In case you're counting, there's only one week left until termed-out lawmakers leave the Capitol.
Many of the more colorful characters are departing, from Bonnie "Hot Blooded" Garcia to Lloyd "Spay and Neuter" Levine to Nicole "My Office Is Across the Street" Parra to Fabian "Louis Vuitton" Núñez to Todd "Doghouse Dwelling" Spitzer to Carole "Car Collision" Migden.
Here at Capitol Alert, we'll miss them all -- and the bounty of content they've provided.
Still, legislative leaders seem determined not to have missing them begin just yet, continuing to hold out hope for some type of budget accord with a tentative Tuesday floor session.
"The crisis is obviously just getting worse the longer we wait," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said Friday in an audio clip distributed by her office.
Bass had been in Atlanta but insisted, "I have been in constant communication, whether it was via Blackberry or participating fully in the Big Five meetings over the phone."
Down in Santa Ana today, termed-out Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is the subject of a roast, with proceeds going to the California Peace Officers' Memorial Foundation.
"If you don't have anything nice to say about Todd ... you've come to the right party!!" the invitation advises.
With so much turnover, many committees will be handed over to new chairs in 2009-10.
In case you missed it on Friday, Capitol Alert laid out the chairmanship landscape in the new state Senate.
In the Assembly, many new chairs of key committees were named over the summer.
But several desirable slots remain open, including chairmanships of the utilities and commerce panel, the elections committee and natural resources.
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