PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 28, 2010 | 9:00 pm

With the campaigns in full swing over what are supposed to be lazy summer months, a new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California finds the races for governor and U.S. Senate are both up for grabs.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown is leading his Republican opponent Meg Whitman, 37% to 34%. Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is ahead of Republican Carly Fiorina, 39% to 34%.

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PoliticsBlog

Posted By: Carla Marinucci | July 28 2010 at 02:18 PM

California Working Families for Jerry Brown, the independent expenditure group working to help the Democratic State Attorney General’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, just got a powerhouse ally — the 325,000-member California Teachers Association.

CTA President David Sanchez, in announcing the move, called Brown “the education candidate for governor.”

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Yes, Attorney General Jerry Brown repeatedly claims he’s all over the City of Bell salary scandal.

Brown’s office has subpoenaed thousands of city records. He’s giving city officials twenty-four hours to turn them over.

Otherwise one can infer search warrants will be the order of the day.

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Steve Cooley

Investigators are looking into allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest, as well as the $100,000 salaries paid to four council members. The D.A. says several elections are targeted.

By Richard Winton, Jeff Gottlieb and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times

July 28, 2010

Los Angeles County prosecutors have launched a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of voter fraud and conflicts of interest involving municipal business in Bell, Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Times, Cooley described an investigation considerably larger in scope than previously acknowledged by prosecutors, saying that it was “multifaceted, rapidly expanding and full-fledged.” Investigators have been gathering evidence since March, he said.

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Activists at work

Groups try to raise turnout
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/27/2010 10:21:04 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Call 13,000 people, and you’ll talk to about 3,900. Of those, about 2,300 will like what you have to say. And of those, about 1,380 will show up to vote in November.

That’s a math lesson in voter outreach taught to about a dozen local activists Monday and Tuesday through a program called Mobilize the Immigrant Vote. It’s a program activists hope will help San Bernardino’s Latino community flex its muscles at the ballot box in November.

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Carly Fiorina

Senate hopeful meets veterans at Balboa Park

By Michele Clock, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 at 9:26 p.m.

In a San Diego campaign stop to showcase her support for veterans, Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina again criticized Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer for backing the federal economic stimulus act and questioned her support for the military.

Surrounded by about 60 people, many of them veterans, at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park on Tuesday, Fiorina said the stimulus act has actually cost jobs rather than helping create them. Boxer says just the opposite.

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The two parties are staging stunts as the state’s unpaid bills pile up heading into the fifth week without a spending plan.

By Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times

July 28, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

As California staggers toward the fifth week of the fiscal year without a spending plan, a month of closed-door talks in the Capitol have produced little but tension and finger-pointing. The calendar is flipping toward August with no resolution in sight.

Top officials don’t even publicly agree about what they agree upon. The two parties are staging stunts at the Capitol and trading barbs in dueling radio addresses, each side accusing the other of being dug in or disengaged, or both.

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By Jim Boren on July 27, 2010 2:16 PM

Remember right after the June primary when Democrat Jerry Brown said he’d debate Republican Meg Whitman any time, any place? Whitman has agreed to a Fresno debate on Oct. 2 at Fresno State. But Brown’s gubernatorial campaign today would only say the debate is under consideration.

The Fresno debate will be sponsored by The Bee, Univision, the Fresno-Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the city of Fresno and Fresno State. (Full disclosure: I have attended many of the planning sessions for the debate as a representative of The Bee). This is the same group that sponsored the July 1 town hall in Fresno with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 27, 2010

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has agreed to participate in a September debate co-sponsored by The Sacramento Bee.

Other sponsors of the event, to be held September 28 on the UC Davis campus, are KCRA, Capitol Public Radio and the University of California, Davis.

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Michael J. Mishak Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 27, 2010 | 1:08 p.m.

In politics, it’s all about the spin.

Take, for instance, a news release issued Tuesday by the Meg Whitman campaign that proclaims, “Meg Whitman Challenges Jerry Brown to Three Fall Debates.” It was an interesting take given that Brown, the Democratic attorney general, issued the debate challenge to Whitman and her GOP primary rival, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, at the state Democratic convention in April. Brown kept up the pressure after the primary, challenging Whitman to a series of 10 debates. In June, she accepted an invitation to an October debate, as did Brown, who then asked to speed up the schedule.

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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown is apparently becoming a little sensitive to criticisms he is using his official capacity of Attorney General as a campaign platform.

In a Los Angeles Times story yesterday, Brown defended his investigation into pay practices in the City of Bell, deflecting allegations by the Meg Whitman campaign, that his actions were a campaign stunt.

Maybe someone should ask Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. The man with the tire tracks across his back.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 42

Status: Legislature on summer recess

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/26/2010 05:56:55 PM PDT

One of the Inland Empire’s most outspoken Democratic activists says he is unhappy with the county Democratic Party and is considering promoting Republican candidates for local office.

Gil Navarro, who earlier this month said his new political action committee – the Latino Caucus of the Inland Empire – would support only Democratic candidates, now says he might have had a change of heart after a meeting with Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills.

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10:23 PM PDT on Monday, July 26, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON – As Republicans eye a takeover in the House of Representatives this fall, two Inland congressmen are well positioned to reap the benefits.

Reps. Darrell Issa and Jerry Lewis serve as the top Republican members of the House Oversight and Appropriations committees, respectively. But if the Republicans win back majority status, the two lawmakers could become significantly more powerful as chairmen of the two panels.

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Carly Fiorina

By KEVIN FREKING (AP) – 16 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Republicans have reserved $1.75 million for television ads to help Carly Fiorina in the final week of the California Senate race.

The commitment signals GOP optimism about unseating three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November. The Republicans plan to target the Los Angeles market and the money would buy enough air time for viewers to see an ad — at least in part — 10 times.

