** Organized labor has taken credit for defeating Schwarzenegger Administration compacts with Indian casino tribes because, unlike earlier Schwarzenegger deals with casino tribes, they did not include new provisions for union organizing. “Workers in Indian casinos are uniquely vulnerable because they are not protected by federal and state labor laws, like minimum wage, overtime, health and safety or anti-discrimination laws,” said Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation. “Stopping this rushed compact by the governor is important to protect workers at casinos across the state.”
** To a certain lack of surprise, here is the statement from Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata killing the huge casino tribes compacts negotiated by the Schwarzenegger Administration.
“While at the end of every session some major issues are able to be resolved quickly, because of the late date that the legislature received the gaming compacts that the administration has been working on for months (well past the Senate deadline), and because of the importance and complexity of these compacts, the Senate cannot act on them until the 2006-2007 session begins in December. We regret the disappointment and any financial burden to the tribal nations due to the lateness of the administration.”
** With big moves in store against global warming, what do you all think these days about nuclear power?
** Will the big expansion of Indian casinos negotiated by the Schwarzenegger Administration succeed in the Legislature? Or will the free-spending casino tribes find most of their plans shockingly blocked by labor-backed Democrats?
** “We’d all like to see California one day be carbon free.” Er, we would? That was Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, commenting yesterday to the New York Times. (Which didn’t catch it.) As all, uh, Star Trek fans know, human beings are carbon-based life forms.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are hovering around $70 a barrel.
** Continuous coverage of the new global insecurity on Pajamas Media (PJM). A terrorist incident at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv prompted its storming by Israeli forces.
Wednesday was a banner day for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, an outstanding day for Democratic legislative leaders Fabian Nunez and Don Perata, and a not very good day for Schwarzenegger opponent Phil Angelides. Schwarzenegger established a commanding lead in a public poll going into Labor Day weekend as he, Perata, and Nunez announced agreement on landmark legislation to fight global warming. Meanwhile, the trailing Angelides held a dour, sparsely attended rally and was hit for his silence on college tuition hikes in the Gray Davis era.
Schwarzenegger holds a commanding 13-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Treasurer Phil Angelides. Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating has climbed up to 50%. Despite very active campaigning and millions in TV advertising on his behalf by the California Democratic Party, Angelides has gained no ground on Schwarzenegger over the past month in the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll. Schwarzenegger leads Angelides, 45% to 32%.
PPIC does not include “leaners” at this point, accounting for the 5-point gap between Schwarzenegger’s improved job approval rating and his number in the preference race over Angelides. Schwarzenegger is over 50% in a number of private Democratic polls. This public poll indicates serious dissatisfaction among Democrats with their gubernatorial nominee, with just over 40% of Angelides’ fellow partisans expressing satisfaction. Schwarzenegger also has a big edge among independents, 42% to 23%.
Schwarzenegger thus heads into Labor Day weekend in the position he had hoped for following the June primary. With a double-digit lead, a string of legislative successes — on global warming, solar energy, prescription drugs, and minimum wage — and the need to campaign with friendly Democrats on behalf of the massive bipartisan infrastructure bonds initiative package. For the news for the bonds is not so good. While most are over 50%, none is in a commanding position. It will take a concerted effort to get most of them passed.
Concern was evident on the faces of Angelides and close allies like California Labor Federation chief Art Pulaski, as you see in this NWN video of Angelides’ lightly attended anti-Walmart rally yesterday morning at the state Capitol. (The PPIC poll was released to subscribers early in the morning, but embargoed until late last night. Angelides was already well aware of the poll by the time of his late morning rally.)
Angelides media consultant Bill Carrick — who produced the “Leader not an actor” TV ad that ran constantly around the state — reportedly tried to put the best face on things with some reporters yesterday, noting that the fact that Schwarzenegger led Angelides by 13 points a month ago and leads Angelides by 13 points now indicates that the former action superstar is stalled.
That’s one way of looking at things. The truth is that the very effective Schwarzenegger team’s plan has worked. At the beginning of the summer, Carrick and others said the governor was wasting his money, that no one would pay any attention to campaigning until Labor Day. But as Carrick said in his video interview with me earlier this month, the game is actually very different than it was many years ago. The general election campaign began in earnest immediately after the June primary, as he acknowledged.
