Campaign spending investigations aren't just for Fabian Nunez anymore.
"California state legislators
spent nearly $700,000 in donations from corporations and special interests within the past three years to pay for international junkets, meals and lodging at domestic resorts and for entertainment and gifts without justifying how the expenses were related to their jobs," report Tom Chorneau and Erin McCormick in the Chron.
"Lawmakers declared that all of the spending was reasonably related to legislative, governmental or political purposes, as mandated by state law. But because there is no requirement that legislators provide any details explaining how the spending was job-related, taxpayers and voters have no way of judging for themselves if the expenses were appropriate.
"San Ramon Assemblyman
Guy Houston, for example,
spent $125 in campaign money at a Jet Ski rental shop on Maui, justifying the expense in public reports only as candidate travel.
"Fremont Assemblyman
Alberto Torrico used $185 in donor money for a round of golf in Napa, while Orange County Assemblyman
Todd Spitzer used $139 in contributor money to buy a wedding gift for one of his campaign aides - also without detailed explanations.
"The state's political watchdog agency will move to close that loophole at a hearing this week, when it considers new rules requiring elected officials to provide more details about their spending."
George Skelton
sits down with Darrell Steinberg. "Over breakfast at a Capitol hangout, I asked Steinberg whether he was tough enough to discipline troublesome senators.
"'Damn right,' he said. 'I'm willing to do what I need to do. . . .'
"'People make a mistake equating being nice with lack of steel. . . . You can be firm and resolute, but do it with a smile on your face.'"
"The Capitol last week witnessed Steinberg's steel."
[Insert inapprpriate joke here]"He captured one of the most powerful positions in California government without throwing a low blow. And, in the end, virtually everybody was left smiling.
CW's Malcolm Maclachlan reports there's
another candidate in the Mark Leno vs. Carole Migden smackdown.
"Former Assemblyman
Joe Nation has officially entered the state Senate race in the third district, for the seat currently held by Senator Carole Migden, D-San Francisco. He made the announcement at a rally in the Petaluma Marina on Saturday morning.
"Nation's entry follows months of speculation. He said his long delay was due to waiting to see what happened with Proposition 93, the term limits change that was rejected by voters in Tuesday's early primary.
"'It's official,' said Nation when reached by phone after the announcement. 'I'm looking forward to it. As I told the crowd this morning, I'm putting my running shoes on because it's going to be a sprint.'"
"Across California,
wannabe casino tribes and their investors are feeling invigorated by voters' approval Tuesday of ballot referendums to give four rich Southern California tribes permission to add up to 17,000 slot machines," reports Peter Hecht in the Bee.
"They are also excited by Schwarzenegger's public statements that he is ready to deal on new gambling agreements with additional tribes that agree to pay a "fair share" of casino revenue into the state's general fund.
"Among the first in line may be the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians of San Diego County. The tribe -- whose poverty was dramatized in television commercials for 1990 and 2000 ballot measures legalizing tribal gambling in California – has fought unsuccessfully for 2 1/2 years to get a casino in Barstow.
"Now the tribe and wealthy backers, including
Marian Ilitch, Detroit Red Wings and MotorCity Casino owner, are eager for another appointment with Schwarzenegger.
"'We will attempt to go back and renegotiate with the governor and go to the Legislature and say the people obviously support an expansion of gambling if it will provide revenues to the state,' said
Tom Shields, spokesman for Los Coyotes and the Barstow casino group, BarWest Gaming. 'We are more than willing to be a part of that.'"
"As yet another tax season approaches, California officials
are cracking down on cheats and delinquent payers - estimated at more than 750,000 across the state who owe billions of dollars from 2006 alone," reports Harrison Shepard in the Merc News.
"Now with the state facing a massive budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing more funding to hire 500 new tax collectors and investigators who could generate at least $126 million in net revenue for state coffers.
"And state tax agents also have begun posting the names of the biggest delinquents online in an effort to capture more revenue.
"'We're working really hard on the underground economy and trying to find people who are evading taxes or getting paid under the table and not filing taxes on that income,' said Franchise Tax Board spokeswoman
Holly McDonell.
"McDonell estimated a $6.5 billion "tax gap" in California - the difference between the state income taxes that are owed and those that are actually paid."
"A proposal by the Schwarzenegger administration
to use $170 million in voter-approved bond money for projects benefiting two private railroads is drawing ire from Southern California officials who want the funds for road improvements and other projects," writes the LAT's Patrick McGreevy.
"The officials have complained that the administration plans to take money that should ease gridlock for motorists and use it instead on less important projects to help private interests -- the Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
"'I don't understand it,' said
Yvonne B. Burke, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. 'The railroads should pay for it. The people of Southern California were the ones who approved those bonds, and they should get the benefit.'"
What do
drunk phone calls, a 50-gallon bucket of sh+t and PUC reform have in common? They're all a key part of San Francisco politics. Matier and Ross update us on the latest in the grudge match between SF Mayor Gavin Newsom and supervisor
Aaron Peskin. Newsom's consultant,
Eric Jaye, said he supports a new PEskin-backed rule to have consultants "to register and report any contacts they've had with either the mayor or Board of Supervisors." Jaye responded by saying the rule should apply to politicians, too.
"
After all, he says, 'I don't think I should be required to file a form every time Aaron Peskin calls me drunk at night to threaten me, because then I would have to file reports all the time.'"
Leading us to ask, yet again, why can't state politics be more like San Francisco?
Finally, "Rep.
Tom Lantos of California, the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress,
has died, his spokeswoman said Monday," reports the AP's Erica Werner.
"Lynne Weil said that Lantos, 80, passed away at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland.
"Lantos, a Democrat who chaired the House Foreign Affairs Committee, disclosed last month that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus."
