California's Republican Party is rife with divisions,
deadlocked over resolving the state budget shortage,
unable to get somebody --
anybody -- elected to statewide office, pays inordinate attention
to radio
talk-show hosts and suffers low registration, among many
other weaknesses.
Other than that, no problem.
The Chronicle's Carla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli offer a convention wrap: "Today is Tom Del
Beccaro's first full day as chair of the beleaguered
California Republican
Party - and he freely says the next two years will be the
most challenging the
party ever experiences, bemoaning how the GOP has "trapped
ourselves into
talking to the converted."
"We've become the
party of limited communication," Del Beccaro, a Lafayette
attorney, told
1,000 delegates and attendees Sunday at the close of the
three-day California
Republican Party convention. The party's troubles go deeper than
communication - or that no Republicans hold statewide office..."
"Party registration
is at a rock-bottom 31 percent of registered voters in California. Republicans
are divided on immigration policy. A sizable chunk
of Latinos say they would
never vote for a Republican. And GOP state legislators
are split on whether to
cut a deal with Gov. Jerry Brown or stonewall his plan to balance the
state's budget through a combination of tax extensions
and budget cuts."
Some subtext from the
convention: House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy may cut it in D.C.,
but in
California, his fellow Republicans rebuffed his efforts to block
the
formation of a young GOP group. The Bakersfield Californian's Vic Pollard -- that's right, Vic Pollard -- takes a look.
"As the latest
development in a bitter, behind-the-scenes battle that has been going on for
nearly two decades, delegates to the state party's
convention in Sacramento
endorsed the merger of the California Young Republicans
and the Young
Republican Federation of California by a vote margin
of nearly two to
one."
"Although McCarthy,
the majority whip in the House of Representatives,
is one of the most powerful
Republican officials in the state, the incident underlines
the limits of his
ability to control events in the fractious California
Republican Party.
Abernathy is McCarthy's campaign consultant who, through
his Bakersfield firm
Western Pacific Research, represents a thick roster
of local and regional
elected officials holding seats at all levels of government
from school board
to Congress."
"The vote was the
most dramatic event yet in a long-running campaign by the Kern faction against
the Young Republican Federation of California. The
Kern faction once filed a
lawsuit to halt the other group's use of the term Young
Republicans and fought
a number of political guerrilla battles in a largely
unsuccessful effort to bar
the group from gaining official party recognition."
Meanwhile, Jerry Brown
kept up the heat: He went to the public via YouTube to urge people to
contact
their lawmakers and demand that the budget be placed on the ballot,
notes Capitol Weekly's John
Howard.
"Gov. Jerry Brown
went directly to the public Monday morning via YouTube
to sell his fiscal
policies, demanding that lawmakers place his tax-and-cuts budget before the
electorate.
"The Democratic
governor said the state’s fiscal condition was “too big, too irreversible a
matter” to preclude the public’s participation. He urged the public to contact
lawmakers on resolving the $26 billion deficit. He said that half the job has
been done – cuts that lawmakers’ “courageous action” approved last week – but
that the remaining half, a series of taxes, has yet
to be completed."
“Would you like a chance
to cast this vote or would you feel it’s appropriate to shut out the people of
California?” Brown asked in the video, which lasts just over three
minutes."
One of the governor's
budget ideas is to abolish California's 425 redevelopment agencies and tap into
the billions of property tax dollars they set aside
for local projects. The
locals are protesting mightily, but they may have another
problem here: They could faced court fights mounted by bondholders.
This is getting ugly. Bloomberg's Mike Marois tells the tale.
"California’s
cities and counties may face bondholder lawsuits if
state lawmakers abolish
redevelopment authorities to get at their money, a
lawyer for some of the
agencies said."
"About $5 billion
in taxes now going to the agencies would be blended
together in a caretaker
fund, run by local governments, that would pay investors
holding more than $20
billion of bonds. The move may damage the credit quality
of the securities,
causing their value to fall, said William Marticorena."
“Even a small decline in
secondary-market value could produce significant investor losses
and possible
damages for state and local government,” Marticorena, head of public finance at
the Orange County law firm of Rutan & Tucker, said in an analysis distributed
March 18. “The market-value declines may not be small and the damages could
be
immense.”
The devastating tsunami
that struck Japan and rippled across the Pacific is providing lessons to California scientists,
reports the LA Times' Abby Sewell.
"Teams of
scientists combed the California coast all last week,
comparing damage from
port to port and harbor to harbor. The result will
be a set of recommendations
that could give better indications of which areas are
most at risk and how to
mitigate damage."
"This will be our best data set of response in California
from a
far-afield tsunami yet," said Jose Borrero, a tsunami researcher
with the
consulting firm ASR Limited who traveled the length
of the California
coast."
"The state has already published inundation maps that
show which areas are
believed to be at risk of flooding in various tsunami
scenarios, but the new
data will allow for a more detailed understanding."
And now, let's open our "Gotcha!" file to learn about a
Las Vegas drug prosecutor who was arrested for cocaine
possession. This is the
guy who recently handled the Paris Hilton case.
"Metro Police said
chief Clark County Deputy District Attorney David Schubert
was arrested in
connection with drug charges Saturday night. Police spokesman Jay Rivera
said Schubert was charged with possession of cocaine
and booked into the Clark
County Detention Center."
"Jail records late
Sunday afternoon indicated Schubert was no longer in
the detention
center. Police planned to release more information about Schubert's
arrest
on Monday, Rivera said."
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