Perez Talks the Bipartisan Talk
John Perez said all the right things when he officially took over Monday as Assembly speaker. But it’s going to take more than banning legislators on the Assembly floor from taking text messages from lobbyists to fix California’s problems.
If you go by the speech Perez gave, he recognizes that Job One both for him and the Assembly is to get something, anything, done.
“When it is my turn to step down as Speaker and turn over the gavel, I intend to look back and say that we delivered,” the Los Angeles Democrat promised.
The good news for Perez is things have got to get better. For too long, the Assembly has been a hyper-partisan graveyard where budget legislation went to die.
Why Do Politicians Deceive? The System Demands It
Right now, Meg Whitman is spending millions to convince Republican primary voters that she’s the most authentic, conservative, anti-tax candidate for governor. Steve Poizner is doing the same (though he’s spending fewer millions).
They’re both full of it. Everything we know about both of these two people is that they are mainstream, hyper-ambitious, business-oriented, socially moderate folks who weren’t particularly conservative or anti-tax before they got into Republican politics. So let’s cut through the nonsense. (I know, I know, without the nonsense there’d be no campaign, but let’s just try it here, as an intellectual exercise).
Does Whitman really believe what she’s saying about herself – and about Poizner? Does Poizner really believe what he’s saying about himself and about Whitman?
Doubtful.
Welcome, Mr. Speaker
California’s new Assembly Speaker, John Perez, attempted to set a tone of inclusiveness at his swearing in yesterday, not only with minority party Republicans, but also with the people of California on the difficult budget dealings.
Perez declared a couple of committee chairmanships would go to Republicans. He also stated he would open the budget process for all by holding budget meetings around the state before the eyes of the public. Further, he said the budget would not be the product of Big 5 meetings between legislative leaders and the governor.
The key to Perez’s effectiveness will be his ability to deal with his roots in the labor movement. Perez points out his history with the United Food and Commercial Workers involved him with a private labor union. However, his close ties to public labor are undeniable.
And, it is labor’s dominance under the capitol dome that has greatly influenced the difficult budget problems that Perez hopes to ameliorate.
Parents can’t rely on Politicians
Last week’s LAUSD school board vote was a stark reminder of the lesson we have all learned many times before – parents can’t rely on politicians to advocate for their own children.
In a remarkable show of political cowardice, several LAUSD school board members overrode Superintendent Cortines’ thoughtful recommendations and removed three of the highest quality charter schools in America from having the opportunity to serve children. In an even more stunning display of the backroom deal making, the school board voted to remove high-quality charter operator ICEF from the new Barack Obama Middle School after exactly 0.0 seconds of debate.
What started six months ago as an historic break from a failed past, was exposed Tuesday as the same old business-as-usual politics played by grown-ups, for grown-ups, about grown-ups that got us into this mess in the first place.