Capitol Alert

It looks like Sen. Carole Migden will likely land on California's high-paying waste commission, after all.

After Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata appointed Sen. Sheila Kuehl to a spot on the $132,178 commission on Tuesday, Capitol Alert has learned that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to name the fiery San Francisco Democrat to the final vacancy on the recycling panel.

It is one of the most plum appointments in state government.

On Tuesday, California's two Democratic leaders appointed two of their termed-out colleagues - Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz - to the board.

There remains one vacancy, but only the GOP governor has the power to fill that vacancy.

There is a long tradition of legislative leaders ensuring that termed-out colleagues have a comfortable landing pad when they leave office. Lawmakers do not receive a pension or have continued access to health benefits.

Sources say Perata indicated to both Migden and Kuehl that they would receive a spot on California's waste board. But the Oakland Democrat has only a single appointment.

Schwarzenegger is expected to step in - perhaps as a favor to the incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg - and appoint Migden. Word is he wasn't excited about naming Kuehl, given the fact that her health committee ended hopes for his health care plan.

If Migden is appointed, three-fifths of California's current Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus would then sit on the waste board.

Officially, 1.5 million California workers are unemployed, half again as many as were jobless a year ago, due to the state's severe recession. But the liberal California Budget Project says the number swells to well over 2 million when disappointed jobseekers and the underemployed are counted.

When someone stops looking for work, they are no longer counted as part of the labor force and therefore are no longer officially unemployed. The CBP says there are about 200,000 Californians in that category, and another 800,000-plus who are in part-time jobs because full-time jobs are not available.

The CBP calculations are accessible here.

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, who served as both Democratic foil and dealmaker with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has joined the high-powered public relations firm whose California office is currently occupied by Schwarzenegger's former campaign manager and communications director.

Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, will be the newest partner and co-chair of Mercury Public Affairs, LLC, a political firm with offices in seven cities across the country, according to a letter he has sent to supporters.

Steve Schmidt, who was the architect of Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign, and Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's former communications director and deputy chief of staff, are the current partners in Mercury's California office.

Schmidt was Sen. John McCain's campaign manager during this fall's presidential election. Terry Nelson, who served as McCain's campaign manager until his resignation in the summer of 2007, is also a Mercury partner, as is former McCain campaign spokesman Brian Jones.

Núñez's presence in the GOP-leaning firm gives the public affairs group a foothold among Democratic interests in California, the nation's most populous state.

Núñez, in a letter sent to supporters and paid for by his campaign committee, revealed the new job he will have "beginning next month." The former speaker is termed out after six years in the Assembly at the end of November.

"I look forward to seeing you again soon and to continuing to work with you to help make California an even better place to be," the former speaker's letter concludes.

Núñez's relationship with Schwarzenegger was rocky when he first assumed the helm of the lower house in 2004.

But the two grew close as they paired to help pass AB 32, California's landmark greenhouse gas measure, as well as to work on a major health care overhaul in 2007. The health care effort ultimately failed in the state Senate.

Núñez pressed for a ballot measure in February 2008 to extend the term limits for existing lawmakers. Schwarzenegger ultimately flipped his position on term limits to endorse the measure, Proposition 93, in part citing his good relations with Núñez and other incumbent leaders.

"It sounds good to go and say, 'Let's take the time away' ... but the reality of it is when you work in there, and I've now just started working with Fabian and with Perata and Ackerman, and all those characters together -- you start building a trust, and all the sudden they're gone next year," Schwarzenegger told The Bee editorial board in January.

Now Núñez will be working with two of Schwarzenegger's former top aides and continued advisers at Mercury.

"As I prepare to leave office at the end of the month, it has become increasingly clear that what is best about the legislature are the people you work with and the relationships you build," Núñez writes in the letter. "It has been a privilege serving the people of California in the Assembly."

Photo: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talks with Speaker Fabian Núñez, before the governor signed an executive order establishing the world's first low carbon standard for transportation fuels, Thursday Jan. 18, 2007. Credit: Sacramento Bee/ Brian Baer

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named roughly 20 new gubernatorial appointments on Wednesday, including placing a top donor on the panel overseeing the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Rick Caruso, a Los Angeles Republican who flirted with running for mayor, has donated more than $470,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his favored ballot committees since 2005. Schwarzenegger appointed Caruso to the unpaid position on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission, which is a property some in the Legislature have said should be put up for sale.

Caruso is also a trustee for the University of Southern California, which plays its football games at the historic stadium.

The other appointee to the commission named Wednesday was David Israel, a screenwriter and TV producer who served as director of the office of President Peter Ueberroth's Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984. He is also a member of the California Horse Racing Board.

Other Schwarzenegger appointments included Bill Ainsworth, the former long-time reporter with the San Diego Union-Tribune, to the post of deputy director of corporate communications for the California State Lottery. He'll earn $91,000 in the job.

Alex Traverso, the communications director for Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, is also headed to the state lottery, as assistant deputy director of the corporate communications. He'll earn $74,800 in that gig.

Ex-Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez insisted when he left the speakership that he wouldn't be running for state Senate in 2010.

But the Los Angeles Democrat filed paperwork this week to open a campaign committee to do just that.

Of course, it could be just a holding pattern for all his leftover campaign cash...

Speaking of holding patterns, former Senate leader John Burton has opened a campaign committee to run for the Board of Equalization in 2014. Burton will likely transfer his remaining cash in his not-likely-to-be-used committee to run for schools chief in 2010.

But Burton isn't likely to run for the equalization board, either. What job does he want?Chairman of the California Democratic Party.

John Myers at KQED has a pizza count on last night's Senate session:

In the Senate, the late afternoon/early evening session on the Democratic budget plan produced a sizeable source of revenue... for Round Table Pizza. The tradition of legislators getting a taxpayer subsidized dinner for working past normal hours continued, with 36 pizzas stacked up in a hallway just off the Senate floor. At last count, there are 40 senators... which works out to just over 70% of a full pie for each one of them.

Want to read brief profiles of the incoming freshman class of lawmakers. Find them in Capitol Weekly.

Capitol Weekly also sits down with incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg.

Jon Fleischman, publisher of the FlashReport, says he wants to remain a regional vice-chairman of the California Republican Party and is running for reelection. FlashReport.

Opponents of Proposition 8 said in a conference call that they will raise $1 million to defend judges who could faces recalls should they overturn the gay marriage ban. Los Angeles Times.

In the midst of a historically severe state budget crisis, the Census Bureau has released new data indicating that when it comes to spending money, California stands alone among the states.

The new Census Bureau report tags total state spending last year at $233.6 billion, roughly 15 percent of the state's economic output. The total includes not only the state's general fund spending, roughly $100 billion, but proceeds of special fund revenues, such as gasoline taxes, borrowed money and federal funds.

California's total is about half-again as big as the second-place state, New York, and well over twice that of Texas. It is, moreover, 65 times as much as that of the least-spending state, South Dakota.

Not surprisingly, California's total spending last year was $33 billion more than its total revenues, with bond proceeds accounting for most of the difference. The largest spending category was education at $72.8 billion, followed by welfare at $56.3 billion and health care, including hospitals, at $17.7 billion.

The Census Bureau says California was $114.7 billion in debt last year. The full report, including finances of other states, is available here.

THIS JUST IN: Alyson Huber, the Democratic candidate in Assembly District 10, has taken a come-from-behind lead in the tight race, possibly bringing Democrats to 51 seats in the Assembly next session.

Sieglock had been leading for the three weeks since the election. More votes remain to be tallied, but counties must certify their results by next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the 2008 legislative year ended with a whimper Tuesday.

That, and a lot of cross aisle finger-pointing.

In the end, Democrats put forth a 50-50 package of cuts and taxes that would have eaten away at roughly $17 billion of California's budget deficit in the next two years.

But Republicans just didn't budge on new revenues.

Senate GOP Dave Cogdill told the Democrats that they have "got to find another way."

What exactly that other might be is starting to visibly frustrate many Democratic aides and lawmakers.

"What are your choices?" incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg asked in his floor speech. "What do you propose?"

"Of course I'm disappointed," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass declared after the vote.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said Tuesday's plan didn't have key GOP elements: a spending cap, economic stimulus or enough cuts.

"All we're saying is, if we're going to solve the problem, let's do the whole problem," Villines said.

Speaking of whole ... you might have noticed that the whole Legislature wasn't there last night, as some lawmakers seemingly decided that California approaching a fiscal abyss wasn't worth cutting short trips overseas.

If you know where exactly the missing lawmakers were, do tell.

After the whole thing was said and done, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger compared lawmakers to a bunch of kindergarteners.

Funny, the Legislature is usually compared to high school.

Maybe Schwarzenegger just liked Rex Babin's cartoon.

Did we forget to mention that 28 freshmen Assembly members will be sworn in next Monday?

A handful of those members were on hand Tuesday night watching from the back of the chambers. Reports that both their fingers and toes were crossed in hopes of achieving a budget accord before their arrival could not be confirmed by press time.

California's $27.8 billion deficit lives on to see another day, after lame-duck state lawmakers couldn't agree on a plan to slice off $17 billion of the deficit Tuesday.

More on sacbee.com.

Termed-out Sen. Sheila Kuehl has landed a high-paying job on California's waste board, securing the $132,178 per year job despite a previous report that Sen. Carole Migden would land the gig.

Kuehl, who has chaired the Senate's Natural Resources and Health Committees during her tenure in the upper house, is leaving the state Senate after eight years and was appointed to the spot on the Integrated Waste Management Board by outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

Earlier in the day, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass named Assemblyman John Laird to a spot on the waste board, which has been a landing pad for politicos and ex-politicians for years.

Back on Nov. 16, the San Francisco Chronicle's Phil Matier and Andrew Ross reported that Migden, who lost a bruising primary to then-Assemblyman Mark Leno earlier this year, would get the lucrative waste board slot, courtesy of Perata:

Outgoing state Sen. Carole Migden of San Francisco - who was knocked off her perch in a contentious Democratic primary - has landed a new job and a raise as an appointed member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

Migden, who leaves office at the end of the month, was named to the $132,178-a year job by soon-to-be-termed-out state Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata. As a state senator, Migden earned $116,208.

What happened between then and today remains unclear.

Democrat Fran Florez, who lost a narrow race to Republican Danny Gilmore for the Assembly, said Tuesday she will be back in 2010 for a rematch.

Florez, the mother of Sen. Dean Florez, wrote in a memo to reporters and supporters, "Just as my opponent Danny Gilmore didn't let his narrow loss deter him from seeking office again, neither will I as the 2010 elections come near."

Gilmore ran and lost for Assembly in 2006 against then incumbent Assemblywoman Nicole Parra. The Hanford Democrat crossed party lines to endorse Gilmore in 2008,

Florez remains on the commission of the state's high-speed rail authority.

Florez is the second losing Assembly candidate to promise a rematch in 2010. In AD 15, Abram Wilson has said he will run again against Joan Buchanan.

Photo: Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and his mom, Assembly candidate Fran Florez, ub the Senate chambers in October 2007. Credit: Sacramento Bee/ Brian Baer

State lawmakers will take up a Democratic proposal this afternoon to help slice away part of California's nearly $28 billion deficit over the next 19 months.

The plan has no obvious support, as Jim Sanders reports in his breakdown of the proposal.

"At this point, it's not evident that we have the votes," said Assembly Budget Chair John Laird.

But Democrats plan to take up the package -- a balance of $8.1 billion in cuts and $8.1 billion in revenues -- anyway.

"Win or lose, this will play a very important part in however we resolve the budget because it will demonstrate to people the parameters of what we have to do," Laird said.

Win or lose, today's package is a guideline for cuts Democrats have conceded they will be willing to make to balance the state's chronically imbalanced books.

Even after all the cutting and taxing detailed below, lawmakers would still face a $10 billion shortfall through the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year.

UPDATED Assemblyman John Laird has been appointed to a coveted spot on the state's waste board, the latest in a procession of politicians and political friends to occupy the high-paying post.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, named Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat, to the Integrated Waste Management Board on Tuesday.

The job pays $132,178 per year.

UPDATED: Sen. Sheila Kuehl, not Sen. Carole Migden, was appointed to the waste panel late Tuesday.

Both legislative leaders have appointment power to the waste panel. On the Senate side, outgoing Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, is strongly rumored to soon be appointed to the high-paying panel. The San Francisco Chronicle floated Migden's appointment more than a week ago.

Both Migden's and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata's office have not denied the report, but said only that no such appointment has been made -- yet.

The Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to meet today and could name Migden to the board as soon as this afternoon.

The appointments are the latest in a long line of well-paying state commission gigs leaders bestow upon their favored colleagues.

The Bee's prolific cartoonist Rex Babin has another cartoon today. This time he's taking on California's habit of approving ballot measures -- especially those that spend money. Find the rest of Rex's cartoons here.

If you are looking for the story breaking down the cuts and taxes in the budget voted on by lawmakers on Tuesday, find that here. Due to a mistaken link in the PM Alert, you have arrived on this page.

The nation has 8.6 million children who lack public or private health insurance and 1.3 million of them are in California, Families USA, a Washington-based advocate for expanded health access, says in a report based on new census data.

California, the nation's most populous state, is just behind Texas in the numbered of medically uninsured children, Families USA says, and at 12.5 percent has the nation's 12th highest rate. Texas is No. 1 at 20.5 percent.

Families USA, confirming previous reports, says that 88.2 percent of uninsured children come from families with at least one working adult. Families without earned income usually qualify for one of the public medical plans such as Medi-Cal. It's been estimated that more than 6 million of the state's 38 million residents lack health insurance.

Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried and failed to gain legislative approval of a plan to cover virtually all of the state's uninsured residents. The full Families USA report is available here.

Budget problems don't plague only the state. California's cities and counties also are having trouble making ends meet.

Orange County has implemented a hiring freeze to help close a $60 million budget hole.

Due to a technical mis-fire, the AM Alert wasn't posted live online 10:15 a.m. Make sure you get the AM Alert in your inbox every morning at 6 a.m. Subscribe here.

