"State elected officials solicited more than $33 million worth of
contributions during 2008 – much of it from special interests with
political agendas.
The pace this year is faster, with about $8.3 million in little more
than 60 days," reports CW's John Howard.
"Although dwarfed by the more widely known campaign
donations and lobbying payments, the politically driven
charitable donations represent a critical Capitol piece
of the linkage between politics and money. They are
payments that a politician solicits to benefit a particular
cause. Critics contend they allow special interests
to win favor from powerful officials without donating
directly to their campaigns.
"Because the reporting threshold is high -- $5,000 -- and there are no limits, the actual level of donations
may be far higher than is publicly disclosed.
"'We may be seeing only the tip of the iceberg,' said
Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political
Practices Commission, which enforces the state’s election laws."
On the day when the Yes on Everything campaign began
running radio spots around the state, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stumped on Tuesday for his package of budget measures in the May 19 special election, calling them the last best hope
for significant budget reform," Rick Orlov reports.
"'If they don't pass, we will be facing a $50 billion problem,' Schwarzenegger said in a meeting with Daily News editors
and reporters. 'It will mean massive cuts in education, hospitals,
prisons. These are things people don't want to see cut.'
"Schwarzenegger is heading the campaign for Propositions
1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E and 1F as his campaign commmittee, Budget Reform Now, began
its statewide advertising campaign leading up to the
election.
"More than $6 million has been raised so far, officials said, to
finance the print, radio and television campaign to
try to win voter support.
"'When we are able to explain to the people, they get
it,' Schwarzenegger said. 'We know people are furious. But once we explain to
them what we are trying to do, they support it.'"
That is, except for most of the members of the governor's party in Sacramento. The governor has taken to making
covert visits behind enemy lines.
The Bakersfield Californian's Steven Mayer reports:
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a stealth visit to Bakersfield’s
Petroleum Club on Tuesday, where he attended a private luncheon meeting
with about 10 local business leaders.
"The topic? Pushing for passage of fiscal reform through
the state’s initiative process.
"Schwarzenegger’s staff had not listed the visit on the governor’s
public calendar, and his office would neither confirm
nor deny his
pending trip to Bakersfield."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has assured members of California's congressional delegation that the state will not use federal economic stimulus money earmarked
for education to backfill the state's looming budget gap, according to a letter released this week," writes Seema Mehta in the Times.
"'Let me assure you it is the intent of the governor
that [these] funds allocated to the state will be dispersed quickly
to local educational agencies . . . and will be spent
quickly according to local needs,' Schwarzenegger's education secretary, Glen W. Thomas, wrote in the letter. 'It is the hope that these funds will immediately help
prevent teacher layoffs.'
"But some educators fear that the declarations may go
by the wayside if the state's finances decline further. The state is already projected
to be $8 billion in the red next year, and if several funding
propositions on the May ballot aren't approved by voters, that figure could nearly double."
The guv used the federal stimulus money to pump up
some job training efforts, part of the Press-release-a-palooza that comes with the federal package. "California is moving quickly to pump $415 million in federal stimulus money into upgrading job
training and placement services at employment centers around the state, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday," reports Marc Lifsher in the Times.
"A key legislator praised Schwarzenegger for taking
advantage of the Obama administration's largess and making sure that it flows as rapidly
as possible into communities that have been hard hit
by the recession.
"But state Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) also blasted the governor for the way the state's problem-plagued unemployment insurance program is run."
CW has more on the growing frustrations of Democrats
toward the governor:
"California is racked by its highest unemployment rate
in 26 years. But Democrats criticized the governor at an April 1 hearing, noting the state is still without a full-time, permanent labor secretary, six months after the previous secretary, Victoria Bradshaw, was promoted to lead Gov. Schwarzenegger’s cabinet.
"One Democratic Senator now says the failure of the
governor to fill the labor vacancy has added to the
problems many out-of-work Californians have had getting their unemployment
checks.
"'The governor is focused on ex-legislator musical chairs. He can put (Consumer Services Secretary) Fred Aguiar somewhere, create positions for people like (former Assemblywoman) Nicole Parra, find a seat for (former Assemblywoman) Sharon Runner, but he can’t appoint a secretary of labor in our worst econ decline
in two decades,' said Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter. 'It adds insult to injury that ex-legislators are taken care of, but people can’t get their unemployment checks, because there’s no labor secretary to tell the governor the system
isn’t working.'
