Freshman Assemblyman Das Williams, who had been planning a fall wedding after the end of the legislative session, announced to supporters in an email this morning news that had already leaked out from the Capitol this week: He got married over the weekend in what he described as "an elopement ceremony at the Santa Barbara Courthouse."

He and his bride, Jonnie Reinhold, were wed in a small ceremony attended only by family members.

"The time for celebration will come. We are planning a traditional Navajo sunrise ceremony and wedding celebration in the future," Williams wrote supporters.

They made the decision to speed up the timetable, he wrote, because they realized the demands of the legislative session were such that handling all the details of planning a wedding seemed overwhelming. They have put off a honeymoon until after the Legislature recesses in the fall.

The White House this afternoon released the list of attendees for tonight's state dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao -- a list certain to be much scrutinized by the Chinese and others in the diplomatic community to see whether it symbolically reflects China's standing as a world power.

Among the attendees are former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright , George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brezezinski, leading members of Congress and, of course,. top officials from the Obama administration.

How well is California represented? Here is the roster from the Golden State:
-- Actor Jackie Chan of Beverly Hills.
-- Congresswoman Judy Chu of Monterey Park.
-- Musician Herbie Hancock of Los Angeles.
-- CEO Robert Iger of the Disney Co. in Burbank.
-- Figure skate Michelle Kwan of Torrence.
-- Cellist Yo-Yo Ma of Burbank.
-- CEO Paul Otellini of Intel in Santa Clara.
-- Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
-- Jean Quan, mayor of Oakland.
-- Azita Raji, former vice present of Morgan Securities, of Belvedere.
-- Shultz, of Stanford.
-- CEO Patrick Soon-Shiong of Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company in Culver City.
-- Entertainer Barbra Streisand of Malibu.
-- Physician Stanley Toy of Pasadena.
-- Former state controller and venture capitalist Steve Westly of Menlo Park.
-- CEO Charles Woo of Megatoys in Los Angeles.

Last year, for the first time Proposition 13 was passed in 1978, property taxes went down in California -- but only because the economy was so lousy in 2009 that the inflation factor went down.

This year, as the California Taxpayers Association reports in its current newsletter, the inflation factor in 2010 went up by a slim 0.753 percent. It is just the seventh time in 32 years that the factor has been lower than the maximum 2 percent per year inflation adjustment allowed by Proposition 13.

According to CalTax, the inflation factor means that property taxes will rise this year by about $16 on a home with a base value of $200,000.

The good news is that it means the economy appears to have bottomed out.

Difficult as it may be for his critics in Ventura County to comprehend, the selection last week of Rep. Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley to chair the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration is being heralded by national Republicans as a signal to the Latino community that the GOP is moderating its strident views on illegal immigration.

At least that's what reports coming from Florida today indicate, as former Gov. Jeb Bush hosts a conference to discuss how the GOP can improve its standing among Latino voters nationwide. Latinos are the fastest-growing subgroup of voters in the nation, and Republican leaders such as Jeb Bush and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have made it clear in recent weeks that the party cannot expect to win the presidency in 2012 unless it can close the 70-30 gap in which its candidates have been losing to Democrats among Latino voters in key states.

So where does Gallegly come in? Even though he's made the fight for tougher illegal immigration laws the centerpiece of his career in Congress, calling for such things as the denial of education to illegal immigrant children, his selection over that of Iowa Congressman Steve King is being heralded as a sign that national Republicans seek to tone down their rhetoric on the issue.

Gallegly might be tough, but King is bombastic.

In a report on today's conference in Miami, National Public Radio spoke with Alfonso Aguilar, the executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

Here's what he had to say about the selection of Gallegly over King:

"To me, the message is, 'Steve King, you're too loud and you're saying things that are very offensive. We don't want to see that.' That's a very good first step: Reject the ugly rhetoric. The question now is can we propose, can Republicans practically propose immigration solutions that go beyond enforcement only? And if we do, Hispanics will respond very favorably."

Gallegly, as those who have followed his career in Ventura County over the years are aware, is not likely to be the one who proposes policies that go beyond enforcement.

As he told Star Washington reporter Michael Collins last week, Gallegly intends to use his new position "to step up congressional efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the workforce."

If Gov. Jerry Brown has a Democratic soulmate in his quest for frugality in state government, it's Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who for the last two years has been preaching the need to slash spending.

So it's not surprising that on Tuesday, after Brown issued an executive order to reduce the number of state-issued cell phones circulating among state employees, it was Lockyer who punctuated that pronouncement in a surprise visit to the Assembly Republican caucus.

Lockyer walked in unannounced carrying a trash can and demanded the state cell phones of GOP lawmakers. It was, of course, a joke, but it did humorously reinforce the message to Republicans that Brown is serious about tackling bureaucratic excesses in the state budget.

