When Speaker Fabian Nunez held his press conference yesterday to announce that his "support" for a fair redistricting process, he didn’t count on the Mayor of San Francisco displacing all of his prime media coverage — yet that is exactly what happened. Nunez’ little tap-dance where he and his termed-out, self-interested legislative colleagues who desperately don’t want to have to return to life outside of the legislature was relegated to less optimal locations in state newspapers… We will be talking a lot here about this ‘deal’ where a weakening of California’s term-limits statute gets married up with a fair redistricting proposal, and the pros and cons. But since I am in a hurry this morning, I will jump straight to the big news of the day… San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife… Joy. The good news for Newsom is that our nation is filled with examples of public… Read More

With the year-end campaign finance numbers in, it is apparent that Jerry McNerney is going to be a major drain on the DCCC to keep the 11th district in play in 2008. Despite two fundraisers that the McNerney campaign promoted by sending out on his Christmas cards (not kidding and they actually sent one to Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian’s office), McNerney managed to limp into the new year with $42,357.50 in the bank to go with still unpaid debt of $124,108.49.

McNerney is now going to have to raise money to pay for a political operation while he tries to keep up with the pace of being a new member of Congress with no political experience. Add to that the responsibilities of needing to spend time getting around the district to continue to underwhelm his new constituents in a Republican district and it doesn’t leave much room for error. If McNerney doesn’t pick up his fundraising in the March report he might end up with an even higher spot on the political "Endangered Species List."… Read More

Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced legislation earlier this week to divest the Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) of investments in Iranian-connected businesses, appropriately questioning whypublic funds should support terrorist states (read the original FR post and Joel’s SDUT op-ed).

At the time, not even he likely comprehended the amount of monies invested, as research was still being conducted to determine the total. Granted, California may have the best-funded retirement system in the world, but the answer is still unbelievable.

According to Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG), a Washington, DC-based research and consulting firm that specializes in corporate ties to Iran and other security concerns, CalPERS is invested in 152 companies with ties to Iran with investments that total some $14 billion. CSAG further identifies 69 of these companies,… Read More

Last night the phone lines were blazing when the story hit the wires about Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with a woman who was 1) a staff member; 2) a substance abuser and 3) the wife of a staffer with whom Newsom was personal friends. Newsom’s deputy chief of staff confronted him yesterday after his wife confessed the affair.

Yesterday, Newsom refused to comment. Today, Newsom admitted the affair: "I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that. I am deeply sorry, and I am accountable for what has occurred."

I’m betting that Newsom’s public approval numbers in SF actually go UP after this story and the accompanying… Read More

Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced legislation earlier this week to divest the Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) of investments in Iranian-connected businesses, appropriately questioning whypublic funds should support terrorist states (read the original FR post and Joel’s SDUT op-ed).

At the time, not even he likely comprehended the amount of monies invested, as research was still being conducted to determine the total. Granted, California may have the best-funded retirement system in the world, but the answer is still unbelievable.

According to Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG), a Washington, DC-based research and consulting firm that specializes in corporate ties to Iran and other security concerns, CalPERS is invested in 152 companies with ties to Iran with investments that total some $14 billion. CSAG further identifies 69 of these companies,… Read More

Senator Joe Biden made a really stupid and seemingly racist comment that is running in the Feb. 5, 2007 The New York Observer about Senate colleague Barack Obama. He said. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

I take issue with the "mainstream" part of his comment as much as the "clean" part. Some people would argue that it is just ‘old out-of-touch white man speak’ rather than racist. Maybe, but either way it’s pretty bad.

It did however remind me of some of my other favorite racist rants. Here are a few, two were said while on California soil:

Back in July 2004 then-Education Secretary Richard Riordan told a little girl at a Santa Barbara library reading program that her name, Isis, "means stupid, dirty girl." After she asked him if he knew what it… Read More

Any commis

Virtually city council and county board of supervisors in California establish and appoint commissions that advise them on issues like planning and traffic and housing and parks. In some cases, such as with most planning commissions, they hold statutory powers to approve things like conditional use permits.… Read More

My friend Grover Norquist tipped me to this report from Daily Kos on the impact of the Libertarian Party vote on the recent Congressional elections, including here in California, where the Libertarian Party candidate almost figured in a defeat for Republican Congressman John Doolittle:

The Libertarian spoilers

by kos Wed Jan 31, 2007 at 07:59:56 AM PST One of the under-reported factors for the Democratic victories in 2006 was the spoiler effect that the Libertarian Party played. Here are races in which the Libertarian vote was larger than the Democratic margin of victory:

Missouri Senate

McCaskill (D) 1,047,049 50 Talent (R) 1,001,238 47 Gilmour (L) 47,504 2

Montana Senate

Tester (D) 198,302 49 Burns (R) 195,455 48 Jones (L) 10,324 3

That’s control of the Senate right there. And in the House there was at least one race in which Libertarians helped deliver a seat to Democrats:

IN-09

Hill (D) 110,185 50 Sodrel (R) 100,503 46 Schansberg (L) 9,920 4

In… Read More