"After three months of waiting for
the Los Angeles mayor's endorsement,
Phil Angelides used a joke Tuesday to brush off
Antonio Villaraigosa's conspicuous delay in putting his popularity to work for his own party's nominee for governor," report Michael Finnegan and Mark Barabak in the Times.
"Villaraigosa, a national star of the Democratic Party, 'wanted to plan a big wedding, and big weddings take time,' Angelides told a crowd of hundreds packed into a Los Angeles school auditorium for the mayor's announcement."
And, having the L.A. mayor endorse the Democratic governor in San Francisco is about as conspicuous as a
Vegas wedding at 11:59pm.
"The event's splashy theatrics — a brass band, dancing, hundreds of screeching schoolchildren and 13 television cameras to capture the scene — only underscored the political energy that Villaraigosa has denied Angelides over a difficult summer for the state treasurer's campaign to oust Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger."
"'This is a man with the courage of his conviction,' Villaraigosa said, echoing an Angelides campaign line that has rarely drawn so much attention."
However, with his bill pending on the governor's desk, Villaraigosa wasn't about to go negative. "'You know, my mother raised me as a young boy; I remember her telling me, people want to know what you're for, not what you're against,' Villaraigosa said at a stop with Angelides in San Francisco's heavily Latino Mission District. 'I'm for Phil Angelides.'"
LA Observed's
Kevin Roderick reports "Mayor Villaraigosa stumped for fading Democratic contender Phil Angelides today in San Francisco and in South Los Angeles, but it was
the mayor's quick thinking this afternoon at Foshay Learning Center that people were talking about. Midway through Angelides' remarks about becoming the next governor, one of the students standing on stage as a backdrop to the political speeches fell faint. When she collapsed, the mayor and other adults huddled around the girl. After a long minute of silence in the auditorium,
Villaraigosa rose from the huddle with the girl in his arms and headed for the exit. As aides crashed the door open, the mayor carried the girl to a shaded lunch area, set her down on a table top and took off his suit coat for her to recline on."
Obviously a plant.
And, while it may have been Phil's "big wedding," all eyes were really on
the lovefest between California's Golden Boys, writes the Chron's Cecilia Vega. "They are the ambitious leaders of major cities and considered rising stars in the Democratic Party likely to compete against each other one day in a run for higher office. But on Tuesday, San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa swapped hearty back pats, toothy grins and glowing compliments hoping to quash any rumors that a rivalry between them exists."
"Newsom introduced his Southern California counterpart as a 'superstar in the Democratic Party.'"
"And Villaraigosa told San Franciscans they were lucky to have a leader 'who's willing to stand tall, speak out ... even if he's only speaking alone.'"
"'
Don't you love him,' a smiley Villaraigosa asked a cheering crowd of campaign supporters while swinging one arm around Newsom. 'Don't you love him?'"
"Highlighting the limits to his collaboration with Democratic lawmakers, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday that
he would veto legislation aimed at creating one state-run insurer to finance the medical expenses of all Californians," reports Jordan Rau for the Times.
Thank goodness that's out of the way. The suspense was killing us.
"'Such a program would cost the state billions and lead to significant new taxes on individuals and businesses, without solving the critical issue of affordability,' Schwarzenegger wrote in a column published in the editorial pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune."
The administration's opponent-in-chief blasted the decision. "'
We think a governor should take bold steps, and when it comes to the health of Californians, our governor is faint of heart,' said
Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Assn., which supported the bill. 'He's in the pocket of the drug companies and the insurance companies and the healthcare companies.'"
"He said he hoped next year to work with lawmakers, including Kuehl, to develop 'a comprehensive approach' that emphasizes preventive medicine and caps costs without abolishing private insurers."
Dan Walters writes that the governor has
little to lose by vetoing the bill. "Only 4 percent of voters contacted by the PPIC cited health insurance coverage -- so few that they weren't worth tabulating in the survey's summary. And the same poll found that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a 13-percentage-point lead over Democratic challenger Phil Angelides."
"The juxtaposition of those two poll results is this: Schwarzenegger runs almost no political risk by declaring, as he did Tuesday, that he'll veto the latest version of universal health care enacted by a Democrat-controlled Legislature -- which probably also explains why Angelides backed away from the measure even as he promised to pursue universal coverage if elected."
This also seems to be conservative week for Schwarzenegger, as he prepares today to sign bills aimed at helping military veterans and cracking down on sex offenders.
Fresno mayor
Alan Autry went to Sacramento last week to get legislation to allow him more leadership in his city's schools, following the lead of L.A. mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa. However, he
wasn't welcomed with open arms.
The LAT's Peter Nicholas reports: "Autry is furious. He feels betrayed by two Los Angeles politicians — Villaraigosa and Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) — who were intent on passing their own education bill and, he said, advancing their own career prospects."
"Autry wants to confront both men about what happened but says he has been ignored."
"'Up in Sacramento, you have some good people trying to do the best they can,' said Autry, a former actor who played police officer 'Bubba Skinner' in the TV series 'In the Heat of the Night.' '
But there are more gutless, bought-off cowards per square inch congregated in one place than I've ever seen.'"
Apparently, Autry hasn't been to Washington.
"Sacramento doesn't see it that way. A Nuñez spokesman,
Steve Maviglio, said Autry called only once. And he never demonstrated that he had lined up sufficient local support, Maviglio said."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
plans to sign a bill that would reimburse $39 million to California's 58 counties for money spent on a special election he ordered last November, the governor's staff said Tuesday," writes Ryan Huff in the Contra Costa Times.
"Both houses of the Legislature unanimously approved Assembly Bill 1634 last week, sending it to the governor."
Though it was fun, in the closing days of session, to watch the bill's author,
Kevin McCarthy, desperately try to thwart his rival
Roy Ashburn's attempts to sign on to the bill as a joint author.
"'We're glad the bill has passed,' said Contra Costa Supervisor
John Gioia of Richmond. 'The state should have reimbursed us long ago because this money came out of the county taxpayers' pockets.'"
Finally, from our
I Fought The Law Files, we bring you the story of Criag Doerr, who blew up a red-light camera. "He used the chemical thermite, which he obtained from his welding job, to destroy the camera, which caught him driving," reports the BBC.
"A recording from the hard-drive of the camera showed the Ford Transit van approaching the camera. As the vehicle was driven off, sparks were seen coming from the camera box and then it exploded."
