What started out as a game of political gotcha surrounding
Tom Campbell's ties to a radical Muslim professor has
turned into a question of credibility for Campbell's U.S. Senate
campaign.
Seema Mehta reports, "Terrorism and the Middle East
are continuing to roil the Republican
Senate contest after a letter written by former congressman
Tom
Campbell emerged that appeared to contradict statements
Campbell and
his aides had made about his dealings with a radical
Muslim professor.
Campbell had previously conceded that he wrote a letter
on Al-Arian's
behalf, but had said during a candidates' debate Friday
that he did so
before Al-Arian's interview with O'Reilly. His campaign's website
also
said the letter was written before the terrorist attacks
on Sept. 11,
2001.
The text of the letter showed otherwise. Dated Jan.
21, 2002, it said,
" . . . I respectfully wish to convey my sincere alarm
that Professor
Al-Arian may be treated harshly because of the substance
of his views."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed $2.2 billion worth of proposed budget cuts Monday in a move Democrats called "baffling." Michael
Rothfeld reports, "Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and
GOP lawmakers had criticized it as a
parlor trick because Democrats, who hold majorities
in the Senate and
Assembly, made cuts to next year's budget even though
they have not yet
approved it, which is expected to be a much more difficult
task.
In essence, the bill was merely a road map for future
cuts, the Republicans said.
In his veto message, Schwarzenegger wrote that the
bill, AB X8 2, "does
not actually implement spending reductions. . . . The
longer the
Legislature delays action on real reductions, the more
difficult the
choices become."
The legislative analyst says the state should drill for oil off the coast of California.
"
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pushed for limited drilling
off the
coast of Santa Barbara in what is known as Tranquillon
Ridge.
Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance estimates the
new oil drilling
could generate $2.7 billion for the state over the next 14 years.
"The
state's legislative analyst says Schwarzenegger's proposal
"merits
approval" but that the money should go to the state's
general fund
instead of being earmarked for state parks as Schwarzenegger
has
proposed.
"This project provides the opportunity to gain significant
and
much-needed revenues for the General Fund that could help
to preserve
state programs that it considers to be a high priority,"
the report states. "Analyzing these
potential risks and trade-offs, we find, on balance, that the
Tranquillon Ridge project merits legislative approval."
Steve Poizner declares himself a true conservative, although his past record may indicate otherwise.
“I’m a conservative with a track record,” he said in a speech to the
San Diego County Federation of Republican Women at
the Bahia Hotel
yesterday," reports John Marelius.
"That track record has taken some twists and turns since Poizner, a
former high-tech entrepreneur, ran unsuccessfully for a Silicon
Valley
Assembly seat as a moderate in 2004.
He has reversed his support for Proposition 39, a November 2000
ballot measure that lowered the voter approval threshold
for school
bond issues from two-thirds to 55 percent. And, although he still
favors a woman’s right to have an abortion, he no longer supports
government funding of abortions.
"Poizner said he supported Proposition 39 and contributed nearly
$200,000 to help pass it because it gave charter schools access
to
comparable facilities as other public schools.
But now, he said in an interview, “I have opposed consistently in
the past five or six years any attempt that makes it
easier to borrow
money, that makes it easier to tax, that changes the
threshold on
(adopting) the budget.”
Sen. Roy Ashburn told a radio show in Bakersfield he was
gay Monday, less than one week after his arrest on suspicion
of drunk driving. "“I am gay. Those are the words that have been difficult
for me for
so long,” a sometimes emotional Ashburn told local talk radio
show host
Inga Barks of KERN AM 1180.
"But in an interview with The Californian afterward,
the
conservative Republican wouldn’t say much more than that about his
personal life. When did he know he was gay? When did
he come out to his family? Will his lifestyle change
now that he’s out of the closet?
Ashburn refused to go any of those places.
“That’s my private life and that’s personal,” Ashburn said. “I don’t think it’s relevant to how I do my job.”
Ashburn has taken heat in the last week for having
been both
closeted and a consistent voter against gay-rights related legislation.
In the interview, Ashburn repeatedly argued he voted
the will of his
constituents in his conservative 18th Senate District, which includes
much of Bakersfield.
“I took a position based on what I believed was the
will of my
constituents, not mine, necessarily,” Ashburn said. “We have a
representative form of government ... where citizens
select people to
cast votes on their behalf.”
Michael Doyle looks at the big bucks being spent in the race between Jeff Denham
and Richard Pombo.
"I suspect this is going to be over a $2 million campaign, maybe
even $3 million," Denham's campaign consultant Dave Gilliard
said
Monday, when asked to assess total spending by all
candidates.
Denham
on Monday was set to formally file his candidacy papers.
Pombo, former
Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson and current Fresno City
Councilman Larry
Westerlund have also publicly declared they are in
the race.
In Sacramento today, the head of the state energy commission
will talk about the new program to offer money to people
who replace household appliances with new energy-efficient models. Think "cash for clunkers" for your
refrigerator. A joint legislative hearing will discuss
the implementation of new water policy signed by Gov.
Schwarzenegger last year. Bill Leonard has been appointed to serve as the new head of the
State and Consumer Services Agency. Leonard will leave
his seat on the Board of Equalization to fill the post
for the final months of Schwarzenegger's term.
And finally, from our Events That Shaped Our Lives
Files, apparently Karl Rove is who he is because he
got beaten up by a girl.
The Washington Post's Steven Levingston reviews Rove's
new memoir and writes, "Karl Rove's partisan bloodlust
flowered early. At age 9 -- and already
a political nerd -- he became a spirited supporter of Richard Nixon in
the 1960 presidential smackdown against John F. Kennedy. So
intense was
his devotion that he landed a coveted Nixon bumper
sticker and
displayed it proudly on his bicycle basket -- until a little girl in
his neighborhood who favored JFK beat the stuffing
out of him,
bloodying his nose and ego. "I've never liked losing a political fight
since," Rove writes in his memoir, "Courage and Consequence."
