Capitol Alert

Meg Whitman's gubernatorial campaign has chosen Sarah Pompei, a former deputy communications director for the California Republican Party, as its new press secretary.

Pompei most recently was the press secretary for Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns and communications director for his senatorial campaign. She previously worked as deputy press secretary for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. A native of Santa Monica, she is a graduate of UC Berkeley.

"Sarah has top-notch campaign experience in some of the most competitive races in the country," said Whitman's communications director Tucker Bounds.

"Our campaign couldn't ask for a more effective communicator to have on board," he added.

Media Matters for America, a liberal news media watchdog, is castigating MSNBC for interviewing former Congressman Tom Campbell about California's budget crisis without identifying him as a Republican.

"During a discussion about the California budget crisis on the July 8 edition of MSNBC's Morning Meeting, host Dylan Ratigan interviewed former Rep. Tom Campbell (R-CA), but at no point disclosed that Campbell is a Republican," Media Matters said in a report. "Ratigan introduced Campbell as "a former California state budget director" and 'currently an economics and law professor at Chapman University,' and also stated that Campbell has 'the best budget familiarity.' During the segment, on-screen text also stated that Campbell is 'considering running for governor of California;' indeed, Campbell is currently seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination."

Media Matters describes itself as an organization aimed at rooting out conservative bias in the media. Its full report on the Campbell interview is accessible here.

J.F.K. had the space race. Today, San Francisco Mayor and wannabe governor Gavin Newsom is hyping the "Great Electrical Vehicle Race."

In a speech for Gas 2.0 media, a blogosphere outfit promoting alternative fuel technologies, Newsom pitched a plan to make his city the nation's "epicenter" for electric cars.

The New York Times Magazine took a tour of the left coast, including a conversational jaunt with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some rhetorical tanning time with likely gubernatorial contenders Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner and Tom Campbell.

The magazine's July 5 story, featuring Newsom as the cover boy with the text, "The Gavinator?!?!, asks in its headline: "Who can possibly govern California?"

In the lengthy piece, writer Mark Leibovich offers some pointed observations on the present governor and his potential replacements.

On Schwarzenegger:

- Schwarzenegger reclined deeply in his chair, lighted an eight-inch cigar and declared himself "perfectly fine," despite the fiscal debacle and personal heartsickness all around him. "Someone else might walk out of here every day depressed, but I don't walk out of here depressed," Schwarzenegger said. Whatever happens, "I will sit down in my Jacuzzi tonight," he said. "I'm going to lay back with a stogie."

On Brown:

- An unlikely grown-up in the field, Jerry Brown recently dubbed himself the Apostle of Common Sense...Brown credited Schwarzenegger with "making the job of governor bigger"...I asked Brown if he added size to the governor's office during his two terms..."I don't know he said. I added some...dimension to the job." "Dementia," (wife) Anne (Gust) said, laughing. "No, dimension," Jerry clarified.

On Newsom:

- There is indeed about Newsom something of that quintessential California type, the overgrown and hyperactive child. Immensely gifted but flawed, he is a jumble of self-regard, self-confidence and self-immolation - potential greatness and a potential train wreck in the same metrosexual package."

On Whitman:

- Whitman is probably the early leader in the "Why this Place is Such a Mess" campaign. The state is "bleeding jobs," she says. It is "effectively bankrupt."...Whitman's campaign message is "A New California." ("Thank God for West Virginia and Mississippi" didn't test well, apparently.)

On Poizner:

- Poizner faces many obstacles. For starters, he is the state's insurance commissioner, which is hardly an electoral launching pad. He also looks like a state insurance commissioner (bookish, with a beakish nose) and is little known, and his name sounds like "poison."

On Campbell:

- Of the three Republicans, Campbell is by far the most socially liberal - he calls himself libertarian - and the only one who opposed Proposition 8. His positioning on social and fiscal issues probably aligns him most closely with many of the potential voters and donors from Silicon Valley whom Whitman and Poizner are competing for.

If anyone takes seriously the internal campaign memos being circulated by the gubernatorial teams for Republicans Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, they might conclude that neither of these Silicon Valley titans has a chance of victory.

At least, that is the point that each side is trying to drive home about the other.

According to a memo today by Whitman campaign consultants Henry Gomez and Jeff Randle, Poizner is simply going nowhere in this race.

"There are several early indications that Steve Poizner's candidacy is not viable," the team Whitman memo reads. "In a span of a single-campaign reporting period, Steve Poizner, the race's early entrant, has gone from being the whispered frontrunner to a candidate who is struggling to keep valuable endorsements, articulate a message and raise the resources necessary to compete."

On June 30, Poizner's campaign manager Jim Bognet sent his team a missive that declared that "Whitman's campaign clearly lacks confidence in its candidate.

"Her handlers go to great lengths to shield her from press interviews," Bognet writes. "...If a candidate can't handle some basic questions from the Bakersfield Californian, then they are going to have a very tough time going toe-to-toe with Jerry Brown. It's just that simple."

A safe bet is that each camp is firing up the already converted and mapping out a political business plan for would-be donors and new recruits.

In Whitman's case, her team touts her contributions haul of $6.5 million (on top of $4 million from her own checkbook), support of big name pols from former Gov. Pete Wilson to former GOP nominee John McCain and backing of prominent fundraisers from John Chambers of Cisco Systems to Carol Bartz of Yahoo.

Team Poizner touts a "grass roots strategy" with support from nine former California Republican Party chairmen and members of local party committees "who influence the outcome of Republican primaries." Poizner, who has pumped $4.2 million of his own money into his campaign, has also raised another $1.2 million.

Despite each camp's claims that its rival is drowning politically, there will be millions of reasons - er, dollars - to ensure that each will be more than buoyant for considerable time to come.

Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, said today that her committee has raised more than $6.5 million since her campaign began earlier this year, while her top Democratic rival, Attorney General Jerry Brown, says he's banked a cool $7.3 million.

Whitman boasted that though she was the last Republican candidate to form an exploratory committee, she's ahead of her rivals and also claimed she has attracted contributions from every corner of California.  

The $6.5 million raised by Whitman's team is in addition to the $4 million of her own money that she has pumped into her campaign.

Team Whitman's spin: "This unprecedented outpouring of support for Meg confirms the demand for a new style of leadership that creates jobs, cuts wasteful spending, and effectively manages state government," said former Gov. Pete Wilson, Whitman's campaign chairman. "Meg's appeal reaches far beyond just traditional Republicans. She is attracting new donors and new voters to expand our party at a critical time ."  

Two new additions to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial campaign:

* Ricky Le, political director. Le most recently served as executive director of the California Democratic congressional delegation and was a senior adviser to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose).

* Abbe Ross, chief operating officer. Ross directed operations in multiple states for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Already on the team:

* Garry South, senior adviser
* Eric Jaye, campaign director
* Nick Clemons, campaign manager
* Paige Barry, finance director
* Benenson Strategy Group, polling

Steve Poizner's gubernatorial campaign chairman, former state Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte, is taking a swipe at the idea that Meg Whitman's experience as chief executive officer of eBay qualifies her to be governor of California.

In a letter to legislators backing Poizner, Brulte says of Whitman: "Though she has much to offer, her campaign is once again proving why first time candidate business executives never win."

Brulte adds: "Like Democrat Steve Westly, Meg is running based on her experience at eBay. Voters were unmoved by the millions of dollars Westly spent touting eBay's success (in a 2006 gubernatorial run)...as Republicans will be too. Voters simply don't buy the connection that running an online auction company is the best training ground for our next governor. And never in modern history has there been a worse time to be running on the 'corporate CEO' brand."

But it is not as if Poizner hasn't run on his own corporate brand.

In 2006, he pitched his business acumen to win election as state insurance commissioner, five years after selling his SnapTrak Inc. -- a developer of global positioning technology for cellphones -- for $1 billion.

In the battle of Silicon Valley billionaires, Team Whitman spokesman Mitch Zak responded to Brulte's missive by touting her endorsements and business savvy.

"I think Pete Wilson would disagree with his friend Jim Brulte strongly. So would John McCain. So would Mitt Romney," Zak said. "These folks all know what it takes to be leaders in government and are convinced Meg Whitman would be the best choice. She's helped create millions of jobs and build organizations. If they're interested in a side-by-side, Steve Poizner vs. Meg Whitman, we'll take that discussion every day of the week and twice on Sunday."

Antonio Villaraigosa's decision to honor his L.A. mayoral gig and not to run for governor had just given Gavin Newsom a chance to own the stage as the new generation challenger to likely Democratic favorite Jerry Brown.

And yet the San Francisco mayor seemed melancholy when asked at a Tuesday presser in the City about his L.A. colleague.

"I called him yesterday and obviously it was a tough decision for him to make," Newsom said of Villaraigosa, a veteran lawmaker and former Assembly speaker. "...In spite of some of the punditry, Antonio Villaraigosa and I have always gotten along and I admire his stewardship and his commitment. He has been in office for decades and has served, I think, very, very well."

Newsom, who said he was "surprised, but not shocked" by Villaraigosa's announcement demurred on whether he thought he now has a better chance of getting elected governor with the L.A. mayor out of the race.

"People like me should not answer those questions," Newsom said.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will announce his gubernatorial plans at 1 p.m. today on CNN -- at least that's what Wolf Blitzer and his people think.

CNN's publicity machine asid Villaraigosa will make the call on Blitzer's "The Situation Room."

Villaraigosa's spokesman told the AP that the mayor indeed would appear on the show.

State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has bolstered his gubernatorial campaign team by hiring three campaign veterans who worked for GOP presidential candidates John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

Audrey Perry, hired as Poizner's new deputy campaign manager, is a Georgetown University law graduate who served as campaign finance counsel for McCain-Palin 2008 and as deputy counsel for the Romney for president campaign.

Poizner's new gubernatorial campaign policy director Lanhee Chen is a Harvard law graduate who served as the domestic policy director for Romney's White House bid.

New Poizner communications director Jarrod Agen was the California spokesman and western regional communications coordinator for the Giuliani for president campaign.

The three new hires join a Poizner-for-governor team that includes campaign chairman and former state Senate Republican leader Jim Brulte, political strategist Stuart Stevens of The Stevens and Schriefer Group, campaign manager Jim Bognet, finance director Julie Westlake and senior adviser Kevin Spillane.

First, Attorney General Jerry Brown, who used to be California governor, stridently announced in a fundraising e-mail that California's budget mess is causing him to "think seriously about running for governor again." Translation: You can count on it.

Now, the campaign manager for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who's already declared his candidacy, is seeking to raise fundage by selling "glimmers of hope from San Francisco" as an antidote for "the terrible news from Sacramento."

In a memo called "Why We Organize," Newsom for California director Eric Jaye pitches Newsom's "smart budgeting" as mayor in dealing with San Francisco's own fiscal crisis.

Jaye also sells Newsom's role in helping implement universal health care in San Francisco and links to a Newsom interview on MSNBC.

The MSNBC host charitably bills Newsom's on-going work on the Healthy San Francisco program as a model for Washington.

Newsom, who's trying to become the first San Francisco mayor elected governor of California since James "Sunny Jim" Rolph in 1930, will likely be happy enough just making it to Sacramento.

In interviews with political scribes ever ready to report on his expected encore bid for governor in 2010, Jerry Brown routinely lets it be known that he just might stick around for another term as attorney general.

But in a recent fundraising letter, Brown treads into perhaps his most serious discussion on returning to Sacramento to take charge once again.

"I like my current job and truly believe we are getting important things done," Brown says in the letter. "Yet, when I see the mess in Sacramento and think about all the people who are suffering as a result, I think seriously about running for governor again. It is rather amazing that the same issues are still front and center: water, energy, prisons, education and, of course, living within our means."

And so Brown seeks donations to "build a movement - of truth, of creativity, of inclusion."

He warns of "well-funded Republicans" (that would mean Silicon Valley billionaires Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner) "spending their own wealth on hundred million dollar plus campaigns" that threaten "a hostile takeover of the airwaves during the next governor's campaign."

He also talks about his former days as governor when "the schools were good" and "the state wasn't broke."

But he demurs on jumping in just yet.

"Before I make a final decision, I would like to know if it's possible to build a large base of supporters from every part of the state and even beyond," Brown writes.

He adds: "Whether I seek re-election as attorney general or the governorship, I intend to do everything I can to turn this state around."

It seems like a pretty safe bet that it won't be as attorney general.

The campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman trotted out a new endorsement Monday -- Orange County Rep. John Campbell. That's not exactly news, except for the fact that Campbell previously endorsed another GOP candidate -- Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

Here's what Campbell said in a Whitman press release today:

"Meg Whitman is the best candidate to effectively manage our state, establish fiscal discipline in Sacramento and usher in the pro-growth tax relief our economy desperately needs."

Here's what Campbell said in a Poizner press release on Dec. 19:

"Steve is the right man at the right time for California. As our nation grapples with so many complex and difficult issues, we need leaders like Steve who have the ability to develop innovative solutions."

So what gives?

It seems that Campbell has had a change of heart and now thinks that Whitman is the right woman at the right time.

"Meg Whitman was not in the race when Congressman Campbell endorsed Steve Poizner, and at the time, he had not even met her," explained Campbell's spokesman Brent Hall. "He withdrew his endorsement of Steve Poizner in January and has remained neutral until now."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may be unwilling to totally kill off speculation he is going to run for governor. But a vote by the United States Conference of Mayors today suggests that he has other plans.

In the mayors' national convention in Providence, Villaraigosa was elected as the organization's second vice-president for 2009-2010. Under the guidelines of the Conference, he would then become first vice-president in 2010-2011 and president of the organization in 2011-2012.

"Everybody understands that once you get elected, you automatically move up," said Elena Temple, communications director for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

There may still be time for Villaraigosa to bolt the gig. But some political consultants privately suggest that Villaraigosa has already waited too long to raise enough money to kick off a gubernatorial run. His election by Conference of Mayors will only increase talk that he is not interested in moving up in California.

His new mayoral duties come after a Sacramento television reporter asked Villaraigosa at a Capitol press conference last week whether another dating relationship with a Los Angeles television anchor - though not as a married man this time - could impact any future gubernatorial plans.

"I don't think it is going to have any impact whatsoever," Villaraigosa answered crisply.

Later, in an interview, Villaraigosa said he was too centered on Los Angeles' fiscal crisis and his civic responsibilities to worry about the next political step or even a time frame for making a decision.

"Right now, I'm not focusing on the governor's race whatsoever," he said.

Sooner or later, people may start to believe him.

Attorney General Jerry Brown should immediately return $52,500 in campaign contributions he's received from relatives and a company of two men his office is investigating in the public pension fund corruption probe, Steve Poizner's gubernatorial campaign said today.

"Brown's unethical conduct and arrogance undermines the credibility and integrity of the Attorney General's office and is a disservice to the civil service professionals who seek to serve the people of California,"  the Poizner for Governor campaign said in a statement.

Poizner's campaign was reacting to a story in today's Bee. Click here to read it.

Brown's spokesman Scott Gerber told The Bee on Tuesday that the attorney general had no intention of returning the campaign contributions. 

John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist, said Tuesday the campaign contributions may become a problem for Brown, but ethics expert Robert Stern said he wasn't as troubled as Pitney.

To back its own call for Brown to return the donations, Poizner's campaign cited past statements Brown has made about campaign contributions and their influence on him.  

A new communications launch is readying for Meg Whitman's gubernatorial team.

Look for Tucker Bounds, the former chief spokesman for John McCain's presidential campaign, to head a list of new hires for an amped up Whitman communications squad.

The Meg communications effort 2.0 will likely be unveiled sometime this week when team Whitman opens a new campaign headquarters in Cupertino.

Whitman's team already includes Sacramento's Randle Communications (and capital-based senior strategist Rob Stutzman with Navigators Global), Former San Jose Mercury News political scribe Mary Anne Ostrom also recently signed on with Whitman's communications team.

