UPDATE ON BIG BONDS
I had a chat with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman this morning, to talk about last night’s late session to take up the first-pass at passing a general obligation bond package that is a central part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Strategic Infrastructure Plan.  Ackerman (pictured) told me that after a couple of days of very meaningful negotiations and dialogue, Senate Democrats put up a bill that was so untenable to the entire Republican Caucus that they all unanimously voted no.  When I asked Ackerman about the dynamics of the vote he said, "All my caucus members had to do was read the proposal and they all voted no."
 
The bond package put up for a vote by Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata only vaguely resembles the original proposals for an infrastructure plan proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger back in his January State of the State Address.  While the Governor has been focused on trying to achieve some sort of consensus and get a compromise plan out of the legislature — the massive borrowing package voted on last night was more like a Democrat SUBSTITUTE for the Governor’s plan.
 
Besides the fact that a lot of important GOP ‘must have’ components were absent – including much-needed CEQA reforms, and bond debt limit, and any meaningful commitment to pay-as-you-go — this package was like a Christmas tree on steroids, threatening to collapse under the weight of massive ornaments — these being massive spending on programs that go well beyond the scope of the mortar-and-brick types of construction that Californian’s think of when they hear the word ‘infrastructure’.
 
You can read a lot more about this in an insightful and telling MUST READ article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, by reporter Greg Lucas, where you can read quotes like this one:
 
"Protection of environmental resources is as much of a long-term investment in California’s future as is the construction of public works that provide water or improve transportation or schools," said Tom Graff, regional director of the Environmental Defense Fund in Oakland.
 
The list of massive amounts of funding that go towards an extreme liberal’s view of ‘infrastructure’ is amazing, and you can read about much of it in the Lucas piece.
 
"It’s far from bricks and mortar, far from setting priorities for getting people from home to their jobs faster," said Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster in Lucas’ article.
 
It is precisely the focus of legislative Democrats on all of this non-infrastructure ‘social engineering’ nonsense that has put California in this bind in the first place.
 
In the meantime, Senate Democrats’ zeal for environmental programs is exceeded by their steadfast opposition to "above ground storage" for water — which, when you take away all of the jargon, means they don’t want any more dams built in California.  But no one is really talking about an Hetch-Hetchy style high sierra dams, but rather some rather broad a shallow water storage in some of California’s most remote areas, where the only endangered species is the California Dirt Clod.
 
Anyways, Ackerman went on to say that he thinks that negotiations will pick up again on Monday morning, and he felt that the legislature probably had until as late as Tuesday to pass something for consideration on the June ballot.
 
Ackerman made it clear that in his caucus, there is a resolve to let a deadline slip for June if the tradeoff would mean supporting a package such as the one presented to the full Senate last night.
 
As for Assembly Republicans — their resolve is also strong.  I had an opportunity to spend some time with Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher last night, and she was very firm in her belief there there is "not one Republican vote" for a infrastructure proposal that is absent the needed reforms that have been discussed — all of the ones absent from the plan advanced by Democrats last night.
 
STATEWIDE RACES
There were a few notable happenings in statewide races — as expected and announced, the quixotic and short-lived campaign of Pierre Prosper for Attorney General ended as he did not file for election — also Assembly Tim Leslie had been talking about running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction and did not return papers, meaning that conservative Diane Lenning will take on incumbent Jack O’Connell in an extremely uphill battle (I was the campaign manager for the GOP candidate against incumbent Dem SPI Delaine Eastin in 1998, and let me tell you – the education status-quo establishment crowd will spend big to keep O’Connell in that seat).  Over in the GOP race for the nomination to face Cruz Bustamonte for the Insurance Commissioner’s job — well, there won’t be a race.  Wealthy, self-made businessman Steve Poizner (pictured), who impressed many with his better-than-expected showing in a race for Assembly in a ‘safe’ Democrat seat two years ago will now be the GOP nominee as his two opponents, Dr. Phil Kurzner and attorney Gary Mendoza (the unsuccessful ’02 GOP nominee) both decided not to run – Mendoza deciding yesterday. 
 
WHAT IS IN THE WATER IN VENTURA COUNTY?
Last week, it seemed like Kern County, known for decades of internecine GOP warfare, was finally turning the corner.  The magnanimous endorsement of Kevin McCarthy for Congress by his long-time rival Roy Ashburn was remarkable.  But apparently whatever had been in the water there in Kern has magically shown up down in Ventura County.
 
Yesterday afternoon, around 3pm, 10-term incumbent Congressman Elton Gallegly (pictured), who had filed for re-election, suddenly decided that because of health reasons, he wasn’t going to run after all.  He made this surprise announcement to the Ventura County Star on the last day of filing.  Early presumptions were that Gallegly was trying to ‘pass his seat’ on to a friend on the sly, by making this announcement so close to the end of the filing period (like 2 hours away).  Gallegly has said through representatives that he fully thought that he could actually ‘unfile’ his candidacy, thus extending the period of filing for the office.  But this cannot be done, and so the filing has closed in this overwhelmingly GOP seat with two Republicans on the ballot — the Congressman himself, who has pledged not to campaign for an 11th term, and a relatively unknown businessman, Michael Tannenbaum, who is apparently a leader of Jewish Republicans in the area. 
 
There was some melodrama down at the Registrar of Voters in Ventura County as former Assemblyman Tony Strickland made a mad dash to see if he could pull papers for the Congressional seat himself.  Unfortunately Strickland was thwarted by the fact that he had already returned papers to run for the GOP nomination for State Controller, and you can’t ‘unring’ that bell, either.  Strickland’s wife, Audra, who is the local Assemblymember in the area, also could not file for Congress having returned papers herself for re-election.  It remains to be seen how this situation will play out.  Clearly one potential is that, health issues aside, Gallegly runs for re-election (which isn’t hard for a popular incumbent – just put out a bunch of mail, and make the rounds to the editorial boards) – then he resigns setting up a special election in the Spring.  Another option is to see if a Judge, under the extraordinary circumstances, will allow Gallegly to drop off of the ballot, and extend the filing.  This is the scenario hoped for, I’m sure, by Simi Valley Councilman Glen Becerra, a close ally of Gallegly, who has been rumored to harbor strong aspirations to succeed the Congressman.  Of course, Strickland could attempt to mount a write-in effort, but these are always costly and hard to pull off under the best of circumstances.  We’ll see how all of this shakes out in the next few days.
 
Speaking of Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (pictured), she is facing a primary challenge of her own from long time moderate-liberal GOP activist Bob Larkin.  If you ask any incumbent legislator, they will tell you that the best primary challenge is no primary challenge.  Short of that, if you were going to have one, Bob’s the one you want.   While I have enjoyed a kind of fun ‘comraderie’ with Bob over the years as we have gone toe-to-toe on my internal state party matters — I don’t think that you would categorize him as "ready for prime time" in taking on the popular incumbent Strickland.  Longtime Larkin rival Steve Frank has some things to say about Larkin on his latest newsletter, which should be available on his website (if not, email him and he’ll send it to you, I’m sure).  Larkin’s stated reason for taking on Strickland is her opposition to the re-election of a registered Republican Supervisor in the county.  If its the Supervisor I’m thinking about, her copy of the Republican Party platform is in mint condition, never having been read.
 
Well, stay safe in the rain, and keep sending me your thoughts, comments and tip (links to e-mail me, or send an anonymous tip, are in the upper right hand corner of the website).
 
Jon