"The largest freshman class in state legislative history
will take the oath of office today amid parties, receptions, music, more parties - and just a little bit of real work," writes Harrison Shepard in the Daily News.
"In one fell swoop, 36 new members will join the Assembly, just shy of half its total 80 members. Twelve of the 40 state senators are first-termers, though several of them are actually veteran legislators moving up from the Assembly."
"The newcomers arrive as Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to reveal an agenda that would test even the most battle-hardened legislator. Items will include overhauling health care, reforming prisons and dealing with a $5 billion budget deficit."
"But whether the new class can successfully navigate the Capitol quickly remains to be seen."
"'
Imagine fielding a professional sports team where just about half the players were rookies,' said
Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at Sacramento State University."
"'You would not expect the team to make the playoffs - not necessarily because of lack of talent, but because of lack of experience.'"
But it's good to see
some things haven't changed, according to the Bakersfield Californian's Vic Pollard. "
The long-running feud between the county's two Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Dean Florez of Shafter and Assemblywoman Nicole Parra of Hanford, shows no signs of abating as they approach today's first meeting of the new two-year session.
"As the county's legislative delegation was asked last week about plans for bills they will sponsor, Parra and Florez clashed over at least two issues that are important to their rural Central Valley districts.
"One involves fallout from the E. coli outbreak last summer that was traced to raw spinach from the Salinas Valley. Shortly after the outbreak, Florez held a hearing of his Senate Governmental Organization Committee and announced plans to introduce legislation cracking down on the handling of vegetables by growers, processors, shippers and others in the food system."
"Parra teamed up with Salinas-area Republican Sen.
Jeff Denham and announced plans to hold a hearing when officials determine the cause of the outbreak. They have not yet determined how bacteria from a nearby cattle ranch contaminated the spinach."
"
Florez has charged that Parra and Denham are being too protective of growers and processors at the expense of consumers."
"As [lawmakers] consider other pressing needs, they
also will decide how to spend some of the $42.7 billion that voters recently agreed to borrow for housing, levee, road, school and water projects," reports Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"Much of the money is committed to existing programs run by agencies such as Caltrans and the Department of Water Resources. And it will be spent gradually over decades. But the Legislature has discretion over most of it."
"In appropriating the money either through the annual budget or through separate legislation, lawmakers could leave the spending details to bureaucrats. Or they could dictate details, favor one region over another and send money to pet projects� the 'pork' that can make or break budget deals."
Ahh, the other white meat.
"'
You're not going to the butcher,' Senate leader
Don Perata (D-Oakland) said he told his charges.
"'What I don't want to do is make the voters at any point feel there was a bait and switch,' said Perata, who led the crafting of the bond measures last spring. 'Our most important mission now is to show that those monies are being properly used.'"
Dan Walters writes "The
major effect of the brief December session is to get lawmakers on the payroll, so they can begin collecting their salaries, hire staff and pick out their new cars. This week's session will be long on ceremony -- spouses and children will show up to watch lawmakers be sworn in -- and lofty declarations of good intentions and very short on substance."
Sounds like a regular legislative session to us.
"The big question hanging is whether a newly re-elected Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, will continue his honeymoon with a very Democratic Legislature. For reasons that are still somewhat cloudy, Democrats decided to make it easier for Schwarzenegger to win re-election by helping him build a record this year, albeit mostly on issues that Democrats were pushing anyway, such as global warming and minimum wage."
"Perhaps the serendipity will continue. But it's just as likely that stalemate will return. Regardless of what happens, legislators will collect their salaries that begin this week.
In politics, there's no correlation between performance and pay."
George Skelton writes that
Michael Villines may be too rigid to be an effective Assembly GOP leader.
"Villines, an articulate former owner of a PR firm, appealed to fellow Republicans because of his promise to stand up for them -- not only to Democrats but also to the centrist GOP governor."
"And that has both the governor's office and Democratic leaders worried."
Not to mention, it has the Roundup worried, because we have vacation plans in July.
"The Kumbaya bipartisanship that defined this year's legislative session and resulted in the eye-popping enactment of hefty bills -- a rare on-time budget, record infrastructure bonds, a minimum wage hike, the nation's first attack on global warming -- could fade into history, a very brief chapter."
"Assembly Republicans are determined to switch from softball to hardball. But it's a game any team can play. And the other Capitol teams have much more power."
