"The race for governor this fall
could be the most expensive in state history despite new contribution limits aimed at taking big money out of California politics," write Tom Chorneau and Mark Martin for the Chron.
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has set a $75 million goal for his campaign and is expected to bring in much of that from traditional GOP sources in the business community, including builders, energy and insurance firms, and big pharmaceuticals."
"Democratic challenger
Phil Angelides will try to match the governor by raising money from his party's allies, including labor unions, trial lawyers and consumer groups as well as Greek Americans across the United States."
"
The big wild card in the race is spending from independent groups that are still allowed, under voter-approved Proposition 34,
to accept and spend unlimited funds in support of a candidate as long as there is no coordination."
"With about
$10 million in the bank as of May 20, Schwarzenegger has a head start.
Angelides' coffers are near empty after winning a difficult primary over Controller
Steve Westly that cost a combined $80 million."
"Rank-and-file members of state government's largest public employees union have
authorized their representatives to call a strike if contract talks break down in their ongoing negotiations with the Schwarzenegger administration," reports the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"Service Employees International Union Local 1000 spokesman
Danny Beagle said Monday that 85 percent of the members who voted gave their approval to call a strike, which would be the first of its kind in state history."
"Contract talks, meanwhile, continued Monday. The state has offered a 3 percent general wage increase and has pulled back on some of the pension concessions it had sought last year, although it is still pursuing cost-saving changes in its employees' health care packages, according to Department of Personnel Administration spokeswoman
Lynelle Jolley."
Who wants to work this summer anyway?
Certainly not the Legislature which is
threatening to end this budget season before it even begins.
The Chron's Tom Chorneau reports lawmakers "have their best chance in years for adopting an on-time budget with just a handful of issues still in dispute, Democratic leaders said Monday.
"Then again, said Republicans, maybe not."
Where have we heard this before? Oh, that's right. Every single budget in recent California history.
Assembly Republican budget vice chairman
Rick Keene summed up the delay in two words -- sore losers. Oh wait, those weren't the two words he used. "'Two words -- structural deficit,' said Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico. 'The Democrats are spending too much. They are expanding programs and growing government.'"
Meanwhile, the election postmortem continues, and experts believe slate mailers were
at least partially to blame in the victory of a challenger deemed unqualified over a sitting Los Angeles judge last week, writes Jordan Rau in the Times.
"
Lynn Diane Olson paid $74,950 — 87% of her campaign spending through May 20 — to be listed on 18 slates, including Parents Ballot Guide and the Asian American Vote Guide.
"It's just a thing to make sure people recognize your name," said her husband and campaign manager,
Michael Keegan."
"Though Olson is a Democrat who was rated 'not qualified' by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., she was endorsed in Citizens for Responsible Government, a Republican-oriented slate, which called her 'well qualified' and 'the Republican choice!'"
"
Allan Hoffenblum, the slate's publisher,
called Olson's inclusion an embarrassment that he blamed on himself for not screening her application more carefully."
"'She requested it, she sent in her money and she got on the slate,' he said, adding that if her opponent, Judge
Dzintra Janavs, had also asked to be included he would have evaluated the candidates more closely."
The governor announced last Friday that he intends to reappoint Janavs to the court as quickly as paperwork could be processed.
Speaking of appointments, there is a
showdown between Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and a member of the Coastal Commission. "Chula Vista Mayor
Steve Padilla finds himself in the crossfire between Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez and the state Coastal Commission," writes John Rodgers in the Union Tribune.
Padilla is seen as a swing vote on the Pebble Beach development proposal under consideration by the commission, but will be missing the upcoming meeting for his daughter's sixth grade graduation.
"His alternate is
David Allgood of Los Angeles, an ardent environmentalist and Southern California director of the California League of Conservation Voters."
"On Wednesday, Núñez's staff asked Padilla to replace Allgood with
Elizabeth Blum, a 35-year-old securities lawyer from Encinitas. Núñez appointed Padilla to the commission in July."
"
Steve Maviglio, Núñez's spokesman, said his boss's attempt to change Padilla's alternate has nothing to do with the Pebble Beach situation."
"'To say that the speaker can influence a 12-member commission with one vote is ludicrous,' Maviglio said yesterday."
"Under the law, Padilla has the right to choose his own alternate, subject to Núñez's approval. Padilla said he's not willing to appoint Blum, whom he has never met, without first learning her views on coastal protection."
The LAT's Nancy Vogel
looks at the Legislature's informal "family caucus," which
successfully fought for a $42 million budget augmentation for developmentally disabled. "They call themselves the 'family caucus,' and they are as persistent and well-connected as the Capitol's highest-paid lobbyists, but their interest starts closer to home. Each lawmaker has a family member who is autistic or mentally retarded and holds a job through a state-supported program. The $42 million the family caucus worked to earmark would create hundreds of jobs for other disabled Californians.
"'This is the most success anybody's ever had with getting money for the developmentally disabled community,' said Assemblywoman
Barbara Matthews (D-Tracy). "Sometimes a plan actually comes together."
The four were each motivated by a family member who has a developmental disability or is autistic including Matthews (son),
Russ Bogh (stepbrother),
Betty Karnette (daughter) and
Fran Pavley (son).
While the bipartisan family caucus succeeded in getting their request in the conference committee's budget draft, Assemblymembers are up in arms over the
removal of language prohibiting a toll road through San Onofre State Beach.
"Environmentalists and legislators gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on Monday to decry the Legislature's decision to remove language from California's proposed budget that would have prevented construction of a toll road through San Onofre State Beach," writes David Halfane in the Times.
"'This highway would essentially destroy one of the few remaining stretches of coastal wild land and would send a poor message that encroaching on parks is acceptable,' Assemblyman
Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara) said in a statement released by the Sierra Club, which helped organize the protest."
"'It would be like putting a highway in the middle of Yosemite,' added Assemblywoman
Lois Wolk (D-Davis)."
...or, like putting a
nuclear power plant on the stretch of coastal wild land.
From our Roundup Scorecard, looks like it's Second Amendment: 1, San Francisco: 0. "A judge
struck down San Francisco's voter-approved ban on handgun possession Monday, saying local governments have no such authority under California law," reports the Chron's Bob Egelko.
"Proposition H, which passed with a 58 percent majority in November, would have outlawed possession of handguns by all city residents except law enforcement officers and others who need guns for professional purposes. It also would have forbidden the manufacture, sale and distribution of guns and ammunition in San Francisco."
Looks like another state agency is taking some pointers from the University of California. "
The California Reclamation Board plans to meet Friday in closed session to discuss an alleged violation of the open-meetings law, an irony that is not winning the board any new friends," reports the Bee's Matt Weiser.
"The Reclamation Board oversees flood control in California's Central Valley. The alleged violation occurred April 21, when the board approved details of an encroachment permit for the proposed River Islands project, an 11,000-unit housing development near the San Joaquin County city of Lathrop."
From our
Your Tax Dollars at Work Files, the BBC reports "
the US military investigated building a 'gay bomb', which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.
Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath." Someone must have dropped one of those in a certain Senator's office...
