Capitol Alert

The complete prepared text of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State address is after the jump:

His 2008 address, as prepared, clocked in at 3,026 words. This year's speech is a mere 1,364 words.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will offer a sobering look at California's fiscal woes in his sixth State of the State speech this morning, delivering what he calls an untraditional speech in which he will say the budget crisis has "incapacitated" the state.

"The truth is that California is in a state of emergency," Schwarzenegger will say, according to excerpts provided by his office. "Addressing this emergency is the first and greatest thing we must do for the people. The 42 billion dollar deficit is a rock upon our chest and we cannot breathe until we get it off."

Schwarzenegger, it appears, will not propose any grand new programs, instead focusing on the budget, as the state faces the prospect of issuing IOUs beginning in February and a roughly $40 billion deficit over the next 18 months.

"It doesn't make any sense to talk about education, infrastructure, water, health care reform and all these things when we have this huge budget deficit. I will talk about my vision for all of these things... and more... as soon as we get the budget done," he will say.

He will offer one new proposal: pay cuts for lawmakers when the budget is late. For every day past the June 15 constitutional deadline the budget is not passed, Schwarzenegger proposes the governor and legislators must forfeit their paychecks and per diem payments.

"I mean, if you call a taxi and the taxi doesn't come, you don't pay the driver. If the people's work is not getting done, the people's representatives should not get paid either. That is common sense in the real world," he will say.

Schwarzenegger, who often tosses blame for the impasse at the feet of the Legislature, will say lawmakers are "in the midst of serious and good faith negotiations to resolve the crisis."

"We have no alternative but to find agreement," he will say.

Asking lawmakers to bridge their partisan differences, Schwarzenegger will plead for 2009 to "be a year of political courage."

After the jump are the full excerpts provided by the governor's office.

Believe it or not, today marks Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's sixth State of the State address.

It'll be earlier than ever this year at 10 a.m..

It was only a year ago that the speech was scheduled at 3:30 p.m. (also early), not to conflict with the early returns from the New Hampshire primary.

What a long year it's been...

Schwarzenegger's promises and predictions in past addresses have produced mixed results.

In 2008, he donned his "Professor Schwarzenegger" cap to lecture lawmakers about "the economics of our budget problem."

Our budget problem is not because California's economy is in trouble. In spite of a weakness in housing, other areas of our economy continue to thrive. We remain a powerhouse of technology, agriculture, advanced research, venture capital, international trade and innovation. And we continue to have job growth.

So, our revenues this coming year are not going to be lower than last year. They're simply going to hold steady.

He went on, "I said it back during the recall and I'll say it again, 'We do not have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem.'" (Read last year's full speech, as prepared.)

Ten months later, he had changed his tune. "It is now a revenue problem rather than a spending problem," he said in early November, as he called for tax hikes to close the budget gap.

The state faces an approximately $40 billion budget hole over the next 18 months.

Some highlights of other past speeches (as we reported last year):

• 2004 was the year of cutting the state bureaucracy. (That was the famous blow-up-the-boxes speech. The boxes, by most accounts, still remain.)

• 2005 was the year of "reform." (But voters rejected all four Schwarzenegger-sponsored measures in the fall's special election.)

• 2006 was the year of infrastructure. (The governor negotiated four bonds with legislative leaders, all of which were approved by voters in the November election, jump-starting $40 billion worth of construction.)

• 2007 was the year of health care. (Which ended after a negotiated deal passed the Assembly but died in the Senate.)*

• 2008 was the year of facing "our budget demons" (Which continue to haunt into 2009)

Keep an eye on Capitol Alert, where we'll be posting early excerpts of this year's speech, the full text and reactions from across the aisle and from interest groups.

*CORRECTION: The original version of this post has been updated to reflect the outcome of the health care package in 2008.

Photo: Former Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez, left, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and ex-Senate Pro Tem Don Perata laugh during the governor's State of the State Address on January 8, 2008. Credit: Sacramento Bee photo / Paul Kitagaki Jr.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass announced committee chairs Wednesday for the two-year session that began Dec. 1.

Five freshmen, all Democrats, were among those named to lead committees -- Bonnie Lowenthal of Long Beach, Wes Chesbro of Arcata, V. Manuel Coachella, Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, and Bill Monning of Santa Cruz.

The complete list is after the jump:

Due to a posting glitch, this story was originally marked as posted at 2:49 a.m., when it was posted at 2:49 p.m.

With no end in sight to the state's flurry of ballot initiatives and the state likely to hold a special election this year, top Republican adviser Steve Schmidt and Democratic strategist Chris Lehane are among several California heavyweights forming a new firm solely designed to work on ballot-box campaigns.

Schmidt ran Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election drive, while Lehane worked in the Clinton White House and defeated a GOP attempt to change California's electoral college system.