"Florez, a candidate for lieutenant governor next year,
is a long-time critic of the Schwarzenegger administration."
Man, does anyone push a political button better than
Dean Florez?
"Mayor Gavin Newsom's been bopping around the East Coast this week, hitting Miami (Sunday), New York City (Monday) and Washington, D.C. (Tuesday)," writes Erin Allday in the Chron.
"The first two stops were mostly to raise money for
his gubernatorial campaign. He was in D.C. for Newsweek's Global Environmental Leadership Conference, where
he slammed American automakers for not moving fast
enough to build hybrid cars."
Hey, gotta pay all those big time political consultants
somehow, right?
"'We're going to have to dramatically reimagine the automobile
industry, and the problem is we're still stuck in this argument about how we can fail
more efficiently,' he said at the conference.
"Newsom's scheduled to be back in San Francisco this morning."
Calbuzz looks at who benefits if John Garamendi drops his bid for governor and opts for the congressional race.
"1. Attorney General Jerry Brown, because he could pick up some of those older, traditional
Democrats* who otherwise might be attracted to old party warhorse
Garamendi.
"2. Not Jerry Brown, because he wants as big a Democratic
field as possible so he can ride hold-over name recognition to victory in a crowded primary.
"3. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (aka Tony Villar), because their geographical bases would have greater
impact in a smaller field.
"4. Not Villaraigosa, because he'd like a field jammed with Northern California white
guys.
"5. It doesn’t matter – Garamendi had, at best, 8 percent of the vote in the last Field Poll (without Lady DiFi in the mix) and this little slice of the electorate gets dispersed
across the field.
"Our money's on Scenario No. 5, because Garamendi has little hardcore support, isn’t raising any money to speak of and has no compelling
message."'
The whole thing seems very tree-falls-in-the-woods to us.
"Visitors to the Capitol on Tuesday found a new statue in the hallway outside the office
of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: a giant bronze grizzly bear," posts Shane Goldmacher on Capitol Alert.
"The bear was purchased by Schwarzenegger himself on
a recent fundraising swing through Aspen, Colo. Schwarzenegger
wandered into an Aspen art gallery and just had to
have the bronze bear, spokesman Aaron McLear said. So he bought the statue (with his own money) and shipped it to Sacramento (with his own money), where it now sits in front of his office.
"McLear would not share how much Schwarzenegger had
paid. 'He thought schoolchildren who tour the Capitol would
enjoy getting their picture taken in front of it.' McLear said.
"The bear statue, by artist Steven Bennett, is a grizzly,
the same type of bear that decorates the state flag."
Speaking of grizzly, "The University of California confirmed today what applicants
and guidance counselors already knew firsthand: It was harder to gain admission to many of UC's nine undergraduate campuses this year," reports Larry Gordon in the Times.
"Mainly in response to budget-related enrollment cutbacks for the fall, the percentage
of California applicants offered freshman admission
by at least one UC campus dropped from 75.4% last year to 72.5% this year, a decline of 3.85%, according to data released Tuesday. Officials estimated
that it was the lowest acceptance rate for the university
since 2000.
"The biggest declines were at UC campuses in Santa Cruz,
where the rate of acceptance dropped from 74.3% last year to 63.7%; Davis, where it fell from 52.4% to 46.2%; and Irvine, which went from 49% to 42.8%."
Speaking of college, Greg Lucas and family are doing
the east coast college tour, and doing their part for economic stimulus.
"As some small recompense for the $50 billion in direct and indirect economic stimulus President
Obama and Congress claim are coming to California,
the Lucas Family is doing its part to economically
stimulate other parts of the country.
"On April 4, the Katherine Irene Lucas East Coast College World
Tour 2009 began. Rather than focus so heavily on the preservation
of public sector jobs, as two-thirds of the federal package does, the strategy has
been to buttress other flagging sectors of the national
economy.
"While no purchase of a new domestic automobile is contemplated
during the 10-day trip, several struggling segments of the U.S. economy
have received a boost."
And finally, from our Roundup Crime Blotter, AP reports,
"A woman called 911 to report she didn't get as much shrimp as she wanted in her fried rice at a Texas restaurant."
"Haltom
City police on Tuesday released the taped emergency
call, in which the
customer is heard telling the dispatcher, 'to get a police officer up here, what has to happen?'
"The customer also says: 'He didn't even put extra shrimp in there.'
"The upset customer had left the Fort Worth-area restaurant when an officer arrived Monday afternoon."
