The Public Policy Institute of California is
out with a new poll today, meaning we'll all be suffering from a deluge of spin e-mails throughout the day.
The governor's approval rating is 33%, with a disapproval of 58%. The most disheartening fact for the governor from the poll is that Californians rated President Bush's job performance
and his response to Hurricane Katrina better than the job the governor is doing.
The governor's team will point out that the poll was taken the week of the governor's re-election leaks, but before his commercials hit the air. While 40% of the respondents believe the special election is a good idea, 53% say it's a bad idea.
Proposition 74:
43% Yes
47% No
Proposition 76:
26% Yes
63% No
Proposition 77:
33% Yes
50% No
Proposition 78:
43% Yes
38% No
Proposition 79:
34% Yes
40% No
The governor
visited Sun Microsystems yesterday to try to shift the tide. "'You've helped me up until now,' the governor told 150 Sun employees who had been selected by their supervisors to listen to his stump speech and ask him a few questions. 'I need your help again.'"
Apparently,
Steve Jobs wasn't available.
Rob Reiner will join the campaign against the union dues measure, Prop. 75, with a speech today in San Francisco. "Reiner will discuss the impact of Proposition 75 on the Bay area, on education, health care and public safety," according to a release from the Alliance for a Better California.
The AP reports that the governor
restated his intention to veto the gay marriage bill. "'Our administration has done everything it can to support gay people, gay couples and everything,' Schwarzenegger said, but added that unless the courts weighed in or voters overturned Proposition 22 -- an initiative passed in 2000 defining marriage as between a man and a woman -- he could not sanction the legislation."
Meanwhile, Capitol Weekly's Shane Goldmacher
reports on the political advertising industry, including why the governor's team must pay a premium for each ad. According to public records and media sources,
the governor has yet to book TV time for the end of the campaign, which could end up costing them.
"[B]ecause they booked late, they paid a premium. Unlike candidate races where television stations are forced, by federal regulations, to offer ad space at the 'lowest unit cost' (i.e. the cheapest price that ad space has been sold for, to either commercial or political buyers), there are no such regulations of ad prices for initiative campaigns. And so the prices go up the later a campaign books their spots."
"For example, on Monday, during Schwarzenegger's appearance on the Tonight Show, CRT purchased one 30-second spot for $1,500. The pharmaceutical companies [supporting Proposition 78] bought the same spot, on the same show, on the same night for $300 less.
Earlier that evening, Schwarzenegger's group aired an ad during KCRA's 6pm news for $4,500, compared to $3,000 for the same spot for PhRMA."
And, finally, someone (Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan) has written
The Story of Irwin, the eccentric Capitol staffer who is has been a mainstay in the building for years.
"Then there was the famous red-tape 'Irwin line' that former Assemblyman
Dick Floyd, D-Hawthorne, had placed in his office to hold Nowick back. But when both Floyd and [Irwin's boss Senator
Steve] Peace were termed out, it was Irwin who got to stay. [Longtime Bill Lockyer staffer
Nathan] Barankin said that legislators scrambled to find a staff position for Nowick. "No one could imagine the place without him,' Barankin said."
"'I never understood what his problem with me was,' Nowick said of Floyd."
"'Look where Dick is. Look where I am.'"
"Where is Dick Floyd now?"
"'I have no idea. But it reminds of the phrase in that song, 'I'm still here.'"
What song is that again? Moving on...
Cindy Tuck, who was rejected by the Senate after Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed her to head the Air Resources Board, has been
named to a new post at the Environmental Protection Agency.
"'I think this job makes a lot more sense for Cindy Tuck, because it gives her a chance to realize her goal of public service in a lower-profile role than chairing the air board, which is not a job for people whose only previous experience has been in industry,' said
Bill Magavern, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club."
In Dellums Watch news, a group announced it has collected more than
8,000 signatures on petitions urging the former congressman to run for mayor of Oakland. "'We want to bring a new politics to Oakland,' said co-organizer
Kitty Kelly Epstein at a rally outside the downtown Oakland federal office building that bears Dellums' name. 'We don't need to settle for low-life politics in Oakland.'"
In
Fiscal Conservatism news, John Myers reports that both major parties have raised about the same amount of money so far this year, but that
one party has been more liberal in its spending. "California's
Democrats raised almost $6.3 million in January-August period, and
reported having a whopping $6.1 million in cash sitting in the bank.
Golden State Republicans raised almost as much in the same period-- $6.1 million-- but only had $752,000 left in their coffers at the end of August.
In the wake of
Tom DeLay's indictment, it looked for a moment as if Rep.
David Dreier would step into the House GOP's No. 2 slot. But late yesterday, the job went to Missouri Rep.
Roy Blount.
"Dreier spokeswoman
Jo Maney said Dreier declined to move up to the powerful majority leader's post because it is temporary and he would have had to give up his chairmanship. All legislation passes through the Rules Committee, which decides the procedures for the debate on the House floor."