The new firm, LFM Campaigns, also will include:
-- Democratic consultant Ace Smith, who was Hillary Clinton's California presidential campaign chairman and serves as an adviser to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a potential gubernatorial candidate
-- Republican strategist Adam Mendelsohn, adviser to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the governor's former communications director
-- Mark Fabiani, Lehane's longtime business partner and a former communications aide to President Clinton

The firm's name refers to Lehane, Fabiani and Mercury Public Affairs, in which Schmidt and Mendelsohn remain partners. They will continue to operate their own firms in addition to LFM Campaigns, Lehane said. While all are based in California, he said they consider the firm to be national in reach, especially as California's brand of direct democracy spreads to other states.

"If you look at the history of proposition work, the ones that have been most successful from a strategic perspective are those that have crossed party lines or have been seen as bipartisan," Lehane said.

LFM Campaigns is geared toward running campaigns for initiatives and referendums that have bipartisan support, such as the Schwarzenegger-backed redistricting initiative that voters approved last fall. Mendelsohn ran that campaign as the governor's political adviser, a role he will continue to play as Schwarzenegger pursues more initiatives related to political and budget reform.

"All of us have worked together in some capacity, and in some instances have worked against each other," Mendelsohn said. "We'll take each initiative and referendum on a case by case basis, and there are initiatives we won't work on for conflict reasons."

There should be no shortage of campaign business in the next two years. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office last week asked the Legislature to schedule a special election as soon as April to ask voters to pass several budget solutions, from new borrowing to changes in the budget process.

"Both the governor and Legislature have been working on those so obviously that's something consistent with the type of approach we'd take, but I don't want to be presumptuous," Lehane said.

Mendelsohn said he and Schmidt have decided to focus on initiative campaigns for the time being. They recently cut ties with potential GOP gubernatorial contender Meg Whitman, and they plan to remain on the sidelines in the 2010 race.

"We have made a conscious decision to stay neutral in the governor's race," Mendelsohn said. "We don't want to do candidate work. To do a governor's race, if you're going to do it right, the only way to do it is 100 percent of the time, and that's to the detriment of family and other business."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was the first candidate out of the gate announcing an exploratory committee for governor last July.

And he's the first candidate out of the gate announcing his fundraising totals.

Newsom told supporters late Tuesday that he had raised just shy of $1.2 million in the second half of 2008 from "more than 1,000" contributors.

Newsom touted that two-thirds of the donations were collected online.

Attorney General Jerry Brown has not filed a full report for the second half of 2008, but initial filings (showing only donations of $5,000 or more) have him collecting more than $2 million. Brown also started on July 1 with $1.7 million in the bank, compared to Newsom starting from zero.

Brown has not declared for governor and has raised the money in his account for reelection as attorney general, though the funds are fully transferable.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi has reported raising more than $200,000 in large contributions in the second half of 2008.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa raised more than $2.7 million for his reelection campaign in the full calendar year 2008, as he cleared the field of any well-known and well-funded challengers.

The LAT and Daily News have more.

Villaraigosa could be reelected as early as March, should he avoid a runoff election. The mayor has not said he is interested in running for governor in 2010, but speculation has continued that he could run.

Photo: Gov. Schwarzenegger talks as San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom listens as the governor launches Bank on California, on Friday Dec. 12, 2008. Credit: Brian Baer/Sacramento Bee

As my colleague Jim Sanders wrote in today's Bee, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the state's lone GOP statewide officeholder besides Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has declined to implement the governor's furlough order, instead promising to permanently cut his budget by 10 percent.

That's roughly $13 million, his office said.

That means all seven statewide elected officials will not be furloughing their staff, which total roughly 10,000 state workers.

Here's how the number of employees is broken down, according to estimates provided by those offices:

Lieutenant Governor: 20 positions
Treasurer: 242 positions
Secretary of state: 450 positions, approximately
Insurance Commissioner: 1,300, approximately
Controller: 1,381 authorized positions
Superintendent of Public Instruction: 1,500, approximately
Attorney General: 5,300, approximately

The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, says that schools, colleges and bondholders will have first call on the state's money if its cash flow crisis hits home in a few weeks.

But Taylor says in a report on the looming cash flow crisis that even if the Legislature fails to reach agreement on closing the state's budget deficit, the cash crisis could be relieved with some emergency legislation to allow more internal borrowing of restricted funds.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders have been conducting closed-door negotiations this week on both the budget and the cash crisis, which are related but separate issues. Controller John Chiang has said that the state will be forced to curtail state disbursements sometime in February unless there's rapid action on the budget and/or cash flow-related legislation.

The administration has asked the Legislature to approve measures that would free up about $2 billion in restricted funds that could be borrowed by the state general fund and thus stave off the cash crunch. It's also said that rapid action on the budget would allow the state to defer more than $1 billion in payments to schools that otherwise would have to be made.

Taylor cautioned that the state has never faced a cash crisis like the one now looming. He said the state, in documents it produced when seeking private cash flow loans, has pledged that schools and colleges and bondholders would have first call on any available dollars if the state can't pay all its bills.

State officials have said that making bond payments to preserve the state's standing in the credit markets is a top priority.