Well, it sounds like lawmakers are close enough in talks to at least call the out-of-towners back to Sacramento.

Today is the day soon-to-be-ex-Senate leader Don Perata has set as the final day for the lame-duck Legislature to vote on any budget triage package.

Legislative leadership and the governor met Monday during the day.

Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill said the Democrats planned to put legislation up for a vote.

"There will be bills put up and we'll see where we go from there. But there certainly aren't any ironclad agreements at this point in time. And we just need to see the language on what bills are planning to be proposed tomorrow and we'll build from there," he said, emerging from a Big Five.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell will announce the results of the California Physical Fitness Test, given yearly to fifth, seventh and ninth grade public school students.

And lawmakers across the state get into the Thanksgiving mode with photo-ops and Turkey giveaways.

Finally, it's not Assemblyman Sandré Swanson's birthday (that comes Friday). But the Oakland Democrat is hosting a birthday bash (read: fundraiser) tonight at Zocalo's in Sacramento.

Price of admission: $1,000.

Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill said today after a Big 5 meeting that session is a go for Tuesday and Democrats plan to put bills up for a vote. While he said "there certainly aren't any ironclad agreements at this point in time," Cogdill didn't rule out the possibility of striking a budget deal.

He suggested that Republican leaders are at least willing to run proposals past their caucuses to see if there are any votes.

Lawmakers last week discussed a plan that included raising the vehicle-license fee, cutting spending and placing a state spending cap on the ballot.

"It looks like we will have session tomorrow," Cogdill said. "There will be bills put up and we'll see where we go from there. But there certainly aren't any ironclad agreements at this point in time. And we just need to see the language on what bills are planning to be proposed tomorrow and we'll build from there. Everybody is going to be meeting with caucuses over the next 24 hours, and we'll see what if anything develops out of that."

While legislative Democrats dreamed for much of 2008 of pulling within one seat of a supermajority in the state Senate, they will find themselves even further away than they started when the new Legislature convenes on Dec. 1.

First, the party appears to have failed to pick up a seat in the upper house in the fall campaign.

Second, Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, a Los Angeles Democrat who is taking a seat as county supervisor, must resign his post in Sacramento in the next week.

Combined, that will leave the majority party with only 24 members in the Senate for at least the next several months -- three shy of the two-thirds needed to raise taxes or pass a budget.

"It just underscores how important it is that we get this done before the 2009-2010 session begins," said Jim Evans, a spokesman for incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. "We're definitely holding out for a deal."

With both houses tentatively scheduled to return Tuesday, legislative leaders are scheduled to meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today at 1:30 p.m. in a last-ditch effort to save the state budget before giving way to the next class of lawmakers.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata last week said Tuesday is the absolute deadline for lame-duck legislators to take action, though the session technically ends Sunday.

As Capitol Alert reported on Friday, Sen. Dean Florez will ascend to the number two slot in the Senate, incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg told Florez's hometown paper, the Bakersfield Californian.

"He's an outstanding leader," Steinberg told the Californian. "He understands the intricacies of solving different problems and making deals happen on the legislative floor. He is smart and I really look forward to working with him."

Florez is plotting a run for lieutenant governor in 2010 and a top slot in the Senate would leave him well positioned on the fundraising trail.

Steinberg is better known around the Capitol for his quiet leadership, while Florez is better known for his sharp elbows.

Which led to this money quote:

Florez likened Steinberg's temperament to that of President-elect Barack Obama and his own to Obama's reportedly combative pick for chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

"Every Obama needs a Rahm Emanuel around," Florez said.

That's all the excuse I need to include this Saturday Night Live skit mocking Emanuel.

Here is Rex Babin's latest cartoon, on the state's university and prison funding. Find all of his cartoons here.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents say they are opposed to tripling California's vehicle license fee to balance the state budget, according to a new Survey USA poll conducted for a Bay Area TV station.

What the poll asked: A new proposal would triple California's vehicle licensing fees in order to help offset the state budget. Would you support or oppose this proposal?

The result:

Support: 17 percent
Oppose: 74 percent
Not sure: 9 percent.

Asking a voter whether they support tripling any tax is a hard sell -- especially when it does not come with the added context of proposed budget cuts. Still, the robo call poll, with a margin of error of 3.9 percent, shows a tall public relations mountain lawmakers must climb to sell such a proposal to the state.

See the poll here.

As The Bee reported in a Buzz item in today's newspaper, the California Republican Party's board of directors passed a resolution on Friday calling on GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to withdraw his support of higher taxes to balance the budget.

The party's resolution, which was drafted by Jon Fleischman, a regional vice chairman for the party and the publisher of the FlashReport, calls Schwarzenegger's support of higher taxes "not only injurious to our state's economy but to the Republican Party."

The party resolution says California has an "overspending problem and raising taxes on Californians is not an option to resolve the situation."

Read the full resolution after the jump, courtesy of Fleischman:

In case you're counting, there's only one week left until termed-out lawmakers leave the Capitol.

Many of the more colorful characters are departing, from Bonnie "Hot Blooded" Garcia to Lloyd "Spay and Neuter" Levine to Nicole "My Office Is Across the Street" Parra to Fabian "Louis Vuitton" Núñez to Todd "Doghouse Dwelling" Spitzer to Carole "Car Collision" Migden.

Here at Capitol Alert, we'll miss them all -- and the bounty of content they've provided.

Still, legislative leaders seem determined not to have missing them begin just yet, continuing to hold out hope for some type of budget accord with a tentative Tuesday floor session.

"The crisis is obviously just getting worse the longer we wait," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said Friday in an audio clip distributed by her office.

Bass had been in Atlanta but insisted, "I have been in constant communication, whether it was via Blackberry or participating fully in the Big Five meetings over the phone."

Down in Santa Ana today, termed-out Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is the subject of a roast, with proceeds going to the California Peace Officers' Memorial Foundation.

"If you don't have anything nice to say about Todd ... you've come to the right party!!" the invitation advises.

With so much turnover, many committees will be handed over to new chairs in 2009-10.

In case you missed it on Friday, Capitol Alert laid out the chairmanship landscape in the new state Senate.

In the Assembly, many new chairs of key committees were named over the summer.

But several desirable slots remain open, including chairmanships of the utilities and commerce panel, the elections committee and natural resources.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a handful of administration appointments today.

Schwarzenegger named Jan Sturla as director of the Department of Child Support Services. Since 1999, Sturla has served as director for the Orange County Department of Child Support Services.

He also appointed Kathleen Hrepich as deputy director and chief counsel of the Department of Child Support Services. Since 2000, Hrepich has served as the director of the Sierra Nevada Regional Department of Child Support Services .

Schwarzenegger also named David G. Maxwell-Jolly the new director for the Department of Health Care Services. Maxwell-Jolly was previously director for the Department of Child Support Services.

Toby Douglas will be chief deputy director of health care programs for DHCS. Douglas has served as assistant deputy director and deputy director for health care programs at Health and Human Services since 2005.

Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a consumer group, gives his analysis.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is among the guests on this afternoon's airing of "Dr. Phil," in a full program dedicated to debating Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage.

"The idea of submitting the rights of a suppressed minority to the whims of a majority is the reason we have a constitution," Newsom says in the program, according to Dr. Phil's Web site.

Other pro-gay marriage guests will include attorney Gloria Allred and Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. Backers of Proposition 8 on the show will include Jim Garlow, pastor at Skyline Church in San Diego County, Margaret Gallagher, president of the National Organization of Marriage, and Jeff Flint, co-campaign manager for the Yes on 8 Campaign.

Watch a teaser for the show here.

This is the second time in the last month that California politicos have appeared on "Dr. Phil."

Photo: Dr. Phil in 2006: Credit Matt Sayles/AP Photo

Sen. Darrell Steinberg is set to assume control of the state Senate at the end of the month -- and with it the power to name the chairmanships of every committee in the upper house.

Speculation about who will wield which gavels is running rampant in the Senate.

A giant board listing all the committees and all the senators' names sits in Steinberg's fourth floor office as the Sacramento Democrat mulls his choices. The picks will set the political and policy landscape in the Senate for the next two years.

Steinberg has yet to publicly announce any committee appointments.

But in interviews with more than two dozen legislative veterans -- lobbyists and Capitol staff -- Capitol Alert has pieced together what the committee chairmanship picture is likely to look like.

Of course, until Steinberg makes an announcement -- expected in the next two weeks -- none of the appointments are set in stone. In fact, Capitol sources say, some chairmanships remain up for grabs.

With those caveats, here's our roundup of the chairmanship chatter:

Here is Rex Babin's latest cartoon, on the state Supreme Court taking up Proposition 8. Find all of his cartoons here.

The Orange County Register's Martin Wisckol files this story under "crazy misunderstandings."

George Andrews, who is the executive director of the Orange County Republican Party, was questioned by police as a terrorist suspect, Wisckol reports, after someone overheard him at a tire shop talking on his cell phone.

Wisckol describes Andrews as "of East Indian ethnicity and while he speaks without a hint of a foreign accent, he has very dark skin."

From the Register:

"Some white guy in Orange was scared about a dark guy being a terrorist," said Andrews. "I guess someone overheard me and told police I was talking about assault rifles and terrorists."

Orange police went to Andrews' home to question him. They didn't find Andrews - but they did find cleaning people scrubbing down the place, just like you see on TV when the terrorists move to a new safehouse and want to remove all the bomb residue. Seems Andrews is moving to Sacramento, leaving his job of two years with the county party to work for Assemblywoman-elect Diane Harkey -- although police didn't know that at the time.

Police went to the Orange County GOP headquarters where they spoke to Andrews.

Andrews said the overheard conversation at the tire shop had to do with Barack Obama being elected president and what that might mean for gun control, which he explained to the police.

"After 10 minutes of talking, I think they realized I was the last person who would be involved in a terrorist activity," Andrews said. "But if I didn't speak perfect English and work for the Republican party, I can only imagine how much more difficult it would have been."

The Riverside Press-Enterprise's Jim Miller catches up with Democratic Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter of Rialto, who says she voted for Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban.

Carter was not among the more than 40 legislative Democrats to sign a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a petition to overturn Proposition 8 in the state Supreme Court.

The chief proponent of California's $3 billion stem-cell initiative told the Little Hoover Commission on Thursday that backers may eventually go back to the voters to ask for more funding.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has the story.

Robert Klein, who serves as chairman of the stem cell institute, said that, backers could go back to the ballot in 2014, a decade after voters approved 2004's Proposition 71.

State voters will probably get a chance to extend taxpayer funding of stem cell research beyond the $3 billion they have already committed, the head of the state stem cell institute told the Little Hoover Commission yesterday.

If voters like what the stem cell institute has accomplished after its first 10 years, they could pass a sequel to Proposition 71, the initiative that created the institute, said Robert Klein, its chairman.

Klein continued to show unflinching confidence in the stem cell initiative, even though it was subject to yet another inquiry because of questions about its structure and governance.

The Little Hoover Commission met at the behest of Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, to study the structure of the stem cell institute and how its governance could be improved.

California's economic climate continues to deteriorate as the unemployment rate in the state jumped another one-half of a percentage point to 8.2 percent in October, according to the state's unemployment division.

The state lost 26,400 nonfarm payroll jobs in the month, according to the California Employment Development Department.

The state has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation. From October 2007 to October 2008, California lost a total 101,300 jobs, the report estimates.

The Big Five will meet today in a last-ditch effort to solve the state's massive budget gap, with talks now centering in part on tripling the car tax.

Just as many around the Capitol suspected, Sunday's scheduled floor session ended up being cancelled.

The Big Five met Thursday and announced the houses would tentatively gather next Tuesday in a final attempt at triage for the state's $27.8 billion deficit projected over the next 19 months.

The lame-duck lawmakers are running out of time, with Tuesday now seen as the hard deadline for any agreement. The lawmakers leave office at the end of the month.

Sunday (Nov. 23) had previously been declared the deadline in the Capitol, but real deadlines in the Capitol are about as rare as real budget solutions.

Talks are now centered on the notion of tripling vehicle license fees in exchange for dollar-for-dollar budget cuts plus a spending cap that would go on a future ballot, according to those involved in the talks. The higher fees could raise about $4 billion in the current budget year.

But those sources say no agreement has been struck yet on either side of the aisle.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass will be phoning in to today's meeting, as the Los Angeles Democrat is attending a symposium on foster care in Atlanta. She'll be speaking on a panel about "policy barriers and opportunities."

Hey, at least she's not in India.

Meanwhile, speculation continues on Obama administration appointments. The AP reported late Thursday that Reps. George Miller and Anna Eshoo sent a letter to the transition team touting Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena for Interior secretary.

All three California Democrats are close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the AP noted.

But before all you Northern California Dem politicos start licking your chops for a open-seat congressional run, Thompson said in a statement: "It's an honor to be recognized by the many groups I've worked with over the years, but no one associated with President-elect Obama has contacted me."

Down in Los Angeles, three newly elected state lawmakers are speaking at a pancake breakfast sponsored by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

They are incoming Assemblymen Isadore Hall and John Perez (who is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's cousin) and incoming Sen. Fran Pavley.

And rallies against Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, continue Saturday with an afternoon gathering on the steps on the state Capitol.

The state Senate has cancelled its Sunday floor session, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said that next Tuesday is the absolute latest lawmakers can meet before December because of logistical issues in preparing for the next two-year session.

Legislative leaders met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for about an hour this morning to discuss the budget, and they had little to report afterward.

Perata said their budget aides would continue working this afternoon, and the leaders plan to return for another "Big 5" meeting Friday. Bass participated today by conference call because she was in Atlanta for a mental health symposium.

Perata said there is no guarantee that he'd schedule a November vote as long as Republicans remain opposed to tax increases. Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines and Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill didn't have much positive news to report.

"We don't have any big breakthroughs for you," Cogdill said. "There are a lot of hitches, as always."

Senate President Pro Tem-elect Darrell Steinberg said, "Things have not broken down. I think that's the news here."