Ever since Gavin Newsom opened San Francisco's City Hall to same-sex weddings in 2004, he hasn't shied away from the political, legal and social firestorm he helped fuel.

Yet the San Francisco mayor's gubernatorial campaign has also been working doggedly to shed his single-issue candidate persona. Newsom and his handlers have tried to advance his image as a "hard-headed pragmatist" who gets things done, who reshaped San Francisco with green buildings and new housing and now is making tough city budget choices amid California's fiscal crisis.

But when the California Supreme Court affirmed the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage --while preserving 18,000 same-sex marriages already performed -- Newsom retook center stage on the issue. And despite a renewed flurry of news stories speculating whether he can define himself more broadly, his campaign increasingly sees the marriage issue as a winner in the Democratic primary.

"We're not backing away from the issue," Newsom's senior campaign adviser, Garry South, said today. "Newsom has made it clear over and over again that he will stand where he is on same-sex marriage. In the Democratic primary, this is an issue that I think will propel him to victory. Far from shying away from it, it is a major, major part of who he is and who he will be as governor."

On the day of the Supreme Court ruling, Newsom appeared nationally on CNN's Larry King to declare that the court's support for legal civil unions is not enough. "Separate is not equal," he said of the marriage debate. "A word does matter."

South argues that will be particularly true in the Democratic primary, where Newsom's stand may give him sway with Democrats who voted 68 percent to 34 percent against Proposition 8 -- which passed statewide 52 percent to 48 percent. He will likely compare his standing on the issue with that of Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, who filed unsuccessful court briefs arguing that Proposition 8 violated an "inalienable right to liberty" under the state constitution.

The Newsom camp is clearly wagering that the mayor will have more street cred in the primary as the man who took on the gay marriage issue first -- and longest. It also making another, perhaps riskier, calculation that the issue won't hurt him if he becomes a general election candidate.

South points to a 2008 CNN post-election poll that showed independent voters opposing Prop 8, 54 percent to 46 percent. The way his political theory plays out is that a Republican gubernatorial candidate needs 60 percent of California's "decline to state" vote in order to win in the blue state.

"It's pretty hard to see how you're are going to do that if you are demagoguing on same-sex marriage," South said.

Meanwhile, the issue may prove tricky in the Republican primary because none of the current GOP candidates is staking out a position clearly in concert with social conservatives.

Meg Whitman, who supported Prop 8, also said the same-sex marriages performed before the initiative's passage should stand. Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner -- who also supported the gay marriage ban -- back civil unions, a position still out of touch with many conservatives. And Campbell took an even greater risk with Republicans voters, who overwhelmingly supported Prop 8. Shorly before the election, he penned an editorial calling for a "no" vote, declaring that "discrimination at any level is bad for business."

But whether Proposition 8 is good for gubernatorial politics is a question soon to be answered.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who during his presidential campaign called Meg Whitman one of the three wisest people he would turn to for counsel, came to California today stumping for Whitman's campaign for governor.

"I think Meg Whitman represents everything that is necessary in America," McCain said as the pair appeared together in Tustin. He said her election as California's first female governor could revigorate a Republican party trying to reflect an image of inclusiveness and recapture its lost national standing.

Los Angeles KCAL-9 television aired this video clip.

It's official. Well, not yet.

The Associated Press is reporting that Meg Whitman, the former eBay chief who would be governor, will pick up Sen. John McCain's endorsement on Friday at an event in Orange County, according to Whitman spokesman Mitch Zak.

Whitman and McCain are scheduled to host a town hall meeting Friday morning at the Marconi Auto Museum in Tustin.

The Arizona senator, the press release says, "will also be making an announcement regarding the 2010 California gubernatorial election."

Maybe Whitman will also be saying more about her plans for the state work force -- and the political appointments that California governors get to make.

Star Republican Meg Whitman, who is considering a run for governor in 2010, is the subject of an enthusiastic cover story in the latest issue of The Weekly Standard.

We've all heard how she will chainsaw the state work force by between 30,000 and 40,000 jobs.

Now, she's talking about cutting the pork that goes part and parcel with winning the state's highest political office.

After saying that the governor has the power to make 4,000 political appointments to state boards and commissions, Whitman reportedly mused out loud:  "Think about that for a minute. I mean, 4,000 appointments? First of all, what do these people do? Maybe you only need 2,000."

Written by the conservative magazine's executive editor Fred Barnes, the report tells how Whitman wants to bring what she learned as the very successful chief executive of the Internet giant to state government in Sacramento.

Toward the end of the piece, Whitman also discusses how technology must be used to boost efficiency and improve operations. Yet, she says Sacramento, the state capital, "is the most inward looking place I've ever seen."
 
Noting that information technology, constantly updated, runs eBay's global empire, she laments the condition of the state's own tech infrastructure, saying  it's "stuck in 1982.  .  .  ."

" We run 17 financial systems at the state on 1982 Oracle financials. We don't actually know what the high school graduation rate is because we don't have the IT infrastructure that tracks the kids," she told Barnes.

Barnes speculates (rather wildly) that if Whitman can win and fix California, it won't be long before she makes a spirited run for the oval office.  To read the full story, click here.

Check out some video of the Steve Poizner/Tom Campbell debate at The Sacramento Press Club.

State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is letting Silicon Valley rival Meg Whitman have it for declining to show up at a May 18 Sacramento debate on the special election ballot initiatives.

"Will she debate? Will she speak out?" shouts a YouTube video that the Poizner campaign put out. The answer, in music from the classic hit, "Tell Her No," by the Zombies: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Whitman's spokesman Mitch Zak said the former eBay CEO passed on Poizner's invitation to debate the initiatives the day before the May 19 election because she considered it a pointless exercise. The Republican candidates -- including former Rep. Tom Campbell -- are in general agreement against the initiatives.

In response to Poizner's video, the Whitman camp accused Poizner of dragging his feet by failing to respond to her invitations for three future GOP primary debates.

"What to you want us to say? 'I'm more opposed to Proposition 1A than you are?' " Zak said of Poizner's special election invite. "If you really want to debate, let's do three -- Northern California, Southern California and the Central Valley -- and let's get them on the calendar."

Poizner spokesman Kevin Spillane said the Whitman campaign stance is "intellectually dishonest."

"If she's willing to debate she could join Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner next Monday at the Sacramento Press Club," Spillane said. "It's already on the schedule. It's time for Meg to stop dodging debates and ducking questions."

Meg Whitman's gubernatorial campaign remade her web page Sunday in honor of her 88-year-old mother, Margaret Whitman, and told the story of the American Red Cross volunteer who went to work as a mechanic on airplanes and trucks during World War II.

"Rosie the Riveter sort of paved the way for Meg the Manager," Meg Whitman says in the Mother's Day profile.

Margaret Whitman, who lives in Boston, was deployed to New Guinea for the Red Cross when she took on some additional responsibilities when she found out the military base needed mechanics.

"She'd never looked under the hood of a car or fixed anything with a wrench," Meg Whitman said in the profile. "But she knew that's where the critical need was and where she could make the biggest contribution. The learning curve didn't stall her, but in fact, if fueled her."

Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, is now dipping into her personal fortune to fuel her campaign for governor. Whitman on Thursday will speak to the Roseville Chamber of Commerce and field audience questions. She will appear at a private Sacramento event Wednesday night at the home of Bob White, chief of staff for ex-Gov. Pete Wilson. Also in attendance will be the former governor.

On The Capitol Hour With Eric Hogue today, the excitement over a potential Tom McClintock bid for governor cascaded over the airwaves like splashing whitewater from a heavy Sierra snow melt.

"This could be the positive, perfect storm for the conservatives," Hogue said as he opened his noon-1 p.m. program. He fired up listeners on "intelligent conservative talk" KTKZ AM 1380 over internet chatter suggesting that 4th District Rep. McClintock may indeed contemplate a 2010 run against perceived party moderates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.

Hogue said three sources told him that polling for the race is underway on McClintock's behalf.

But then McClintock doused the story.

"I just want to make it very clear that there is absolutely no truth whatsoever to any rumor I am considering running for governor," he said in a phone call to Capitol Alert. "I have not done any polling and I have not wavered from my position that, if nominated, I will not run and, if elected, I will not serve. I don't know how I can make it any plainer or clearer than that."

Oh, well.

At least Hogue and his listeners could dream for an hour as the host carefully laid out his "perfect storm" scenario for a McClintock assent:

1. McClintock is finally able to raise significant dollars due to connections from his congressional perch.

2. The GOP base is riled up over the California fiscal crisis and is ready to turn to its conservative lion.

3. The Democrats will likely nominate Jerry Brown in "the return of Moonbeam."

"If you want stark contrasts you would have it in Tom vs. Jerry," Hogue said.

The host insists it would make a great political show for California.

The only drawback is that McClintock insists he's not tuning in.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner on Thursday challenged his two GOP rivals, Tom Campbell and Meg Whitman, to debate the May 19 budget ballot measures.

"Surely all three of us can spare an hour for each debate in order to better inform the voters about both our individual positions but also the ballot measures," Poizner wrote of his two proposed hour-long debates in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Campbell, a former state budget director and member of Congress, heartily accepted.

"I enthusiastically look forward to the opportunity to debate both Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner on these important ballot measures," he replied, challenging his opponents to detail "what they propose as a realistic solution to our budget crisis if they oppose" the measures.

Campbell supports Propositions 1A, 1D and 1E.

Whitman declined the invite. "Given the fact that we both stand strongly in opposition to Propositions 1A, 1B, and 1C ‐- the most critical of the Special Election measures -‐ and considering that the California Republican Party shares this position, I think we can do more for California by continuing to speak out across the state against these measures," she wrote to Poizner, ignoring the fact that Campbell supports 1A.

So will Poizner and Campbell just debate each other? A hearty, yes, says Poizner spokesman Kevin Spillane.

"We will gladly debate Tom Campbell even if Meg Whitman is uninterested in sharing her views with the people of California," said Spillane, adding that Poizner opposes all the measures "on principle," calling them a bad "backroom deal."

No date has been set. Here are their positions:

Whitman
1A Oppose
1B Oppose
1C Oppose
1D Support
1E Support
1F Support

Campbell
1A Support
1B Oppose
1C Oppose
1D Support
1E Support
1F Oppose

Poizner
1A Oppose
1B Oppose
1C Oppose
1D Oppose
1E Oppose
1F Oppose

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has a video on her web page for a brand new political product she calls MEGa WOMEN.

It may sound like a vitamin supplement. But Whitman hopes it is the start of an empowerment movement for women - one that may help her become the first woman to secure a Republican gubernatorial nomination in California.

Whitman's campaign said she is forming a panel of women "from the worlds of politics, education, business, philanthropy and the arts" to participate in interactive forums and town hall discussions on solving California's challenges.

She has named two Republican women to lead the "coalition." Jillian Manus, president of Manus & Associates Media and Literary Agency in Palo Alto is new MEGa WOMEN chair. Julie Vandermost, CEO of Vandermost Consulting Service, an environmental firm in Orange County, is the new "grassroots coordinator."

Other advisors to Whitman's women's advisory group include former lawmaker and state education secretary Marian Bergeson, Rep. Mary Bono Mack, Assemblywoman Connie Conway, Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully, former Ambassador Susan McCaw, former Assemblywomen Sharon Runner and Charlene Zettel, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Heidi Roizen.

My colleague Peter Hecht has posted a story on sacbee.com about the two contrasting speeches by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Jerry Brown this morning to the California Democratic Party convention.

Brown spoke without a script, while Newsom's speech was pre-written.

Here's a copy of Newsom's speech, as prepared:

Past and would-be future Gov. Jerry Brown is holding fast to his insistence that -- like former California Gov. Earl Warren -- he won't announce any election bid until after the first fall or winter snowfall in the Sierra.

But with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom formally announcing for the 2010 race on Tuesday, veteran Democratic Party sage John Burton stopped Brown in a bustling corridor at the state party convention in Sacramento today and asked what he should be telling friends about Brown's aspirations.

"John, tell them you can speak confidently because you know the family," Brown told him. "And they like to run for governor."

So, unless there is searing drought in the Sierra, it looks like he's in.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who stirred California's battle over gay marriage by opening City Hall to same-sex weddings in 2004, is suggesting another front in the marriage fight.

Newsom told attendees at a gay and lesbian political caucus at the state Democratic Party's annual convention today that he wants the U.S. Census to count same-sex couples who say they are married.

"When we go out and do the Census, people are going to be asked if they are married and same-sex couples will say, 'Yes,' " said Newsom, a newly minted candidate for governor. "And when the Census people analyze the data and go back to their computers they'll say, 'No.'

"The gay and lesbian community will not be counted unless we also fight for that change."

Here's Rex Babin's latest cartoon:

Related: Speaking of which, I'm Twittering all weekend about the California Democratic Party convention.

A private poll gives Attorney General Jerry Brown a 2-to-1 lead over San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the early race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The poll, conducted by Tulchin Research on behalf of the Acosta Salazar political consultants in Sacramento, showed Brown with a 31 percent to 16 percent lead over Newsom. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was third with 12 percent in the survey of 472 likely Democratic primary voters.

A couple thousand California Democratic Party delegates and guests descend on Sacramento today for the party's three-day annual convention.

The party's conference committee will begin tackling difficult internal political questions this afternoon over whether Democrats will officially endorse six May 19 special election measures. To get the party endorsement, the measures need to win a 60 percent vote in a Sunday floor session.

Capitol Alert's Shane Goldmacher, meanwhile, will be at the convention and updating via Twitter.

San Francisco Mayor and gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom and past and would-be future Gov. Jerry Brown will be working supporters and firing up party activists while dropping in on afternoon caucus sessions.

Former state controller and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly will address an Internet technology session. Newsom will also speak at a private luncheon with the Truman Democratic Club of Sacramento. And both Brown and Newsom will be featured speakers on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor and likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa has left word that he's skipping the whole event. His campaign advisers passed along a city press release explaining why the mayor is booked:

"Mayor Villaraigosa today announced that he will convene emergency weekend meetings with union leaders to tackle the City's budget crisis. Talks will focus on ways to close a $530 million budget deficit through shared sacrifice and shared responsibility. The Mayor will begin meetings in City Hall with labor leaders on Friday evening and will continue through the weekend.

"It is imperative that we act now to save jobs and protect services here in Los Angeles. That's why I'm meeting with our City union leaders," Villaraigosa said."We're going to brew a pot of coffee and roll up our sleeves to get it done."

Meanwhile, there will be Democratic Partying in Sacramento.

POLL: A private poll is giving Brown a 2-to-1 lead over Newsom in the early race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman won't be speaking at UCLA.

And whether that is news or no news depends on the eye of the beholder -- or the beholder's politics.

The basic facts are this:

1. UCLA's Anderson School of Management invited Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO, to be its commencement speaker.

2. Some gay and lesbian students and alumni complained, citing Whitman's support of Proposition 8, the November initiative that banned same-sex marriage.

3. Whitman declined the invitation, citing scheduling conflicts.

The political speak offers two options:

1. Whitman's cancellation was a victory for the marriage equality blogosphere. One blog on the Equality California network celebrated the no-show by the "Prop 8 pusher."

This came after Don Haisch, president of the UCLA Anderson Gay and Lesbian Business Alumni protested that the invitation of Whitman "lends support to her view that members of the gay and lesbian community are undeserving of equal treatment under the law."

2. Whitman gets lots of speaking engagements and simply passed because she couldn't fit this one into her schedule. Her campaign spokesman, Mitch Zak, said: "We just declined it because it didn't work out. We get a ton of invitations as you know."

The Whitman campaign said she was never a part of the Prop 8 campaign but disclosed a few days before the election she would vote "yes" on the initiative. Zak pointed out that Whitman supports allowing gay parents to adopt and doesn't believe California should void the thousands of gay marriages already on the books.

So take your pick.

Tom Campbell, the former state budget director and Republican congressman exploring a bid for Congress, recognizes that he's financially overmatched against his mega-rich opponents Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman.

