Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded Thursday that the 2008 presidential candidates stake out clear positions on domestic issues Californians care about -- such as immigration, climate change and health care -- instead of focusing solely on the Iraq war [...]
It was Schwarzenegger who ran in the 2003 recall race on a campaign of largely broad-stroke ideas, saying he would repair the state budget, ensure that "everyone in California has a fantastic job" and sweep out special interests from the Capitol.
And last year, as he ran for re-election, he pledged to tackle health care reform but offered few specific ideas on what he would propose.
In Sacto this morning, a group of consultant types got together with some politician types to discuss the presidential primary. It looks like they agree with dday on the New Hampshire bump.
"If you want to influence the California Republican or the Democratic presidential primary, my suggestion would be to move to New Hampshire," Murphy said, "because the bounce is that big." Later, Democratic consultant Bob Mulholland echoed Murphy somewhat: "New Hampshire has 30 delegates, but is worth $30 million in free headlines."(Pol.Muscle 3/22/07)
So, next week, I will begin moving the entire state to New Hampshire. We'll start with Republicans.
Don Perata and his discipline. I present this SF Chron story without comment.
Normally, I dig sunshine, but SoS Bowen was right to shut this program down.
But I want to address those who say, in a manner not unlike a four year-old demanding that everyone in the room look at the crayon drawing of a turkey that they traced with their hand, "Now the candidates have to pay attention to CALIFORNIA issues!"
Not a lot of people know it, but there is C-SPAN like coverage for the California Legislature -- only most people can't see it. Which is too bad, because people deserve to see our government in action. When I worked for the Assembly, I learned a great deal always having the channel on in the background and it would be great if there was a way to expand access.
It is a pretty slow CA political news day, so let's talk about the presidential primary. No, not the candidates, but the process. We will be moving up both the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries to February 5th. California could be joined by as many as 20 states holding their primary on that day. That almost turns it into a national primary, with the big winner on an inevitable march to the nomination.
The greater the number of states that join California on the 5th, the less influence we will have on the outcome and the less attention we will get from the candidates. But that is out of our control. We will be moving our primary up, it is just a matter of when the bill makes it to Arnold's desk.
The Democratic and Republican primaries will be very different. First of all, DTS votes are permitted to vote in the Democratic primary, but not in the Republican one. This will skew the Republican winner to the right, while the Democratic vote will be more moderated by having the 19% of registered voters who declined to state a party eligible to vote. The new chair of the CRP Ron Nehring (Grover Norquists former right hand man) tried to unilaterally change the rules. It turns out he doesn't have the power to do that.
Let me first say that I am generally a supporter of relaxing restrictive term limits, in the larger context of reforming elections generally so that the people get to decide when their legislator's time is up. But take a look at the condescension dripping from this statement from the Assembly Speaker:
Riding high from a session last year that many praised as the Legislature's most productive in years, and without an obvious landing pad when he is termed out next year, Nuñez has increasingly said in recent months that he thinks that voters will be open to adjusting term limits.
"You can't do the job effectively if you can't be there for a reasonable amount of time, to have a real grasp on the issues," he told a group of newspaper publishers last month. " … It takes a couple of years to develop the level of expertise and know-how to negotiate a balanced budget."
To me, that reads as "I own this seat, and I deserve to be here as long as I possibly can."
Edit by Brian to move some stuff over the flip...so flip it!
Legislative leaders and the Governor are determined to move California's Presidential primary from June to February 2008, and I am still convinced they are doing it for purely personal political reasons and not to give the state more clout. Legislation to move the primary (SB 113) cleared the two Senate committee hearings on votes of 3-0 and 11-1. It pains me to say it, but the only Senator who had the good sense to vote against it is a Republican, Dave Cox. It now goes to the Senate floor where we can only hope for the bill's demise, but that looks like even a remote possibility.
"SB 113 is a fast train with no curves or other obstacles on the track—at least ones that will slow it down. The proponents of the February primary, which include the leadership of both houses and the Governor are taking no chances on anything that will delay it from becoming the reality."
It's increasingly apparent that the 2008 California Presidential primary will be moved to February 5. The Senate bill moved through the appropriate committee today unanimously, and the Assembly will move their version as well, which the Governor has indicated he will sign.
This bill says nothing about possible initiatives on redistricting or term limit relaxation that are rumored to be tied to the primary shift. But Fabian Nuñez, who under current law will be termed out in 2008, doesn't have $7.1 million in his campaign account for no reason. Last week he put forward a redistricting plan that was short on details. And Senate President Pro Tem Perata appeared cool on the idea, at least publicly. But it's clear that somebody is gearing up for something.
I would offer that if you REALLY wanted to change how we choose a President and how California can impact that, if you actually wanted to see candidates in this state both before and after Feb. 5, 2008, there are far more effective ways to do so beyond moving up a primary to the very moment when the nominee will have already been all but selected. Therefore I challenge everyone who supports this plan to also advocate full support for the National Popular Vote.
(Another no to the 2/5 primary. I think we're running about even. By the by, welcome to Paul, who does a great job at Beyond Chron, one of the best sites on SF politics around. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
I wrote this for today's Beyond Chron, San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily.
As Ben Franklin said, the definition of "insanity" is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Once again, California politicians complain that our state never gets to choose a presidential nominee because the race is over by the time it gets here. Now the state legislature wants to push up our presidential primary even earlier than before - in the vain hope that we will decide from a wide-open field in 2008. But other states have the same idea too and we may end up having a national primary on February 5th - only one week after New Hampshire. While a February primary could be seen as a boon for progressive activists, the subsequent low-turnout June election poses grave risks, particularly given the attempt to qualify a statewide initiative to ban rent control.
So, I'm doing this one from the Phoenix airport, where I'm delayed due to the fact that U.S. Airways/AmericaWest/whatever they want to call themselves today really sucks. But on the bright side, they have free WiFi here. Also, we had a little down time this afternoon. Sorry about that.
This is a pretty long roundup, so let's get straight to the teasers: Presidential primary chatter, Health care...um, we need it., George Runner is a tool (but we already knew that), Two speakers who kick ass: Nancy, and Fabian the blogger, Doolittle's a changed man...kinda...sorta...well, not so much, Is Chuck DeVore on a witch terrorist hunt?, Maxine Waters wants us out of Iraq, Spocko's on the rise, CalPERS is investing in urban sprawl, Frank Luntz is a liar, and Irvine has a budget surplus!
Maybe I'm alone on this site in my opposition to moving up the CA Presidential primary, but just remember that, for the Democrats, this will make two people in this state inordinately rich and powerful.
1) Garry South (take THAT, BL!)
2) Phil Angelides
There was a reason every Presidential candidate flocked to Angelides' side last fall, despite the polls. They wanted his donor list and his volunteer base. It'll be even more valuable now. And South's one of the consultants who will be the recipient of the one-way flow of progressive movement money.
