From our
If I Had a Hammer Files, the Union-Trib's Bill Ainsworth tags a Seattle dateline onto his story on
the coming PhRMA wars. Ohio or Maine? That, Ainsworth says, is the question. "[Voters] can follow Ohio and approve Proposition 78, which relies on voluntary discounts from drug makers. Or they can vote for Proposition 79, based on a program in Maine that holds a 'hammer' over the heads of drug companies to make them comply."
From our
Yo Adrienne! Files, the Times checks in with city attorney
Rocky Delgadillo's battle against
Jerry Brown in the
Democratic primary for attorney general. "Delgadillo, a former deputy mayor, Century City entertainment lawyer and Harvard University football defensive back, has sized up the Brown family legacy, which spans nearly eight decades of California politics. His conclusion: "
Political dynasties seem to be fading away. I want to
thank Jerry Brown for his years of service, but I think that the future beckons," Delgadillo said of his 67-year-old rival.
Brown dismissed Delgadillo's future-vs.-the-past theme as "vacuous" and "grandiose." "You have to have some parameters to that claim, or it's pretty empty," Brown said. "You could put that on a bumper sticker, but
you couldn't run the attorney general's office based on a bumper sticker."
Running for president on an 800-number, now, that's another story.
George Skelton
previews the special election this morning. But more importantly, his headline writers
use the word "gird" in the story's overline. Let the record show that
Capitol Weekly also used the term in a story headline for the August 18 issue.
Times:
Political Camps Gird for War, er, Special ElectionWeekly:
Capitol's warring factions gird for November But Skelton breaks down
the specifics on where last-minute negotiations broke down between the governor and the speaker last week. "Nuñez and Schwarzenegger might have compromised on a provision reducing school funding guarantees. But
Nuñez wanted to exempt school funding from midyear emergency cuts when the state faced a deficit.
Schwarzenegger refused."
The Bee catches up with Sen.
John Campbell who gives
this ringing endorsement to the Live Within Our Means Act. "My position on that hasn't changed and it continues to be what it's been, which is that I am telling people I think they should vote for it because I don't think it does any harm."
The LA Times' Jordan Rau kicks the week off with a look at
the governor's plan to overhaul state government. "Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review last August proposed reconfiguring the state's disparate and sometimes redundant agencies into 11 unified departments. It also suggested
279 specific ways it said would make government more efficient and
save $32 billion over the next five years.
But, Rau writes, "Most of his ambitious proposals to reshuffle state agencies
have not been enacted or have been downscaled. Schwarzenegger has substantially rejiggered only one area of government: the state's prison system, which has been troubled by overcrowding, management problems and lapses in medical treatment."
As the governor hits the road to blast the Legislature and previous ballot measures for creating auto-pilot budgeting that requires his Live Within Our Means initiative to fix, the Oakland Tribune's Jill Tucker is off message, with a story
reminding voters about the governor's own pre-gubernatorial spending initiative. It's the one that will cost California $550 million for after-school programs every year until the end of time — or until it's repealed by voters.
With fundraising a bit sluggish, the governor's team chose Thursday night's fundraiser at the Sutter Club to announce a change in fundraising policy. The governor is
no longer refusing to accept campaign cash from trade groups with legislation pending. "'We're raising a lot of money,' said [top fundraising aide
Marty] Wilson as he made his way through the protesters Thursday night. 'We just realized the trade organizations raise money for political purposes, and
this is a more efficient way of raising money.'"
"Among those paying the minimum $25,000 to host the Sutter Club event were the American Council of Life Insurers, the Association of California Life and Health Insurance Companies, the California Grocers Association, the California Hospital Association and the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California." With the governor's
contribution page still announcing "[c]ontributions from single issue trade associations and public employee union PACs will not be accepted," the new policy apparently is only available in $25,000 increments.
Now with a more liberal fundraising policy, let's hit the road!
The governor went to Fenway Park with no special election deal in hand,
raising money with the Rolling Stones in Boston's Fenway Park. "[
Mick Jagger] made a joking reference to the presence at the show of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was reported to have been soliciting wealthy political donors to join him in one of the baseball park's luxury boxes.
"'When we drove up, he was out front, scalping T-shirts and selling a few tickets,' Jagger joked."
Actually,
Doug Heller of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said the governor's sale of tickets to his luxury box for up to $100,000 was in fact
a violation of Massachusettes' ticket scalping laws. "
Massachusetts consumers are being squeezed out of the concert so Schwarzenegger can raise millions of dollars to push his big industry donors' agenda in California," Heller said.
Yes, the people of California can rest easily knowing that FTCR is out there fighting for your right for affordable Stones tickets.
The governor's guest list--er, contributions--for the concert will be reported over the next ten days on
ElectionTrack.
But the guv and his invitees weren't the only one from California at the concert. "
About a dozen California nurses also stood outside protesting California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with signs reading: "Sticky Fingers for corrupt corporate cash," a reference to the classic 1971 Stones album, "Sticky Fingers."
Stephen Ingerson, a critical care nurse at the University of California-San Francisco, said the protesters oppose the governor's efforts to halt the state's mandatory 5-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio. Coincidentally 5-1 is also Keith Richards' daily ratio of Doans Pills to Viagra.