But, in an interview with ABC News, he sees a path to victory in the GOP primary.

"A three-way race is exceptionally more achievable," Campbell said.

And he's looking to the 1998 campaign of Gray Davis -- who sneaked past his better funded opponents who pummeled one another.

"I have precedent for that. It is somewhat ironic. It is Gray Davis beating Al Checchi and Jane Harman in 1998," Campbell said.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is no longer flirting with a run for governor of California -- he's officially in.

The 41-year old mayor announced his bid through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, a sign the mayor intends to make his next-generation appeal a centerpiece of the 2010 campaign.

"I'm a candidate for governor of California because I know we can do better," Newsom says looking straight into the camera in his YouTube announcement video.

The two-term mayor will tour Facebook's headquarters later this afternoon. Newsom has already being "followed" on Twitter by nearly 275,000 people as he has been criss-crossing the state for townhall-style meetings in the last few months. His campaign hopes his new media announcement will directly reach a half-million people by the day's end.

Newsom is the second Democrat to officially join what's expected to be a crowded Democratic field in 2010 to replace the termed-out Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi is an announced candidate and Attorney General Jerry Brown is widely expected to run. Other potential candidates include Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Garamendi, however, is also considering running for a soon-to-be vacant Bay Area congressional seat.

On the Republican side, there are three major contenders exploring runs: former Rep. Tom Campbell, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.

Photo: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom speaks to over 150 people gathered in the library of Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Monday, December 1, 2008. Credit: AP/IJ photo/Alan Dep.

Delegates at this weekend's state California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento are getting a special invitation from Jerry Brown.

Brown will offer tours of the historic state governor's mansion, where his family lived when his father - Pat Brown - was California's governor.

For his part, Jerry Brown chose an apartment across from the Capitol when he was governor.

Now the man with a penchant for austerity is showing a sensitivity to hard economic times. He's billing the mansion tour as the "Recession Reception."

Here's is Brown's e-mail invite:

From: Jerry Brown To: Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 2:16:34 PM Subject: Join me at a "Recession Reception" - Preview

Fellow Democrat,

Just to let you know there will be a Recession Reception at the historic Governor's Mansion at 1526 H Street in downtown Sacramento on Saturday April 25th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm. Besides a couple kegs of beer, chips and salsa, I'll be there to show you around. You may remember, my father was the last governor to live there.

Hope to see you at the convention.

With Respect,

Jerry

Gavin Newsom likes to tell the story of the stunned reaction of his father when he told him in 2004 that he was going to open San Francisco City Hall to gay marriage.

On Sunday night, the San Francisco mayor and gubernatorial candidate told an audience of Placer County Democrats how he emerged as a political lightning rod for the same sex marriage issue.

But on this occasion, Newson's dad, county resident and retired state appellate justice William Newsom, was on hand to verify his son's story. In an interview, he also discussed his own difficult awakening on the issue.

Speaking to about 300 people at the Blue Goose Fruit Shed in Loomis, Newsom, the son, said he decided to do something about gay marriage after hearing President Bush declare his support for a national constitutional amendment to ban same-sex weddings.

He said he called his father in the historic Placer County mining town of Dutch Flat and described his plan to allow San Francisco City officials to marry a lesbian couple. Newson said he intended to grant a marriage license to Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, a couple of 51 years, to force a test case on the issue.

As the young mayor from the traditonal Irish Catholic family telephoned his father, Gavin Newsom said, he felt a chill from the other end of the call.

"When I called my Dad and said guess what we're doing?...I'm not sure that went over that well," Newsom told the Loomis crowd. "At least it didn't sound like it on the other side of the phone. It wasn't an easy thing to do."

In an interview, William Newsom, said he was indeed taken aback. He said his son challenged his personal beliefs - as well as those passed down by his late father, William Newsom Sr., a San Francisco developer, close confidant of former Gov. Pat Brown and devout Catholic.

"My mind was closed," William Newsom said in an interview. "I'm from an Irish Catholic family. My father was a bit nonplussed about this. And I was too."

But he said over the next year or so, his son changed his mind about gay marriage and he came to see it as a matter of equal rights.

"It took awhile," the elder Newsom said. "He changed my mind on it, not by arguing, but he made me think about it....I gradually came around to his point of view. I wasn't prepared for it. But over the last year or so, I've come fully on board."

Gavin Newsom told the crowd that he thought there would be only one same-sex marriage at San Francisco City Hall. The plan was for the city to then sue the state of California to overturn California's ban on gay weddings.

But in February and March of 2004, the city and county of San Francisco went on to issue marriage licenses to some 4,000 gay couples, drawing worldwide attention to the issue and triggering intense political and legal battles in California.

It was a tough sell in Dutch Flat, where William Newsom has lived since the early 1970s.

"A lot of folks are a little nervous about that son of Bill Newsom, that San Francisco mayor," Gavin Newsom said.

But the younger Newsom is a regular in the small Sierra town. After his parents divorced when he was child, he shuttled between his mother's home in Marin County and his father's house in Dutch Flat.

"The reality is that I grew up in Dutch Flat," Newsom said. "I grew up at Dingus McGee's restaurant. I grew up watching the 4th of July parade every year. If any of you haven't been to the 4th of July parade in Dutch Flat, you don't know what you're missing.

"And if you do miss the floats, don't worry because they go by about a dozen times. It's a pretty small town, and it's a pretty small parade."

Gavin Newsom's gubernatorial road show hits one of California's reddest counties on Sunday.

The San Francisco mayor goes live in Placer County at the county Democratic Party's Jefferson Jackson Dinner. The $30-per-person fundraiser runs from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Blue Goose Fruit Shed, 3550 Taylor Road in Loomis.

Newsom's appearance comes after fellow Democrat Charlie Brown narrowly lost last November to Republican Tom McClintock in the historically conservative 4th Congressional District, which extends from Placer and El Dorado counties to the Oregon border. Brown is also expected to attend the event.

Newsom campaign manager Eric Jaye said the mayor intends to campaign in all 58 California counties. "He is not looking at a red California or a blue California. He'll be in every part," Jaye said.

Meg Whitman, the billionaire former CEO of eBay, has added another $2.8 million to her campaign war chest for governor, according to campaign filings made late Thursday.

The Republican ex-businesswoman has now donated a total of $4 million to her campaign.

The Contra Costa Times reports that in a local forum on Thursday Lt. Gov. John Garamendi "all but declared his candidacy" for Congress to fill the soon-to-be vacant seat of Rep. Ellen Tauscher.

Garamendi delivered a short but eloquent speech to several dozen members of the Contra Costa Democratic Central Committee in what turned out to be an impromptu candidates forum with two of the lieutenant governor's potential challengers.

"A lot of you have told me that this congressional district is where I should run, that I have the experience and the background to have an impact in Washington, D.C.," Garamendi said. "So, we're considering it. I'd like to seriously consider it, too."

He made no mention of his gubernatorial campaign during the roughly 20 minutes he spoke.

Meanwhile, Capitol Weekly, without citing any source, reported on Thursday that Garamendi "is getting ready to jump into the Congressional race."

Garamendi is currently running for governor but trails badly in the polls. Should he run for Congress he would face Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord, who has already declared, and potentially Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, who is mulling a run.

With still more than 400 days until votes are cast, the GOP primary for governor is already starting to get dirty.

The campaign of Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner on Thursday accused his rival, former eBay chief Meg Whitman, "of a disastrous record of fiscal mismanagement."

It's extraordinarily early for such sharp campaigning, but with an open seat in 2010 as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger leaves office, the two wealthy Republicans are already jockeying for position.

"It's the first rain drop in what's going to be a very, very long storm," said Dan Schnur, the director of the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.

Both Whitman, a billionaire, and Poizner, who sold a company for $1 billion in 2000, have already established campaign operations a full 14 months ahead of the June 2010 primary. Tom Campbell, a former Republican congressman, is also exploring a run for governor but is uninvolved in this first intra-party scuffle.

The accusation arrived in the form of a prepared release from Team Poizner whacking Whitman's record at eBay, more specifically the $2.6 billion purchase of Skype, an Internet phone service provider, made under her leadership in 2005.

EBay announced this week it plans to unload Skype, which has shrunk in value - as evidenced by a $1.4 billion write-down - ever since the purchase.

"Now Meg Whitman is asking Californians to send her to Sacramento to clean up another multibillion dollar budget deficit," said Poizner spokesman Kevin Spillane in the release. "If past performance is indicative of future results, Californians can't afford Meg Whitman's disastrous record of fiscal mismanagement."

The release, which is headlined "SKYPE - YIPES!," included a recent Fortune magazine cover photo of Whitman and a horse and began, "Whoa! Hold your horses!"

Schnur, also a former GOP strategist, said, "Kevin Spillane is smart enough to know that no normal person will be paying attention to this primary ... but it looks like they are taking the first step toward trying to establish a drumbeat of criticism over the next months" of Whitman's record at eBay.

Mitch Zak, a Whitman campaign spokesman, dismissed the criticism.

"I would tell you that California absolutely needs somebody who knows how to create jobs and manage complex organizations," Zak said, citing eBay's growth under Whitman from "30 employees and $4 million in revenues ... to 15,000 employees and $8 billion revenues."

Zak tried to shift the debate to his candidate's successes. "I think that (Poizner's attack) shows clearly Meg's strength, momentum and the fact that Meg has been aggressively travelling up and down the state earning endorsements, raising money and building the infrastructure necessary to win the primary and general election."

Or it just shows that the campaigning has just begun.

Photo: State Insurance Comissioner Steve Poizner at The Sacramento Bee Capitol Bureau on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009. Credit: Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Jerry Brown, California's attorney general and likely 2010 candidate for governor, talked about his pursuit of the state's top job -- the one he held for eight years decades ago.

The quote of the story was Brown criticizing his rival, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom:

Brown is quick to reject comparisons to Hillary Clinton, whose presidential bid foundered last year after rival Barack Obama framed her candidacy as a relic of the past. "Newsom is trying to make everyone think I'm Hillary, and he's Obama, but those analogies just don't work," Brown said of his Democratic rival.

A group called the Latino Water Coalition will lead a four-day "California March for Water" starting today in Mendota.

They got a boost in their hopes for a water package from none other than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday, who during an appearance in Fresno proclaimed that the state's leaders were "literally a few weeks away, maybe a month, from coming to an agreement."

"So Democrats and Republicans have come a long way," Schwarzenegger said. "I think we are literally a few weeks away, maybe a month, from coming to an agreement."

That might be a bit of classic Schwarzenegger overstatement from the notoriously optimistic governor.

"This is the year to make a huge breakthrough on water in California," said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, when told of the governor's remarks.

"The year" and "a few weeks," of course, are not the same thing.

Sen. Dave Cogdill, the Senate Republicans' lead water negotiator, was even more skeptical, telling my colleague E.J. Schultz of the Fresno Bee that, "Many people are saying this will even carry on into next year."

GOVERNOR 2010: Political fundraising is a breeze when you're really rich.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner reported cutting his campaign for a governor a check for $200,000 on Monday. He last contributed $500,000 on Dec. 31.

SUPERINTENDENT 2010: There's a new entrant in the race for superintendent of public instruction in 2010. (That's when the incumbent, Jack O'Connell, terms out.)

On Monday, Larry Aceves, a former school administrator in districts from San Diego to San Jose, tossed his hat into the ring.

Aceves, the former president of the Association of California School Administrators, announced the endorsement of ... the Association of California School Administrators' executive director, Bob Wells.

Aceves, a Democrat, joins two other Democrats in the race, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson and Sen. Gloria Romero.

Officially, the state's schools chief is a nonpartisan post.

The gubernatorial campaign of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has hired Silicon Valley's top political writer.

Mary Anne Ostrom, a longtime politics and government reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, signed on with team Whitman. In a memo to the Merc staff, Assistant Managing Editor Bert Robinson lamented the loss of a journalistic pro who "is one of the most relentless, most thorough, most passionate reporters I have ever known."

Whitman campaign spokesman Mitch Zak said Ostrom will be an adviser on policy, media and on-line outreach. "Obviously, Mary Anne has tremendous experience and will play an senior role in our communications effort," he said.

Ostrom's new gig was another blow to California's dwindling political press corps. Respected politics veteran John Wildermuth of the San Francisco Chronicle is taking a buyout. Zachary Coile of the Chronicle's Washington bureau is going to work as communications director for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. And Jordan Rau, state capitol reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has signed on with the Kaiser Family Foundation's new Kaiser Health News.

Yes, you read that right. Georges Marciano, who co-founded the high-end jeans company in the early 1980s along with his brothers, says he's seeking California's highest office, not as a Democrat or Republican, but as an independent.

"Let's dream again, let's not give up hope instead we together can create jobs for the citizens of California instead of simply creating and imposing higher taxes for the average citizen and not the wealthy," Georges Marciano said in a prepared statement. "All of which are wasted dollars put in the greedy hands of a wasteful government."

His campaign spokesman, Rod Harrell, said that Marciano has been forced to deal with multiple government agencies in recent years and it has "come to light all the corruption in government and (the lack of) anyone actually caring about regular people."

Asked how Marciano might finance his run, Harrell said: "He is Georges Marciano. So he obviously has some money."

Indeed, in 2007 Marciano bought an 84.37 carat diamond at an auction for just under $16.2 million.

Marciano is not opting to run as part of a political party, Harrell said, because he "doesn't want any ties to anybody in the old political machine."

There's still no campaign Web site yet, but Harrell said, "We're still at the ground floor of the campaign."

Marciano does have a quirky Web site about art that was stolen from him. It includes a bio of himself.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is widely expected to seek the California governorship in 2010, turns 71 today.

Brown's long history (and old-guard age) are already at issue in the 2010 campaign.

Last week, the Steve Poizner for governor campaign sent out a sarcastic congratulations to Brown for his 40th anniversary in elective office.

"As Brown seeks his third term as Governor, the last forty years have changed California dramatically. But it seems Jerry hasn't. Professional politician Jerry Brown is always campaigning for another office," Team Poizner wrote.

Today, Garry South, a strategist for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's campaign, wrote on Facebook that he "wants to wish Jerry Brown a very happy 71st birthday today! Imagine being born when FDR was president!"

It's a slow week around the Capitol so let's check in on the 2010 governor's race.

In his Sunday column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Willie Brown wrote of a recent conversation he had with Antonio Villaraigoisa, the reelected mayor of Los Angeles and potential candidate for governor in 2010.

In it, Brown says Villaraigosa was touting a recent statewide poll showing him trailing Attorney General Jerry Brown by only 4 percentage points.

(That was the margin in the latest Field Poll, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein was not included.)

Poll results aside, the point is that Villaraigosa, who has declined to comment on his gubernatorial ambitions, is hawking the poll in the first place.

Meanwhile, The Bee's Peter Hecht profiled Anne Gust, the wife of Jerry Brown and one of his top advisers.

"If Jerry says he wants to give it all up and be a farmer, I'm fine with that," she said.

"I don't think he'll be a farmer," she added.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, meanwhile, could skip out on his bid for governor and instead run for Congress.

CalBuzz, the new California politics Web site by Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine, has a fun rundown likening each of the candidates for governor to a particular Silicon Valley company.

Jude Barry, who departed Lt. Gov. John Garamendi's campaign last week, authored the comparisons:

Jerry Brown is to Apple...as Gavin Newsom is to Facebook...as Antonio Villaraigosa is to Yahoo!...as John Garamendi is to Sun Microsystems...as Meg Whitman is to eBay...as Steve Poizner is to Intel....as Tom Campbell is to Wilson, Sonini, Goodrich, & Rosati.

Garamendi announced Monday that he had hired a new "messaging" consultant, Peter B. Collins, a liberal radio talk show host.

In the Los Angeles Times on Monday, Bill Whalen, a former speechwriter for ex-Gov. Pete Wilson, said GOP candidates Whitman and Poizner must get beyond trying to channel Ronald Reagan.

