Cut Spending In GOP Districts? Maybe It’s Good Policy
By Peter Schrag
Could hitting Republican districts with the lion’s share of the steep spending reductions required by an all-cuts California budget be good policy, regardless of the politics?
Two leading Democrats, Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg have been threatening just that if Republicans don’t agree to put the tax extensions that Gov. Jerry Brown wants on the ballot.
“You don’t want to pay for government,” Steinberg said last week, “well then, you get less of it.” Lockyer’s been saying pretty much the same thing.
The obvious first question: are these serious ideas or just threats? And to what extent could the legislature’s Democratic majority do it even if they wanted to? But in some instances, targeting Republican districts might be good policy even if it’s not unequivocally good politics.
Immigrant Rights Supporters Refocus Struggle on Obama
By Liz Gonzalez
More than 300 people packed the Sacred Heart church in San Jose last Tuesday to hear Congressman Luis Gutierrez speak about immigration reform at a town hall meeting. The event was part of a 20-city tour being organized by the congressman from Illinois to energize and refocus immigrant rights supporters ahead of a national day of protests scheduled for Sunday, May 1.
Five years after immigrant rights advocates staged their first large-scale May Day protests, and with little