Team Arnold has done much to define both candidates, opening and maintaining a large lead over the Democrat in this mostly Democratic state, while the governor and company continued to improve his job approval rating, which at the beginning of this year was abysmal. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger’s operatives chip away at every Angelides attempt to gain traction in the race, yesterday undermining the treasurer’s attacks on Schwarzenegger for raising college tuition and fees in the wake of the state’s 2003 budget meltdown by pointing out that he ignored huge demonstrations against Davis’s much larger increases.
Schwarzenegger’s recovery, which runs in the face of an anti-Republican trend around the country, has been in no small measure due to his ability to work in the bipartisan centrist fashion he promised during his recall campaign and the first year of his governorship. He, Nunez, and Perata have forged a remarkably effective working relationship. While there are tensions and differences between the three, it is hard to fault any of them for real world results.
All the parties in the global warming negotiations have reason to be happy, with changes since my last full report. The bill, by Nunez and L.A. Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, now meets the concerns of environmentalists and “green tech” businesses while still earning the condemnation of many conventional business interests. The governor no longer has to get any support from another quarter to trigger the “safety valve” mechanism in the legislation, allowing a one-year suspension of the measure to account for catastrophe or potentially extreme economic dislocation. The proposed Greenhouse Gas Council — a nine-member body with the power to suspend, with four of the members coming from legislative appointments — will not exist. Under that scenario, the governor would have needed all five of his appointees, plus at least one legislative appointee. Now the governor has the sole power to invoke a safety valve as California moves to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
The Air Resources Board (ARB), which is entirely appointed by the governor, will ramp up for the challenge and design and oversee the greenhouse gas emission reduction program. It will be assisted in designing and implementing the program by the governor’s Climate Action Team. The cap-and-trade market mechanism, which allows the trading of emission credits between businesses under an overall cap on emissions, to meet the program’s targets is allowed for in the legislation but not mandated. Nevertheless, a market-based approach is likely, as the ARB, widely respected for its work on air pollution, will develop a cap-and-trade program.
Of course, there was furious spinning behind the scenes for credit on the global warming bill. State Senate vs. Assembly, and vice versa, and of course, Democrats vs. Schwarzenegger. It was quite amusing. Well, except when you were listening to all of it, that is.
But with the attention that this move will get around the world, there is plenty of credit for all involved. Although, inevitably, the lion’s share will accrue to Schwarzenegger, who is after all the global superstar.
Actually, Schwarzenegger has talked for years of doing something just like this on global warming. In 2002, while then Governor Gray Davis was deciding whether or not to sign Pavley’s first landmark global warming bill — the one sharply curtailing tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases in vehicles built in the next decade — Schwarzenegger said he wanted to champion efforts to fight climate change. While preparing to jump into the 2003 recall campaign, he insisted that he would protect Pavley’s bill, under legal challenge from the Bush Administration and auto manufacturers, with the power of the governorship. He did so as governor. Now he, Nunez, Perata, and Pavley have taken another big step, the biggest yet.
** Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a commanding 13-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Treasurer Phil Angelides. Schwarzenegger’s job approval rating is up to 50%.
Despite very active campaigning and millions in TV advertising on his behalf by the California Democratic Party, Angelides has gained no ground on Schwarzenegger over the past month in the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll. Schwarzenegger leads Angelides, 45% to 32%. PPIC does not include “leaners” at this point, accounting for the 5-point gap between Schwarzenegger’s improved job approval rating and his number in the preference race over Angelides. The poll indicates serious dissatisfaction among Democrats with their gubernatorial nominee, with just over 40% of Angelides’ fellow partisans expressing satisfaction.
Schwarzenegger thus heads into Labor Day weekend in the position he had hoped for following the June primary. With a double-digit lead, a string of legislative pluses, and the need to campaign with friendly Democrats on behalf of the massive bipartisan infrastructure bonds initiative package. The news for the bonds is not so good. While most are over 50%, none is in a commanding position. It will take a concerted effort to get most of them passed.
Concern was evident on the faces of Angelides and close allies like California Labor Federation chief Art Pulaski, as you will see in tomorrow morning’s NWN video of Angelides’ lightly attended anti-Walmart rally today. Angelides media consultant Bill Carrick — who produced the “Leader not an actor” TV ad that ran constantly around the state — reportedly tried to put the best face on things with some reporters today, noting that the fact that Schwarzenegger led Angelides by 13 points a month ago and leads Angelides by 13 point now indicates that the former action superstar is stalled.
