TGIF after a long week of Maldonado confirmation drama?
Not so fast.
With Assembly Democrats asserting that they rejected his bid, and the governor and his pick pledging to go ahead with the swearing in, it looks like political junkies following the fight will have no shortage of fodder in the coming weeks.
Missed the action? Watch this video with some of the responses.
On to another brewing battle, plans are taking shape for the three Republicans vying to challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer to come together for a late-March debate.
Brandman University professor Mike Moodian tells Capitol Alert that he's invited Republican candidates Tom Campbell, Chuck DeVore and Carly Fiorina to square off on the campus of the university's sister school, Chapman University. Campbell and DeVore are on board and Fiorina's camp is expected to respond by early next week, he said.
Like the GOP gubernatorial debate Brandman hosted last fall, which Campbell participated in as a then guv-hopeful, this debate will integrate some questions submitted via Twitter. Also like last time, Bee columnist Dan Walters will join Moodian as a co-moderator.
"We think particularly with the Twitter angle, it's an effective way to engage the citizenry," Moodian said. "This would be a good opportunity for the candidates to come to Orange County and debate the issues ... roughly five or six weeks before the vote-by-mail ballots are sent out."
The debate, tentatively titled "America in the 21st Century," will include questions on a range of policy issues, Moodian said.
Getting back to today's events, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Vancouver, B.C., to participate in the Olympic Torch relay leading up to the opening ceremony of the Winter Games.
He'll also meet with Canadian and U.S. officials who are members of the Pacific Coast Collaborative to discuss environmental and economic issues affecting the Pacific Coast region.
BALLOT WATCH: Officials for Repair California, the group behind a proposal to call a constitutional convention, are holding a mid-morning presser in San Francisco.
The news conference comes two days after supporters said a lack of funding had forced them to scale back their effort to qualify their initiatives for the November ballot.
PHOTO CREDIT: Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Speaker-Elect John A. Pérez, walk by Sen. Abel Maldonado, after they changed their votes to "No" from "Not Voting" during Maldonado's confirmation vote. Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee
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