California Insider

One of the governor's chief tormentors, the California Nurses Association, has started a web site and blog dedicated to blocking his agenda. The blog is off to a fiesty start with news links and commentary as blunt as the nurse-protestors who dog Schwarzenegger nearly everywhere he goes.

You can find it here.

Former Gov. Gray Davis

Former Gov. Gray Davis, taking a spin on conservative talk radio, gave conflicting comments on his support or opposition of Prop. 77, the disputed initiative proposal that would take the job of drawing district lines away from the Legislature.

Davis, speaking Thursday on KTKZ in Sacramento, first said flatly that he supported the initiative. Then he said he supported the concept of judges drawing the district lines. Then he backed away further and said he wouldn't support drawing new lines mid-decade, as Prop. 77 proposes. But he never squared those concerns with his stated support for the measure and his desire to see it voted on in November.

The one thing he did make clear is that he believes it is a conflict of interest for the Legislature to draw its own political boundaries.

Here is a full quote from a transcript prepared by the station:

"And my concern is that every elected official should have some sense of jeopardy in a November election. They should have some obligation to the general interest and not just having to win their primaries. And so I think its better off having people who are not combatants in this process, retired judges, draw those lines. Actually, I think of the last 4 reapportionments, Eric, 2 were drawn by judges because the courts threw out the redistrict plans and they turned out fine. So, uh, I’m for that initiative. I’m not for it starting in 2006, but I’m for the concept of having judges draw the lines.

"I’d like to see it on the ballot in November, but worst case it should be on the ballot in June. People should have the opportunity to decide whether or not they want the legislature and the governor to continue to craft reapportionment plans or take it out of their hands and put in the hands of what I believe would be less partial decision makers, retired judges.”

Davis, by the way, opposed the governor's teacher tenure and budget reform initiatives and the "paycheck protection" measure that would limit the ability of public employee unions to raise political money through unions dues.

You can hear or read the whole thing here.