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Attorney General Edmund “Jerry” Brown

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 26, 2010 | 4:45 pm

Ten television trucks and a crowd of reporters showed up for a news conference Monday where California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown announced that he had issued subpoenas for records as part of his investigation into “excessive” salaries in Bell, but the Democratic gubernatorial nominee insisted he was just doing his day job.

Last week The Times examined Brown’s dual roles as candidate and attorney general — prompting the campaign of his opponent, Meg Whitman, to request public records detailing Brown’s official travel and the personnel records of his communications staff.

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Unions are giving the candidate plenty of financial support, even though he has made no commitment to their causes.

By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times

July 27, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

The television ads seize on the millions of dollars organized labor is spending to help elect Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, warning that if he’s victorious, he would be “their governor.”

Labor leaders watching the spots, which are funded by billionaire GOP nominee Meg Whitman, should be so lucky.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 26, 2010 | 3:54 pm

Nearly four weeks into the fiscal year without a budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested Monday that California might have to wait until his successor is sworn in next year to get a spending plan — unless lawmakers give him everything he wants.

Schwarzenegger says the Legislature must curtail public pensions and change California’s taxation and budgeting systems before he will sign a budget this year, his last as governor. He leaves office in January.

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PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 26, 2010 | 4:37 pm

Reviving an old attack in his continuing effort to get Republican rival Meg Whitman to release her tax returns, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown accused her Monday of failing to pay unemployment taxes for household staff when she lived in Massachusetts in the 1990s.

The same charge was leveled by the California Democratic Party in March, using the same piece of evidence: a 1999 judgment filed against Whitman in Boston Municipal Court for $1,648.58.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 26, 2010

WASHINGTON — The campaign of Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer today criticized Republican Senate GOP candidate Carly Fiorina for opposing the creation of a new consumer finance protection bureau.

The bureau is part of a financial reform bill backed by Boxer and signed into law by President Barack Obama last week.

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Brown

Today, Attorney General, oops! I mean democratic candidate for Governor Edmund “Jerry” Brown was campaigning on the Bell pension fiasco vis press conference.

Yes indeed. Another “high-profile” issue has handed Brown a platform to campaign from for “free”.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 41

Status: Legislature on summer recess

July 26, 2010

By Clint Reilly
Special to Calbuzz

Today Calbuzz presents an assessment of the campaign for governor by political strategist, businessman and columnist Clint Reilly. Reilly, whose advice Brown recently sought, has a unique perspective, having run the 1994 gubernatorial bid of the Democratic candidate’s sister, Kathleen, against Pete Wilson, who enjoyed a substantial fundraising advantage.

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California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
Money and Politics

California WatchBlog

July 26, 2010 | Lance Williams

One of Carly Fiorina’s ads attacks Barbara Boxer for being “worried about the weather.”

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has obtained about $63,000 in donations this year from Appalachian coal-mining interests, much of the money from an outspoken Ohio mine owner who dismisses global warming as “hysterical global goofiness.”

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Brown

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 1:19 am

In summer 1978, 2,000 state workers rallied for a pay raise at the Capitol, shouting “Down with Brown” and hurling boos and catcalls as then-Gov. Jerry Brown addressed them from the stage.

Three months later, East Bay labor leaders refused to let Brown speak at their Labor Day picnic, and California’s largest state employees group publicly opposed his re-election bid. The executive secretary of the state AFL-CIO accused Brown of “leading a lynch mob against government workers.”

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Published: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 1:19 am

With unemployment skyrocketing and the country recovering slowly from a painful recession, job creation is the catch phrase of the 2010 election. Every candidate, it seems, has a program to put people back to work.

California’s gubernatorial candidates, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown, each have plans they say will help create jobs. Here’s a look at what each proposes to do. Most proposals would require approval by the Legislature.

– Dan Smith, Bee Capitol Bureau Chief

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By Dan Morain, Senior editor
dmorain@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1E
Last Modified: Sunday, Jul. 25, 2010 – 10:31 am

The ghost of one California chief justice is about to reappear this campaign season as a new chief justice heads to certain confirmation.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated Tani Cantil-Sakauye as chief justice, a step that places the appointment power of governors before voters.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 39

Status: Legislature on summer recess

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/23/2010 06:17:54 PM PDT

Democrats in San Bernardino County elected new party leaders Thursday night, but rather than uniting in the months before November’s elections, the leadership fight highlighted fissures in the local organization.

Ron Wall of Ontario was elected chairman of the county’s Democratic Central Committee, beating former party vice chairman Mark Alvarez. Alvarez also lost in a bid for first vice chairman, as did candidate Leticia Garcia.

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Sarah Palin                 Carly Fiorina

By PE Politics
on July 23, 2010 12:20 PM

As the race for California’s contested U.S. Senate seat tightens, incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina have each attempted in recent days to portray the other as an extremist from the fringe of their respective party.

This week, the two traded jabs on abortion and offshore oil drilling, two of the many issues on which the candidates have vastly different views.

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Brown

By Jon Ortiz and David Siders
jortiz@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Jul. 24, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, long a supporter of public employee retirement rights, is staking out territory in what is traditionally Republican ground: government pension reform.

On his campaign website and in recent comments to the media, California’s attorney general and former governor has advocated rolling back state retirement benefits. Many of his points mirror changes pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and tentatively accepted by some unions, but don’t cut into pensions as deeply as policies proposed by Brown’s Republican opponent, Meg Whitman.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 38

Status: Legislature on summer recess

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/22/2010 05:14:57 PM PDT

More than four in 10 voters in Rep. Joe Baca’s congressional district say they don’t know who they’ll vote for in November, according to a poll commissioned by Scott Folkens, Baca’s Republican challenger.

Folkens, who is using the poll results in his campaign’s latest request for donations, said he is hoping to convince the national Republican Party it should get involved in his campaign.

