The Field Poll delivered
more bad news for state policymakers today. The Bee reports: "Nearly 60 percent of Californians believe the state is 'seriously off on the wrong track' and more than half blame Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or other state elected officials for California's problems, according to
Field Poll results released Monday."
"What is surprising to me is that half the adults are saying the reason they feel so pessimistic about the direction of the state is because of its political leadership," [pollster
Mark] DiCamillo said. '
Despite all the issues swirling out there, crime, taxes, housing costs, they all pale next to the number of people mentioning the failure of political leadership."
The Press-Enterprise
talks about the poll with political consultant Dan Schnur. "'For voters who turn on their television or open their newspaper, and hear the two sides constantly complain about each other, they come to the logical conclusion that things must not be that great,' Schnur said."
As if on cue, they find two squabbling lawmakers to explain the poll.
"State Sen.
Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, said people's frustration stems from Schwarzenegger's actions.'They would like to see their schools work better. They want to see a spot for their kid in college ... Instead, the governor's calling a special election on a bunch of issues that are a distraction from the conversation,' Ducheny said.
But state Sen.
Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta, said people are fed up with the Legislature.
'If the governor's reforms are successful this fall, and the state returns with a balanced budget next year ... then I think voters will see that the state is on the right track,' Hollingsworth said."
Where's
Gale Kaufman's food-fight ad when you need it?
Senate Democrats are expected to
unveil their redistricting plan today at a 10 a.m. Capitol press conference. Sen.
Alan Lowenthal, who has tried for years to change the state's map-making process, will join Senate leaders who have only recently decided to embrace his plan.
The LA Daily News reports the plan would "retain [the Legislature's] political control of the process of drawing legislative and congressional district boundaries." Well, sort of. Instead of the plan backed by the governor, in which the maps would be drawn by the
a group of retired judges, Lowenthal's plan gives the pens to "a commission of seven political appointees, four of whom would be chosen by legislative leaders."
"Republican leaders said the administration was unlikely to accept the plan but acknowledged it could be a first step toward a compromise," the paper reports.
Dan Walters argues that, with the failure in statewide leadership,
Californians will have to turn to regional solutions. "Regionalism has its potential downside, diminishing an already battered sense of statewide community. But it
may offer California its only realistic hope for restoring effective governance because local governments are too parochial and the state government is completely gridlocked."
With lawmakers and the governor seemingly deadlocked, what better way to unite the parties than to
bring Paula Abdul to Sacramento? Abdul came to Sacramento to testify on behalf of
Leland Yee's
AB 1263, seeking higher standards for nail salons. She
laid it all out in compelling testimony before the Senate Business and Professions Committee Monday.
Not to be upstaged,
Corey Clark, the former contestant who allegedly had a relationship with Abdul "
has been charged with misdemeanor battery charges stemming from an alleged food fight he had with his record company manager while the two were eating breakfast in a Sacramento, California, hotel."
Speaking of flatulent cows, the Bakersfield Californian reports that
cows create more smog than cars, thus thwarting plans for this year's Ride Your Cow to Work Day.
With the election to replace
Mike Gordon likely to be consolidated with the November 8 statewide special election, AP's Steve Lawrence writes that the race to fill the seat will be competitive, but
money may be scarce with so many competing issues on the ballot.
AP also scans the field for potential candidates. "The race for Assembly District 53 could attract several candidates. Two Republicans formed campaign committees before Gordon's death to run for the seat next year: Gordon's opponent from 2004, former Redondo Beach Mayor
Greg Hill; and Torrance Councilman
Paul Nowatka.
Two Democrats also are considering running, Torrance Councilman
Ted Lieu and Manhattan Beach Councilman
Jim Aldinger."
If no candidate receives 50 percent in the first round of voting, the top vote getter in each party will head to a runoff.
The
Schwarzenegger administration brought out its guns yesterday to oppose Gil Cedillo's effort to move a bill for undocumented residents to get driver's licenses. "A deputy director of the state Office of Homeland Security warned an Assembly committee that the
measure could interfere with federal efforts to intercept terrorists before they enter the United States. ... The Department of Motor Vehicles also weighed in for the first time against the bill..."
The bill was approved by Assembly Transportation on a 7-5 vote.
Speaking of Homeland Security, Senator
Joe Dunn isn't crazy about the details trickling out about the
California National Guard's program of monitoring activities of residents. "The unit was quietly set up to monitor, analyze and distribute information on potential terrorist threats, the Mercury News reported Sunday. The report also stated that Guard officials were
involved in tracking a Mother's Day anti-war rally organized by families of slain U.S. soldiers and the Peninsula-based Raging Grannies."
"'My concern is that we're back into the 1960s and '70s, when under allegedly legitimate reasons, military officials engaged in spying activities on American citizens,' Dunn told the Mercury News. 'That is not their responsibility.
That is not within their jurisdiction, and it sets an extremely dangerous precedent for this democracy."
It worked for
Ronald Reagan...
One of California's largest individual political donors, Wal-Mart heir
John Walton,
died yesterday in a plane crash in Wyoming. Walton was a board member of the education advocacy group EdVoice and
gave big money to ballot measures and candidates of both parties.
