Where is Arnold Today?

Today the Governator will be in Ohio. For politics? No, silly. For Arnold's Sports Festival.

See, he promotes California in every way he can.

Best Minds Flee Local Politics

That's the headline on the editorial by Marcos Breton in the Sac Bee.

Breton uses the example of West Sac Mayor Christopher Cabaldon running for Assembly as an example of a 'best mind' 'fleeing local politics'.

When you add the exodus of people such as Cabaldon, what's left is a passel of plodders, unproven talent, a few good eggs and some real stinkers.

I like Cabaldon. But I sincerely hope our local politics is the shithole Breton makes it out to be. Shouldn't local politics be a trying ground for people to move on to bigger things? Isn't that how it's always been?

News Flash: GOP concerned about immigrant fiberglass sprayers

Aww, the heartfelt concern over the disasterous effects of closing the sloophole:

When Republicans killed a recent effort to close a loophole on luxury boats, recreational vehicles and planes, they argued that a tax change would chase away working-class jobs.

"The immigrant who sprays fiberglass on a boat will lose his job. The small-business owner who installs avionics on an airplane will lose his business," state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth of Temecula told GOP members during a Feb. 15 floor debate. "Those are the people who are going to be affected by this. It's not the rich."

Bass is big fish!

Congrats to southern California's Karen Bass for securing the votes to become the next Speaker of the State Assembly. She's the first woman Democrat and the first African American woman to hold the post in state history.

A lot of firsts in politics these days. Pretty cool.

And you know we here on the Delta love fish! She's good people.

Six degrees of random news stories

Do you think this horse was let go because this guy doesn't have anymore hay? Either guy, really.

Bible Study turns ugly

Have you seen this yet? One Capitol study group's leader is calling the other study group to task for its tolerance of participants of all faiths. Really?  Really.
 
"An evangelical chaplain who leads Bible studies for California lawmakers says God is disgusted with a rival fellowship group that includes people of all faiths.
 

"Although they are pleasant men in their personal demeanor, their group is more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior," Drollinger wrote on the Capitol Ministries' Web site.
 

The comments drew immediate fire from others in the capital, including the Republican lawmaker who sponsors Drollinger's Bible study group.

Drollinger said "progressive religious tolerance" is an offense against God and causes harm to its practitioners.
 

He said the other Bible study group was perpetrating a "deadly lie" by presenting Jesus as "a good moral teacher who loves everyone without distinction.""
 
Wow. Just. Wow.
 
Read the whole story here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/27/state/n103821S82.DTL&tsp=1

Vallejo's Bankruptcy

Something should be said about Vallejo's impending bankruptcy but I'll be damned if I know what it is.

The general fund will run out of money by the end of March. That's like a month away.

It seems a little stunning that there wasn't any type of a back-up plan, savings, something?

A deal that was nearly reached fell apart Monday night. But maybe they'll make another one. Maybe? No, probably not.

The real question now: what happens when a city declares bankruptcy?

The FEC won't let me be

Ah, campaign finance. You'd think of all people, John McCain would know the most and be the best at working the system. Oops, I mean, at abiding to the full letter of the law. Since he wrote it. Or rewrote it. McCain-Feingold is awesome!  Wait, no it isn't.
 
Anyway, in related news, now that McCain is the presumptive nominee and the money taps are going full bore again, he doesn't so much want or need that public financing he put in for back when his campaign was broke and sputtering.  Public funding is free money, but with pretty large handcuffs on overall spending. That will never do.  Despite his best efforts, it seems you actually need money to win elections. Lots of money. And negative campaigning - but that's a topic for another post.
 
The problem, however, is that McCain has already asked for public money. Now he has to get out of the system. Technically, he should - er, might? - be able to do that. But FEC chairman Dave Mason has opined in a letter to the campaign that letting McCain out requires a vote of the FEC commissioners.
 
Which would work if there were any. See, there are only 2 right now. Four is a quorum. Oh dear - math was never my strong suit, but it seems like there might be issues here.
 
Read more about the controversy few are talking about (because, let's face it, campaign finance makes most people drool involuntarily from bored confusion) here: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002676191

Joe for Joe

Inside Politics has an article on a website that highlights the connection between Assemblymember Joe Canciamilla and tobacco.

This is the website: Joe for Joe.

While the article focuses on it being anonymous, *oooh, crazy* what seems more crazy to me (and no one seems to be disputing this, so I'm taking it as accurate) is this:

"Canciamilla has said he willingly took the money [tobacco company contributions] because Assembly leaders asked him to do it. He was in a safe seat, so he handed over the money to party leaders and other Democratic candidates who could then claim no connection to the dollars."

Either that's messed up or it's illegal.

Your Campaign Manager Suing You? That's Not Good.

I have it on good authority that Mariko Yamada's former campaign manager, Bill Ritter, is suing her. That's gotta be bad.

Mariko Yamada is the County Supervisor running for Assembly in AD 8 against West Sac mayor Christopher Cabaldon. She's known to not have very much money on hand, like $63,000. The lawsuit asks her to pay back past consulting and legal fees of $17,500. Obviously with that and legal fees for this lawsuit, that would mean she has very very little cash on hand.

Not a good way for a campaign to be going before the official filing deadline even passes.

