Capitol Alert

The Carole Migden-Mark Leno battle royale over the Democratic Party endorsement wasn't the only endorsement fight at last weekend's convention in San Jose.

• In the contest to replace Sen. Don Perata, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock won the party's backing over former Assemblywoman Wilma Chan with the support of 90 percent of the region's convention-goers.

“As a lifelong Democrat, I am proud to have the sole endorsement of my party,” Hancock said in a released statement.

•The party withdrew its endorsement of Cathedral City Councilman Greg Pettis, a Democratic candidate for Assembly District 80.

That's the seat currently held by termed-out GOP Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia and one of the Democrats' top targets. The local paper, the Desert Sun, reports:

The state party endorsement Pettis had gained earlier in the month was vacated following a vote that came at the state party's convention in San Jose this weekend. Now the party will endorse no candidate before the June primary election.

Out of 27 delegates voting in San Jose Saturday, Pettis got 16 votes, or 59.26 percent. State party rules require 60 percent of delegate votes at the convention for the state party's endorsement.

The vote in San Jose was the work of Coachella Valley Unified School District trustee Manuel Perez's campaign, Pettis' primary opponent.

• In a race that rivals the Leno-Migden affair for contentiousness, Stuart Waldman, a former chief of staff to Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, worked to block the party's endorsement of Bob Blumenfield, a top district aide to Rep. Howard Berman.

(Why is the race contentious? In part because Levine isn't backing his former top aide, but Blumenfield, whose campaign consultant is none other than Levine's father, Larry Levine.)

Blumenfield had entered the convention with an endorsement vote on the agenda, but Waldman's campaign, which brought up 30 volunteers from Southern California, gathered signatures to force full a full convention vote, where the endorsement was defeated.

UPDATED
• A reader points out another endorsement fight missing from the original list: the race for Assembly District 78, where Democrats at the convention voted not to make an endorsement in the four-way contest.

Marty Block, president of the San Diego Community College District board, won 15 of the 28 delegate votes, but needed 17 votes to secure the endorsement.

The race also includes Auday Arabo, president of the independent grocers association, Maxine Sherard, the 2006 Democratic nominee, and Arlie Ricasa, a board member of Sweetwater Union High School District. They are all running for the Democratic-leaning district currently represented by termed-out GOP Assemblywoman Shirley Horton.

It's been a rough few months for San Francisco Sen. Carole Migden, with the latest blow coming at last weekend's convention in San Jose, when California Democratic Party delegates refused to endorse her campaign.

By all accounts, it was a heated weekend, as campaign fliers circulated and both Migden and challenger Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, campaigned heavily for the party's backing.

Donna Mills, a Los Angeles blogger, described the intense politicking on her blog. "There were times when it looked as if we would be seeing a West Side Story type rumble (without the dancing)," she wrote.

But perhaps one of the more blogged about moments -- documented on the video below -- was Migden's speech to the Women's Caucus in which she urged attendees, "Let us women stand for women."

In the back of the room, a group of Leno supporters heckled her, chanting at one point "honor the law," a reference to the recent fines levied against her by the Fair Political Practices Commission.

To which Migden shot back," Are those women? They look like heavy guys to me."

Ultimately, party delegates voted against her endorsement, with 298 in favor and 742 opposed.

Watch the whole Women's Caucus exchange below, starting roughly 3 minutes and 35 seconds into the video to get the full context.

The man who was the California Assembly’s first time employee will be honored on the Assembly floor on Tuesday, five months after his family donated boxes full of historical items to the Assembly documenting Arthur Ohnimus’ 45 years in the Legislature’s lower house.

His descendants will be recognized on the Assembly floor on Tuesday and will be presented with a resolution authored by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez.

Among those expected to attend the ceremony are those who served during his tenure, including William Bagley, Mervyn Dymally, John T. Knox, Bob Monagan and Jerome Waldie.

Ohnimus first started working in the state Assembly in 1915, where he served alongside fellow Assembly clerks Arthur Samish, who rose to become the most powerful lobbyist in the state, and Earl Warren, the future California governor and U.S. Supreme Court chief justice.

In January 1923, Ohnimus was elected chief clerk of the Assembly, a position he held – with a brief hiatus from 1937 to 1940 – for 40 years. From 1957 to 1963 he also served as chief administrative officer of the Assembly Rules Committee. (The job of CAO was created by Proposition 14, passed in 1956, when allowed the hiring of full-time staff. Ohnimus was the first hire.)

Ohnimus died in 1965, but after his wife Bernice, twenty years his junior, died in 2007, the Ohnimus family donated eight boxes of political and legislative documents to the chief clerk’s office.

Those items contain correspondence to and from Ohnimus with everyone from J. Edgar Hoover to Caspar Weinbegrer.

It even includes some original Ohnimus poetry:

The Violet
Buried in foliage green,
The sweetest flowers are seldom seen,
Hidden far from human sight,
They live their simple, perfumed life.
Rarely seen, even by the prying sunbeam
They bud alone, in solitude they fade unseen.

A special exhibit of the Ohnimus collection will be on display in Room 105 of the Capitol this week. A link to the collection is expected to be posted on the Assembly and the chief clerk’s Web sites.

Saying they don't want to cut education, Assembly Republicans spent part of their retreat this week formulating a plan to fund schools without resorting to a suspension of Proposition 98.

In fact, GOP members said they think they can give a small year-over-year increase to K-14 programs – all without raising taxes.

"It's better than what the governor's proposed," Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, said Friday after blogging about the plan. "What it shows is if you take a hard long look at a budget that's in excess of $100 billion, you can find savings in adjusting resources to meet more pressing needs. And Republicans feel the most pressing needs are dollars that teach children rather than dollars that are not as directly involved in education."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to suspend Proposition 98 by cutting $4.8 billion from what he says schools should get next fiscal year. Instead of $60.4 billion for K-14 in the general fund, the governor would provide $55.6 billion.

Republicans say they think they can get education another $2 billion without suspending Proposition 98. The move would maintain year-over-year funding, they said.

DeVore wouldn't release details of the entire plan, but he said the caucus borrowed a few plays from the legislative analyst's alternative budget proposal -- except, of course, when it came to her suggestions for tax increases.

DeVore said the state already has the authority to lower the constitutional guarantee for school funding because general fund revenues have been falling below projections.

The state, he said, could then add $1 billion by sweeping up unspent education funds and suspending the Quality Education Investment Act, a grant program approved in 2006 as part of Schwarzenegger's settlement with the teachers union.

However, it's unclear where the rest of the money would come from. And it doesn't provide cost-of-living salary increases for teachers.

The GOP caucus could try to force a bill on Democrats, challenging the majority party's assertion that taxes are needed to protect public schools.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's spokesman, Steve Maviglio, said Republicans haven't shared their plan with Democrats.

"The Republicans have embraced the philosophy of a stop sign, so if they have some ideas to bring to the table, we're more than happy to sit down and discuss them," Maviglio said.

The Attorney General's Office says it has not received a request to review the California Lottery's office party policies, contrary to a letter written by Lottery Director Joan Borucki.

"They didn't ask us for a formal opinion on that event," Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for Attorney General Jerry Brown, said Friday. "There's no pending request."

State auditors demanded Wednesday that the Lottery pay back $46,336 spent last November on an employee recognition event where over 300 workers, retirees and guests dined on black-peppered prime rib dinners. Prizes worth more than $10,000, including a Nintendo Wii, i-Pods and digital cameras, were handed out as part of the evening's entertainment.

In response to the audit, Borucki wrote State Controller John Chiang in mid-March that "the Lottery has requested a legal opinion from the Attorney General's Office on the legality of the expenditures for the employee recognition event."

The letter said the legal review was expected soon. "The Lottery expects this legal opinion by May 2008," Borucki wrote.

Lottery spokesman Al Lundeen said Friday that Lottery staff members are consulting state attorneys on developing new guidelines. They will then recommend policy changes which the Lottery Commission will have to approve, he said.

"The bottom line is the Lottery Commission will have before it in May suggestions that would establish guidelines about what's appropriate employee recognition and what's not," Lundeen said.

Aaron Davis is leaving the Associated Press. Tom Chorneau is leaving the San Francisco Chronicle. Tamara Keith is leaving KQED.

Those are the just latest cuts to the Capitol press corps, according to Steve Maviglio at the California Majority Report.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen has certified a full list of candidates on the June ballot for legislative seats in California. Find the list here.

As Democrats continue to fight over their nominee, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain released his first ad of the general election campaign, which will air in New Mexico, a battleground state.

It is a minute-long spot, featuring McCain promising "we'll never surrender."

The tagline at the end: "The American president Americans have been waiting for."

Watch the ad below:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez today defended his "golden handshake" offer to employees, saying staff has worked long and hard to earn benefits.

"We’re proud that we did it," Núñez said during a break in the Assembly Democratic policy summit. "The quote-unquote golden handshake is one of many different options. But there are some folks that do earn over $100,000 a year, but you got to look at how long they’ve been working."

The speaker declined to address his decision to demote Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, who was ousted as chairman of the powerful Rules Committee after he challenged Núñez's pension-sweetening deal as wasting taxpayer dollars.

The offer was made to 222 employees, 13 of whom already qualify for pensions above $100,000 and an additional 12 for pensions of $70,000 to $99,999.

"You’ll never get me to say anything negative about Mr. De La Torre," Núñez said. "I think he’s a good member of the caucus."

But he went on to say, "As the speaker, I have the power within my role as speaker to decide who's a member of my leadership team."

Núñez said the Democratic caucus has spent its time on the budget and plans to introduce a compassionate budget that is reflective of state priorities on education and caring for the poor and elderly.

"Expect the Democratic leadership, with the full support of the Democratic caucus, to present an alternative budget to the governor’s budget and to put that budget before the full Legislature for a vote so that we can have an on-time budget," Núñez said.

Sen. Ron Calderon expressed hope that healing can begin in the Montebello community after a man was arrested Wednesday in the hit-and-run death of his 14-year-old nephew, Justin William Carrasco.

Carrasco died early Saturday after being struck by a van while riding his skateboard, according to one witness account.

A 23-year-old San Dimas man turned himself in to the Montebello police Wednesday and was changed with felony hit-and-run causing death, according to Calderon's office.

"In the interest of closure, it is fortunate that we are all now closer to knowing the tragic circumstances that took a beloved young boy’s life," Calderon, D-Montebello, said in a statement. "Let all the facts reveal themselves so the family and the community can begin to heal from this cruel misfortune. I want to commend the Montebello police department and all involved in assisting the community in its greatest time of need."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced that he has appointed longtime adviser Bonnie Reiss to a seat on the prestigious University of California Board of Regents.

A close family friend to Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver, Reiss played an integral role in the governor's initial campaign, and worked for the governor as a senior adviser -- mostly on education and the environment -- after he won the recall election in 2003. The Democrat departed the governor's office last year and has been an operating adviser to New York-based private equity firm, Pegasus Capital Advisers, according to the governor's office.

She also served on the California Board of Education from 2004 to 2006.
The regents' post is unpaid but requires Senate confirmation.

Veterans of Assemblywoman Nicole Parra's staff – and there are quite a few – are gathering on Thursday night for a roast of the Hanford Democrat, quite literally at her expense.

In her six years in the Assembly, Parra has earned a reputation not only as one of the most moderate members of the Democratic caucus, but also as a member with some of the highest staff turnover.

Embracing her inner boss, she's agreed to pay for a party for all her ex-aides to get together and share war stories.

"Former staffers for Nicole Parra, please join Chiefs of Staff I - VI, Leg Directors I - IX, Schedulers II - IXV, and many other veterans of the Parra Experience for a celebratory dinner," reads the e-mail invitation sent last month to a couple dozen ex-aides and forwarded to dozens more. "First 100 to RSVP get ceremonial 'I was fired by Parra' pin."

Cynthia Leon -- whose three and a half years in Parra's office, including two as chief of staff, make her a Parra veteran -- said, "It's great that she's willing to allow us this opportunity."

Leon, now a lobbyist for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, said Parra was generous enough "to set up the venue and pay for it."

There'll be an open mic – and, Leon added, "we're also roasting the staff."

As for Parra, the lawmakers said in a voice message Wednesday that she was "very excited about my event tomorrow night."

"I look forward to seeing all of my former staff," she added, saying she expected up to 100 people to attend. (Yes, that includes campaign staff and third house folks).

The roasting, drinks and reminiscing will take place at Simon's.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political action committee has donated another $250,000 to help qualify a redistricting measure for the November ballot, according to campaign filings released today, bringing his total donations to the cause to $550,000.

Schwarzenegger, who pushed his own redistricting measure in the failed 2005 special election, is the single largest financial backer of this year's measure, which is sponsored by California Common Cause and others.

Not only has the governor donated heavily to the measure, but GOP financiers with close ties to Schwarzenegger have given hundreds of thousands more, including $50,000 from the Irvine Company's Donald Bren and $10,000 from Paul Folino, a longtime Schwarzenegger supporter.