Education Week magazine, in its annual state-by-state survey of public education, gives California an overall "C" grade, but the California Teachers Association is jumping on the state's "F" in school spending, which has dropped to 47th in the nation on a per-pupil basis.

"With the dismal budgets passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor in recent years, we are not surprised to learn that new figures released by Education Week...reveal that California's ranking has dropped another spot to 47th in the nation and lags the national average by nearly $2,400," CTA president David Sanchez said. He called it "appalling that the state with the eighth largest economy in the world would allow this to happen."

The Education Week data were released as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators wrestle with a budget deficit estimated at $40 billion over the next 18 months with schools the largest single item in the budget and the most contentious spending issue. Although Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders have agreed that school spending must be cut, they disagree on the extent and form of the reductions.

Although California received an "F" in school spending, its overall grade on education finance was a "C" due to its "A-minus" rating for equity of finances. The only other area in which it scored in the top ranks was in setting and enforcing academic standards, another "A-minus."

The full California summary is available here.

Little budget news emerged from Tuesday's Big 5 meeting.

And one day before his annual State of the State address, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has no planned public events.

But union groups and others have organized a "State of the People" for this morning, to be delivered on the south steps of the Capitol at 11 a.m.

They'll be lamenting the impact of further budget cuts, particularly in the state's social services safety net.

Representatives of the Association of California State Supervisors will also be on the south steps today. That's the state worker group that urged the Legislature on Tuesday to begin impeachment hearings over Schwarzenegger's furlough plan.

Because that CCPOA recall effort worked wonders...

The Legislative Analyst's Office will release a new report on California's Cash Flow Crisis. You know, like how the state could start issuing IOUs in less than three weeks.

The LAO report, to be released at 1 p.m., will outline how the state's cash flow work, how things have fallen apart and how the cash crunch could affect Californians.

In more budget-related news, Education Week magazine, in its annual state-by-state survey of public education, gave California an overall "C" grade.

But, Dan Walters reports, the California Teachers Association is jumping on the state's "F" in school spending, which has dropped to 47th in the nation on a per-pupil basis.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg named the full roster of committee members in all the upper house's committees on Tuesday.

Steinberg had announced all but two of the standing policy committee chairmanships in early December.

On Tuesday. Steinberg officially named the chairs of the final two policy panels, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, both of which were chaired by Republicans in the last session.

The Ag committee will flip parties, as Sen. Dean Florez, Steinberg's No. 2 as majority leader, will take the gavel.

Florez, who represents the Central Valley, can use the perch to legislate on agricultural issues and as a bully pulpit as he runs for lieutenant governor in 2010.

Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado had chaired the committee. Maldonado charged that his removal was because "I've been criticizing (the leadership) for refusing to get rid of per diem."

"It is sad to see the legislative leaders behaving so immaturely, but sadly this is not all that unusual in Sacramento. It is this type of childish behavior that tarnishes the reputation of the State Legislature. Regardless of this punishment, I refuse to stop standing up for the rights of taxpaying Californians. I will not be intimidated into silence," Maldonado said in a press release.

Alicia Trost, a Steinberg spokeswoman, said there was "absolutely no fallout" due to Maldonado's per diem criticism.

"We just felt that Sen. Florez was the right man for the position with where we were taking the committee," Trost said.

GOP Sen. Mark Wyland had chaired the veterans panel last session. That chairmanship now goes to Republican Sen. Jeff Denham. GOP Sen. Mimi Walters will chair the Ethics Committee.

See the full list of assignments after the jump:

Neither the Assembly nor the Senate is imposing the mandatory employee furloughs required of most other state workers, but both legislative houses announced plans to cut spending Tuesday.

The Assembly will trim its budget by 10 percent this year, transferring about $15.1 million to some of the state's most underfunded programs, including fire protection, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said in a written statement.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg proposed that a voluntary furlough program be created for Senate employees rather than the mandatory two unpaid days monthly imposed on most state workers by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Steinberg, in a written statement, said he also will ask the Senate Rules Committee to reduce spending and to cut staff, the latter by an unspecified goal to be attained by the end of 2009.

The belt-tightening responds to a projected state budget shortfall of about $40 billion over 18 months.

"During these difficult economic times, spending reductions must be shared by everyone," Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, said in a prepared statement.

Steinberg's announcement about a voluntary furlough program follows decisions by all six Democrats holding key statewide offices, from controller to attorney general, not to impose the governor's mandatory program.

A coalition of labor unions announced Tuesday that it will file amicus briefs to urge the California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned gay marriage in the state.

More than 50 labor unions signed onto the brief including some of California's most influential labor groups. Among them: the California Labor Federation, SEIU California State Council, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, the California Faculty Association, UNITE HERE! and the Screen Actors Guild.

Combined, the labor organizations say they represent 2 million California workers.

In the brief, the unions argue that Proposition 8 is invalid because it is not a "constitutional amendment," but a "constitutional revision." A revision requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to get on the ballot, where an amendment can qualify through the collection of signatures, as Proposition 8 did.

