And they're off...
It's the first full day of fall, and the campaign season is definitely underway. You knew that to be true this morning on 10th Street in Sacramento, where two news conferences unfolded a half-hour and less than two blocks apart.
The first was relatively routine: Representatives of law enforcement unions including PORAC, the Correctional Peace Officers Association and the Association of Highway Patrolmen stood in front of the Peace Officers Memorial and pronounced their opposition to Proposition 76. They asserted it would inevitably lead to cuts in local law enforcement budgets. Waiting in the wings was Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpapers Association, eager to provide an on-camera rebuttal.
The real excitement took place down the block in front of the California Teachers Association headquarters, where the National Right to Work League was announcing a lawsuit challenging the union's action to place a $60 surcharge on teachers to pay off a loan it has taken to finance its campaign against the ballot measures backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Union members were waiting on the sidewalk as the group's vice president, two California teachers and Sen. Tom McClintock prepared to speak out against the CTA fees.
As soon as the first speaker stepped to the microphone, the protesters began to chant, "Shame on you" -- a chant they kept up for 20 minutes, completely drowning out the remarks of the speakers.
Afterward, inside the quiet of an office building lobby, McClintock called the demonstration an example "of the kind of intimidation, bullying and thuggery that our public schoolteachers work under every day of the year."
Democratic Party political adviser Bob Mulholland, who always seems to materialize at these sorts of events, was asked afterward whether the protesters' rude behavior might have been counterproductive. Mulholland said it was a simple case of provocation -- that the Right to Work group knew what would be in store when it decided to stage the event on the sidewalk in front of the CTA headquarters.
"When you stand outside a person's house and throw snowballs at the windows, they're going to let the dogs out," he said.
Posted by Timm Herdt at 3:44 PM | Comments (0)
The simplest explanation
California's newest Assembly member was sworn into office today in brief ceremonies in the Assembly chamber, in which Ted Lieu took his oath. Lieu pulled off a stunning rarity in a special election by winning outright in the first round of polling, collecting 60 percent of the vote on a five-candidate ballot that included four Republicans in Torrance's 53rd Assembly District. That victory, as state Democratic Party political adviser Bob Mulholland told me before the ceremony, "saved us a lot of money." Had no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff would have been held Nov. 8.
The loss has set off a round of recriminations and rationalizations among Republicans, whose statewide leaders had rallied around Manhattan Beach physician Mary Jo Ford. Her campaign was set back when it was revealed she had previously been registered to vote first as a Democrat and then later as an American Independent — disclosures that might have been marginally damaging but became a major public relations headache when she denied they were true and later had to retract her denial.
After Lieu's victory, some Republicans blamed Assembly GOP leader Kevin McCarthy for failing to thoroughly check out his candidate. Others suggested that the party realized from the outset it couldn't win, so settled on Ford because she had promised to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of her own money on the campaign, thus saving Republican resources statewide. What Republicans didn't say was that perhaps Lieu was a better candidate, or that maybe he ran a better campaign or that it was possible voters were more receptive to the issues he talked about (principally education).
Campaign strategist Gale Kaufman, who ran Lieu's campaign said the Republican response was case of deja vu, reminiscent of what she heard after they failed to gain any legislative seats last fall after having originally claimed that they expected to gain as many as five.
"Why can't they ever just say, 'Good job, Democrats'? When I lose, I lose," Kaufman said. "This was a competitive seat. All the variables in a low-turnout special election say that Republicans come out and vote on the natural in better numbers than we do. Republicans are depressed. People who always vote Republican stayed home."
Posted by Timm Herdt at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
The people don't need no stinking badges
In the government-by-initiative atmosphere that prevails in California, everyone who can afford to pay signature gatherers loves to talk about "the will of the people" and the wonders of direct democracy.
Anybody familiar with the process knows better. Perhaps it helps to have an initiative with popular appeal that can be summarized in a bumper sticker slogan to attract passers-by to a card table set up in a WalMart parking lot, but what matters most is whether someone's got the money to pay bounty hunters to cajole voters into signing.
That little secret will remain well kept, following a veto last night by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He nixed a bill by Assemblyman Joe Nation that would have required paid signature gatherers to wear a button indentifying themselves as such. Be assured that a button would be a turnoff to a bounty hunter's potential targets.
Schwarzenegger's veto message follows:
"I am returning AB 738 without my signature. This bill requires an individual who is paid to collect signatures on any state or local initiative, referendum or petition to wear a badge stating 'Paid Signature Gatherer.'
"I agree with Governor Davis and Governor Wilson, who returned similar measures without their signature, that this bill is unnecessary. Under existing law, petitions must contain the following notice in 12 point type: NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC - THIS PETITION IS BEING CIRCULATED BY A PAID SIGNATURE GATHERER OR A VOLUNTEER. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASK.
"I see no compelling reason to change existing law."
Nation's response:
“I am dismayed the governor decided to veto a voter-oriented, good-government piece of legislation. However, I understand this bill would have adversely affected his govern-by-initiative approach by forcing paid signature gatherers to reveal their true identity to voters.
“I believe the public deserves a realistic perspective concerning paid circulators and their ability to accurately represent specific issues to voters. I am disheartened that the governor doesn’t agree.”
So the fiction that initiatives are about anything other than the money behind them will go on...
Posted by Timm Herdt at 1:26 PM | Comments (1)
Making it personal
In these closing days of the legislative session, lawmakers are pretty much debating bills from morning to evening. Most of the debate is forgettable. But there were a couple memorable exchanges today. As often is the case, they came when legislators tapped into their own personal experiences to make their arguments.
In the Assembly, Republican Keith Richman argued against a bill to require doctors to take cultural training as part of their continuing education. Richman, a physician, said the Legislature should not proscribe the curricula for such training. Doctors, he noted, will learn what they need to serve their patients. He made the point by arguing it in Spanish.
Richman's former San Fernando Valley medical clinic had offices in heavily Latino neighborhoods, which is why Richman -- without a mandate from the state -- learned sufficient Spanish to communicate with patients.
Over in the Senate, Democrat Ed Vincent invoked his personal experience to argue in support of a bill to legalize gay marriages. Vincent, who is African-American, noted that he met his wife, who is white, when he attended the University of Iowa in the 1950s. At the time, many states outlawed inter-racial marriages.
"They said it would never last," Vincent said. "Marilyn and I have been married for 50 years."
Posted by Timm Herdt at 4:32 PM | Comments (1)
Over the last 22 presidential elections, Ventura County voters have backed the winner 21 times, or 95 percent of the time. It is one of only a handful of counties in the nation that has been such a predictable bellwether.
The Ventura County Star's Sacramento Bureau Chief Timm Herdt on state issues and politics from Sacramento to Ventura County. He can be contacted at 
