"
Phil Angelides, the Democrat who lost to Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in last month's election, announced Friday he plans to launch an investment firm, advocate for education causes and
lay the groundwork for a possible gubernatorial run in 2010," reports Edwin Garcia in the Oakland Tribune.
"'I'll be active in my business and very active in the public arena — advocating for the issues I believe in, the issues of economic opportunity — and I will be doing my level best to advance those issues,' the two-term state treasurer said."
"'Some people, after they lose an election, they kind of just shrink away,' Angelides said. 'That's not going to happen with me.'"
Matier and Ross write
Jerry "Brown tells us he not only plans to keep living in the midtown Oakland condo he shares with wife and campaign manager Anne Gust, but that he
will work in the East Bay city as well."
"He'll be on the 22nd floor of the downtown state building, where the Justice Department occupies two floors. That's just 11 blocks from where Brown lives."
"'It's a five-minute commute,' he said."
Less if he teleports...
Harrison Sheppard previews
the state's growing fiscal problems. "Already grappling with spiraling annual health costs, some of the largest agencies across California are facing a new squeeze as they're forced to begin fully accounting next year for retiree health-care liabilities."
"And for the first time, many will have to acknowledge they have accumulated hundreds of billions of dollars in looming costs with no comprehensive way to pay for it other than by cutting strained budgets."
Oh, don't be a Grinch!
Dan Walters
tallies up the holiday wish lists in Sacramento. "When you add up the wish lists that advocates of health care, prison reform, K-12 education and higher education are writing this Christmas, it's pretty staggering. Covering those who lack health insurance would cost about $10 billion a year, raising California's per-pupil spending on K-12 schools to the national average would run about $6 billion more, the college folks want $11 billion more, and fixing the prisons would take tens of billions of dollars in new construction and several billion more in annual operating costs."
"A nice round number for just these wish lists (and there are others)
would be perhaps $30 billion a year, not counting the $5 billion it would take to close the state's chronic budget gap. And who would pay to raise state spending by one-third? Voters rejected every one of the tax increases, even those on smokers, corporations and the wealthy, that appeared on the November ballot."
"It's the Capitol, where visions of sugar plum fairies dance in politicians' heads."
And from our
One Bitten Twice Shy Files, Ed Mendel reports
the guv may be less likely to take on pension reform with the 2005 special election still fresh in his mind. "When he gives his fourth State of the State address early next month, the newly re-elected governor is likely to take a much milder view of the state pension problem, if he mentions it at all."
"Soaring annual state pension costs, which the governor said last year
exploded from $160 million to $2.6 billion in five years, have been stabilized by a new policy adopted by a labor-friendly pension board.
"A problem that has emerged since last year – a debt of $40 billion to $70 billion for providing retiree health care in the future – does not have to be formally acknowledged until June 2008 under new accounting rules."
And, of course, "the Republican governor, who wants to continue bipartisan relations with the Legislature, could
reopen hostilities with Democrats if he proposes sweeping pension changes opposed by their public-employee union allies."
And we wouldn't want
that now, would we?
The Register's Martin Wisckol writes "Also in the Department of Moving On, former Orange County Assemblyman
Ken Maddox is
closing up shop as a lobbyist to move back on the government payroll, this time as director of legislative affairs for state Board of Equalization member
Michelle Steel."
"Sen.
Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, who wrote the 1999 bill establishing the state's domestic partners registry, says her new bill,
Senate Bill 11, would complete her original mission: to
provide equity for those modern-day families that choose not to go down the conventional route of marriage," reports Judy Lin in the Bee.
"Such a move could grant couples the same rights, protections and benefits as legally married couples such as health insurance coverage, adoption rights, death benefits and more."
"Proponents of marriage, however, worry that Migden's proposal, if passed, could dilute the significance of legal unions. They call it bad public policy because it could be detrimental to children in those relationships."
"'It institutionalizes what you call 'marriage lite' -- a relationship that is more likely to break up,' said
David Popenoe, founder and co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. 'The main reason for the regulation and licensing of marriage in the first place is children, and you want to have a society where a lot of child-rearers stay together.'"
After all, it worked so well for Britney and K-Fed.
The LAT's Duke Helfand
reviews the careful political ballet danced by
Antonio Villaraigosa as mayor of Los Angeles."'An effective chief executive of a major city like Los Angeles has to balance all of the stakeholders,' the mayor said in an interview."
"Some of that is plainly calculating: It is one thing to be elected as a progressive in liberal Los Angeles; it is another to advance up the California political ladder clinging to a narrow base dominated by labor unions and other interests dear to Democrats. And Villaraigosa, his protestations to the contrary, is eyeing the governorship as a possible career move."
"Still, whether motivated by the desire for higher office or a yearning to govern effectively, Villaraigosa has assembled a more pragmatic agenda than some had predicted for a politician who cut his professional teeth in the labor movement."
And finally, "A man who
shot his Great Dane in the head may have his jail sentence reduced if he dresses up as a dog.
"Municipal Judge
Michael Cicconetti offered Thursday to cut
Robert M. Clark's sentence to 10 days in jail if he wears a Safety Pup costume and visits the city's five elementary schools. The mascot educates children about issues ranging from traffic safety to drug abuse."
Because this is exactly the kind of guy you want around kids...