"For the same reason that the Dodgers showcase Manny Ramirez and not Kirk Gibson, California Republicans have to resist the urge to revisit the greatest hits of the 1980s and making the election a history lesson on "Morning in America." Save it for Lincoln Day dinners, not the campaign trail," Whalen wrote.

Whalen concluded:

As individuals whose run for office is financed by personal fortunes born of ingenuity rather than the GOP cliche of trust funds, Whitman and Poizner should leap at the chance to show they are reflective souls, not some manifestation of focus groups and hackneyed rhetoric or the product of political consultants.

To borrow very loosely from Reagan, taking such an approach might go a long way in tearing down the wall that keeps Republicans out of higher office in California.

In non-2010 news, Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, hosts his first town hall of 2009 in Gold River.

California Health and Human Services Agency Kim Belshé and Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health, will release new data on smoking in the state and tout the benefits of the state's 20-year old tobacco control program in a morning press conference.

And the secretary of state's office today will conduct its random alphabet drawing to determine the ballot order for those lining up to replace Rep. Hilda Solis.

Photo: Los Angeles mayor Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talks to the media in the spin room following the CNN/ Politico Democratic presidential debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on Thursday Jan. 31, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, whose has found little traction in polls in his run for governor, is looking at a bid for Rep. Ellen Tauscher's soon-to-be vacant congressional seat.

The Contra Costa Times' Lisa Vorderbrueggen had the news over the weekend.

Garamendi called Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, a few days ago, although the congressman offered little encouragement. Miller reiterated his unflagging support for state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord.

Wait, isn't Garamendi running for governor? Yeah, although reports of a faltering campaign circulated recently after one of his top campaign staffers quit.

In a statement late Friday, here is what Garamendi said: "A number of people suggested I consider this seat. Of course, I will check it out. As a former undersecretary of the interior, there is a lot of exciting work going on in Washington. Much is possible with Barack Obama.

"But I am focused on California and my campaign for governor."

Tom Campbell, a GOP candidate for governor and former state budget director, has announced how he'll be voting on the fiscal measures on the May 19 ballot:

Proposition 1A: Yes
Proposition 1B: No
Proposition 1C: No
Proposition 1D: Yes
Proposition 1E: Yes

Read his reasoning at the Fox and Hounds blog.

A. Jerrold "Jerry" Perenchio, the former chair of the Spanish-language station Univision, has donated the maximum $25,900 to GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.

Perenchio's wife Margaret did the same in donations reported late Tuesday.

Perenchio is a good deep-pocketed donor to have on your side. Last week, he chipped in $1.5 million to back the May special election measures pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislative leadership.

It's no rivalry akin to the Giants and Dodgers. But San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom swooped into the potent Los Angeles media market last week and won a surge of coverage in airwaves and real estate typically dominated by L.A. mayor and potential gubernatorial rival Antonio Villaraigosa.

Newsom attracted a horde of news cameras and and dealt out a dozen interviews on St. Patrick's Day at a town hall meeting attended by 600 people in Santa Monica. "He turned out more people in Santa Monica than any of the Irish bars - and no green beer was required," said Newsom's exploratory campaign manager Eric Jaye.

Newsom was also feted at an L.A. fundraiser at the Pacific Palisades home of NBC-Universal exec Ben Silverman.

His reach into the Los Angeles market, where Villaraigosa enjoys overwhelming name recognition and strong Latino voter support, may be a key test for Newsom.

In a recent Field Poll of early voter preferences for the 2010 gubernatorial race, Newsom ranked third with 16 percent support to 22 percent for Villaraigosa and 26 percent for Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown.

Villaraigosa, who was re-elected mayor against a field of unknowns March 3, has made no secret he is considering saddling up anew for a gubernatorial bid. But political observers say his 55 percent vote margin suggests that his home turf voters could be lacking in enthusiasm. Newsom won re-election in San Francisco in 2007 with 73 percent support.

For now, Jaye is playing down any Nor-Cal vs. So-Cal mayoral rivalry for the state's top job.

"Mayor Newsom is conducting conversations in counties all around California, including Los Angeles," Jaye said. "Mayor Villaraigosa is welcome to campaign in San Francisco if he gets into the race. It's all part of California."
.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay boss Meg Whitman may be rivals for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year, but there's no disagreement between the Silicon Valley denizens about Proposition 1A, one of a half-dozen budget-related measures on the May 19 special election.

Poizner and Whitman both oppose the measure, even though Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says it is vital to straightening out the state's tortured finances by creating a rolling spending cap.

Whitman laid out her objections to Proposition 1A in a recent Sacramento Bee op-ed article, complaining that it would indirectly extend billions of dollars in state tax increases. Poizner's similar screed is contained in an article posted today on Flashreport, a conservative blog, to wit:

"Make no mistake: If they get away with their latest scheme it will cost you dearly.
Specifically, the politicians don't want you to know all the facts when it comes to Proposition 1A. This is the ballot measure that would impose a state constitutional spending limit - a concept that is supported by an overwhelming majority of Californians.
However, if the measure passes, it will also extend the huge tax increases recently approved by the legislature.

"Passage of Proposition 1A means that the near-doubling of the car tax, the 1 cent statewide sales tax increase, the income tax hike and the reduction in the dependent tax credit would continue for an additional two years. That adds up to an estimated $16 billion in higher taxes. It's no surprise these taxes are not supported by the majority of Californians.

"That's why our state legislators want to keep the truth from you about Proposition 1A and they've stacked the deck in their favor. So when you read the official ballot description of the measure - what should be an objective description on what is being voted on - you will see no mention of the taxes. The legislative leadership wrote the ballot description themselves and intentionally omitted any reference to the tax increase extension. They made sure what you read is biased."

Poizner noted that he successfully led the effort against a ballot measure last year that would have changed legislative term limit but, like Whitman, stopped short of pledging that he would devote some of his vast personal fortune to defeating Proposition 1A. Schwarzenegger has assembled a coalition to support and raise money for the measure's passage and are waiting to see whether any deep-pocket source would pour in money to oppose it, either a public employee union opposed to spending limits or someone on the right opposed to a tax extension.

The third GOP candidate for governor, former Congressman Tom Campbell, supports Proposition 1A, saying its needed to get a handle on state spending. He was briefly Schwarzenegger's budget director.

Republican Tom Campbell is taking a different path in his 2010 exploration of a run for governor.

The former GOP congressman and state budget director sent his supporters and e-mail today with the subject line: "My new blog."

"Most politicians will ask you to be part of a campaign," he wrote. "I would like to ask you to be part of a vision for the future -- to help shape the ideas and policies that will lead California's comeback beyond one election."

So he'll be blogging. (He's already responded to one commenter here.)

"No matter where you stand, I promise to listen," he wrote in the e-mail. "A vibrant and civil discussion is vital to California's future."

Some 2010 updates...

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman writes in an op-ed why she opposes the measures on the May 19 ballot.

Meanwhile, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is in Los Angeles today for a town hall.

Last week, Newsom held a town hall in Oakland.

"We expect that this could come down to a tale of three cities -- and the relative records of Mayor Newsom, former Mayor Brown and Mayor Villaraigosa," Newsom's political strategist, Eric Jaye told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Former eBay boss Meg Whitman is keeping the California political press corps at bay as she runs for governor - even ducking out of one press conference as reporters tried to question her about the state budget - but she and her handlers are courting national press attention.

The latest manifestation of that anywhere-but-California media strategy is a lengthy cover story in Fortune magazine -- replete with several picture of her with her horse. While the article is titled "Can Meg Whitman Save California?" the horse is brown, not white.

Here's one passage:

Flash back to day one of Meg Whitman 2.0. We are sitting in her tidy living room in Atherton, Calif., on a rain-soaked morning in late February, at 24 hours and counting before she is due to give the first campaign speech of her life. Whitman, who left eBay a year ago after a decade in the job, seems unfazed by the trouble all around her. Besides waking up this morning to find a giant oak tree toppled in her front yard (it missed her white picket fence by inches), there's the daunting reality of California. "We have the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the country. We're 48th of 50 states in K-12 education," Whitman says, spewing stats and sound bites as if she's rehearsing for her first political debate. "Other states are stealing California's jobs," she says. "California is failing. I refuse to sit by and watch it happen."

The Fortune writer, Patricia Sellers, also characterizes one Whitman comment as an "obvious dig at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to wit: "Being CEO of the state is not a popularity contest. In the real world, business leaders cut expenses until the company is healthy again." Sellers also writes that Whitman didn't flinch when asked whether she'd spend as much as $50 million from her billionaire's fortune to win the office next year.

One other sign of Whitman's newly found media presence: Her first name is the answer to the first clue in a recent Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

The full Fortune article is accessible here.

One of the intriguing early machinations of the still-very-far-way 2010 GOP primary is how Steve Poizner, Meg Whitman and Tom Campbell will come down on the budget package headed to the ballot in May.

Yes, the insurance commissioner and former eBay chief have already blasted the package.

But both are wealthy and could curry favor with the GOP base by actually spending some of their millions against it.

On Wednesday, Campbell, a former budget director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, officially endorsed the package, offering full-throated support for the spending cap measure, which would extend the tax increases by two years.

"Proposition 1A is the intervention taxpayers need to stop this out of control spending and get our budget onto a stable path for the long-term," Campbell said.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Nelson reported on the FlashReport that Poizner told a GOP group he would take a "major role" in opposing the measure:

When asked if he would take a major role in leading an opposition effort, he said yes, that he plans to work with anti-tax groups to rally opposition to the measure.

Whether that includes digging into his wallet remains unclear. Poizner has spent his funds in ballot campaigns before, most notably opposing Proposition 93, which would have extended term limits for incumbent state lawmakers. That issue was another winner among the GOP base.

Schwarzenegger has seemed to take the early jockeying in stride. When asked about Whitman's critical comments of the plan last month, the governor retorted, "She's a smart woman. I'm sure she will look at this and see it's a terrific package."

Not that she was expected to run, but First Lady Maria Shriver said Tuesday she won't be running for governor in 2010.

"I'm not really comfortable in the office. I'm too much of a free spirit," she told the AP. "I'm trying to use my entire life experience from being in a public family, my experience as a reporter, and everything else in the work I'm doing right now."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, right, kisses his wife Maria Shriver after speaking to gymnasts and their families during the Arnold Sports Festival Saturday, March 7, 2009, in Columbus, Ohio. Credit: AP Photo/ Jay LaPrete

Don't expect Attorney General Jerry Brown to actually admit that he's running for governor anytime soon.

"People are worried about the economy, they're looking to Washington, they're worried about the budget. Most of them are not going to dial up on the campaign yet," he told the San Francisco Chronicle in an interview.

Brown sounded off on all manner of topics -- from his 1980 presidential campaign slogan to his would-be wealthy GOP opponents.

Asked if the Republicans posed a threat, he said, "You bet they do. You spend $150 million, you spend $2 million a week attacking the Democrats ... attacking their character," he said. "That's very serious stuff.''

As for not campaigning yet, he said:

"Maybe others have to reach out, they have to introduce themselves," he said. And some are encouraged by "paid political consultants who colonize the political process."

In other 2010 news: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom campaigned in the hometown of his rival, Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday. Oakland Tribune.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Washington D.C. looking for more money for his hometown. Los Angeles Daily News.

Here's Bee cartoonist Rex Babin's latest take:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, should she run for governor in 2010, would be sitting pretty, with a 22-point lead in the latest Field Poll.

On the Republican side, Meg Whitman, former eBay CEO, has the early lead with 21 percent support, with 54 percent undecided.

Those numbers are for the hypothetical match-ups 460 days from now. Capitol Alert has the exclusive statistical tabulations.

The GOP primary:

Whitman: 21 percent
Campbell: 18 percent
Poizner: 7 percent
Undecided: 54 percent

The Dem primary:

Feinstein: 38 percent
Brown: 16 percent
Villaraigosa: 16 percent
Newsom: 10 percent
Garamendi: 4 percent

Former Controller Steve Westly, schools chief Jack O'Connell and Treasurer Bill Lockyer weigh in at 2 percent or less.

Without DiFi:

Brown: 26 percent
Villaraigosa: 22 percent
Newsom: 16 percent
Garamendi: 8 percent

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who just won reelection on Tuesday, outpolls Attorney General Jerry Brown in Southern California, 29 percent to 22 percent.

IN COURT: Today the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the effort to overturn Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban. A decision will come within 90 days.

Brown, who opposes the measure, promises to provide "periodic comments" on the court hearing on Twitter. Seriously.

The hearing will be streamed live on www.calchannel.com.

EVENT: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and other Senate Democrats will hold a press conference to discuss "ways to link education to emerging economies and a high wage workforce."

PHOTO: Meg Whitman speaks to reporters during the California Republican Party's spring convention in Sacramento on Feb. 21. Credit: Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee/ hamezcua@sacbee.com

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez on the 2010 governor's race:

There's also speculation about a run by Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who once wanted to hold a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, so let's hope she's in. I don't have a crystal ball, but I'd say that one year from now, the odds are 3 to 1 that Villaraigosa will be running against Sanchez and 2 to 1 that he'll be dating her.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman moved $1 million into her exploratory committee account late last month, according to a campaign statement she filed this afternoon.

The former eBay CEO, whose net worth was once listed above $1 billion, previously gave her fledgling committee $150,000. Whitman is gearing up for an expensive GOP primary against state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, another Silicon Valley multimillionaire.

Poizner gave his own exploratory committee $500,000 at the end of last year.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the pregnant wife of 2010 gubernatorial candidate and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, stars in a new sex-romantic comedy that's already making a splash with its racy preview.

FoxNews headlines it: "First Lady of San Francisco bares all in raunchy sex scene.''

"It is going to cause quite a stir as people aren't used to seeing a political figure like this," director Gene Rhee is quoted saying. "But I just hope people judge her (Jennifer) for her amazing performance not for her political associations."

Siebel Newsom is quoted talking about filming intimate scenes in "The Trouble with Romance."

"It's always a little awkward, but I'm a dancer and an athlete so I have a more tomboy figure so I just went for it. The film was a challenge, but fun."

As for her role in a risque film while being the wife of a mayor and a candidate for governor (made before they met), she said, "Gavin jokes ... and teases me and says he'll have to approve all scripts from now on."

The movie is being released "on demand" and has a limited theater release this Friday.

The YouTube preview, at least, is already a hit -- with 50,000 page views and climbing.

Photo: Actors Jennifer Siebel and Kip Pardue in "The Trouble with Romance," courtesy of the film's MySpace page.

Rep. Tom Campbell may not have attended last weekend's Republican Party convention in Sacramento, but the former state budget director is still making his case in his underdog bid for governor.

Campbell wrote on Fox and Hounds that passing the tax-and-cuts budget package was "the right thing to do."

"There was no realistic possibility of a budget deal coming entirely from cuts in spending within one year," Campbell said. "When someone hoping to serve in public office says something like that, however, he leaves himself open to opportunistic criticism. It's already started."

That's a reference to would-be GOP rivals, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay chief Meg Whitman, who have blasted the budget.

Campbell goes on to defend his own fiscal record and closes with this:

"One last thing -- to fellow Republicans. No party is in healthy condition when it directs all its energy to attacking its own members. Republicans can be the party of low taxes, but we must be the party of fiscal responsibility first."

Photo: Tom Campbell as he is announced as the new director of the Department of Finance at a Capitol press conference on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004. Credit: John Decker/Sacramento Bee.

Former eBay chief Meg Whitman was featured in a story in Sunday's New York Times about her candidacy for governor.

One line stuck out:

Whitman predicted that her campaign could cost $150 million, much of it coming from her own fortune.

That would be approximately double the cost of what Democrats Phil Angelides and Steve Westly spent in the 2006 primary -- combined.

One opponent, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, is a near-billionaire, but might find himself hard-pressed to keep pace with that kind of unprecedented spending.

