Capitol Weekly releases its annual legislative scorecard, in an effort to stick an ideological ranking on the
state's 118 current legislators.
"Every political scorecard has its problems,
and this one is no exception. The selection of bills
is subjective, chosen after conversations with Capitol
staff and experts, and our own observations of big
debates over the last year under the dome. We also
took our cues from other organizations who do this
kind of thing on a regular basis. In fact, the Capitol
Weekly scorecard is, in many ways, a compilation or
synthesis of other scorecards that have been floating
around insider circles in recent weeks.
"We did try to insert a little Capitol Weekly flare.
For example, we chose the vote on renewed oil drilling
for our scorecard, even though the vote was purged
on the Assembly side. No worries. We’ve got the vote tally, and it’s there on our list for the world to see. The bills
we chose were not necessarily the most publicized,
or even the most hotly contested in all cases. But
we sought to pick a variety of bills dealing with diverse
topics that lawmakers have been asked to tackle over
the last legislative session."
Sam Aanestad, George Runner, Jim Silva
and Mike Villines rank among the state's most conservative
lawmakers, while more than a dozen lawmakers score
perfect liberal scores. You can check out the results
here.
A new PPIC poll shows
Meg Whitman ahead of the GOP pack, and within striking
distance of Jerry Brown. The Merc's political team reports, "The Public Policy
Institute of California survey of 2,004 residents, conducted during the
first week of December, found only 10 percent of likely voters are
watching the governor's race "very" closely. Rather,
Californians
remain overwhelmingly preoccupied with the state's
ongoing economic
malaise.
"Two-thirds of respondents expect economic conditions to
worsen, and three-quarters fret the state is headed in the wrong
direction. As to who might lead the state out of that
mess? Well,
there's plenty of time to figure that out next year.
"Voters are
very much focused on the economy and the budget going
into the new
year," said PPIC President Mark Baldassare, "and they
have yet to
develop a solid opinion of who they want to be their
next governor."
Whitman "was favored
by 32 percent of likely Republican voters, compared with
12 percent for
Tom Campbell, the former South Bay congressman, and
8 percent for Steve
Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner.
"Asking
voters to disregard her shaky voting record and thin
political resume,
Meg Whitman has built her entire campaign for governor
around the
premise that she can do for California what she did
for eBay, the
e-commerce giant that exploded into a multibillion-dollar
entrepreneurial force during her 10-year stint as CEO.
"However, a
less-than-flattering picture of her CEO days is emerging in a
civil
case taking place 3,000 miles away between eBay and online classifieds
giant Craigslist.
Described in testimony as someone with an
"evil" side who could be a "monster" to those who foiled
her, Whitman
is at risk of losing control of the carefully crafted
powerhouse image
that she has parlayed into a huge lead in the GOP primary
race,
political observers said."
Hey, even if it's true, there are only two Meg Whitmans.
How many personalities does Jerry Brown have?
"Michael Peevey, the president of the state Public
Utilities
Commission and a former utility company president,
was confirmed unanimously Wednesday by the Senate Rules
Committee – a sharp departure from the committee’s action on Peevey’s controversial colleague, Rachelle Chong, who was
opposed by a number of consumer groups and the Senate
leader and denied a hearing.
"Peevey, a PUC appointee of two governors to the powerful
regulatory panel, was the only PUC appointment under
consideration by Rules.
"The committee’s approval – and that of the full Senate – is required by the end of the month in order for Peevey
to continue his position as head of one of the state’s most powerful regulatory bodies. The full Senate
is all but certain to follow the recommendation from
the five-member Rules Committee".
The Examiner looks at the war of words between Gov. Schwarzenegger and Sarah
Palin. Schwarzenegger dismissed Palin's views on environmental
regulations, saying she was more concerned with presidential
politics than protecting the environment. Palin responded
in kind Wednesday.
""Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same
sorts of policies
in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into
record deficits and
unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation's
only
Arctic state and that I was among the first governors
to create a
sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While
I and all
Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather
patterns firsthand,
I have repeatedly said that we can't primarily blame
man's activities
for those changes. And while I did look for practical
responses to
those changes, what I didn't do was hamstring Alaska's job creators
with burdensome regulations so that I could act "greener
than thou"
when talking to reporters.""
Zing...
Marc Lifsher reports CalPERS now wants placement agents to register as lobbyists.
"On Wednesday, the pension fund's board endorsed a
not-yet-written
measure that would require such sales intermediaries
to register as
lobbyists with the state the same way that the people
who lobby the
Legislature, the governor's office and other government
agencies do.
Such lobbyists must disclose regularly the names of
their clients and
the fees they receive.
The proposal got only one dissenting vote
on the 13-member board. That came from George Diehr, a Cal State San
Marcos business professor and head of the CalPERS investment
committee."
Diehr was immediately taken out back and shot.
And finally, from our Bad Santa files, "Santa Claus is in trouble with the law
in one western Wisconsin city. Police in Sparta said
they cited a man
dressed as Santa after witnesses told officers he stumbled out of a
vehicle, approached several children playing in a yard, hugged them and demanded to know the whereabouts
of his reindeer.
"The man was cited for open intoxicants. The driver
of the car in which he was riding was arrested for
drunken driving."
No word yet on the whereabouts of those reindeer...