The revision vs. amendment legal argue is the key to the No on 8 campaign's effort to overturn the measure, which 52.3 percent of voters supported.

"If a simple majority of voters can take away one fundamental right, it can take away another," the unions argue in the brief. "If it can deprive one class of citizens of their rights, it can deprive another class too. Today it is gays and lesbians who are singled out. Tomorrow it could be trade unionists."

The Yes on 8 campaign has said the courts should not overturn the will of the people.

After the jump is the list of unions signing the brief:

The California Budget Project, which offers left-leaning analysis of California's budget, has a new blog dedicated to tracking all things California fiscal.

The new blog is called California Budget Bites.

Danny Gilmore was the only Republican to win a previously Democratic-held seat in the entire state Legislature in 2008.

His reward: he's been placed in the "doghouse."

Gilmore, R-Bakersfield, has landed in the 391-square foot office in the Capitol usually reserved for those at odds with the Assembly speaker. (Hat tip: CMR)

While Democrats picked up four GOP-held seats last November, Gilmore blunted Republican losses by winning the seat of termed-out Democratic Assemblywoman Nicole Parra.

Gilmore won 50.8 percent of the vote, besting Fran Florez, a Shafter City Council member, by roughly 1,300 votes. Florez has said she will run again in 2010, in what's expected to be one of the state's top races.

The Bakersfield Californian reports Gilmore not only is in the "doghouse," but he's been denied a district office in the city of Bakersfield.

Assembly Administrator Jon Waldie said it was because of money.

"(Gilmore) made a decision to take the primary district office and move it to Hanford, that obviously costs some money," Waldie said. "She'll certainly consider re-establishing the Bakersfield office as the economy brightens."

"We're not going to stand for that," Gilmore said, promising to make a new request.

The latest take from Bee cartoonist Rex Babin:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders met Monday to talk budget. Legislative leaders emerged and called the talks "productive."

For whatever that's worth.

And how's this for a telling budgetary juxtaposition.

Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's director of finance, will headline a lunch event today for the California Chamber of Commerce, the state's business lobby.

Genest will be speaking on the topic of "California's Budget -- on the Brink?" in the second half of the noon hour.

Only blocks away -- at almost the exact same time -- Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg will be giving the keynote address to the California Working Families Policy Summit, an event organized by advocates dedicated to strengthening the state's social services safety net.

Steinberg, meanwhile, is renaming and rejiggering the Senate Agricultural panel, making it the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee, to be chaired by Steinberg's No. 2, Sen. Dean Florez.

Steinberg and Florez have an 11:30 a.m. event today to announce the change, but Florez's office let the cat out of the bag with a press release late Monday.

The Ag committee had been one of only two panels in the upper house chaired by a Republican last session (GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado had wielded the gavel). Now, GOP senators will be down to one (Veterans Affairs), at best.

And the good news today for state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell is he will be on CNN for two eight-minute segments this morning.

He'll be talking about the challenges President-elect Barack Obama will face, along with former U.S. Department of Education Secretary Rod Paige and a national Teacher of the Year winner.

The bad news: O'Connell will be airing at 4:24 a.m. and 5:24 a.m. West Coast time.

The "Rose Man" got his due today from the California Senate.

The upper house adjourned in memory of Mayrant "Mac" McKeown, a Long Beach resident who died recently in his 80s -- two years after receiving honors seldom accorded even the state's richest or most powerful.

McKeown was nicknamed the "Rose Man" for his tradition of giving each female legislator a monthly rose without asking anything in return, year after year, from 1978 until 2003.

For his simple act of kindness, McKeown was memorialized in a Capitol ceremony in 2007 that was attended by more than a dozen female legislators, past and present.

McKeown, who attended the ceremony with a red rose pinned to his black suit, was honored with a plaque on the Capitol grounds, a letter from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a framed resolution from Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

A former Cerritos city manager, McKeown also was known for treating female legislators to an annual meal at Frank Fat's, where he would give them a token of appreciation -- an album with their photo in it, for example.

"It was just extraordinary that somebody cared enough about us to come back every month, but never asked for anything -- not even a 'thank you,' " former Republican Assemblywoman Lynne Leach of Walnut Creek said at the 2007 ceremony.

"His was a voice that said women not only had a right to be here, but we improved things when we were here," former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said at the Capitol ceremony. "That's a message we don't hear too often. And we really appreciated it."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg named recently termed-out Sen. Mike Machado to a seat on the board of directors of the State Compensation Insurance Fund on Monday.

Machado, a Democrat from Linden, will earn $50,000 per year in the job, plus travel expenses for the job.

State Fund, as it's known, is a semi-public agency that provides workers compensation insurance to California employers.

All six of California's statewide elected Democrats have opted out of participating in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order to furlough state workers for two unpaid days each month.

In messages sent to their staff members and letters sent to Schwarzenegger's Department of Personnel, the Democratic officals argued that the furloughs are "unfair," in the words of Secretary of State Debra Bowen and "would impose such a hardship on the backs of our employees," according to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

Schwarzenegger's executive order -- which applies to most state workers -- cannot be mandated on the offices of California's other statewide elected officials.

