attorney General Kamala Harris would announce her candidacy today.
From Alex Isenstadt at Politico: “As of Monday afternoon, the two still hadn’t spoken. But Newsom, who had left a message with Harris outlining his intentions, went ahead anyway and announced on Facebook that he wouldn’t be running for Senate in 2016.
“Newsom’s withdrawal capped a furious 72 hours of discussions among the would-be candidates and their advisers over whether to jump at the state’s first open Senate seat in two decades, or hold out for a shot at leading a state that is the world’s eighth-largest economy.
“In announcing his plans, Newsom, 47, got out ahead of Harris, 50, who has told friends that she is also interested in the job of governor. Instead, on Tuesday, she will launch a campaign for Boxer’s seat, knowing that if she hesitated, it would appear that she was reluctant to choose the Senate over the governorship. In doing so, she will circumvent a race against Newsom; it has long been assumed that they would avoid a titanic clash that would leave one of them badly wounded, their hopes for higher office potentially derailed."
Politico also reports that billionaire enviro Tom Steyer has made over a hundred calls as he explores a run for the seat. How many calls has Antonio Villaraigosa made?
Victoria Colliver reports that California’s State Department of Insurance regulators levied nearly $28 million in fines on Mercury Insurance for improperly collecting brokerage fees. From SFGate:
“The fine, issued by the Department of Insurance, was the culmination of years of litigation that involved more than 180,000 transactions conducted from 1999 through 2004.
“’Justice has finally been done. Companies need to be punished and realize they can’t just engage in these practices,’ said Pamela Pressley, litigation director for Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group. ‘A penalty in this range sends a strong message to companies ... that you can’t get away with violating the law year after year.’”
Citing aging education infrastructure, construction groups Monday launched an effort to qualify a $9 billion bond to pay for new school construction. From Jim Miller at the Sacramento Bee:
“’Every child deserves access to safe, secure, modern learning environments,’ Joe Dixon, the chairman of the Coalition for Adequate School Housing and an assistant superintendent at the Santa Ana Unified School District, said in a statement Monday from the pro-bond Californians for Quality Schools. ‘This is an investment in the development of our state’s future workforce, and will help ensure our children are prepared to compete in a 21st Century global economy.’
“Dave Cogdill, a former Modesto lawmaker who leads the California Building Industry Association, another member of the quality schools group, said the bond would ‘be a stabilizing force in our fragile economic recovery.’ He predicted that 13,000 jobs would be created for every $1 billion spent.”
“Will Evans at The Center for Investigative Reporting dug into state employees’ habit of hoarding more than their allotted 80 banked days of vacation time in order to cash out at retirement - a practice that Evans estimates will cost the state a whopping $447 million.
“Tens of thousands of state employees have exceeded the official limit of 80 banked vacation days, leaving the state on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.
“What are the names of the workers at the top of the list? The State Controller’s Office, which collects the information and generally prides itself on transparency, wouldn’t say.
“Rick Chivaro, the controller’s top lawyer, said he considered the information confidential, even though his office routinely discloses salaries of state workers by name.
“It turns out that one of the two top vacation troves belongs to Chivaro himself. By June of last year, he had saved up 498 days of vacation, more than six times the limit. If he retired with that much time off, Chivaro could cash out $317,000 – nearly two years of pay.”
Fresno mayor Ashley Swearingin’s name may have surfaced on lists of potential GOP candidates for Barbara Boxer’s senate seat, but her consultant, Tim Clark, discounts those rumors (he can do fundraising math, apparently). Instead, he hints that she may be in line for a slot in the Brown administration. Hey, stranger things have happened.
From John Ellis at the Fresno Bee: “Yes, Brown is a Democrat and Swearengin a Republican, but those that consider such possibilities are busy building evidence — all of it circumstantial.
“For instance, Swearengin didn’t endorse her fellow Republican, Neel Kashkari, who faced Brown in last year’s gubernatorial race. And Brown didn’t endorse Swearengin’s state controller opponent, fellow Democrat Betty Yee.
“Last week, Swearengin made a Sacramento day trip for Brown’s fourth-term inauguration. Yee wasn’t at the inauguration. The following day, Brown was in Fresno for the high-speed rail groundbreaking, where he had another chance to powwow with the mayor.”
Hmmmm.
Former Capitol Weekly editor and Los Angeles Times political reporter Anthony York launched his Grizzly Bear Project this week - keep an eye on this one.
"Through storytelling, journalism, aggregation and data-driven projects, this venture seeks to document some of that change and highlight some of those challenges, and examine how and whether California’s policy makers are properly preparing for what lies ahead.
By taking a ground-floor look at how California is changing, we can better prepare ourselves for our future. This venture is about examining those changes and exploring what they mean for California. The Grizzly Bear Project is my effort to gather and add to the journalism being done documenting that change and provoke a thoughtful discussion about California’s future. We’ll see how that goes."
Also, congrats to policy analyst Micah Weinberg who has been named president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
And, today marks the anniversary of the Treaty of Cahuenga, which ended the Mexican-American War in “Alta California” in 1847 and paved the way for California to become part of the United States. Like so many things Californian, it came from Hollywood.
From Wikipedia: “…Drafted in English and Spanish by José Antonio Carrillo, approved by American Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Frémont and Mexican Governor Andrés Pico on January 13, 1847 at Campo de Cahuenga in what is now North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.”
The treaty ended hostilities between Mexico and America in the California territory and conferred American rights and privileges to Californios who agreed to obey the laws and regulations of the United States. In 1848, the Treaty of Hidalgo formally ceded California (and other territories) to the United States.
“[Andrés] Pico later became a State Assemblyman and then a State Senator representing Los Angeles in the California State Legislature.”
If he were alive today we’re sure he’d be running for Boxer’s seat.
