Over at Capitol Alert, there is some speculation about when the Senate Republicans will transition from the leadership of Sen. Hollingsworth to Sen. Dutton. But in typical Republican style, they are using this to leverage additional concessions from the Democrats.
"If the Democrats drop their demands for unsustainable levels of spending and higher taxes, then it'll mean we're probably getting pretty close and there's no reason why we couldn't postpone the transition and finish it off," Hollingsworth said. "But if they are not going to drop those demands for higher spending and higher taxes, it means we're essentially at square one and there wouldn't be any harm in Sen. Dutton taking over because there wouldn't be very involved negotiations happening yet."(SacBee)
Hey, Hollingsworth, if you all drop your demands of drowning the state government, then perhaps we'll wrap this up quickly too.
Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the California Republican Party convention this weekend in San Diego. I'm sure it was a blast for all involved. The conservative, the right-wingers, the Tea partiers, and the over the top offensively backward. A raucous good time, I'm sure.
The convention's biggest surprise came when a thickly muscled bouncer demanded that your Calbuzz correspondents (combined age: 122) produce I.D. to gain admittance to some second-rate pizza-joint-with-a-full-bar in the Gaslamp Quarter which they stumbled upon in the pre-dawn hours. The move by Thor (not his real name) reflected not only his apparent legal blindness, but also some CYA concerns he clearly felt in noting we were two decades younger than the average GOP convention worthy swarming the streets.
Of course, California Democrats have the same issue. The party infrastructures of both parties are dismissive of the youth, and vice versa. Of course, it comes down to a chicken and the egg type situation at some point, but if California is to become a truly 21st Century state, we need more young leaders willing to get involved in all segments of the state's politics.
I suppose that I should mention here that I was just elected as the regional director of the state Democratic party for San Francisco and the northern half of San Mateo county. So, I suppose I'll say not just to my fellow Democrats, but to those of all political persuasions, that the way we make change is to get involved. We must insist that California plans for the long-term instead of playing games with the present.
Democrats have a leg up in this area. Young voters are overwhelmingly Democratic voters, but we must make sure that this stays true, and the so-called "millenials" continue to stay engaged beyond a one-off election. Sure, it will be good for Democrats, but it will also be good for (small-d) democracy.
Do you remember the 2008 primary, when all of the nation's media was in love with talking about how California's Republicans were sooooo liberal. And remember how us Democrats here in California laughed at that notion? Well, here's some proof.
Some math/political nerds at the University of Chicago did some analysis of the two parties in each state Legislature and compared them with other states and the Congress. I'm clearly not doing the math of that justice, but you can find the full details at the author Boris Shor's blog. Apparently he has a paper coming out soon that will explain a lot more about how he got to these numbers.
But for a general explanation, left is liberal and right is conservative, with 0 being the base. As you can see California's legislative Dems are amongst the most liberal, and are about the same as several other states that you'd expect to see us tied with: New York and Washington, and some that you wouldn't Utah and Arizona. But to those who say that you'd expect California Republicans to be moderate: hear me now and believe me later: They are as wingnut as you get.
No other state is even close to our wingnut Republicans. They are waaaay to the right of even states like Georgia and Wyoming. No other state is really even close.
Some will blame this on districting, but I will instead point them to the simple fact that we Californians have self-sorted ourselves better than any other state. Democrats hang out in certain counties, and Republicans in others. And the Republican primary electorate consistently organizes around the most conservative candidate.
And so we get our right-wing Republicans in the Legislature and nothing actually gets done to help the state. Yay, us!
UPDATE: On a related note, the Republicans have now reached a new low in popularity across the nation.
Yesterday over at Red County was an interesting stab at what the purpose of the California Republican Party should be now that they've demonstrated an inability to prevent tax increases. It's a fascinating amalgam that's roughly equal parts proof that there's no particular logic governing the GOP and a blueprint to a Republican version of the DLC.