Backers of the measure have raised a total of more than $1.2 million.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday defended his decision to replace actor Clint Eastwood and brother-in-law Bobby Shriver on the State Park and Recreation Commission, saying he wanted to give other people a chance to serve.

The governor has come under fire from environmental groups who charge that he booted Eastwood and Shriver after they opposed the construction of a toll road through a state park in Southern California.

The two were appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2001 and reappointed by Schwarzenegger in 2004. The governor chose recently not to reappoint them for a third term.

"Clint and Bobby both have done an extraordinary job for the parks," he told reporters in San Luis Obispo. "Unlike the press says, we were very happy with their performance. I always told them they should vote with their conscience and they should make the right decisions. And after eight years of serving, we thanked them for their service and now we want to put someone else in there because there's a lot of people that want to have those positions. They have done a great job for eight years."

State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas trails Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks in the race for campaign contributions before their June 3 face-off for a coveted seat on the L.A. county Board of Supervisors.

The Los Angeles Times has more of the details:

Parks collected more than $300,000 between Jan. 1 and March 17 for his effort to replace retiring Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke. That brings his total to nearly $600,000. Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) raised about $185,000 in the same period, bringing his total to $354,000.
...
Parks had about $387,000 in cash by the close of the reporting period, and Ridley-Thomas had about $171,000 left, the reports show.

Ridley-Thomas does, however, have the backing of organized labor, which has made the race its top priority in the June elections.

Much of Parks' financial support, as the Times reports, comes from business.

Jon Fleischman, the publisher of the Flashreport and a vice-chairman of the California Republican party has an account of Sen. John McCain's Newport Beach fundraiser on Tuesday, attended by leading Southern California Republicans.

Fleischman wrote the difference between McCain's appearance in December, when many considered him a dark house candidate, and Tuesday, when he was the undisputed nominee was "pretty stark."

"Where December's McCain was determined and resolute, wintering a sketchy position in the polls at the time, March's McCain was clearly elated to be in front of the audience. He was filled with energy and enthusiasm, and clearly on top of his game," said Fleischman.

A McCain official told him the soiree was expected to raise more than $800,000.

Among the GOP glitterati, if you will, in the photos: Donald Bren, the well-heeled executive of the Irvine Company, Rep. John Campbell, former CA Secretary of State Bill Jones (McCain's California campaign chair), former GOP Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn, Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle (a former Assembly speaker), Marty Wilson, a prominent Republican fundraiser, Meg Whitman, the former eBay executive and rumored governor wanna-be, California GOP Chairman Ron Nehring, and Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain adviser and former campaign manager for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom more or less declared his interest in running for governor in 2010 today, joining a field of potential Democratic candidates that's already somewhat crowded.

Newsom, asked about gubernatorial ambitions after addressing the Sacramento Press Club, said "it's wildly premature" to consider running but then said he "surely will consider running" if he could "add value" to the contest.

Newsom's speech was devoted to health care, both praising San Francisco for its unilateral effort to care for the uninsured and criticizing the Legislature for killing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's health insurance plan while opposing the Medi-Cal spending cuts that the governor has proposed to balance the deficit-ridden state budget.

Newsom called Medi-Cal cuts "perverse" and said he would support a potential lawsuit by health care providers challenging them.

The man overseeing a mental health hospital with over 600 sexually violent predators is stepping down after less than a year on the job.

Norm Kramer had come out of retirement to serve as the interim executive director of Coalinga State Hospital. But under labor rules, he can only serve 960 hours as a retired annuitant.

“That’s the only reason he’s leaving,” said Department of Mental Health spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid. “We’re still working on a national search for a new director. If he had hours, he’d still be here.”

Opened in the fall of 2005, Coalinga State Hospital has struggled to recruit psychiatrists, therapists and staff to treat patients, most of whom have been deemed sexually violent predators and unfit to return to society even after serving prison terms.

The Coalinga campus, located about 200 miles south of Sacramento in the Central Valley, currently houses 712 patients.

Despite the new complex, patients have complained about inadequate medical care and a rally was held in front of the hospital earlier this month. Check out the patient blog here.

The state spends an average of $183,000 a year to house and treat mental health patients.

Kramer’s last day is Friday. He had nearly four decades of experience in mental health and developmental disabilities.

From Shane Goldmacher...

The Assembly Higher Education Committee remains without a permanent chair, after the panel met this afternoon with Assemblyman Jim Beall serving as chair for the day.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino was stripped of the chairmanship before the legislative spring break.

"I've been asked to chair the committee for today's hearing only," said Beall.

An intoxicated man broke into the Service Employee International Union's field office last Thursday, dropping his shoes and pants along the way at various cubicles before finding his way into a room.

No damage was reported and no personal information was compromised, said SEIU spokesman Naj Alikhan. The man was escorted away by police and no report was filed.

"It’s actually very funny," Alikhan said. "The man was highly intoxicated. You know, there are a couple of drinking establishments nearby (the office)."

Employees who arrived to the one-story building at 1325 S Street around 7 a.m. found the man in one of the building's rooms. His shoes and pants were found in other parts of the office.

It was unclear how long he had been in the building. "One of the doors had either been left open or never latched," Alikhan said. "He found his way in."

Security fixed the door within hours of the discovery and the union is now considering upgrading its key-card entry system.

Union members sent out an e-mail warning about the break-in but labor officials said no formal alert was necessary.

"Employees should be fine," Alikhan said. "There's no threat to the information in the building. Everybody’s very smart about turning off computers to conserve energy."

Senate Democrats are taking another crack at passing legislation to ease the state’s foreclosure crisis, after a nearly united Republican caucus successfully blocked similar legislation in January.

The original bill, SB 926, fell one vote short of passing on the Senate floor, as it required 27 votes (and thus GOP support) to pass with an urgency clause.

Every Democrat and GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado backed the measure.

After the bill failed, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, the author, vowed to try again.

So today a different version of the bill, now SB 1137, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The failed bill required mortgage lenders to notify borrowers by mail 120, 90 and 45 days before any significant hike in monthly payments. It also required an in-person meeting with would-be defaulters.

The new bill has a different set of requirements, chiefly asking that lenders perform “due diligence” before “the filing of any notice of default.”

A key barometer of the bill’s potential to pass is whether the two Republicans on the committee, Sen. Dick Ackerman and Sen. Tom Harman, support the amended measure.

The Democratic caucus has tagged the legislation as a priority bill.

The cost of the mayoral contest in San Diego is approaching $2 million, largely largely on the strength of challenger Steve Francis' personal fortune, which he has tapped to the tune of $1.3 million.

Campaign filings released this week show Francis, who spent $2 million of his own money in a failed bid for mayor in a 2005 special election, has been spending money "at a clip of nearly $13,000 a day, mostly on television ads," the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Incumbent Mayor Jerry Sanders has raised $443,000.

In the race for San Diego city attorney, incumbent Mike Aguirre has been outpaced by three of his challengers, the paper also reports, raising only $7,400 this year.

Jan Goldsmith, a former assemblyman turned superior court judge, has raised $38,644.

City Councilman Brian Maienschein raised $67,798. City Council President Scott Peters raised $22,865 and loaned himself another $45,000.

Justin William Carrasco, the 14-year old nephew of Sen. Ron Calderon, was killed in a hit-and-run accident early Saturday morning, the senator's office said Monday.

Calderon's office reports, "According to one witness, Carrasco, riding his skate board, was hit by a van traveling in the opposite direction near the corner of Jefferson and Montebello Avenues. The driver of the van drove away."

Calderon's office reports Carrasco was "a close companion to (the senator's) son."

Calderon will attend an 8 p.m. vigil this evening at the street corner in Montebello where Carrasco was killed. He is hoping police find the driver who struck his nephew, or that the perpetrator turns himself or herself in. “I can only pray that the person who hit and killed my nephew will do the right thing and turn him or herself in. It’s better for all involved because this is a tragedy of two families, not one,” he said in a written statement.

The Legislature's annual "women of the year" ceremony is always full of interesting back stories for many of honorees. This year was no different.

The Orange County Register's Martin Wisckol reported today that Assemblywoman Mimi Walters' choice for the Legislature's annual "women of the year" award doesn't even live in her district:

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, R-Laguna Niguel, got my attention when she picked Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche this year. Orange is not in Walters district. It isn’t even contiguous to her district. It’s two districts away. Wonder how the women of the 73rd Assembly District are feeling about that.

Orange is, however, in the 33rd Senate District, where Walters is running against Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu.

Update: Walters' spokeswoman Gina Zari tells Wisckol that Cavecche is one the board of a woman's organization Walters helped found and served as past chair of the Orange County Transportation Authority and has served the district.

The ceremony, where lawmakers typically honor one notable woman in their district, often is filled with quirky picks, including the family members of lawmakers.

This year, for instance, Asssemblyman Ted Gaines and Sen. Mike Machado each honored their mothers as the "women of the year" in their respective districts. And Assemblyman Todd Spitzer and Sen. Jim Battin picked their wives.

Sen. Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga has been elevated to the vice-chairmanship of the Senate Budget Committee by the Senate GOP leadership, the first personnel change since Sen. Dave Cogdill was selected as leader.

Dutton replaces Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth as vice-chair.

The position is one of the top spots for Senate Republicans, who are outnumbered in the upper house 25 to 15 seats.

Dutton, as vice chair, will serve as the Republican caucus' lead negotiator on budget issues and will likely be the sole Senate GOP member in the budget conference committee process.

The move was reflected in today's Senate Daily File.

Codgill said in a prepared statement, “He knows the issues and takes a common sense approach that gives him the ability to work with both Republicans and Democrats. That’s exactly the type of leadership we need in dealing with the budget and I’m confident that Senator Dutton will do an outstanding job as the vice chair of this key committee.”

Dutton currently is one of two GOP members of the Rules Committee. The Inland Empire Republican has worked with Sen. Darrell Steinberg, the pro tem-elect of the Senate, before, though not successfully.

In March of last year, Dutton and Steinberg co-authored legislation to give every California-born baby -- including the children of illegal immigrants -- a $500 state-controlled savings account.

But the bill created a conservative firestorm online and on talk radio against Dutton, who withdrew his support after only two days. "In light of the state's deteriorating fiscal situation, I cannot support the bill as currently written," Dutton said.

Steinberg told The Bee at the time that "all the hysteria is about one issue and one issue only -- immigration."

"It is all about xenophobia and there is a lot of hatred out there and we need to stand up against it," he said.

Dutton, Cogdill and Hollingsworth all had vied to become the next Senate Republican chief, as current leader, Sen. Dick Ackerman, terms out this year.

Under term limits, Cogdill can remain in the Senate until 2014, Dutton until 2012 and Hollingsworth until 2010.

Cogdill officially becomes leader on April 15.

Ricardo Lara, an aide to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who dropped his own bid for Assembly to help clear the field for the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has landed a job on the city's Planning Commission, courtesy of the mayor.

Villaraigosa appointed Lara to the commission late last week. Lara is the second person in two years to receive a seat on the commission after dropping out of a contested Assembly campaign.

The race to represent Assembly District 46 was on course to be a three-way Democratic brawl between Lara, John Perez, Villaraigosa's cousin, and Arturo Chavez, an aide to Sen. Gil Cedillo.

But both Lara and Chavez dropped out.

As Capitol Alert reported when Chavez initially dropped his candidacy, there is a history in L.A. politics of rewarding those with put personal ambitions on hold:

Latino leaders in Los Angeles have tried to avoid open political warfare between factions before, often with benefits down the line for those who put their ambitions temporarily on hold.

Ultimately, though, the field thinned to one, with only Alarcon remaining in the race in what amounted to a waltz into the council. Fuentes then ran for the Assembly seat Alarcon vacated. And Montanez received two plum appointments, a seat on the Los Angeles Planning Commission made by the mayor, and a seat on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, made by the speaker. The latter job pays an annual $128,109 salary, according to the Sacramento Bee state workers� database.

The LAT's David Zahniser has more details:

Lara's selection was greeted with dismay by Lisa Sarkin, a member of the Studio City Neighborhood Council. Sarkin said she fears that Planning Commission seats are being offered not to the most qualified person but to those seeking a reward for complying with the mayor's wishes.

Villaraigosa spokeswoman Janelle Erickson said the mayor picked Lara, a longtime legislative aide, because he wanted a representative from the Eastside. "Mr. Lara brings seven years of experience working on local issues," she added.

After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized lawmakers for inaction on the budget in February, he came under fire from Senate President Don Perata for proposed 10 percent spending cuts and for telling the Legislature what to do.

But the governor shot back Monday during a Chamber of Commerce town hall meeting in Bakersfield: "Now even though I was criticized by Sen. Perata, who said, 'Boy, he should not mind our business. We know exactly what we are doing.' Well, obviously they don't know exactly what they are doing because otherwise we wouldn't have a $14 billion deficit. If everyone knows exactly what they are doing, we wouldn't have the budget mess in 2003 which created the recall election."

