The Sacramento Bee
reports "State Controller
Steve Westly will announce this week that he is
forming an exploratory committee to run for governor in 2006, potentially launching a battle among three Democratic statewide officials to challenge Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger if he runs for re-election, sources close to Westly said Wednesday." Of course, the exploratory committee option still leaves Westly plenty of outs to back down and run for reelection.
In a rah-rah letter sent to Democratic activists, Westly says, "In the next few weeks, I'll offer my vision for
making sure Arnold Schwarzenegger is hasta la vista in 2006. And I look formward to hearing yours. Together, we'll put California on the right track -- and send Arnold back to Hollywood on his."
Aww, and to think, it was just last year that
Schwarzenegger and Westly were making commercials together for Props. 57 and 58. We can't wait to see the
Angelides hit machine take a shot at this one.
Meanwhile,
Bill Lockyer dropped a mailer of his own to Democratic activists yesterday announcing his candidacy and seeking endorsements.
Lockyer, however, is
getting heat for approving a $200,000 settlement grant to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, an organization that is a leading critic of the governor. The grant gave GOP communications guru
Karen Hanretty the chance to pound her keyboard "'I think it's outrageous that Bill Lockyer would abuse the power of the attorney general's office to benefit a partisan political shill like
Harvey Rosenfeld,' she said." Lockyer's office, however, notes that the grant was approved by a judge and must be spent on health advocacy.
The promises of dueling rallies by the governor's supporters and opponents yesterday
both fell flat. "Comedian
Tom Arnold tried to
rouse the 200 who showed up -- including a
healthy contingent of Republican staffers -- in support of the celebrity governor who has been struggling to get back on message after weeks of slumping approval ratings and increasingly effective attacks."
Getting a bit off-message, Tom Arnold stated that he was trying to help the governor with his problem wooing women voters. "'Sometimes you take a lot of heat when you're trying to do the right thing. It's hard. It's tough.
The wrath of the woman is my biggest fear,' said Arnold, who was once married to comedian
Roseanne Barr. 'I don't think I could deal with it.'" Tom, you're probably not helping.
He certainly was no help in getting the governor to the rally. The "
few dozen supporters of the governor, including his own employees and political aides" went home without a sighting of the governor. Tom Arnold "
led the crowd to believe Schwarzenegger was about to make a surprise appearance before telling them that he had gotten bad information. And a local barbecue mogul handing out free hot dogs headed home with plenty of leftovers."
George Skelton
looks into the he-said/she-said argument between the schools and the governor, and sides with the schools. "The governor assured schools that if tax revenues increased this year, he'd give them their normal cut under Prop. 98. Revenues did, but he didn't."
Secretary of State
Bruce McPherson made his first significant move as secretary of state yesterday,
replacing longtime elections coordinator John Mott-Smith with Alameda County Registrar Brad Clark. The move is drawing heat, however, as most county clerks considered Mott-Smith as the best asset in the office, and as Clark opposed a mandatory paper trail for electronic voting. Yolo County Clerk
Freddie Oakley said of Mott-Smith "He gave 20 years of loyal service to a number of secretaries of state ... He was the definition of a nonpartisan, intelligent, diplomatic peacemaker. ... He literally held the local elections community together under
Kevin Shelley, and
I'm stunned that his reward is to be felled in this fashion."
Meanwhile, potential SOS candidate
Conny McCormick will be among those testifying at an informational hearing on redistricting reform in the Capitol today.
Outside the Capitol,
the FBI is still on Don Perata's case, and now they're focused on whether the senate leader
indirectly obtained money from card clubs that was paid to his business partner. The Chron reports: "It was at that time, around January 2002, that Perata called lobbyists and lawyers for the card clubs to a meeting in his Capitol office, according to people who attended the meeting. ... There, he
introduced them to Staples, and
recommended they hire him. Perata portrayed Staples as someone who could help generate grass-roots opposition to the
[Lytton] casino."
In
"Where Do We Begin" News, new
slot machines bearing the likeness of the governor, are popping up in tribal casinos. But the governor wants you to know that he's not getting a cut. "'Unlike the governor,' [Vince] Sollitto said, 'the
folks who are getting a piece of the action on these machines are the people of California, since the governor has negotiated finally a
fair contribution of Indian gaming revenue.'"
Much ado about nothing?: No faulty welds were found by inspectors in the Bay Bridge. "Federal and state inspectors found no problems in the first tests of Bay Bridge welds checked in response to allegations last week that welders working on the new span routinely covered up faulty work under pressure from their bosses to get the job done quickly, officials said Wednesday."
And from our "Elementary, My Dear Watson" Files, the wayward finger in the chili
may have been bit off by a leopard. OK, where's Ashton? Are we being Punk'd?
"San Jose police say the woman,
Sandy Allman, who owned several exotic animals, lost the finger in an attack on Feb. 23 in Pahrump, Nevada, about 45 miles from Las Vegas. Allman reportedly
got her finger back in a bag of ice. The director of an exotic animal sanctuary called a hot line set up by Wendy's on Tuesday to suggest that the finger might have come from a woman who lost it in the leopard attack. "What are the odds?" asked
Carol Asvestas, who runs the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio. She had gone to rescue several exotic animals at Allman's request, and was among several people who saw the attack. The finger apparently could not be reattached, and was returned to Allman in a bag of ice, the Mercury-News reported."
We're almost embarrassed we didn't think of the old leopard attack angle sooner.