"It's their decision," said Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear. "It's our belief that state government should do everything it can to cut spending before asking the taxpayers to shoulder even more of the burden."

The six Democrats -- Bowen, Lockyer, state Controller John Chiang, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, Attorney General Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi -- have all declined to voluntarily implement the furloughs.

"While I fully understand the seriousness of the state's current budget crisis, I do not believe the burden to solve the crisis should fall so inequitably on the shoulders of state employees," O'Connell wrote in a letter sent today to Schwarzenegger's personnel department.

Darrel Ng, a spokesman for the lone statewide elected Republican, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, said Poizner believes the furloughs are "not discretionary" and will comply with the order.

But Schwarzenegger's own office has said the furloughs can't be mandated on other constitutional offices.

Last week, Schwarzenegger ordered state departments to shutter their doors on the first and third Fridays every month through June 2010, saving the state an estimated $1.3 billion over the next 18 months.

Three of the Democratic statewide officials have now said they will not abide by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order to furlough state workers twice a month.

Attorney General Jerry Brown will implement "alternative measures" to cut costs, according to a memo obtained by the State Worker blog.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer told the Schwarzenegger administration in a letter Friday that he won't furlough his staff.

"We believe that the governor has not established that he has the legal authority to impose furloughs and the related salary cuts on state employees," Lockyer wrote.

Lt. Gov. John Garamendi said in a statement today that he, too, won't furlough his staff.

"We have already cut the lieutenant governor's budget by 10 percent this year and we will cut another 10 percent this year. We are public servants for the people of California so we will not be furloughing our staff," Garamendi said in a prepared statement.

The offices of state's constitutional officers (Brown, Lockyer, Garamendi, state Controller John Chiang, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell) do not fall under the governor's authority to force furloughs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that California has now fitted each of the state's 6,622 paroled sex offenders wtih an ankle bracelet that transmits their location via GPS.

The ankle GPS units were mandated by Jessica's Law, a 2006 ballot measure the governor supported. Schwarzenegger's office said Monday the ankle fittings were completed six months ahead of schedule.

"Having a GPS device on every sex offender parolee in California is an important public safety tool that will hold these individuals accountable for their actions and whereabouts," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "Protecting our children and families from sexual predators is a priority, and with a GPS device on every sex offender on parole and parole agents monitoring these offenders aggressively, we will make our communities safer."

Former Assemblyman Ray Haynes, who termed out of office in 2006, describes why Republicans are unlikely to budge on their no-new-taxes pledge in a post on the FlashReport, a conservative Web site.

The Governor and the Democrats were asking Republicans to betray a key principle of a key constituency and get nothing in return. The result to any Republican who voted for that tax increase would be the end of their political career. I know, because, I said, I would do everything in my power to make sure of it for anyone who voted for that tax increase, and I know there are a lot of Republicans who think like me.

Haynes makes no mention in his post of how to close the roughly $40 billion budget gap, or the impending Feb. 1 deadline, when California is expected to begin issuing IOUs. But he does lay out the political case for Republicans to lay off new taxes.

"Democrats are asking Republicans to end their political lives, but are not willing to end their own. Democrat constituency groups are asking Republican constituency groups to sell out their core principles, but are not willing to sell out any of their own," Haynes explains.

Democrats have countered that they didn't come to Sacramento to make deep cuts. But Haynes argues a better equivalent to getting Republicans to raise taxes would be getting Democrats to end collective bargaining.

More from Haynes:

Democrats and their constituency groups have already made it clear that they are giving up nothing for ending your political career. You had better get a lot personally for it, because once it is done, and you are out of office, they will forget you ever existed. Just ask Mike Briggs, Brian Setencich, Anthony Pescetti, Dave Kelley, Paul Horcher, and Dick Dickerson. They gave the Democrats what they wanted, and they are now enjoying their time in the private sector. You will too.

Last week, we reported that Gary Jeandron, the 2008 GOP nominee in AD 80, had filed paperwork to make another run at the seat in 2010.

Turns out, Jeandron says the paperwork is, well, just paperwork. From the Desert Sun:

"It was a clerical issue," Jeandron said of the filing with the secretary of state. "I am not announcing anything."

...
"I'm not saying absolutely that I am not going to run," Jeandron said. "As of right now, I am not running a campaign."

Here's Bee cartoonist Rex Babin's latest take:

Meanwhile, Babin's colleagues on the editorial board have launched a series of editorials on the "various interest groups whose demands have contributed to the deadlock over California's budget crisis."

The introduction ran Sunday. Today's take is on the business lobby. Tomorrow it's the California Teachers Association.

Another Monday.

Another Big 5 meeting planned today.

And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set his State of the State address for Thursday morning.

No shortage of stuff to talk about. To recap last week's State of the State news:

Monday, Jan. 5: Legislators opened the budget special session, and legislative leaders spoke with the governor by phone.