The governor continued to blame cuts on the budget system and called for a long-term fix that includes a rainy-day fund. He tried to disassociate himself from his own proposed cuts on education and social services, even insisting that he'd like to stand with the protesters who have rallied against him at the Capitol.

"Sometimes you see schools protesting out there or sending me letters," Schwarzenegger said. "I'm with them. I wish I could stand there protesting, too. Because we have to protest the budget system. Not this year's budget. The budget system is the failure. That is what has to be corrected as quickly as possible."

Former President Bill Clinton will head west to California this weekend to speak to party activists at the California Democratic Party convention.

Clinton, whose wife is battling Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, will speak to the party loyalists on Sunday morning in San Jose.

See the full convention lineup here (though Clinton is not listed there yet).

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has scheduled a two-day campaign swing through California next week.

The Arizona senator has scheduled a visit Monday afternoon to address a military family town hall meeting at a VFW hall in Chula Vista, according to an itinerary that his campaign office in Arlington, Va., released Friday.

On Tuesday, McCain is scheduled to appear at the Orange County Hispanic Small Business Roundtable in Santa Ana.

Shortly after another flu epidemic shut down a Southern California prison, officials at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione shut down two of the institution's three main yards this week when dozens of inmates started showing symptoms of the illness.

Mule Creek officials closed the yards Tuesday when 46 inmates at the prison about 40 miles east of Sacramento began to come down with the flu.

One of the two yards remained closed as of Friday, according to Mule Creek spokesman Chris Weathersby, meaning that inmate movements have been severely restricted to keep the illness from spreading.

One Mule Creek inmate required hospitalization.

The closures came 11 days after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation imposed more drastic measures at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County. At the prison near Blythe, two inmates died amid a flu outrbreak that struck 805 prisoners, put 12 of them in the hospital and prompted authorities to shut down the institution to inmate transfers and all visiting. The official causes of the inmates' deaths are still under investigation.

Weathersby said it was the vastness of the Chuckawalla illness spread that led prison officials at Mule Creek to take action at their prison.

"We're being cautious," Weathersby said. "We're aware of what happened a few weeks back."

Habitual truants would be restricted from obtaining driver's licenses under legislation to get its first Capitol hearing on Monday.

The measure ties driving to schoolwork by requiring applicants for provisional licenses to show proof that they are students who attend classes regularly or have earned a diploma or General Education certificate.

The measure, Assembly Bill 2107, would allow dropouts and other minors to obtain provisional licenses only if they are employed, emancipated, or have a note from a parent or legal guardian saying they are needed to provide transportation for immediate family members.

The head of the Assembly Education Committee, Gene Mullin, a San Francisco Democrat, introduced the bill. It will be heard Monday by the Assembly Transportation Committee.

With a meeting of the Assembly Higher Education Committee looming, the seven-member body remains rudderless.

The Assembly clerk's desk closed at noon today without receiving documents appointing a leader to replace Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, who was stripped of the chairmanship March 13.

The panel of five Democrats and two Republicans is scheduled to meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday for the first time since Portantino's ouster as leader. He remains a committee member.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, has the option of naming a permanent chair or an acting chair for Tuesday's meeting.

If Núñez does neither, the gavel will be wielded by the Republican vice chair, Assemblywoman Shirley Horton, R-San Diego.

"Haven’t heard a word," Steve Maviglio, Núñez's spokesman, said of the speaker's plans.

Thirteen bills will be heard Tuesday by the Higher Education Committee, including proposals to levy a new tax to help support colleges; give California National Guard soldiers priority for competitive Cal Grants; and permit illegal immigrants who graduated from California high schools to apply for college financial aid.

Democratic Party vs. the "Yacht Party?"

Characterizing the GOP as the party that protects wealthy buyers of yachts and jets, the Courage Campaign, a liberal Democratic group, is raising money to air a 30-second television ad ridiculing Republicans' refusal to close a sales tax loophole on such big-ticket items.

The ad can be viewed on YouTube:

The controversy stems from a recent Assembly vote in which Republicans killed legislation to close a loophole allowing wealthy Californians to avoid paying state sales and use taxes on luxury boats, recreational vehicles and planes by keeping them out of state for three months after buying them.

The California Majority Report, a Democratic blog, cites an e-mail solicitation from the Courage Campaign that explains the "Yacht Party" TV ad and says $10,000 is needed immediately to air it on CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Show and Colbert Report.

"While you are wondering if your child's school is going to be shut down because of the brutal cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his California Republican 'Yacht Party' colleagues in the state Legislature are protecting the lavish lifestyles of the super wealthy," the e-mail reads.

Republican legislators consistently have opposed solving California's multibillion-dollar budget deficit by increasing any form of taxes. The state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, the GOP contends.

The Courage Campaign identifies itself as an organization for liberals to "revitalize the California dream from outside the political system." Its founder is Rick Jacobs, who chaired Democrat Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign in California.

A televised graphic depicting Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata in gangland garb has been pulled from the popular YouTube video site, by KOVR 13 or its parent company, after Italian Americans took offense to it.

The graphic characterized Perata as a Mafia don, complete with purple suit, white tie, fancy car and rapid-fire weapon.

The image was aired last week on a KOVR 13 morning news segment, anchored by Chris Burrous, which criticized Perata for suggesting the state raise taxes to help balance its budget.

An apology was demanded Wednesday by Bill Cerruti, chairman of a state Italian American task force and leader of the Italian-American Cultural Society, who claimed the graphic reinforced negative stereotypes of Italian Americans as violent gangland figures.

Within 12 hours after Cerruti publicly pressed for an apology, the graphic no longer was available on YouTube.

KOVR declined comment today, thus leaving unanswered whether the graphic's removal stemmed from Cerruti's complaint or any related embarrassment or fallout.

YouTube's Web site said only that, "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by CBS Broadcasting Inc."

Various other KOVR 13 video news clips, including segments with Burrous, continued to air Thursday on YouTube.

Alicia Trost, Perata's spokeswoman, said the senator did not seek the gangland graphic's removal. "We had nothing to do with that," she said.

Cerruti said removing the image is insufficient. "I'm not sure I'm satisfied with that," he said. "I still think they owe an apology to Italian Americans. And I think they owe one to Don Perata."

Joe Mathews is a one-time reporter for the Los Angeles Times who wrote a book, "The People's Machine," that advanced the theory that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had developed a new and effective way of governing through the use of ballot measures.

Unfortunately for him, Mathews' book was published in 2006, just a few months after California voters had overwhelmingly rejected a package of Schwarzenegger measures he dubbed "year of reform," which undercut the book's premise.

Mathews departed the Times and landed at the New America Foundation, and is now producing an Internet blog devoted to initiatives, referendums and recalls, centered on California’s continuing explosion of ballot measures. He describes it thusly:

"Direct democracy – the Switzerland-inspired system of initiatives, referenda and recalls that allows voters to make and repeal laws in 24 states – is poorly understood. It isn’t even very direct. Direct democracy has become blockbuster democracy: a half-billion-dollar international industry of signature gatherers, consultants, and election lawyers who use ballot measures less as a method of making law and more as a tool of mega-communications to boost some politicians, hurt others, and supplement lobbying campaigns.

"Blockbuster democracy is a decentralized business that practices wide-open politics. This blog aims to provide a center of news, analysis and conversation for and about the industry. We will report from blockbuster democracy’s capital – California – but we’ll monitor ballot measures from across the country and around the globe.”

The Blockbuster Democracy Blog is available here.

Students and teachers at the California State University system are teaming up to fight Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts.

Administrators, trustees, students, faculty and staff are being asked to join an alliance to prevent the 23-campus university system from losing $386 million in the 2008-09 budget.

To learn more about the Alliance for the CSU, click here.

A televised graphic depicting Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata as an apparent Mafia leader, pointing a gun skyward, has angered Italian-Americans.

Bill Cerruti, who is chairman of a state Italian-American task force and leader of the Italian-American Cultural Society, blasted the characterization today and demanded an apology.

The graphic, depicting Perata in a purple suit and white tie, was broadcast by Sacramento's KOVR 13 – with anchor Chris Burrous – and on the website of talk-show hosts “John and Ken” of KFI radio in Los Angeles, Cerruti said.

Burrous goes on to blast Perata for suggesting the state raise taxes to help balance the state budget.

The graphic apparently was meant as satire, but Cerruti said he saw nothing funny about portraying one of the state’s leading Italian-American officials as a violent, gangland figure.

“I guess you can find it humorous to humiliate, if that’s your sense of humor,” Cerruti said, adding the graphic simply perpetuates the stereotype of Italian-Americans as Mafia figures.

“It makes you wonder who’s next – Nancy Pelosi?” Cerruti said. “Where do they stop with this? Where are the boundaries?"

Perata's office and KOVR 13 declined comment Wednesday.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Naderite, Santa Monica-based thorn in the side of California business for the past two decades, is changing its name to Consumer Watchdog with a glossy new Web site to match.

Consumer Watchdog describes itself as "a nationally recognized consumer group that has been fighting corrupt corporations and crooked politicians since 1985" and claims that it has "saved Americans billions of dollars and improved countless peoples' lives by speaking out on behalf of patients, ratepayers and policyholders."

Critics, however, have denounced it as a front for personal injury attorneys in the Capitol's endless "tort wars" over the rules governing lawsuits. FTCR was founded by Harvey Rosenfield, a Ralph Nader protégé, and came to prominence in the late 1980s as an advocate of insurance reforms, scoring a major victory in 1988 when voters voted for a broad insurance measure that included making the state insurance commissioner an elective position.

Consumer Watchdog’s new Web site, which the group says will provide interactive capability, is accessible here.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen's controversial decision last year to curtail use of electronic voting machines after security flaws were discovered has earned her a national award for political courage.

Bowen will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from Caroline Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy at a ceremony May 12 at the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

The honor goes to "public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences," according to a press release from the JFK Library Foundation, which created the award.

Bowen's decision last August was unpopular with many county elections officials, who felt it was an overreaction after they collectively had spent multimillions on electronic machines affected by the new restrictions.

Stephen Weir, president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, declined to comment Wednesday about Bowen's "Profile in Courage Award," one of two presented nationally.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has stated all along he doesn't want to impose new taxes to solve California's budget problem, but he suggested Wednesday that rather than focusing on goods, the state should consider levying taxes on services that have become part of the 21st century economy.

Speaking at a town hall forum he organized in Pleasant Hill, the Republican governor said, "But besides the budget reform, we also have to look at, and I'm sure you will agree, the tax, the way we are taxing. I mean, we are missing a lot out there. There's whole new economies that are developing, service-oriented economies. Manufacturing is going down."

Perhaps recognizing that a new tax on services could be unpalatable, Schwarzenegger then said legislators should be "courageous to make the changes" and stop worrying about their political future.

"I talk about anything," he said. "It makes no difference to me. I just throw it out there."

The state previously has considered taxing services like haircuts and auto repairs, but it has not done so. Schwarzenegger was unspecific as to which services could be ripe for taxation.

The governor later said he would also like to explore the idea of installing a multi-year budgeting process in the Capitol rather than debating a fiscal plan each year. It's a method that some experts have said would provide greater stability to the state's budgetary system.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has refused to reappoint brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and fellow actor Clint Eastwood to the State Park and Recreation Commission.

Shriver, the commission chairman, and Eastwood, the vice chairman, were champions of the beleaguered state parks system, which is facing budget cuts and pressure for a toll road project in Southern California.

"It's very common for board members to serve a term and once a term is up the governor appoints someone else," said the governor's spokesman, Aaron McLear. "The governor believes both have done an outstanding job."

Eastwood and Shriver were both appointed in 2001 by former Gov. Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger reappointed them in 2004.

Both opposed the governor's plan to build a toll road between Orange County and San Diego that would have cut through San Onofre State Beach.

The recall attempt of Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, has gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Tuesday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger must set the recall election for a date 60 to 80 days from today, Bowen's office reports.

Then, voters in Denham's sprawling Senate district, which includes parts of Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, and Stanislaus counties will face two questions on the ballot.

The first will ask “Shall Jeffrey Denham be recalled (removed) from the office of Senate District 12?”

The second will list the names of candidates to replace him. If the first question does not receive a majority of votes cast, the second question is moot.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the influential 800,000-strong union umbrella group, announced its legislative endorsements for the June primaries on Tuesday, giving a boost to several Democratic candidates in competitive races.

The labor group endorsed two Democrats in competitive Senate contests: Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (who is running against former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley) and Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (who is running against former Assemblyman Rod Wright).

Among non-incumbent Assembly candidates in traditionally Democratic seats, the labor federation backed Bob Blumenfield, an aide to Rep. Howard Berman, for Assembly District 40, John Perez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s cousin, for Assembly District 46, Isadore Hall, a Compton City Council member, for Assembly District 52, and Norma Torres, mayor of Pomona, for Assembly District 61.