Answering the question "why do we exist?", the leading principle as stated is
We exist to find solutions to problems that do not increase the size or cost of government.
Which of course means government can only get smaller. We've heard this before when Grover Norquist was having wet dreams about drowning government (sidenote: why doesn't anyone call Grover Norquist an anarchist? He wants to eliminate government.). But it sets the tone nicely by establishing that there's nothing new here, just an attempt to paint over the fundamental failures of GOP ideology. But we're just getting started.
We exist to ensure a responsive, transparent, competent government that provides essential services in an efficient and timely manner.
Those are all nice words, but none of them alone or in combination actually equal "effective" essential services. Note that "effective" is not the same as "cost effective." If I wanted to maximize the cost effectiveness of my grocery shopping, I'd just spend all my money on rice and die of scurvy. But I digress. Presumably this is a subset of the first principle of not expanding government. So you only get responsive, transparent, competent, efficient and timely as long as it costs no more than what you're getting now. In other words, the plan is straight from Homer Simpson: "Can you guys work harder?" But this is reasonable next to...
We exist to lower healthcare costs through competition, not regulation.
Healthcare costs are set via competition right now. Has anybody noticed their healthcare suddenly getting cheaper lately? But wait, there's more. MUCH more!
In a brilliant parliamentary maneuver, the Victor Manuel Perez for CA 80th Assembly District campaign to replace the termed out, thank God, Bonnie Garcia (R-CA), the Perez forces by one vote were able to keep Greg Pettis, Mayor Pro-Tem of Cathedral City, from retaining the California Democratic Party endorsement for Assembly. (Perez is Vice-President of the failed school board in the Coachella Valley Unified School District.) However, the short-term battle victory may possibly cost the Democrats not only the 80th in the November general election, but also cost them the majority that they need to ignore the demands of the recalictrant minority Republicans in the Assembly.
A major factor developing in the campaign and one of which I have been consistently blogging on mydesert.com, the online edition of The Desert Sun, is the fact that Gary Jeandron, presumptive Republican candidate for the 80th AD is a boardmember of the Palm Springs Unified School District (PSUSD). Recently, the State of California Board of Education threatened actions and/or sanctions against 97 school boards across the state that failed to meet state academic goals and the requirements of the Federally unfunded 'No Child Left Behind.' As a result, California threatened sanctions against the PSUSD and the board for the academic failures in the District. Jeandron, as boardmember, and running for the 80th cites his education background and experience as instrumental to his qualifications for the office. However, the threatened sanctions are a major demerit and campaign issue.
This is relevant to Perez as he is Vice-President of the failed CVUSD board which according to the State, had more problems than any other school district in California this year.
Well, not you so much, but Republican? Yeah, Shawn Steel is over the moon about them. I spent a little time at the CRP convention this morning, and I'll try to get over there for a bit this afternoon as well. I snapped a few pics this morning available at my flickr site, and his name was plastered all over the Hyatt Regency for his campaign for RNC Committeeman. I especially liked that Steel, a longtime GOP Honcho and husband of BoE member Michelle Steel, had some ebullient staffers who mentioned that her assignment was to "plaster" the hotel. And for those singers out there, you can attend "Republican Idol" with Mr. Steel. Fun!
You know, I think I came into the meeting with some preconceptions, and some of them were true, and some weren't. But the similairities to the CDP Convention were quite stark, right down to the woman in the sequined jacket. There are the people with the buttons for longshot Congressional campaigns (like Gerber challenging Tauscher), a draft Tom McClintock sticker, and people complaining about the damned moderates. But, just remember when we complain about the top-down-ness of the CDP that at least it's better than the CRP on that front.
This is what conservative fiscal leadership looks like: a broke Republican state party. Grover Norquist's right hand man, Ron Nehring has been running the CRP into debt and the proverbial ground. Because he has been unsuccessful at fundraising a moderate with a big check book is trying to control the direction of the party. This is what happens when you rely on big donors and not an army of small contributors. They pwn you. SacBee:
The California Republican Party once again faces an identity crisis heading into its annual spring convention, and this time a major donor is calling on the party to become more inclusive.