"Yeah, nobody's run out of the building screaming," Perata said.

Both houses have tentatively scheduled floor session for next Tuesday.

Updated at 1:25 p.m.

So says current author, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, in an op-ed for the California Progress Report.

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is moving on to the state Senate next month.

Photo: Assemblyman Mark Leno in March 2007. Credit: Sacramento Bee/ Brian Baer

After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mocked President-elect Barack Obama before Election Day for having "skinny legs" and "scrawny little arms" in an Ohio rally, the governor took some flak for his remarks.

But the Republican governor has since downplayed his comments and said he meant them only as a joke. Schwarzenegger spoke to Obama earlier this week about the Southern California fires and was able to get Obama to record a video for his climate change summit Tuesday.

In a Fox News interview that aired today, Schwarzenegger further explained his Obama remarks, comparing jokes about Obama's "scrawny" build to those about his own Austrian accent. He said the president-elect has taken the comments in stride and even asked Schwarzenegger to help him bulk up.

"Columbus, Ohio, is a town of great strong powerful football players. I saw this crowd there in front of me, and all those guys with short-sleeve shirts, and they were all pumped up and I made some jokes with that, and they just thoroughly enjoyed it. And I hope that Obama had a good sense of humor. It's like people laughing about my accent. I've talked to him since then, and he told me that he's going to build a big gymnasium in the White House to bulk up and that I should help him bulk up. And I said only if he helps me play basketball."

The headline of Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill's op-ed in the Press-Enterprise says it all:

"Cut, Don't Tax"

The Modesto Republican makes his case that new taxes will worsen California's fiscal woes:

"The idea of raising taxes to solve our budget woes makes even less sense now than it did last summer, which is why Republicans in the Legislature continue to remain firm in our opposition to the Democrats' go-to 'solution,'" he writes.

He continues: "Experience has shown us that raising taxes on paper does not equal real cash in the bank, and current circumstances clearly tell us that taxpayers are struggling to stay in their homes and make ends meet. Adding to their expenses by increasing taxes is the exact wrong answer, now more than ever."

Cogdill suggest revisiting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's once-vaunted California Performance Review -- his 2004-05 big splash study of how to streamline the operations of state government, which was largely ignored.

"The good news is that the gimmicks have been exhausted, leaving my colleagues and me with no choice but to tackle California's finances with honest approaches," he concludes.

Color me skeptical...

Photo: Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, is introduced as the new Republican leader of the Senate by outgoing leader, Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, during a news conference at the State Capitol, Wednesday Feb. 20, 2008. Credit: Sacramento Bee/ Brian Baer

Welcome to the Assembly, Jeff Miller.

Already, you're in the "doghouse."

Miller, a newly elected Republican legislator, has been assigned to the cramped 391-square-foot Capitol office that is nicknamed the "doghouse" and routinely houses lawmakers at odds with the Assembly speaker.

Miller hasn't angered anyone, but Assembly tradition calls for freshmen to inherit the office of their predecessors -- in Miller's case, Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, who was banished to the doghouse by former Speaker Fabian Núñez.

The newcomer, former mayor of Corona, apparently is being careful not to ruffle any feathers that might lengthen his doghouse stay.

Asked recently to comment on the prospect of moving into an office much smaller than any colleague, Miller said it "doesn't really matter" and that it's a "great honor" just to be in the Legislature.

"I'm looking forward to rolling my sleeves up and digging in -- getting to work," he said simply.

Miller will be sworn in Dec. 1 to represent parts of Orange and Riverside counties.

Rep. Henry Waxman of California unseated the most senior member of the House in an internal Democratic caucus vote in Washington today to put the California Democrat at the helm of a key panel that oversees energy issues.

In a 137-122 vote, Waxman, an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, unseated Michigan Democratic Rep. John Dingell as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The Bee's Rob Hotakainen has more.

It means that two Californians will take leading roles in the debate over global warming. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is the head of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over the issue.

California Democratic Rep. Linda Sanchez, 39, makes the announcement in the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times in the column of Patt Morrison.

"What makes Sanchez's pregnancy news is that she is not married to the baby's father -- not yet, anyway," writes Morrison:

The baby's father and Sanchez's "unofficially engaged" beau of a year and a half is Jim Sullivan, a government and PR consultant and the divorced father of three boys.

Washington is a back-fence-gossip kind of town, and Sanchez expects there to be some fuss and bother.

"I don't know how it'll be received," she said. "I hope people will recognize that to be able to plan that in your life -- I don't think that marriage and childbirth are black and white. There are certain instances in which you have to do things in reverse order."

Twenty years ago, it simply wouldn't have been possible -- pregnant, single and a member of Congress? Oh, the scandal! But Hester Prynne has morphed into Juno MacGuff, the culture wars have been fought to a truce of exhaustion, and "unwed mother" has been recast as "single mom."

Baby Sanchez is due on May 21.

Republican Assembly candidate Abram Wilson has told the Contra Costa Times that he will seek to unseat Democrat Joan Buchanan in two years, after losing to her earlier this month in one of California's most expensive races.

Wilson, the mayor of San Ramon, told the Times, "Am I interested in running against (sic) in 2010? No. But will I? Yes. I believe I will run again in 2010."

Buchanan will be sworn in as the newest member of the Assembly in December, representing Assembly District 15, which stretches from Livermore to Elk Grove.

The Legislative Analyst's Office will release a new report today analyzing the woeful state of California's finances. It will flesh out last week's estimate that the state faces a $27.8 billion deficit over the next 19 months.

But a new report from Beacon Economics predicts things will look even glummer in the future:

• Labor markets are showing increased signs of stress.
• There is little sign of a recovery in housing, and foreclosure rates are growing worse by the day.
• Consumer markets have fallen off a cliff.
• Corporate profits are taking a serious beating.

The report commissioned by California Forward, the nonpartisan government reform group, describes itself as "decidedly more pessimistic" than the LAO or Schwarzenegger administration projections, largely due to lower projections for corporate taxes.

The report also predicts the first year-over-year decline in statewide property taxes "since the Great Depression," according to Fred Silva, fiscal policy adviser to California Forward.

"Our forecast implies that we are quite literally on the edge of a fiscal cliff," the report says, rather bluntly.

Then there is this gem of analysis: "At the moment, California's budget strategy seems to adhere to a slightly different logic, one that might be summed up as: Hope for the best and ignore the obvious."

And they write that as if it's a bad thing.

In her visit with the Capitol Bureau on Wednesday, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass gave her own take on the role of partisanship, ideology and political futures on the budgetary stalemate:

"One of the reasons why it's hard for my Republican colleagues to vote for revenue -- more important than their tax pledge -- is their next primary," Bass said.

"If they vote for revenue, then they're going to be easily challenged in another primary. But the Democrats face the same thing: If we vote for deep, permanent cuts in health and human services, then we have to face our next primary, too."

Bass said putting aside self-interest would be key to break the logjam. "When you're in the middle of a national and international meltdown, you have to get beyond your career."

Speaking of deep cuts to health care, Health Access, a group dedicated to staving off such spending reductions, celebrates its 20th year of existence today with an event at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Among the speakers set for the event are Sacramento reps Darrell Steinberg and Dave Jones, the incoming pro tem and chair of the health panel, respectively.

Not bad allies to have in these times...

Rep. Barbara Lee was elected the next chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington today, according to the AP.

Here in California, Assemblyman Sandré Swanson of Oakland assumed the chairmanship of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

Here are video highlights of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass in an interview with The Bee's Capitol Bureau Wednesday:

Read about her visit and watch three highlights below. (All video was filmed and edited by Alan LaGuardia.)

Bass on cutting the budget unilaterally:

Bass on revenues versus cuts:

Bass on Nicole Parra applying for a job in the Obama administration:

Orange County Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez is still eyeing a possible run for governor in 2010.

She first opened an account to run a few years back, but hasn't raised any money for the race.

In an interview with Beyond Chron published this week, Sanchez said she will be "taking a look at the governor's race in the next couple of months."

Hat tip: Total Buzz

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass stopped by The Bee's Capitol Bureau on Wednesday morning on her way to a "Big Five" budget meeting.

Among her comments:

On the budget: Republicans are "struggling with coming to grips" with the concept of raising some revenue to balance the state's budget.

On supporting a "half and half" approach to budget balancing: "I want to do 50 percent revenue and 50 percent from the federal government." She said the state already has made program cuts in recent years. "It's not like we've been raising revenue every year the last few years."

On the Republican spending cap that Democrats rejected earlier this year:
"I think it went way beyond a spending cap. I actually think it was a manifesto that called for the permanent shrinkage of government. I think it was an extreme document."

On tensions between the African American community and gay activists over Proposition 8: Bass said she was "just appalled" at how quickly the analysis of election results was "racialized."

While African-American voters supported Proposition 8, she said the divide within the community was over age. "It was a generational issue," she said. "I think there's a lot of healing that needs to take place. But I think the first place it needs to take place is in the LGBT community - white and black."

On booting Nicole Parra from her Capitol office: "I was fully aware that she was trying to martyr herself. ..and i resisted it up until the end. At a certain point in time making a decision like that, though, is really about unifying the overall caucus."

On whether the decision helped the GOP capture the seat: "I think she had some effect, I don't think that it was decisive. I say that because Nicole has huge negatives as well."

On whether Parra might receive an appointment from incoming President Barack Obama.
"No comment. I met the senator when he was running for Senate. I had just won my primary; he had just won his. What we have in common is we're both community organizers. I will say no further."

Craig Cornett, who has been the Assembly Democrats' top budget aide, is crossing over to the state Senate, where he will replace the retiring budget director Diane Cummins.

Cornett will join the staff of incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, spokesman Jim Evans confirmed.

Cornett worked with Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat, when Steinberg served in the Assembly. While in the lower house, Steinberg served as chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, putting him in close communication with Cornett.

Chris Woods, who is the number two budget aide in the Assembly, will likely be elevated to replace Cornett.

UPDATED: Bass spokesman Pablo Espinoza writes in that, "Speaker Bass is delighted that Chris Woods from the Assembly Budget Committee will be moving over to serve as the Speaker's Budget Director. She is also delighted that Craig Cornett will be staying in the legislature and continuing to lend his great expertise to the budget process on the Senate side."

The camp of Republican congressional candidate Tom McClintock is confident the Thousand Oaks state senator will be the next congressman in the Fourth Congressional District, according to their analysis of ballots remaining to be counted.

As of Wednesday morning, McClintock held a 592-vote lead in the contest.

Here's the McClintock's campaign analysis of the latest numbers:

The latest batch from Nevada County dropped us by 60 votes, partially offset by a 30-vote gain out of El Dorado County, leaving us with a lead of 592 today. Nevada County is rapidly running out of ballots - we estimate it has roughly 1,000 yet to count. Everything else - approximately 25,000 more ballots -- are from counties that we are carrying.

Butte and Placer counties comprise 23,000 of those ballots and are expected to release their numbers in a single batch when they complete their full counts later this week or early next. In short, the fat lady hasn't begun singing yet, but she's on stage and appears to be wearing a McClintock button.

If the early bird in politics gets the worm, then Assemblywoman Sally Lieber is up before dawn.

The Mountain View Democrat has announced on her rarely-updated blog that should San Jose-area Rep. Mike Honda, a Democrat, garner an appointment in the Obama administration, she would run to replace him in Congress.

Honda hasn't been appointed to anything just yet, but he has been publicly lobbying for a post.

Here's what Lieber wrote on her Web site, "Congressman Mike Honda has announced that he is seeking appointment to President-Elect Barack Obama's administration and upon his appointment I will be running for his seat in the House of Representatives."

Lieber likely wouldn't be the only candidate. Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, could jump into the race for the yet-to-be open seat, according to a recent story in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Simitian could also jump into another local congressional race, should Rep. Anna Eshoo snag an Obama appointment.

As for Lieber, she says she wants to run "to bring the issues that I've been successful in fighting for at the state level to Congress. In Sacramento I've worked hard to empower people with disabilities, to raise our State's minimum wage, to protect our environment and invest in a sustainable future."

Lieber is best known as the lawmaker who authored the "physical discipline" bill in 2007 -- better known as the spanking bill -- which did not pass.

Lieber is termed out of the Assembly at the end of this month.

Photo: Assemblywoman Sally Lieber talks during a news conference about her physical discipline Bill AB755 in the State capitol, Thursday Feb. 21, 2007. Credit: Sacramento Bee/ Brian Baer.

Today is day two of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's twin conferences on climate change and small business in the Los Angeles area.

The Big 5 is also set to meet today to discuss the state budget.

As Kevin Yamamura reported on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger will have to fit that into a packed schedule: "a scheduled 9 a.m. speech, a 1:30 p.m. panel discussion and a 3:30 press conference, all at the climate change conference in Los Angeles, not to mention a 5 p.m. appearance at the Los Angeles Auto Show."

Floor sessions in both houses remain scheduled for Sunday, but there has been little apparent movement toward an agreement.

How close are they?

So close that the chair of Senate Budget Committee is a continent away.

Democratic Sen. Denise Ducheny -- along with a bipartisan crew of seven other senators -- is traveling in India as part of a foreign outreach trip. The other traveling senators are Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, and Bob Margett, R-Arcadia.

"The senator has been in constant contact with her leadership, current and prospective, and she's doing her job like she would be if she was in the district," said Ducheny chief of staff John Ferrera.

The group's trip isn't scheduled to end until Nov. 26 - next Wednesday - but Ferrera said, "We have contingency plans if she needs to be back for Sunday (when session is scheduled)."

A group of lawmakers is also traveling in China, on a trip organized by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco.

Also today, Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, chairs an informational hearing on California's disclosure requirements for retailers to notify customers when a retailer has had data stolen.

Jones has carried legislation to bolster the state's data breach laws for the last two years, but Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed the bills.

The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (known around town as MRMIB) will hear testimony on a proposal to put children who apply to the state's Healthy Families Program on a waiting list due to the budget shortfall.

