You may have noticed that I don’t always agree with Ron Calderon and his legislative priorities.  You know, killing bills that block the dumping of indigent hospital patients and releasing private prescription data to marketers just isn’t my thing.  But today he has a new honor, being named the Worst Legislator in California with his brother Asm. Charles Calderon.

Of course, Calderon isn’t the first to win this award from the LA Weekly, that honor goes to Felipe Fuentes for, well, being a California legislator.  The knock on Fuentes made last year could just as well have been made on almost every legislator in the Capitol.  The problem they pointed out with Fuentes was that he was “authoring” bills actually written by “sponsoring” interests.  Yes, Fuentes does that, and he might take the art to new levels, but he is hardly unique.  This is just part of the crazy, messed-up system we have in Sacramento. (Incidentally, if you’d like to learn just how messed up it is, Ray LeBov can teach you a lot in his Lobbying 101 class).

So, yes, “special interests” write most of our bills, and, yes, that is totally and completely messed up.  But, as for Fuentes, hate the game, don’t hate the player.  Well, maybe tell the player to knock it the hell off, and wait for him to get termed out.  And the Brothers Calderon’s “award” starts with a similar trope of bill “sponsors.”  But more importantly it moves on to how they have been key players on Team PayDayLoan:

The reward for Calderon has been significant. According to MAPLight, he received more in direct campaign contributions connected to the payday and title loans special-interest group – $31,450 – than any other member of the Assembly in the 2009-10 or 2010-11 sessions. In the state Senate, his brother Ron received the most from the payday group – $50,000.

The current $300 loans cost a fee of $45, the maximum allowed. But the fee is deducted from the loan, leaving the borrower just $255 – and beholden for $300. That must be repaid within two weeks. The average payday loan customer takes out seven such loans each year. …

Charles Calderon argues that the current $300 limit barely pays the bills. “There are people who think payday lenders are vultures,” he says. “I don’t think I’m in a position to decide what [people’s] reasons are for wanting these loans. I represent East L.A., and those people need that money when they need it, sometimes to save the family car. I grew up in East L.A. in a poor family. I know desperation. Desperate people do desperate things.”

The assemblyman bristles when he’s accused of taking money for his vote, or as payback for carrying a bill for special interests.

“I might take money from a bank or a union, and then two or three years down the road I vote on a bill affecting that bank or union – and I get criticized because they gave me money years before.”

Not always “two or three years” later. As MAPLight.org points out regarding his yes vote on AB 2774, the big sums appeared in Calderon’s campaign chest within days. (LA Weekly)

As Asm. Holly Mitchell (D-47th, SE LA) pointed out, these lenders are vultures who are preying on the vulnerable.  Making Californians more vulnerable is not the answer.

But that’s not all for the Brothers Calderon.  Today, the LA Times revealed the dirty work that the Calderons have been doing for their local water agency:

Central Basin has also paid Oldtimers’ board president, former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, more than $750,000 in consulting fees since 2004 for political and legislative advice.

Calderon’s two brothers, both state legislators, have defended the water district’s interests in Sacramento. In 2009, Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) helped thwart an audit of Central Basin’s books. This year, Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) proposed legislation that could reduce the fees Central Basin’s customers pay for groundwater.

Tom and Ron Calderon, as well as Central Basin officials and contractors, helped finance a recall effort in 2008 against two council members in the City of Commerce who were critics of the water district, records show. (LA Times

The Calderons are certainly not the only ones who will do you a favor for some campaign cash or a gig for their brother, but they certainly strike a stunning profile in the art.  Ron is termed out in 2014, Charles in 2012.  Although, I suppose it wouldn’t shock anybody to see Tom Calderon run for the Senate seat in 2014 so that they can continue their, umm, service to the people of California.

One of the issues with the so called “moderates” in the California Democratic party isn’t so much where they disagree on social issues, because that rarely comes up anymore.  It is where they are able to be swayed by, typically, large corporate interests to put the interests of the few over the interests of the many.  That’s really not being moderate, that’s something entirely different, that doesn’t serve constituents or the state in general.  If you have beliefs, fine, let’s talk about them.  But I’m not so sure the Calderons really want to have a very public debate about the finer points of payday loans or water policy vis a vis their consulting contracts.

Clearly the laws of the State of California leave gaping holes for dirty money to seep in, and much of it is completely legal while some others skirt the lines.  However, we needn’t strive to walk that line, but rather look for ways to cut dramatically back on this crap.  And perhaps some political dynasties, the state of California would be better doing without.

The Calderons are hardly the first, and they certainly won’t be the last.  However, we can hope that a little sunshine from organizations like MapLight can discourage the skeazier of these actions.