Andrew Acosta, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist who runs candidate campaigns, said the labor federation’s endorsement is “important” for Los Angeles-area campaigns. More important, however, is how active labor is in the campaign, he said.

“If it’s just a name on a piece of mail it might not have the same impact as it would if were followed by a knock on the door by a labor volunteer,” Acosta said.

The federation is known for its abilities to get volunteers to canvass districts, but the endorsements themselves do not indicate how involved the union group will be in a particular campaign.

The federation has said its top priority in June will not be a state house seat, but the contest for Los Angeles county supervisor, where Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has the federation’s backing, is running against City Councilman Bernard Parks.

One notable endorsement made Tuesday was John Perez’s Assembly campaign.

One of Perez’s opponents, Arturo Chavez, an aide to Sen. Gil Cedillo, dropped out last week. A second, Ricardo Lara, an aide to the speaker, did not return repeatedly calls about rumors that he was leaving the race.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez himself denied that Lara had dropped out but said the labor federation’s backing would be a key indicator of who would win.

“It is a district that is dependent on union activity, (a) working class community. You can’t run away from that,” Núñez said of the seat.

The delegate body of the labor federation met on Monday night and announced the results of its vote on Tuesday.

The full list of endorsements has been reprinted below:

The team of Republican political consultants that worked together to defeat Proposition 93 has reunited to oppose the recall of Sen. Jeff Denham.

And they’re coming out firing.

"I was very proud to be part of defeating Don Perata's last power grab and I am very proud of being part of helping defeat Don Perata’s latest power grab," said Kevin Spillane, the Republican spokesman for the No on 93 campaign and now for Denham.

Denham's longtime political strategist is Tim Clark of JohnsonClark Associates, which created the television ads for the No on 93 campaign.

Mark Bogetich, a Republican researcher who worked on the No on 93 effort has also joined Denham's campaign, Spillane said.

"The band's back together," said Spillane, who, picking up where he left off, lobbed some nasty words towards the Senate leader, calling Perata a "ethically challenged, petulant power grabber who's upset he couldn't bully an independent senator into voting the way that he wanted."

Meanwhile, the recall, which originated last summer when Denham joined the rest of his Senate Republican Caucus during a 50-plus day budget holdout, is inching closer to qualifying for the ballot.

The recall campaign, funded by the Democratic Party and a campaign committee linked to Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, turned in more than 61,000 signatures last month, nearly double the 31,084 needed to qualify.

On Monday evening, the Secretary of State's Office reported that four of the five counties in Denham's district have completed a random sampling of the recall petition signatures. The sole remaining county, Monterey, needs only a 43 percent projected validity rate to qualify the recall (the other four counties signature validity rates ranged from 55.8 to 67 percent).

The recall is the linchpin for Democratic hopes, however faint, to gain a two-thirds majority in the state Senate, where they currently hold 25 of 40 seats.

Democrats let the March 7 filing deadline for legislative seats pass by without putting up a challenger to Sen. Abel Maldonado, the moderate Santa Maria Republican in the most marginal GOP seat in the state. Maldonado, who spent millions to win his seat in 2004, will now waltz to reelection in November.

To pick up the necessary two seats for a two-third majority, then, Democrats would need to both successfully recall Denham and win the seat of termed-out Sen. Tom McClintock.

Former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat, is running for that seat against former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, a Republican, in what's expected to be a hotly contested race in November.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a modified open primary election system in Washington state, denying challenges by both major political parties.

The court in 2000 had invalidated a "blanket primary" system approved by California voters, under which all candidates for office would appear on one ballot and the top two vote-getters of each party would face each other for the office. Washington had a similar system but then changed it to allow the top two vote-getters to vie for office, even if they came from the same party.

The Supreme Court decision was approved by a 7-2 margin with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for the majority that rejecting the Washington system would have been an "extraordinary and precipitous nullification of the will of the people."

Read the full decision here.

Read the AP story here.

Another (relatively) new blog of note is the Ballot Watch blog from the political team at the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Among the contributors is Jim Miller of the Press-Enterprise's Sacramento bureau.

The blog keeps track of all the Inland Empire legislative and congressional seats, including who is challenging who in 2008.

Recent entries range from a heads up on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget event in Riverside today to the fact that the race for Assembly District 64 has narrowed to a two-candidate field.

There's a new entry in California political blogosphere from KNBC, the Los Angeles television station, written by David Markland.

It's called California Faultline and promises coverage of "local, state, and national politics that impacts residents of the Golden State."

The lieutenant governorship is an important job, or so says the National Lieutenant Governors Association, which took time this week to point out that 15 former lieutenant governors have risen to become governor.

What's the occasion for such news?

The ascent of David Patterson (a former lite guv) to become New York's next governor.

“So far this decade, the nation is averaging two gubernatorial successions per year, including the ascension today of New York Gov. David Paterson,” reported NLGA Director Julia Hurst in a statement. "Since 2000, 13 gubernatorial successions have occurred as a result of resignation, and two due to death."

So there's hope for California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi after all.

“The office of lieutenant governor is a vital office with an occupant who plays a critical daily and long-range role in state government,” said Hurst.

Roland Arnall, big GOP contributor, former ambassador to the Netherlands and founder of Ameriquest Mortgage, has died in Los Angeles.

The governor issued a statement:

“Ambassador Roland Arnall worked each day to bring tolerance and understanding to others, and for that he was a great human being who will be missed.

“It was clear that Ambassador Arnall knew the profound importance of family and he was extremely devoted to his own. I personally knew Ambassador Arnall to be a wonderful and inspirational friend. Maria and I send our prayers to Ambassador Arnall’s family, and we pledge to do our part in making sure his important work promoting tolerance around the world continues on.”

Read the AP story here.

"I forgive them for being so young and immature. I am not going to hold that lack of experience against them."

-- Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, an 82-year old Democrat running for state Senate against former Assemblyman Rod Wright, 55, and channeling Ronald Reagan. Via the Daily Breeze.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is making waves in energy circles after saying Friday that nuclear power has "a great future" and that it is time to "relook at that issue again rather than just looking the other way and living in denial."

Schwarzenegger made the comments at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics Conference in Santa Barbara.

Schwarzenegger, who has made environmentalism a centerpiece of his governorship after signing a landmark greenhouse gas reduction law in 2006, decried environmental "scare tactics" that "frighten everyone that we're going to have another blowup and all of those things."

Referring to a recent conversation he had with John Bryson, CEO of Edison International, Schwarzenegger said of nuclear power, "I think that's a very important kind of a subject that we ought to debate over in the future because we're talking about carbon free, you know, power and energy."

"There's no greenhouse gas emissions," he later said of nuclear power.

California currently has two active nuclear power plants, PG&E's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station owned jointly by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

They were built before the state placed a ban on new nuclear plants in 1976.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, an Irvine Republican who floated an initiative to lift California's ban on nuclear power last summer, has already seized on the comments as a positive sign.

"I’m delighted to see Gov. Schwarzenegger now out front on this vital issue. California cannot meet its global greenhouse gas reduction targets nor meet its growing need for clean energy without modern nuclear power," wrote DeVore, who voted against AB 32, the 2006 measure which requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, on his blog.

DeVore has authored two pieces of legislation, AB 1776 and AB 2788, on nuclear power again this year.

The Bee's David Whitney reported on Sunday that there has been a resurgent interest in nuclear power:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received seven applications for new power plants last year and is expecting a dozen more by the end of December. The applications, combined, will cover a total of 22 reactors since more than one is proposed at some sites, spokesman Scott Burnell said.

"Nobody had started the applications process for 30 years until last year," Burnell said.

UPDATED Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, chair of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, issued a statement on Monday saying, "Nuclear power has no future in California’s new energy era because of its monumental dangers to the health and welfare of Californians"

"History cannot keep repeating itself on this one. There is not and never has been a safe place to store nuclear waste and fuel rods. In addition, once all the costs are added up it is not cost-effective. California has done a great job increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy these past three years. That is what we need to keep building on.”

There are at least two trips abroad this legislative spring break, with one set of lawmakers traveling to Japan and another group headed to Spain.

The trip to Japan includes Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, and Assembly members Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, and Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco.

The trip is sponsored by the Senate, which has a nonprofit that coordinates the details of the trip. (The set-up of the group received some ink in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend, which reported, "Government ethics experts say the arrangement is inappropriate.") Lawmakers headed to Japan must pay their own way through campaign or personal funds.

The trip to Spain is sponsored by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, a corporate and union funded nonprofit, which regularly puts together foreign sojourns for legislators. The CFEE trip is an all-expenses paid journey abroad for lawmakers.

Those attending include Assembly members Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks.

The Associated Press has more about the trips, the itinerary and who is joining the lawmakers.

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, who was removed Thursday as chair of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee, said there was "no reason" he could think of for the dismissal.

"I am as in the dark as you are," De La Torre said in an interview late Friday.

"I've voted the right way. I've helped my colleagues. I've done everything I thought a member of the California State Assembly was supposed to do," the South Gate Democrat said.

Just last Wednesday, he said, he helped round up the votes to pass legislation, at the urging of the legislative leadership.

Both De La Torre and Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, were stripped of chairmanships on Thursday. The pair had both run unsuccessfully for speaker against Assemblywoman Karen Bass, who won over the majority of her Assembly Democratic colleagues in late February.

De La Torre said he spoke with Bass on Thursday night and "she said she didn't know anything about this."

That makes his demotion solely the decision of current Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, who, as De La Torre notes, "has had a rough few months here with a couple of major losses," such as health care and Proposition 93.

Like Portantino, who said he was "confused" by the move, De La Torre said he didn't understand why he would be punished for campaigning – within the agreed upon rules – for speaker.

"I never bad mouthed anybody. It was a very above-board campaign for everybody," he said. "There's nothing there."

While Portantino was given the news via fax, De La Torre was called by Jon Waldie, the top aide to the Rules Committee, which De La Torre had chaired.

A member of Núñez's leadership team, De La Torre has had a hand in how – and what – legislation moved through the lower house, as all bills are steered through the Rules Committee.

As a candidate for speaker, De La Torre had lobbied his Democratic colleagues with the promise of a "more member-friendly or member-centric" speakership.

He promised "a little more of an open process" as some members have bristled at the top-down approach of Núñez and his aides.

In the end, however, he fell short and fell victim to a private leadership decision.

"There was no reason given," he said.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino said Friday he was “very disappointed” to be removed as chair of the higher education committee by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and was “surprised” by the change, which he found out via an after-hours fax on Thursday night.

“All I know is that we got a fax (addressed) to Dotson Wilson (chief clerk of the Assembly) from the speaker that was on our fax machine last night after close of business,” said Portantino in a phone interview. “We got it this morning.”

“This is to advise you that I’ve created a vacancy for the chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee,” Portantino recounts the fax saying.

He remains a member of the committee and a replacement chair has not been named.

Portantino and Assemblyman Hector De La Torre were both stripped of chairmanships late Thursday. (See the previous Capitol Alert story here)

A freshman Democrat from La Cañada Flintridge, Portantino said he was “confused” about both the decision and the timing “to receive a fax at the close of business before the holiday week.”

The timing of the committee changes apparently flow from the speakership race, which concluded with Speaker-elect Karen Bass’s selection at the end of February.

But Portantino said he “can’t imagine how” that’s possible.

“We ran under the rules that were set forth by the speaker,” he said.

“I’d love to have it be about a principled policy discussion. In what direction was I taking that committee that was contrary (to the speaker’s wishes)?” he said, saying his priorities were “fighting for our kids to go to college, the institutions and the employees, I think that is the right agenda. If they wanted to change the agenda, I wished they would have called and asked to talk about it.”

Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Núñez, declined to comment calling the matter “internal caucus business.”

Portantino and De La Torre were among the 10 Democrats who campaigned for speaker, losing out the Assembly’s top job to Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat and the current number two to Núñez in the lower house.

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre lost his chairmanship of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee. De La Torre’s aides were packing boxes in their enviable third-floor office on Friday. Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, is the new chair of the rules committee.

California Democratic activists met Thursday and will meet again Saturday to consider official Democratic Party pre-endorsements for June's legislative primaries.

David Dayen reports on Calitics, "There's been a lot of organizing to woo delegates into endorsing one candidate or another, even in races where there is no opponent. Every delegate gets one vote in Congressional districts, Senate districts and Assembly districts, based on where they live."

The state Democratic Party has all the arcane details of the process.

The long story short: Candidates need 70 percent of votes cast to secure a spot on the consent calendar for the endorsement at the party's convention later this month in San Jose.

The party has a listing of all the gatherings here. UPDATE: The party has also posted "a primer" on the whole process here.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, who along with former Assemblyman Joe Nation is challenging Sen. Carole Migden for state Senate, is the first of the three Democrats to unveil a television ad.

