Author: John Wildermuth

The Assembly may have passed its own watered-down version of prison reform Monday, but it leaves the state way short of actually fixing any of the problems swirling around the system.

Nobody’s really saying that in public, of course. Darrell Steinberg, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, called it “a good first step,’’ although he made it clear that more has to be done. Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, seldom known for his tact, said through a spokesman that the Assembly bill “contains much-needed reforms.”

Inwardly, both Steinberg and the governor are likely seething.

Despite zero support from its GOP members and heavy lobbying from law enforcement, Senate Democrats came up with the votes to meet a promised $1.2 billion in prison budget cuts and trim some 27,000 inmates from the system.

There’s a couple reasons California’s lieutenant governor, the local state senator and a newly minted assemblywoman all are scuffling to win today’s primary for the Bay Area’s 10th Congressional District.

First, it’s a special election in the district, which includes most of Contra Costa County, along with smaller chunks of Alameda, Solano and Sacramento counties. Since Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher resigned in June to take a State Department job, that means this is a free ride for elected officials, who can run for a new job and still keep their old one. That’s a gift from heaven for politicians.

But it’s also a seat in Congress that’s up for grabs. In these days of term limits – and gerrymandered districts – a House seat is as close as it comes to a guaranteed lifetime job.

In 2008, for example, 94 percent of the country’s 435 members of Congress were re-elected. Since 1976, the only time that rate has fallen below 90 percent was in 1992, when it skidded all the way down to 88 percent.

It must be discouraging to have to apologize for supporting something you believed in, but GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner is probably getting used to it by now.

Take, for example, Poizner’s new www.PoiznerFacts.com, which is, according to a press release Thursday, “a myth-busting web site aimed at correcting distortions of Steve Poizner’s record.”

You know, the type of myths that suggest that the current state insurance commissioner was once a moderate Silicon Valley Republican who was willing to take unpopular positions because he felt they were right, even if they did go against the conservative, anti-tax grain of the state party.

Of course that was a couple of campaigns ago, when he was running for state Assembly in a strongly Democratic Bay Area district with the endorsement of the newspapers in San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto.

Political work at the California State Fair in Sacramento is typically a low-key, people-friendly affair. Office holders and would-be office holders typically make a pilgrimage out into the heat of Cal Expo, where they shake a few hands, kiss some babies, eat a corndog and sing the praises of California agriculture.

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, for example, will be out there this evening, visiting the Republican Party booth in one of the halls and hoping desperately that some desperate newspaper or TV station, stuck in the August doldrums, will send out a reporter or a camera crew to ask him about his campaign for governor.

It’s generally considered bad form to do any serious politicking, especially since most of the fairgoers wouldn’t pay any attention anyway.

When a panel of federal judges earlier this month ordered the state to come up with a plan to quickly move some 43,000 inmates out of the grossly overcrowded state prison system, it provided legislators with the political cover to do what they knew they had to do anyway.

But the state Assembly has decided to toss that gift aside and in effect tell the federal courts “Make us.”

Here’s a news flash for the lower house: There’s a reason it’s called an “order.” Federal judges don’t like being ignored and have plenty of ways to make their unhappiness known, as the state has found in other prison-related battles.

When the Senate passed the state prison reform bill last Thursday, there were plenty of members who didn’t like it. It didn’t get a single Republican vote and only the bare number of Democratic votes needed to pass.

One of the toughest things about politics is that it’s so hard to know when it’s time to go.

State Sen. Pat Wiggins of Santa Rosa got the message Sunday and decided to jump before she was pushed, announcing to surprised supporters that she would not run for re-election next year.

The decision was so sudden that Wiggins announced it at a fund-raiser that was supposed to raise money for her re-election. Although Democratic legislators were quick to publicly thank Wiggins for her years of service to the state, they likely breathed deeps sighs of relief at the news.

The announcement came just days after a devastating piece in Friday’s Santa Rosa Press-Democrat suggested that Wiggins “is suffering from a serious and potentially career-ending mental decline.”

Well, the governor had the prison plan he wanted for a few hours Thursday, but the way things look now that bill better be written in erasable ink.

While the state Senate managed to muster the bare-minimum 21 votes needed to pass the Legislature’s part of the $1.2 billion cut in the state prison system, the Assembly adjourned at midnight after hours of private deliberations and sub rosa horse-trading couldn’t bring out enough support to send the measure to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk.

Since legislators, who arrived back in Sacramento last Monday after a month-long summer recess, are fleeing the capital for a three-day weekend, that means nothing is going to happen on the prison bill until Monday.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is taking the first official steps toward challenging Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer next year.

On Tuesday, the Los Altos Hills Republican filed her “Carly for California” campaign name with the IRS and sent out a kinda/sorta campaign press release to announce it.

“I have received a great deal of encouragement to make a run for the Senate in 2010 from people all across the political spectrum,’’ she said in the release. “Today’s filing … is the logical next step in evaluating running for office.’’

During the “full and thorough evaluation of her candidacy” that Fiorina promises, she should work on answering a single question: Why does she believe she’s qualified to be California’s next senator?”

Thanks to a little-publicized part of the latest state budget deal, “For Sale” signs are going to be going up on vacant school buildings across the state.

In an effort to give California schools a little something to make up for grabbing billions from educational funding to close the state’s budget gap, the Legislature agreed last month to suspend the rules that strictly limit how school districts can spend the money from the sale of surplus classroom buildings.

In the past, if a district sold a school building, money from the sale generally could only be used for more construction or one-time maintenance. The new rules toss those limits out and let that money go into the district’s general fund, where it can be used for one-time purchases.

But, like Cinderella’s wardrobe, there’s a time limit on the state’s generosity. On Jan. 1, 2012, the new rules disappear and school districts will once again be bound by the old restrictions.