It was a busy weekend on both coasts for California Republicans.

Fresh from raising taxes and slicing the budgets of fellow consitutuional officers, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger headed to Washington, D.C. to attend a National Governors Association meeting and take a bow before the national media.

Likening California's budget troubles to an earthquake, the governor defended his decision to raise taxes and said his party's leaders in Washington should be "team players" with President Barack Obama.

And if that means violating the GOP's principles, he said, so be it.

Grand Old Party members with another point of view, meanwhile, were wrapping up a weekend convention in Sacramento with little love for their governor or his flexible principles.

Would-be replacements for Schwarzenegger - Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman - did their best to convince those attending they wouldn't raise taxes if their lives depended on it.

And delegates delivered a symbolic, if watered-down, gesture of their disdain for the budget, passing a resolution Sunday to deny funding for campaign mailers for six state lawmakers who voted for a budget with tax increases.

In case you missed the convention, you can catch up here:

Delegate Alex Burrola was unhappy enough with Schwarzenegger that he called on the party to apologize to Democratic Gov. Gray Davis for recalling him from office.

A Ventura County Supervisor and leader of a state anti-tax group plotted a conservative challenge to Whitman and Poizner in the 2010 gubernatorial primary.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO and Republican National Committee "Victory 2008" chairwoman Carly Fiorina said she isn't ready to say whether or not she she's running against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford rallied delegates by saying it's "gut check" time for the GOP.

And Rep. Darrell Issa took a shot at state Sen. Abel Maldonado.

A Ventura County Supervisor and leader of a state anti-tax group is plotting a conservative challenge in the 2010 gubernatorial primary to deep-pocketed GOP moderates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.

In an interview, Peter Foy, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the state party should have a strong conservative candidate and he may be just what it needs in the gubernatorial field.

"There's no question we need some leadership up in Sacramento," Foy said at Friday night reception hosted by the anti-tax group at the state Republican convention in Sacramento. "I am thinking about it."

Foy, who has served on the Ventura board of supervisors since 2006, runs an insurance and employee benefits consulting business - Peter C. Foy and Associates - in Woodland Hills.

Though he said he can't compete dollar for dollar with Poizner and Whitman - two Silicon Valley billionaires - Foy said he is hoping to light a fire under party conservatives who fear the GOP is losing its backbone on taxes and social issues.

"I don't have the ability to write those $20,000 checks," Foy said. "But I do think the people of California are looking for a true conservative that believes in true conservative values."

Last year, Foy helped erect a giant, inflatable ATM machine in front of the Capitol to dramatize opposition to unbridled government spending.

At his reception Friday night, he was saluted by State Sen. Tony Strickland, who is backing Whitman for governor.

"We need really good people up in Sacramento fighting the good cause to stop using California taxpayers as an ATM machine," Strickland said. "It is nice to know that Peter Foy and his organization is backing you."

While Poizner and Whitman support legal abortion, Foy is pro-life. But he said he would run primarily on fiscal issues, namely his belief that he is the party's best bet to hold firm on taxes and spending.

The leading candidates - who along with Rep. Tom Campbell have formed exploratory gubernatorial committees - both sharply criticized the state budget plan imposing new taxes. But Foy said he feared they would be more likely to cut deals with Democrats on state spending.

"They're good people, very good people," he said. "But we need people who understand there is no caving in."

Rep. Darrell Issa, the wealthy Southern California congressman whose money helped start the 2003 recall, has endorsed former eBay chief Meg Whitman in her bid for governor.

The endorsement is important not just for Issa's support, but because Issa, a strong conservative, has been eyed as a potential candidate himself by some hardliners in the party who fear the lack of a "true conservative" in the race.

Whitman, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former Rep. Tom Campbell all count themselves as social moderates.

"Meg Whitman is exactly the leader California needs to overcome its historic challenges," Issa said in a written statement. "She has created jobs and managed large organizations to prosperity. Today, as a result of her efforts, some 1.3 million people make part, if not all, of their living selling on eBay. I look forward to working with Meg as Governor to help create two million jobs and rebuild California's economy."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today will sign the budget package that the Legislature passed early Thursday morning.

Then comes the list of line-item vetoes.

Of course, as Jim Sanders reports in today's Bee, more money woes could be in the state's future as the economy continues to falter.

"If I could tell you what revenues are going to be in May, I would not be making this call from Sacramento -- I'd be making it from Las Vegas," quipped H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance.

I'd bet the under on that.

The real drama of the weekend will be at the California Republican Party's convention, which descends on Sacramento this evening.

In terms of budget fallout, there's the pending resolution to censure every Republican lawmaker who voted for taxes.

But there's also early jockeying in the 2010 governor's race between Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.

Both candidates have been very critical of the budget deal struck in the Legislature.

(Speaking of sharp words from gubernatorial candidates, check out Lt. Gov. John Garamendi say this week, "We have an infection here. And it's a Republican infection, and it's really spreading across this nation.")

Among the speakers at the GOP confab: Rep. Darrell Issa speaks tonight as does 2002 GOP nominee for governor Bill Simon.

On Saturday, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (and talked-about 2010 U.S. Senate candidate) does breakfast on Saturday. Ex-Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney will introduce Meg Whitman at lunch. Rep. Tom McClintock and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will be the dinner speakers.

On Sunday, Assemblyman (and 2010 U.S. Senate candidate) Chuck DeVore takes the stage.

VICTORY LAP? Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, won't be anywhere near the GOP activists. The governor is off to Washington this weekend, in preparation for next week's National Governors' Association conference.

He'll also appear on at least two Sunday talk shows -- ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" as well as CNN's Sunday show.

FURLOUGH FRIDAY: Believe it or not, it's been only two weeks since the first state worker furlough.

Well, today marks day No. 2. Keep up with your state employee news at The State Worker blog.

BIRTHDAY: Republican Sen. Dave Cox, who flirted with the possibility of being the critical 27th budget vote earlier this week, turns 71 today.

Photo credit: After the Legislature approved the state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger removed the numbers from the "deficit clock," outside his Capitol office on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009. Credit: AP Photo/ Rich Pedroncelli.

Silicon Valley billionaire Meg Whitman might not be expected to worry much about the hassles of campaign fundraising in her exploratory bid to become the next governor of California.

But the former eBay CEO, who faces a Republican primary clash with state insurance commissioner and fellow wealthy tech entreprenuer Steve Poizner, is moving quickly to set up a campaign cash raking machine.

Whitman's finance leadership team, announced today, includes Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, Cisco Systems chairman John Chambers and a giant in the weight loss business -- Jenny Craig.

Other notables include Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems, Netscape Communications co-founder Marc Andreessen, former Northwest Airlines chairman Gary Wilson and E. Floyd Kvamme, partner emeritus of the Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers venture capital firm.

Whitman earlier named exploratory campaign co-chairs, including former Gov. Pete Wilson and Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Mary Bono Mack.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has serious designs on becoming the next California governor. But Newsom, 41, and his wife, actress Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 34, are now focusing on a more immediate development -- starting a family.

Newsom's spokesman, Nathan Ballard, confirmed in a statement today that Newsom and his bride of seven months are expecting their first child.

"We are pleased to confirm that Mayor Gavin Newsom and first lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom are starting a family," Ballard said. "The mayor and the first lady are thrilled to be embarking on this adventure together, and they appreciate your good wishes."

By Kevin Yamamura and Shane Goldmacher

Senate Republicans have a new leader today after the caucus ousted Sen. Dave Cogdill and replaced him with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth shortly after midnight.

Despite speculation that Senate Republicans may ask to reopen budget talks, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg insisted the change has absolutely no effect on his strategy to break the budget deadlock this week.

"We're going to maintain our focus towards solving the problem of getting one vote regardless of who the leader is," Steinberg said after his house took a recess around 1 a.m. "Leadership doesn't change the fact that there is no other idea put forward that would take $41 billion out of a budget deficit. And so, for me, it doesn't change anything."

After the Senate failed to approve the contentious tax hike bill, Steinberg made good on his threat to keep his members locked in for the night. He said he plans to resume talks later Wednesday with Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, and Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, to see if either one will back the budget package.

"I would describe it as a bit of a discouraging day," Steinberg said of Tuesday. "Despite a lot of effort, and a lot of work today by our office, the governor's office, they're not there. But they have to be there eventually."

Schwarzenegger flew home to Brentwood around 9 p.m., a sign that the budget deal remained elusive Tuesday. His spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the governor plans to continue speaking to Cox and Maldonado on Wednesday.

Hollingsworth, an ardent tax opponent, made it clear that he continues to oppose the budget. When asked whether he wants to reopen the "Big 5" negotiations, he said he'd take a wait-and-see approach.

"I think the majority of my caucus doesn't want to see a tax increase passed in this particular package," Hollingsworth said. "But we'll see what happens in the next few minutes, the next few hours, the next few days."

BIRTHDAY: Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, turns 45.

EVENTS: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell will speak to a conference of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, or CCSESA as people who like long acronyms call the group.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat, and Rep. Dan Lungren, a Republican, will be in town today. The congressman and the state's junior U.S. senator will be part of a large panel this morning talking about how to spend the federal stimulus money headed toward California.

Boxer is also slated for a press conference Darrell Steinberg and Karen Bass on the topic.

GOVERNOR 2010: Former eBay chief Meg Whitman gave her first speech as a candidate for governor on Tuesday.

"I love California too much to let it fail, and I refuse to sit by and watch it happen," Whitman said.

She promised the creation of 2 million jobs by 2015.

Ok, so Whitman may be new to running for office, but that's some classic campaign-style promising. 2015 just happens to be a full year after a potential first term would end...meaning there's no way for voters to judge the success of the pledge.

Whitman will give another speech in Irvine today. She's also expected to announce the endorsement of Rep. Ed Royce.

After a marathon weekend, including an all-night session beginning on the evening of Valentine's Day, passage of the roughly $40 billion plan remains one vote short.

With the budget stalled, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will send out layoff notices to 20,000 state workers today.

In his second emotional speech on the Senate floor in as many days, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced Monday that the upper house will take up the controversial tax-hike legislation this morning at 10 a.m.

And if, as expected, the bill does not pass he will lock down the Senate.

"We will stay on this floor until we get it done," Steinberg declared just before 8 p.m. Monday. "Bring a toothbrush, bring whatever necessities you need to bring."

Republicans bristled as a sharp, partisan debate ensued.

"You're not going to go back to people's pocketbooks to fuel that spending," snapped Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta.

The tense floor session capped a whirlwind weekend that will continue into the week.

Way back on Saturday evening, Democratic lawmakers went into session with high hopes that the six necessary Republican votes were in hand.

Democratic Sen. Lou Correa ultimately sided with his fellow caucus members after a measure to give Orange County an extra slice of the state budget pie was included in the budget.

Three GOP votes seemed assured in the Assembly. (With a little sweetener of a tax break to provide the Glendora Community Redevelopment Agency with millions of additional dollars beginning this year. That just happens to be in the district of Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams.)

But the vote stalled in the Senate, with only GOP leader Dave Cogdill going up on an initial piece of the budget puzzle and Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, abstaining.

That's pretty much where the budget process still stands -- one vote short.

Oh, lawmakers in both houses stayed past sunrise, as the 27th vote focus shifted from Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, to Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria.

(Watch Capitol Alert's video highlights of the all-nighter.)

Maldonado was a particularly curious case. Early Sunday morning, he told the San Jose Mercury News, "There's nothing they can give me that would make me vote for this budget."

He snapped at Schwarzenegger: "Where was he when I needed him?" -- a reference to his 2006 primary loss in which he hoped for the governor's endorsement. And he took a swipe at Cogdill, saying "There's a difference between managing a caucus and leading a caucus."

But hours later, he told The Bee, "I'm very concerned with the tax package...We're still working on that. Everything's fluid... I don't want my state to go off the cliff, OK? I don't want that."

By Monday, Maldonado enumerated a list of four demands...

Maybe closing this package will take a miracle-worker...speaking of which...Captain Chesley Sullenberger, he of the famed Hudson River plane landing last month, will be in the Capitol today.

Schwarzenegger and first lady Maria Shriver will host a celebration honoring Sullenberger in the Capitol rotunda at 11:30 a.m.

WEDDING: Not everyone was trapped under the Capitol dome all weekend. Hector Barajas, communications director for the California Republican Party, was in Hawaii where he got hitched to his fiancé Miryam.

GOVERNOR 2010: Former eBay chief Meg Whitman will begin outlining what exactly she would do if she were governor.

The ex-tech tycoon will deliver what her campaign is billing as a "vision" speech at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose today.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will be in Santa Cruz for another town hall.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will visit with The Bee Capitol Bureau today, as well. We'll bring you the highlights later today.

GAY LOBBY DAY: Equality California, a gay-rights group, organizes its annual lobby day today, expecting more than 2,000 to attend.

The group will have a rally on the West steps just after noon and attend two hearings tentatively scheduled in the Assembly and Senate on resolutions (SR 7 and HR 5) that would declare the Legislature's opposition to Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban.

Of course, the big looming fight is before the California Supreme Court, which will hear arguments for and against the validity of Proposition 8 on March 5.

Photo: Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, talks to the media about his budget vote outside his office on Monday Feb. 16, 2009. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee.

Insurance Commissioner and would-be gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner wants conservative California Republicans to know that he doesn't support a "travesty of a budget deal" that will impose $14 billion in new taxes on Californians.

In a column on the conservative Flash Report Web site, Poizner complains that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature "are on the verge of passing one of the largest tax increases in American history."

Saying the budget will only cause deeper hurt to California's economy, Poizner wrote: "If you follow the Legislature's logic, a drowning man doesn't need a life preserver. He needs more water."

As for Poizner, he may well need the support of California conservatives if he has any hope of securing the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination. Next weekend, the state party holds its convention in Sacramento. Conservatives are floating a motion to censure any Republican who votes to increase taxes.

Also appearing at the convention is Poizner's fellow gubernatorial wannabe and Silicon Valley billionaire Meg Whitman. In an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, Whitman also ripped the budget plan.

"I was stunned by the magnitude and the nature of the tax increases," Whitman told the AP. "What is wrong about it in my view is that the state has done virtually nothing to cut costs in the bureaucracy."

Meg Whitman, the latest entrant in California's race to be the next governor, made an appearance this morning on the "Today" show.

Interviewer Matt Lauer pulls a quote from our own Dan Walters wondering, "Why anyone would want to be governor of an arguably ungovernable state."

"Do you need counseling, Ms. Whitman?" Lauer asked in his first question about Whitman's entrance into the governor's race.

She said she didn't.

That pretty much set the tone for the three minutes they talked about her political ambitions.

Lauer also asked about the federal stimulus plan being negotiated in Congress.

"I think it will help, but is not the exact right solution," she said.

She said she had three criteria for the stimulus: "Does it create jobs, does it help the middle class and is it targeted right now?"

Of the plan, she said, "I don't think it is as targeted as it should be."

Watch the five-minute segment below:

Legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not release details of the tentative budget pact they've struck, though that didn't stop details from leaking out.

The 30,000-foot view: $15.8 billion in cuts, $14.3 billion in tax increases, $10.9 billion in borrowing. And if California gets $10 billion in federal stimulus money, cuts drop by $1.2 billion, borrowing by $5.5 billion and tax increases by $1.8 billion.

Delving deeper, the plan: Gives K-12 education $5 billion less than it was otherwise entitled to.

Eliminates two paid holidays for state workers, with the final number of furlough days per month through June 2010 still subject to negotiation.

Cuts UC and CSU by 10 percent.

Eliminates cost-of-living increases for recipients of CAL-Works and SSI-SSP.

Cuts the corrections department's medical budget by 10 percent.

Eliminates funding for local public transit agencies.

On the tax side, the plan increases sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar, vehicle license fees from current 0.65 percent of vehicle value to 1.15 percent, and gasoline taxes by 12 cents a gallon with proceeds to pay off transportation bonds. Income taxpayers would pay a 2.5 percent surcharge on tax liability - 5 percent if federal stimulus comes in under $10 billion. Reduces tax credit for dependents from $309 to $99.

