Meg Whitman was in the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association suite at the Universal City Hilton giving a short talk to the HJTA Board of Directors and invited guests, but purposefully positioned next to the television so those in the room could both listen and look at her without missing the final minute or so of the Lakers-Celtics playoff game.

An aide entered the room, Blackberry in hand, and interrupted to say the Associated Press had just called the Republican gubernatorial race for Whitman. Those in the room burst into applause and the basketball game was ignored.

A close fought basketball game is a good metaphor for the coming gubernatorial race, because that’s what it promises to be – back and forth, one side getting ahead then falling behind, and the contest stays close to the end when the winner pulls away by a couple of points. And there will be plenty of intentional fouls.

Get ready for the national magazine covers and the cable TV pieces about the "new faces" of politics in California: Republican businesswomen from Silicon Valley.

The visuals on Tuesday night’s victories were great for the GOP. The state party with a long history of nominating the most boring white guy available instead made history by nominating Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. Each winner made a point of thanking the other in her victory speech, which will only fuel the media hub-bub about them.

It’s an open question, however, whether, when you scratch the surface, either Whitman or Fiorina represent that much of a departure. They are two more in a long line of candidates whose wealth and prominence gave them a big edge. (Look no further than the governor’s office for an example of a wealthy GOPer).

California
lost one of its greatest leaders and role models last Friday with the
passing of legendary UCLA basketball Coach John Wooden. I am dedicating
today’s The Business Perspective to Coach Wooden because his
leadership principles – on which he based his life and coaching career
– are what business, government, labor and environmental groups need to
learn if we are to re-energize the California Dream and win as a team
for our State.

In the midst of a week of news stories about continued unemployment, a
crashing stock market, terrorism and conflict around the globe, and the
largest oil disaster in the history of the planet, a giant of a man
died quietly surrounded by family after being visited by so many
friends and those he mentored at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center,
a short walk from where he made sports history. 

Coach Wooden was an icon in college sports, but he could very well have
been a great businessman, college president, mayor or legislative
leader because he understood that all great organizations are the
result of exceptional team efforts by those who share a common goal.

Yes, yes. The gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primaries look like snoozers. Which is why one must dig a little deeper for election night intrigue.

In that spirit, here are five results to watch on election night to keep things interesting:

1. Abel Maldonado vs. the top two primary. Who wins a higher percentage of the vote — Maldonado in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor or the measure he spawned, Prop 14?

California has among the weakest campaign finance rules of any
state in the country.  As a result, 97% of the time in our last general
elections the candidate who raised the most money was elected, and
nearly all of the money came from big donors who gave more than $250 a
piece.  In today’s economy only well-healed interests can afford to
have that kind of influence. 

When big money funds elections and big money decides who wins, is it
any wonder that legislators listen to big money interests instead of
their constituents back home?  To get California back on track, we need
to change the way we finance campaigns to put elected officials out of
the fundraising game.

Proposition 15 repeals existing barriers to campaign finance reform and
establishes a Fair Elections pilot program of public financing for
Secretary of State elections. Candidates would qualify by showing broad
grassroots support. They would then be barred from raising any private
campaign funds and instead receive a limited amount of public funds for
their campaigns. 

In response to Monday’s piece, "The Evidence is Clear: Steve Cooley is Right Choice for AG," by Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully and Kern County District Attorney
Ed Jagels.

Dear Jan and Ed,

It is unfortunate that you let your good names be used by Steve Cooley’s campaign hacks to distort my record in the article published over your names on the Fox and Hounds website this morning.  Jan-we’ve worked together on the Masters in Law program for prosecutors that I established at Chapman with the collaboration of the California District Attorneys Association, and you know that the breadth of my relevant experience is much broader than the article attributed to you conveys. 

Ed, your own brother is supporting my candidacy after hearing about the significant constitutional appellate experience I will bring to the office of Attorney General, including involvement in over 50 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States-experience that no other candidate in the race, Democrat or Republican, has.

As campaigns were busy heading
into their final GOTV weekend on Friday, the ever-vigilant watchdogs –
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) and California Pension
Reform – were winning another one for the gipper.

HJTA and CA Pension Reform struck pay dirt on Friday in the battle
against out-of-control pensions, as a Judge ordered the Orange County
Employee Retirement System (OCERS) to turn over public records
detailing lavish government employee pensions. As a result, the O.C.
retirement system must release the names, gross pension amounts (and
believe me, they are gross), and the last employing agency from which
the worker retired.

HJTA’s crack attorney Tim Bittle represented Marcia Fritz in the case.
Many know Marcia from her tireless work on behalf of Taxpayers to shed
light on California’s runaway pension crisis over the past year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger barreled into the governor’s office seven years ago after winning an unprecedented gubernatorial recall campaign and immediately accomplished a major reform in fixing the workers compensation system. As he nears the end of his two terms in office, Schwarzenegger is attempting to go out by notching another big time reform of the public employee pension system.

There are similarities to the two efforts. One is the jump in costs in each of the systems and how they do damage to the fiscal situation in California. Workers comp premiums paid by California employers roughly doubled between 1999 and 2003. This dramatic increase pressured many businesses to cut employees or reduce inventory to cover their costs. Some businesses even packed up and left the state. Reduced business meant reduced tax revenue for governments.

The private sector was not the only one to feel the workers comp pinch. Public entities also had workers comp costs and the more they paid for increased premiums the less they had to pay for programs under their control.