His campaign manager did not immediately return a call to find out how much the campaign was spending to air the ad, as advertising on Bay Area television is an expensive endeavor.

The 30-second TV spot is mostly positive in nature, featuring the San Francisco assemblyman speaking directly into the camera about lobbying money, ethics reform and universal healthcare.

UPDATE: One reader points out that Leno does say in the ad, "Politicians don’t need to raise their voices, they need to raise their standards," a possible dig at Migden, who is not known to be soft-spoken.

Watch it below:

Apparently political reporters aren't the only ones caught up with the possibilities of one-time eBay executive and billionaire Meg Whitman running for office in California.

Whitman, who ranks as #897 on the list of wealthiest people in the world, is considered a possible GOP candidate for governor in 2010.

Today, Sen. John McCain announced that Whitman would serve as a national co-chair of his campaign. She previously was a top fundraiser for McCain’s rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

“Meg will play a key role in our victory in November. I am pleased she will be actively involved in my campaign and look forward to her leadership and guidance throughout the coming year," McCain said in a statement.

Less than an hour after the McCain camp announced the appointment, the California Republican Party issued a press release with the same information.

So is the party, with a thin bench of potential gubernatorial candidates, getting excited about possibly having a deep-pocketed addition to Team GOP?

Hector Barajas, the state GOP communications director, said, “As far as the California Republican Party, we do welcome her role with Sen. McCain’s campaign and we do think she’s great asset for Sen. McCain and a great asset for the Republican Party.”

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, himself a multi-millionaire, is also said to be considering a 2010 run for governor.

Whitman downplayed the possibilities this week telling the San Jose Mercury News, “Frankly, I have so many other interests at this juncture.”

But those kind of comments don’t stop the speculation machine.

“As far as whether she is going to run for governor or even considering it, that's something you are going to have to ask her,” said Barajas.

The first fallout of the contested speakership race hit the Assembly late Thursday. Two Democrats and one-time candidates for speaker were stripped of their chairmanships of influential standing committees.

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, was removed as chair of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee, a job which put him at the center of the action in the lower house. The post also comes with an enviable office space and a large staff.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, has been tapped as the new chair.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, was removed as chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. A replacement was not immediately named.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez made the moves as Democrats prepared to leave Sacramento for spring vacation.

Nunez spokesman Steve Maviglio confirmed the changes but would not discuss them, saying the decisions were "internal caucus business."

The moves are the first significant house restructuring since Assemblywoman Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, beat out nearly 10 other announced contenders to win the speakership in late February.

Among her opponents were both Portantino, a freshman, and De La Torre, a sophomore like Bass and a member of Nunez's leadership team.

It is unclear why those two Democrats were singled out for punishment, unlike other top contenders, such as Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, a Fremont Democrat and chair of the Governmental Organization Committee.

On Feb. 6, the day after Proposition 93 failed and opened the doors for public jockeying for speaker, a rumor spread through the Capitol that Nunez planned to push Bass in as speaker through a procedural maneuver the next day.

The story, or so it went, was that the speaker would “vacate the chair,” perhaps even with Republican votes, and put Bass up as a candidate. Nunez has adamantly denied any such plan ever existed.

But other wanna-be speakers took the threat seriously, gathering that evening to plot how to thwart Bass’ ascent.

Portantino and De La Torre were among the cohort of Democrats who met that night. But then again, so were other Democrats, who have not faced any discipline.

While Bass continues to serve as speaker-elect, no formal timetable has been established for when she will grab the reins of the Assembly. Nunez has suggested he would be willing to step down before the end of the legislative session.

Bass, who is termed out in 2010, will have, at most, a year and a half speakership.

Elizabeth Hill has served for 22 years as California's legislative analyst and spent 32 years in the Legislative Analyst's Office. She is only the fourth analyst in the office's 76-year history, the LAO reports.

Here is a collection of responses to her retirement:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:

"Few Californians can compare to Liz Hill's long and distinguished record of nonpartisan public service and integrity. I have always respected her input and her clear devotion to California and am hopeful the Joint Legislative Budget Committee will find someone who will maintain the impeccable reputation and high standard we've come to expect from the Legislative Analyst's Office."

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles:

"Everyone who values serious advice for meeting California's serious challenges owes a tremendous debt to Liz Hill. Her thoughtful, non-partisan stewardship of the Legislative Analyst's Office is an example of public service at its best.

"Even on the rare occasion when I may have disagreed with Ms. Hill's perspectives on a particular issue, I have always greatly admired her professionalism and her determination to do right by the people of California. She will definitely be a tough act for anyone to follow."

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata:

"Liz Hill has been a dedicated public servant who has worked tirelessly to help steer the California Legislature through many difficult issues for more than two decades. Her dedication to examining the policies – not the politics – of issues was remarkable. I and my colleagues will sorely miss her thoughtful analysis and sound advice. It is truly the end of an era."

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines:

"On behalf of Assembly Republicans, I offer our deepest appreciation to Liz Hill for her remarkable service to California and her numerous contributions to public policy. Republicans and Democrats may disagree on many things, but we can all agree that Liz has been a consummate professional whose work has proved invaluable to us as we work through the major challenges facing our state. Her departure will leave a major void in the State Capitol, and I wish her well in her future endeavors."

Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman:

“Liz is a tremendous asset to the Legislature and her decades of experience will be sorely missed. She is held in the utmost respect by both sides of the aisle for her frankness and professional demeanor.

“Liz has set the bar very high for the next Legislative Analyst and I wish her the best.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell:

"For the past 22 years I have had the pleasure of working with Liz Hill. She has always provided thoughtful analysis regarding California's budget in times of plenty and in times of fiscal crisis. I deeply respect her integrity and her intellect, and I know that view is shared by political leaders from both political parties.

"I wish Liz the best in retirement from state service and wish the legislature the best in finding a replacement that will be able to live up to her legacy of professionalism."

Candidates whose last names begin with the letter "H" will appear first on the June legislative primary ballot, according to today's randomized drawing by the Secretary of State's office.

So perhaps things are looking up for Nevada County Supervisor Sue Horne, who is competing in a Republican primary for state Assembly against Dan Logue, a Yuba County supervisor.

Below is the full order from today's drawing.

1. H
2. E
3. A
4. N
5. O
6. V
7. P
8. J
9. U
10. L
11. S
12. M
13. X
14. B
15. C
16. T
17. I
18. K
19. R
20. Q
21. D
22. Y
23. F
24. W
25. G
26. Z

According to the secretary of state, "the names of candidates on the ballot are arranged based on the randomized alphabet. This alphabet applies throughout the entire last name of the candidate. If the names of two or more candidates begin with the same letter, their ballot listing order is determined by applying the randomized alphabet to the next letter(s) of their names. If last names of multiple candidates are the same, the random alphabet also applies to first names."

California's general fund collected $88 million less than forecast in February, with year-to-date revenues $275 million below forecast, according to the Department of Finance.

Some sectors brought in more cash than expected, such as personal income taxes, which were $236 million above the forecast of $1.21 billion.

Sales and use taxes, however, were $169 million below the forecast of $2.48 billion. Corporate taxes were $35 million below projections.

Revenues from insurance, estate, alcoholic beverage, and tobacco taxes were off by $143 million out of a projected $203 million. That may seem like a lot, but the Department reports that most of the lower-than-expected revenues are from the insurance sector, losses that are expected to "offset by higher insurance tax receipts in March and April."

As for the health of the overall economy, the finance department reports the year "got off to a rough start."

"News from the labor market was disappointing," the finance department reported. "Homebuilding continued to slow and existing home prices weakened."

Here's the complete report.

• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't have anything even remotely close to do with the prostitution scandal that cost New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer his job this week.

But that didn't stop late night host David Letterman from including California's governor in his list of "Top 10 Messages Left on Elliot Spitzer's Answering Machine."

Schwarzenegger's contribution: "It's Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thanks. I'm no longer America's creepiest governor."

• As Assembly Democrats forced Republican lawmakers to vote down a plan to tax oil production to fund schools on Wednesday, an edited YouTube video of Senate President Don Perata's recent appearance where he declared his intent to raise taxes to fund schools circulated online.

The video clip, posted below, is edited from Perata's response to a question asking how Democrats would prevent cuts to education. "Raise taxes. That clear enough? Raise taxes," Perata said.

• Representatives for the California Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union are sparring in the blogosphere on the Calitics Web site.

Jeremy Woodburn writes on Calitics, "OK, SEIU staffers, you're not helping your cause by registering anonymous brand new snarky user IDs just to jump into the SEIU-CNA war. Just stop it. By violating basic norms of behavior (no shilling, no sockpuppetry) and the really really basic site rules that have been so recently pointed out to you, all you're doing is tossing away your credibility with people (e.g., bloggers), who would normally be your natural allies."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post identified the author of the Calitics post as Julia Rosen, an editor of Calitics. She did not author the post. Jeremy Woodburn, with the user name "jsw," did.

• Karen Hanretty, a former spokeswoman for the California Republican Party and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has landed a job as the newest flack for the National Republican Campaign Committee.

But Hanretty, whose most previous gig was as communications director for the short-lived campaign of GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson, didn't make the best first-impression on the job, reports Roll Call (subscription req'd), the Capitol Hill newspaper.

Republicans took a big hit on Saturday, when a Democrat won the seat that had once belonged to former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), in a special election. And as if there wasn’t enough for GOPers to grumble about, now some are grousing that Karen Hanretty, the new communications guru for the National Republican Congressional Committee, was out mixing and mingling with Washington’s glitterati at the annual Gridiron dinner on Saturday, while her staff was back at NRCC headquarters working the phones.

The item is complete with anonymous shots at Hanretty.

She responded, that the polls closed at 8 p.m. Illinois time and that results weren't expected until late in the evening, when he returned to the office. “We were able to get our message out, which we had already decided on earlier in the day,” she told Roll Call. “And I’ve got a great team in place.”

Hat tip: California Majority Report

The AP has the story of a no-bid contract, since suspended, for a public relations campaign in favor of controversial aerial spraying to control an invasive moth. The contract was given to Porter Novelli, a firm with ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

From the Associated Press:

State officials struggling to convince critics about the safety of aerial spraying to control an invasive moth awarded a $500,000 no-bid contract to a prominent public relations firm with ties to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The $497,000 contract was awarded last November to Porter Novelli, a leading international public relations firm with an office in the state capital, after hundreds of residents complained about breathing problems and other health effects from the spraying.

Read the story of the story here.

California's stem cell agency has named Marie Csete, a professor at Emory University, as its new chief scientific officer.

Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, welcomed her in a prepared statement.

"We are delighted that Marie has chosen to relocate to California to join the CIRM," he said. "Her training and experience as both a basic researcher and clinician is critical to our strategy of advancing discoveries into the translational pipeline. In addition, her expertise in the field of transplantation and understanding of immunology issues will be highly relevant to advancing new discoveries in the stem cell field toward therapies and cures."

Here's her bio, provided by the agency:

Prior to joining the CIRM, Dr. Csete was John E. Steinhaus Professor of Anesthesiology at Emory University, with adjunct appointment in Cell Biology, and program faculty appointments in Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology, Neurosciences, and the Emory/Georgia Tech Biomedical Engineering Program. She was also the director of Liver Transplant Anesthesiology at the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and director of the Emory/Georgia Tech Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core, and co-Director of the Emory MD/PhD Program.

Additionally, as a member of the CIRM Scientific and Medical Research Funding Working Group since 2005, Dr. Csete has an appreciation and understanding of CIRM’s scientific strategy and has already been providing expertise to the CIRM’s efforts.

State Sen. Mike Machado laid it on pretty thick today in questioning a representative of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the administration's budget proposals on prisons.

"You have given us a very incomplete proposal," Machado, D-Linden, told Department of Finance principal program analyst Jennifer Osborn at a budget subcommittee hearing on prison spending. "It's very hard for us to believe the governor is serious about this proposal."

Machado focused his questioning on Schwarzenegger's proposal to grant early releases to 22,000 inmates at the same time it's trying to expand prison capacity by 53,000 beds.

Osborn, for the most part, was at a loss for words and wound up leaving the hearing in tears.

"It's probably something that needs to be looked at," she said at one point, about the perceived inconsistencies in the governor's proposals.

"No, it has not," she replied later, when asked if consideration of employee staffing had been incorporated into the proposals.

"Yes," she said, when asked whether Schwarzenegger was serious about a plan that the Legislative Analyst's Office said would give 63,000 mid-level offenders carte blanche to steal, get high and deal dope, with almost no consequence.

"My understanding is that this is a serious proposal," Osborn said, when Machado asked whether Schwarzenegger really isn't just "rattling cages" with his budget plan.

Osborn's face reddened and her eyes swelled with tears during the questioning. Machado later apologized if anybody thought he played too tough.

"Jennifer is an outstanding analyst and an absolute professional," Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said of her afterwards. "Like everyone else in the Department of Finance who testifies before the Legislature, we do our level best to explain the governor's budget."

