Apologies, sports fans. Between the late-night election blogging and early morning World Cup action, we're just not feeling quite ourselves. But we will
soldier on.
On the Central Coast, Republican Sam Blakeslee narrowly
missed a chance to avoid a run-off with Democrat John Laird. The rematch of last night's race will take place on
Aug. 17.
Tweet-master John Howard kept dedicated fans up to date throughout
the night last night. He reports," Assembly Republican Sam Blakeslee of
San Luis Obispo
edged out Democrat John Laird of Santa Cruz in the
15th Senate District, but Blakeslee fell just short of
capturing a majority of the vote which means he faces
Laird again in an August runoff.
"Blakeslee,
a former GOP leader of the Assembly, held
the lead throughout the evening and overcame Laird’s strength in Santa
Cruz and Monterey. In Santa Barbara
County, Blakeslee beat Laird, a former Santa Cruz Assemblyman,
by better than 2-to-1, and Blakeslee carried Santa Clara County by a
three-point edge.
"With
100 percent of the precincts reporting about 3 ½ hours after the polls
closed, Blakeslee received 64,676 votes, or 49.71 percent, to Laird’s
53,639 votes, or 41.23 percent."
Meanwhile, Meg Whitman has launched her first ad aimed at Jerry Brown. Something tells us this won't be her last.
"Meg Whitman will begin airing a new
60-second television ad Wednesday that takes aim squarely
at Democratic nominee Jerry Brown. If the ad is any
indication, it looks like Californians can brace themselves
for a long season of campaign ads.
"Through a stylized montage that moves through Brown's
four decades in California politics, Whitman makes
reference to the death penalty and Bill Clinton to
make the case against Brown. The ad uses a clip from
a debate between Brown and Clinton when the two men
ran against each other for the Democratic presidential
nomination in 1992. In the clip, Clinton says Brown "reinvents himself
every year or two."
"Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said the ad was
"more
negative attacks from a campaign that can't seem to
tell the truth. It's politics as usual, backed by Wall
Street billions," he said. "If Meg Whitman had ever
bothered to vote, she might know that Jerry Brown cut
taxes by $4 billion, built up a surplus and created 1.9 million new jobs
for Californians. If Whitman wants
to discuss Jerry Brown's record, she should accept
his invitation to 10 town halls and debate Jerry's accomplishments in
person."
"The ad opens and closes with Brown's image on a 45 rpm record. The
not so subtle message? That Brown
is a relic of a bygone era, sure to be contrasted with
Whitman's EBay resume. In between is a video collage
of images ranging from Vietnam-era helicopters to peace march imagery of
the 1970s to shots of Brown and Clinton on the campaign trail
in the 1990s.
You can watch the ad at Capitol Weekly.
Meanwhile, Whitman dismissed the hoopla around her
alleged altercation with an EBay employee a couple of years ago.
The LAT's Seema Mehta reports, "After a week of silence,
Meg Whitman has spoken out about a report that
she shoved a subordinate when she was chief executive
of EBay,
characterizing the altercation as a verbal dispute
and dismissing the
uproar about it as "a fascination of the chattering
class."
Whitman has held no public events since the New York
Times reported on
June 14 that a six-figure settlement had been paid to the EBay employee
after the 2007 incident. The Republican gubernatorial nominee made
her
first public comments Monday, speaking with three conservative
radio
hosts about issues such as her union opponents, the
economy, immigration
and her appeals to Latino voters. Only one, Sacramento
radio
personality Eric Hogue, asked her about the incident.
"We had a misunderstanding," Whitman said on KTKZ-AM (1380). "It was a
verbal dispute, and that kind of thing can happen in
a high-pressure
work environment and we put it behind us a long time
ago."
Translation? She totally kicked that lady's ass...
In budget news, Assembly Democrats tweaked their oil tax/borrowing scheme as they move toward compromise with their Senate Democratic
colleagues.
"After the attorney general raised questions about
constitutionality,
Assembly Democrats are prepared to tweak their plan
to borrow up to $10
billion in oil tax revenues to close this year's budget
gap.
"Senior
Assembly sources confirmed Tuesday that they are prepared
to use about
$4 billion in revenues from a new tax on oil production
to offer money
for schools, give money back to local governments and
limit fee
increases for students at UC and CSU schools. That's
about $6 billion
less than the plan unveiled by Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles)
earlier this month. Assembly Democrats say they plan
to make up the
difference with other borrowning proposals that have
not yet been
fleshed out and are not scaling back their oil tax
plan.
"The
move comes just days after Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown's
office indicated
that the earlier Assembly plan may be unconstitutional.
It was unclear when a formal plan would be unveiled."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got to play president Tuesday,
and met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in San Francisco.
Two measures qualfieid for the November ballot Tuesday,
including
a measure to suspend the state's greenhouse gas law.
"This fall, voters will decide the fate of California's
landmark
greenhouse gas law.
A measure that would suspend proposed reductions in
greenhouse gas
emissions has qualified for the November ballot.
"The measure,
backed by several oil companies and other large business
interests,
would delay implementation of the law until the state's
unemployment
rate goes down."
And finally, from our Magical Unicorn files, "It's
official: The
National Pork Board says it knows unicorns don't exist.
"The industry group says it was only protecting its trademark when it issued
cease-and-desist warning to online retailer ThinkGeek for calling
a fake
unicorn meat
product "the new white
meat."
"The fictional canned meat, described as an
"excellent source of sparkles," was an April Fool's prank.
Shun the non-believers. Shhhhuuuuuunnnnn...