Businessman Lawrence K. Dodge delayed writing a check to help the party pay off $3 million in debt and wrote a scathing analysis of the party in a private letter, raising concerns similar to those cited by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he said Republicans were "dying at the box office" last year.
The internal strife comes as state records show the party continues to suffer a decline in registration and carry a debt incurred to help Schwarzenegger win re-election in 2006.
Their governor created a "scheduling conflict" and will not be attending the convention. That is how highly he thinks of the direction of the organization. He took them to the cleaners actually. I am quite amused at the fact that he managed to convince them to dump a bunch of money into his race and then never actually helped them erase that debt. That must rub them something wicked.
The conservatives are not pleased with Dodge and give his platform the worst insult a Republican can throw at a fellow Republican.
If you answered "Both", you win! The Governor made some pretty interesting statements to the LA Times Editorial Board this week:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that a healthcare overhaul would not be derailed by "Mickey Mouse"-type concerns about covering illegal immigrants. He also compared California's Republican Party to an obese person in denial, and predicted that Rudolph W. Giuliani would be his party's nominee for president. (LATimes 9/20/07)
So, you think Giuliani is going to be the nominee and you're calling the California Republican Party a fat man in denial. Well, I think it's not just the CR(a)P that's got its head in a big pile of mashed potatoes and gravy. Rudy's numbers are falling like a lead baloon as Thompson and others are picking off voters who realize that Giuliani is in fact a pro-choice, pro-gay rights, anti-gun, and not nativist enough. Of course, Rudy is a reactionary on foreign and fisacal policy, but in today's GOP, you have to be reactionary across the board. A single blemish of moderation shall smote you where you stand! Flip it...
The Republicans in the Senate are holding up the state's budget because they are trying to achieve their notion of balance, even though the goal posts for what that entails keep shifting. Complicated I know, but so is this whole mess. Here is a simple fact, the Republicans can't even balance their own funds. So why should we trust them with the state's? The California Republican Party is in debt, and does not have the cash to pay off its debts. They are paying off huge loan fees each month, which you know has to be killing them on principle. The headline in the LAT today is "State GOP awash in red ink" Ouch. That has got to hurt.
The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg penned a column about the California Republican Party's attempt to siphon off what could be roughly twenty of California's fifty four consistently Democratic electoral votes. Naturally, they are using the initiative process to try and do this.
Two weeks ago, one of the most important Republican lawyers in Sacramento quietly filed a ballot initiative that would end the practice of granting all fifty-five of California's electoral votes to the statewide winner. Instead, it would award two of them to the statewide winner and the rest, one by one, to the winner in each congressional district. Nineteen of the fifty-three districts are represented by Republicans, but Bush carried twenty-two districts in 2004. The bottom line is that the initiative, if passed, would spot the Republican ticket something in the neighborhood of twenty electoral votes-votes that it wouldn't get under the rules prevailing in every other sizable state in the Union.
The Republican lawyers behind this convoluted effort, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, were deeply involved in the 2003 recall campaign against Democratic Governor Gray Davis that propelled current Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger into power.
It is no surprise that the law firm created a ficticious front group, Californians for Equal Representation, to do their bidding because they have a history of it.
Who knew that Marinucci's story a week ago on the hiring of Canadian Christopher Matthews to be the California Republican Party's deputy political director would lead to his colleague resigning and accusations of breaking the federal law? Here we are with yet another A1 story at the Chron. Today's story breaks the news that the CRP may have violated federal law by failing to demand to see Kamburowski's green card.
The California Republican Party's staff troubles have gone national, with a story in today's WaPo. The general narrative is that the hiring controversy is symptomatic of larger problems within the party. The CRP is described as being in turmoil and infighting blamed for the hiring disaster. How embarrassing this must be for them. heh.