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By PE Politics
on July 22, 2010 9:34 AM

Assemblywoman Mary Salas has conceded defeat in the extremely close Democratic primary for California’s 40th Senate District, which includes part of Riverside County, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported today.

Former Assemblyman Juan Vargas, who led Salas by 22 votes, picked up several more in a recount requested — and paid for — by Salas in certain precincts in San Diego and Riverside counties.

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By PE Politics
on July 23, 2010 7:48 AM

As reported this morning by Jack Katzanek, the House on Thursday approved legislation to extend benefits for the nation’s jobless.

The 272-152 vote went mostly along party lines, with just 10 Democrats voting against the bill and 31 Republicans voting for it. Among those were Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, whose eastern Riverside County district has been hit about as hard as anywhere in the country by the economic downturn.

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The Democrat would adopt some Schwarzenegger ideas, such as asking current employees to contribute more to their plans and raising the retirement age for new hires.

By Michael J. Mishak, Los Angeles Times

July 23, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

Unveiling one of his few major policy proposals Thursday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown called for public-pension reform, embracing some of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ideas for curbing the soaring cost of the state worker retirement system.

If elected, Brown said, he would ask current employees to contribute more to their pension plans and would raise the retirement age for new hires. The measures are core components of tentative deals Schwarzenegger has negotiated with half a dozen state workers’ unions.

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California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
Money and Politics

California WatchBlog

July 23, 2010 | Timothy Sandoval

Gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman have both repudiated partisan politics and attacks made against their campaigns.

But despite their concern about partisan attacks, Politics Verbatim has documented hundreds of attacks the two candidates have made since the beginning of the campaign.

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Brown

Thursday, July 22, 2010 – 08:38 pm

Listeners to the KFI AM-640 John and Ken show were treated to a surprise unannounced five minute call-in from California Attorney General Jerry Brown this evening.

Brown wanted to talk about his new investigation into the City of Bell salary scandal. However, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou wanted to talk about illegal immigration.

Prior to Brown’s call-in John and Ken had adopted Calbuzz’s nickname for Brown, a.k.a “Krusty”.

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Published: July 22, 2010
Updated: 4:42 p.m.

By MARTIN WISCKOL
COLUMNIST
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

But Whitman, the billionaire former eBay CEO, spent a record-shattering $91 million on her primary campaign and didn’t miss a beat in shifting her attention to Brown. Brown, meanwhile, had a relatively modest $21 million in the bank as of the May filings – so it’s little surprise he’s holding back for later.

California has a boatload of failed self-funding millionaire candidates, including Al Checchi (spent $40 million of his own dough, lost 1998 Democratic primary for governor), Steve Westly ($40 million, lost 2006 Democratic primary for governor), and Michael Huffington ($28 million, lost 1994 general election for U.S. Senate).

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 22, 2010

Update: This post was updated at 2:15 p.m. with a response from the Brown campaign.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has a new television commercial blasting Democratic rival Jerry Brown.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 37

Status: Legislature on summer recess



Thursday, July 22, 2010 – 11:27 am

It’s time for republican Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman to clearly articulate her positions on each element of the illegal immigration issue.

Her post-primary campaign strategy has created some bumps in the road with some of the republican base. A potential problem if it continues.

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Staff and Wire Reports
Posted: 07/21/2010 05:38:42 PM PDT

Thousands of Inland Empire residents whose unemployment benefits have run out could start getting money again as a federal extension of those benefits was approved Wednesday evening in the Senate.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve the measure today. The Senate voted 59-39 to approve the extension of unemployment benefits after a months-long stalemate over how those benefits should be paid for.

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Posted By: Drew Joseph | July 21 2010 at 03:07 PM

Don’t be surprised if Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown might just want to tout that draft report — currently being circulated by the campaign of Republican Meg Whitman — that names him the “worst” AG in the country. That’s because it comes from a Washington-based conservative organization that critics say have fought regulations on just about everything from drug safety to auto emissions.

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By Jennifer Chaussee | 07/22/10 12:00 AM PST

It’s old news for the Netherlands, Portugal has been doing it for about a decade now and the Danes are thinking about it. On Nov. 2, Californians will vote on it.

But Californians looking forward to legalizing the recreational use of marijuana might have to think twice before lighting up this November.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 36

Status: Legislature on summer recess

Brown

It files a public records request with attorney general’s office seeking documents

By Steven Harmon
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/20/2010 04:04:27 PM PDT
Updated: 07/20/2010 07:12:30 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO — Meg Whitman’s campaign, suspicious that Jerry Brown is using his office as attorney general for campaign purposes, filed a Public Records Act request seeking documentation that they hope would prove it.

The request, filed late Monday with the attorney general’s office by Mark Bogetich, a Whitman campaign consultant, seeks what could amount to thousands of pages of employment information on communications staffers dating back to the 2005-06 fiscal year, before Brown was elected as attorney general.

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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

In the summer silly season of California’s 1990 campaign for governor, a strategist for Dianne Feinstein used to say that running against Pete Wilson was like “getting up every morning and having somebody throw marbles in front of you” all day.

The description perfectly expressed the challenge of facing the aggressive, always-on-offense style of Republican Wilson’s camp, which worked assiduously to keep Democrat Difi constantly off balance before defeating her in November.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 35

Status: Legislature on summer recess

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, July 19, 2010

Recount begins in state Senate race

A recount has begun in California’s 40th Senate District, where a mere 22 votes separate the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.

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Brown

By Michael J. Mishak Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 19, 2010 | 6:26 p.m.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman’s campaign filed a public records request Monday with the California Department of Justice, seeking detailed information on how her Democratic rival, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, is using his office’s resources while campaigning for governor.