The regents of the University of California will meet in San Francisco today. Lt Gov. John Garamendi, who serves as a regent and is running for governor in 2010, will be there to protest the 2009-10 proposed UC budget.

Garamendi says he is opposed to the 9.5 percent student tuition increase in the spending plan.

California Rep. Xavier Becerra won the only contested Democratic leadership race in Congress today to become the next vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus.

The WSJ's Washington Wire has the story.

Fellow Southern California Rep. Henry Waxman is involved in one of the biggest Capitol Hill battles this week -- trying to take the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee out of the hands of Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, one of Congress' most senior members.

That fight will be settled later this week.

At Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's summit on climate change today, the GOP governor introduced a very special guest via video -- President-elect Barack Obama.

"I would like to introduce a video that is from our President-elect Barack Obama, just to show to you that we are now in sync with this coming administration, so let's see it," Schwarzenegger said in his opening remarks.

Obama praised the governors hosting the climate conference for their action on global warming.

"Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership," Obama said. "That will change when I take office."

After the tape played, Schwarzenegger said he was "very, very happy."

"This is so important for our country, because we have been the biggest polluters in the world and it is about time that we as a country recognize that and that we work together with other nations in order to fight global warming," the governor said.

Photo: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008. Governors from Asia, South and North America meet in California this week to share ideas on how to combat climate change and discuss ways to prod their national governments to join the effort. Credit: AP Photo/ Nick Ut

The latest tally for emergency firefighting costs in California has reached nearly $305 million, while state leaders only planned for $69 million in the September budget, according to Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

That means the state has a fire-related shortfall of $236 million, though the federal government will pick up some costs once accountants sort out jurisdictional responsibilities over past blazes. Palmer said Schwarzenegger anticipated that the state's budgeted reserve of $1.7 billion would pay for unanticipated fire costs.

While the fire costs are minor compared to the $11.2 billion revenue gap the state faces at this time, it's more bad financial news at a time when the state is awash in it.

In light of the state's fire costs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger likely will seek a fee that raises homeowner insurance rates when he proposes his next budget in January, said spokesman Aaron McLear. A similar plan failed during summer budget talks.

Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today and tomorrow for his conferences on global climate change and small businesses. That prompted questioning from the press corps about whether the governor is doing enough to broker a deal between the Democrats and Republicans he so often boasts about bringing together in Sacramento.

McLear said the governor and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, call legislative leaders by phone and that Schwarzenegger intends to be in Sacramento on Wednesday for a Big 5 session.

If so, the governor will somehow have to fit that in between a scheduled 9 a.m. speech, a 1:30 p.m. panel discussion and a 3:30 press conference, all at the climate change conference in Los Angeles, not to mention a 5 p.m. appearance at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Update (2:15 p.m.): McLear emphasizes that Schwarzenegger held meetings with legislative leaders in his office last week and on Monday.

Here is Rex Babin's latest cartoon, on the California wildfires and the California budget. Find all of his cartoons here.

Frank Russo, who founded and publishes the California Progress Report, wrote on Sunday that he will be leaving the liberal Web site to become chief of staff to incoming Berkeley Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, a Democrat.

The job has been in the works for a while, but Russo made it public on Sunday.

Russo, who has worked in the Capitol before, said leaving the site "is a bit for me like giving up a baby to adoption."

Russo reports he was the first blogger in the nation to get a press credential "from a state legislature that has a vetting process."

"I will miss being part of the regular flow of information on California's politics and public policy," Russo writes. "It is shocking that a state as large as ours--one eighth of the population of the country and the sixth or seventh largest economy in the world (depending on the success or failure of the French wine crop)--has so little written about the level of government that affects our daily lives in so many ways."

The site will continue and Russo will be looking for a new editor.

Catching up on media news from last week, the Los Angeles Times Sacramento Bureau is also losing two of its members.

Virginia Ellis, the Sacramento bureau chief, is departing, as Capitol Weekly reported.

From CW:

Ellis is perhaps best known for her work investigating former insurance commissioner Chuck Quackenbush in a string of stories that helped bring the Republican insurance commish down. In a memo to the Times newsroom sent by Metro Editor David Lauter, he wrote, "The Quackenbush story, for which Virginia won both the Selden Ring and the George Polk award, exemplified the best of Virginia's work - keen investigative instincts in the service of dedicated beat reporting."

Also leaving is Nancy Vogel, who has covered the Assembly for the Times. Vogel (who was one of the first reporters to introduce herself to me when I moved to Sacramento) is known most recently as the reporter who broke the story of Fabian Núñez and those Louis Vuitton purchases.

Vogel will join incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg's staff.

Lastly, a link. If you are interested in Central Valley news, San Joaquin Valleyfornia rounds up political news from across the valley thrice daily.

The Schwarzenegger administration's latest survey of the California economy and state revenues doesn't look any brighter, describing the employment picture and continued declines in housing construction as "unwelcome news."

The administration has warned that the state will run out of cash by early next year unless the Legislature agrees on a package of spending cuts and tax increases to close a yawning budget deficit, thus allowing the state treasurer to float more short-term "revenue anticipation notes."

Without a revised budget, state officials fear, they will be unable to persuade lenders that the notes will be repaid by June. Overall state revenues during October did not change that forecast, with revenues running even with the much-revised estimates the administration made as it urged the Legislature to act quickly on spending cuts and new taxes.

So far, the Legislature has continued to be stalemated, with time running out on a special lameduck session. Both legislative houses have scheduled floor sessions on Sunday, the last day legislative leaders say they could act. But there are no signs of a political breakthrough, and those sessions are expected to be nothing more than what Capitol insiders call a "drill" - many speeches but no action.

The full Department of Finance monthly bulletin is available here

These are the latest numbers as of 10 a.m.:

Congressional district 4 (No change since Monday. McClintock holds 622-vote lead.)

Tom McClintock (Republican)
50.1%
169,957

Charlie Brown (Democrat)
49.9%
169,335

Assembly district 10 (Sieglock's lead has grown from 644 votes to 946 votes since Monday)

Jack Sieglock (Republican)
46.9%
84,175

Alyson L. Huber (Democrat)
46.3%
83,229

Janice M. Bonser (Libertarian)
6.8%
12,229

Senate district 19 (Strickland's lead has grown from 1,560 votes to 2,188 votes)

Tony Strickland (Republican)
50.3%
191,411

Hannah-Beth Jackson (Democrat)
49.7%
189,223

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be a busy man the next couple of days.

Schwarzenegger will play host to two simultaneous two-day conferences in Southern California, one on greenhouse gas emissions and another on small business and entrepreneurship.

The climate summit in Beverly Hills is co-hosted by a bipartisan crowd of governors from across the country. Government officials from around the globe are expected to attend, as those officials and environmental experts will discuss how to limit emissions.

The summit comes a month before a United Nations meeting in Poland next month, where climate change is on the agenda.

In a pre-summit move, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order on Monday to raise the state's goal to produce 33 percent of its power from renewable resources by 2020. The governor hailed the new, higher bar as "the most aggressive target in the nation."

But the state's utility companies already are lagging behind the current statuatory target of 20 percent renewables by 2010.

Then, there's that pesky budget.

Time is ticking down for termed-out state lawmakers to do something to address California's budget deficit - which the nonpartisan LAO has pegged at $27.8 billion over the next 19 months.

The impact of funding troubles is being felt. On Monday, Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the California State University system, announced the universities will eliminate 10,000 admission spots for the 2009-10 school year due to the financial pinch.

The CSU trustees meet today in Long Beach to discuss the state of the state school system.

Both houses of the Legislatur have scheduled floor sessions for this coming Sunday, though few signs of progress have emerged from the Capitol.

The California Teachers Association, meanwhile, has launched a month-long radio ad campaign.

"It's hard to give kids what they need for their future when California ranks forty sixth among all states for public school funding," says a teacher in the ad. "We've got to do better."

The California state Senate has called session for this Sunday at 4 p.m.

*UPDATED: The Assembly has also scheduled a session for noon on Sunday, Nov. 23. The Assembly session is tentatively scheduled for noon.

California Democratic legislative leaders are asking the federal government for a helping hand as the state faces a massive budget deficit in this "historically challenging economic time."

The three Democrats -- the state's two current Democratic leaders and the incoming Senate leader -- wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the state two Democratic U.S. senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, on Monday saying California "needs its federal partner to help its citizens weather this economic storm."

Read the full letter from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and incoming Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on the flip:

President-elect Barack Obama is out to raise money to offer aid to the victims of California's wildfires.

On Sunday, Obama called Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, asking for an update on the fires and to express his concern.

On Monday, there was a new addition to his web site (www.barackobama.com), asking visitors to donate to relief organizations and to volunteer for relief efforts.

Here's the text:

"Over the past few days, wildfires in Southern California have destroyed nearly 900 homes and burned over 37,000 acres of land, forcing many more families to evacuate their communities. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by the fires. The Red Cross and Salvation Army are coordinating relief for the victims, and volunteers on the ground are being organized to help with long-term recovery efforts in the days and months to come. If you live in or near Southern California you can volunteer now, and no matter where you live you can help by donating to the relief efforts. Throughout the campaign, we saw time and again that when ordinary people act together, they can make a huge difference. Visit CaliforniaVolunteers.org for more information on how you can help."

From Rob Hotakainen, Bee Washington Bureau

On Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

In the wide-ranging interview, Schwarzenegger spoke about Proposition 8 (He believes the courts ultimately should and will allow such marriages in California.)

He also back-tracked a bit from his joke at an Ohio campaign event with Sen. John McCain that Barack Obama needed to "beef up those scrawny little arms."

He said thanks but no thanks to a post in an Obama administration ("I want to stay in California for the next two years and finish my term here, because there's still a lot of things that I want to accomplish. This is a great state," he said.).

And he explained his position on taxes and the budget special session:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet, your critics say that this one-and-a-half- cent sales tax is the most regressive form of tax. It's going to hit the people who are going through the toughest times right now the hardest.

SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, no one should be that worried about any of that, because remember, the way it works is that the governor puts up a proposal, and then the legislative leaders go and start debating over that and looking into it, if they maybe have a better idea or a different idea. So we have a very collaborative kind of approach to the whole thing. So they may come up with different type of taxes.

I totally agree with you. It is very hard when you have to increase taxes, no matter when you have to increase taxes...

STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't want to do it.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I don't want to do it. I hate taxes. I hate the word "taxes" and all of those things. But there's certain times when you have to forget about the ideology, and, you know, all of this, and fix problems...

Find the full transcript of the 20-minute interview after the jump:

These are the latest numbers as of 8:41 a.m.:

Congressional district 4

Tom McClintock
50.1%
169,957

Charlie Brown
49.9%
169,335

Assembly district 10

Jack Sieglock
46.8%
81,269

Alyson L. Huber
46.4%
80,625

Janice M. Bonser
6.8%
11,843

Senate district 19

Tony Strickland
50.3%
187,631

Hannah-Beth Jackson
49.7%
186,071

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to close the state's budget deficit includes new taxes on beer, wine, whiskey and other distilled liquors that the administration describes as a "nickel a drink" that would raise nearly $600 million a year.

The California Taxpayers Association says it's obtained details of the proposed new taxes on alcoholic beverages, to wit:

-The tax on beer would climb from 20 cents a gallon to 73 cents;

-The tax on wine, now 20 cents a gallon on most forms, would jump by $1.28; and

-Taxes on whiskey, vodka and other distilled spirits would go from $3.30 a gallon to $7.57.

The Cal-Tax report is available here.

Here is Rex Babin's latest cartoon, on the special budget-balancing session. Find all of his cartoons here.

There's just no getting away from the state's money woes.

Case in point: CalPERS' board of administration meets this week. You may recall that the big pension fund recently disclosed a $3.2 billion decline in its housing portfolio.

CalPERS has already warned that it might have to demand higher pension contributions from the state, municipalities and other government entities that rely on it.

The California State University board of trustees also meets this week to look at proposed midyear cuts in education funding.

The California Faculty Association and the Alliance for the CSU are planning a rally in protest outside the chancellor's office in Long Beach.

Meanwhile, Mark Yudof, the University of California's new president, talks tonight at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club about -- what else -- the challenges facing the state's higher education system.

One of those challenges: the Schwarzenegger administration's proposal to whack $132 million from the university system's spending.

Weigh in on Schwarzenegger's proposal to tax some state services at a forum moderated by Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Smith. Click here.

Have a press conference or other event coming up at the Capitol? Post it to The Bee's online calendar here. Be sure to categorize it as a civic/government event.

Darrell Steinberg -- the first lawmaker from Sacramento to run the state Senate since 1883 -- won't take over as president pro tem until Dec. 1, but the Democrat is already assembling his senior staff.

It includes a mix of his current Senate staff and holdovers from the administration of outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, according to Jim Evans, who will continue as Steinberg's communications director.

Kathy Dresslar will remain Steinberg's chief of staff, albeit in much bigger office and with a larger staff.

Dennis Mangers, a former assemblyman with 45 years of political experience, will come on board as a senior adviser. Most recently, Mangers was a co-chairman of the No on 8 Northern California Committee.

Brian Kelley becomes Steinberg's policy chief and Kip Lipper his policy consultant on environmental and other issues.

Kelley and Lipper are Perata holdovers, as is Alicia Trost, who will be Steinberg's press secretary.

Newly elected Assemblyman Brian Nestande hasn't cast his first legislative vote, hasn't moved into the Capitol, hasn't even been sworn in yet -- but he already has scheduled his first fundraiser.

Not for chump change, either.

The Riverside County Republican has scheduled a "holiday golf tournament" at the Indian Wells resort on Dec. 6.

Nestande's donors will fork out $1,500 per player ranging up to $5,000 per tournament sponsor, a sum that entitles the contributor to four tee slots and an advertising sign posted at one hole.

Golfers also are invited to sip cocktails and munch hors d'oeuvres at the Indian Wells home of lobbyist Anthony Gonsalves. Not a golfer? A contribution of $150 per person gets you into the cocktail reception.

