Capitol Alert

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman will follow in the footsteps of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and decline her salary if she's elected governor, press secretary Sarah Pompei said today.

Whitman is worth about a billion dollars and is pouring millions into her gubernatorial campaign.

The current annual salary for governor is $212,179 and will fall to $173,987 assuming an 18 percent salary cut for state officials takes effect as approved by the California Citizens Compensation Commission.

Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly, and Greg Schmidt, chief executive officer of the Senate, have asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to look into whether the pay and benefit cuts were legally approved. Read about that request here.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell, a former congressman, said Friday he would accept a salary if elected. "How else would I eat?" Campbell said in a written statement.

The third Republican candidate Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner who also has about a billion dollars in personal wealth, will accept a salary with a possible pay cut, said communications director Jarrod Agen.

All but a few Republican legislators had perfect voting records this year as far as the state Chamber of Commerce is concerned, whereas only a few Democrats voted with the chamber even half the time.

The business organization published its completely predictable voting records on 13 key business measures, including the chamber-opposed "job killer" bills, in today's edition of its weekly bulletin.

Twenty-five GOP members of the Assembly were given perfect 13-0 voting records while first-term Assemblywoman Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills had the highest score by a Democrat, 10-3. At the other end of the scale, six Democratic Assembly members had 2-10 ratings.

Senators' voting record showed a similar split. Eleven of the Senate's 15 Republicans had 13-0 marks while the highest Democrat was Lou Correa of Santa Ana at 10-2 and Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, was the lowest at 1-11.

A complete bill-by-bill and legislator-by-legislator scorecard is available here.

Board of Equalization candidate Alan Nakanishi has gotten a bit of a boost in his bid to replace termed-out board member Bill Leonard.

The former Republican assemblyman and practicing doctor was recently hired by one of his key endorsers, BOE District 3 Member Michelle Steel, as an "assistant to the board member."

In addition to pulling in an additional $7,852 a month, the new title means Nakanishi will be able to request that his gig with the board be listed as his profession on the ballot and play up the "experience" card in the crowded GOP primary for the safe Republican seat.

Nakanishi could not be reached for comment.

Nakanishi's been running hard for the seat since the outset, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get his name on slate mailers for the election. The added bonus of his new ballot designation could make a difference in a race where most voters aren't familiar with the candidates, or even what a position on the board, which administers state tax laws, entails.

"The only thing [voters] are going to be aware of is what is their name, what is their party, what is their occupation and did I get a slate card from a group telling me to vote for this candidate," said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of The Target Book, which handicaps races across the state.

Listing an occupation that suggests experience at the job (as opposed to Nakanishi's current title of doctor) could have an extra impact because one of Nakanishi's main rivals in the race is former state lawmaker Barbara Alby, a longtime deputy to Leonard, the member both are vying to replace.

Steel knows first-hand the boost a staff job at the board can give a BOE hopeful. Early in her 2006 BOE bid, her predecessor Claude Parrish brought her on staff as a deputy. She said at the time that she believed the experience and better ballot designation would help her candidacy against her opponent, former Republican Assemblyman Ray Haynes.

Steel's Chief Deputy Lou Barnett said Nakanishi was brought on board to track legislation, perform outreach to various groups and serve as a policy adviser. He noted that Nakanishi is the second former state legislator to serve on Steel's staff.

"Michelle is very happy to have him on board," he said. "She likes to hire highly competent, experienced people, and a former assemblyman certainly has experience handling legislation, certainly has experience handling constituent groups and certainly has experience as a policy adviser."

Nakanishi's campaign adviser, Tim Clark, said in a statement that the job won't impinge on Nakanishi's campaign time "because he's been campaigning nights and weekends anyway and did not plan to be a full-time candidate. Alan has a passion to serve, and his expertise with state tax and budget policy (gained from his time in the Assembly), will be a tremendous help in Michelle's office.  It will probably help Alan to gain more familiarity with the interworking of the Board of Equalization."

The Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz points out that the cautious approach to the just-passed water package from GOP gubernatorial candidates illustrates a Republican split over the issue.

San Francisco's KGO-TV's investigative unit decided to take a look at the cash California spends on assigning California Highway Patrol officers to protect some of the state's constitutional officers.

So how much is the state shelling out to keep these public figures safe? Well, it's not chump change.

In the last fiscal year alone, the CHP spent just over a million dollars guarding the five constitutional officers -- $224,193 for [Superintendent of Public Instruction] Jack O'Connell, $139,954 for Treasurer Bill Lockyer, $172,225 for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, $309,436 for Controller John Chiang, and $214,335 for Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

Watch the video report or click here for more of the story on the news team's blog.

The head of the California Citizens Compensation Commission said Friday that he's not bothered by a legal challenge to his panel's spring decision to slash state lawmakers' pay and benefits by 18 percent.

Commission chairman Charles "Chuck" Murray said in a telephone interview that state legislators have the right to challenge anything anybody does in California, including decisions by his own panel, adding: "That's their job."

The Legislature's top administrators recently asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to decide whether the pending cuts in compensation were legal, suggesting the commission had exceeded its legal jurisdiction.

Murray said that while he doesn't mind the lawmakers appeal to Brown, he still thinks it's a bad idea given the state's troubled finances.

"It makes no sense whatsoever for them to be doing this," he said.