The request, filed by GOP consultant Mark Bogetich, asks for personnel records related to the attorney general’s communications operation, including names, salaries, job descriptions and office locations. It also includes requests for his budget and an accounting of expenditures, including expenses related to travel and state-owned vehicles.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 34

Status: Legislature out on summer recess



Brown

His high-profile actions as the state’s top prosecutor have helped keep his campaign in the spotlight. But wooing the media while minding state ethics laws is a tough balancing act.

July 18, 2010|By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from San Diego — Standing before a bank of television cameras, photographers and reporters, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown announced last week that he was filing a lawsuit against the nation’s two largest mortgage lenders and the federal agency that oversees them.

The elected leaders who flanked Brown, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, lavished him with praise for the move, meant to allow lending to homeowners for a clean-energy program that could create tens of thousands of jobs in the state.

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Issa

10:00 PM PDT on Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

Rep. Darrell Issa’s crusade to hold the Obama administration accountable from his perch as top Republican on the House Oversight Committee has earned him a flurry of newspaper articles dubbing him the president’s “annoyer-in-chief.”

The White House has declined to comment for the articles. But, as Issa told a New York Times reporter in recent days, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel weighed in himself when the two crossed paths outside the House gym on Capitol Hill.

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State Controller John Chiang

They say it should not be as hard as the controller says it is to reprogram the computer system to cut state employees’ pay to the minimum wage as Schwarzenegger has demanded while there is no budget.

By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

July 19, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

For the last seven years, demands that state worker pay be reduced when California has no budget have been met with a consistent response from union-friendly state controllers: Their computer can’t do the math.

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The party decides to adopt a neutral position on Proposition 19. Many favor the measure, but opponents cited one overriding concern: a yes vote could damage statewide candidates in competitive races.

July 18, 2010|By John Hoeffel, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from San Jose — The state Democratic Party decided Sunday not to endorse the marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot after a swift, passionate debate that left little doubt most Democrats in the hotel meeting room intend to vote yes at the polls.

The party decided to adopt a neutral position on Proposition 19, leaving the many local Democratic committees and organizations free to endorse the measure.

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By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 19, 2010

SACRAMENTO — Hate to break this to you: Time’s whizzing by. You’re getting older.

Need proof? Brace yourself.

Jerry Brown is 72 years old.

Yes, that Jerry Brown. The endless-summer wonder boy who dated Linda Ronstadt many moons over blue bayous ago. The bliss-following political son who was sooo California cool — back when California really was the empire of the laid-back, and fiscally solvent at that.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 33

Status: Legislature out on summer recess



Brown

At the Pasadena Senior Center, the Democratic candidate’s age fazes no one. His lack of a coherent plan is a problem, though.

July 18, 2010|Steve Lopez

The last time I walked into the Pasadena Senior Center, a few years ago, I felt people eyeballing me as if I might have stumbled into the wrong building. When I returned Friday morning, they asked what class I was looking for.

Have I aged that quickly? If so, it means I may not have much time left to run for governor.

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Lobbyists play huge role in bills
Karen de Sa, San Jose Mercury News
Created: 07/17/2010 07:10:37 AM PDT

Like all newly elected lawmakers, Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes arrived in Sacramento needing two things to ensure his political success: legislative achievements and campaign money.

If he established himself as a political force, the Los Angeles-area Democrat might breeze to re-election in two years and rise up the legislative ranks. And sure enough, there were folks who could help him along – the throng of lobbyists offering bill ideas on behalf of their corporate clients.

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Group aims to leverage growing Hispanic clout
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Created: 07/17/2010 07:14:46 AM PDT

Hoping to harness the clout of the Inland Empire’s burgeoning Latino community, a new political action committee is mounting a push to increase the number of Latinos elected to local school boards, city councils, water boards, special districts and other posts.

The Latino Caucus of the Inland Empire aims to boost Latino voter turnout and back candidates who support issues important to Latinos.

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Doom of both could be goal of one of them
James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/17/2010 09:30:25 PM PDT

If you can’t beat ‘em, confuse ‘em.

That’s the thinking, some political observers say, behind Proposition 27, one of the measures that will appear on November’s ballot. Proposition 27 and another measure on the ballot have near-opposite effects, which could doom both measures.

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Brown

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jul. 18, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

The question keeps coming up for Jerry Brown: Can he compete with a self-funded billionaire and, if so, when will he start?

“Can you beat Meg Whitman if she’s going to outspend you 10-to-1, have staffs 10 times as big as you?” Chris Matthews asked the Democratic gubernatorial nominee recently on MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

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THE WEEK

Those are the two things Californians give their elected officials.

By Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2010

Even a cursory look at events last week was enough to show the concept of “public service” being turned on its ear.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission took up the issue of elected officials getting freebie tickets, in the wake of investigations into Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s acceptance of tickets to dozens of sought-after events, sometimes from companies doing business with his administration.

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Friday, July 16, 2010 – 12:30 pm

I won’t waste much energy on this, since the far right-wing of the California Republican Party can’t seem to stop shooting themselves in the head.

True to form, Mike Spence and the California Republican Assembly (CRA) started shooting off their mouths in a story published in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.

The message. Were not happy with Meg Whitman.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 31

Status: Legislature out on summer recess





Meg Whitman

10:24 PM PDT on Thursday, July 15, 2010

By TIFFANY RAY
The Press-Enterprise

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said she has a plan to create two million new private-sector jobs in California by 2015.

Speaking in Ontario on Thursday to employees at Mag Instrument Inc., the maker of the Maglite flashlight, Whitman said her three priorities as governor would be creating jobs, reducing government spending and turning around California’s public schools.

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By Susan Ferriss
sferriss@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jul. 16, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Friday, Jul. 16, 2010 – 6:53 am

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is backing away from a key immigration proposal she advanced in this spring’s competitive GOP primary after farmers and other business interests expressed displeasure with her idea.

As she campaigned this spring, Whitman said she would send state and local officials into California businesses to look for illegal immigrants – her own version of federal immigration workplace inspections.