Tuesday, Jan. 6: Republican legislators and anti-tax groups filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Democrats' deficit reduction plan passed last month. With negotiations stalled, Democratic legislative leaders finally sent the governor their plan. He vetoed it.

Wednesday, Jan. 7: The governor said negotiations should now focus on the plan he unveiled on New Year's Eve. A state appeals court tossed out Tuesday's lawsuit.

Thursday, Jan. 8: There was a Big 5 meeting. It didn't last long. Meanwhile, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor recommended that lawmakers schedule a special election as soon as April to ask voters to weigh in on tax hikes and other deficit-closing measures.

Friday, Jan. 9: The Schwarzenegger administration ordered California government to close most state offices on the first and third Fridays each month starting in February. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said his office would not participate.

Three more days until Thursday. Around here, a lot could happen.

With the withdrawal of his last remaining major opponent, former Senate leader John Burton is the overwhelming favorite to become the next chairman of the California Democratic Party.

Burton, a San Francisco Democrat and long-time political fixture, entered the race late last year. His entrance has nudged out the two other main contenders, Alex Rooker, a vice-chair of the party who withdrew today, and Eric Bauman, who is the chair of the Los Angeles Democratic Party.

Rooker has opted to run for re-election as a vice-chair and Bauman is running for the second vice-chair slot.

Rooker said in an e-mail to her supporters Friday that from "watching the Burton campaign closely ... the consistency of his message and the sincerity he displays have convinced me that he has come to share our goals and understands the needs that we face as an organization."

Watching the Burton candidacy closely also means Rooker saw the former Senate president pro tem racking up endorsements from all the big Democratic interests -- SEIU, consumer attorneys, the labor federation and unions representing nurses, teachers and firefighters.

Top Democratic officials -- from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Barbara Boxer to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Senate leader Darrell Steinberg -- had also thrown their support Burton's way.

If elected, Burton would take over the state Democratic Party in April. He would replace former Sen. Art Torres, who has been at the helm of the state party since 1996. Torres has been nominated by a trio of statewide Democrats to be the next vice-chairman of California's stem-cell agency.

Burton, 76, is one of the more colorful characters in California politics. Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, he's a former member of the state Assembly, state Senate and Congress.

"Politics is what I enjoy and what I do well," Burton said in a December interview with Capitol Alert.

*CORRECTION: The original version of this post incorrectly said Burton was 68, not 76.

California will close most state offices on the first and third Fridays each month starting on Feb. 6, according to a state Department of Personnel Administration memo.

Only offices deemed critical, such as state hospitals and prisons, will be exempt.

Kevin Yamamura has the story over at sacbee.com.

Assemblyman Tom Torlakson is getting hitched, so says the Contra Costa Times.

Where did they find out? Facebook, of course.

The Antioch Democrat's other interests listed on Facebook include, "Health and Fitness, Running, Bicycling, Triathlons, Reading."

Torlakson, 49, was previously married and recently became engaged to Mae Cendaña, a member of the Ambrose Park and Recreation District in Bay Point. And, yes, Torlakson endorsed her for that seat.

Last week, Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who represents the same area, announced her engagement.

Must be something in the Contra Costa County air.

Is the Capitol going to the dogs?

Don't ask, it's not public information.

Apparently.

When Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada announced this week that a Capitol identification card has been issued to Hilly, a guide dog for a newly hired blind employee, The Bee left a phone message asking officials:

Does that mark an Assembly first?

Days later came an official, written reply signed by Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer for the Assembly.

"We are construing your request to be made under the Legislative Open Records Act," his letter read.

"We believe that the disclosure of the names of Assembly staff who are blind and whether they use seeing-eye dogs is a request for personnel, medical or similar files and results in an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

But only if the answer to the question is no, yes?

California, with its huge immigrant population, has the lowest adult literacy of any state, according to a new U.S. Department of Education study, and it's 50 percent worse than it was a decade earlier.

The report is extrapolated from a 2003 national survey testing adults' ability to comprehend a simple bloc of English text. The survey found that 23 percent of adult Californians could not pass that test, up from 15 percent in a 1992 survey.

New York was just one percentage point lower than California, while other states ranged downward to the 6-7 percent level.

Not surprisingly, California counties with high proportions of foreign-born or first-generation farm workers had the state's highest levels of adult illiteracy in the survey, topped by 41 percent in poverty-stricken Imperial County. Conversely, high-income and mostly white suburban counties had the lowest rates with Marin, Nevada, El Dorado and Placer the lowest at 7 percent, just about the rate of the nation's most literate states.

Sacramento County's rate came in at 13 percent.

The full report from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy is available here and California's county-by-county chart can be found here.

A day after shrinking, the race for CD 32 is growing again.

Board of Equalization member Judy Chu was set to face Sen. Gil Cedillo, but Emanuel Pleitez, who touts himself as a member of the President-elect Barack Obama's transition team for the Treasury Department, will announce his own candidacy on Saturday.