Antonio Villaraigosa actually needed some good news in the wake of the May Day incident and court setbacks on his school board plan.  The voters gave it to him yesterday; OK, not ALL of the voters, but enough (about 6.5%) to elect Tamar Galatzan and Richard Vladovic, making the majority of the school board friendly to the Mayor.  Villaraigosa certainly paid for this privilege, to the tune of several million dollars in campaign funds.  It was telling that Neal Kleiner, who wasn’t endorsed by UTLA, did much better than incumbent Jon Lauritzen, the recipient of millions from the union.  Expect to see some sort of mayoral takeover of the schools in the next several months (though it needs to comply with the recent court ruling).

In addition, Felipe Fuentes just crossed the line and won election to the Assembly in the 39th District, getting 50.86% when 50% + 1 was needed.  Fuentes replaces Richard Alarcon, who was elected in November and almost immediately left to run for City Council. 

The takeaway here is that it does put another Democrat in the Assembly for the looming budget battle, whereas if it went to runoff that would not have been likely.

This just in: Montanez and Fuentes are out in L.A. CD7, leaving the seat to Alarcon.

That is, former AD39 Assemblymember Cindy Montanez and Felipe Fuentes, former Chief of Staff to former Los Angeles City Councilman (and now SD20 Senator) Alex Padilla, have cleared the field in the ’07 special election for Padilla’s vacated council seat in CD7.  That leaves former SD20 Senator (and former CD7 Councilman — he’s back!) Richard Alarcon the last man standing (with the exception of longshot Monica Rodriguez, former aide to Mayor Riordan, but that contest is over before it’s even begun).

For the full, epic, convoluted history, refer to my earlier diary.

As I reported a few stories down on this page, the L.A. Times and the L.A. Weekly each publicly flogged Alarcon for making this bid.  But hey, it worked.  And for the record, Alarcon has a long, proud history of standing with working families, so the district will be well-served by their new (former) Councilman.

Best of luck to Cindy and Felipe, wherever they go next.  Perhaps to duke it out in AD39?  Let’s hope not.

Senator Richard Alarcon, who just won the 39th Assembly seat without contest two weeks ago, has made official his entry into the fight to represent L.A.’s District 7 in next year’s special election.  Alarcon will be duking it out with Felipe Fuentes and, presumably, Cindy Montanez (who has announced but not yet filed).

Let’s review the drama.

Once upon a time in the nineties, both Cindy Montanez and Alex Padilla enjoyed the mentorship of Richard Alarcon, a political fixture of the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

That was before Alarcon encouraged his wife to run against Padilla for the City Council seat Alarcon had vacated in order to move on to the Senate.  Padilla, who had managed the ’98 campaign that had delivered Alarcon his new Senate seat, was, understandably, peeved.

Padilla went on to win his City Council seat, and Alarcon went on to enjoy his two terms in the Senate.  Montanez, meanwhile, represented much of the same Northeast Valley constituency as Padilla and Alarcon in her role as Assemblymember for the 39th district.

Things looked cozy in the San Fernando Valley for a time, but term limits have a way of turning even the most carefully crafted political detente upside down.

Alarcon and Montanez made a pact to trade seats in 2006, when both would be termed out of their respective legislative chambers.  Logical enough, but what then of Alex Padilla?  With Villaraigosa — not exactly a chum of Padilla’s — running the city, marinating in City Council for the indefinite future was an unlikely prospect for a rising star like Alex.

Padilla disrupted the Alarcon-Montanez arrangement, by running for Alarcon’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat.  Then he disrupted it further, by winning.

On the evening of the June primary election when she conceded her defeat, Montanez, suddenly faced with a dearth of elective options, announced her intention to run for Padilla’s vacated Council seat.

Circumstances might have settled nicely at this point, with Padilla in the Senate, Alarcon in the Assembly, and Montanez a shoo-in for the Council, and with term limits in Sacramento years away.  But after such a nasty primary tangle for SD20, there was absolutely no love any longer lost between Padilla and Montanez, and Padilla was not about to stay neutral in any contest to succeed him.  Padilla’s Chief of Staff in the Council, Felipe Fuentes, filed papers for the upcoming special election.  The race was looking to be a match-up of Fuentes versus Montanez for the City Council seat vacated by Padilla and once occupied by Richard Alarcon.

But that wasn’t quite interesting enough.  Speculation abounded that Alarcon was not exactly satisfied with his fate for the next six years in the Assembly, and that his eyes were wandering in the direction of City Hall.  The question of what is so much more appealing about representing Council District 7, a seat Alarcon had already occupied in the ’90s, than Assembly District 39, will make for good political chatterboxing.  Regardless of his motivations, it’s now official: City Council District 7 will be the next clusterfucked battlefront in a long-standing and ever-more-complex squabble in the Valley among like-minded Democrats who once wore the same stripes.

And now there’s a brand new tidbit for political speculation: with the possibility of Alarcon going back to City Council, who’s starting to size up AD39?