OK, triangulation is one thing, but denial is a little bit weird.
"Call it election-year politics, or GOP nervousness, or a desire to get distance from an unpopular president -- but, in a highly unusual move, Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
attended a fancy White House dinner Monday and his office wouldn't acknowledge it," writes the Chron's Carla Marinucci.
"The White House dinner gala honored the governor's mother-in-law,
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and celebrated her work as founder of the Special Olympics, an organization that promotes physical fitness for children and adults with developmental disabilities, a program Schwarzenegger has ardently supported."
"Schwarzenegger and his wife,
Maria Shriver, attended the White House event, but neither officially acknowledged the trip. Indeed, the governor's office released an announcement that he would be 'out of state' and would have no official events on Monday -- never mentioning the White House invitation for the event scheduled on Eunice Shriver's birthday."
"'
Why would Schwarzenegger be so embarrassed about the president honoring his mother-in-law?' [Angelides strategist
Bob] Mulholland said. 'That's an embarrassment itself. Every president honors people who have devoted their lives to helping others.'"
"Looking to boost his support among a growing segment of the electorate, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
will announce today the formation of a new coalition of Latino supporters," writes Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.
Is
Antonio Villaraigosa on that list?
"Schwarzenegger is trying to counter some negative perceptions he has generated among some prominent members of the Latino community who disagree with his stances on illegal immigration and other issues."
"'This is an opportunity for Hispanic leaders to come together and show their support for the governor and his strong record on issues important to our community,' said
Arnoldo Torres, a Schwarzenegger campaign adviser. 'The governor has made improving the economy, investing in education, protecting public safety, increasing access to health care and building the California of the future his priority.'"
Later this afternoon, the governor will be in Yolo County to "tour a critical erosion site and highlight progress being made to fix our state's levees," according to a campaign statement.
Must need some time to sleep off the jet lag from DC...
"State Controller
Steve Westly, who burned through $35 million of his high-tech fortune in a failed campaign for governor,
won't rule out another run," reports the Merc's Edwin Garcia.
"And despite his public show of support for state Treasurer
Phil Angelides, who beat him in last month's Democratic gubernatorial primary, Westly didn't sound completely confident that Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be unseated come November."
"'I think this is going to be a tough election. I don't discount Mr. Schwarzenegger one bit; he's a strong campaigner,' Westly, an Atherton resident, said. '
But it's a Democratic state and I think Mr. Angelides absolutely has the opportunity to beat him.'"
"Privately, though,
Westly has been telling confidants he doubts Angelides will succeed, and that he's planning to run in 2010."
Does that mean he's foregoing the 2008 presidential race?
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's office has
fired back at the federal court official who accused the administration of backtracking on prison reform, saying in filings made public Monday that the charges are based on 'rumors and innuendo' and express an opinion that is 'unfounded, unprofessional and wrong,'" reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary,
Andrea Lynn Hoch, responded last Friday in a friend-of-the-court "letter brief" to the draft report by Special Master
John Hagar that accused the administration of thwarting prison reform by cozying up to the politically powerful correctional officers' union."
Meanwhile, "A leading corrections and parole expert cited in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest prison reform plan
has largely disavowed the proposals, describing the plan in an interview as a fantasy that would represent a giant step backward for the state's ailing prison system," report James Sterngold and Mark Martin in the Chron.
"
Joan Petersilia, a nationally recognized authority on prison reform and a consultant to the state corrections department, described the plan for a wave of prison expansion that the governor released on Friday -- just as his reelection campaign gears up --
as unworkable, poorly thought out and out of touch with research that she and others have done in recent years on cost-efficient rehabilitation methods."
"'
I think anybody who understands the situation we're in has got to be mystified by this report,' said Petersilia, who runs a state-funded institute on prison reform at UC Irvine. 'It's looking backward, not forward.'"
"A state appeals court that will decide
whether California's ban on same-sex marriage is constitutional focused Monday on whether preserving the historic definition of marriage and promoting child-rearing by fathers and mothers are
legitimate reasons for upholding the law," reports Bob Egelko in the Chron.
"The court is reviewing last year's ruling by Judge
Richard Kramer of San Francisco Superior Court, who said the marriage law violates the state Constitution on two grounds: It discriminates on the basis of sex, and it denies gays and lesbians the fundamental right to marry the partner of their choice. He suspended his ruling during the appeal process."
Dan Walters writes "Politically, the issue is a mixed bag in California. While polls consistently show that gay marriage support falls well below 50 percent among voters nationally,
support has been growing in California."
"Twenty years ago, California voters opposed same-sex marriage by a more than 2-1 ratio, according to the Field Poll, but the gap has narrowed steadily. Proposition 22 passed handily in 2000, with 61.4 percent of the vote, but most recently,
both Field and the polling conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California have indicated that only about 50 percent of voters oppose gay marriage, with support just a few percentage points lower."
"No matter how they fare in the courts, gay-rights advocates appear to be winning the duel of public opinion."
Could be a fun hot potato for the governor in an election year.
"A week after Democratic lawmakers stripped funding for the state Board of Education, former Govs.
Pete Wilson and
Gray Davis have
asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reaffirm his support for curriculum standards, testing and how English learners are taught," writes the Bee's Aurelia Rojas.
"In rare show of bipartisanship, Wilson, a Republican, and Davis, a Democrat, said
'term limits have left Sacramento with little institutional memory of the goals and rationale' for the reforms they ushered through while in office."
"'Standards provide a measure of excellence regardless of one's skin color, family income or ZIP code,' the former governors wrote in a letter dated Friday. 'We took a standards-based approach in California because we believe that it set expectations high.'"
"Even after three years of unexpectedly high investment returns, California's state employee retirement system
needs almost $240 million more from taxpayers this year to make ends meet," reports John Hill in the Bee.
"The pension system is coping with state worker pay hikes -- which drive up retirement allowances -- as well as an unexpected surge in retirements, the delayed effects of pension improvements and retirees living longer."
"The number of state pensioners who died in the year, for instance, was 800 fewer than expected."
We have ways of taking care of that...
"The pension system is also seeing the effects of 'smoothing' -- a policy to set aside investment gains in the good years to offset losses in the bad ones."
"'We're doing what folks asked us to do, which is to save a little for a rainy day,' said
Pat Macht, a spokeswoman for the California Public Employees Retirement System."
And from the Republic of Texas,
AP reports "writer and musician
Kinky Friedman, who once sang "
They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore," may include the name by which he is best known on the ballot to choose Texas' next governor in November, the state's top election official said on Monday.
"Texas Secretary of State
Roger Williams said Friedman's nickname was not a slogan and thus did not violate state law. His name will appear on election ballots as Richard 'Kinky' Friedman."