Taxes would be increased for two years, and an additional one to three years if the spending restriction measure is approved on the ballot.

Other new "revenues" include taking from voter-approved taxes for mental health and early childhood programs.

The whole thing would have to go before voters in a whopping five-measure package: borrowing from the lottery, changing Proposition 98, approving the spending cap, and taking funds from Proposition 10 (tobacco tax for early childhood programs) and Proposition 63 (tax on millionaires for mental-health programs).

That, of course, is if the whole thing passes the Legislature in a vote now scheduled for Friday.

"I'm not guaranteeing any votes," Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill said Wednesday.

"I felt it was as good as I could get and I was willing to release my members," he said. "It's up to them (his members) to make that decision."

So far GOP Sens. Dennis Hollingsworth, Sam Aanestad, and Abel Maldonado have all publicly said 'no deal.'

Then there's the case of moderate Democratic Sen. Lou Correa.

"I just don't think it gets out if he doesn't go up on it," Cogdill said

Steve Wiegand's January profile of new Assembly members walking a political tightrope is worth a re-read. (On the Democrats-only budget passed in December, none of the four freshman Dems to win in previously GOP-held seats voted. They all abstained. Schwarzenegger eventually vetoed the proposal.)

"A deal is never a deal around here," Republican Sen. Bob Huff warned Wednesday, "until it's in writing, and you're voting on it."

Which could be as early as tomorrow...

The day after announcing her candidacy, Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, sat down with the Los Angeles Times for an extended interview.

Michael Finnegan's take: "In a wide-ranging interview, the first-time Republican candidate's demeanor vacillated between that of a confident, take-charge chief executive officer delivering a PowerPoint presentation to that of an ill-at-ease novice who has studied stacks of policy binders, but has yet to master the art of political maneuvering."

Read the story, where she outlines her positions on any number of issues, here.

Details of what's under discussion in the budget talks are slowing trickling out.

To be clear, no deal has been struck and negotiations are continuing (and shifting). But Jim Sanders teased out at least some of the taxes on the table for today's Bee:

• Increasing the state's sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar.
• Increasing gasoline taxes by 12 cents per gallon.
• Raising the state's vehicle license fee from 0.65 percent of a vehicle's value to 1.15 percent, with 1 percent going to the general fund and local law enforcement getting 0.15 percent.
• Increasing the personal income tax across the board, either by assessing a surcharge on tax liability or increasing the tax rate.

The sales, income and VLF components would be in effect for either two years or five years, depending on whether a companion spending cap measure passes.

Sanders reports that if the cap were approved, the tax hikes would last five years. If the cap fails, the taxes would last for only two years. It was not clear Tuesday whether the gas tax hike would be tied to the spending cap measure.

Despite promises for a vote this week, the state Senate announced over the Legislature's speaker system Tuesday that floor sessions for the rest of the week are now "check-in" -- Capitol-speak for not actually meeting.

That could change at the discretion of the leadership. (Get a midday update from Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, who will be the guest at the Sacramento Press Club.)

Where's the action today? The fundraising circuit, of course.

Twelve lawmakers -- exactly one in ten -- are scheduled to fan out across Sacramento today, hat in hand, asking for money from many of the very special interests with skin in the budget game.

"They must be getting ready to vote," said Ted Costa, president of People's Advocate, a political watchdog group, only half-jokingly. More seriously, he said, "It seems to me that they should get this budget thing taken care before they're out there raising money."

Events run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Those collecting checks today: Elaine Alquist, Charles Calderon, Ron Calderon, Wes Chesbro, Connie Conway, Chuck DeVore, Noreen Evans, Tom Harman, Ted Lieu, Bill Monning, Mary Salas, and Jose Solorio.

OTHER EVENTS: Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines is scheduled to speak to the Contra Costa County Republican Party in the evening, where he'll receive the group's "legislator of the year award."

STUDY: A new report from The Pew Center on the States calls California a "budget laggard."

2010 WATCH: Former Rep. Tom Campbell, who is exploring a run for governor, will be at the Commonwealth Club in Lafayette today. The title of his talk: "Budgeting the Bailout for California and the Country."

Attorney General Jerry Brown will attend a Sacramento luncheon hosted by the California Newspaper Publishers Association, where he'll take questions from Jim Newton, editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Also today, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will announce a $15 million settlement with a California health insurance company that rescinded coverage of 2,300 customers. The company will have to offer coverage to those customers, reimburse their out-of-pocket costs and pay a $1 million fine.

BIRTHDAY: Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, turns 49 today.

Photo: That's Sen. Darrell Steinberg entering the governor's office for a meeting Tuesday night with a bottle of wine he told the Associated Press was a "peace offering." Credit: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press.

Don Henley, the singer who co-founded the Eagles, donated $13,000 to Attorney General Jerry Brown last Friday, according to new campaign filings.

Brown is widely expected to run for governor in 2010.

Speaking of Hollywood money, another $12,000 donation recently arrived for Brown from Edith Wasserman, the widow of the late Lew Wasserman, the talent agent turned studio mogul.

BUDGET: Floor sessions are scheduled in both houses of the Legislature today. No budget vote Is expected..

Senate leader Darrell Steinberg said Monday that the earliest a vote could occur would be Wednesday, "but it may even be a day or two later."

Senate Democrats huddled in an after-hours caucus on Monday night to discuss the latest budget developments.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the four legislative legislative leaders are scheduled to continue their closed-door negotiations today.

EVENTS: The California State PTA will rally in Glendale against budget cuts to education. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell is slated to attend.

The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee will hear legislation by Sen. Joe Simitian to increase the requirement on utilities to provide power from renewable energy.

The current standard is 20 percent of power from renewables by 2010. The Simitian bill would up that to 33 percent by 2020.

PRESSER: The state Assembly will announce plans for the first of its savings by cutting operating costs. Today, the lower house will commit at least $2 million of its own funds to the Employment Development Department.

That's the state unemployment agency swamped with calls as the unemployment rate has jumped to 9.3 percent.

The money is part of the Assembly's pledge to cut 10 percent, or $15.1 milion, from its budget. A whole host of Democrats (Assembly members Juan Arambula, Joe Coto, Noreen Evans, Ted Lieu and Sandré Swanson) will hold a press conferrence to announce the giving.

GOVERNOR 2010: Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will be in Tulare today, pressing for his plan for an accelerated medical school at the UC Merced.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will be in San Jose for a town-hall style event.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa can't commit to serving a full second term.

And, if you missed all the Meg Whitman coverage Monday, here's a roundup of the Capitol Alert headlines:

Whitman boots up campaign for governor
Ex-Gov. Wilson tops list of early Whitman backers
Poizner's response: 'Welcome' to the campaign
Whitman settles cybersquatter case -- out of court
Hudson files FPPC complaint against Whitman...gets Poizner's support

In an interview with the Associated Press, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he couldn't commit to serving a full term as mayor if reelected next month.

"I'm not going to make a promise I can't keep," he told the wire service in a sit-down interview.

The AP calls it "the clearest signal yet that Villaraigosa will be among contenders in 2010 to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Read the AP story.

Let the 2010 GOP politicking begin.

Tom Hudson, the chairman of the Placer County Republican Party, filed a formal complaint with the state's campaign watchdog agency against Meg Whitman on Monday only hours after she announced she was exploring a run for governor.

In his complaint to the Fair Political Practices Commission, Hudson accuses Whitman of hiding her campaign expenditures, claiming she has been campaigning for months without disclosure.

"To date, Candidate has refused to file any campaign reports to disclose the tens of thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on her behalf to win the Republican nomination," he writes in his complaint.

Hudson cites press reports that Whitman "retained, hired and fired numerous campaign consultants, press assistants, pollsters, attorneys and campaign organizers over the last many months."

Meanwhile, Hudson is running for a post in the California Republican Party apparatus. Specifically, he wants to be Northern Vice Chairman.

And who endorsed Hudson for the post on Monday?

None other than Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a top Whitman rival.

"It is unusual for constitutional officers to get involved in these intra-Party races, but Tom Hudson is not your typical candidate," said Jeff Evans of the California Taxpayer Protection Committee in announcing the endorsement.

Kevin Spillane, a Poizner spokesman, said the "endorsement came before the complaint was filed and was independent of the complaint."

The Poizner camp, Spillane said, did not know Hudson was filing the FPPC complaint.

There was "no quid pro quo," Spillane said.

A call to Hudson was not immediately returned.

Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who announced Monday that she is exploring a run for governor, has settled a dispute with the cybersquatter who claims several key domains like meg2010.com and whitmanforgovernor.com.

"We've reached an amicable settlement," said Mitch Zak, a Whitman adviser, on Monday.

The Bee first reported the dispute between Whitman and Thomas Hall, who lives in Santa Monica, back in November.

Neither side would disclose the financial terms of the agreement, though whatever payment Hall received would seem likely to appear on a future Whitman campaign financial disclosure form.

Reached via e-mail on Monday, Hall described the agreement as "very amicable."

"The domains are now hers, and I am going through the process of terminating all of the campaign committees I created," he wrote. After Whitman sued Hall, he had registered several phony campaign committees with the secretary of state's office, including "Meg Whitman for Dog Catcher."

Whitman, whose official campaign site is currently megwhitman.com, would appear to have seized the other domain names just in time.

Her new campaign logo, after all, is "Meg 2010," one of the domains registered by Hall.

"We're well passed moving on," said Zak of the whole domain fight.

"We welcome Meg Whitman's formation of an exploratory committee. That Meg Whitman is thinking about running for Governor is a sign of strength for the California Republican Party," said Kevin Spillane, communications director for the Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner's bid for governor, in a prepared statement.

Then, comes the obligatory jab.

"California is in an unprecedented crisis. Campaigns are about differences and we look forward to Meg Whitman and other Republican candidates joining Steve Poizner in a vigorous discussion about who has the hands-on experience, innovative ideas and conservative instincts to save California."

The boldface emphasis is ours.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson tops the list of early endorsers of Meg Whitman's exploratory run for governor.

Wilson, who served two terms as governor, has signed on as her campaign chairman.

Topping the list of her campaign co-chairs is Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who has experienced a meteoric rise in Washington D.C. to become the GOP's chief deputy whip - the No. 3 post in the Republican caucus - after just a single term.

Other co-chairs:

Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark
Rep. Mary Bono-Mack, R-Palm Springs
Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego
Former Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster

Former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman officially submitted her bid to explore a run for governor on Monday.

The move by the billionaire businesswoman sets up what's expected to be an expensive, 17-month auction between herself and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in the 2010 Republican primary.

"California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history -- a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit. California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail," Whitman said in a prepared statement, announcing her exploration of a run for governor. "Now is the time for people across the state to join in a cause for change, excellence and a new California."

Whitman, 52, first stepped onto the political stage in last year's presidential campaign, initially as a fundraiser to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, then as a senior adviser to Republican nominee John McCain.

McCain, at one point, called Whitman one of the "three wisest people" he knew, handing her a speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

But Whitman's political unveiling hasn't been without its stumbles.

She only registered as a Republican voter in 2007 -- in order to support Romney in the primary -- and news reports have since surfaced that she did not vote in half the elections since 2002.

Meanwhile, Whitman is waging a court battle to claim rights to website domain names like meg2010.com and whitmanforgovernor.com, after a websquatter seized them first, an awkward beginning for a woman likely to campaign on her high-tech experience.

Whitman was at the helm of eBay from 1998 to 2008, turning the Internet giant from "start up to a grown up," as she is fond of saying.

The company blossomed from a 30-person operation into a 15,000 employee, $8 billion in revenue Internet juggernaut. Along the way, she became vastly wealthy as well, with an estimated fortune of $1.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine in 2007.

That money will be needed to make a name for herself in California, where 67 percent of voters said they had no opinion of her, according to a Field Poll last November.

The Republican primary for governor is wide open, according to that same poll.

She's likely to face Poizner, a Silicon Valley veteran himself, who sold a company for $1 billion in 2000. Poizner has been consolidating institutional support for more than a year and touts the backing of more than 70 percent of the state's Republican lawmakers.

A third candidate, Tom Campbell, a former congressman, U.S. Senate candidate and one-time state budget director, is also in the race, though he can't match the financial firepower of the other two candidates.

All three fashion themselves, to some extent, as moderates -- socially more liberal and fiscally more conservative.

But Whitman, in particular, still hasn't staked out positions on many of the state's top issues, most notably how to balance the state's budget. She did come out in favor of Proposition 8, the measure to ban gay marriage, shortly before last fall's election.

The Democratic field is expected to be crowded, as well.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom are exploring runs. Attorney General Jerry Brown, an ex-governor himself, is widely expected to jump into the race.

If she runs, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein would be a front-runner in the race.

Among the other potential candidates are Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former state Controller Steve Westly, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.

Photo: Meg Whitman speaks to delegates during the third day of the Republican National Convention inside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, Tuesday, September 2, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/ Sacramento Bee

Believe it or not, it's been 96 days since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a special session to address California's historic budget shortfall.

The wait for a budget fix continues.

Workers in both houses of the state Legislature have today off, recognizing Lincoln's Birthday a few days early. They'll also have next Monday off for Washington's Birthday.

Leadership says key budget staff will still be working.

CAPTION CONTEST: You have until just before midnight tonight to enter the Capitol Alert caption contest featuring the Dianne Feinstein-Leon Panetta grip-and-grin.

PROPOSITION 11: The state auditor's office holds the second public meeting to get input on its selection process for the Citizens Redistricting Commission. That's the group that will draw California's new political boundaries for Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization seats following the next census.

2010 WATCH: Lt. Gov. John Garamendi will be in Monterey today, announcing his support for a statewide ban on take-out Styrofoam packaging. He'll be joined by local and environmental officials.

Funny, some other city with a mayor who happens to be exploring a run for governor also banned such to-go containers.

Speaking of big-city mayors who might run for governor, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles was on NPR's Morning Edition on Friday talking about the federal stimulus package and why money should go directly to cities and not through Sacramento.

"Because when it goes that way you never get your fair share, that's why," Villaraigosa said. "We're 26 percent of the population in California. We often times get 12 percent of the money, sometimes 16, 18 but that's after a fight."

Except, no doubt, when he was the speaker of the Assembly.

Officially, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom isn't yet a gubernatorial candidate. But the rollout of his exploratory bid makes it clear that he is in full campaign mode.

The 41-year-old mayor is already boasting of 25,000 new best friends on Facebook and 50,000 e-mail subscribers. He has attracted a few thousand more to a series of Northern California events over the past three months.

Now he's making eight campaign town hall stops across California over the next six weeks.

"People across this state are sharing their thoughts about the future of California and it is very clear that they are looking for a new way forward," Newsom said in a statement.

It's pretty clear that the mayor is looking for a way forward too.

His coming road show schedule is after the jump:

Which California elected official likes arugula, broccoli and Flax Plus Multibran, was once a cheerleader, has sued President Nixon, been duck hunting with Earl Warren, and has practiced Zen meditation?

It's official. The viral questionnaire that's been invading everyone's Facebook feed -- listing "25 Random Things About Me" -- has infiltrated the political spectrum.

Attorney General Jerry Brown is the latest among us to waste a half hour concocting such a self-promoting list.

From his "vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience" in the Catholic Church to his time with Mother Teresa, Brown goes briefly through his whirlwind of a career, with a more than a few random facts thrown in.

"I dislike shopping," Brown writes in No. 8.

If you're wondering if his comfort in front of a crowd dates from an early age, wonder no longer:

"I was a cheerleader at St. Ignatius High School," he reveals with No. 17.

A couple of cryptic responses hint heavily at what Brown's political future, a likely (and as of yet still unannounced) run for governor in 2010, after serving two terms beginning in the mid-1970s:

6. My official portrait as Governor was quite controversial and the legislature refused to hang it. My Father said if I didn't get a new one, I could never run again. It is now hanging and I am still running.

