We realize half of you are in Vegas today, placing
bets on your NCAA bracket, but we at the Roundup are
bravely soldiering on. We've got our brackets filled
out and ready to go, and now we're hungry for poll
numbers. Luckily for us...
A new Field Poll shows a close GOP Senate primary between Tom Campbell and
Carly Fiorina -- both of whom are in a statistical dead heat in hypothetical
match-ups against Barbara Boxer.
The SacBee reports, "The survey found Campbell leading former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina 28 percent to 22 percent among likely Republican voters in the June
8 primary, while Assemblyman Chuck DeVore had support
from 9 percent. But most prospective GOP voters, roughly 40 percent, were undecided.
"In hypothetical matchups for the Nov. 2 general election, the poll found Campbell leads Boxer 44 percent to 43 percent, Boxer leads Fiorina 45 percent to 44 percent, and she leads DeVore 45 percent to 41 percent. The general election matchups have a margin of error
of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
"Formerly, I would have said this is in the Democratic
column, but I would say now it's got to be moved into
the tossup column," said Mark DiCamillo, the director
of the poll. "There just seems to be a turning of voter
opinions. I think a lot of it has to do with the Congress."
DiCamillo said it's clear the "tenor of political discourse"
has changed in California since Republican Scott Brown
pulled off an upset victory in the Massachusetts Senate
race in January.
Meg Whitman's millions may prove to be a logistical nightmare if she is elected governor.Evan Halper and Jack Dolan
report, "Whitman may be bound by contracts she signed
obligating her to hold
some of the investments for years, and some funds might
be difficult to
unload due to the scarcity of buyers willing to take
her place. Under state law, governors are considered
to have full knowledge of
their investments -- and therefore full responsibility for potential
conflicts of interest -- as they existed before a blind trust was
established.
"The public needs to know about potential conflicts
of interest," said
Bob Stern, president of the nonprofit Center for Government
Studies in
Los Angeles. "If there is a new start-up company in California she is
investing in and she is making decisions affecting
that company, we
should know about it."
"For a trust to be truly blind, Whitman would have
to sell her
whole portfolio and hand the cash to an advisor who
would reinvest it
without her input or knowledge. State Insurance Commissioner
Steve
Poizner, Whitman's GOP rival in the June 8 primary election, and Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger have blind trusts, although both
have disclosed
investments outside of their trusts as well."
Ah, the problems of a billionaire...
Meanwhile, Jerry Brown is urging unions to go on the attack.
"Faced
with the daunting prospect of being significantly outspent
by his
likely Republican opponent, Democratic gubernatorial
candidate Jerry
Brown spoke to a labor group Tuesday and urged it to
go on the
offensive "We're going to attack whenever we can, but I'd rather
have you
attack," Brown said at a gathering of the California
delegation of the
Laborers' International Union of North America in Sacramento.
"I'd
rather be the nice guy in this race. We'll leave [the attacks] to . . .
the Democratic Party and others."
The statement drew a quick attack of its own from Republican
Meg Whitman, the front-runner for her party's nomination.
"This is a troubling example of the cynical style of
politics that
helped create the terrible crisis California now faces,"
Whitman said
in a statement released by her campaign office. "In
his announcement
for governor, Jerry Brown promised us an 'insider's
knowledge but an
outsider's mind.' Clearly, the insider and the labor
unions are in full
control."
And George Skelton gets his sit-down with the former EBay CEO and finds her "articulate and quick on her feet."
"If it's Brown vs. Whitman in November, that will be
a fascinating
matchup of 180-degree contrasts: the career pol and former governor who
knows the ins and outs of governing but may be seen
as an old retread
vs. the business product with fresh ideas but absolutely
no experience
in governing.
"We've already had one governor who needed training
wheels and has
plummeted in popularity after promising voters Utopia
and not
delivering."
John Howard looks at the $3 billion agency with little to no oversight.
"Lawmakers – again -- are questioning the operations and culture of the
state’s stem cell program, which was created by voters nearly
six years ago in Proposition 71 and has placed California at the forefront of stem-cell research and development.
"But the issue isn’t so much the scientific savvy of the California Institute
for Regenerative Medicine or the competence of the
group that supervises it, the 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which
serves as the CIRM’s board of directors.
"Rather, it is the potential for conflicts in the distribution
of hundreds of millions of dollars of grants – the current total is
over $1 billion
-- and the perceived lack of public disclosure cloaking
the agency’s activities. Proposition 71 of 2004 authorized the state to
sell $3 billion in general obligation bonds and limit sales
to no more than $350 million annually. Up to 6 percent of the money
covers administrative costs."
And finally, in case you ever wanted to know how to
make your very own bust of Apple CEO Steve Jobs out
of cheese, we've got all the details. A little something to
munch on during the
NCAA
Tourney...
