Why The Sky Is Falling on the California Republican Party
In August 2009, I wrote a column for Fox & Hounds entitled
"Reach out, Republicans, or lose!"
In that article, I wrote that California Republicans can
yell and scream all they want on the issues of taxes, socialize medicine, and
corporate bailouts. But unless the California Republican Party is able to
persuade significant numbers of Latinos, Asians and other people of color to
register in their party and/or vote for their candidates, it will not elect a governor or
any statewide official in 2010 and could very well lose additional seats in
congress and the state legislature.
Well, that wasn’t Chicken Little talking and that is exactly
what happened.
If Republican leaders and elected officials – the few that
are left – don’t quickly wake up, 2012 could very well see the sky again fall
on the California Republican Party.
We all know the facts.
Strong but uneven job growth in California last month
Nearly 100,000 private sector jobs were created in California last month, the best month-over-month jobs performance of the California economy in years. Most sectors showed strength, especially construction, information, business services and tourism. Only two sectors showed minor declines – state government and retail trade.
California’s unemployment rate, from a different survey and seasonally adjusted, fell from 12.4% to 12.2% in February. But this change should be viewed cautiously. Most of the drop in the unemployment rate was attributable to a drop in the labor force, and only to a lesser extent to an increase in employment. Growth in the labor force over the next several years, both from natural increase and from discouraged workers returning, will further dampen the decrease in overall unemployment rates.
However, regional differences still strongly characterize California. On a seasonally unadjusted basis coastal counties’ aggregate unemployment rate was 11.5% while inland counties’ rate was 15.7%. Coastal counties saw their aggregate rate drop by nearly a half percentage point last month, while inland counties’ aggregate unemployment rate fell by only two-tenths of a percentage point.
If We Want Budget By Algorithm, Call the Experts
I wish government were smaller and more efficient. But I’m
not a spending limit kind of guy. I’m old-fashioned and prefer to be governed
by human beings. Spending limits are formulas, and I can’t call up a spending
limit, ask a spending limit a question, write a letter to a spending limit, or
give money to a spending limit’s opponents.
But
Republicans want a spending limit. No matter how much Gov. Jerry Brown and the
Democrats whine, Republicans have power in California’s governing system to
make demands at budget time. So if there’s a deal between GOP legislators and
the governor, there may be a spending limit in it. And if there’s not, some on
the right are readying a spending limit initiative for the ballot.
Potholes Sink to New Depths
It’s a good thing I can type. It’s hard for me to talk, what with these broken teeth.
You see, I have to drive on L.A.’s roads. And if you drive a car in Los Angeles – or ride a bicycle or motorcycle – you also may have cracked teeth or a bitten, swollen tongue. That’s what happens when you hit a half-dozen potholes on the way to work.
Potholes? What am I saying? I mean, what am I typing? These are more like craters, trenches, cave openings. I’ll bet the streets of Benghazi are in better condition.
All the rainy weather we’ve had, combined with all the money the city of Los Angeles doesn’t have, means we’re left with the worst street conditions since, well, maybe since asphalt was pulled out of the La Brea Tar Pits and spread onto dirt roads.
Let California voters decide on pensions, spending
This perspective on the California Budget, written by Debra Saunders, was published today in the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Sacramento, the knee-jerk response to any crisis is to blame the Republicans. But if Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders can’t cut a deal to win the two GOP votes in the Assembly and two in the Senate needed to qualify Brown’s tax-increase extension for the June ballot, Democrats must take their share of responsibility for fudging a deal.
First, there’s the original sin: Brown’s decision to stake his budget package on a do-over ballot measure that voters rejected by a 2-1 margin in 2009. Brown knew when he plotted this strategy that it would be career suicide for Republicans to vote for the sort of tax increases that he himself dared not advocate when he ran for governor.
Now the Dems have to give the GOP something in return.