At The Top Of The Ticket…Our Ho-Hum Candidates
By Peter SchragLast week’s Field Poll numbers on the governor’s race reconfirms two things that should have been obvious for months: (1) The people who might be good enough to deal with California’s problems weren’t going to run -- and aren’t -- and (2) the voters are understandably ho-hum about the bunch that is running:
Some 60 percent of voters either have an unfavorable opinion (27 percent) or no opinion (33 percent) about Republican Meg Whitman; Democrat Jerry Brown is close behind with a ho hum score of 59 percent. Republican Steve Poizner, hanging on for dear life in the race for the GOP nomination, scores a whopping 84 percent on the negative-undecided scale.
Understandably, (1) and (2) are closely related. Unexciting and flawed candidates make for an unexcited electorate. But given the money already spent at this stage of the campaign and the huge questions the winner will confront, the size of the ennui factor
Texas Oil Companies and Biased Studies vs. California's Future
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By Robert CruickshankAs reported by Capitol Alert yesterday, Valero has donated $500,000 to the effort to suspend AB 32 and force California to stop doing anything about global warming:
Valero Services Inc. donated $500,000 to fuel a signature-gathering drive aimed at qualifying an initiative for the November ballot to suspend Assembly Bill 32, signed into law several years ago.
Much of the remaining $466,000 also has been donated by oil companies, documents show....
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association contributed $100,000 to the effort, as well as three other oil companies - Tesoro Cos., Tower Energy Group and World Oil Corp., according to the documents filed with the secretary of state.
Donating lesser amounts were Southern Counties Oil Co. -- doing business as Total Energy Products - $50,000; JACO Oil Co., $10,000; Lumber Association of California and Nevada political action committee, $5,000; and Roger Cohen, a retired physicist, $1,000.
This news comes on the heels of the Legislative Analyst's Office slamming the so-called Varshney Study, which Meg Whitman and other right-wingers have been using to claim AB 32 would somehow hurt jobs. The LAO called the study "unreliable" and "essentially useless", citing repeated instances of unsupportable biases in the estimates of AB 32's costs and understating of its benefits.
Are The Wheels Coming Off The Wagon Of The Effort To Repeal AB 32?
By Steve MaviglioYou've got to wonder why anyone would contribute to the initiative campaign to suspend AB 32 given the way this initiative has come out of the gate.
First, look at the polling. On the ballot title and summary, it gets only 37 percent. Since "Yes" campaigns are far more difficult to win (about 80 percent of them lose), conventional wisdom says you need to start out at 60 percent approval just to have a fighting chance. This isn't even close.
Then there are the internal squabbles. Ted Costa of the People's Advocate, one of the initiative's sponsors, came out loudly AGAINST the initiative last week, disgusted by the consultant-heavy campaign that he said undermines the integrity of the initiative process. Talk about a headache. Costa says he's going to continue to spill the beans about the inner-workings of the campaign, and hopes to sign the ballot argument against it.