Pleitez's nascent campaign reports he grew up in the East Los Angeles, graduated from Stanford and worked in the office of then-Ciy Council member Antonio Villaraigosa. He's worked in as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He doesn't appear to have held prior elective office.

Calitics.com first speculated about a Pleitez candidacy last week, with this analysis, "It seems unlikely that he'll be able to provide a substantial challenge to the heavyweight-laden field that the CA-32 special is likely to produce, including Judy Chu, Gil Cedillo and Gloria Romero."

Romero has since dropped out.

The San Francisco Chronicle today pulls up an interesting factoid: Before Attorney General Jerry Brown became a staunch gay marriage advocate, he actually signed into law the first ban on same-sex marriage back during his initial stint as governor in the late 1970s.

By Steve Wiegand

Golden State golfers are mobilizing to fight the governor's proposal to slap the state sales tax on the game/sport/religion. The California Alliance for Golf, which represents the industry, has hired the veteran lobbying outfit Read and Associates and the big PR firm Porter Novelli to help wage their war. A new Web site is being launched, replete with a way to send protest messages to the guv and legislators.

Lest this sound trivial, the alliance points out on its own Web site that golf ($6.9 billion) contributes more annually to the state's economy than the biotech industry ($4.6 billion). But they admit that it's still less than wine ($8.2 billion).

The governor's furlough plan heads to court today.

A lawsuit filed by the Professional Engineers in California Government and the California Association of Professional Scientists seeks to block Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order, arguing he needs legislative approval to force furloughs.

Under Schwarzenegger's order, state workers would be forced to take twice-monthly unpaid furloughs beginning Feb. 1.

At first, it appeared the suit would be delayed as the Schwarzenegger administration argued that Judge Lloyd Connelly could not give the case a fair hearing. Yes, that's the same Lloyd Connelly who served as a Democratic member of the Assembly from the early 1980s to the 1990s.

Anyway, the administration won that argument, and the case will be heard by Judge Patrick Marlette today.

Schwarzenegger will also be submitting his full budget to the Legislature today, though the outline of the plan has already been made public.

And Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and other Democratic legislators hold a press conference this morning to announce legislative proposals they say will help draw federal dollars to aid unemployed Californians.

State Controller John Chiang released December's cash-flow figures late Thursday and said they were "in line" with expectations. The bad news: Expectations were for a "severe downward spiral."

"Without budget solutions from the governor and Legislature," Chiang warned, "the state could be reduced to extreme measures that prolong the current recession, devastate local governments, and place an even greater burden on California taxpayers."

Is that all?

And the economy may be deep in recession, the state budget bleeding red, but fundraising invitations continue to hit lobbyist inboxes.

This week, invitations to the Speaker's Cup, the annual Democratic confab at Pebble Peach, arrived.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is the fundraiser-in-chief for the event, where proceeds pad the Democratic Party coffers.

It's a pricey affair, with the cheapest (we use the word loosely) package listed at $20,000. That "bronze" package includes one round of golf, one night in the hotel and dinner for two on Saturday. And some commemorative trinkets.

The "ultimate" package runs a donor $60,000, which includes golf for four on Friday and Saturday, four hotel rooms for the two nights, dinner for eight on Friday and Saturday and a spa treatment per day for every non-golfer in the group.

But don't accuse the Democrats of turning a complete blind eye to current economic woes.

Speaker's Cup packages are on sale -- at least compared to last year, when "ultimate" packages ran for $70,000.

That's a 15 percent savings -- with all the same guaranteed access.

Photo: Tiger Woods hits a shot from the 9th fairway with a view of Ocean Beach ahead Thursday June 15, 2000, at Pebble Beach Golf Links during the first day of the U.S Open. Woods finished with a 6-under-par 66. Credit: The Sacramento Bee / Randy Pench

Sen. Gloria Romero has dropped out of the running to replace Rep. Hilda Solis in Congress, the Los Angeles Democrat announced late Thursday, throwing her support to fellow Latino candidate Sen. Gil Cedillo.

"I would have been a formidable and winning candidate and a champion for the people in the next Congress," Romero said in a statement. But "I have evaluated the wonderful opportunities before me and have chosen to listen to my heart."

Romero said she will run, as previously expected, for the post of state superintendent of public instruction in 2010.

"My passion is education. I understand that education is the civil rights issue of our time -- the great equalizer in America. My commitment -- particularly now as the Chair of both the powerful Senate Education Committee and Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education -- is to lead the Senate's effort to transform and hold accountable our state's public education system," Romero said.

The jockeying for Solis' seat began after she was tapped by President-elect Barack Obama to be his first labor secretary. Solis still remains a member of Congress and the field of candidates to replace her remains fluid.

Romero threw her support behind Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, on Thursday.

The move came one day after Politico.com ran a story that began, "A splintered field of Latino candidates could lead to the election of an Asian-American in Southern California's majority-­Hispanic 32nd District."

