According to the Governor’s calendar, tomorrow at 3:30pm the Governor will hold a meeting of the "Big 5" — himself and the four legislative leaders — to discuss budget options going forward.
That’s probably a good idea (although one of the items on their agenda should be discontinuing the back-room, exclusive format of the Big 5 to actually negotiate major policy items — that has proven to be a dismal failure — and expensive for taxpayers).
But it raises an interesting question. At the meeting will be the Governor, Senate President Darrell Steinberg, Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and…?????
Who will represent the 29 member Assembly Republican Caucus in that Big 5 meeting?
From where we sit, this is a no-brainer — it definitely should and must be Assembly Republican Leader-Elect Sam Blakeslee. He clearly has been designated as the go-to person to deal with the aftermath of the terrible February budget deal and subsequent anticipated voting-down of the ballot measures today. Sam Blakeslee, side by side with Dennis Hollingworth, would present a united team and send an important message — there are to be no new taxes or fees on the table when resolving our state’s budget situation.
I get it that because of the nature of the quick heave-ho to Mike Villines, that he was given the courtesy of keeping his office and staff for a few weeks, as part of a transition. But we move beyond courtesy to dysfunction if the guy packing his bags, with his tail between his legs, is down in the Governor’s office speaking in a leadership role from which he has, for all intent and purpose, resigned.
If Villines is in that meeting tomorrow, even accompanied by Blakeslee, Assembly Republicans will be starting a new round of negotiations from a substantially worse position. And it certainly doesn’t show much respect to the abilities of Sam Blakeslee if he is "escorted" to the meeting.
We’ll let FR readers know how it turns out!