Nestande was unopposed in the Nov. 4 general election, but he said the golf tourney will help retire debt from the June primary. He had $23,000 in campaign cash and $75,000 in unpaid bills as of Oct. 18, state records show.

By holding the fundraiser after the presidential election, Nestande also can solicit new contributions from donors who have reached the limit of $7,200 for this year's two elections. He'll save it for his re-election bid.

"It's an ongoing cycle," said Nestande, son of 1970s Republican Assemblyman Bruce Nestande.

Nestande officially will join the Assembly on Dec. 1 -- five days before teeing off at Indian Wells.

WASHINGTON -- Calling for a fresh start for the GOP, California Republican Rep. Dan Lungren said Friday that he will challenge Ohio Republican Rep. John Boehner for the position of House minority leader

"It is my belief that it is neither in the interest of our party or the advancement of our conservative principles to simply affirm the status quo by acclamation in light of what happened on November 4th," Lungren said.

A vote is expected later this month.

Lungren, of Gold River, is the state's former attorney general and an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate. He served 10 years in the House, from 1978 to 1988. He returned to Washington in 2004.

From Rob Hotakainen, Bee Washington Bureau

Ten days after balloting, Republican Tony Strickland finally edged ahead of Hannah-Beth Jackson this morning in 19th Senate District vote counts posted by the secretary of state.

Strickland holds a razor-thin lead over Jackson, 1,560 votes, a margin of only 0.6 of a percentage point.

The updated tally posted by Secretary of State Debra Bowen confirms unofficial reports by monitors who had kept close tabs on absentee and provisional ballots counted since Election Day.

Strickland and Jackson, former Assembly colleagues, are vying for the seat of termed-out Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, in a district representing portions of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

If Strickland holds on, Republicans will retain 15 seats in the upper house and majority Democrats will remain at 25, two seats shy of a two-thirds supermajority.

One of the benefits of being a lame-duck legislator with half a month left is the freedom to speak your mind.

After being routinely diplomatic during the regular session, termed-out Democratic Assemblyman John Laird got downright snarky in a reference to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in an op-ed that ran Thursday in the Monterey County Herald:

"I don't think it is fully understood how severe this crisis is. Everyone is going to have to move out of their comfort zone to fix this problem. Democrats will have to accept cuts. Republicans will have to accept taxes. The governor will have to do more than just hold news conferences."

The knock on Schwarzenegger holding press conferences is a line oft-whispered by legislators and aides around the Capitol but rarely said publicly.

This might be one time Schwarzenegger has a legitimate defense, having just outlined a major tax-and-cut proposal commended by the Legislative Analyst. But Democratic legislative leaders feel his job isn't done because they think it's Schwarzenegger's job to persuade Republicans to approve tax increases.

Laird isn't done, either. He's chairing the Assembly Budget Committee today when it reviews Schwarzenegger's plan.

California may be looking down the maw of a huge budget hole, but the state now can claim a new poet laureate: Carol Muske-Dukes, award-winning author and University of Southern California professor.

The honor won't cost taxpayers much. Muske-Dukes will get paid $10,000 over the next two years.

"Her commitment to the literary arts and passionate belief that poetry can transform lives will serve as an inspiration for all Californians," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a press release announcing her appointment.

Maybe her next project can transform the budget.

Speaking of which, the Assembly Budget Committee meets today.

Its chairman, termed-out Democratic Assemblyman John Laird, was diplomatic during the regular session. But Laird got downright snarky in a reference to Schwarzenegger in an op-ed that ran Thursday.

Guess there's some advantage to being a lame duck.

Saturday, the No on 8 campaign is rallying the troops nationwide to protest passage of California's same-sex marriage ban.

California locations include Sacramento's Cesar Chavez Park, and the city halls in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

And in Washington, folks are meeting up at the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool.

Have a press conference or other event coming up at the Capitol? Post it to The Bee's online calendar here. Be sure to categorize it as a civic/government event.

California pollsters Mark Baldassare and Mark DiCamillo took issue Thursday with the idea that voters were hiding prejudice against blacks or gays as they responded to surveys about Proposition 8 or the presidential race this year.

Making their traditional post-election appearance at the Sacramento Press Club, the two pollsters shared their views about the way polling played out in an election that set turnout records and proved much political punditry wrong.

Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, said he watched a number of myths about the California electorate dispelled over the course of the year.

The state's voters, he said, weren't apathetic, and were honest about their candidate preferences. In the end, Latino and women voters supported Obama despite speculation that they wouldn't.

He said suggestions that voters would reject big-spending bond measures in tough economic times also proved false, in what he called "further proof that voters in California think that bonds are free money."

And while Proposition 8 trailed in polls early in the year, he said his poll found that fewer than 50 percent of voters consistently said they supported gay marriage -- even while the initiative was apparently failing.

The rest of Southern California prepared for a regional earthquake drill at 10 a.m. this morning, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to pull the switch a few hours beforehand for his own staff.

The governor woke up shortly after 5 a.m. and told an aide to inform his staff that he was calling his own 7.8-magnitude earthquake at that hour, according to spokesman Aaron McLear. Schwarzenegger then flew by helicopter to an Office of Emergency Services location at Los Alamitos, where he received some simulated briefings before taking a tour of the operations center and meeting with his cabinet secretaries.

The governor's staff was told it had to operate as if the quake were real, so the press office wrote releases informing the imaginary media what was occurring. Some aides had to jump on earlier flights to Los Angeles after the governor surprised them with the 5 a.m. call.

"He wanted to make sure people were prepared to be caught off guard by a natural disaster because that's what happens in real life," McLear said.

Meanwhile, legislative leaders met in Schwarzenegger's office for two hours this morning with chief of staff Susan Kennedy -- but no governor -- to figure out how to deal with a very real $11.2 billion budget shortfall. The governor flew up to Sacramento after the Southern California quake simulation.

Photo: AP/Ric Francis

Click on image to download the presentation. You must have Microsoft PowerPoint installed to view the slides.

California Finance Director Mike Genest field tested his budget presentation Wednesday at the Public Policy Institute of California's "Leadership Challenges and Opportunities" seminar in Sacramento.

The pitch on behalf of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special session budget plan emphasizes that it is balanced between cuts and taxes and asserts that the governor has brought spending under control.

See for yourself. Click on the image above to download Genest's slide show. (Note: you must have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer.)

While Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said computer challenges would shut down the special session one week before the Nov. 30 statutory conclusion, some think the state constitution poses an even earlier deadline of Nov. 15.

Within Article 4 of the State Constitution is the following:

SEC. 10 (d) The Legislature may not present any bill to the Governor after November 15 of the second calendar year of the biennium of the legislative session.

Before calling a special session, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sought a legal opinion from the Legislative Counsel, which determined last week that the Legislature can in fact introduce bills after Nov. 15 in special session. Legislative Counsel determined that the Nov. 15 deadline applied only to regular session bills:

"Given the wording of the relevant provisions of Section 10, as discussed below, and their apparent purpose, it is our view that these deadlines apply only to bills passed in the two-year regular session and not to bills passed in a special session."

Read the full Legislative Counsel opinion here. (The pertinent section is on page 5.)

But at least one advocate believes the state constitution isn't clear cut. Marty Omoto of the California Disability Community Action Network said he has heard from some attorneys who suggest the Nov. 15 deadline is applicable to special session as well as regular session.

Omoto, who led a rally Tuesday protesting the governor's proposed cuts to In-Home Support Services, said he'd consider taking legal action if lawmakers send a budget bill to Schwarzenegger that contains such cuts after Saturday.

Could bills passed after Nov. 15 be headed for a legal challenge? Not according to the Legislative Counsel, but at least one advocate believes the state constitution isn't clear cut on the issue.

Proposition 8 drew more donations in California this year than any other ballot initiative. Search The Bee's database for donors here.

Californians are more likely than other Americans to say college is necessary for success, but they're worried that it isn't affordable, according to the latest poll from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Almost three out of every four parents of children ages 18 and younger say that students have to borrow too much money to go to college and that they're very or somewhat worried about being able to afford a college education for their youngest child.

Most Californians favor proposals that would bring higher education within reach for more students, with overwhelming majorities favoring more work-study opportunities, more money for scholarships and a sliding scale for tuition and fees.

Yet residents have little faith in state leaders, with just 12 percent expressing a great deal of confidence in state government's ability to plan for California's higher education system.

In fact, more than four out of five Californians worry that the state budget crisis will lead to significant cuts in funding for higher education.

But more than half of those polled are unwilling to pay higher taxes or increase student fees in order to avoid such cuts.

As always, find the numbers on Capitol Alert.

Never too early to start a gubernatorial run in California, which explains why state Insurance Comish Steve Poizner is lining up endorsements for the 2010 Republican nomination.

Poizner's "exploratory committee" put out a news release today touting formal blessings from 11 current and soon-to-be GOP legislators, bringing his total endorsements from Republican lawmakers to 26, which is 57.7 percent of all the known California Republican legislators. He's also picked up 100 percent of the Republicans on the state Board of Equalization. He's also, according to his press release, headlined "more than 75 events for Republicans since he took office in January 2007."

Now if he can only crack that 76 percent of state voters who this week's Field Poll says have no opinion of him one way or the other...

From Steve Wiegand, Bee Capitol Bureau

It's official: Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore will run for the seat of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010 - and he has a message for Arnold Schwarzenegger if the lame-duck governor covets the seat as well: Bring it on.

"Hey, let's do it," DeVore said of Schwarzenegger minutes after the Orange County legislator formally launched his congressional bid Wednesday via an Internet news conference.

"I welcome the competition," said DeVore, R-Irvine. "I think that in a closed Republican primary between a governor who's trying to enact the largest tax increase in California history vs. a guy leading the charge in preventing that tax increase, I know how most Republicans would vote."

Julie Soderlund, Schwarzenegger's political spokeswoman, declined to trade barbs with DeVore.

"The governor is completely focused on meeting California's serious challenges right now," Soderlund said. "He's not thinking about what he might do once he's out of office."

DeVore declared his congressional candidacy only about a week after winning his third and final term in the 70th Assembly District, representing Laguna Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Tustin and other portions of Orange County.

The six-year legislator, an Assembly Republican whip, said he plans to push during the congressional campaign for increased energy production, both nuclear power and offshore oil drilling.

DeVore said he expects Boxer and her Democratic Party to raise taxes on high-income earners in the next two years, which he predicts would make Boxer vulnerable at the ballot box.

"I think what they're going to do is raise taxes on businesses and on people at the higher income levels, precisely the people who invest and get our economy moving," DeVore said. "That's a recipe for disaster."

Boxer, a veteran Democratic congesswoman, served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in January 1993.

WASHINGTON --- California Rep. Darrell Issa is trying to become the top-ranked Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, vowing to hold the line against President-elect Barack Obama's agenda "of big government, trillions in new spending, and higher taxes."

Issa, who was just elected to a fifth term, wants to replace Republican Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who is retiring at the end of the year. Another high-ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Christopher Shays of Connecticut, was defeated.

In 2009, Issa said, the committee will have broad oversight of the new administration, the financial crisis, the 2010 census and federal procurement issues.

"I have made no secret of my desire to help Republicans win back the majority and to serve as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee," Issa said.

With more Democrats in Congress and Obama in the White House, Issa said Congress will be taking votes on "more regulation, more government programs, more spending and more taxes for America." He said he wants to lead Republicans on the committee as they "hold the line and remind this Congress that over 56 million Americans rejected Barack Obama's agenda."

From Rob Hotakainen, Bee Washington Bureau

With state Attorney General Jerry Brown seriously eying another run for governor, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris announced Wednesday she will seek Brown's job if he pursues higher office.

The 44-year-old Democrat is in her second term as San Francisco district attorney. She filed papers today to run for state attorney general, according to her new Web site. She is the first woman to serve as the city's district attorney, as well as the first African American woman to serve as D.A. for any California city.

There's a small game of musical chairs involved, however.

Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle that she intends to run only if Brown seeks the governorship. Brown's decision may hinge on whether U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein opts to run for California governor, since Feinstein would be a heavy favorite in a Democratic primary.

Faced with the prospect of higher taxes, Republicans in both houses have suggested selling surplus state property, such as prime real estate or buildings, as a way for the state to close its $11.2 billion revenue gap.

But Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said that would accomplish little in the short term because voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2004 that directs any proceeds from surplus property sales toward paying off the state's economic recovery bonds. That borrowing, you'll remember, helped California escape its last major budget calamity in 2003-04.

Taylor suggested that if selling surplus property is ever considered a budget solution, it would be in several years when the bonds are paid off.

But Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines disputed that assessment Tuesday.

"I would disagree, because every penny you lower on your bond payment is money into the general fund that you could then be saving or not having to make a cut, potentially," Villines said. "We have a real problem as you know with the bond indebtedness."

The state is paying nearly $1.5 billion in debt service this fiscal year on the economic-recovery bonds, according to Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

Updated: 12:15 p.m.

In case you haven't had enough politics lately, it's time to start tracking at least nine potential candidates to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2010 - and the Field Poll has the baseline numbers for us to begin with.

Among the findings:

* U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is the best known and most favorably viewed among registered Democrats.

* On the Republican side, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman draws no opinion from more than two-thirds of GOP voters, but is viewed more favorably than two others.

* Lt. Gov. John Garamendi may have served two terms as insurance commissioner, and run for governor twice before, but more than half of voters couldn't offer an opinion of him. But he's running well among Republicans....

* One third of voters have no opinion of state
Attorney General (and former governor) Jerry Brown.

Here are the statistical tabulations for the Field Poll, prepared exclusively for Capitol Alert.

Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore also gets in on the 2010 action today, announcing he will run for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat.

DeVore, R-Irvine, declaring his candidacy just one week after winning his third and final term in the district, is among the most conservative members of the Assembly GOP caucus.

Could be a memorable Republican primary if a certain governor decides to run.

California's budget situation is the subject of two panels today sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California, the James Irvine Foundation and the California Research Bureau.