7 Years in Prison for Stolen $100

This is the saddest story I've heard in awhile.

Read the whole thing and be stunned with another horrible example of the law gone terribly wrong. Right here in Yolo County.

This Whole Budget Problem

The HUGE deficit problem is just getting worse. The budget shortfall has grown to $16billion.

It seems whatever the Governor is doing, isn't working so well, is it?

Non-partisan Legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill called the Governator's plan to simply cut everything "short-sighted".

She proposed, *gasp*, tax increases!

She also took issue with some of the Governator's proposals. Like giving correctional officers a pay raise. Gee.

I'm back!

I apologize for being gone so long. Life works that way sometimes, doesn't it?

To make up for it here is a list of California's superdelegates.

Who had ever even heard of superdelegates before this election? (Don't lie.)

Now it seems to be all anyone can talk about. Especially those people that keep emailing me all the time.

GOP Seeks DTS for GOTV

Today's Bee has a piece explaining why the California Republican Party will welcome decline to state

voters to vote in the June 3 primary election, even though they disallowed the same choice on last week's presidential primary ballot. It all goes back to the mid-90s:

Confusion over primary voting has a long pedigree. Before 1996, the state's primaries were closed – only registered members of the parties could take part.

An initiative approved in 1996 gave the state a "blanket" primary. All voters were given the same ballot from which they could choose any candidate, regardless of their affiliation.

The state Democratic and Republican parties fought the initiative, and ultimately prevailed in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2000 that it violated the two parties' freedom of association.

Around the same time, the Legislature passed a bill that let independent voters participate in primaries if the parties allowed it.

State Republicans opted to allow independent voters in all primaries except the presidential. The party reasoned that Democrats would have an advantage in nonpresidential races if independents supported their candidates in primaries, said Tim Morgan, who was chairman of the party's rules committee at the time. Morgan is now the treasurer of the Republican National Committee.

But the 1,600-member central committee chose to close the presidential primary. The difference was that delegates selected to go to the national convention would have a hand in making party rules and policies and should truly represent its core values.

Of course another option is to close the dang primaries again and get people to put up or shut up when it comes to casting a partisan vote. Though it may only be a dream, I would love to think that closing the primaries might force interested people into parties to change them from within, which is, to my mind, the only way to really change anything at all. Decline to state isn't a party, so staying out of the fray isn't going to do a damn thing, is it? DTS isn't a party. Grow a pair, get in there, and you'll get your vote.

So good for you, GOP. No wait, I don't mean that. I take it back. But I get you. That's what I'm trying to say.

Local Boy Does Good

As Smelt mentioned below, and as linked to in today's Roundup, an apparently calm and orderly transition of power in the Senate from Don "Indictment Coming Soon" Perata to Darrell "Hometown Super Star" Steinberg will take place later this summer. Apparently, it took just a cordial lunch with Angeleno Alex "Still Hot" Padilla to get him to back off his potential challenge. Thus, the Senate will stay NorCal and the Assembly will probably remain SoCal.

I love Darrell. He won the "Minnie" multiple times, back when we still had a political journal that gave out awards. He was routinely sited as a reason to extend term limits. He's known for his integrity, intelligence, dedication to sound policy, and all around nice-guy-itude that can be sorely lacking 'round the dome these days. Talk about changing it up.

Like Smelt says - who will win in the green room, though? Will the Wesson Legacy continue through Nunez to Karen Bass? Or will Hector prevail?

Tune in next week to "As the Leadership Turns . . . . "

New Senate Leader

Now that The Don is going to be termed out (awww), Sacramento's own Darrell Steinberg will lead the Senate.

It seems like quite an improvement to me, even if he was the only candidate for the job.

And who's going to replace Nunez??

Unrelated to the election

The County remains unable to build a 7-mile bike path from Davis to Woodland.

But don't worry, so far it's only cost $2 million.

I'll tell you what, you give me $2 million and I'll drive the bikers from Davis to Woodland.

The Day After

So here's how it went down, in case you haven't seen the election results yet.

Clinton and McCain won California. Absolutely nothing is decided on the Democratic side. Proposition 91 got 41% of the vote despite the fact that it's authors abandoned it and it had no campaign. And I give up trying to understand California.

In case you're wondering how the actual 'delegates' are breaking down, check here.

But what does it all mean?

Chris Matthews just made an interesting point on the Reep races: McCain is winning states that Republicans don't usually win in the general. Huckabee is winning in states where Republicans always win in the general. So does that mean the Reeps could end up electing an unelectable candidate? Hmmm. Not that it would be a problem with me . . . .

Gov. Richardson Supports the Writers

At least, that's the only explanation I can come up with for his recent facial hair growth. Conan did it, so can you!

Maybe it's just his "I'm not longer running for President so this is my prize" beard. Who knows.

I can't help but think again how much it sucks to be him. He was a golden guy not so long ago. Once, we could've imagined this as his night. Not so, anymore. Poor guy. Sorry man.

Term Limits, Naw

Since it looks like 93 isn't going to pass (that's the one on term limits people), the local races to fill those seats left vacant are still on.

This means come Wednesday West Sac Mayor Christopher Cabaldon and County Supervisor Mariko Yamada will start campaigning for 'real'.

I dunno, though, I heard a rumor she wants to move to San Diego. Hmm..