That’s one way of looking at things. Look for a full report on the landmark anti-global warming legislative agreement between Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, as well as more on the poll, the campaign’s events of the day, and more tomorrow morning in New West Notes.
** Look for a new public poll on the California governor’s race here later tonight.
Look for a video here tomorrow of Phil Angelides’ anti-Walmart rally.
** I’ll have a full report on the global warming deal later, the parties in the negotiations all have reason to be happy. The governor no longer has to get any support from another quarter to trigger the “safety valve” mechanism in the legislation, allowing a one-year suspension of the measure to account for catastrophe or potentially extreme economic dislocation. The Greenhouse Gas Council — a nine-member body with the power to suspend, with four of the members coming from legislative appointments — will not exist. Under that scenario, the governor would have needed all five of his appointees, plus at least one legislative appointee. Now the governor has the sole power to invoke a safety valve.
The Air Resources Board, which is entirely appointed by the governor, will ramp up for the challenge and design and oversee the greenhouse gas emission reduction program. It will be assisted in designing and implementing the program by the governor’s Climate Action Team. The cap-and-trade market mechanism to meet the program’s targets is allowed for in the legislation but not mandated. Nevertheless, a market-based approach is likely.
** There is now FURIOUS SPINNING under way for credit on the global warming bill. State Senate vs. Assembly, and vice versa, and of course, Democrats vs. Schwarzenegger. It’s quite amusing.
** As I reported first early this morning, Governor Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata have a deal on global warming. The legislative leaders have been briefing it this afternoon.
Meanwhile, I’ve been off shooting and producing video footage of rallies and dealing with some NWN infrastructure issues.
Incidentally, there is a major public poll coming out.
** With a big lead over Democratic challenger Phil Angelides going into Labor Day weekend, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is said to have a deal in hand with Democratic legislative leaders on a landmark California law to combat global warming.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have dropped under $70 a barrel.
** Continuous coverage of the new global insecurity on Pajamas Media (PJM).
The California political system’s dysfunctional dance around its prison system continued yesterday with legislative Democrats rejecting most of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s undercooked plan. They adopted his general approach, but spent less. In the end, this may set the stage for at least a partial federal takeover of the long-troubled system.
Schwarzenegger called for spending some $6 billion to build two new prisons, move low-security female and male inmates into more community-based facilities, send illegal immigrant inmates to other states, and create social re-entry centers for those about to be released. Instead, the Legislature’s counter package would spend just under $1 billion. That money would be used to add more than 5000 beds to existing prisons, move female inmates, and plan for new facilities for inmates with special medical and psychological needs and for the re-entry centers.
But few believe that this is any real solution. Here California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) president Mike Jimenez discusses the long-term prison need in this NWN video. The Democratic plan would fund only a third of the expanded beds sought by the administration; officials warn that 16,000 inmates are currently sleeping in gymnasiums and classrooms rather than cells or dormitories.
Many political pros know that prisons are not high on the list of voter concerns. Says one high-ranking Democratic consultant: “Inmates can be stacked like cordwood in there for all the public cares.”
Indeed, prison bonds were part of Schwarzenegger’s original Big Bang Bonds infrastructure package from his State of the State address in January. Democrats had no problem with removing prison construction from the package that appears on the November ballot.
Democrats do support Schwarzenegger’s plan to move some female inmates into private prisons, but it’s unclear that private operators, wanting control over their facilities, would accept the requirement in both the Schwarzenegger and Democratic plans that unionized correctional officers be employed in the facilities.
In political terms, the prisons are a lose-lose proposition. There is no mass constituency that cares about the prisons. They are a place to warehouse failure. When Democratic legislators forced the removal of the prisons from Schwarzenegger’s big bonds package, there was no public outcry.
In the absence of a broad constituency that cares, particular interests have developed tremendous sway. The powerful prison guards union, with a massive political fund derived from highly lucrative contracts, intimidates politicians of all stripes.
The union played primarily on the Republican side of the fence at first in gubernatorial politics, famously doing an independent expenditure campaign on behalf of Pete Wilson in his closely fought battle with Dianne Feinstein in 1990. While it wasn’t the only reason Wilson, then a U.S. senator, beat the former San Francisco mayor, it alarmed many Democrats. The following year, then state Democratic Party chairman Phil Angelides and his political director, Bob Mulholland, instituted a plan to make the prison guards union part of the Democratic structure, as well as the Republican. Soon the guards were “underwriters” of state Democratic conventions.