What was billed as a three-way surrogate struggle for the Assembly between Latino political powerhouses has thinned to two candidates, as a top aide to Sen. Gil Cedillo is dropping out of the race.

That leaves John Perez, the cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Ricardo Lara, the district director for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez as the remaining politically connected candidates for the Assembly seat, which Núñez must vacate this year due to term limits.

Arturo Chavez, the district director for Cedillo, said in an interview that he was withdrawing because “we don’t need that kind of dissension within the community.”

“There’s a lot of folks involved in this particular race, a lot of family and friends and it would have been pretty divisive,” said Chavez, who had a fundraiser scheduled today at the Sacramento Sheraton Grand, which was to have been hosted by Cedillo. It has since been canceled.

Political circles are buzzing that Lara, too, was dropping out.

But Núñez, speaking after an education press conference on Wednesday morning, denied that, saying, “Huh? He hasn’t left anything."

Reached by phone late Tuesday, Gabriel Sanchez, a spokesman for Lara’s campaign and himself a Núñez aide, was asked if his candidate was dropping out of the race. Sanchez said he would speak with Lara before he responded. Neither Lara nor Sanchez has responded to phone calls or e-mails since.

The speaker said the key to the race would be the endorsement of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, to which both he and Villaraigosa are closely allied.

“It is a district that is dependent on union activity, (a) working class community. You can’t run away from that,” Núñez said of his district, which includes Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo and Westlake, among other areas.

The labor federation is set to make its endorsement on Monday, according to its communications director Mary Gutierrez.

“We’re friends and at the end of the day we’d like to be together, if we could,” said Núñez of himself, Cedillo and Villaraigosa. “We’re going to sit with everybody after the labor fed endorsement and see who gets that endorsement. I think the person who gets that endorsement probably has best shot at winning and I think we need to figure out where you go from there. “

Chavez dismissed as “spin” the idea that political maneuvering was afoot to clear the field.

“I am sure he’d like to think he has that (influence), but he doesn’t have that kind of role in this,” Chavez said of Villaraigosa.

Perez is a former member of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency, which he recently left to launch his Assembly bid. His is also Villaraigosa’s first cousin. (Perez’s mother was Villaraigosa’s mother’s sister).

All three Democratic candidates filed paperwork with the county registrar to run for the seat last week. A fourth Democratic candidate, Michael Aldapa, also filed for the seat. The 46th Assembly District is a heavily Democratic seat, with the winner in the June primary expected to ease through the November general election.

Latino leaders in Los Angeles have tried to avoid open political warfare between factions before, often with benefits down the line for those who put their ambitions temporarily on hold.

In early 2007, three Latinos were eying a seat on the Los Angeles City Council, including newly elected Assemblyman Richard Alarcon, former Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez and Felipe Fuentes, who served as chief of staff to Sen. Alex Padilla when he served on the city council.

Ultimately, though, the field thinned to one, with only Alarcon remaining in the race in what amounted to a waltz into the council. Fuentes then ran for the Assembly seat Alarcon vacated. And Montanez received two plum appointments, a seat on the Los Angeles Planning Commission made by the mayor, and a seat on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, made by the speaker. The latter job pays an annual $128,109 salary, according to the Sacramento Bee state workers’ database.

Reprinted below is the text of the oil-tax legislation Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez plans to bring for a vote on the Assembly floor Wednesday afternoon. The bill is scheduled for an 11 a.m. hearing in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee and a 4 p.m. floor vote.

Jan Goldsmith was a Republican assemblyman from rural San Diego County best known for carrying unsuccessful legislation to legalize ferrets - an issue that still floats around the Capitol.

The ferret bill was not kind to Goldsmith's image in the Capitol, especially when he showed up one day wearing an ill-fitting toupee. Willie Brown, the long-serving speaker of the Assembly, commented about the ferret bill's chances of passage. He pointed to Goldsmith on the other side of the Assembly chambers and quipped: "That bill is as dead as that thing on his head."

Goldsmith eventually became a San Diego County Superior Court judge but is returning to politics as a candidate for San Diego city attorney, challenging the highly controversial incumbent, Mike Aguirre, who's been widely criticized for his shoot-from-the-hip style and his feuds with other politicians, including San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders.

This week, the San Diego Republican Party released a poll showing Goldsmith is the strongest challenger to Aguirre, leading the incumbent by a 52 percent to 29 percent margin in a head-to-head matchup.

Rep. Howard Berman, a Southern California Democrat, will officially replace the late Rep. Tom Lantos as the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. But House Democrats waited three weeks to make the appointment official (he was always next in line), allowing, through an idiosyncrasy in House rules, Berman to become the only congressman to chair a full committee as well as a subcommittee.

Politico.com has the details:

Under Democratic caucus rules, any person who takes over a full committee after March 1 during the second session of a Congress is allowed to retain a subcommittee gavel for the rest of that session.

Lantos died on Feb. 11, and Berman was the obvious successor. But instead of installing Berman in the chairman’s seat immediately, Democratic leaders have delayed a caucus vote on formally ratifying Berman in order to get beyond the March 1 cut-off and thereby avoid a reshuffling of Judiciary subcommittee chairmanships, according to Democratic insiders.
...
By keeping control of Judiciary’s subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, Berman will retain his lead role in the legislative debate over high-profile patent reform legislation. The fight is a critical one for U.S. businesses, especially in the high-tech, drug and manufacturing industries, which make heavy use of patents. Berman has forged a reputation in the House as a leader on patents, copyrights and other intellectual property issues.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the fastest way to resolve the state deficit is to lock him up with legislators a room for three days - and ban bathroom breaks.

"All we have to do is lock ourselves in a room for three days and not go outside - and not even be allowed to go to the bathroom," Schwarzenegger said Monday while touring a training facility in Fairfield. "And then we’ll be getting upset because it starts smelling in the room a little bit. And all of a sudden, we will come to an agreement."

It's unclear how effective his potty ban would be. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata unsuccessfully locked down the Senate last summer during the 52-day budget stalemate. Though they had to sleep in chairs, senators were given food and allowed to visit the loo.

Schwarzenegger suggested the lockdown after a reporter asked him about the threat of teacher layoffs due to the state's $8 billion budget shortfall for next fiscal year.

"It’s very important that the legislators do not wait until June or July to start negotiating the budget because on March 15 the schools already have to decide which schoolteachers they have to lay off and which to stay," said the governor, who missed an Education Coalition rally opposing school funding cuts at the Capitol. Schwarzenegger was visiting the Northern California Carpenters Training Facility to promote public-private partnerships.

The governor insists his door is open.

"My office is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day ... they can come down, bring their proposal and we can fix the budget system and the budget before March 15."

Assemblywoman Nell Soto, who has been missing from Sacramento for months, decided on Friday to retire instead of seeking another term in the Legislature.

The Pomona Democrat issued a statement that said, "As much as my heart and mind want to continue in public service, my 81-year-old body is in need of less stress and a less vigorous schedule. On the advice of my doctor, this time I am going to listen to my body and not my heart," Soto said in a statement.

Norma Torres, a Democrat and the mayor of Pomona, filed for the seat and is considered the front runner for the Democratic district.

The filing deadline was last Friday at 5 p.m., but because Soto, the incumbent, did not file, the deadline was extended until this Wednesday.

Find more background on the Soto, her illness, her seat and her potential successors here.

Opponents of a June ballot measure on eminent domain, Proposition 98, lost a court battle today to have the ballot title include the fact that the measure would prohibit rent control.

There will be two competing eminent-domain measures on the June ballot. Both promise to restrict government's ability to take private property.

Proponents of Proposition 98, who won today in Sacramento County Superior Court, include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Farm Bureau and the Apartment Owners Association.

Proposition 98 includes a controversial provision that would ban new rent control measures in the state and slowly phase out existing rent control laws.

The competing measure, Proposition 99, is sponsored by a coalition, including the League of California Cities and the California League of Conservation Voters.

With two measures on the same complex topic on the same ballot, the issue is expected to be severely muddied for most voters -- and the Yes on 99/No on 98 campaign had hoped to include in the title of Proposition 98 the rent control provision. (It is already included in the ballot summary.)

The campaign has already hosted events in the Bay Area, where rent control is widely popular, decrying the measure.

Dean Preston, executive director of Tenants Together in San Francisco, issued a statement saying the ruling was a "disappointment."

"The only reason Prop. 98 was put on the ballot is to end rent control, pure and simple," Preston said.

Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, cheered the ruling, writing, "We are pleased that the court supports our view that Prop. 98 provides real and sensible private property protections without infringing on government’s ability to use eminent domain for legitimate public projects."

Pssst, it’s not widely known, but …

Assemblyman Paul Cook has a pretty odd nickname, considering that he was a tough Marine who earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

Colonel Cupcake.

Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, said Cook acquired the moniker from college students in political science courses he once taught.

"A real softy," Berryhill said on the Assembly floor this week while publicly wishing the Yucca Valley Republican a happy 65th birthday.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia begged to differ.

Garcia, R-Cathedral City, said she once enrolled in a summer school course taught by Cook.

"Three hours of homework every single day," she complained.

"We never called him cupcake."

Californians take up more than 100 slots on Forbes magazine's annual list of the richest people in the world.

The Forbes list includes 1,125 billionaires, of which 42 percent are from America.

In California, the richest resident, continues to be Larry Ellison of Oracle, who ranks No. 14 in the world.

Google billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page are California's next richest, each ranked 32nd and 33rd worldwide with net worths, respectively, of $18.7 billion and $18.6 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is the youngest billionaire on the list with $1.5 billion and a rank of No. 785.

Also on the list: Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, who ranks No. 897. That may not sound great at first, but her $1.3 billion fortune is more than enough to self-fund a bid for governor.

Rumblings about a would-be candidacy began earlier in the year.

Assemblywoman Betty Karnette is using the "carrot-and-stick" approach to fight tardiness in the lower house.

Her carrot is meant to stick.

The Long Beach Democrat, a former teacher, has begun awarding a tiny, stick-on, grade-school star -- commonly used in grading schoolwork -- to Assembly members who arrive on time.

For years, Assembly sessions have started chronically late, with many lawmakers straggling to their desk up to 30 minutes after the gavel was scheduled to be pounded.

"It's all in fun, but there's a purpose to it," Karnette said of the stars beginning to appear on legislators' coats or blouses. "It does remind people that they should be here on time."

Karnette said she began several weeks ago by awarding stars to the first 10 Assembly arrivals.

"Now it's gotten so that everybody wants a star," she said, laughing.

Assemblyman John Benoit, a Palm Desert Republican, is locked in a tough GOP primary against former Assemblyman Russ Bogh, who left the Legislature in 2006.

And Benoit is reaping the benefits of political timing: the fact that his Assembly term is ending in a year a Senate seat is opening up, while Bogh has been out of office for two years.

A couple of recent events show just how Benoit is leveraging the powers of incumbency, from fundraising to staying in the public eye.

For one, he is carrying a media-friendly bill package of conservative red meat. On Thursday, he announced new legislation that would cut state funding to so-called "sanctuary cities" -- those municipalities that have a policy to not seek out illegal immigrants.

“It’s outrageous that some cities in California intentionally promote illegal immigration,” Benoit said in an issued statement.

The local Palm Desert newspaper carried a story of the legislation is today's paper.

Then there was the "There ought to be a law" contest, sponsored by Benoit.

The winner? Legislation to require welfare recipients to undergo random drug testing, suggested by a Riverside County high school student, whose own neurological disorder has been linked to his mother's drug use during her pregnancy while on welfare.

The story made the national CBS news.

Today, Benoit is in the district for a pair of fundraisers with Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines. Bringing a legislative leader to a fundraiser is a tried and true method to shaking the money tree.

All of which is not to say Benoit will have a cakewalk in the June primary.

Bogh had $463,000 cash on hand at the end of 2007 and also has touted the backing of influential area Sen. Jim Battin, who told a local TV station, "I don't want somebody there that's willing to go along and get along just to get donors or just to be part of the in-crowd in Sacramento."

At the end of 2007, Benoit had $345,000 in his Senate account and $137,000 in an old Assembly campaign committee.

Sen. Mike Machado, who has been the Senate Democratic point man on water issues, has announced new water bond legislation aimed to jumpstart stalled negotiations with Republicans.

The proposal, a $6.8 billion water bond, is being billed as a new starting point for discussions.

The bill, announced by Machado's office late Thursday, was accompanied by a statement from Sen. Dave Cogdill, the lead Republican negotiator on water issues as well as the newly elected Senate GOP leader.

"I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Machado on a new proposal that acknowledges widespread interests in funding for new water storage, both surface and groundwater, along with other sorely needed water funding," Cogdill said in the statement. "We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and work across the aisle with the goal of passing a comprehensive bond."