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California Watch
A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting
Money and Politics

California WatchBlog

July 16, 2010 | Chase Davis

Meg Whitman has out-raised Jerry Brown four to one in large contributions during the month-plus since the June 8 primary, further adding to her already massive cash advantage heading into election season, state campaign records show.

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Joe Garofoli,Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writers
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, July 16, 2010

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, who recently campaigned with GOP former Gov. Pete Wilson as being “tough as nails” on illegal immigration, could alienate her crucial conservative base, some party members say, by declaring she’s in lockstep on the issue with her rival: former Gov. Jerry Brown.

In an opinion piece published this week in a Spanish-language publication in Southern California, Whitman wrote that there is “very little” that she disagrees with Brown on concerning the hot-button issue of illegal immigration.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 15, 2010

In the closest forum to a debate so far, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman appeared on Larry Kudlow’s show on the cable business news channel CNBC this afternoon, but not at the same time.

Under quick-fire questioning from Kudlow, the two candidates talked about how they plan to create jobs and also fired rhetorical darts at each other.

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Meg Whitman speaks to Mag Instrument employees at the Maglite plant in Ontario. (Adam Lau, Associated Press / July 15, 2010)

.

By Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times

July 16, 2010

The issue of employment dominated the race for governor Thursday as Meg Whitman slashed rival Jerry Brown for failing to offer a plan to create jobs while she unveiled a glossy, 34-page booklet on the subject that she plans to mail to voters across California.

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Barbara Boxer                Carly Fiorina

Campaign finance figures show the incumbent Democratic senator has $11.3 million available, compared with less than $1 million for her Republican challenger, who is closing in on her in recent polls.

By Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times

July 16, 2010

Carly Fiorina may be closing in on California Sen. Barbara Boxer in recent polls, but reports released Thursday show the three-term incumbent with a vast advantage in one very important area: money.

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.

Editor’s Note: Favorable/Unfavorable – Whitman 49%/44%, Brown 47%/48%

Election 2010: California Governor

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown remain virtually tied in the race for governor of California.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Whitman edging ahead of Brown for the first time with 47% of the vote. The Democrat picks up 46% support. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, while three percent (3%) are not sure.

Read the rest of this entry »

Number of days past constitutional deadline: 30

Status: Legislature out on summer vacation



Jerry Brown
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

WSJ Blogs
Capital Journal
Columns and Observations from the Capital

By Peter Brown

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, is a former White House correspondent with two decades of experience covering Washington government and politics. Click here for Mr. Brown’s full bio.

If, as the conventional wisdom holds, that this is the year in which being a career politician is a problem for candidates, then one might think Jerry Brown’s effort to reclaim the California governor’s mansion would be toast.

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Voters perceive dismal voting records and advancing age as negatives.
By George Skelton Capitol Journal
July 15, 2010

From Sacramento

Cut to the core of the contest for California governor and you’ll find that each candidate has one very vulnerable weak spot.

For Democrat Jerry Brown, it’s his old age.

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Meg Whitman

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 14, 2010

After saying all spring that she opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants, Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman tried to neutralize the immigration issue in the general election by arguing in an op-ed published Wednesday that she and Democratic rival Jerry Brown have virtually the same positions on the issue.

The two candidates, however, disagree on a key component of the immigration debate: Brown supports offering permanent residency and citizenship to illegal immigrants while Whitman proposes only a guest worker program without a path to citizenship.

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By Anthony York | 07/15/10 12:00 AM PST

Recount. The very word now conjures up decade-old images of a carnival-like scene in the county seats of Florida, where we all learned new terms like “hanging chads,” “overvotes” and “Kathleen Harris.”

Alas, those days are over, but elections officials in Riverside and San Diego counties are girding for their own journey into uncharted electoral waters this week. That’s because Assemblywoman Mary Salas, D-Chula Vista, asked for a recount in the two counties of the 40th Senate District where she did better than her Democratic opponent, Juan Vargas.

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Brown

***Editor’s Note: Once again democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, who is falling in the polls against rival republican Meg Whitman, has once again filed a lawsuit and sought to garner publicity. This time federally-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the whipping posts for Brown. The following afternoon story in the Sacramento Bee is the latest episode.

The big question is who will be charged or sued next?

________________________________________________________________________________

Brown sues federal housing giants over home energy improvement program

By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jul. 14, 2010 – 2:11 pm
Last Modified: Wednesday, Jul. 14, 2010 – 3:29 pm

California Attorney Jerry Brown today sued federal mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for blocking green home improvement financing programs that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and would create thousands of clean-tech jobs.

In a filing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Brown said the federal agencies have ignored California law and wrongly characterized the programs in shutting them down.

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Brown

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
July 14, 2010 | 11:30 am

Jerry Brown may not be up with any paid TV commercials, but he’s been active on the free talk circuit, making his case for California governor with local and national stations alike.

On Wednesday he was in San Diego on the local Fox affiliate’s morning program talking about the gubernatorial campaign, the man he hopes to succeed and the woman standing between him and his old Capitol office, Republican nominee Meg Whitman.

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Almost two years ago I argued with a chief or staff or two as to why it would be wrong and unethical for the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors to bypass Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales and give the vice-chairmanship to newcomer First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt. Josie had paid her dues; it was her turn in the rotation; and it would look bad, not only because she was the only minority and woman on the board, but also because the corruption scandal was just heating up and no one really knew at that time if Mitzelfelt would be dragged into it as Postmus’ chief of staff. We wrote a number of articles chastising the board for even considering not electing her to the position she earned.

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Jerry Brown

By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 7/14/10 4:46 AM EDT

POLITICO 44

Democrats are fearful that various labor-backed, independent-expenditure efforts in the California governor’s race are needlessly divided, risking Democrats’ chances with their scattershot messages.

