As leaders in the Middle East prepare to
call a truce California Republicans are getting into battle mode. Yesterday, the GOP
unveiled a "truth squad" to counterpunch the Democrats' criticisms of the governor's budget, led by Sen.
George Runner (R-Lancaster). Today, Education Secretary
Richard Riordan joins Assembly Republicans in touting the governor's "$20 million for vocational education programs" that, in press-release speak, fund "unique career technical programs that help students take skills from the classroom directly to the world of work."
Meanwhile, the Governor will presumably be talking in much more direct, and colorful, language as he hits the talk radio circuit this morning. In all, the guv will make six radio appearances, including a stop on
Eric Hogue's show at 8:50 a.m. Tuesday. To listen to the audio as it happens,
click here. The governor will hit five local talk shows, and end his circuit with a call in to the Rush Limbaugh show.
The Merc News reports that condemned inmate
Stanley "Tookie" Williams is
conducting a media tour of his own.The governor is
getting serious push back from Republicans in Congress about his redistricting plan. "Influential Republicans in Washington are telling Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger that he should drop his effort to redraw congressional voting districts in time for next year's elections and limit his focus to reshaping the state Legislature.
"Congressional Republicans may have the option of supporting a state ballot initiative later this year that would excuse Congress from any mid-decade redistricting effort. Such a measure was submitted to the state last month by
David Gilliard, a Sacramento political consultant who has discussed it with members of the state's congressional delegation."
One of those is Rep.
John Doolittle"As a conservative Republican, it makes me very nervous when I hear people say that their overt objective is to remove the conservatives," Doolittle said. "I don't want to see that happen. I will fight to the death to make sure that does not happen."
While the debate over the content of the gov's initiatives continues, the attack on his war chest begins. The
TheRestOfUs.org filed a complaint Monday with the FPPC
alleging the governor is controlling funds being raised by a group of business leaders to support his ballot measures.
While it may be a tough news day for the Governor, he's got a
new champion in Jon Bon Jovi.The Department of Finance has released new population numbers for California. According to the latest tally, there are now
36,591,000 Californians.
Dan Weintraub does a quick breakdown of the numbers
on his blog."California's population grew by nearly 600,000 in the year ending June 30, 2004, according to new numbers released today from the Department of Finance. Just over half (52.7 percent) of that increase came from the natural growth of births over deaths, while 38.1 percent came from foreign immigration (legal and illegal) and 9.2 percent from domestic migration.
Goodbye, Dolly: Andrew LaMar reports on a proposal by
Lloyd Levine to
ban the cloning of pets. Oh, great, next think you know,
Fluffy won't even be able to get plastic surgery!With the bill, Levine officially begins the series of "Only in California" stories that are sure to sweep the nation within weeks. "What I'm wondering is what's the basis of this,'' [said Genetic Savings & Clone CEO
Lou] Hawthorne. "You can't start randomly banning things without some justification.'' Mr. Hawthorne, obviously, has never dealt with the Legislature.
The baddest bail bondsman in town and his daughter, both running for Congress, are
questioning Doris Matsui's recent sale of North Natomas land that could be affected by a deal to build the Kings a new arena.
Leonard Padilla also owns North Natomas property in trust for his children, including candidate Julie, in the same area. Julie pledges to sell it or place it in a blind trust if she's elected. Isn't that what Doris did that you're criticizing?
From the Big Top: Debra Saunders
reports on a rift in the GOP between California Club for Growth chief
Tony Strickland and state GOP Vice-Chair
Jim Hartman. Hartman disagrees with Strickland's plan to work to unseat any Republican that joins Democrats on a broad tax increase or otherwise cut deals with the devil. Hartman says "I consider myself a mainstream conservative Republican, but I'm also a Republican who can look at election results and recognize the realities in this state and what it takes to get elected in this state."
LA Mayor's Race:The day after the
first televised debate in the LA mayoral race,
Antonio Villaraigosa gets his profile from the Times.
Which Antonio sounds like the one you remember from Sacramento? "To Villaraigosa's supporters, many of whom adore him with a burning devotion, that is a key strength: using charm to craft agreement where none seemed possible.His detractors have accused Villaraigosa of piggybacking on the achievements of others, and then showing up with a smile to take credit."
U-key malfunction: Thanks to all those aspiring copy editors who wrote in Monday to tell us about our unfortunate typo when excerpting a letter from Sen.
Dave Cox to Speaker
Fabian Nuņez. In the letter Cox writes about how he doesn't want to see the Legislature "shut this process down," referring to the JLAC investigation into HAVA funding. Unfortunately, the "U" key's neighbor is the "I" key, and spellcheck doesn't screen for profanity. So, a big We're Sorry to Sen. Cox, and a big You're Welcome to all the members of the Senator's staff who got a good chuckle from the miscue.