...
24. The first time I became Governor, I followed an Actor (Ronald Reagan).

And for real political veterans, there's this: "I am not fond of Mediterranean fruit flies, or of Malathion. Both are bad" at No. 7. (See this 1981 Time magazine story for an explanation,)

With that, here's the full list, in all its glory:

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein now holds a 22-point lead over her closest competitor in the Democratic primary, should she run for governor next year, according to the first Capitol Weekly/Probolksy Research poll.

Of course, Feinstein has been pretty skittish about what exactly her plans are.

The poll's breadown:

Sen, Dianne Feinstein: 36 percent
Attorney General Jerry Brown: 14
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: 9
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa: 9
Lt. Gov. John Garamendi: 4
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell: 3
Ex-Controller Steve Westly: 1
Unsure: 22 percent

The poll reports a margin of error of 3.7 percent.

On the GOP side, former Rep. Tom Campbell narrowly tops a field of largely unknown candidates with 15 percent support. Next up is former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, with 14 percent. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who counts the majority of a supermajority of GOP legislators, polls only 4 percent. Another undeclared would-be candidate, Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy, clocked in at 1 percent.

Take those results with a grain of salt, the pollster told Capitol Weekly:

Pollster Adam Probolsky cautioned against reading too much into the results, particularly on the Republican side. Probolsky noted that the survey used identifiers for the candidates that could not be used on an actual ballot. In the survey, Whitman was identified as a former eBay CEO, but she would not be allowed to use the name of the company on the ballot, according to state election rules.

"What we really see in this survey is that the eBay brand trumps the insurance brand," said Probolsky.

The big winner in the GOP primary race was "unsure" -- at a whopping 62 percent.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein appeared on MSNBC's Hardball program last night with Chris Matthews.

At the end of the interview, Matthews broached the subject of the 2010 governor's race.

"I have to ask you the question," Matthews said. "Are you thinking about running for governor of California?"

Her answer:

Feinstein: Well, as you know and I've said this, I take my new duty as chairman of the (Intelligence) Committee seriously. I want to see how it goes. You know, I'm one of those people that never says never. That's just about the situation. It would be hard for me to do, no question, because I've got a 16-year commitment here.

On the other hand, I am really concerned about the state. You know, we're now furloughing employees. We stopped all capital improvement projects. The state has a $42 billion deficit. There's a structural deficit now built in. And I think whoever runs for the post of governor had better do so with a plan so that, if elected, that plan becomes their mandate to carry out.

Matthews followed up: "When will you decide, you think?"

"Oh, later this year," Feinstein said, before adding, "most likely."

The question about the governor's race comes at about the 8-minute mark in the following clip:

There are two profiles of potential 2010 candidates for governor in the news today.

The Bee's Peter Hecht looks at the rising star of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

"I've always believed that public service is about people," Villaraigosa said. "It's important to get public support for what you do. ... I believe the success of what we've been able to do has everything to do with that."

The Los Angeles Times' Michael Finnegan profiles Attorney General Jerry Browm.

"It's a very challenging job," Brown said. "Obviously, I think knowing a great deal about it is a real asset."

The 2010 primary election for governor is nearly 500 days from now. But the race for campaign dollars is well under way.

Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Friday that he raised $3.4 million in 2008 in advance of an expected bid for governor in 2010. That sum leaves Brown, a Democrat, perched above his two declared Democratic rivals, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who each reported raising on the order of $1.1 million last year.

Brown's haul, combined with leftover cash from his 2006 election, leaves him with $4.1 million cash-on-hand, a total that dwarfs the roughly $750,000 available to Garamendi and the $540,000 available to Newsom at year's end.

Why does the campaign cash matter? Because in a state the size of California, money pays for the political mailers and TV ads that are crucial to swaying large blocs of voters.

A healthy campaign treasury hardly guarantees victory (see Al Checchi, Steve Westly, and Bill Simon), but a lack of funds can often spell defeat.

The spin from all sides on the initial round of numbers has been fast and furious.

Newsom's campaign, which released its report earlier this month, touts that the mayor raised $1.179 million in only six months -- half the time Garamendi and Brown spent coaxing contributors.

Brown hasn't publicly said he is running for governor, but his behind-the-scenes jockeying has left little doubt among political observers.

Brown's campaign touts its low "burn rate" - the ratio of spending the money it raised.
The Brown operation has been largely a two-person show, the attorney general and his wife, Anne Gust. As such, Brown spent only a $172,000 in 2008, less than one-third of what Newsom or Garamendi spent.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell wants to be governor. But the Democratic officeholder says he's struggling to put together the money to make a credible run to be California's next chief executive.

"We're trying to put it together for governor, but it's just regrettable that it's so costly and so expensive and I'm not a multimillionaire," said O'Connell in a brief interview this week. "That makes it very challenging."

O'Connell, 57, has continuously held state elective office in California since 1982, when he joined the state Assembly. He later served as a state senator and will finish his second term as state schools chief in 2010.

Asked if financing the campaign is what's standing in his way of a run for governor next year, O'Connell replied, "You got it."

Though he has won twice statewide, O'Connell does not boast a statewide profile like that of potential Democratic candidates Jerry Brown, the attorney general and former governor, or Dianne Feinstein, California's senior U.S. senator.

Nor does he have the political sizzle of the younger San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom or Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In a mid-2008 poll, he pulled in 9 percent support along with Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, another declared Democratic candidate for governor.

Running for governor in California is an expensive proposition. Ex-state Controller Steve Westly, for instance, spent more than $40 million running for governor in 2006 -- and he lost the Democratic primary.

As of last June, O'Connell had some $830,000 left over from his 2006 reelection campaign that he could transfer to run for governor in 2010.

Jude Barry, who served as former state Controller Steve Westly's campaign manager in his 2006 run for governor, has signed on to Lt. Gov. John Garamendi's bid for governor in 2010.

Barry will serve as a senior adviser to Garamendi.

"I think the residents and voters of this state are finally lined up to believe experience matters and leadership counts and Garamendi has that," Barry said about joining the campaign.

Sounds the like the makings of a campaign theme to me...

Memo to would-be Democratic gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa:

In case you're thinking the winner of the 2010 Democratic primary will coast to victory in the general election, you better check out some recent poll numbers on Meg Whitman.

According to a new poll out from Rasmussen Reports, the former eBay CEO wins in face-to-face match-ups with Villaraigosa and Newsom and puts some serious heat on Brown.

Whitman may be yet to announce her candidacy -- or tap into her billions of dollars -- for the governor's race. But she runs ahead of Villaraigosa by a 41 percent to 34 percent margin in a hypothetical November 2010 match-up, and she also bests Newsom by 37 percent to 34 percent.

In a match-up against Brown, Whitman trails by just two percentage points, 40 percent to 38 percent, according to the Rasmussen survey of 500 California voters.

Another Silicon Valley figure and would-be Republican candidate might take exception to the poll. Mobile satellite technology tycoon and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner wasn't included in any of the hypothetical general election contests.

Didn't get to posting this on Wednesday, but Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill endorsed Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner's campaign for governor yesterday.

Poizner touts the support of 70 percent of legislative Republicans.

The big newsweekly has a feature on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his potential run for governor of California in 2010.

Not surprisingly, there's a bit of focus on gay marriage. The story begins:

Gavin Newsom is the sort of politician who leaves an impression. There's his prodigious résumé--at 41, he has started a multimillion-dollar wine business, served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and won election, twice, to serve as that city's mayor. There's his colorful personal life--after divorcing a knockout TV anchorwoman, he had an affair with his campaign manager's wife, an affair Newsom admitted to before then marrying a 34-year-old actress. Then there's his striking appearance--white teeth, long limbs and that hair, big and brown and slicked back on the sides. In spite of being straight, white, rich and male, he's managed to make himself the center of San Francisco politics for the past five years. Not the sort of man you forget. But ask average Californians what they remember about Newsom at the moment, and they're likely to offer six words: "whether you like it or not."

Later in the story, Newsom jokes, "No-Drama Obama? Yeah, that's not me."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was the first candidate out of the gate announcing an exploratory committee for governor last July.

And he's the first candidate out of the gate announcing his fundraising totals.

Newsom told supporters late Tuesday that he had raised just shy of $1.2 million in the second half of 2008 from "more than 1,000" contributors.

Newsom touted that two-thirds of the donations were collected online.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has not filed a full report for the second half of 2008, but initial filings (showing only donations of $5,000 or more) have him collecting more than $2 million. Brown also started on July 1 with $1.7 million in the bank, compared to Newsom starting from zero.

Brown has not declared for governor and has raised the money in his account for reelection as attorney general, though the funds are fully transferable.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has reported raising more than $200,000 in large contributions in the second half of 2008.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised more than $2.7 million for his reelection campaign in the full calendar year 2008, as he cleared the field of any well-known and well-funded challengers.

The LAT and Daily News have more.

Villaraigosa could be reelected as early as March, should he avoid a runoff election. The mayor has not said he is interested in running for governor in 2010, but speculation has continued that he could run.

Photo: Gov. Schwarzenegger talks as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom listens as the governor launches Bank on California, on Friday Dec. 12, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

The San Francisco Chronicle today pulls up an interesting factoid: Before Attorney General Jerry Brown became a staunch gay marriage advocate, he actually signed into law the first ban on same-sex marriage back during his initial stint as governor in the late 1970s.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has reached beyond the California political sphere to hire a pair of national political veterans to guide his run for governor in 2010.

Poizner today announced the hiring of Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer, veterans of President Bush's campaigns and those of more than a half-dozen GOP governors, as his lead strategists and media consultants.

Poizner former top political adviser, Wayne Johnson, will remain as a senior strategist.

Stevens and Schriefer are well known admen on the national scene. And you may even remember one of the ads they produced in 2004 -- the infamous ad featuring Sen. John Kerry windsurfing to symbolize his flip-flopping.

The New Yorks Times said of the pair "helped produce some of the most hard-charging advertisements of Mr. Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns."

You can read a long profile of Russ Schriefer in the Washington Post from 2007, when the pair also briefly worked on the presidential campaign of John McCain, before leaving in the staff purge of mid-2007.

A day after news broke that former Meg Whitman was dropping posts on corporate boards to position herself to run for governor, the former eBay chief executive was trolling the halls of the state Capitol.

Whitman, a Republican, was meeting today with members of the GOP caucus not yet aligned with anyone in the 2010 governor's race.

They're harder to find than you might think, as Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has stumped hard among Republican lawmakers for their support.

Poizner, who first won elective office in 2006, has already garnered the support of 31 of the 44 GOP state legislators.

Meg Whitman keeps on inching toward running for governor of California in 2010.

The billionaire former CEO of eBay resigned posts on the boards of three major companies at the end of 2008, one more signal she's preparing for her first run for political office.

Whitman tendered her resignations on Dec. 31 for "personal reasons and time commitment," said her spokesman, Henry Gomez.

She "basically wanted to open her calendar to focus on other things," Gomez said.

Whitman resigned posts on the boards of Procter & Gamble, where she served since 2003, Dreamworks Animation SKG, where she served since 2005, and eBay, where she has served since joining the company as CEO in 1998.

"We've deeply valued the contributions she's brought to the board during her five years," said Paul Fox, a spokesman for Procter & Gamble.

John Donahoe, eBay's president and chief executive officer said in an e-mailed statement, "Her experience and insights will be missed, but Meg will always be a part of the eBay family, and we wish her the very best."

Dreamworks did not immediately return a call for comment.

As a director, Whitman served alongside some of the titans of corporate America, including the current or past CEOs of businesses like Ford, American Express, Pepsi, Viacom, Boeing, Freddie Mac and Archer Daniels Midland.

But serving on the boards of large corporations while running for governor would have created potential conflicts, said Tony Quinn, a Republican political analyst

"Why would she want to remain on those boards (where) she could get drawn into controversies regarding those companies," said Quinn. "Running for governor is a full-time job."

Here's a guide to all the news you missed during your (and our) holiday break.

Yes, California still has a budget problem.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic leadership negotiated during the holiday weeks over whether Schwarzenegger would sign their majority-vote package of $18 billion in cuts and taxes.

First they were "very close" in the words of Senate leader Darrell Steinberg. Then they were "far away" in the words of Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear.

Bee cartoonist Rex Babin sketched the battling sides (see right).

Schwarzenegger headed off to Idaho for a Christmas break, though he kept in touch with legislative leaders via videoconferencing.

Then, on New Year's Eve, Schwarzenegger administration officials unveiled the 2009-10 budget proposal to close the roughly $40 billion deficit.

It was the sixth Schwarzenegger budget proposal of 2008.

The new elements include reducing the dependent care exemption on state income tax returns from the current $309 per dependent to $103; carrying over some of the deficit into the 2010-11 fiscal year; borrowing funds from voter-created programs for the mentally ill and pre-kindergarten children, and borrowing $4.7 billion from the private sector.

Read The Bee's outline of the plan. Or read the governor's document for yourself.

The budget proposes to change state worker health care, reduce the length of the school year, save a billion in prison and parolee costs, and blow up some of those old boxes, among other things.

Schwarzenegger himself wasn't at his own budget unveiling. Legislative leaders seemed unimpressed by the plan.

The Los Angeles Times reported more bad budget news: California fire-fighting expenditures topped $1 billion in 2008.

The California Teachers Association, meanwhile, is taking matters into its own hands, filing an initiative to raise the sales tax by a penny.

"It's time for stable and independent funding that cannot be cut by the Legislature or diverted for other uses," CTA President David Sanchez said in a statement.

Meanwhile, State Controller John Chiang went to Texas to visit family, but he was hospitalized there with chest pains. (It was later determined Chiang suffered a mild heart attack.)

From his hospital bed in Texas, Chiang wrote a letter to state agencies saying California may have to resort to IOUs as early as Feb. 1.

First on the list of recipients: state lawmakers.

On the plus side..."Terminator," the 1984 film starring Schwarzenegger, was one of 25 films added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

In another policy arena, a panel of state leaders is calling for the construction of a canal to divert water around the Delta by 2011. And they're not asking for approval from lawmakers or voters.

Potential Republican candidate for governor Tom Campbell, in an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, makes the case for a temporary hike in the per-gallon gasoline tax combined with a strict spending cap.

Campbell may end up competing with a couple of billionaires (or near-billionaires) in Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, but he's the first one out with some real, concrete ideas to solve the state's fiscal mess. Not that tax hikes are likely to woo the GOP faithful...

Speaking of Whitman, conservative Red County Placer blogger Aaron Park calls the former CEO of eBay, "Al Checci in a skirt."

Speaking of names from the past, you'd never guess who might toss his hat into the 2010 GOP ring.

Bill Simon, the 2002 Republican nominee, tells the Wall Street Journal he's interested.

In fact, Mr. Simon tells me that he would definitely consider running again for governor or lieutenant governor in 2010. He says that the budget crisis in California, including a deficit which he estimates at approximately $40 billion, will "require very fundamental change. This is an issue I understand. Economic issues are a strength for me."

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jerry Brown, who's a could-be, would-be candidate for governor in 2010, announced he was suing the Bush administration (always a popular move) over enforcement of the endangered species act.

It may seem early, but candidates are already sniffing around the open Assembly seats in 2010. The Fresno Bee says Blong Xiong may run.

Other odds and ends:

Big-time GOP donor Alex Spanos, 85, tells his family about his own battle with dementia.

The New York Times profiled California's congressional Sanchez sisters.

There are high levels of arsenic in Kern Valley State Prison, the Los Angeles Times reported. "It's not that major of an issue," said Kelly Harrington, the prison's new warden.

California's new clout on environmental issues was covered by the Washington Post.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a prison sentence granted because of California's three-strikes law was unconstitutional.

Former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer has returned to Orange County as a prosecutor. The OC Register reports he lost his first jury trial.

