Capitol Weekly hits the stands today, and prints the results of its first
Capitol Weekly/Around The Capitol Awards for legislators, lobbyists and staff. "Though provisions were made to eliminate online ballot stuffing, we did notice some 'Chicago-style' methods with the paper ballots. As such, we used some 'Florida-style' methods when counting the ballots."
You can see the entire list of winners
here.
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger gave the
head of the state prison system a $94,000 raise on Wednesday, boosting the salary of Jim Tilton to $225,000 per year," reports the Chron's Mark Martin.
"
Tilton, who had been acting secretary of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation since April, also was given the job permanently, the Schwarzenegger administration announced."
Speaking of big money, CW's Shane Goldmacher reports on the governor's television campaign strategy --
targeting the "Elimidate Voter."
"That's because Schwarzenegger's political team has promised to mount the biggest cable-advertising campaign in California history. And independent voters, whom most analysts regard as the key to the governor's re-election, are watching elimiDate, and other reality-dating shows like it, more than just about anything else on TV."
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic challenger, state Treasurer
Phil Angelides,
reached agreement Wednesday to hold one debate on a Saturday night next month in Sacramento," reports Michael Finnegan in the Times.
"The deal to debate Oct. 7, the third anniversary of the California recall election, came after Angelides gave in to an array of conditions that appear to favor the Republican incumbent."
We did think the inclusion of a bench press competition was a bit biased, but who are we to judge?
"In an effort to make himself better known to voters, Angelides had hoped to debate Schwarzenegger as many as 10 times. But the governor agreed to debate just once, and the event's timing —
at 6 p.m. on a Saturday during major league baseball playoffs — could limit the number of viewers."
Especially since everybody knows the Giants are going to be in the playoffs, which could hurt debate viewership among Bay Area voters.
Meanwhile, TapeGate continues. "A popular Los Angeles radio station Wednesday
disputed the Schwarzenegger administration's claim that the campaign of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides improperly obtained audiotapes of the governor bantering with staff," report Nancy Vogel and Jordan Rau in the Times.
"On Monday's
John Ziegler talk show on KFI-AM (640), a former producer for the show said that he had many times accessed the same trove of audiotapes without a password and without hacking."
"'As much as many people out there might want to believe the Phil Angelides campaign was in fact breaking the law by hacking into Arnold Schwarzenegger's website,' Ziegler said, 'we do not believe this was remotely the case.
The reason: because we've been doing the same thing for months.'"
George Skelton
takes a look at Prop. 89, the campaign finance measure on the November ballot. "It's getting easier and easier to make a case for why the public should finance the election campaigns of state politicians — even shelling out the big bucks called for under Proposition 89 on the November ballot."
"But it's hard to make a case for all of Prop. 89 because of its anti-business tilt."
Maybe that's why
Fabian Nuñez decided to come out and oppose the measure yesterday.
"
George Steffes, who arrived in Sacramento about 40 years ago to lobby the Legislature for Gov.
Ronald Reagan, said: 'The thing that really changed me was that I grew up in a system where constituents supported the candidate. I was always for private financing because it was a test of whether candidates could get people to follow them. Today, constituents have little to do with the financing of campaigns.'"
"'The upshot is that the average person thinks the government is for sale or for rent. That's a major reason to try public financing.'"
But, Skelton writes, Prop. 89 has an additional agenda.
"California's system would cost an estimated $200 million a year and be financed by a bump in the tax rates for banks and corporations. And that's where Prop. 89 starts to raise my eyebrows.
If it's good for the whole state, why only pick on the banks and corporations to pay for it?"
"But that's not the worst of it. There's an agenda here that overreaches beyond public financing: It's to greatly reduce corporate influence in California politics. And while that might be fine, corporations shouldn't be whacked any more than labor unions in an initiative that's principal purpose is to drain special interest money from politics."
Prop. 89 "reads more like somebody's wish list than a doable plan."
In other ballot measure news, "[t]he principal financial backer of a statewide parcel tax initiative
has apparently stopped funding the drive, leaving supporters without the kind of cash, staff and ads typically needed for a full-fledged campaign," writes Judy Lin in the Bee.
"Political consultant
Rick Claussen said he has advised Netflix CEO
Reed Hastings to 'let go' of Proposition 88, which would establish a $50 parcel tax on all property for public school funding."
"'Because of the anti-tax sentiments right now, we took a look at the measure and felt it was better to let go of this one and regroup and decide where we might go in the future,' Claussen said."
"West Sacramento Mayor
Christopher Cabaldon, who is president and CEO of EdVoice, an educational nonprofit group leading the initiative, said 'there's been no determination to pull out.'"
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas reviews a new PPIC report which
finds that California's electorate isn't reflective of shifting demographics. "Seventy-two percent of likely voters are white, 53 percent are college graduates, 77 percent are homeowners and the majority are age 45 and older, according to
the report by the Public Policy Institute of California."
"That profile does not square with the demographics of a state in which the majority of the population is nonwhite and under 45 years old, fewer than one in four adults are college graduates and 57 percent are homeowners."
"'We are a state that continues to experience rapid growth and demographic change overall in terms of our population,' said
Mark Baldassare, PPIC's research director. 'But we see less growth in the voter rolls and less change in terms of the demographics of voters.'"
"A state audit released this week warns that California's efforts to prepare for a terrorist attack or natural disaster are being
undermined by a morass of red tape," writes the LAT's Evan Halper.
"State Auditor
Elaine M. Howle says in the report that the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has let tens of millions of dollars in federal emergency preparedness grants languish unspent and has not adequately tested the ability of California's medical facilities to handle mass casualties."
And finally, our condolences to the two baby squirrels who were seen tumbling out of a Capitol palm tree. One of the squirrels died instantly, and the other didn't appear to be faring well, as it was poked and prodded by curious tourists. We're waiting for the
Lloyd Levine bill next year to install nets in all Capitol trees to prevent these tragedies in the future.
