California politicos might want to include a chill pill with their Thanksgiving turkey.
The state’s political rhetoric, never especially high-minded, has become even hotter and snippier in recent days as more and more political types begin to realize that the 2010 elections really aren’t that far away.
Take, for example, the kafluffle following Governor Arnold’s announcement that he really, truly wants a Latino like Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado as his lieutenant governor. You could tell the governor means it because he made this announcement Tuesday at Ruben Salazar Park in the heart of East Los Angeles, which is about 160 miles away from Maldonado’s home town of Santa Maria.
But Democrat Darrell Steinberg, the boss of the state Senate, said that wouldn’t do because the special election to replace Maldonado would be just too darn expensive in these tough economic times.
The estimated $2 million cost of an election, Steinberg said, “would significantly reduce the Winter/Spring 2010 fee increases for UC students or it would cover the recent $6 per unit increase for 333,000 course units for community college students.”
Matt David, the governor’s communications director, took issue with Steinberg’s budget musings and fired his own e-mail rocket into the ether. The senator, he noted, hasn’t had any problems in the past with the cost of special elections when it was a Democrat resigning from the Legislature to step up the political ladder.
“If Senator Steinberg is concerned about state revenues and college tuition hikes, he should stop fighting his own pay cut,” David sniffed, in an unkind reference to the unsuccessful attempt to have the state attorney general block an 18 percent cut in pay and other benefits for legislators.
The next shot came from Nathan Barankin, Steinberg’s own communications director, who said, in essence, that while he’s sure Matt David is an earnest public servant, he’s also a government-paid liar.
David’s complaint “would be ironic if it wasn’t false,” Barankin said. “Senator Steinberg is not fighting his own pay cut and Mr. David presented no evidence in his statement establishing otherwise.”
Newspaper reports correctly noted that “executives of the Assembly and Senate” requested the legal opinion on the pay cut, which means it was the civil servants who staff the Legislature, not politicians like Steinberg, who made the request, he added.
Now the question of why those state workers should care about politicians’ pay unless they were asked to check by those very politicians never came up, but Barankin still managed to drop his own zinger into the mix.
“Of course, whether lawmakers should be paid on a par with communications directors for the governor is a separate story,” he added.
Another example of just how badly Sacramento needs a vacation came in a different exchange about le affair Maldonado.
State Sen. Dean Florez, a Shafter Democrat, released a statement dismissing Schwarzenegger’s appointment.
“At minimum, since the lieutenant governor seat was held by a Democrat, appointing a Republican to the post only complicates and heightens the partisan divide,” he said. “I don’t see the Senate confirming him.”
Now people might question the neutrality of the Central Valley senator’s prognostications, since Florez already plans to run for lieutenant governor next year. But he’s right in one respect. It’s a cinch that Florez is not going to be voting to confirm anyone, Republican, Democrat or whatever, who might get a leg up on that job.
That didn’t stop Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger’s press secretary, from adding to the snarkathon with his own take on Florez’ comments.
“It’s no surprise that a politician running for Lt. Governor would oppose Senator Maldonado’s appointment,” McLear said in a statement. “And since Senator Florez is losing by nearly 20 points to his opponent (Editor’s Note: That would be Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn), his time might be better served focusing on his own primary rather than Senator Maldonado.”
The holiday break can’t come soon enough.
John Wildermuth is a longtime writer on California politics.