SENATE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS
James L. Brulte, Chairman
DAILY BRIEFING
MONDAY
May 22, 2000
GEORGE SKELTON COLUMN
New Speaker Is Off to Fast Start With Schools Deal
The news clips say Bob Hertzberg was sworn in as Assembly speaker April 13. But ask Hertzberg and he'll tell you he really didn't become speaker until May 9. That's the day he pulled together the biggest deal of the year in the Capitol.
It's the day the Sherman Oaks Democrat first felt the power of the office--and passed a leadership test he easily could have avoided without anybody noticing. It may have been indicative of a speakership style Sacramento has not seen for a long while.
In theory, we elect people to public office and they, in turn, hire people to do whatever public work there is to be done. And if the work is being poorly performed, the theory continues, the public will be advised and aroused -- perhaps by the media -- and the elected officials will
bear the responsibility. But in recent decades, another element or layer has been brought into the equation. It's become trendy to appoint official watch guards who supposedly are independent of the existing political and/or bureaucratic structure.
Gray Davis has an almost obsessive need to control everything around him, from every word emitted by his press office to the music that accompanies his public appearances. Those who deal with Davis, including those who work for him, vie with each other in trading anecdotes about his
micromanagerial tendencies. Occasionally, however, this most controlled politician kicks over the traces and does or says something that's off-the-wall, such as his now-famous comment that state legislators' "job is to implement my vision" or his equally memorable statement that judges he
Insurance Czar Quackenbush Sweats as Pressure on Him Mounts
The heat on embattled state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush just keeps rising -- in fact, it's to the point where he's asked permission to have a criminal attorney at his side when he appears tomorrow before the Senate Insurance Committee.
The lawmakers are still looking for answers to why Quackenbush allowed insurance companies to duck as much as $3 billion in fines by contributing to a nonprofit foundation. The first thing the attorney did on behalf of Quackenbush was to make some calls to the Legislature to see
It Was a Nice Gesture, but Davis Tax Plan Too Far-Fetched
Here's what Gray Davis should have said: "I hope this will send a clarion call all across America that California truly values its reporters. "We're making a value judgment that being a reporter is the most important thing you can do for your country in the year 2000."
OK, it's pretty far-fetched. But so was the governor's proposal on May 13 that all public school teachers should be exempt from state income taxes.
Still, it's refreshing to see Davis throw out such a truly goofy idea given that his penchant for overcautious incrementalism made the first
Less than two weeks before he unveiled a revised state budget, Gov. Gray Davis and his closest advisers gathered in a private suite at a 100-year-old Victorian mansion-turned-inn a mile from the Capitol to brainstorm over how to spend billions of dollars in surplus revenues.
The two-day retreat in the Vizcaya's $275-a-day Garden Suite produced perhaps the governor's most bold -- and controversial -- proposal to date: Exempt certified public school teachers from paying state income taxes.
A Silicon Valley congressional seat and three other Republican strongholds in California could determine who will run Congress after the November elections. While the battle for president between Al Gore and George W. Bush is getting most of the public attention, it's the contest
for control of Congress that many political insiders are watching. As President Clinton discovered when the Democrats ended up at the bottom of the Republican land- slide in 1994, being the chief executive is all well and good, but the job is a lot less fun when the other side holds the
In an election year in which control of the House of Representatives is at stake, the Golden State is home to more competitive races than any other. "Democrats can't win back the House without California," said Amy Walter, an editor for the non-partisan Cook Political Report. "California
becomes very, very important." Conversely, the GOP must aggressively defend its California members to protect its 11-seat House majority. That has significant implications for the presidential race. The Democratic candidate, Vice President Al Gore, needs California to win the
In the year and a half since taking office, Bill Lockyer has been dubbed an "activist" by allies who mean it as a compliment and by enemies who don't.
Despite their definitional differences, both sides agree that the Hayward Democrat has redefined the role of state attorney general, broadening the position beyond the scope of its longtime nickname, "Top Cop." http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert01_20000522.html
QUACKENBUSH
Insurance Chief Faces Mounting Pressure
Battered by a seemingly unending barrage of questions about his fitness as a regulator, Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush is facing a growing crisis that now looks as if it could force him from office.