Well, it looks like the latest SF Chronicle story on Michael Kamburowski's immigration problems have knocked him out of his perch as the Chief Operating Officer of the California Republican Party. Damn you wicked irony, why must you always stalk the Republican Party like a successful version of Elmer Fudd? You always create such hilarity, how can I take the Republican Party seriously?
Well, thanks to the sometimes-fabulous, always-hilarious Carla Marinucci in today's SF Chronicle, it seems California Republicans are rid of the "Australian menace." (Not to be confused with the Canadian Menace.)
Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party's chief operating officer, abruptly resigned Sunday -- less than 24 hours after The Chronicle reported he had been ordered deported in 2001, jailed in connection with the order, and now has a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit pending against U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials. (SF Chronicle 6/25)
Break out the popcorn folks. The Republicans are writing each other nasty letters and using the Chronicle to lob shots at one another over the CRP's hiring of a Canadian to become their director of research and political technology. On one side you have mouthpieces of the CRP and on the other, former CRP official spokeswoman Karen Hanretty. She has become a reliable quote against her party, in much the way that Gary South has become from the other direction. I really have to side with Hanretty on this one. There are plenty of qualified people to take that job already in the country and the move is embarrassing to the party.
Michael Kamburowski, the Australian who was recently hired as the CRP's COO, shot off a letter to the party's executive board, from which John Wildermuth is quoting over at the Chron Blog.
Kamburowski generally suggested that Hanretty will never be able to eat lunch in Washington again.
I know the great northern menace has already been chronicled, but this is just too much fun for only a single diary.
Not only is the GOP bench so weak that they need to call upon a bodybuilder to run for the horseshoe, they actually need to bring in people from other countries to fill the jobs that nobody is dumb enough to work.
And when it comes to your enjoyment, the label on my package says to stop the microwave when the popping begins to slow down to about 2 seconds between pops -- to prevent scorching (because we already have enough of that today).
Some of you might have seen my quick hit yesterday, which referenced this article in the SacBee. Basically, the Republicans are up to their classic, hypocritical, bloviating behavior and are pumping up a fake controversy over a fundraiser Mark Leno is holding tonight.
Roger Salazar just put out a snark filled press release. (continued blow the fold)
Dear Capitol Press Corps:
Please give a warm, Sacramento welcome to the capital's newest good-government watchdog group, the California Republican Party!
You know, the Republican Party spiffed up their website, and honestly, it's a lot bettero. I mean, thank goodness, it doesn't have flying stars across the top. Good Work, CRP. I guess, but you can take the ugly stupid shit off the site design, but the ugly, stupid shit is still there in the text.
First, I'd point to this press release, entitled "100 Days of a Democrat Congress: 10 Bills Successfully Name Post Offices, Courthouses, Federal Properties." First, you'd expect somebody who works for the party that advocates English as the official language would, um, know how to use the language itself. "Democratic", Mr. Nehring.
Now, it seems that Rep. Ken Calvert missed the memo about post offices being such a horrible waste of time. Why? well, Mr. Calvert put out this press release three days later congratulating himself on, wait for it, yup, naming a post office. Wow, that timing is a killer.
One more thing, for all Mr. Nehring and his crew complain about the post office namings in the 110th Congress, would you like to take a stab at how many post office naming bills were introduced in the 109th Congress? Do you? Do you? Well, I'll tell you: 135. Yup. 135, or about one for every day and a half in session. Yup that's 135 post office bills in 239 days in session (shattering the previous low-water mark of 252 days in session).
So, I guess Mr. Nehring and Rep. Ken Calvert should get their facts straight before they start on the attack.
There are many structural reasons why the California legislature is dysfunctional. One of them is the 2/3rds requirement to pass the budget. While, the Democrats do have a strong majority in both houses, they must pull along a few Republicans every year. There were no seats that changed hands this year. The only notable balance change comes from the Republicans dumping their Assembly leader. They picked a legislator who is more likely to say the California Republicans' favorite word "no" when it comes to the budget and other bills.