It’s no small matter in a race where the independent expenditures were touted as critical to Democratic nominee Jerry Brown’s campaign, a stopgap for the infrastructure and funding that are sorely lacking from the former two-term governor’s frugal, bare-bones campaign. But as former eBay CEO Meg Whitman free-spends her way toward the $150 million mark in a race that’s currently neck and neck, there is little margin for error against her spending juggernaut.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/13/2010 04:59:09 PM PDT

“No a la Proposici n 187 y no a la ley de Arizona.”

Translation: “No on Proposition 187 and no on the Arizona law.”

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PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 13, 2010 | 1:12 pm

Barbara Boxer has a real race on her hands this fall. As if she needed any more evidence, the website RealClearPolitics.com has officially declared the California Senate race a tossup. The site puts 10 seats up for grabs, with 48 safely in the Democratic column and 42 safely in the hands of the GOP.

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Barbara Boxer                 Carly Fiorina

By DAVID CATANESE | 7/13/10 10:30 AM EDT

It looks like that demon sheep has showed up snarling on Sen. Barbara Boxer’s doorstep.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the controversial Silicon Valley executive who exploded into the California Senate race with a series of colorful viral videos, is holding the Democratic senator to at least a tie, according to two polls released in the last week.

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PoliticsBlog

Posted By: Joe Garofoli | July 12 2010 at 05:25 PM

A quick round-up of the day in the Guv campaign….

Republican guv candidate Meg Whitman dropped a new 30-second TV ad Monday to run statewide It’s another negative piece on Democratic rival Jerry Brown that doesn’t raise any new material. Just repeats pounding on his support from unions, or, as Meg puts it the “special interests.”

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 28

10:37 PM PDT on Monday, July 12, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

Mary Salas, a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the race for the state’s 40th Senate District, has asked Riverside County to recount its ballots in the race.

Salas appears to have been defeated for the nomination in the June 8 primary by Juan Vargas, who won 50.1 percent of the vote.

Read the rest of this entry »

Meg Whitman

Jul 12, 2010 7:44 pm US/Pacific

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―

Download Complete CBS 5 Poll Results Data (.pdf)

If the election for governor of California were held today, Republican Meg Whitman would edge out Democrat Jerry Brown 46% to 39%, according to a new CBS 5 KPIX-TV poll of likely voters released Monday.

Brown, currently California’s Attorney General, leads by a not surprising 2-1 margin in the Bay Area, but trails in the rest of the state, according to the poll data.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 12, 2010

Republican Meg Whitman’s camp is continuing its attacks against the labor groups backing Democrat Jerry Brown, launching a new television spot hitting Brown’s union supporters.

The 30-second ad, titled “Their Governor,” targets labor group-backed independent expenditure committees that have been funding ads attacking Whitman.

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July 12th, 2010, 2:30 pm · posted by Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief

Sarah Palin is playing in this year’s elections more than just with her speeches and tweets. She’s using money to help those candidates she believes in.

According to a Federal Elections Commission report filed Sunday, Palin’s Political Action Committee, Sarah PAC, has raised $1.3 million so far this year and has about $1 million in cash with which to try and help candidates Palin supports get elected this fall.

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Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 12, 2010

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, whose heated courtship of Latino voters already included ads on Spanish-language TV and radio and on billboards and bus stops, today started placing banner ads on Spanish-language websites, the campaign said.

No surprise, the ads highlight Whitman’s opposition to Arizona’s anti-immigration law and to Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot initiative to limit state services to illegal immigrants.

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Brown

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

For decades, capital punishment was a driving force in California politics, swaying elections for governor and the U.S. Senate and reshaping the state Supreme Court.

While executions in California have been on hold for more than four years, tied up in court challenges to lethal injection procedures that the state is now redrafting, November’s elections may determine whether the death penalty still carries political weight.

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July 12, 2010

Posted: July 12th, 2010 09:57 PM ET

(CNN) – California’s gubernatorial race, already fueled by a fierce debate over immigration reform and a mounting fiscal crisis in the state, reached another level Monday as the candidates sparred over money.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, the Democrat hoping to take the seat being vacated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, called his Republican opponent’s latest ad, taking on his record on taxes, “completely false.”

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Fiorina

Jul 12, 9:30 PM EDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Senate candidate Carly Fiorina on Monday questioned why the Obama administration is not suing San Francisco for its sanctuary policies on illegal immigrants.

The Republican, trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, suggested the federal government engaged in political posturing when it sued Arizona over its law on illegal immigrants.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 27

Meg Whitman

Prop Zero

Monday, July 12, 2010
BY Larry Gerston Ph.D. // 2 hours ago

Meg, Money and Technology

Much has been made about the $91 million Meg Whitman has spent on her gubernatorial campaign. As expected, the largest portion of the money has gone to those slick, expensive television campaign ads. They have served her well, first in introducing her to Californians, and second in terms of branding her candidacy.

But beyond the use of her funds for commercials, Whitman has treated her campaign like an investment. To that end, she has purchased the latest technological tools available to assist her campaign effort–purchases that may prove invaluable by November 2nd.

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07:09 PM PDT on Sunday, July 11, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

As they contemplate candidates for governor and the U.S. Senate, California voters want leaders with plenty of legislative background. No, make that someone with years of experience in the business world.

Actually, they want both, according to a poll made public today.

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Adding fuel to fire

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/11/2010 07:54:08 AM PDT

Thanks largely to a controversial immigration law in Arizona, political observers agree that immigration will be a key issue for state and federal candidates in November’s election.

And, thanks largely to the federal Department of Justice’s decision last week to challenge Arizona’s law – known as S.B. 1070 – those observers say Republicans will likely get a bump at the polls.

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Published: Monday, Jul. 12, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

The air wars continue. California Working Families 2010, a labor-funded group backing Democrat Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial bid, has launched an ad defending him against attacks from Republican rival Meg Whitman.