The center of that story was Board of Equalization member Judy Chu, also a Democrat, and a former member of the Assembly. She has been corralling endorsements herself, announcing the recent support of Assemblymen Kevin de León and Ed Hernandez.

One of the Calderon brothers -- either Ron, a state senator, or Charles, an assemblyman -- could still jump into the race. Calitics.com has speculated that another candidate, Emanuel Pleitez, could jump into the race.

The last we heard from Romero, she was brimming with confidence. From a Dec. 19 report:

While Cedillo was expressing his interest Thursday to reporters on the floor of the Senate, Romero wandered by and said she was "definitely" looking at jumping into the race.

Told that in addition to Cedillo, the Calderon brothers -- Assemblyman Charles and state Sen. Ron -- could be contenders, Romero declared, "I can beat them all" -- and walked off.

Now, she'll likely face Assemblyman Tom Torlakson in the Democratic primary for schools chief in 2010.

The state controller has stopped making payments to contractors. Heal the Bay says the toxicity of wastewater being released is too high. Lt. Gov. John Garamendi wants UC Merced to grant medical degrees in five years. Backers of Proposition 8 want California's campaign disclosure laws overturned. And more.

When former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez was termed out of office recently, lawmakers made sure he wouldn't have to "run" for anything ever again -- they bought him a $5,100 bicycle.

Forty-nine Assembly members chipped in $100 apiece for the going-away gift to the Los Angeles Democrat. The only lawmaker to contribute more was a Republican, Mike Duvall, who gave $200, records show.

Two lawmakers who angered Núñez during his stint as speaker, and quickly were ordered into the Assembly's "doghouse" - a tiny fifth-floor office - did not contribute to Núñez's gift.

The two, Democrat Juan Arambula of Fresno and Republican Todd Spitzer of Orange, were among 30 Assembly members who did not help buy the bicycle presented to Núñez on Oct. 29.

Núñez, now a partner in Mercury Public Affairs, reported receiving the fancy bike on statements of economic interest that outgoing lawmakers filed recently with the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Other disclosures included:

• With gasoline prices hovering near $4 a gallon, Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi, R-Lodi, dug deep to buy Chevron stock. The state required Nakanishi only to disclose that he spent between $10,000 and $100,000 on Sept. 18. Gasoline prices subsequently plummeted, but have creeped up recent weeks.

• Spitzer, an attorney, supplemented his $116,208 salary as a lame duck legislator in 2008 by drawing a salary of more than $100,000 from Adorno, Yoss, Alvarado & Smith, a Santa Ana law firm. He also won a motorcycle valued at more than $10,000 in a Habitat for Humanity raffle.

• Assemblyman Lloyd Levine disclosed his marriage to KCRA-TV anchor Edie Lambert -- as well as her six-figure salary. The Van Nuys Democrat also reported that a Las Vegas nonprofit group, Hayden Scholarship Foundation, picked up his $8,000 tab for speaking to gambling executives about intrastate legalization of poker at a world conference Oct. 27-31.

• Where to go after leaving the Legislature? Disneyland, of course. Outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata reported receiving $276 in Disneyland tickets on Nov. 30, the final day of last year's legislative session.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office has released its first blush report on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to close California's roughly $40 billion budget gap, saying the plan is "generally is built upon reasonable numbers."

"The Governor's budget framework makes a good faith effort to close a colossal budget gap," the LAO reports.

Pitfalls, however, remain, as the governor's plan to bridge the budget shortfall with borrowing "comes with major uncertainty" as the economic "outlook turns darker."

The LAO also recommends pushing forward plans for a June 2009 special election to approve borrowing against the future proceeds of the reworked lottery. "The Legislature should consider accelerating the election to earlier in the spring to provide more time to develop alternatives in case some measures are defeated," the LAO says.

But moving forward that election could prove politically difficult as the governor and legislative Republicans have proposed other deficit-reducing plans -- such as taking pre-approved funds from Proposition 63, the mental health measure, and Proposition 10, the children's health measure -- that would require voter approval.

You can read the report for yourself here.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg wants to limit the amount of legislation members can introduce in 2009 in an effort to keep lawmakers focused on the state's budget.

Steinberg, in an interview with The Bee Capitol Bureau, said Wednesday that the plan is not final, though he has discussed the idea with members of his caucus.

"The only small hesitation is that I want to talk to the speaker about it to make sure that there's some parity as the bills crossover," the Sacramento Democrat said. "But it's our intention to lower the limit."

Bass hasn't signed on just yet.

"Speaker Karen Bass has been very clear that solving California's fiscal crisis is her top priority," said Bass spokeswoman Shannon Murphy in an e-mailed statement. "We have the same bill limits that we have had for the last (two to three legislative) sessions. Our members understand the scope of the fiscal crisis and we don't feel it is necessary to change the Assembly rules."

Steinberg said he hopes to cap the number of bills members can introduce at 15 in 2009. Currently there is no limit in either house on the number of bills a lawmaker can introduce in a single year. The Senate limits members to 50 bills over the two-year session, while the two-year limit in the Assembly stands at 40.