Carly Fiorina has officially been in the Senate race for almost a month and the kindest possible take on her campaign is that she’s still got a long way to go.

Fiorina served a decades-long business apprenticeship before she took over as CEO at Hewlett-Packard, but she’s now looking to move to the top of the state’s political ladder without the benefit of any real experience in California politics.

It shows.

Last week, for example, she brushed off Irvine Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, her GOP primary opponent, by arguing at a Washington breakfast that he wouldn’t have a prayer against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer because he’s, well, a white guy.

While Fiorina insisted that some of her best friends were white guys, she said they just can’t win against Boxer because “she knows how to beat them. She’s done it over and over and over.”

This Thanksgiving I gave special thanks for the University of California and California State University systems. In California, jobs and economic growth are inextricably linked to the well being of higher education. With their 33 campuses and 670,000 students, UC and CSU play central roles in providing opportunity to students, preparing California’s workforce, and powering our diverse and entrepreneurial economic growth. Put simply, a healthy California economy requires a healthy university system.

Yet, despite its essential importance, higher education’s share of the state budget has been reduced by 30% over the past thirty years, largely to make room for more compensation for state government employees. In the last ten years, cash expenses relating to state employee compensation (just for direct employees only) have more than doubled and now total more than $20 billion per year, in excess of three times what the state provides to higher education. On an accrual basis it’s more like four times.

I have written over the past year
or so that the impending crisis in commercial real estate is yet to be fully
felt or appreciated.  In the last
couple of weeks, pronouncements from Media sources, think tanks, and real
estate/economics conferences have reinforced my prediction and belief.  The ‘Other Shoe’ that hasn’t fallen yet
in this sad economy is about to fall – and, when it does fall, it just might
clobber that shopping mall, office building and other commercial real estate
right in your town.

I spent a few days in Cleveland in
late Summer appearing at a Mediation of a commercial real estate case (the
‘horse-trading’ exercise in what is called ADR – Alternative Dispute
Resolution; otherwise known as the full-employment-for-retired judges
settlement procedure which has swept our legal system.)  We sat in a largely empty office building
downtown, looking out over misty Lake Erie, and heard stories of many other
empty or near-empty office buildings in that recently refurbished downtown that
was the bright hope of so many there. 
I keep thinking about that nearly empty office building, those empty,
huge corridors and all the people adversely economically affected by that
emptiness.

This week’s sobering news that the state may be facing another staggering budget deficit – reported to be nearly $21 billion – should be another indication that, much as we might wish it could, government just can’t do it all in times of shrinking public dollars.

That is why I’m so glad that Keep California Beautiful (KCB) is part of a highly successful public/private partnership that has provided millions of Californians the ability to do the right thing – recycle and keep trash away from our oceans, streams and waterways.

In fact, more than two years ago, KCB began an active and ongoing partnership with the California State Parks and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) that has placed, and continues to maintain, more than 500 seasonal and permanent recycle bins at more than 20 key beaches along California’s coast.

Since I couldn’t get tickets to the Jay Leno Show, I attended the Governor’s press conference announcing his pick of Senator Abel Maldonado to fill the empty Lieutenant Governor’s chair.

The event was held at Ruben Salazar Park in East L.A. in front of a huge Latino-themed wall mural by artist Paul Botello titled: The Wall that Speaks, Sings and Shouts.

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.

First things first: Yes, I’m personally disappointed that I wasn’t nominated lieutenant governor. The job is a joke, but my interest was serious. I wasn’t even vetted, at least as far as I know.

But Maldonado is the second best choice – a smart strategic move, for a few reasons.

– This nomination rewards loyalty.

Schwarzenegger has suffered from the perception (and sometimes the reality) that he twists with the political winds. By picking Maldonado, he rewards a like-minded Republican who has taken political risks for Schwarzenegger. And that will make it a little bit easier for the governor to convince other moderates to join him on tough votes during his last year in office.

– It likely produces one more Democrat in the state senate.

L.A.’s business community last week got a much needed signal that the Los Angeles Unified School District finally may be poised for some big improvements.

It’s just a sign, but it was the most concrete one yet when 181 groups bid to take over management of 36 failing schools. Many more schools could be taken over under the plan. The idea is to get some fresh blood managing schools. The new operators presumably will be able to innovate, mainly because they’ll be free of many of the stifling mandates from the central office.

Now, of course, plenty can go awry. Maybe in the coming weeks and months the winners will be chosen more on politics than merit. Maybe the new operators won’t be free to innovate as much as we were led to believe. Maybe the outcomes won’t be as good as we hope. LAUSD does have a record of disappointing us.

What if someone put a gun to your head and forced you to make a decision between your job and the environment? It’s not a fair choice, is it? No one should be forced to choose between having a job and taking care of the planet. Yet all too often this choice is being made for you—in Sacramento—as politicians adopt extreme environmental policies that kill jobs.

The laws passed each year by the Legislature often sound good. They are disguised with friendly sounding names. Yet history has proven and our current record unemployment numbers illustrate that these new laws often create more problems than they have solve. They spend your tax dollars to establish new agencies filled with state bureaucrats. These bureaucracies grow, not only with more government workers but with the power to change your life. These government agencies impose mandate upon mandate on everyone from small business owners to school teachers.

For example, an unelected body in this state, the California Energy Commission, recently imposed new regulations that are sure to kill more jobs in this state by limiting the types of televisions that can be sold. They did this without any scientific proof that limiting TV sales will actually improve the environment.