The field of candidates for the Feb. 15 special election in the Senate district that includes Santa Paula and Fillmore has been set. It will be one of two special elections that day that will be the first in the state to be conducted under the rules of California's new top-two primary system, in which if no candidate gets a majority the top two finishers advance to the general election, regardless of party.

The 17th Senate District won't provide any test for how the new system will work, however, because there are only two candidates.

What will be different, however, is how the candidates are listed on the ballot. They are no longer specifically designated as candidates from a particular party. Instead, Sharon Runner, wife of the previous senator, George Runner, will be listed with the identifying statement, "My Party Preference is the Republican Party." Her opponent, Darren Parker, will be listed on the ballot with the identifier, "My Party Preference is the Democratic Party." Both will carry the ballot designation "small business owner."

The more interesting test of the top-two primary on Feb. 15 will come in the 28th Senate District, where eight candidates will be on the ballot -- two whose preference is the Democratic Party, four whose preference is the Republican Party and two who state no party preference.

In that district, centered around Long Beach, there are twice as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans. With four candidates who claim a preference for the Republican Party on the ballot, it is conceivable that they could splinter the GOP vote. If that happens, it's possible that the runoff, if there is one, could very well feature two Democrats or one Democrat and and an independent.

After having heard numerous rumors that former Supervisor John Flynn of Oxnard might be pondering a political comeback at age 77, I decided last week to put the question directly to him -- through Facebook, the contemporary social networking site that the septuagenarian has enthusiastically embraced.

Here is most of what he said in his Facebook message to me: "Retirement? It has not been a fit for me... I will keep options open."

Among the options, of course, would be a 2012 rematch against Supervisor John Zaragoza, who beat Flynn in their 2008 contest. Flynn, who served 32 years on the board, has come back once before: He was defeated in his re-election campaign after his first term, then came back to reclaim the office and serve seven more terms.

Another potential option might be running for mayor of Oxnard. With the uncertainty over potential indictments relating to the district attorney's probe of various city financial activities, a serious challenge against incumbent Tom Holden seems likely in 2012. Flynn might be tempted to take a shot at the mayor's seat, which would carry with it the chance to serve alongside his son, Tim, on the City Council.

Tim Flynn, like his father before him, was re-elected to office last fall, making a successful comeback after having lost his first re-election campaign.

Now that all the new Republican members of Congress and the new Democratic state officials in California who were elected in 2010 have been sworn it, it must be time to start thinking about 2012.

Toward that end, state Democrats will be holding elections in each of the state's 80 Assembly districts this weekend to pick six men and six women in each district who will become state Democratic Party delegates for the next two years. The winners will be delegates to the 2011 and 2012 state party conventions.

For a list of qualified candidates, search by district here.

The elections for the four districts that include parts of Ventura County will take place:

AD 35 (Ventura and northern and eastern sections of Oxnard): 2 p.m. Saturday at the IBEW Local 951 headquarters, 3994 E. Main St. in Ventura. There are 30 qualified candidates.

AD 37 (Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Moorpark, Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore and much of Simi Valley): 2 p.m. Sunday at the county Democratic Party headquarters, 1760 Ventura Blvd., Camarillo. There are 13 candidates.

AD 38 (about half of Simi Valley): 2 p.m. Saturday, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 24901 Orchard Village Road, Santa Clarita. There are 32 candidates.

AD 41 (Port Hueneme and the southern and western sections of Oxnard): 10 a.m. Sunday, Topanga Canyon Community Center, 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. There are 38 candidates.

For the first time since, well, Jerry Brown was last governor, former Ventura County legislator and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell watched the inauguration of a new California governor on television this week, from his home in San Luis Obispo.

O'Connell was first elected to office in 1982, coming to the Assembly just as Brown was leaving office and George Deukmejian was being sworn in. He left elected office on the day Brown resumed office.

Before stepping down as Calfironia's top elected education official, O'Connell wrote a provocative op-ed on the state of public education that was published Dec. 26 in the San Diego Union-Tribune. You can read it here.

He told me this week he has not yet decided what's next, although he's considering a few offers in the education arena, including a couple in the realm of higher education. He and his wife, Doree, are headed to Hawaii for a short vacation and O'Connell said he will likely not make any decisions until after returning.

Over the holiday break, I ran into new Assemblyman Das Williams on a sidewalk in Sacramento, carrying a suit bag. He was headed to his office in the Capitol, after having spent the night at a friend's apartment nearby. A month into his term, Williams was still couch-surfing while in Sacramento.

As for his fellow freshman from Ventura County, Assemblyman Jeff Gorell is staying in a friend's motorhome parked along the Sacramento River.

Williams said he expects to soon end his low-rent arrangement and get an apartment of his own. For Gorell, however, the motorhome will likely remain his Sacramento residence until he is deployed to Afghanistan in March. The arrangement works out well, he says, because he does not have to bother with renting an apartment for just a couple months.

As newly elected politicians, these two are certain to develop critics before long. But one thing they can't be legitimately accused of is living lavishly while in Sacramento.