The Governor appoints all seven members of the commission. Murray cited the state's dire financial condition when in May members of his panel voted to cut lawmakers' pay by 18 percent, beginning in December 2010 after the next round of elections.

Later, the commission also slashed lawmakers per-diem payments, car allowances and medical and other benefits by an equal amount - effective December of 2009.

Murray acknowledged that the state Department of Personnel Administration gave him a legal opinion stating that his panel didn't necessarily have a 100 percent right to cut per-diem and car allowances. "But that's just one opinion," Murray said.

Murray said he secured additional verbal legal opinions from an unidentified judge and four Southern California attorneys. They all told him he had authority to order all cuts, he says.

Before voting to make the cuts, Murray said, he went even further and consulted a retired lawmaker and reviewed historical legislative and archival bill files on the issue.

Murray said his own review convinced him that his commission was meant to have the power to cut both pay and fringe benefits. Per-diem and car allowances fit that bill.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign into law two of the water bills passed early Wednesday morning.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is also scheduled to attend the 10 a.m. signing ceremony at the Tujunga Wellfield Groundwater Recovery Project in Los Angeles.

News that Republican Sen. John Benoit was appointed to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors set political circles buzzing about who might run for his seat.

Republican Assemblyman Bill Emmerson has already said he's in.

The assemblyman, who had been raising cash for a 2012 bid for the 31st Senate District, told the Press-Enterprise yesterday that he plans to move from his current home in Redlands to Hemet so he will be eligible to run for Benoit's seat.

Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona, also appears to be eying a run.

"I'm taking a very serious look at the Senate seat," he said in a statement. "I believe that my conservative voting record combined with having served a big chunk of the district for more than a decade now make me a very strong candidate."

One person who doesn't have plans to jump in anytime soon? Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore.

"Congratulations to Supervisor Benoit! And yes, I'm still NOT running in the special election for his vacant Senate seat," he tweeted yesterday.

The Desert Sun has a roundup this morning that includes some additional candidates, including two Democrats: Palm Springs unified school board member Justin Blake and Arthur Bravo Guerrero, who lost to Benoit in 2008.

Once Benoit steps down, the governor will have 14 days to call a special election, meaning a primary election is likely to fall sometime in mid- to late-January.

GOV2010: GOP guv-hopeful Steve Poizner is holding a small business roundtable in Walnut with the Tri-Counties Association of Realtors. Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, and Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, are also scheduled to attend.

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Benoit's successor will serve his remaining term and be eligible to serve two additional terms. The Bee regrets the error. This post was also updated to include a link to the Desert Sun piece.

A day after officially launching her U.S. Senate bid, Carly Fiorina's campaign rolled out the endorsements of eight Republican senators.

Topping the list is Arizona Sen. John McCain, whose presidential bid Fiorina supported as a campaign surrogate.

Also announced today were the endorsements of Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

"I am humbled to have earned the endorsement of each one of these distinguished Republican Senators. They are all dedicated public servants and it is a true honor to have their support. I look forward to working with each of these Senators to get our economy moving again and to restore fiscal accountability to Washington," Fiorina said in a statement.

None of the names should come as a shock; all eight of those Republicans had already signed on to host a Nov. 17 fundraiser for the candidate.

Fiorina's rival for the Republican nomination, Irvine Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, announced the endorsement earlier this week of Sen. Jim DeMint and his Senate Conservatives Fund PAC.

DeVore spokesman Joshua Treviño said he wasn't concerned that Fiorina had snagged the endorsement of "liberal senators" from the Washington political establishment.

"If Carly Fiorina wants to convince California Republicans of her conservative credentials by trotting out Snowe, Collins, Graham and McCain, we welcome that," he said.

This week's election featured the usual array of local ballot measures dealing with commercial and residential development and slow- and no-growth advocates appear to have won more than they lost, according to the California Development and Planning Report, an authoritative newsletter of urban planning issues.

"All in all, voting on November 3 local ballot measures provided the usual mixed bag," the newsletter said. "The slow growth side won eight of 12 easily classifiable contests, but that total is skewed by Modesto voters rejecting all five proposals to extend sewer service into potential new growth areas."

The community-by-community rundown on Tuesday's development issues is available here.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has built a sizable lead over her two GOP rivals about a month and a half after she began running statewide radio advertisements, according to a poll by the Capitol Weekly newspaper and the private firm Probolsky Research.

The poll, described here in the Capitol Weekly, found Whitman, the former CEO of online auction firm eBay, winning the support of 34.3 percent of 269 Republican respondents while former Congressman Tom Campbell won 12.5 percent and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner had 5.5 percent of Republican support.

A Field Poll released last month found Whitman winning 22 percent of Republican support with Campbell at 20 percent and Poizner at 9 percent. That poll surveyed 373 Republican primary voters.

Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said about the Capitol Weekly poll, "California voters are supporting Meg Whitman because she has a successful business record and real-world experience creating thousands of jobs. She's not just another career politician."

Poizner spokesman Jarrod Agen said Whitman's ads were buying her name identification and that most voters weren't paying attention yet. Both Poizner and Whitman are wealthy former Silicon Valley executives self-financing much of their campaigns.

"The score only matters after the ninth inning, and we're not even out of the second inning yet," Agen said. "We've got several months ahead of campaigning around the state on our message of cutting taxes, creating jobs and reducing spending."

Campbell spokesman Jamie Fisfis agreed that the radio ads were paying off for Whitman but said "We're happy with where we are."

Read the poll here.