The 30-second spot, titled “Misleading,” takes aim at Whitman’s ad slamming Brown’s political career as a “legacy of failure.”

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Sunday, July 11, 2010 – 10:30 am

A little less than two weeks ago California Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown was poking at Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman over the millions she had spent to date, and the fact he still had a 5 point lead in a recent poll.

Remember the invite Meg to tea comment?

Then came last Wednesday. The widely respected Field Poll had Whitman and Brown in a statistical tie. Brown stopped laughing.

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www.iepolitics.com

Written by Administrator
July 10th, 2010 at 11:06 pm

It doesn’t seem to matter if we are discussing Jeff Burum, the Lewis Family, or any other of a number of successful, wealthy businessmen in our community, they are all “corrupt.” I don’t mean that they are really, truly corrupt, but they are “corrupt” in the minds of the less successful. The common thought seems to be that if one has money, then one has no integrity. Our community doesn’t allow for making an “honest” hundred million or so. Hard work, sacrifice, intellect, college education, and just plain good old-fashioned luck can all be damned. If one is successful, then one must be a crook.

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Moonbeam and Robin

Batman: “Haven’t you noticed how we always escape the vicious ensnarements of our enemies?”
Robin: “Yeah, because we’re smarter than they are!”
Batman: “I like to think it’s because our hearts are pure.”

Riddle me this readers: What were they thinking?

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 26



01:31 PM PDT on Saturday, July 10, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

CORRECTION:

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the additional Riverside County votes changed the outcome of the Democratic nomination for the 40th Senate District race. The version below reflects the corrected information.

Riverside County elections officials finished counting 12,563 mail-in ballots early Saturday morning.

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Edward Roski, Jr.

Sponsored bill got special treatment
Karen de Sa, San Jose Mercury News
Created: 07/10/2010 07:08:15 AM PDT

Before Southern California billionaire Edward Roski Jr. could satisfy the Los Angeles region’s craving for the return of pro football, he needed a stadium.

And before that stadium could be built on 592 acres of land in city of Industry on the edge of Diamond Bar, Roski needed to resolve a pair of lawsuits over whether the project complied with the state’s environmental laws.

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By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s scant voting record is viewed poorly by more than half of likely voters, but many aren’t thrilled with Democratic rival Jerry Brown’s age, either.

In a wide-ranging measure of the candidate characteristics that matter most to voters, a report released today by the nonpartisan Field Poll depicts an electorate that favors both political and business experience as well as progressive or moderate views.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 25

11:33 AM PDT on Friday, July 9, 2010

By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise

A Superior Court judge Friday ordered Riverside County elections officials to count 12,563 disputed mail-in ballots and include the results in the final tally from the June 8 primary.

County officials began counting the votes shortly after Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac R. Fisher issued his ruling and expect to complete the task by tonight.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/09/2010 04:51:21 PM PDT

If California voters don’t approve a massive bond measure to pay for, among other things, more water storage facilities across the state, Kathye Rietkerk of Kallisto Greenhouses is afraid there won’t be enough water for her to stay in business.

Which is why, strangely, she hopes lawmakers can agree to postpone a vote on that ballot measure – scheduled to be on November’s ballot – by two years.

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JULY 8, 2010

By WAYNE LUSVARDI

Will a set of Green Power plants in northern California planned in the 1970s under former California Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown’s administration and shut down in 1990 because they were running in the red come back to haunt third-time gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown and California’s Green Power law up for review by the voters in November?

Three events surrounding the Bottle Rock and South Geysers Geothermal Power Plants in northern California might call into question the third candidacy of Jerry Brown for governor and the sustainability of AB32 – the Global Warming Solutions Act – on the November ballot for possible rollback by the voters as Prop 23.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 24

Point of View

Richard Grenell
Created: 07/08/2010 07:52:54 PM PDT

In the aftermath of the announcement that District Attorney Mike Ramos’ team failed miserably to prove that Rex Gutierrez participated in a conspiracy or lied on his time card, there was one little-noticed comment that stood out.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Hackleman, Mike Ramos’ appointed hatchet man, accidentally confirmed a suspicion many San Bernardino County residents had suspected for many months. Hackleman was asked by the media if the DA’s Office would seek a re-trial of their failed and costly conspiracy case and his comments were very telling. Hackleman proved just who was driving this wild political investigation when he said, “We’re going to sit down with our partners in the Attorney General’s office and will thoroughly review and refine our case with them.”

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Rex Gutierrez

08:44 AM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By IMRAN GHORI
The Press-Enterprise

Former San Bernardino County assessor’s official Rex Gutierrez will be retried starting Aug. 30 on corruption charges.

Superior Court Judge Duke Rouse scheduled the new trial at a brief hearing Wednesday. A pre-trial conference will be held Aug 6.

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Carly Fiorina

11:01 AM PDT on Thursday, July 8, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s once healthy lead over challenger Carly Fiorina has all but disappeared, according to a new survey showing the two in a statistical dead heat for California’s contested U.S. Senate seat.

Today’s Field Poll, produced for The Press-Enterprise and other California media subscribers, shows Boxer, D-Calif., leading Fiorina by a margin of 47 percent to 44 percent, with 9 percent of likely voters uncertain.

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Share
By Susan Ferriss
sferriss@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Jul. 9, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 4A

With former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown at his side, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a new demand Thursday that a specific change in state worker pensions be made before he signs off on a budget.

At a minimum, the governor said he wants legislators to roll back current pension terms to those that existed before 1999 legislation created more generous rules.

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Jerry Brown

***EDITOR’S NOTE: From the looks of things here it would appear Brown invented DNA testing technology.***

Posted By: Carla Marinucci | July 08 2010 at 02:23 PM

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown got a nice poltiical two-fer Thursday — a chance to remind Califonria voters of his credentials as the state’s top cop while law enforcement celebrated the arrest of a man described as the notorious “Grim Sleeper” serial killer, who has eluded them for decades.