Machado, in a brief interview, said, "I think what we both realize is there is a need to move forward with water."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a special session on water in 2007, but legislative Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a package. Whether to include dams, termed "above-ground storage" in Capitol-speak, was a key sticking point.

There is still no deal on that key component. "What we are doing is having a discussion over all the issues," Machado said.

As for talks with Cogdill, Machado said, "I have expressed a willingness to him to better understand his perspective and he has expressed a willingness to better understand mine, as the representative of a district that represents the Delta."

The bill, SB X2 6, will be in print on Friday. It contains $2 billion for "water supply reliability," $2.4 billion for Delta sustainability, $1.08 billion for clean water and pollution clean-up, $1.1 billion for clean beaches, groundwater protection and water quality, and $250 million for water recycling, according to a fact sheet provided by Machado's office.

Former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla dropped his bid for state Senate earlier today, essentially clearing the way for first-term Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier to ascend to the Senate.

Canciamilla, a maverick Pittsburg Democrat who termed out of the Assembly in 2006, said in a statement posted on his Web site that he was departing the race to avoid "a bloodbath between two Democrats, which is what this race would have been."

He leaves despite ending 2007 with a war chest of more than $400,000 in the bank, compared to $237,000 for DeSaulnier.

Friday is the filing deadline for candidates for legislative office.

The move comes as a surprise even to DeSaulnier, who had already debated Canciamilla in district appearances and who said earlier this week that he was preparing for a tough contest. He could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.

In the posted statement, Canciamilla said he came to his decision after meeting with incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on Wednesday. “Darrell and I had a great conversation,” Canciamilla said. “We share the view that Democrats are in a unique position this year to make a real difference.”

Canciamilla ruffled many Democratic feathers during his six-year stint in Sacramento, leading the so-called "Mod Squad," a group of business-friendly Assembly Democrats that exerted sway on legislation, particularly environmental bills.

In early 2005, he lost his chairmanship of the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, in what he said was punishment from Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez for his leadership of the Mod Squad.

He remained outspoken about problems in Sacramento even after leaving office, telling the Los Angeles Times this week that "power needs to be returned to the hands of the membership" following Núñez’s speakership. "I think Karen (Bass) can do that," he said.

First elected to his local school board at age 17, Canciamilla served eight years on the Pittsburg City Council and four years on the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors.

"I have spent my entire adult life in elected office," he said in the posted statement, signaling it was time for him to move on from the "rubber chicken circuit."

Contra Costa Times political reporter Lisa Vorderbrueggen, who wrote about Canciamilla's withdrawal on her blog, reports that "rumors have been flying" that Canciamilla may try to return to the board of supervisors, replacing "incumbent Supervisor Federal Glover," who would retire. Both men have denied that rumor, she reports.

The fact that DeSaulnier, who beat Canciamilla's wife, Laura, in the Democratic primary of his 2006 Assembly campaign, is running for state Senate after a single term in the lower house is the product of term limits.

He is hoping to swap seats with good friend Sen. Tom Torlakson, who is termed out of the Senate, but has one term remaining in the Assembly. Torlakson plans to use the Assembly seat as a launching pad for a 2010 campaign for state superintendent of public instruction.

The dozen or so ladies, all of them inmates in a Southern California women's prison, wore pink shirts and pink construction hats.

"You are the stars," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told them. "You are the stars today."

In showcasing a rare success story in the prison system, Schwarzenegger traveled to the California Institution for Women in Corona today and handed out graduation certificates to the women who had completed a Prison Industry Authority carpentry class.

"This is what it ought to be," Schwarzenegger said of the women's accomplishments. "It's not about putting people in a prison and letting them sit around. We have to figure out how to get them out as quickly as possible with skills, so they can connect. So they can make money on the outside."

Schwarzenegger thanked the women for taking the carpentry class at the prison, after touring an apparel factory they built. He called their workmanship "extraordinary."

"This is a great benefit to society," Schwarzenegger said. "When you get out, you're going to be a great contribution to the community. You're going to be a great contribution to your family, to yourselves."

He promised to expand PIA programs "all over the state of California."

California houses some 170,000 inmates, mostly in 33 state prisons designed for about half that many. More than two-thirds of them return to prison within three years of their releases, either on new terms or on parole violations. Corrections officials say the key to reducing the recidivism rate is to dramatically expand vocational and educational opportunities inside prisons.

Senate GOP leader Dick Ackerman and Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines have penned twin columns reiterating their fellow Republicans' opposition to new taxes to balance the budget.

The commentaries, posted on the conservative FlashReport Web site, don't raise new issues, but come after Senate Democratic leader Don Perata drew his own line in the sand earlier this week, saying Democrats wouldn't cut education funds from the budget.

Democrats, Perata said, would hold out for more revenues, in the form of taxes, to prevent education cuts.

"Every taxpayer in our state should be outraged that Democrat leaders have resorted to bullying tactics to try to impose billions in higher taxes on families like yours," wrote Villines, a Clovis Republican.

Ackerman wrote, "Tax increases will hurt the economy, dig deeper into the pockets of California’s families, and not address the state’s overspending problem."

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will join state education leaders Thursday to kick off a public awareness campaign about the effects of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed education cuts.

A press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Sacramento City College.

Calling it a "grand education coalition," Garamendi will join representatives from over a dozen groups to highlight the impact of proposed cuts.

The coalition -- which includes the California Teachers Association, University of California, California State University, Community College League of California, and California School Employees Association -- will send the governor and legislative leaders a letter stressing the impact of a $4.8 billion cut to K-12 and community colleges, along with $644.8 million from UC and CSU campuses.

"These cuts will slash $800 per K-12 student, shift a great portion of the state's obligation to fund higher education to students and families, and could mean the doors of our colleges are closed to tens of thousands of students who have earned the right to higher education," the open letter stated.

Garamendi said he supported a combination of revenue increases and efficiencies.

"I think the answer lies with Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson. Both, when faced with a similar situation, recognized a need for a balanced approach with these crises," he said.

Margita Thompson, who served as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's press secretary for more than three years, has landed a state board appointment courtesy of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

"It shows how post-partisan he is," Thompson, a Republican, said of Perata, a Democrat, with a chuckle.

Thompson, who left the Schwarzenegger administration in early 2007 to take a job as a vice president at Health Net in Woodland Hills, said the appointment came about after a recent dinner she shared with Perata in Oakland.

At dinner, she told the Oakland Democrat she was "still interested in public service."

Today, Perata announced appointing Thompson to the board of trustees of the California State Summer School for the Arts. The position is unpaid.

The board runs an annual arts summer school for California students.

"I think the arts are fabulous," said Thompson, who took singing lessons toward the end of her stay in Sacramento.

As for getting an appointment from Perata, she credited working with a governor who maintained good relations with Democrats and Republicans alike.

"One of the great things about working in the Schwarzenegger administration is you get to know people well across partisan lines," she said.

Her term expires on February 20, 2011. "I feel very honored," she said.

Just who is the speaker-elect of the California Assembly? Find out more about this cheerleader-turned-speaker, such as what current lawmaker she’s related to, where (and with whom) she went went to high school, and what she won't be doing in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s smoking tent.

1. While Karen Bass may be the new head-of-household for Assembly Democrats, she’s actually related to a state senator.

Bass and Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, the chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, are often referred to as “cousins.” That’s not quite right, says Ridley-Thomas.

“Technically she is my half-brother’s cousin,” he reports.

Even if that sounds like a bit of a distant familial connection, Ridley-Thomas says they bump into each other at family functions from time to time in L.A.

2. Ridley-Thomas couldn’t help but share that Bass was also once a cheerleader – at Hamilton High School, where the school colors are green and white. Just like in the state Assembly. Unlike in the Assembly, Bass wasn’t squad leader, she said.

3. Don’t let the whole cheerleader thing mislead you. Bass also has earned brown belts in tae kwon do and hapkido martial arts. She doesn’t actively practice martial arts anymore, but does bicycle.

4. Bass is not the first lawmaker from Hamilton High. She’s not even the second or third. The school has been a veritable breeding ground for elected officials.

Rep. Howard Berman, the longtime Los Angeles-area Democratic congressman went to school there. So did former Rep. Lynn Schenk, who went on to serve as chief of staff to Gov. Gray Davis.

And former Assemblyman Paul Koretz, who served alongside Bass from 2004 to 2006, went to school at the same time as Bass. The pair didn’t know each other back then.

“I found out about it basically after the fact that she was in (Sacramento) when I was,” said Koretz.

Bass says the high school campus was “a sea of political activism.”

“They even gave us a holiday to protest the war in Vietnam,” she recalls.

5. So by now you’ve probably heard that Bass is the first African American woman speaker of the state Assembly. She’s also the first Democratic woman speaker.

Here are some other facts on the historic nature of her new post.

She is one of only two black women currently serving in the 120-member Legislature (the other is Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina-Carter). She is one of only ten African American women to serve in the Assembly in California history, according to Chief Clerk Dotson Wilson. Before her election in 2004, it had been eight years since California had seen a black female assemblywoman. There have been 113 women elected in the Assembly, said Wilson, who pointed out that 90 of those women were elected since 1978.

6. Bass’ only child, daughter Emilia Wright, and her son-in-law, Michael Wright, were killed in a 2006 car accident in Southern California. Both were 23.

7. The state Assembly is Bass’ first post as an elected official. She won her seat in 2004 in a competitive five-way primary (with four other men), which included a better-known candidate, longtime Los Angeles City Council member Nate Holden.

Despite Holden’s name-recognition, she won double the number of votes as her closest competitor, finishing the primary with 48 percent of the vote.

8. As the newest member of the Big 5 – the nickname for the four legislative leaders and the governor – Bass will likely be spending some time in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famed Capitol smoking tent.

Just don’t expect the former nurse and physician’s assistant to light up a stogie with Schwarzenegger to seal a deal. Bass doesn’t smoke, said spokeswoman Kellie Todd Griffith.

"I'm going to have to make him come out of the smoking tent," Bass said the day she was elected speaker. "That's going to make me sick."

The number of reporters at Capitol press conferences continues to dwindle.

The latest round of newspaper cutbacks of Capitol coverage came as the Los Angeles Daily News announced closing its Sacramento bureau and the San Jose Mercury News’ Sacramento editor has taken a buyout and says more cuts are ahead.

Harrison Sheppard, a reporter for the LA Daily News, is returning to the paper’s office in Los Angeles, after the paper cut 22 staff positions and plans to close the Sacramento bureau. The 150,000 circulation paper, which also closed its Washington D.C. bureau, will now have 100 newsroom employees.

Sheppard said he will return to Los Angeles in the coming weeks, where he will have mix of editing and reporting duties. He'll continue to cover some "state news and politics" from Southern California, he said. He has worked in Sacramento since a couple of weeks into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship and has been with the Daily News since 1999.

Alvie Lindsay, the Sacramento editor of the San Jose Mercury News, took a recent buyout from the company and was still waiting for the deal to be officially accepted.

Lindsay said this was “clearly a very difficult time for newspapers in general.” When he arrived at the Merc in 2000, the paper had 400 newsroom employees, he said. After the latest round of cuts, the staff will drop to roughly 170 employees.

Both the Daily News and Mercury News are part of the Media New Group newspaper chain, owned by Dean Singleton.

Steve Maviglio at the California Majority Report first reported the departures.

Remaining in the MediaNews Sacramento bureau is Steve Harmon and Steve Geissinger of the Bay Area News Group, East Bay (which publishes the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times, among other papers) and Edwin Garcia, Mike Zapler and Kimberly Kindy of the San Jose Mercury News.

Lindsay said further cutbacks are expected. “It was always assumed that the staffing up here would be reduced beyond that,” he said. Lindsay said at least one, if not both, of the non-Mercury News positions in Sacramento was expected to be eliminated.

Note: The original version of this post said Steve Harmon works for the Contra Costa Times and Steve Geissinger works for the Oakland Tribune. In fact, as the post now reads, they both work for the Bay Area News Group, East Bay.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats held an event at a Sacramento school to draw a line in the sand on the budget: There would be no cuts for education. Which translates to the need for increased revenue through taxes.

The perennially ignored constitutional deadline for the budget is June 15. The new fiscal year starts July 1.

And just how long will the Democrats hold out?

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said his Senate caucus should "TiVo" the Democratic National Convention in September.

Then he said this: "If Republicans could hang on last year for 30 days ... we can do no worse. Democrats in the 1990s held out until October."

Ralph Drollinger, the chaplain of a weekly Capitol Bible study group, has penned a third commentary on religion in the Capitol, trying to further explain what he meant in an initial posting in which he accused a competing Capitol fellowship group of being "disgusting to our Lord."

The commentary, which takes on a more conciliatory tone, is meant to "provide context and clarification to my recent comments," Drollinger writes.

In his previous post, Drollinger wrote, "Far be it from any professing Christian, in the Capitol or elsewhere, to neuter the message of Christ in order to make unbelievers feel comfortable in their sin. This is tantamount to putting a terminal patient on a morphine drip — they die slowly, and go to hell forever, but feel pretty good about themselves on the way."