PPIC President Mark Baldassare will lead a conversation with future Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill. John Myers, Sacramento bureau chief for KQED Radio, will moderate a media panel with
editorial page editors of the San Francisco Chronicle, The Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times.

The event starts at 10 a.m. at the Sheraton Grand Hotel.

Weigh in on Schwarzenegger's proposal to tax some state services at a forum moderated by Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Smith. Click here.

Have a press conference or other event coming up at the Capitol? Post it to The Bee's online calendar here. Be sure to categorize it as a civic/government event.

Republican Assemblyman Chuck DeVore will announce Wednesday that he will run for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat in 2010.

DeVore, R-Irvine, is declaring his candidacy just one week after winning his third and final term in the 70th Assembly District, representing Laguna Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Tustin and other portions of Orange County.

DeVore has scheduled an Internet news conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday to make the announcement. He confirmed his intention Tuesday in a phone conversation with Capitol Alert.

In targeting Boxer, DeVore is taking on a veteran Democratic congresswoman who served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before moving to the Senate in January 1993.

DeVore is a Republican Party whip in the Assembly who served this year as vice chairman of the Revenue and Taxation Committee. He also served on the Assembly Budget and Veterans Affairs committees.

Democratic Assembly candidate Alyson Huber already figured in the Capitol Alert Election Quiz - she was an answer to question 17.

But now the fate of her still undecided race with Republican Jack Sieglock in Assembly District 10 could determine the quiz winner and the recipient of $50 worth of coffee.

Here's how.

Five entrants tied for the top honors in the quiz, each missing three of the 20 questions (which, we admit, were not for the faint of heart).

Tiebreaker No. 1 asked entrants to predict how many Assembly seats the Democrats would win in last week's election. The Dems currently have 50 to the G0P's 29, with the Sieglock-Huber race up in the air. Sieglock has maintained a relatively small, but steady, lead as vote counting continues in the four counties that make up the district.

If Sieglock holds on and the Dems stay at 50 seats, quiz champion honors go to Paige Brokaw, the only finalist to pick 50 Dems. (That, of course, carries some irony since Brokaw works for Democratic Assemblyman Jared Huffman).

If Huber somehow prevails, it will come down to John Ponce from the Department of Finance and Los Angeles resident Tom Cares. Both of them predicted the Dems would end up with 51 seats. The other two finalists picked 52 Assembly Dems and are out of the running.

Then we'll have to go to Tiebreaker #2, which hinges on the final tally for Proposition 4.

Stay tuned.

With California's budget sinking into a sea of red ink, elected officials are beginning to clamor for a federal bailout.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said today that the nation's most populous state deserves the same bailout consideration given to financial and other industries teetering on the verge of disaster.

"We can't let one of the world's largest economies go over the cliff," she told reporters.

Bass, D-Los Angeles, made the comments shortly after the Legislative Analyst's Office released a report projecting that the state faces a $27.8 billion shortfall over the next 20 months.

Bass said she is aware that California's congressional delegation and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are "working on an economic stimulus plan (and) talking about assistance to states."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, when asked about the possibility of a federal bailout to states and local governments, told The Bee's editorial board on Monday that "I think there is a chance."

"I think (the federal government) is going to look at it, and they're going to analyze it, and I think it's also something that has happened in the past under those circumstances," he said.

Schwarzenegger said that states should not abuse requests for emergency federal assistance.

"But I think definitely there are many states that need that extra money, so we don't have to make the kind of cuts we are making," he said.

"If I were to get $5 billion a year for the next three years, it would be great because immediately I don't have to cut all those programs. It's really tough when you cut heavier into education and heavier into prisons when they're so overcrowded."

Bass said that if the federal government is giving $700 billion to banks and financial institutions, then "can we have $5 or $6 (billion?)"

"We desperately need new revenues at the state level, as the governor has finally acknowledged," Bass said. "But we also need an infusion, or more accurately a transfusion of funds from the federal government.

"Any federal economic stimulus has to rank the needs of states and our cities as as deserving of help as banks and automakers and everyone else in line for funds."

Here's the link to the friend-of-the-court brief filed by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and other lawmakers supporting the Proposition 8 petition pending before the state Supreme Court.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earns a mediocre "C" grade in an appraisal of U.S. governors' handling of state finances by the libertarian-oriented Cato Institute.

The appraisal was issued, however, in late October, a couple of weeks before Schwarzenegger announced that the state's current budget, which he signed in late September, has already developed an $11.2 billion deficit due to declining revenues.

Governors were rated on how well they restrained spending earlier in the decade, when revenues were increasing sharply and how they handled tax policy. Florida Republican Charlie Crist, who has teamed up with Schwarzenegger on environmental issues, was rated the highest with a score of 84 on a scale of 100. Two other governors received "A" grades, South Carolina Republican Mark Sanford and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin.

Schwarzenegger's score was 51 and he was one of eight governors receiving "C" grades, four Republicans and four Democrats. The full report is available here.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said late Monday that more than 40 of her colleagues have signed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a petition to overturn Proposition 8 in the state Supreme Court.

The petition filed last week by gay marriage advocates argues that a simple majority of voters can't make such a major change to the state Constitution. Among the signers: Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who called the initiative "a radical and dangerous precedent to set.," and incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

Advocates of traditional marriage note that the court considered, and dismissed, a similar argument earlier this year.

As ballot-counting continues, Republican Tom McClintock leads Democrat Charlie Brown by 970 votes in the 4th Congressional District. In the 10th Assembly District, Republican Jack Sieglock leads Democrat Alyson Huber by 319 votes. And Proposition 11 maintained a 128,632-vote lead.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, anticipating a major earthquake drill in Southern California on Thursday, will hold a press conference today to urge Californians to buy earthquake insurance. The "shake-out drill" will test emergency preparedness for a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on the southern San Andreas Fault.

The Fair Political Practices Commission will hold a hearing
on regulations dealing with candidate-controlled ballot measure committees.

And veterans will protest the governor's proposed cuts in home care for disabled veterans at 10:30 on the Capitol steps.

Setting it straight: Friday's PM Alert had the wrong last name for U.S. Forest Service Chief Gail Kimbell, who unveiled a new agencywide effort to tackle the problem of climate change. Capitol Alert regrets the error.

Keep up with the latest on Schwarzenegger's furlough and minimum wage proposals for state workers at The State Worker blog.

Weigh in on Schwarzenegger's proposal to tax some state services at a forum moderated by Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Smith. Click here.

Have a press conference or other event coming up at the Capitol? Post it to The Bee's online calendar here. Be sure to categorize it as a civic/government event.

Current California law envisions that the state's electric power providers will boost their share of power from "renewable" resources such as windmills and solar panels from the current 12 percent to 20 percent by 2010 and state officials want to increase that to 33 percent by 2020.

The first goal is highly unlikely to be met but even if it were, it would cost about $60 billion for new generation and transmission facilities to meet the second, according to a new report from the state Public Utilities Commission.

Last week, California voters rejected a measure, Proposition 7, that would have boosted the goal to 40 percent by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025. It was opposed by most of the major environmental and renewable energy groups as unworkable.

The new PUC report is available here.

Democrats' battle for the 26th vote in the state Senate continued over the weekend, with Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson's lead over Republican Tony Strickland widening slightly in the 19th Senate District.
Jackson now holds a 1,203-vote lead in the Santa Barbara-Ventura-Los Angeles district, 165,084 to 163,881.
Democrats hold 25 seats and Republicans 14 in the 40-member upper house.

The Legislature may be in special session and expected to act to close the state's budget gap by November 23 (in time to take time off for Thanksgiving), but that doesn't mean lawmakers are working. They're off to observe Veterans Day, so the Capitol will be quiet today.

In case you missed it on Friday, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said the most positive possible outcome of the special session would be that lawmakers agree to place tax proposals on the ballot, a delayed solution he acknowledged would force the state to borrow cash at significant costs early next year.

Appearing on KQED's Forum program, doubted that any tax proposals could be approved in the Legislature because he believes the governor has no more sway with GOP lawmakers than he did this summer.

"You want to put some taxes on the ballot and let the voters decide if, in fact, we want to do that," Perata said. "I think that may be the best compromise that we're going to have. It's not an immediate solution, which will really affect California in the credit market. But it is, maybe, a compromise."

Read more here.

Former staff members and supporters of former Gov. Gray Davis, meanwhile, gather tonight in downtown Sacramento to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his election in 1998. With the budget deficit still growing, it's difficult to believe it was that long ago...

Keep up with the latest on Schwarzenegger's furlough and minimum wage proposals for state workers at The State Worker blog.

Weigh in on Schwarzenegger's proposal to tax some state services at a forum moderated by Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Smith. Click here.

Have a press conference or other event coming up at the Capitol? Post it to The Bee's online calendar here. Be sure to categorize it as a civic/government event.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sparingly used his political capital in state races this fall, devoting most of his attention to pushing a redistricting initiative. His few legislative endorsements flew under the radar, but one of them may come back to bite him.

The Republican governor on Oct. 20 endorsed former GOP Assemblyman Tony Strickland in the 19th Senate District and appeared at an Oct. 28 fundraiser. Strickland is now in a virtual tie with Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson as election officials count provisional and late absentee ballots.

According to the Strickland endorsement press release, Schwarzenegger lent his environmental credentials to Strickland's campaign in a coastal district.

"Tony's strength as a leader is admirable," Schwarzenegger said in the release. "His fight for renewable energy is the foundation of his economic plan and I need him standing with me as we transition California into a renewable, energy efficient economy. We need independent thinkers like Tony Strickland in Sacramento."

But Strickland isn't so independent that he's willing to buck his party on the budget. He signed an anti-tax pledge with the Americans for Tax Reform, vowing to "vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes."

A Democratic win in that seat would mean Schwarzenegger would need only one GOP vote in the new State Senate to approve taxes, rather than two, making it easier for him to pick off a Republican in the upper house.

Schwarzenegger, of course, proposed more taxes yesterday than he ever has before, from a 1.5-cent sales tax hike to new levies on beer, golf, sporting events and amusement parks. Republicans are vowing to oppose those proposals.

Updated: 4:50 p.m.

Opponents of Proposition 11 painted the redistricting measure as a partisan power grab by Republicans - but many of California's Democratic voters apparently didn't buy that argument.

More than half of the counties in which registered Democrats exceed Republicans voted in favor of the initiative. Proposition 11 passed in 14 of the Democratic counties, failed in 12, unofficial election results show.

Statewide, Proposition 11 is leading by a little more than 1 percentage point, roughly 102,000 votes, with nearly 3 million absentee or vote-by-mail ballots yet to be counted.

The measure would create a 14-member citizens commission to draw the state's legislative and Board of Equalization districts, beginning in 2011. Legislators would continue to draw congressional seats.

Proposition 11 passed in 32 of the state's 58 counties, although results in several conceivably could be reversed as the remaining uncounted ballots are processed.

The initiative passed in 18 of the 29 counties where Republicans exceed Democrats. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and GOP donors helped to bankroll the Yes on 11 campaign, which was led by AARP, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, among others.

Comparing results in Democratic vs. Republican counties provides a yardstick for analysis, but an inexact one, because it does not take into account independent voters, who comprise roughly 20 percent of voters statewide.

Democrats and Republicans are virtually tied in voter registration in San Diego, Trinity and Del Norte counties.

Eight of California's 10 most populous counties supported Proposition 11, but the state's largest county, Los Angeles, opposed the measure by 6 percentage points. San Francisco, a heavily Democratic county, rejected it by 33 percentage points.

Proposition 11 tallied well in capital-area counties, leading in Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado and very narrowly in San Joaquin, pending final vote counts.

Yes on 11 outspent its opposition by more than 10 to 1, another potential factor in voting patterns.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata told senators in launching a special session on budget and economic issues Thursday that their deadline for taking action is Nov. 23.

"Effectively we'll get two weeks," he said.

Though this year's legislative session does not officially end until Nov. 30, Perata said the Nov. 23 deadline is necessary to provide time for Capitol computers to be adjusted for next year's session.

New Assembly and Senate members, elected this month, will be sworn in Dec. 1. Computers need to be altered to accommodate dozens of new lawmakers, providing them and their staff access authorization and security protocols, among other things.

To take action in special session any later than Nov. 23 would hamper next year's session, Perata said.

Perata's deadline also ensures that lawmakers will not be returning to the Capitol during Thanksgiving Week.

"We just do a blitzkrieg and see what we can accomplish," Perata said of the two-week time frame.

Perata said legislators need not stick around the Capitol while the governor and legislative leaders try to strike a deal on budget and economic issues. Lawmakers will be called when a vote is scheduled, he said.

"Having you around is really not necessary," Perata said.

Few people around the Capitol believe lawmakers will take action by the end of this month to solve an $11.2 billion shortfall in the current budget year, and so far the signs are less than encouraging.

Republican leaders came out of the box yesterday vowing to oppose tax increases, while Democrats said they couldn't see approving cuts in social service programs. The script was similar to the partisan reactions on May 14 after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued his May proposal, 132 days before the governor signed a 2008-09 budget document fraught with problems.

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said the real action will take place in the Big Five meetings between legislative leaders and Schwarzenegger. The next Big Five discussion is supposed to occur sometime early next week, according to legislative and Schwarzenegger aides.

Legislative leaders tentatively had planned to meet among themselves today, but they canceled that meeting at the last minute.

The election results aren't final yet.

But political watchers in Sacramento and Los Angeles are already looking toward the next election. That would be the special election to replace Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who won a bruising campaign this week for a coveted seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

A long list of politicians could make the plunge for the open, traditionally black Los Angeles seat. That includes two current members of the Assembly: Curren Price and Mike Davis.

"Yes, he's looking at running for Senate," said Curtis Earnest, Price's chief of staff.

Davis said he was looking at the race, but that it is "a day or two premature" for a decision.

He added that his district is "nested" in Ridley-Thomas' seat, but that he wanted to wait to see what Speaker Karen Bass, whose district also overlaps with the Senate seat, would do.