State Attorney General Brown was on hand today, standing next to Republican Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley to talk up the technology advances in DNA analysis which he’s supported — and which ended in the arrest of Lonnie David Franklin, 57, by Los Angeles Police Wednesday on 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

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PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 8, 2010 | 10:12 am

In the wake of a new Field Poll that shows Meg Whitman running strong among California’s Latino voters, Democrat Jerry Brown will hold a press conference with Latino leaders in Los Angeles on Thursday and begin countering Whitman’s Spanish-language offensive.

The Field Poll showed Brown’s lead among California Latino voters was just 11 points, with 50% of those surveyed saying they supported Brown and 39% expressing support for Whitman. Speaking on KGO radio Thursday morning in San Francisco, Brown said he was gathering with Latino leaders in Los Angeles Thursday to try to shore up a voting bloc that has been reliably Democratic in recent elections.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 23

James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/07/2010 05:23:25 PM PDT

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Controller John Chiang tussle over whether state workers should take a pay cut until the Legislature approves a budget, lawmakers are considering a bill that would make sure those workers get their full pay whether or not a budget passes.

The new fiscal year started July 1, but the legislature has yet to pass a new budget. Because of that budget impasse, Schwarzenegger last week ordered Chiang to cut the wages of about 200,000 state employees to the minimum wage – $7.25 per hour. Chiang has refused the order, but might have to comply.

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Baca

Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell, Staff Writer
Posted: 07/07/2010 04:00:33 PM PDT

Think of a great pitcher, and baseball players like Nolan Ryan, Roy Halladay and Fernando Valenzuela come to mind.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, may not be in quite the same league, but for the second year in a row his mean curveball has helped lead the Democratic team to victory at the annual Congressional Baseball Game.

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New America Media, News Report
Aaron Glantz, Posted: Jul 07, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Danilo Pajarito has voted for Democrats all his life. The 70-year-old retired Hollywood set designer helped elect Jerry Brown governor back in 1974 and voted for him again when Brown ran for re-election in 1978. And when Brown ran successfully for Attorney General in 2006, Pajarito voted for him again.

But now he’s tired of Jerry Brown, he said. For the first time in his life, he says, he plans to vote for the Republican nominee for Governor, former eBay head Meg Whitman.

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Boxer                              Fiorina

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Jul. 8, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer’s job performance rating has fallen to a near record low, though she maintains a narrow, three-point lead over Republican rival Carly Fiorina in the U.S. Senate race, according to a Field Poll released today.

Forty-three percent of registered voters disapprove of the job Boxer is doing, while 42 percent approve, according to the nonpartisan poll. Among likely voters in November, 48 percent disapprove of the job Boxer is doing, the poll showed.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 22

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jul. 7, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A
Last Modified: Wednesday, Jul. 7, 2010 – 6:35 am

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s recent ads attacking Jerry Brown appear to have resonated with likely voters, as the Democratic nominee’s popularity is sliding, according to a new Field Poll.

The poll shows Brown leading Whitman 44 percent to 43 percent, a statistically insignificant difference.

Read the rest of this entry »

I would have missed this gem over the weekend, but a photo in a Sounthern California newspaper was the tip off.

This past weekend San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos rotated into the Presidency of the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA).

Yes, now the CDAA is stuck with this man as their leader.

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Brown

By Michael Gardner, U-T SACRAMENTO BUREAU

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 10:24 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — Republican Meg Whitman’s continued advertising campaign appears to have taken a toll on Democratic rival Jerry Brown in the race to become California’s next governor.

A new Field Poll shows a dramatic shift among likely voters who now express growing doubts over Brown, the state’s attorney general and former two-term governor.

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By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com The Sacramento Bee
Published: Wednesday, Jul. 7, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

California is obviously a troubled state, with a moribund economy, sky-high unemployment, a chronically unbalanced state budget, a failing public education system, a congested and crumbling transportation infrastructure, and a looming water crisis.

Ideally, therefore, this column would explore how the two major candidates for governor, Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman, would resolve these and other pressing issues – or, perhaps, whether they are even resolvable.

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By Kevin Yamamura
kyamamura@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Jul. 7, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

SAN FRANCISCO – Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer kicked off a two-day, nine-city campaign tour Tuesday to assert that her support of an $862 billion stimulus package has led to job creation in California.

Boxer traveled with a handful of reporters after a campaign stop in San Francisco, where stimulus dollars are helping fund a $1 billion seismic retrofit project on the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. Here’s a portion of her question-and-answer session.

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Joe Garofoli
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Among the many nuggets in Wednesday’s just-emancipated Field Poll on the CA guv race is this one: In California households where a union member lives, Jerry Brown leads Meg Whitman by 47 percent to 41 percent.

OK, so a lead’s a lead — and Jerry’s got waaaaay bigger problems in this poll, as our story notes. But when you think about all the union-backed independent expenditures that have been pounding Meg-a-millions — not the least of which is the California Nurses Association — you’d think that would be more of a yawning gap, no?

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Arnold Schwarzenegger

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State

July 6, 2010 | 3:45 pm

The court battle over the size of state worker paychecks continues.

The Schwarzenegger administration submitted a court petition Tuesday in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking an injunction to force state Controller John Chiang to slash the wages of roughly 200,000 state workers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Barbara Boxer

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
July 6, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO — Ordinarily, a Democrat might kick off a campaign tour in the idyllic Presidio park using eucalyptus and pine trees as an environmental backdrop, away from the bustling freeway.

But in the midst of high unemployment, Sen. Barbara Boxer chose the Doyle Drive roadway as the visual to launch her two-day “Jobs for California” tour. “Jobs” is the buzzword of the 2010 election cycle, and politicians from the State Capitol to Capitol Hill have used it incessantly.

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Number of days past constitutional deadline: 21