Drollinger, a former UCLA basketball player, took issue specifically with a Capitol fellowship group, currently led by Republican Assemblyman Rick Keene of Chico.

Catch up with Drollinger's previous writings -- and the reactions of Capitol politicians here.

In his latest posting, he says, "My point was simply this: ministers of Christ must be faithful to the message of Christ."

Here's a relevant excerpt, followed by the full commentary:

How many politicians would tolerate a staff member intentionally proclaiming a policy position incongruent with the lawmaker’s stated agenda? Such an “ambassador” would likely be fired immediately. Too much is at stake in a campaign or in a policy battle to have a staff member deciding on his or her own to change the political leader’s agenda. Such would be a disgusting breach of faith with the lawmaker who hired him or her. How much more so is God disgusted with ministers who change His message? And God’s message deals with eternal life and eternal death, which are infinitely more important matters than campaigns and legislative measures.

It is with the compassion and love of Christ that I want to plead with all people of all backgrounds in the Capitol to come to Christ. Everyone in the Capitol community is welcome in our Bible studies.

Below is Drollinger's full commentary:

It's just like old times again.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Capitol press corps descended on Mimi's Cafe in North Natomas on Tuesday, where the governor and former state Controller Steve Westly shook hands with diners and asked them to sign petitions for a November redistricting initiative.

Schwarzenegger routinely staged such events in past years, particularly in 2005 when he urged voters to back his special interest initiatives.

Oddly enough, Tuesday's event also saw a return of the international media.

Besides a dozen Capitol press corps members, a handful of Japanese reporters showed up at the diner in a Sacramento suburban strip mall. With cameras and a boom mike, the reporters filmed Schwarzenegger as he made his way through the diner, talking up a redistricting initiative that has nothing to do with Japan.

It seems that the Japanese media have become obsessed with the criminal case of Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese businessman who allegedly arranged to have his wife murdered in Los Angeles in 1981. According to the Los Angeles Times, Miura was acquitted in Japan in 1998, but he was arrested last month in the northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth territory.

Schwarzenegger may play a role if the Los Angeles District Attorney's office seeks to extradite Miura to California. If that happens, then Schwarzenegger will need to make a formal extradition request to the Mariana Islands.

"I'm basically waiting for the request from the district attorney in Los Angeles," Schwarzenegger said. "As soon as we get that request from him, then I will make the request."

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week seemed to embrace closure of state tax credits as a way to solve the state's budget problems, Republicans immediately charged that any such move would be tantamount to a tax increase.

And Schwarzenegger, who campaigned on a no-new-tax pledge in 2006, has said he does not plan to raise taxes to bridge the state's budget gap this year.

But it all depends on what your definition of "tax increase" is. As Schwarzenegger has become increasingly adept at doing since winning re-election, he said Tuesday that one shouldn't get bogged down in such trifles as words and definitions.

"Well, you know everyone has their own position," he said. "I have mine. I think we should not get caught up on what is something called, and what is the definition of something because that doesn’t bring anyone any health care. It doesn’t bring anyone any education. It doesn’t hire teachers. It doesn’t expand our education programs or anything. What we need to do is fix problems and just put everything on the table and not debate what the definition of something is. But just say, everyone has to participate and everyone has to contribute in order to get this done.”

Though he said he'd like to look at closing tax loopholes, the Republican governor reiterated he does not agree with all of Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill's recommendations for reducing or eliminating $2.7 billion in state tax credits, ranging from the exemption for yachts purchased out of state to a $294 tax credit for dependents.

Schwarzenegger last week for a brief moment appeared to back all of Hill's loophole closures, but he later clarified that he meant the state should merely analyze all of them.

Assemblywoman Nell Soto, an 81-year old Democrat who has been missing from Sacramento since September due to illness, has yet to pull the necessary paperwork to run for re-election ahead of this Friday’s filing deadline, spurring plans to succeed her.

Soto, a longtime Latino activist whose political work dates back to the 1940s, has been hampered by health problems since she won election to the Assembly in 2006.

Besides missing every legislative session since September, she was absent for several months in 2007 and has not been present for a single hearing of the powerful Joint Legislative Audit Committee, an investigating arm of the Legislature, which she ostensibly chairs.

Mike Lewis, a Soto campaign spokesman, said “if you asked Nell she’d say yeah, she’s raring to go.”

But Soto’s physician is urging more caution and, perhaps, retirement, he said.

"She needs to get on the same page as her doctor,” Lewis added. “The doctor is concerned about the stress of the travel and what the stress is going to do to her.”

Pomona Mayor Norma Torres, a Democrat, is laying the groundwork for a run in preparation for Soto’s potential retirement.

“To date, she has not pulled papers. I am getting ready,” said Torres. “The primary is just around the corner.”

This Friday is the deadline for incumbents to file for re-election. If Soto does not file, the deadline will be extended one week. The Democratic primary for Assembly District 61, which is considered a safe Democratic seat with a 12-point registration advantage, takes place on June 3. No Republican has filed for the seat.

Torres said Soto's deteriorating health prompted her to consider running. The legislator has battled multiple bouts of pneumonia since her election in 2006, Lewis said.

“That’s one of the reasons I started exploring this and talking a little bit about what it means,” Torres said.

While absent, Soto has continued to collect her full salary, currently $116,208, and per diem during legislative sessions, as illness is considered an excused absence.

She collected $22,032 in per diem during her extended absences in the first six months of 2007, according to Assembly records. She has collected another $10,000 in per diem, money which is earmarked for “travel and living expenses,” in 2008.

Her aides have defended the practice, saying she has to continue to maintain a second residence in Sacramento, even if she hasn’t been traveling to use it.

Lewis said Soto has remained active even if not in Sacramento. “Nell doesn’t sit still, and when she’s not in Sacramento, she’s running all over the district here locally,” he said. Her active schedule caused the relapsing of illness, Lewis said Soto’s doctor told her.

Nell Soto is the wife of the late Phil Soto, one of two Latinos to win an Assembly seat in 1962, the first Latino lawmakers in the modern-era California Legislature. Nell served 12 years on the Pomona City Council before running for state office in the late 1990s.

In a 2006 Bee profile, Soto revealed her husband urged her to run for the Legislature on his deathbed in 1997. She ran and won a seat in Assembly in 1998, before serving in the Senate and then returning back to the Assembly in 2006.

In that same profile, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said of Soto, “I love her, man.”

Lewis said the leadership has been supportive of Soto’s illness. “Her health is more important than the politics of the Capitol,” he said.

But as Soto has wavered about – and indicated that she might run for re-election despite her poor health – others are stepping forward.

“Obviously we don’t want to lose this seat, but we want to be respectful of her,” said Torres.

Maurice Ayala, son of former state Sen. Ruben Ayala, has also filed paperwork to run for the seat. A losing candidate in past Southern California races, Ayala said he will run regardless of Soto’s decision, though he has yet to begin any fundraising.

“My candidacy is not based is not based on what she does,” he said.

Torres did not rule out running against Soto if she does file for re-election, though that was clearly an option of last resort.

“I support her. She’s my representative. I would have to sit down with my support group and we would have to make that decision (if Soto runs again),” she said.

She added, “I am probably going to be one of those people at the Norwalk registrar’s office at 5 pm on Friday, waiting to turn in paperwork.”

Photo credit: Brian Baer, Sacramento Bee, Jan. 2007: Assembly Speaker, Fabian Núñez hugs Assemblywoman Nell Soto, D-Pomona, as the California State Legislature returned to Capitol

• Dems don't dump Denham?
The recall of GOP Sen. Jeff Denham has continued to move forward, with money from the California Democratic Party and a campaign linked to Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

But an online poll on the Democratic California Majority Report blog seems to show Democrats aren't as hot on the recall as the party leaders. As of Tuesday morning, evening 47 percent had say "no" the senator should not be recalled, while 38 percent said "yes."

• The newlyweds
California Rep. Mary Bono, newly married to Rep. Connie Mack of Florida have formed a new congressional caucus. No, it isn't the newlywed caucus. They've co-founded the new "America Supports You Caucus" pro-troop group.

• Budget impact
The left-leaning California Budget Project has released a series of reports on the impact of the cuts contained in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget.

The group breaks down the education cuts by county and school district, and separates cuts to health care, child care, in home support services and SSI/SSP.

Four Senate Democrats, including the outgoing and incoming leaders, will make a joint appearance this morning at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento to highlight the negative impact of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts on California's schools.

The event is part of the strategy that Senate Democrats outlined last week to raise the public profile of the governor's cuts.

"We underscore the fact that we're talking about people's lives here," Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said last week. "We're talking about people's careers here."

Perata will be joined by pro tem-elect Sen. Darrell Steinberg, Sen. Jack Scott, Sen. Tom Torlakson and Dave Gordon, Sacramento County superintendent of schools.

While Eric Hogue has found his way back behind the mic for a political talk show, Melanie Morgan, a 14-year veteran of Bay Area conservative talk radio, has delivered the final broadcast of her program.

Morgan has hosted conservative talk shows on KSFO for 14 years.

She also co-founded Move America Forward, the activist pro-troop organization, which has defended American military intervention abroad.

“It has truly been an honor for me to work at KSFO for the past 14 years. What I loved most about my time at KSFO was that it allowed me to connect with listeners and take action to make real changes in the world,” said Morgan in a written statement. “We never had a one-way dialogue with our listeners, and we never believed that we had to resolve ourselves to accept the status quo. We got out of our chairs, left our homes and offices, and circulated petitions, rallied for our troops and met with government leaders."

State Sen. Tom McClintock has scheduled a Tuesday morning news conference in Placer County to announce his decision on whether he will run for the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. John Doolittle.

If his decision is that he is not entering the race, McClintock may be the first politician to use the historic Auburn court house to announce he isn't running. But all indications are he is ready to get in.

McClintock, who has declared he is "seriously" considering entering the race, backed that up last week by a circulating letter announcing a McClintock Congressional Exploratory Committee and soliciting contributions. The Feb. 26 letter to potential supporters noted that "polling shows me in a very powerful position to win the Republican nomination" in the district should he enter the race.

Notably, McClintock also canceled a Tuesday fundraiser at Frank Fats in Sacramento for a possible run he was contemplating for the state Board of Equalization.

McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, will be termed-out as a state senator at the end this year.

Eric Hogue, a conservative radio host who left the political airwaves in late 2006, is back to talk Capitol politics today with the return of his old hour-long political show.

“It’s a shame that here in Sacramento, there’s no local political talk on the radio,” said Hogue. “The people have been in a black zone. My number one goal is to give people their local political talk back.”

Hogue, who briefly flirted with running for Assembly to replace Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, (while Gaines was considering challenging Rep. John Doolittle), said the transition from host to candidate and back to host “hasn’t been hard.”

“I never had to walk on eggshells,” he said of both professions.

Hogue’s “The Capitol Hour” will air daily at noon on KTKZ (1380 AM), starting today.

His Monday guests include GOP Sen. Jeff Denham, the target of Democratic-funded recall and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine.

Hogue said he intends to "represent conservative ideology" on the show. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t plan to schedule Democrats.

He said pro-tem to be Sen. Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, has confirmed as a guest on the program on Wednesday.

And he says he won't pull punches when Republicans stray from what he believes is the proper path of "statesmen."

"I have problems with both sides of the aisle and the people of California deserves some better leadership," Hogue said.

A new poll commissioned by Assemblyman Mark Leno shows a close three-way race in Sen. Carole Migden's reelection campaign, as the entrance of former Assemblyman Joe Nation has strongly affected the campaign.

The Democratic primary is expected to be one of the most hotly contested and expensive primaries in the June election.

The poll, released publicly over the weekend, showed former Assemblyman Joe Nation leading the pack with 27 percent support, before any biographical information about the candidates was given.

Leno finished second with 24 percent and Migden third with 17 percent. With three months until election day, a quarter of voters said they remain undecided.

After the pollster shared information about the candidates, Leno finished first with 27 percent, followed by Nation (24 percent) and Migden (17 percent).

San Francisco Police Commission member Joe Alito-Veronese finished fourth in both polls.

David Binder Research conducted the poll from Feb. 17-21 with 500 likely Democratic primary voters in the San Francisco/Marin/Sonoma Senate district. The poll was paid for and released by the Leno campaign, so take that into consideration when looking at the numbers.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Matier and Ross report that Speaker-elect Karen Bass had help from five major California politicos on her rise to the speakership:

Their math may be off (There are 48 Democrats in the Assembly, not 60), but here are the details.

The behind-the-scenes ascent of Karen Bass as the first African American woman to be named speaker of the state Assembly was put together by termed-out Speaker Fabian Núñez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown - with assists from Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee.

The last ones invited to the party were the remaining rival Democratic candidates, who were told the deal was done and the best thing to do was to make it unanimous.