Capitol Weekly looks at a pair of end-of-session stories that divided core chunks of the Democratic
base, pitting organized labor vs. environmentalists.
First is the wild tale of air pollution credits in the South
Coast Air Quality Management District.
“There was carnage,” said Sen. Rod Wright, D- Los Angeles, of the fight
over the highest-stakes environmental-regulatory bill of the year, with
a potential, $4 billion economic hit and 65,000 jobs at stake in the
L.A. basin. The bill allows air regulators to distribute valuable
emissions credits in the way they did before the courts
blocked them. The bill now is before Republican Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"But the story of the bill’s path through the Legislature illustrates the backroom
deals and last-minute maneuvering that have become emblematic of the
end of a legislative year. Charges of deceit, manipulation
and out-right lying were all flying around committee rooms
and the Assembly and Senate floors as the sun began
to rise Saturday morning and the Legislature was still
in session."
The fight to suspend environmental laws to bring a new football stadium to Los Angeles County also broke along similar lines.
"The tensions between labor and environmental groups
were also on display during a last-minute fight over pollution credits for the South Coast
Air Quality Management District. And the debate on
those two measures reflects a growing tension between
core Democratic constituencies that often breaks down
on regional, urban and often ethnic lines.
"Regional concerns were clearly on display during the
stadium vote. Members from the San Diego area banded
together, across party lines, to oppose the project.
Their fear is that the Spanos family, which owns the
San Diego Chargers and is close to Majestic president
Edward Roski, would use the new stadium as leverage
in the Spanos’ negotiations for a new stadium in San Diego or perhaps
even move the Chargers to Los Angeles.
"The stadium proposal passed with 33 Democratic votes. Twenty-one Republicans also voted for the deal. But among
the members who refused to vote for the plan were nine
members of the Democratic caucus who represent coastal
districts. Only Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, who is running for attorney general and Fiona
Ma, D-San Francisco, voted for the bill from the coastal
caucus.
All but three members of the Democrats’ Latino caucus voted against the stadium bill, and
two of those members – Mary Salas, D-Chula Vista, and Lori Saldaña, D-San Diego, represent the San Diego area."
What do Arnold Schwarzenegger and the squirrels in Capitol Park have in common? They're both focused on ACORN . Ba-dum-dum.
Michael Rothfeld reports, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today called on state Atty. Gen. Jerry
Brown to investigate ACORN, the left-leaning national community
organization that has come under fire in recent days
after conservative
activists released videos that they said showed the group’s workers
offering advice on how to set up prostitution businesses.
"A hidden-camera video released Tuesday by James O’Keefe and Hannah
Giles, who posed as a pimp and a prostitute, depicts a woman
who
O’Keefe says is an ACORN worker in San Bernardino saying
she could show
them “how not to get caught.”
Well, that should get the guv on Fox News....
Matthew Yi looks at a new FPPC report focused on Capitol fundraising.
"Sacramento's streets flow with campaign cash" - That's the word today from California's campaign finance watchdog.
"The California Fair Political Practices Commission
says so far this
year, incumbent state lawmakers have together solicited
a total of more
than $1.26 million per contributor. The amount of contributions
requested ranged from $1,000 to $50,000.
"That's a total of 325 political fundraisers in Sacramento alone, not
counting fundraisers held by lawmakers in their own
legislative
districts."
George Skelton calls the Senate GOP's bargaining style 'extortion.'
"This is the pro-business, the fiscally responsible party -- or at
least that's what they keep telling us,"Treasurer Bill Lockyer says. "And it's
getting annoying. It's irresponsible and it's ridiculous."
"The bill advocated by Lockyer was little-noticed and noncontroversial,
but vital. It would have given the treasurer more wiggle
room to
renegotiate so-called letters of credit that are about to expire with
banks. Without the legislation, he says, the state
could end up paying
banks an extra $850 million over the next two years.
"It got all botched up with a temper tantrum," Lockyer says. "What's
pretty clear now is this: Senate Republicans will abandon domestic
violence victims, cops, firefighters and taxpayers
to do the bidding of
corporate interests."
"Republicans say it's more about an internal spat with Democrats.
"In order for us to achieve bipartisan agreements .
. . we have to
establish and maintain a level of trust that a deal
is a deal," Senate
Republican leader Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta
said in a written
statement. "It's not one, two or three items that we're negotiating
over. It's one big item: trust."
Susan Ferriss reports on the saving of Healthy Families ... for now.
"State officials
decided Thursday to lift a ban on adding as many as
88,000 children to
Healthy Families medical insurance.
"The
Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which administers
the children's
program, found Thursday that recently approved legislation
will help
provide enough funding this year to cover recent budget
cuts.
"Healthy Families provides coverage to children of working
parents with no job-based insurance option."
Meanwhile, CW reports the govenror is still undecided about a special session
on water.
"Five days after the Legislature failed to deliver a
comprehensive water solution, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
remained non-committal about whether or not he will call a special
legislative session this fall to deal with the water
issue.
"At a press conference Tuesday, Schwarzenegger said
he was still mulling the idea over.
“I called the leaders, Democratic leaders and Republican
leaders, I asked them to go and make every effort possible
to sit down again since they came so close. They all
said, we came so close but we just ran out of time.
That happens sometimes."
And finally, from our British Kids are Cold Files,
AP reports, "A group of London schoolchildren who reared a lamb
from birth and named it
Marcus has overridden objections by parents and rights
activists and
voted to send the animal to slaughter.
"The intention had been to buy pigs with the money raised
from
slaughtering Marcus, but those plans have been put
on hold following
the furor created by the lamb's culling. The school said the program
may now have to be stopped."
