From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…
Jerry Brown became California’s governor two months ago with a clear plan to balance the state’s $26 billion deficit: call a special election this June in which he would ask voters to approve a "compromise" plan that combined spending cuts with higher income, sales and vehicle taxes.
But Monday appears to be the deadline for putting such a measure on the ballot, and Mr. Brown still hasn’t secured the votes of enough GOP legislators. Republicans complain that Mr. Brown is asking Californians to pay about $1,000 per family each year for the next five years without making the kind of structural changes in public pensions and regulations that will lead to long-term solvency. For his part, the governor complains that too many of them won’t step away from the anti-tax pledge issued by Grover Norquist’s Washington, D.C.-based group, Americans for Tax Reform.
California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring came up with the idea that the two men should debate the governor’s plan at next week’s state GOP convention. Noting that Mr. Brown has shown a willingness to engage Republicans in dialogue, Mr. Nehring said a debate would clarify the issues. Gil Duran, a spokesman for Mr. Brown, said the governor was too busy but that the First Dog, a Pembroke Welsh corgi named Sutter, might be available.
"That would be more of a fair fight for Mr. Norquist," he said. "It doesn’t really merit the governor’s attention today."
The offer of a dog vs. man debate didn’t amuse Mr. Norquist, who called the offer "childish." "That might have been clever in fourth grade," Mr. Norquist told the San Francisco Chronicle. "What he’s telling you is he is not confident."
Even if a last-minute deal on a June special election is cobbled together, no one is confident it will pass muster with voters. A similar deal was brokered by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009, only to go down to a crushing 2-to-1 defeat. If anything, the mood of the electorate is even more sour today than it was then.