Bass has tried to make clear she doesn't want to run -- but the rumors continue to swirl.

The name of ex-Speaker and current Los Angeles City Council member Herb Wesson has been tossed around political circles.

But that's not happening, said Wesson spokesman Ed Johnson: "He is not planning to run for the Senate."

Neither is Wesson's wife, Fabian Wesson, another rumored candidate, said Johnson. She has opened an account to run for the Assembly in 2010 (for Bass' seat).

Councilman Bernard Parks, who lost to Ridley-Thomas in the supervisor race, could not be reached for comment. Nor could termed-out Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, the 82-year old Compton Democrat who lost a bid for the neighboring Senate bid earlier this year in the primary.

The X-factor could be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has shown a penchant for trying to play kingmaker in such races.

Lastly, your faithful blogger (that's me, Shane Goldmacher) will be off through the end of next week. So if you've got any breaking news, be sure to call the rest of the Capitol Bureau at (916) 321-1199.

Kim Alexander of California Voter Foundation points out that under new rules adopted by Secretary of State Debra Bowen, the tight congressional race between Sen. Tom McClintock and Charlie Brown as well as the Senate contest between Tony Strickand and Hannah-Beth Jackson are likely headed to a hand count of 10 percent of the ballot *Nicole Winger of the Secretary of State Office writes in that the new rule would require a hand count of 10 percent of selected precincts, not ballots.

Only 451 votes separate McClintock and Brown after the first full tally, and 108 votes separate Strickland and Jackson.

Alexander has more details here.

Assembly Democrats estimate the "overall problem will be worse" for California's budget than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger estimated today, according to a caucus outline of the governor's plan obtained by Capitol Alert.

Schwarzenegger estimated on Thursday that California faces an $11.2 billion revenue shortfall in the current fiscal year, followed by another $13 billion next year.

The Republican governor has proposed a mixture of tax increases, spending cuts and worker furloughs to balance the books.

But the Democratic outline of the governor's plan notes that Schwarzenegger's shortfall projection "reflects (the) revenue problem only and does not include estimates of additional problems from any higher-than-anticipated costs."

During an economic downturn the demand for state services -- such as health care or welfare -- generally increase.

Democrats welcomed Schwarzenegger's plans to raise revenues to close the deficit.

"Gov. Schwarzenegger told Californians that our state has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. This dramatic statement marks a renewed sense of urgency that Democrats and the Governor feel to fix California's worsening fiscal condition," said incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg in a statement.

"While the election was close, and millions of votes still remain uncounted, it has become apparent that we lost," writes Dr. Delores A. Jacobs, CEO of the Center Advocacy Project, and Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, in an e-mail to supporters.

Read more about the full vote tally.

Also read the full e-mail to supporters on the flip:

With California facing a $11.2 billion shortfall in the current year and another $13 billion next year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a mixture of tax hikes, spending cuts and state worker furloughs to help balance the books.

Steve Wiegand has an overview of the plan.

Here is the full list of new revenues Schwarzenegger wants to bring in:

Temporary sales hike: Effective Jan. 1, 2009, Schwarzenegger would raise the state sales tax by 1.5 percent for three years, from 5 percent to 6.5 percent. At the end of three years, the rate would return to 5 percent.

Over the summer, the governor proposed a temporary 1-cent sales tax hike followed by a .25 cent cut -- but Republicans rejected the proposal.

What it would bring in: $3.54 billion 2008-09 and $7.3 billion in 2009-10

Add tax to services: Effective Feb. 1, 2009, Schwarzenegger would begin taxing certain services that are currently untaxed at the new 6.5 percent sales tax rate. Those include appliance repair, furniture repair, vehicle repair, golf and veterinarian services.

As of March 1, Schwarzenegger would tax amusement park and sports events. Unlike the sales tax rate increase, the broadening to services appear to be permanent.

What it would bring in: $357 million in 2008-09 and $1.15 billion in 2009-10.

Oil severance tax: Effective Jan. 1, 2009 Schwarzenegger would tax oil extracted from the ground or water in California at a rate of 9.9 percent of the gross value.

What it would bring in: $528 million in 2008-09 and $1.195 billion in 2009-10

Nickel-a-drink tax: Effective Jan. 1, 2009 Schwarzenegger would hike the alcohol taxes in the stat by a nickel per drink (defined as 1.5 ounces of liquor, 12 ounces of beer, or 5 ounces of wine)

What it would bring in: $293 million in 208-09 and $584 million in 2009-10.

Vehicle registration fee: Effective Feb. 1, 2009, Schwarzenegger would raise vehicle registration fees by $12.

What it would bring in: $150 million in 2008-09 and $359 million in 2009-10.

That is what Democratic challenger Bill Hedrick told the Orange County Register he is considering.

Hedrick ran against GOP Rep. Ken Calvert and is 4,630 votes short out of nearly 175,000 cast, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

More provisional and late vote-by-mail votes remain to be counted.

Amid all the election madness, I missed this yesterday: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed former Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn to a spot on the bench

Hahn, a 58-year old Democrat, will now have a seat on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Below is Sacramento Bee cartoonist Rex Babin's take on the results of the statewide ballot measures.

You can check out all of Babin's work here.

The results aren't finalized yet, but we want to know who you think are this fall's biggest election winners and losers.

In case you missed it yesterday, here are the California ballot measure, legislative candidate and congressional candidate results.

Believe it or not, the election is only two days behind us, but the special session on the bleeding state budget is already here.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for the session today. He's also expected to release the most up-to-date estimates of the size of the deficit and present his solutions. (Think of it as the November Revision, which followed the August Revision, which followed the May Revision, which followed the January budget unveiling.)

Senate leader Don Perata let the cat out of the bag Wednesday about the size of the deficit: $11.2 billion this year, followed by $13 billion next year.

Perata and incoming Senate leader Darrell Steinberg called for new taxes -- specifically hiking the vehicle license fee (better known as the car tax) and implementing an oil severance tax.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines said taxes are off the table for GOP lawmakers.

Villines, like caucus member Todd Spitzer, didn't hold out much hope for the special session.

"Elections tend to harden people's positions," the Clovis Republican said. "I think it's pretty difficult for people to come together and say kumbaya over the next three weeks."

Democrats and Republicans alike spent millions attacking each other in the run-up to the legislative elections.

"Right now, the wounds are on the top of the skin," Villines said.

Democrats, meanwhile, seem to be holding out hope that Schwarzenegger can sway some of his fellow party members to their new-revenues side of the aisle. That strategy did not work over the summer, as Republicans held out during a record-long budget standoff.

"It is a top priority to have (new) revenue in it," said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

"Since the governor is calling the special session ... I am assuming then that he is bringing some votes to the table," Bass added.

The results aren't final just yet, but it's time for a post-election post mortem.

Who came out on top, and who didn't? Add your thoughts in the comments section.

The obvious winner in California was Sen. Barack Obama, who topped 61 percent in the polls en route to a presidential landslide. But what about the pols closer to home?

Who was the bigger winner or loser? Democratic Speaker Karen Bass or GOP leader Mike Villines?

Assembly Democrats appear poised to pick up a net of two seats -- bringing them to 50 in the lower house for only the second time in 30 years.

"That's two less votes that we need to pick up," Bass said, referring to the two-thirds threshold needed to pass a budget.

But Bass and Co. had hoped for more -- losing (the results are not yet final) in four seats (AD 10, AD 26, AD 30 and AD 37) by a combined 11,000 votes.

Villines said Democrats "spread their money around everywhere and, ultimately, were less targeted."

To which Bass retorted, "Oh sure, he just didn't raise as much money as I did."

Villines added it was tough GOP sledding in 2008 against a "huge surge for Obama" and that Assembly Republicans still were able to pick off AD 30, the seat of termed-out Democrat Nicole Parra.

Speaking of Parra, was she an election winner? After getting tossed from her Capitol office for bucking the party leadership, the Hanford Democrat endorsed her GOP successor, Danny Gilmore, even cutting a TV ad for him. Gilmore holds a 2,500 vote lead.

What about Senate leader Don Perata? Senate Democrats easily won SD 5 and Hannah-Beth Jackson has the narrowest of leads in SD 19. Does that make Perata a winner?

What of Proposition 11, the redistricting measure? If its lead holds, is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a big winner? Is Perata a big loser?

What about the fact that Democrats didn't qualify a candidate against GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado -- in a Democratic wave year in a district with a six-point Democratic advantage? Was it shrewd politicking to curry favor with Maldonado -- or a strategic blunder?

What of Maldonado? The GOP moderate cruised to reelection. And if Democrats hold on to SD 19, he'll be the lone Senate Republican needed to pass a budget or raise taxes in the Senate -- an enviable position of power.

What about business? Labor? The rest of the independent expenditure brigade?

What do you think?

Several Republicans reported on Tuesday evening receiving a mysterious robocall that began by pronouncing itself a "breaking news alert" that said Barack Obama was a "virtual certainty" to win the White House.

The calls says Obama was winning, "Florida, Ohio and Virginia, closing John McCain's only path to the White House."

The call went on to say that Democrats would hold big majorities in Congress, "regardless of final results from Western states like Colorado and California."

The state GOP has posted audio of the call here.

The call does not contain a disclaimer identifying who paid for the call.

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday the Associated Press has "called" the results for every ballot measure except for Proposition 11, the redistricting initiative.

AP called the defeat of Proposition 4, the abortion notification measure, as well as passage of Proposition 1A, the high-speed rail measure, ealier this afternoon.

Still, the Yes on 11 campaign declared victory earlier this morning.

"Thank you to the people of California for being smart and for really driving this home to victory," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared at a Los Angeles press conference.

The measure is ahead by roughly 97,000 votes, with 99.5 percent of precincts counted. But that doesn't include provisional and late vote-by-mail ballots, which some estimate could total 3 million.

"Nuts," was No on Proposition 11 spokesman Paul Hefner's one-word response to the Yes on Proposition 11 campaign's victory claim.

Proposition 8, the measure to ban marriage in California, has passed, the Associated Press said Wednesday morning. But only an hour earlier opponents announced they were not ready to concede, hoping still-uncounted ballots could tilt the measure back in their direction.

Down more than 420,000 votes (52.2 percent to 47.8 percent) with more than 96 percent of precincts reporting, the gay rights leaders said they were holding out hope for what they believe could be as many as 3 to 4 million provisional and vote-by-mail ballots yet to be counted.

The state's top elections official said through a spokeswoman there will not be an estimate of how many outstanding ballots there are until at least Thursday.

"Given the fundamental rights that are at stake I think we have to wait," said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights group that led the opposition to Proposition 8.

The secretary of state's office did not have an estimate of how many ballots remain to be counted. Neither did the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials.

"We expect that counties will start reporting to us how many unprocessed ballots they have starting tomorrow," said Kate Folmar, a spokesman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen, in an e-mail.

A pre-election estimate from the Field Poll predicted a record 13.6 million Californians would cast a ballot in the Nov. 4 election. So far roughly 10 million votes have been counted.

Proponents of the measure have already declared victory.

"Thanks be to God! Marriage won in California," wrote Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, in an e-mail to supporters this morning.

"We are not in a position to call this," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "This is just fundamental. We just need to wait until there is something authoritative issued by the secretary of state."

State Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas' election to a Los Angeles County supervisorial seat Tuesday has rocked the Capitol with rumors that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass will step down and run for the soon-to-be-vacated Senate post.

"Absolutely not true -- and you can print that," Steve Maviglio, Bass' spokesman, said of the rumors.

Bass, D-Los Angeles, will be forced out of the Assembly in two years. By moving to the Senate, she could serve eight years. Nonetheless, her mind is made up -- she's not going anywhere, Maviglio said.

"She has no interest in the Senate seat," he said. "She will remain as speaker."

Bass overwhelmingly won election to her third and final Assembly term Tuesday by about 70 percentage points in a heavily Democratic district.

The Sacramento Bee subscribed to exit polling data for Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, Proposition 4, the abortion notification initiative, and the presidential race in California.

And we've posted the polling data online (see Prop. 8, Prop. 4, and the presidential race).

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines issued a statement on Wednesday morning calling Tuesday's election "very difficult one for Republicans nationwide."

But in California Villines took comfort in the fact that Democrats did not achieve a two-thirds majority in the Assembly -- always a longshot.

"Assembly Republicans did manage several decisive wins in districts across the state and Californians can take comfort in the fact that Democrats in California did not achieve their goal of winning a two-thirds majority. This means Republicans will still be empowered to protect Californians from higher taxes and reckless spending," Villines said.

In case you've forgotten amid the election madness, California faces a multi-billion dollar deficit and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to call a special session of lame-duck lawmakers to address the shortfall on Thursday.

Despite the Democratic tide, California Republicans appear to have staved off major losses in Congress in the Golden State.

GOP incumbents beat strong challengers across the state. The only vulnerable Democrat, freshman Rep. Jerry McNerney, cruised to victory.

One race remains too close to call: the Tom McClintock-Charlie Brown showdown, where the GOPer McClintock leads by less than 500 votes. Provisional and some vote-by-mail ballots remain to be counted in the only seat Democrats could still pick up.

After the jump is a roundup of the results of the other congressional districts that were competitive in 2008. Percentages updated as of 8:30 a.m. 1 p.m. on Wednesday (get live updates on the races directly from the secretary of state)

Rossmoor, an unincorporated area of Orange County, has lost its bid to become California's 481st city.

The effort lost, 71.7 percent to 28.3 percent.

More background on the bid in the Los Angeles Times.

The proponents of Proposition 11, the redistricting measure, have scheduled a 10 a.m. press conference today to "discuss the historic significance of the passage" of the measure.

The No on 11 campaign has not publicly conceded the race.

Proposition 11 leads by the narrowest margin of the dozen measures on the California ballot, 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent, with nearly 95 percent of precincts tallied up.