Spitzer told the Register it "was one of only two "not guiltys" he's even gotten in his career as a prosecutor."

Former Assemblywoman Shirley Horton has a new job. She's taking the helm of the San Diego Downtown Partnership.

Health Access' Anthony Wright assessed health care politics in 2008:

In the fight for quality, affordable health coverage for all Californians, the year 2008 was a year of setbacks and steps back--not just opportunities lost, but decisions that will cause many Californians' coverage to be lost.

It started with the end of the proclaimed "Year of Health Reform," as a much-watched, much-negotiated comprehensive health reform stalled in January. The year was marked by the failure of many more bills, big and small, ambitious and specific, blocked by legislative action or a Governor's veto pen.

The Department of Fish and Game labeled 2008 the "Year of Extreme Poachers and Dangerous Encounters," for what it's worth.

Calitics blogger Brian Leubitz dropped his bid for vice-chairman of the California Democratic Party.

The dynamics of these races are, in fact, quite dynamic. When I got in this race, I did so not simply to make a point. I believed, and continue to believe, that I would do an excellent job as the vice chair of the CDP. And with these changes, it is clear to me that I will not have the votes come April in Sacramento. While I am not afraid to run a race that is merely to make a point, I believe the goals of competing in every race and building the party throughout the party will be made.

Those dynamics involved ex-Senate leader John Burton jumping into the chairmanship race and pushing Eric Bauman, chair of the Los Angeles Democratic Party, to run for vice-chair.

A couple of other blogs are closing up shop.

Boi from Troy, the musings of a gay conservative USC alum (Scott Schmidt), has published its last post.

Ditto for California Faultline.

And it wouldn't be a new year without new laws.

The Bee's Rex Babin gave his take (see right) on the most talked -- and texted -- about new statute.

Photo: John Chiang speaking to The Bee Capitol Bureau in 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

Photo: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, left listens to state finance director Tom Campbell during a press conference at the Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday June 21, 2005. Credit: Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee

It's safe to say Tom Campbell, the former congressman exploring a run for governor in 2010, is not your typical Republican.

Back in October, he announced his opposition to Proposition 8, the gay marriage initiative.

Now, in an interview with a Bay Area TV station, he floats his solution to the state's budget crunch: a temporary 18-cent per gallon tax hike on gasoline.

"The price of gasoline has now fallen in our state. Last June it was about $4.60. If you were to put on a gasoline tax of about 18 cents, so we'd still be well under two dollars a gallon," Campbell said.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner takes his gubernatorial fundraising show to Sacramento today for an evening event at Spataro, the upscale eatery and bar on L Street.

Poizner is one of two Republicans officially exploring a run for governor in 2010. The other is former Rep. Tom Campbell.

A third would-be GOP contender, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, has been in the political news lately. Two of her early advisers, Adam Mendelsohn, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ex-communications director, and Steve Schmidt, Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign manager, have decided against working for her potential 2010 bid.

The split is said to be amicable, with GOP strategist Jeff Randle still on board the Whitman train.

Of course Mendelsohn and Schmidt's PR firm - Mercury Public Affairs - hasn't had the best news week itself. Its latest partner and co-chair -- Fabian Nunez -- has fallen hard times.

Back to the never-ending state budget saga, the newly constituted Senate budget subcommittees will begin meeting today to talk about how to tackle California's fiscal mess.

First up today are the subcommittees on education and health care.

And In our Daily Piece of Bad Budget News, state Controller John Chiang reported Tuesday that, "November blew away even the most pessimistic estimates, with General Fund revenue down $1.3 billion."

What does that mean?

Chiang explains it "could expand our immediate cash problem by another half a billion dollars, with no recovery in sight."

Jerry Brown's former chief of staff is out shaking the money tree for his old boss.

Of course, that's only of note because Brown's ex-chief of staff also happens to be an ex-governor: Gray Davis.

Davis sent a note last week inviting donors to a reception he is hosting at his home for Brown this Tuesday.

"Jerry has done a great job as California's attorney general," Davis wrote to invitees. "Please join us in supporting his re-election campaign."

Donors are asked to give from $2,000 to the legal maximum of $12,000.

Officially, the money raised must go toward Brown's reelection campaign for attorney general.

But Brown, who served two terms as governor before term limits were in place, is making noise about running for the state's top office again. And any funds he raises for his reelection campaign can easily be transferred to a run for governor. Brown has already stripped his 2010 campaign account title of any reference to attorney general. It's simply "Jerry Brown 2010."

Former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown reported this encounter with Brown over the weekend:

Finally I asked Jerry, "Are you really deadly serious about running for governor?"

"I am, I am," he said.

So is Davis signaling what side he intends to take in the 2010 gubernatorial primary? Not clear, as Davis did not return a call for comment.

Gray and Sharon Davis are co-hosting the reception with three other Southern Californians: Dan Weinstein, the co-founder of Wetherly Capital Group whom Davis appointed to the California State University Board of Trustees, William Chadwick, the multimillionaire managing director of Chadwick Saylor & Co who put his Malibu home up for sale for $65 million earlier this year, and William McMorrow, the CEO of the real estate investment firm Kennedy Wilson.
Photo: California's current and past governors gathered in 2004 to oppose Proposition 66, a Three Strikes reform measure. From left to right: Pete Wilson, Jerry Brown, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gray Davis. Credit: AP Photo/ Damian Dovarganes

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

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

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.

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.

In the final stretch of his bid for Congress, Sen. Tom McClintock will attend two town hall-style meetings today in Roseville and Lincoln.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is short on cash and has been deserting some GOP incumbents across the country, came to McClintock's aid this week with a new TV ad attacking his opponent, Democrat Charlie Brown.

The ad tries to tie Brown to Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- an unpopular name in the GOP-heavy 4th Congressional District.

The NRCC ad comes after its counterweight, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, released an attack ad of its own against McClintock, which covers a dizzying number of topics in 30 seconds.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom holds a fundraiser for the No on 8 campaign at his S.F. home tonight, said his political adviser Garry South.

South said the event had already brought in pledges of $100,000 -- with more to come.

Newsom first set in motion the events that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage earlier this year, when he allowed his city to perform such ceremonies in 2004.

He's been an active opponent of Proposition 8 -- and, initially, the face of the Yes campaign, which took footage of Newsom saying gay marriage was going to happen "whether you like it or not."

"They were trying to demonize him, and all it did was tick him off and make him work 10 times harder than he was going to do anyway," said South, who is working with Newsom as he explores a run for governor in 2010.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will campaign outside the Capitol for Proposition 11, the redistricting measure, joined by former state officials supporting the initiative. Schwarzenegger has a second Yes on 11 event in the Bay Area and will headline an evening fundraiser for Republican Assembly candidate Abram Wilson, who is running in the 15th Assembly District.

Lastly, Sen. Leland Yee's 2005 law to prevent ultra-violent video games from being rented or sold to minors faces a court test today. A federal judge struck down the statute last year, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case today in Sacramento.

If it isn't clear yet, former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown's weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle is a must-read for political junkies.

In Sunday's edition, he reported on a private lunch with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and said he "came away more convinced than ever that she's serious about running for governor in 2010."

Brown reports Feinstein came to lunch with notes -- "a detailed briefing paper on the state of California, including its finances."

"It was not the kind of information you'd be seeking unless you figured that dealing with that mess might soon be your job," Brown wrote.

Meanwhile, the FlashReport's Jon Fleischman reports on a delicious irony should former eBay chief Meg Whitman, a Republican, jump into the race. Whitman recently donated $250,000 to the No on Proposition 5 campaign.

Well, the campaign turned around and made a TV spot...featuring Democrat Feinstein.

Watch the ad after the jump.

Attorney General Jerry Brown is on the cover of this month's California Lawyer magazine, in a 3,500-word story.

The piece looks at both Brown's record at attorney general thus far -- and his potential political future (governor, anyone?).

The story leads off with a classic Brown quote.

"There have been so many stories written about me, there's nothing new left to say. You can try to find something original, but it's not possible. You can't do it."

Well, California Lawyer tried.

If you are Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and you want to be governor these are exactly the kinds of pictures you have got to love:

Poizner, a Republican, was down in Southern California on Tuesday with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to survey the fire scene. Poizner spoke to residents alongside Schwarzenegger.

And his office oh-so-kindly provided photos.

Credit: Darrel Ng, Office on Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks Sen. Dianne Feinstein will run for governor if John McCain wins the presidency. But if Feinstein stays in Washington, Schwarzenegger said Attorney General Jerry Brown "has the best shot of becoming governor of the great state."

The Republican governor played prognosticator for the 2010 gubernatorial elections during a question-and-answer session at the American Magazine Conference in San Francisco. He was asked whom he thought would win the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010, and he didn't once mention San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom even though he was in Newsom's city.

Though Schwarzenegger was asked whom he thought would win the Democratic nomination for governor, it seemed for a moment that he answered whom he thought would win the entire race. And the fact that he said Brown, a Democrat, was a shock considering that he's a Republican governor, albeit not as great a shock as it would have been if he weren't a self-declared "post-partisan" governor.

The governor's office disputes whether he actually said he thought Brown was best positioned to become governor and insists he was only answering the question about the Democratic nominee.

But Schwarzenegger did flat out say "Jerry Brown I think has the best shot of becoming governor of the great state." He then mentioned Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in the next breath, which suggests that he was handicapping the overall race, not just the Democratic contest.

Here's the full transcript of what Schwarzenegger said:

Q: Who will be the Democratic nominee for governor when your term is up?

A: You know I think the best potential ... it depends on if Dianne Feinstein comes into the race or not. I think that depends also on who will win the presidency. Because if McCain wins the presidency, I think she most likely will leave Washington and come and run for governor. I think that if Obama wins the presidency, she will want to be part of that move and want to stay because of that change, want to stay in Washington. And then Jerry Brown I think has the best shot of becoming governor of the great state. And Steve Poizner has also a good shot, who is a Republican and making his way up right now. So you know, to me, I think Jerry Brown because he has been governor twice before in California and has worked his way back up again from being mayor of Oakland to becoming the attorney general right now. And he can kind of reach the Republicans and Democrats and bring people together, so I think he has the best shot.

Former Republican presidential candidate and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney hinted at the state GOP convention that Meg Whitman might dip her toes into California's political waters in the coming years.

Speaking to the GOP party activists, Romney said of Whitman, the billionaire former CEO of eBay who has been rumored 2010 candidate for governor, "Meg would be here this evening if she were not out working for Sen. (John) McCain."

Whitman is a senior adviser to McCain.

Romney then said, according to PolitickerCA.com, that, "I don't think he'll get a chance to listen to her, because you need her here in California" in the future.

If anyone would know Whitman's plan, it would be Romney. Whitman left her post at eBay and became a top adviser to him until he dropped out of the presidential sweepstakes earlier this year. McCain then recruited her for economics advice.

Whitman and Romney both met with McCain last week amid Wall Street's financial turmoil.

Whitman hasn't said much publicly about her own political ambitions. She has said no announcements will come until after the presidential campaign.

Photo: Meg Whitman speaking at the Republican National Convention September 2008. Credit: Brian Baer, Sacramento Bee

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner made official Monday what's been expected for months: He's formally exploring a run for governor in 2010.

The state's only Republican statewide officeholder besides Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will file paperwork today to open an exploratory committee to succeed Schwarzenegger in two years. The move is the first formal step taken to enter the race.

"I am taking the first formal step toward running for governor in 2010 because I believe in California and I understand that meeting the challenges of the 21st century requires new and innovative ideas," Poizner said in a statement.

Poizner, 51, sold a high-tech business in 2000 for $1 billion and has spent more than $24 million of his own money to launch his political career.

A socially moderate, pro-choice Republican, Poizner has gone to great lengths to woo the conservative base of the Republican Party, touting himself as a fiscal conservative.

In fact, he "announced" the exploration of his run for governor through the Web site of conservative GOP party leader Jon Fleischman, shortly before noon today.

"I told Commissioner Poizner that while this news was hardly unexpected, that it was certainly exciting, and of course when he told me that FlashReport readers were going to be the very first to officially get the news, I was very pleased!" Fleischman writes.

Last Thursday, I profiled some of Poizner's efforts to line up conservatives in the printed Sacramento Bee:

In the last 20 months, Poizner has zigzagged the state, lending himself as the headline speaker at fundraisers for more than 60 Republican clubs. The proceeds don't go to Poizner.

"Just by being available as a speaker for events, he has been a huge help to local parties because they can sell tickets, they can get people there, they can raise money," said Luis Buhler, the vice chairman of the California Republican Party in the Bay Area.
...
Poizner's travel itinerary is replete with campaign-building events.

Last week, he hobnobbed at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as vice chairman of the California delegation. Today, he'll headline a fundraiser for a Republican candidate in a competitive Assembly race.

He traveled to Israel with President Bush this spring. And he seems to find himself on stage whenever Sen. John McCain makes a California campaign swing.

In announcing his run for governor today, he also rolled out the endorsements of 21 sitting GOP lawmakers, roughly 40 percent of the 47 Republican members.

His backers include Sens. Sam Aanestad, Roy Ashburn, Jim Battin, Bob Dutton, Tom Harman, Bob Margett and George Runner. And in the Assembly: Anthony Adams, Joel Anderson, John Benoit, Tom Berryhill, Sam Blakeslee, Jean Fuller, Ted Gaines, Bonnie Garcia, Guy Houston, Kevin Jeffries, Alan Nakanishi, Jim Silva, Cameron Smyth, and Van Tran.

Poizner is the second Republican to jump into the race. Former congressman and director of the Department of Finance Tom Campbell filed paperwork earlier in the summer.

Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay (and a billionaire herself), is also considering a run. A top adviser to Sen. John McCain, Whitman has repeatedly said she won't look seriously at the race until after the presidential election.

On the Democratic side, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi have both opened exploratory committees. Other Democrats -- from Attorney General Jerry Brown to Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell -- are said to be eyeing the contest.

Photo Credit: Brian Baer, Sacramento Bee, February 2008

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is shaping the inner circle of his campaign for governor, naming veteran Democratic strategist Garry South as a top adviser.

Newsom, a Democrat who announced he was exploring a run for governor in 2010 last month, is also tapping veterans of the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns for polling and day-to-day campaign operations. His longtime political adviser, San Francisco-based consultant Eric Jaye, will serve as campaign director.

But the key new addition is South, who served as chief strategist for Gov. Gray Davis' two successful campaigns in 1998 and 2002. In 2006, South was the top political adviser for state Controller Steve Westly's run for governor.

(The hiring of South is no shocker. Earlier this month a blogger caught Newsom and South meeting at a Malibu Starbucks.)

South brings a bare-knuckled approach to politics. His relentless attacks on Democratic primary opponent Phil Angelides in 2006 earned him the moniker "the king of mean" from Angelides.

It was a badge he wore with pride.

South's joining of the Newsom campaign is likely to have a domino effect on the would-be candidacy of Westly, who is a multimillionaire who could use his riches to run again in 2010.

Back in June, South told Capitol Alert that "if you don't have enough money to self-finance you simply can't compete for governor of this state." Newsom is not wealthy enough to self-finance.

Some (including this writer) saw those comments as an indication that South might sign up for a second Westly bid.

Apparently not.

Westly will have been out of political office for four years by 2010. But as a key California fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Westly may be hoping to parlay that early support into a position in a potential Obama administration.

Newsom's other new hires include Nick Clemons as "day-to-day campaign manager" and Joel Benenson as his chief pollster.

Clemons served as the the state director for Sen. Hillary Clinton's primary campaigns in the key states of New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Benenson is a top pollster for the Obama campaign.

The race to secure political strategists is always part of the early jockeying of gubernatorial campaigns.

Other consultant intrigue worth watching is which campaign Ace Smith, another Clinton strategist, signs on to advise.

Smith has served as a political strategist to two would-be 2010 Democratic candidates: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Attorney General Jerry Brown.

Photo credit: Steve Yeater, Sacramento Bee, 2002