Now, for many reasons, the prisons are a mess, and there is no real state solution in sight. Says one Democratic politician: “I hope the feds take over. We can’t handle it.”
** People have been wondering when campaigning will begin for the massive infrastructure bonds package on California’s November ballot. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will apppear alongside the Sacramento River tomorrow to push for the bonds, in particular the big levee repair bond.
** California Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata told reporters this afternoon “there will be a bill” on flood control. This move follows last week’s move of sidelining a flood control package till next year, while of course promoting the big levee repair bond on the November ballot. What will the bill be? Notes from his press secretary, Alicia Trost, don’t make that entirely clear.
** After much criticism, and the gutting of his bills yesterday, Democratic legislators appear today to be adopting much of the Schwarzenegger approach in dealing with the prison crisis. More building, just on a smaller scale.
** Like his fellow moderate Republican, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is being very cautious in embracing other candidates in his blue state.
** Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides has backslid on his support for universal health care. As of yesterday, he was appearing at a big Capitol rally Wednesday in favor of state Senator Sheila Kuehl’s bill for universal health care. Now his spokespeople are saying he has not endorsed the bill and Angelides is scheduled to appear at another Capitol event, again ripping Walmart, as he did yesterday in San Francisco, just prior to the health care rally. Actually, as reported many times here, Angelides endorsed Kuehl’s bill as part of his Democratic primary battle with Controller Steve Westly.
** Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides is taping Univision’s Voz y Voto today for Saturday showing around California. CORRECTION: Angelides is taping the show on Wednesday.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are hovering just under $70 a barrel.
** Continuous coverage of the new global insecurity on Pajamas Media (PJM).
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is poised on the verge of another major political triumph, the complex yet partial takeover of the sprawling LA Unified School District. But just four years ago, he was marching with the farmworkers up the dusty Central Valley, helping them in their quest to get then Governor Gray Davis to sign an arbitration bill, and wondering what his future might hold.
Now, should trailing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides fail in his lifelong quest to become governor, having to unseat Villaraigosa’s friend, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Assembly speaker and current LA mayor — engaging here on Univision’s influential Voz y Voto show with hosts Pablo Espinoza and Xochitl Arellano in this NWN video – would become the most likely Democratic frontrunner for 2010. In the event that former Governor Jerry Brown does not seek the post at twice the age at which he was first elected governor, which it is not unlikely that he will not. (See this story on the influence of Voz y Voto.)
Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest backers of Villaraigosa’s move on the LA area schools. The LA mayor’s bill passed the state Senate yesterday and today is slated today for a hearing in the Assembly Education Committee and a likely Assembly floor vote. The mayor’s close ally, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, will present the bill before the committee first thing this morning, joined by Villaraigosa.
This marks the second day in a row for Villaraigosa in the Capitol this week. Coming to Sacramento is something of an old home week for Villaraigosa, the first successful speaker of the term limits era. Of course, many of the faces are new, as he acknowledges.
But with the support of Nunez, Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero (author of his bill), Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, and Governor Schwarzenegger, the result is nearly foreordained.
What will the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since the Californios days get? Well, it is a mixed bag, not necessarily something that a potential governor is looking for.
He gains close to a veto power over the superintendency of the LA Unified School District, which sprawls across dozens of smaller cities in LA County. And he gains the largest share of the vote in a council of mayors which oversees the district’s budget. He also gains what looks like direct control over a few very troubled high schools, and the dozens of schools which feed those high schools.
But he must share power with the elected school board — long dominated by local pols who owe their elections to teachers unions, as is the case with a great many school boards around California — and work with the teachers union on curriculum and other matters.
While this seems to diffuse responsibility, in reality it does not. For Villaraigosa is seen as having a triumph over entrenched bureaucracy. While having to compromise throughout with entrenched interests.
Yet his stature as the first successful Assembly speaker of the term limits era — i.e., the first speaker worthy of the name following the legendary Willie Brown — indicates that he has the ability to make lemonade out of lemons.
It is an ability that will stand this impressive politician — wondering just four years ago whether he should make a bid for the LA City Council, launch a think tank, or fade away from politics altogether — in very good stead as he continues to move ahead.
** As alluded to some days ago, Phil Angelides for Governor chief strategist Bob Mulholland has moved back to the California Democratic Party. Here are the particulars. Mulholland is one of my oldest associates in politics, having worked under me on the Campaign for Economic Democracy Political Action Team and the Gary Hart for President campaigns, and with me with the California Democratic Party.
