CA Treasurer Bill Lockyer backs Redistricting Measure
After gaining mention yesterday by announcing his opposition to the lottery proposal in this year’s budget deal (first reported here on F&H by Joel Fox), CA State Treasurer Bill Lockyer made waves earlier today by announcing his support of Proposition 11, the Schwarzenegger-backed redistricting measure.
Lockyer spokesman Tom Dressler is quoted by Capitol Alert as saying, "allowing the Legislature to set its own district boundaries presents an untenable conflict of interest, and on that principle he supports Prop. 11."
Although the measure has gained the backing of a handful of Democrats, most notably Governor Gray Davis and former State Controller Steve Westly (who blogged about his support for the measure here on Fox&Hounds in June), Lockyer has become the first statewide elected Democrat to endorse the measure.
Governor Schwarzenegger’s positions added to Endorsement Grid
Governor Schwarzenegger’s recently released positions on the election’s twelve ballot measures have been added to the Fox&Hounds Endorsement Grid. Positions taken by the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board have been added as well.
Assembly Democrats going for a Supermajority?
For Democrats to achieve a veto-proof “supermajority” in the state Assembly come next Tuesday, they must pick up six seats currently held by a Republican, while holding on to AD30, which is the sole Democratic held seat that is being seriously contested.
Last August, the California Target Book put out it’s Assembly Target List, listing six Republican held districts that the editors believed would be the Democrats’ best opportunities to pick up seats: Assembly District 10 (suburban Sacramento), AD26 (Central Valley), AD15 (East Bay), AD37 (Ventura County), AD78 (inland San Diego County), and AD80 (Imperial County).
From the get-go, the Assembly Democratic leadership and/or independent expenditure committees supporting their agenda put big bucks behind their nominees in four of the above mentioned districts: ALYSON HUBER in AD10, JOAN BUCHANAN in AD15, MARTY BLOCK in AD78, and MANUEL PEREZ in AD80.
Now, it appears they are going after all six.
Fixing the Budget
The governor’s call for a special session of the legislature to deal with the budget problem served as a perfect backdrop for the budget panel at the Milken Institute’s annual state of the state conference yesterday in Beverly Hills.
The budget hole the governor and legislature have to deal with may get bigger if state Treasurer Bill Lockyer has his way. As reported on Fox and Hounds Daily yesterday, Lockyer said at the conference he would join Senator Dianne Feinstein to oppose the piece of the recently signed budget deal to securitize the lottery. That provision is supposed to provide $5-billion for the state coffers but must be approved by the voters in a special election that the governor will call next year. If it is defeated at the polls, the budget hole will be that much deeper.
The panel, moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton, consisted of Republican Senate Leader Dave Cogdill, former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, Senior Advisor to the Governor David Crane, newly appointed Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, as well as Treasurer Lockyer.
Rate This
According to Gretchen Morgenson’s piece in the October 24, 2008 NYT Op-Ed Page, (“They’re Shocked, Shocked, About the Mess”), this is an actual email between:
“(t)wo analysts at S.& P. speaking frankly about a deal they were being asked to examine.
“Btw — that deal is ridiculous,” one wrote. “We should not be rating it.”
“We rate every deal,” came the response. “It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.”
First, some background, so we can all appreciate just how outrageous this admission is. According to everybody’s friend (mine anyway) Wikipedia, “S&P” means: “Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is a division of McGraw-Hill that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. It is one of the top three companies in this business, along with Moody’s and Fitch Ratings.”