"If Villines' team gets too aggressive, Democrats could block all Republican bills, including minor ones. The GOP could be denied pork packages for back home. The governor could ignore Republican nominations even for the county fair board."
"If they overplay their role, Republicans could end up less relevant than
[Dennis] Mountjoy, who did get some bills passed."
Ouch. Kicking them when they're out the door...
Matier and Ross look at how the caucus fundraising of Bay Area Assembly Members
translates into plum committee assignments. Mentioned are
Mark Leno (chair of Appropriations),
Alberto Torrico (chair of Governmental Organization),
John Laird (chair of Budget),
Fiona Ma ($150,000) and Sandre Swanson ($100,000) each raised significant amounts.
"'These are all races where they didn't have any real opposition,' said
Doug Heller, executive director of the nonpartisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights."
"Those redirected campaign contributions, from banks, casinos, unions and the like, are 'all about special-interest money and trying to gain influence,' he said."
"Nunez countered that the Legislature's record last year -- when lawmakers took on the business lobby by increasing the minimum wage, the pharmaceutical lobby by passing prescription drug price controls, and Indian tribes by saying "no" to new gambling compacts -- proved that there is '
no problem taking their money and voting against them.'"
Speaking of taking the tribes' money,
Jim "Battin returns to the Capitol today as part of the new Legislature. In the 12 years since he arrived in Sacramento, the 44-year-old Republican senator has become a
major booster of Indian rights and championed numerous tribal casino expansion plans as a boon to the state's economy," reports the Bee's Judy Lin.
Oh, and he's also making a run at the Senate GOP leader's job...
"But Battin's enthusiasm for one segment of his Riverside County constituency has left others questioning his integrity. Not only has the former television executive received nearly $750,000 in campaign contributions from Indian tribes since 2000 -- the most of any sitting lawmaker -- but his family business has benefited from tribal spending."
"While serving on a Senate committee that oversees gambling issues, Battin has invested between $10,000 and $100,000 in a video gambling firm. He once solicited tribal business through his firm, Voter Strategies, which brokers television and radio spots for political advertisers."
"'Mr. Battin knows where his bread is buttered,' said
Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up for California, an Indian gambling watchdog group."
"His close ties to the gambling industry are so well known throughout the Capitol that Senate leader Don Perata once quipped: '
Mr. Battin, who represents sand and Indian gaming.'"
Speaking of dough, the LAT's Peter Nicholas writes: "Reelection is behind him, but Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is
keeping his fundraising operation at full throttle, asking donors to pay for a stylish inauguration and seeing to it that he continues to fly private jets and stage public appearances worthy of a Hollywood celebrity."
"The governor's political team has approached Chevron Corp., PG&E, Blue Cross of California, AT&T and other businesses, asking for tens of thousands of dollars to pay for a two-day celebration surrounding his Jan. 5 inauguration."
"At the same time, Schwarzenegger is taking advantage of a new fundraising law he signed three months ago meant for politicians like himself who, for the time being, don't have another race to run. His attorneys have set up a special "officeholder" account that allows him to collect up to $200,000 a year for assorted expenses (though not for a political campaign); donors can give $20,000 apiece per year."
"As a lame duck, Schwarzenegger is barred from raising money through a reelection fund and wants the new account to underwrite the professional-quality lighting and sound, private air travel and satellite feeds that are fixtures of his operation, aides said. Contributions to the fund must be publicly disclosed."
"Another political account is devoted to what Schwarzenegger's aides call "legislative advocacy." If the governor wants to travel around the state urging passage of a particular bill, he intends to use that fund to cover the costs, aides said. Donors must be disclosed."
Finally, after USC's humiliating defeat to arch-rival UCLA cost them a shot at the national championship, we just had to check in with
our favorite gay conservative blogging USC fan. And in typical Reaganesque fashion, he's accentuating the positive.
"Despite losing to UCLA Saturday at the Rose Bowl, and the fact that the Bowl Championship Series selections have yet to be announced, we can tell you one thing: the USC Trojans will be playing for the National Championship."
"
In Mens' Water Polo."
"Sure it isn't as sexy as football, but it�s something to hang our hats on today, eh?"
Somehow, we think it'll do little to stop the UCLA fans' gloating...