Democrats are quietly researching the rules for impeachment. His fellow Republican elected officials have failed to rally around his cause. And many of California's largest newspapers have urged the former Silicon Valley assemblyman to resign.
As new legislative hearings loom targeting her husband, the wife of state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush says Democrats are trying to destroy the Republicans' strongest potential candidate for governor.
"Their venomous attacks show the extent of their fear," said Chris Quackenbush, a one-time unsuccessful state Senate candidate who lives with her husband and three children in suburban Rio Linda. "They have a concerted plot to get rid of Chuck," she said, adding that her husband
State Tried to Block Anti-Smoking Ads Against Rite Aid, Newspaper Says
California's top health official sought to block an anti-smoking media campaign targeting a drugstore chain that had donated $130,000 to Gov. Davis, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Diana Bonta, director of the state Department of Health Services, tried to prevent the California Medical Association Foundation from using a state grant to finance a 1999 advertising campaign criticizing the Rite Aid pharmacy chain for selling cigarettes, the newspaper said.
California's declining growth rate during the past decade may net it only a single new seat in the House of Representatives when Census 2000 numbers are sent to President Clinton at the end of the year, the smallest gain for the state in a century, a Los Angeles Times analysis of
population estimates shows. The recession helped slow the Golden State's population growth in the 1990s to 3.3 million new people by prompting many Californians to move to Nevada or the Pacific Northwest at the same time immigrants were streaming into California. A decade earlier,
A bill meant to keep police officers from unfairly stopping minority drivers has set off its own racially charged quarrel among some of Los Angeles' most prominent civil rights activists--with the bill's African American sponsor accusing his opponents of being led by white outsiders.
The measure by state Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) would provide training for police to prevent racial profiling and would require officers to give motorists an identification card with a telephone number to register complaints.
With a state budget surplus topping $13 billion, outgoing state Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer hopes Orange County's 21-year streak of getting stiffed on property tax revenue will finally come to an end. But don't bet on it.
Brewer has spent six years pushing legislation to correct a fiscal mutation of Proposition 13 that allows Orange County to keep only 7% of the property tax money it raises, one of the lowest rates in the state. Other counties pocket much more--Los Angeles County gets 24% and San
In early April, Gov. Davis came to Fresno to tout his "Traffic Congestion Relief Plan," which he said would pour almost $170 million into Valley transportation projects. Standing at the Shaw Avenue and Freeway 99 interchange, the governor was feted by Republicans and Democrats alike.
Now that he has made the transportation plan official with the publication of his budget, some legislators are second-guessing their support. A study made public last week by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office shows that counties across the state will get less money
Gov. Gray Davis' $3.5 billion proposal to aid dozens of transportation projects in the Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California leaves nothing for the north state, a top Shasta County transportation official laments.
Dan Kovacich, executive officer of Shasta County's Regional Transportation Planning Agency, also says any cost overruns from the governor's five-year congestion plan could threaten money the north state receives from the State Transportation Improvement Program or other roads
Last week, members of Congress identified long-term health care as "the sleeping giant of all U.S. social priorities." Gov. Gray Davis woke that giant in California in his State of the State speech in January, outlining his "Aging With Dignity" initiative, intended to "provide the
services older Californians need to remain in their own homes, instead of nursing homes." Last week, in his budget for the coming fiscal year, he detailed plans to begin paying for the cornerstone of that initiative. He has budgeted $107 million for raising wages for home care workers.
The payday loan business, a fast-growing offshoot of the check-cashing industry, is trapping poor people in debt by advancing them money at annualized interest rates that average 485%.
This week state legislators plan to consider two bills restricting payday loans: a tough measure by state Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda) that would effectively rein in the practice and a weak bill carried by Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) and supported by payday lenders that is a
From each side of the East Bay Hills, Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, face significant but seemingly very different problems of transportation, housing and employment.
Yet Perata and Torlakson are working together on a series of bills that could help change the way these issues are addressed. Their proposals are built on the logical premise that these problems are all interlinked -- and so too must be decisions on development of housing and work centers