After Prop. 77 was kicked from the ballot late last week, top members of the governor's political team admitted for the first time that there was
talk to trying to cancel the special election. GOP analyst
Tony Quinn says that's probably a good idea. "He's to the point now where he has to get out from under this special," said Quinn ... "
He is going to get his clock cleaned if we go to a ballot in November."
Quinn went a step further, calling on the governor to crack a few heads. "I also think he needs to do some
serious reshuffling of his political operation. They've largely destroyed the Arnold mystique that was so effective in 2004."
But in
One For Me, One For You News,
a judge also kicked Proposition 80, the measure to re-regulate electricity in California, off the ballot.
But the big news of the weekend was word from the LA Daily News that Assemblyman
Lloyd Levine is
a finalist to become the next Bachelor. "'He's young, he's hot, he's single,
he's what I believe every woman's looking for,' said
Michelle Castillo, a talent producer for the show, now in its eighth installment. 'He's also got a great track record professionally.'"
And if Ms. Castillo keeps talking like that, Levine is going to need a bigger office for that inflated ego. Hey, if
Greg Hill finds a way to get elected in
the special election in AD 53, we could have our very own Reality Show Legislative Caucus!
The Bee's Alexa Bluth writes that the state's
fondness for borrowing is tough to break. "'California still is the highest state in terms of its overall use of external borrowing," both in total dollars and as a percentage of the budget, said
Tim Blake, an analyst for Moody's Investors Service. 'It's good that it's coming down, but the fact that they continue to use borrowing for so long is the reason that their rating is so low.'"
"'It strips our children of the ability to meet their generation's needs as they struggle to repay the billions of dollars of debt that we have heaped upon them to pay for our generation's spending,' said state Sen.
Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks."
The LA Times' Evan Halper reports that initiatives like Live Within Our Means "are
emerging as a centerpiece of a nationwide strategy by influential conservatives to slash government spending in state capitals across the country."
"This is the next big thing at the state level," said Americans for Tax Reform President
Grover Norquist, one of the country's leading anti-tax activists. "A lot of groups have become involved...
Soon you will see it on the ballot in every initiative state." The move is part of a national push led by former House Majority Leader
Dick Armey. "A spending restraint initiative is also expected to appear on the November ballot in Ohio, where a signature gathering effort is wrapping up. By 2006, Maine and Oregon residents probably will vote on similar proposals."
But, the Times reports, the spending restrictions have not gone over so well everywhere. "
Colorado is bucking the trend. There, a decade-old cap threatens to squeeze state spending so much that
Republican Gov. Bill Owens and leaders of the state's business community are imploring voters to pass an initiative on the fall ballot that would lift the cap for five years.
Speaking of Norquist, over the weekend, labor leader
Andy Stern did what Norquist has been trying to do for years --
dramatically cut the influence of the AFL-CIO. Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, brought a collection of service unions and the Teamsters one step closer to leaving the labor federation this weekend.
From our
Double Secret Probation Files, the Times profiles Rep.
George Miller's Washington boarding house for Congressmen,
affectionately dubbed the "Animal House." "For more than 20 years, Miller has operated what amounts to a boarding house for fellow lawmakers. And if Miller is not quite the real-life equivalent of "Animal House" star John Belushi's character, his establishment
bears more than a passing resemblance to its bacchanalian namesake. Miller's tenants tend to forget that empty beer cans go in the trash, not the living room. There are
crickets in the closets and
rats in the walls. The lawn hasn't seen a mower in years.
The television set is so old, a would-be burglar once passed it over."
Sounds a lot like my landlord.
In Stories That Just Won't Die News, the Press-Enterprise hits on the
hot issue of eyebrow threading, which has been the focus of
legislation by Assemblyman
Rudy Bermudez. "Our work was cut out for us," Bermudez said of his lobbying efforts for the bill. "
How many legislators today read Glamour?"
We're putting the over/under at 10.
Finally, we have a project for those of you with little to do with the Legislature out of town. We've been watching our sister site ElectionTrack by AroundtheCapitol.com and have been fascinated by the
donation pattern of pharmaceutical companies to the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America California Initiative Fund. On Friday,
AstraZeneca (maker of "The Purple Pill") kicked in $3,898,500 more, on top of the $650,000 it added to the kitty in February.
There appears to be
several tiers of obligatory contributions based on company size, but we wake up too early to figure it out. So, we'll give a Roundup Initiative Finance badge to the reader that figures out the PhRMA Initiative Fund's donation scheme. As always, send your feedback to
tips@capitolbasement.com.
