From our "
I Brought You Into This World, I can Take You Out" Files, the Merc's Andrew LaMar digs up the much-ballyhooed and often-rumored
Legislative Counsel opinion which finds the
governor may cancel the special election and move everything to June.
"The analysis says the governor is entitled to cancel the election
as long as no "vested rights'' are violated, and until the voting starts, the opinion says, there are no such rights to interfere with.
The Bee looks at the fundraising of the friends and foes of the governor's ballot initiatives, and finds that
they are about even -- at least on the fundraising side. "'You've got very big numbers coming in, and I don't think it's unrealistic that in what was supposed to be an off-election year - when it's all done -
this special election could see in excess of $500 million in spending,' said
Barbara O'Connor, a politics and media expert at California State University, Sacramento."
Democratic and labor groups "have
raised about $22 million and spent about half that on advertising against Schwarzenegger's agenda." The guv and his business allies, meanwhile, have spent all of the $23 million they've raised to date.
The latest fundraising reports show Schwarzenegger with $1 million in debt. But in a preemptive email sent to reporters yesterday,
Todd Harris cautioned reporters that the governor
does not raise money based on fundraising deadlines, and that he raised $2 million more since the filing report deadline of June 30. Still, only $1 million on hand doesn't sound like a whole lot of three major statewide initiative campaigns.
The Merc News reports the governor
has a ways to go before reaching his fundraising goals. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to raise nearly $30 million if he hopes to reach a $50 million goal for promoting his 'reform' package on the Nov. 8 special election ballot."
That's a big hurdle with only three months left, particularly with poll numbers not exactly creating political momentum. Wouldn't it be nicer to have, say, ten months?
Heck, $1 million isn't even enough to cover
Don Perata's annual legal bills. The Bee's Kevin Yamamura reports the Senate leaders
spends about $116,000 per month on attorneys to "defend against an FBI inquiry into whether he received outside income for legislative work, according to records released Monday."
With new fundraising reports coming in, the Bee also checks out the
money behind Prop. 75, the measure to require public employee unions to obtain permission before dues are used for political contributions, and finds that eight donors make up more than half the initiative's funds. The funds were paid into the Small Business Action Committee (SBAC), and then passed on to the Yes on Proposition 75 account. "
Ameriquest Capital, of Orange, gave SBAC $250,000. The
California Business Properties Association's issues committee contributed $200,000. The
New Majority Political Action Committee, which represents moderate Republican business owners, came in at $150,000. Wal-Mart heir
John T. Walton, who died in a June 27 plane crash, contributed $100,000."
"Other large contributors included Eureka mortgage broker
Robin P. Arkley II ($100,000), Los Angeles investment banker
Frank Baxter ($75,000), Beverly Hills businesswoman
Paula Kent Meehan ($50,000) and the
Watson Land Co. of Carson ($10,000)."
Overall, this "off-year" has been a boon for political fundraising, thanks in large part to large drug companies. "Led by national drug companies that have poured $58.5 million into an initiative fight with national implications,
promoters and candidates have raised more than $116 million they can use in campaigns this year and beyond."
Speaking of big bucks, the Times reports that
Antonio Villaraigosa spent
more than twice the amount spent by defeated incumbent Jim Hahn. ""It's a sign that a lot of people saw Jim wounded beyond salvation and got on the bandwagon with Villaraigosa,' [political consultant
Larry] Levine said. 'I am surprised by the size of the gap because generally incumbents are stronger fundraisers.'"
Meanwhile, the attorney general's office has
opened an investigation into the financial practices of the J. Paul Getty Trust. A memo written by the trust's general counsel "said the attorney general has requested eight years of records relating to trust Chief Executive
Barry Munitz's compensation and expenses, as well as expenditures made for his wife, grants, gifts to trustees and a 2002 real estate transaction."
The special election to fill the Assembly seat left vacant by the death of
Mike Gordon was shaken up by
Jim Aldinger's announcement that he is not running. That leaves Torrance councilman
Ted Lieu as the only Democrat in the race, increasing chances that he could win the seat outright on September 13.
Four Republicans and a Peace and Freedom candidate are also in the race. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote in September, the top candidate from each party moves on to the November 8 runoff.
Adding fuel to the initiative effort to outlaw domestic partnership benefits, the
California Supreme Court ruled 6-0 yesterday that "[b]usinesses that provide discounts, special services or other privileges to married couples
must extend the same rights and benefits to same-sex couples registered as state domestic partners..."
The Chron
explains the ruling: "The justices crafted a narrow decision and sidestepped arguments by [Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's
Jon] Davidson and other gay-rights lawyers that a business policy favoring married couples discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation -- similar to arguments raised in a separate case challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage. There was no need to address that issue in this case, the court said Monday, because no evidence was offered that the golf club's policy was intended to discriminate against gays and lesbians.
Instead, the justices said the Unruh Act, a California law requiring businesses to treat customers equally, prohibits discrimination against registered domestic partners."