** The California Republican Party, on behalf of lieutenant governor candidate Tom McClintock, has launched an anti-John Garamendi TV spot centering on the French takeover of the assets of Executive Life back in the early 1990s during Garamendi’s first go-round as California’s first elected state insurance commissioner. Republican spokesman Patrick Dorinson, who just had a close encounter with his own mortality while riding his motorcycle, won’t say how much money is behind this. But he does say the ad is running in the Los Angeles and Sacramento markets, and is “the beginning of a conversation with the voters on this important issue.”
** Slate’s concern about the upcoming LA Times political blog, which was revealed here yesterday.
** Here is a good example of the surface nature of much spin.
** LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s partial takeover of the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District passed the state Senate this morning. On Tuesday, it is slated to go to the Assembly Education Committee and then to the Assembly floor. Advocates expect it to be wrapped up by Wednesday.
** Still hitting its stride after five seasons of its ground-breaking real-time format, 24, the official show of NWN, won big at last night’s Emmy Awards. Star Kiefer Sutherland, who portrays determined and resourceful counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer, won the Emmy for Best Actor in a dramatic series. The show also won Emmys for the direction of longtime producer Jon Cassar, the musical score of composer Sean Callery, the editing of David Latham, and the biggest prize of the evening, Best Dramatic Series. The final award of the evening was presented to the show’s producers by New West friend Annette Bening, herself an Emmy nominee for Mrs. Harris. The show has multiple producers including co-creators Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran, Sutherland, Cassar, and Howard Gordon, Evan Katz, Brian Grazer, Michael Loceff, Steven Kronish, Manny Coto, David Fury, Michael Klick, and Brad Turner.
Now here is an interesting question. The right-wing talk show world and blogosphere thinks the show is conservative in its politics. That may not be right. What do you think?
In addition, with Alan Alda winning the best supporting actor award for his portrayal of a moderate Republican presidential contender (California Senator Arnold Vinick), The West Wing, departing after seven seasons, broke its tie with Hill Street Blues to emerge as the most honored series in television history.
** Here is an impressive campaign video documentary on California’s leading conservative politician, state Senator Tom McClintock. McClintock is the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, running against Democrat John Garamendi. After narrowly losing a race for state controller in 2002 to first-time candidate Steve Westly, McClintock shot to fame in the 2003 California recall, running a respectable third behind Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. McClintock trails Garamendi, the two-time state insurance commissioner, a Bill Clinton sub-cabinet member and former gubernatorial candidate himself, in the race for lieutenant governor, but is within striking distance.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices have dropped a couple dollars to $70 a barrel. Why? Traders believe that Hurricane Ernesto is now likely to miss Gulf oil production facilities.
** Continuous coverage of the new global insecurity on Pajamas Media (PJM).
For all their differences, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Democratic challenger, Treasurer Phil Angelides, have at least one thing in common. Each man continues to struggle with his positioning in the political marketplace.
Schwarzenegger has famously shifted left since his disastrous “Year of Reform” special election debacle last year. Is the super-rich former action superstar back where he was when he entered politics, prior to embarking on a foolhardy path in 2005? Or is he, as many Democrats and a few Republicans argue, simply being an opportunist who will say or do anything to regain his popularity?
Angelides, a rich developer and longtime machine Democrat who ran as the insider choice of the Democratic establishment, had to move left to fend off a nearly fatal challenge in the primary from Controller Steve Westly, the ex-eBay honcho. Now he is out of position for where he needs to be to take on a moderate Republican incumbent. But because of problems with his campaign persona, he is having to continue to move left — as with his appearance at a Bay Area anti-Walmart rally today — to rally the core Democratic vote even as he attempts to move to the center with tax cutting proposals for the middle class to balance his still vague program of tax hikes for business and the rich.
Neither candidate would be grappling with these issues had things gone differently over the past year and a half.
For his part, Schwarzenegger unaccountably went off track last year with his special election initiatives agenda. The issues selected and, in particular, the manner in which they were pursued, were at variance with his “brand” in politics. Which was surprising, because Schwarzenegger has been as assiduous a promoter and protector of his brand as any star on the planet, even going so far as to sue a Midwestern car dealer who used his iconography without permission.
Schwarzenegger was elected as an optimistic, if at times hard-edged, centrist and reformer, eschewing partisan ping-pong in favor of finding solutions that work. While the reform part went by the wayside relatively quickly, with the governor emerging as a champion fundraiser from corporate interests, the rest of his positioning held up well during his first year in office, yielding record high popularity ratings among voters.
