With a new poll showing that the governor's
approval rating has dropped 20 points since January,
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced yesterday that former Los Angeles Mayor
Richard Riordan will leave his post as the governor's education secretary effective June 30. The announcement came only minutes after Riordan appeared in the Assembly Education Committee to support an administration-sponsored bill. "'
I would say that he has not been a player,' said
Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Assn. 'He doesn't seem to be able to move beyond an L.A. context in his thinking or in his advice, and this is a very varied state.'"
In the Bee, CTA's Kerr
calls for the elimination of the education secretary's office "'It would be a good time to get rid of what is a needless bureaucracy.'"
When Riordan was asked by the L.A. Times in an interview on Tuesday whether he was leaving soon, he responded "I don't know." Apparently, the latest blow was a
Public Policy Institute of California poll that finds the governor's approval rating at 40%, with only
28% of respondents approving of his K-12 education policy.
Dan Weintraub writes in the Sacramento Bee that the problem is
simply a communication failure. "So far, [the governor] has barely tried, while his opponents have done a great job defining his record on their terms, which are less than accurate.
It will be interesting to see what happens if the voters ever realize they have been conned."
The L.A. Times's George Skelton
writes "Of those who flunk his school performance, 79% also disapprove of his overall job-handling. In January, only 51% did. ... '
There's a direct correlation,' says PPIC pollster
Mark Baldassare. 'Schools have become symptomatic of people's fundamental concerns about his leadership style and abilities."
Skelton continues, "There is some good news for the governor in this survey:
64% agree with him that teachers should be paid based on merit rather than seniority. And
54% like his proposal to increase from two to five the years of experience required for teacher tenure. Both ideas are ballot initiatives he has promoted."
Since the governor
dropped his support for immediate redistricting reform, the two education proposals--along with budget reform--are the only pillars left of his five-point reform agenda. Although the governor denied that dropping redistricting reform
obviated the need for a special election, "Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata (D-Oakland) said Schwarzenegger's willingness to compromise '
certainly removes the need for a special election. A 2006 redistricting was the administration's only argument to spend money we don't have on an issue of low voter interest.'"
Putting off a special election may be ideal for the governor,
Dan Schnur tells the San Jose Mercury News. "'When the governor's advisers laid out the special election based on reform, they were counting on a very popular governor to carry a load of fairly complicated ballot measures across the finish line,'' said Republican strategist Dan Schnur.
'In this context, it may be hard for him to pull off an initiative load this fall.'"
The governor's
prescription drug proposal failed in Senate Health Committee yesterday, even though it was carried by committee chair Deborah Ortiz. The L.A. Times reports: "[M]any Democrats in the Legislature prefer a
rival proposal that would cover families with even higher incomes and would have punished drug firms that did not participate. That measure is pending in the Assembly and in a ballot measure written by Health Access, but it would have to
overcome a possible gubernatorial veto and guaranteed legal challenges from the industry before it could take effect."
However, the governor did have a small victory yesterday, as his pick to administer the state's workers' compensation system was
approved by the Senate Rules Committee. Labor groups have opposed the confirmation of
Andrea Hoch, arguing that she needlessly slashed benefits to injured workers. "But Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, who broke with his Democratic colleagues to cast the deciding vote in favor of Hoch, said she was
merely 'a functionary in the process' and that it was Schwarzenegger's responsibility to fix problems with workers' compensation."
Columnist Jill Stewart
writes up Perata's predicament in the Sacramento News and Review "
Perata’s Senate leadership job might be in trouble if he sides with Republicans and against Democrats on April 27. He’s under pressure from the lawyers, as are all the Democrats, to vote against Hoch even if he thinks Hoch is doing a stellar job."
The floor debate on the confirmation should be a dandy.
Livin' on the edge: "California should have enough power to get through this summer without blackouts --
as long as nothing goes wrong,"
reports the Riverside Press-Enterprise. "Keepers of the state's power grid say supplies are stretched so thinly that a widespread heat wave or wildfire could mean
homeowners and businesses may once again wait their turn for the lights to go out."
Meanwhile, the Senate Rev and Tax committee approved
a bill yesterday to allow tribes to issue tax exempt bonds to finance resort expansion. "'I'm not quite sure why there is all this angst about allowing tribes to do exactly what cities can do," said the bill's sponsor, Sen.
Dean Florez (D-Shafter). He said cities currently use the bonds to subsidize hotels and convention centers.
'If a city and county can do it, we believe a tribe should be able to do it as well.'"
A reciprocal bill allowing cities and counties to open casinos is not planned at this time.
So, instead, they must turn to trying to win the stem cell sweepstakes. As a finalist but clearly training San Francisco, Sacramento is doing all it can to
woo the site selection team for the $3 billion institute. The SacBee reports: "We are scrubbing the whole city, and we're all going on a diet," Sacramento City Councilman
Rob Fong said."
This probably won't include huge GO KINGS banners this year.
