"Former South Bay Republican congressman Tom Campbell - a fiscal conservative, social moderate and respected
academic who twice before unsuccessfully sought statewide
office, is eyeing a possible run in 2010 to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports Mike Zapler in the Merc News.
"Campbell, 55, filed papers last week to form an "exploratory committee" for governor, which allows him to begin raising money
for a potential bid. He joins two other GOP moderates
from Silicon Valley - state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay chief Meg Whitman - among Republicans who have expressed interest in running.
"On the Democratic side, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi are likely or possible contenders to succeed Schwarzenegger,
who is termed out of office in 2011.
"Campbell boasts a sterling academic résumé - he earned a doctorate in economics and a law degree
from Harvard - and during five terms in Congress gained a reputation
as an independent thinker willing to challenge party
orthodoxy. He served briefly as Schwarzenegger's finance chief.
"In his most recent try for statewide office, Campbell
lost a U.S. Senate race in 2000 against Democrat
Dianne Feinstein by 20 points."
Dan Walters looks at one possible revenue source being considered
for the budget.
"[T]he state would allow cities to extend the lives of
their redevelopment projects – thus allowing them to keep property taxes that the
projects generate – without having to meet the stringent requirements
for redevelopment project extension in current law,
including new findings of blight to be cleaned up.
And in return, the state would be given a share of
the property taxes from those extensions that would
repay a loan in the $2 billion-plus range to help cover this year's $15.2 billion budget gap.
"One reason for the shortfall is that the state already
is required to cough up more than $2 billion a year to cover property tax losses to schools
because cities can keep all of the taxes from redevelopment
projects, rather than sharing them with schools and
other local governments. So advocates are saying that
this is a way for the state to recoup some of that
money and ease its budget crunch.
"Whether it becomes part of the eventual budget package
– when and if that happens – is very much up in the air, however."
The CC Times's Steven Harmon looks at the third side of the redistricting
initiative campaign, which is anticipated to join the fight between Republicans
and the Democratic campaign led by Don Perata.
"[H]olding yet a third banner in what could be a slugfest
this fall are Latino and African-American civil rights groups who came out against the
measure even before the state Democratic Party, and
are aghast at the potential consequences of change.
They are not yet working with the opposition, but they
have assailed the initiative as having the potential
to unravel decades of voting rights gains.
"'Democrats have their reasons for opposing this — they want to keep their power,' said Alan Clayton, a redistricting expert with the Los Angeles County
Chicano Employees Associaton. 'But our reasons are the potential reduction of minorities
in the Legislature. It could take the clock back in
terms of political power in the Legislature that Latinos
and African Americans have secured.'
"Currently, there are 28 Latinos, eight African Americans and six Asian American
Pacific Islanders among 120 state lawmakers.
"The civil rights groups include the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association
of Latino and Elected Officials and the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund. They all maintain that the proposal's criteria — all the rationales that commissioners would use to
draw political boundaries — are flawed and give insufficient protection to Voting
Rights Act principles. The Voting Rights Act protects
minority communities' ability to elect representatives in state Legislatures
and Congress.
"'It puts in numerous non-traditional redistricting principles that could make
it difficult to fully respect the Voting Rights Act,' said Steven Ochoa, director of voting rights and policy research at
the William C. Velasquez Institute, a nonprofit group
that focuses on Latino and other minority groups' political participation. "We believe reform is necessary. But this won't accomplish what they think it will."
Peter Shrag uses November's ballot measures to declare legislative failure.
"For all its variety, this November's list of initiatives – there's also one legislative bond measure for development
of high-speed rail – has one thing in common. None would be on the ballot
without deep-pocket funding; in most cases, direct democracy is a game in which
only the well-heeled get to play at all."
Like bobbing for diamonds. Or
pin the tail on the Van Gogh...
"Some are true and devoted advocates for causes they
believe in. Others, like the bonds for children's hospitals, while probably worthy, are funded almost
entirely by the organizations or institutions that
are the direct beneficiaries. Still others, like the
multimillion-dollar campaigns for and against Indian gambling casinos,
are almost exclusively battles between powerful gambling
interests over which side gets the biggest share of
the suckers' dollars.
"As the coming battles over the 10 initiatives heat up, they will collectively deliver
one major message: that the state's conventional governmental institutions – the Legislature, the courts (as in the recent decision overturning the state's ban on single-sex marriage) and the governor – are incompetent in managing the people's business. And the more initiatives the people pass,
the more accurate the message will be."
So, if none of them pass, will Schrag owe the Legislature
an apology?
"Anthem Blue Cross parent WellPoint Inc. agreed Monday to pay $11.8 million to settle claims from about 480 California hospitals that it failed to cover the bills
of patients it dropped after they were treated -- a controversial practice known as rescission," reports Lisa Girion in the Times.
"The hospitals sued after scores of their patients contended
in their own lawsuits that Blue Cross had illegally
dropped them.
"The patients said Blue Cross had improperly investigated
their medical histories after they submitted expensive
bills in an effort to use purported preexisting conditions
as an excuse for canceling their policies.
"The hospitals, including most private and public facilities
in California, say they provided emergency and authorized
care to patients who were, at the time of treatment,
Blue Cross members in good standing. Only later, they
contended, did Blue Cross drop the patients and renege
on its obligation to pay their bills."
"Three California lawmakers called Monday for an investigation of a Mojave Desert
chemical plant after a Chronicle series about a woman who has battled
for a decade to convince regulators that toxic substances
at the plant have harmed workers," reports Susan Sward in the Chron.
"Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sally Lieber said the story of former chemical worker Rita Smith's fight against the company, now named Searles Valley
Minerals, "was very accurate in describing a situation that is
beyond lax" at the plant in Trona, a small town in San Bernardino
County.
"The Mountain View Democrat, elected to her pro tem
position in 2006, said, 'You can say something is lax if regulations aren't being followed, but there is a level of neglect here
that is very disturbing. I think the state should investigate
current conditions at the plant.'
"On Sunday and Monday, The Chronicle detailed the crusade
by Smith, who has campaigned to learn why her husband,
Steve, who worked 19 years at the plant, developed severe injuries to his
lungs, nerves and other body systems.
"No regulatory agency has responded to Rita Smith's request to file environmental and safety violation
charges against the company. The plant says it has
an excellent safety record and that Smith's allegations are not credible."
And in Mike Carona news, the LAT's Stuart Pfeiffer reports, "Attorneys for indicted former Orange County Sheriff
Michael S. Carona
asked a federal judge Monday to prohibit a former secretary
from
testifying that Carona asked her to lie to investigators
about their
lengthy sexual affair.
"Prosecutors say Sandy Trujillo's testimony would show that Carona has a
proclivity to interfere with investigations. Among
the corruption
charges Carona faces is an allegation that he encouraged
former
Assistant Sheriff Donald Haidl to lie to a grand jury
investigating the
former sheriff.
"Carona's attorneys contended in a brief filed
Monday that Trujillo lacks credibility because she
once submitted a
sexual harassment complaint against Carona to the California
Department
of Fair Employment and Housing in which she said she
had rejected
Carona's advances.
"Federal
prosecutors said Trujillo later told them that she
and Carona had sex
and that he told her to lie to investigators about
it. "
And finally, from our Irony Files, AP reports, "A malfunctioning smoke detector started a fire last week in a New Jersey condominium, police said.
"The homeowner called 911 just after 2 p.m., when he heard a smoke
alarm go off and found heavy smoke and visible flames
in a second-story
room. Mahwah firefighters responded, with the help
of the Ramsey Fire
Department, and extinguished the blaze in about 20 minutes."