But in 2005, he campaigned as a harsh partisan, pushing seemingly arcane initiatives that were easily cast as a Republican power grab. Though they could have been sold from the center, Schwarzenegger and his then team of political advisors seemingly inexplicably chose to sell them from the right.
Now reviving his brand, Schwarzenegger — who has never really explained the 2005 debacle — has made himself prone to charges of opportunism and flip-flopping.
And for his part, Angelides would be in much better shape had two things not occurred. First, if this were still 2005, his reflexive persona as the “anti-Arnold” would be much more relevant. But the calendar changed and Schwarzenegger has proved unwilling to leave the “kick me” sticker on his keister. Second, Angelides would have been better off had Steve Westly not run.
That was Angelides’ plan, to clear the primary field by locking up the endorsements of the party’ reigning interest groups and establishment politicians. He succeeded spectacularly in gaining those endorsements. But, while it turned out that those associations, for Democratic voters, may have proved the difference in his narrow primary victory, there was an entire campaign to run against an opponent that Angelides and most of the Democratic establishment had grievously underrated as a competitor.
Had Westly won the nomination, of course, with his more consistent center/left positioning, appealingly telegenic persona, and high tech fortune, this would be a very different and closer race. But that’s another story.
So both party nominees soldier on, Schwarzenegger continuing to act as though last year never happened while endeavoring every day to convince voters that it, and not this year, is the aberration in his political career. And Angelides fighting to invigorate his party’s core voters while at the same time reaching out to the independent voters who will decide the election. It’s a campaign of cognitive dissonance.
** Word is that California Senate leaders are considering adjourning the session early in the coming week. That would have the effect of deferring many bills to the next session, including the global warming bill. The “why” behind the potential move is unclear, but seems to have something to do with ongoing jockeying with the Assembly.
Needless to say, coming on the heels of the roundly-disbelieved and much-reviled kabuki play between the two houses over Democratic legislative leaders’ unfulfilled promise to pass redistricting reform this year, this is probably, shall we say, an unwise idea.
** It’s getting to be a trend. The LA Times political reporters will launch a blog via the Times web site. This follows the move by Democratic insiders, revealed here last April, to launch the new California Majority Report. The site, launched with great fanfare — no small amount of it here — last week with advance publicity in newspapers, a press conference, and a soiree at a hot Capitol restaurant featuring top Democratic politicians, is retooling after some early problems. No word yet when the Timesies will go Netive. The last Times person to blog on politics, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Michael Hiltzik, soon revealed his hyperpartisanship behind the Times’ veil of seeming objectivity, and flamed out.
** Sources say LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will return to the state Capitol on Monday to push through his bid to partially take over and reform the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District. There are a few wrinkles on the horizon, one of which I’ll note later which is not substantively related, but prospects look good.
** Catch the excitement of political journalism behind the scenes at a big Arnold Schwarzenegger speech in this scintillating exclusive video.
** Track global and national energy futures prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are hovering a couple dollars over $70 a barrel.
** Continuous coverage of the new global insecurity on Pajamas Media (PJM).
** Controversial movie director Rob Reiner, late of the California Children and Families Commission, attacked controversial movie star/director Mel Gibson. Saying that Gibson needs to acknowledge the anti-Semitic underpinnings of his film work, especially The Passion of the Christ, Reiner noted that redemption takes a long time. Which reminds me that I have another Rob Reiner story. I’m getting so forgetful.
** Iran is defying international wishes that it drop its nuclear program, moving forward with an enrichment program that can yield the Mideastern great power nuclear weapons. Just days ahead of a UN session on this, some Iranian leaders warn that there should be no further pressure on Iran to drop its nuclear program, else the people will take to the streets to demand that the Iranian government develop nuclear weapons.
** Senator Barbara Boxer split yesterday with Senator Dianne Feinstein, declining to support the global warming bill proposed by California’s senior Democratic senator. Feinstein wants a cap-and-trade approach on greenhouse gas emissions like that being pushed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Boxer finds that too moderate, preferring command-and-control regulation.
** See the exciting life of political journalism in this ambience video behind the scenes at a big Arnold Schwarzenegger speech.
** Track global and national energy futures prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are hovering a couple dollars over $70 a barrel.
** Continuous coverage of the new global insecurity on Pajamas Media (PJM).
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