That amounts to a 89,881 vote margin as of 7:30 a.m. out of more nearly 9 million ballots cast.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the chief financial backer of the measure and lent himself heavily to the campaign in the final weeks. The measure would strip the state Legislature of the power to draw legislative districts for themselves and districts for the state's tax board. State lawmakers would retain the power to draw congressional districts.

Backers say having state lawmakers draw their own districts represents an inherent conflict of interest.

The measure was drafted by government reform groups, whose representatives will join the governor at the 10 a.m. press conference in Los Angeles.

They include Jeannine English, AARP state president, Kathay Feng, Common Cause California executive director, and Janis Hirohama, League of Women Voters of California president. Gary Toebben, the president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President, will also attend.

Aided by Sen. Barack Obama's sweeping presidential victory, California Democrats appear posed to pick up two seats in the Assembly and one seat in the Senate, bringing the party closer to a coveted two-thirds majority of the Legislature.

That is if current vote totals hold. The margins on some of the races are so razor thin they remain too close to call.

Democratic Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson clings to a 108-vote lead in Senate District 19, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Read our rundown of all the results in all the key legislative districts. (And the statewide ballot measures and the competitive congressional races.)

The pick-ups would bring the Democratic party to 50 seats in the Assembly -- four shy of the 54 needed to muster a two-thirds majority to raise taxes. It is only the second time Democrats have held 50 or more seats in the lower house in the last three decades (the party held 50 seats in the 2001-02 session and then in 1979-80 before that).

But the wins (Democrats lead in three Republican held seats AD 15, AD 78 and AD 80) are less than some of the party leaders had hoped for.

With 92.2 percent of the state's precincts reporting, Obama had a gaudy 61.3 percent of the vote to 36.9 percent for GOP nominee John McCain.

Despite that margin, the party is poised to lose the seat of termed-out Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, as Republican candidate Danny Gilmore leads with 51.5 percent of the vote and 97.7 percent of precincts tallied.

In congressional races, Republicans appear to have fended off Democratic challenges across the state and Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney is on his way to a second term in Washington D.C.

The tightest race in the state is the Charlie Brown-Tom McClintock battle to replace retiring GOP Rep. John Doolittle.

Republican McClintock leads Democrat Brown by 451 votes -- out of more than 311,000 cast -- with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban, also appears on its way to passage. It had 51.9 percent of vote the vote as of 6 a.m. today.

Proponents declared victory early Wednesday morning.

Proposition 11, the redistricting initiative backed heavily by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, leads with 50.5 percent of the vote.

Get the results of all the rest of the statewide ballot measures.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is set to discuss the election results with reporters at 11:30 a.m.

The outgoing and incoming Senate leaders -- Don Perata and Darrell Steinberg -- will discuss the results as 1 p.m.

We'll have updates of what they have to say.

In San Francisco, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was featured prominently in television commercials against Propositions 5 and 8, will also be discussing the election results this morning.

As chair of the Senate Rules Committee, Feinstein is also the head of the Inaugural Committee, so she'll be playing a pretty big role in the January inauguration of Barack Obama.

Check out a complete list of the results on all the statewide ballot measures after the jump.

 Results last updated at 6:50 a.m., 8:45 a.m. 12:55 p.m. 2:55 p.m. 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 6

Senate District 5
DEMOCRATIC HOLD

In the final push for Proposition 8, the most expensive measure on the California ballot, both sides are pointing fingers at the other side for misconduct.

The Yes on 8 campaign (those are the folks in favor of banning gay marriage) are angry over a new TV commercial, paid for by the left-leaning Courage Campaign, that portrays two Mormon missionaries invading a lesbian couple's home, taking their wedding rings and ripping up their marriage license.

Watch the controversial ad below:

Bishop Stephen Blaire, president of the California Catholic Conference, called the ad "a blatant display of religious bigotry and intolerance."

Mormons, also known as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have provided some $20 million worth of financial support to passing Proposition 8.

Meanwhile, opponents of the gay marriage ban are outraged that the Yes on 8 campaign is calling voters with a robo-call featuring the voice of Sen. Barack Obama.

The total amount spent for and against Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban on the Nov. 4 ballot, has topped $73 million.

So says the Associated Press.

That is more than double the total spent in 24 states in 2004, 2005 and 2006 on similar gay marriage bans, according to the National Organization on Money in State Politics.

Don Novey, the former president of California's correctional officers union, has taken on a new gig as a political adviser to the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

Rick Orlov has the details in his column in the Los Angeles Daily News:

Perhaps as a sign of a possible hard-line position it will take with the city, the league recently hired Don Novey as a consultant to advise on political matters. Novey was the man who steered the California prison guards for years and made them a major force in state politics.

It sounds like Novey, known as a sharp political operative, is already making his mark.

"I'm going to help them with some of the essentials of politics that are necessary for them to be above reproach. Now that I'm retired, I can help some of these groups. It's a fun project to see them grow in the political arena and help them use their money more wisely."

It was Novey who convinced the league to take out radio spots backing Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas in the county Board of Supervisors race, and he said he is looking to help the union on statewide issues, which could eventually involve millions of dollars in campaign donations.

Novey said he also will be working with the league to do some focus groups on how it can improve and strengthen its image and what role it will play in the coming mayor's election, as well as in the 2010 race for governor.

It all comes down to the door-knocking, ground-game thumping, heart-pumping finish.

Election Day is finally here. The Field Poll predicts a record 13.6 million Californians will turn out to the polls.

That's in a state with 38 million residents, of whom 23 million are citizens and eligible voters and 17.3 million are registered to vote.

If you haven't joined the 13.5999 million other California who are expected to cast their ballots by the end of the day, we recommend it.

You even get a sticker.

Once the polls close, the election-night parties begin.

We've created a map of election parties in the California -- from Eureka to Sacramento to San Diego -- so you can figure out where to drink up the election results.

Sacbee.com will have election updates beginning at 4 p.m. If you have problems voting or want to share a voting experience, join our forums

In the evening, Dan Walters, Steve Wiegand and Marcos Breton and Sam Stanton will be discussing election results with readers as they come in.

Also you can text "CAPALERT" to 72737 to receive breaking news updates on national, state and local races on your cell phone.

Where are you watching the election returns?

We've created a map of election-night parties all across California -- sponsored by Democrats, Republicans, candidates and ballot measure campaigns.

So go decide where you want to drink up your election results.

View Larger Map

Have a party missing from our map? E-mail us.

Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor announced today that Michael Cohen, the current director of the state administration section of the Legislative Analyst's Office, will be promoted to deputy legislative analyst. There are two such positions in the nonpartisan fiscal policy agency.

Cohen will oversee the policy areas of K-12 education, higher education, and state administration, according to the LAO.

Special interests have now poured more than $10 million into influencing the results of tomorrow's legislative elections, according to a new report from the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Here are the top six races, by spending, according to the FPPC:

- The 19th Senate District ($2,319,622)

- The 15th Assembly District ($1,781,233)
- The 78th Assembly District ($1,764,046)
- The 80th Assembly District ($1,526,785)
- The 10th Assembly District ($1,413,451)
- The 30th Assembly District ($1,228,541)

Two of those districts -- AD 15 and AD 10 -- are in the Sacramento region (click the links for overviews of those races).

Here are the biggest spenders, according to the FPPC:

- Opportunity PAC, which is funded by labor unions, $1,776,885.

- Californians for Jobs and Education, which is primarily funded by the California Chamber of Commerce: $1,443,028.
- The California Alliance: a coalition of attorneys, conservationists and nurses, $908,564.
- The California Dental Association: $893,023
- Committee for Working Families, which is funded by labor unions: $617,617

Grass Valley police are unsure if it was a sick Halloween prank or a gross political statement.

But Friday night, a campaign worker for Democratic 4th Congressional District candidate Charlie Brown discovered a severed sheep's head outside the local offices for the Brown campaign and Democratic Party.

Grass Valley Sgt. Doug Hren said it was removed soon after by animal control officers. He said police have no suspects.

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has stayed far away from the campaigns for and against Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban on the Nov. 4 ballot.

But that doesn't mean the campaigns have stayed far from him.

Politico.com posts a mailer from the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign with a prominent photo of Obama next to a quote saying, "I'm not in favor of gay marriage."

The quote is accurate. Obama has said that he is personally opposed to gay marriage. But the Illinois Democrats is also opposed to Proposition 8, which he has called "divisive."

The Yes on 8 campaign mailer appears targeted to black Democratic voters. On the back side (not posted by Politico), it features quotes and pictures of four African AMerican church leaders opposing Proposition 8.

"Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are the only Democratic presidential candidate that support gay marriage," the mailer reads.

The No on 8 campaign has countered with a final television ad that touts the support of Obama.

Watch the ad after the jump:

Correction: The original version of this story said that state Treasurer Bill Lockyer had declined to take a position on the three law-and-order ballot measures on the Nov. 4 ballot. That is not true. He was opposed to Proposition 5, as we reported here.

In Capitol Alert's survey of potential 2010 candidates for governor, several interesting facts emerged.

Among them:

The state's former top cop has declined to take a position on two of the three law-and-order measures on the ballot. The closer a candidate is to being a frontrunner the less likely he or she was to take a stand on anything. And not much separates the Democrats who participated - they largely agreed on the issues.

Capitol Alert set out to get all the potential candidates for governor of California in 2010 to declare their positions on the 2008 statewide ballot measures..

Not surprisingly, some politicians were more accommodating than others.

All told, we surveyed eleven political figures whose names are floating as potential 2010 candidates (three Republicans and eight Democrats).

They range from Lt. John Garamendi, who has already announced his candidacy, to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who still faces reelection and has said he does not want to run.

Four of our list of candidates chose not to participate: Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, Attorney General Jerry Brown and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The positions we report below are the stands they had previously taken publicly.

Read our analysis of some of the most interesting findings among the would-be governors' positions.

Bill Stall, the Sacramento-based Pulitzer-prize winning editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times, has died. He was 71.

The Times has an obituary here.

The paper has posted his editorial series on California governance that won the Pulitzer here.

From the Times' obituary:

Over the weekend, Survey USA, the robo-polling operation, released a new poll showing Proposition 4 trailing with 40 percent support, a tight Proposition 8 campaign and Proposition 11 lagging with 36 percent support (and 35 percent still undecided).

Here are the numbers:

Proposition 4 (abortion notification)
Yes: 40 percent
No: 46
Undecided: 14

Proposition 8 (gay marriage)
Yes: 47percent
No: 50
Undecided: 3

Proposition 11 (redistricting)
Yes: 39 percent
No: 26
Undecided: 35

The poll had a margin of error of 4 percent.

Survey USA says: "Proposition 4 and Proposition 8 could go either way."

Freshman Democratic Rep. Laura Richardson opened her personal financial records up for her hometown paper, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, to show that she is no longer deficient on loans for any of her properties.

The Long Beach congresswoman has faced much scrutiny since earlier this year, when it was reported that she hadn't paid the bills on a Sacramento home, which had since been foreclosed on. It later came out that she had defaulted on other properties, as well.

Richardson said all is well now, according to the Press-Telegram.

"What I wanted to show you is everything is currently in order and has been resolved," she told the paper. "I have not been perfect, but I've learned from my mistakes, and I am working very hard."

Past Richardson Chronicles:
Richardson's Sac home now a 'nuisance'
Richardson gets her house back
Richardson's ride is costliest in House
Rep. Richardson didn't pay her car bills, either
More Laura Richardson news
Richardson foreclosure story grows

Photo credit: Brian Baer, Sacramento Bee, May 10, 2007

Reminder: You have until midnight tonight to enter our elections quiz.

Get election news updates on your mobile phone. On Tuesday, receive breaking news updates on national, state and local races. Set it up now by texting "CAPALERT" to 72737.

In 2006, the Democratic wave that swept across the nation stopped at the Sierra.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger trounced Democrat Phil Angelides atop the California ticket and not a single legislative seat flipped to the Democrats.

But with one day until the 2008 elections, California Democrats are sounding increasingly confident they will pick up seats in the state Assembly this time around

"The landscape looks like people want Democrats to represent them," said Matt Reilly, the director of Assembly Democrats' election efforts, last month.

The map of competitive Assembly seats tilts heavily in the Democrats' favor this year. As do new voter registrations.

Democrats are defending only a single seat -- that of termed-out Assemblywoman Nicole Parra -- while on the offensive in nearly a half-dozen districts.

The key GOP-held seats up for grabs are AD 15 (Guy Houston), AD 78 (Shirley Horton) and AD 80 (Bonnie Garcia).

With the GOP incumbents termed out of all of those races, Democrats believe they have a legitimate shot at all three.

Meanwhile, with Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama up by 22 points in the latest Field Poll, Democrats are trying to further expand the playing field.

Independent spending has surged in AD 10 (Alan Nakanishi), and the party has sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into AD 26 (Greg Aghazarian).

All told, the party would need to pick up six seats in the Assembly to achieve a two-thirds supermajority -- still a big long-shot.

Last week, Art Torres, the chair of the state Democratic party, wrote on a liberal blog about the downsides of an Obama landslide.

"Is there a chance, even a small chance, that if (Democrats) hadn't voted by 6 p.m., people you know just might not vote at all? Maybe they'll just be tired after a long day at work," he wrote.

Those are the kinds of fears party leaders love to have.

Underdog Democratic candidate Linda Jones is running to replace termed-out Assemblywoman Sharon Runner of Lancaster. She is up against GOP nominee Steve Knight, the son of the former state lawmaker, in a district that hasn't has a Democrat in a generation.

But Jones is still hoping.

"I've got my bogeyboard ready for the Obama-Biden wave," she says.

Photo: Billabong Odyssey invitee Californian Mike Parsons is hoping to ride a 100-foot wave. Credit: Bill Sharp/ AP Photo

Propositions 1A, 4, and 10 are clinging to a narrow lead, but each are below the 50 percent mark needed for passage, according to the latest Field Poll. Proposition 12, the veterans bond, appears headed for victory while Proposition 3, the children's hospital bond, has moved above 50 percent support.

As usual, find the poll's exclusive statistical tabulations only on Capitol Alert.