From our
Show me the Money files, the Chron
takes a look at who's paying for what in this year's special election. And the governor's fundraising team says the ploy to announce for reelection early may help stoke Schwarzenegger's fundraising. "Now that the governor is up on the air (with TV ads), it will help," said
Marty Wilson, the governor's chief money man. "We've seen some (fundraising) momentum in the past week. ... I'm growing more bullish that we may exceed $50 million."
Among the guv's big donors:
B. Wayne Hughes, chairman of Public Storage, gave $1 million to the initiative campaign.
T. Gary Rogers, chairman of Dreyer's Ice Cream in Oakland, gave $250,000, as did Stockton agri-businessman
Dean Cortopassi, San Francisco businessman
Arthur Ciocca, and
Ann Johnson, a Hillsborough doctor.
On the other side "The
California Teachers Association alone has spent about $45 million to fight Schwarzenegger's initiatives, to go with $8 million from the
California State Council of Service Employees, $3 million from the
California State Employees Association and nearly $2 million from the
California School Employees Association."
If you don't tell anyone, we'll let you play with a beta version of
ElectionTrack Premium search to search out more donors.
What has 35 million people and a
$6 billion budget deficit? The state of California, according to a new
LAO report. The LAO says the recent "budget fixes" agreed to by the Legislature and the governor were no fixes at all."In addition to providing only temporary savings, many of these solutions resulted in
additional future expenditures, as deferred spending and loan repayments come due. At the beginning of the current budget cycle, the state faced repayments on budget-related debt totaling $2 billion in 2005-06 and about $4 billion annually over the period 2006-07 through 2008-09."
Three Californians made
the list of the 13 "most corrupt" members of Congress. The list, compiled by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington included Democrat
Maxine Waters and Republicans
Duke Cunningham and
Richard Pombo.
Warren Beatty managed to
keep his name in the news, this time telling AP's Beth Fouhy that his attacks on the governor are nothing personal. "'When I do think about him, I'm amused. I've always liked him. But I don't think he knows what he's doing,' he said."
Again, we remind our readers: Ishtar.
Speaking of keeping his name in the news,
Lawrence Leamer makes himself quotable, yet again, in
a story about the governor's theatrics. This time, the offering comes courtesy of Matier and Ross. "The heavy makeup. The walk. The lights. The camera angles. Arnold uses all of it -- and knows just how to use it right down to the right angle for his face,'' said Leamer, author of the Schwarzenegger biography "Fantastic."
M&R says "some Republicans" are "
rolling their eyes and grousing that
the money could be better spent elsewhere. But so far, no one we talked to wanted to go on the record -- let alone bring it up with the governor."
From our political trend watch, Nancy Vogel reports that several states are looking at
taking the political map-making process out of the hands of legislators. "Besides ballot measures pending or in the works in California, Ohio, Florida and Massachusetts, bills to create independent or bipartisan redistricting commissions have been introduced in at least 12 state legislatures this year. In Congress, a Tennessee Republican introduced a bill to mandate independent commissions nationwide."
The Merc checks in with "the Energizer Bunny of California politics,"
Steve Poizner, and his efforts to pass California's version of redistricting reform, Prop. 77. "Poizner could be the poster boy for the proposition. When he ran for the Assembly against Redwood City's
Ira Ruskin, the district was so heavily gerrymandered toward Democrats that Poizner never had a chance."
Poizner and Schwarzenegger
matched each other's $1.25 million contributions to the fight for Proposition 77 on Friday.
From redistricting to term limits, Andrew LaMar takes a look at the series of
political spouses waiting to take their partner's legislative seats.
"Joe Canciamilla will be forced out of the Assembly in 2006 by term limits after six years in office, and that's where Laura comes in."
"'If not me, then who?'
Laura Canciamilla said in a recent interview."
Canciamilla's primary opponent, supervisor
Mark DeSaulnier, may have an answer.
The Times profiles the woman who may be the
next president of the LA City Council,
Wendy Greuel."It's widely assumed in City Hall that Greuel will someday run for mayor or city controller. She does not rule out a run for higher office in the city, but said she had no immediate plans beyond seeking reelection in the 2nd Council District in 2007. She also said that "I'm not afraid of having a real job" outside elected office."
The tenth annual "
How Berkeley Can You Be?" contest, or parade, or whatever it is, was held this weekend, and bunny suits, it seems, were all the rage. "A man in an
earless bunny suit, with top hat, female genitalia and winged shoes was one of many in bunny suits. An entire float carried people in bunny suits with signs protesting humanity. A
cardinal, rabbi and imam in boxing gloves (We've heard this joke before, we swear...) pummeled a shrieking person in a gown in a protest against intolerance of same-sex marriage. The
followers of Gnuth toted symbols purporting to date to 6th century B.C. Assyria, but the symbols were actually copies of traffic signs posted at the city's many roundabouts."
