First, the bad news for Kevin Shelley. He's been
"invited" to come testify before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee as the committee discusses the state auditor's probe of Shelley's handling of federal voting funds. The good news? The hearing has been moved from Tuesday, Jan. 11 to Monday, Jan. 10. Why is that good news? Because Jan. 10 is also the day Gov. Schwarzenegger is releasing his budget. Though Shelley may not get moved off the front pages completely, it's a good bet more people will be focused on the governor next Monday than the Secretary of State.
The scheduling change was requested by the Senate, and Perata spokesman Dave Sebeck said the official reason for the date change is that Senators have a pre-existing scheduling conflict for Tuesday.
That conflict? Mandatory ethics training.
Sometimes, the punch line writes itself.
It may be worth watching to see if there is a difference in the way the two houses treat Shelley. On Dec. 16, Speaker Nuñez announced his appointments to JLAC, at Parra’s request,"to allow the members adequate time to prepare for the January hearing.” As of this writing, Perata has yet to formally name any Senators to the committee.
Also from our good news/bad news files, Schwarzenegger has announced some
new appointments. The problem? They are appointments to boards
marked for elimination.
The Merc previews the governor's budget plan, and its apparent call for
more borrowing.Schwarzenegger has announced the authors of his major special session bills. Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher will carry the Education Fiscal Transparency bill; Keith Richman, of course, will carry the pension reform; Kevin McCarthy will lead the redistricting charge; and freshman Senator George Runner will carry the teacher merit pay proposal.
The
merit pay plan underscores how Wilsonian the governor's State of the State address was. (That's Pete, not Woodrow.) Just 12 short years ago, the state faced a multi-billion dollar deficit and the Republican governor was at war with Democrats in the Legislature, teachers' unions and other labor groups. That was when the idea of merit pay for teachers emerged. The author of the proposal was Republican Curt Pringle, who is now the
Los Angeles Mayor of Anaheim.
CTA's "bipartisan" days over? LAT's Helfand and Rubin
quote Barbara Kerr: "I am very disappointed. We had an agreement. I worked very hard to have a bipartisan organization. Right now I don't feel very bipartisan."
Meanwhile, Kevin Gordon of the school business officials
takes a less more pro-Schwarzenegger approach. "They just said we made the deal, we thought we could keep the deal, but we can't keep the deal." Apparently, he won't be joining the school administrators' "war" that was declared yesterday.
Steve Lopez
flunks the guv's education plan.
The only hint of bipartisanship in the Capitol Thursday was the unveiling of
the governor's California Rx plan. The legislation will be carried by Sens. Deborah Ortiz (who if she doesn't run for Congress is expected to run for Insurance Commissioner) and Republican Chuck Poochigian. The kickoff represented a coup of sorts for the governor, who not only got Ortiz on board, but traditionally Democratic groups like the California Medical Association and AARP.
We're guessing both groups got an earful of Dario Frommer for joining forces with the governor.
As the details of the governor's Corrections reorg plan emerge,
CCPOA complains that everybody "will get new business cards and letterhead . . . " but not much else. Translation: Nobody invited us to the party to discuss the changes.
That kind of complaining is likely to have as much impact as
Barbara Boxer's little stunt in Washington Thursday.
Just asking: If the teachers are spending money in the special election on a campaign to save their salaries, while the other unions are spending their money to try to save their own pensions, who's going to bankroll the opposition to the governor's redistricting plan?
Looking for a new job for the new year? Now may be a good time to
launch that political consulting firm.
Ixnay on the edistrictingray: California's congressional delegation and the Department of Finance have
three good reasons to worry about the Governor's call for judge-drawn districts. Will the governor's plan lead to civil war among the state's GOP congressional delegation?
