On the road again

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took his campaign for budget reform to San Francisco on Thursday and said ballot measures in the May special election would allow the state to 'regain control' of the budget from special interests that 'prefer dysfunction over change,' reports Wyatt Buchanan in the Chron.

"The governor, who promised to reform the political establishment when he was swept into office in 2003, has made change a key priority and views it as an important piece of his legacy.

"'For five years - ever since I was first elected - I have been pushing for those kinds of reforms and those kinds of changes,' the governor told a meeting of the Commonwealth Club.

The LAT's Evan Halper and Jordan Rau report: "The governor's campaign is being spearheaded by some of his close political advisors, along with the California Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and other interest groups, operating as a campaign committee called Budget Reform Now.

"Opponents have not yet opened a formal campaign account. But Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., predicted they would ultimately raise enough money to run advertisements on radio, if not on more-expensive television.

"'I think we will be better financed than people realize,' Coupal said. 'We're not going to be able to raise the millions of dollars the other side will, but I do think we will be effective in getting our message out."

"He said that effort would be bolstered by two Republican candidates for governor in 2010: former EBay President Meg Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. And he said he's had private conversations with a dozen Republican Assembly members who voted for the spending cap but were now prepared to renounce it because they were not aware it was linked to an extension of tax increases."

Now, how many times did we hear Denise Ducheny explain that on the floor?

On the heels of yesterday's gloomy cash report by Controller John Chiang, the Legislative Analyst's Office plans to release a new five-year fiscal forecast today, and the word is that it's going to be u-g-l-y.

Dan Walters looks at the politics and consequences of the pulling of the federal funds trigger, which would both reduce the program cuts and tax increases in the budget.

"Were the trigger to be pulled, it would widen the likely deficit even more, which may be one reason why the administration is reluctant to embrace the $10 billion figure. And that doesn't take into account what happens if a half-dozen budget-related ballot measures are rejected by voters on May 19.

"The never-ending political dance over the state budget deficit thus continues."

A Sacramento judge ruled "Thursday that Schwarzenegger can furlough about 15,000 state workers employed by constitutional officers and the Board of Equalization," reports Jon Ortiz in the Bee.

"The final ruling by Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette rejected Controller John Chiang's assertion that independently elected constitutional officers should control their own employees.

"It's also the latest in a string of court wins for Schwarzenegger, whose two-day-per-month emergency furlough order has drawn legal fire from state worker unions and elected officials who contend it oversteps his authority.

"'This puts a big exclamation point on the function of the governor as the state's CEO,' said Anthony Caso, a state constitutional law lecturer at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento.

"Chiang spokeswoman Hallye Jordan said the controller will appeal: 'We are confident the Superior Court's ruling will be reversed on appeal.'"

"Thousands of educators are expected to gather outside the Capitol today to protest the estimated 25,000 pink slips issued to teachers statewide in response to California's shaky budget outlook," writes Robert Faturechi in the Bee.

"Union organizers have asked members to wear pink, as in pink slips, to protest impending school cuts. But the choice of a decidedly feminine-colored protest shirt has ignited heated debate on the California Teacher Association's "Pink Friday" Web site.

"'Bailey,' who identified himself on the site as a teacher from Indio, started the squabble with a post Wednesday titled "As a male teacher I AM NOT WEARING PINK."

"'What IDIOT came up with this idea?' the post reads. 'NO MALE TEACHER is going to wear PINK. WHY NOT BLACK, BLUE, RED – any NORMAL COLOR.'

"Today is the last day school districts can issue preliminary layoff notices to teachers. State law mandates that districts warn certificated workers, who include teachers and librarians, by March 15 each year if there is a possibility they could be laid off before the following school year."

"Bobby Shriver, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the brother of California first lady Maria Shriver, is mulling a run
for state attorney general next year, according to his political adviser," reports the Bee's Shane Goldmacher.

"The 54-year-old Democrat is a member of what is perhaps America's most famous political dynasty, the Kennedy clan.

"His father, Sargent Shriver, was the 1972 Democratic candidate for vice president. Of his other uncles, Robert Kennedy was U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator, and Ted Kennedy has served in the U.S. Senate for years.

"'There's been a wide variety of people who have come to him and who he has used as a sounding board to talk about the job of attorney general and the role it takes, the profile it has in terms of moving California forward,' said Harvey Englander, a Democratic political strategist who managed both of Shriver's successful runs for Santa Monica City Council."

"A pair of Republican activists have opened a campaign committee to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, chairman of the San Bernardino County GOP," blogs Jim Miller for the Press-Enterprise.

"The main name on the Committee to Recall Adams is David Bauer of Sacramento. Last year, Bauer was campaign treasurer for Rep. Tom McClintock during the hard-fought race in Northern California's 4th Congressional District.

"Bauer also is the chief financial officer of JohnsonClark Associates, a statewide campaign-consulting firm based in Sacramento.

"That would be the same JohnsonClark that has overseen Adams' past campaigns and would be leading the fight against any recall effort."

"Settling a simmering partisan spat, leaders of California's $3-billion stem cell research effort Thursday divided its No. 2 leadership post between the outgoing state Democratic Party chief and a biotech executive backed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports Eric Bailey in the Times.

"In a pair of unanimous votes, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's governing board split the vice chairmanship in two and then filled the spots with Democrat Art Torres and Republican Duane Roth.

"The solution was largely brokered by Sherry Lansing, the former Paramount Pictures chief executive who is the chairwoman of the board's governance committee. She said that adding two leaders to the board hierarchy seemed like a win-win, because both men are qualified, although in different ways -- Torres with his political savvy, Roth with his biotech expertise.

"'Here's our high-class problem: We have two extraordinary candidates,' Lansing said before the vote during a meeting of the board at the Sacramento Convention Center."

"A top executive of the nonprofit that manages California's prison health care system was fired and another resigned Thursday," reports Charles Piller in the Bee.

"Receiver J. Clark Kelso, appointed by the court to run the California Prison Health Care Receivership Corp., eliminated the job of Chief Counsel John Hagar, who had been with the organization since its inception. Kelso demanded and received Hagar's resignation and that of Hagar's assistant, Stephen Weston.

"The organization's CEO for medical services, Dr. Terry Hill, declined to resign and was fired.

"Kelso described the moves as 'housecleaning that you do every spring.'

"The personnel changes "mark an important milestone for the receivership" that had been in the works for months, Kelso said. Their goal was to align the organization more closely with its strategic plans, including implementing medical services and streamlining operations."

And finally, from our Government of the People, By the People Files, the city council of Medina, Ohio was brought to a stand-still by, well, er. Let's go to the tape...