The Washington Post did an investigation into some of the real estate sales made by members of Congress.  The targets in this article are Ken Calvert (R, CA-44), Gary Miller(R, CA-42) and Denny Hastert.  Calvert first:

Last year, Calvert, the California Republican congressman, and a business partner bought a four-acre parcel near the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, Calif., for $550,000. He then secured $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away, an additional $1.5 million to support commercial development around the airfield, and sold the property less than a year later for almost $1 million.(WaPo 6/22)

Wow, that’s a pretty sweet deal.  He makes almost a half of a million buck just for slipping in a few earmarks.  Miller’s story is pretty much the same:

Miller, the other California Republican, helped secure $1.28 million in last year’s highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development in Diamond Bar, Calif., that he co-owns with a top campaign contributor.

Ho-hum, Ho-hum, what’s a few million amongst great friends, especially when it’s taxpayer money.  Good Work guys, you are the best taxpayer-fleecing Reps since, well, uh, Duke Cunningham.

The San Francisco Health Access Plan has gotten a bunch of national attention in the last few days.  Newsom doesn’t support the current plan that Ammiano proposed, but he supports the concept in general.  I suppose he wants to work on the business aspect of it.

One day after announcing the proposal that would make San Francisco the first U.S. city to provide access to taxpayer-subsidized health care for every uninsured resident, Newsom pitched his ambitious plan during local radio and newspaper interviews — knowing that the question of who should be required to pay for it is already generating controversy. … The proposal would cost about $200 million annually, with more the half the money coming from city funds, about $38 million from local business contributions, and the remainder from monthly premiums paid by plan participants.

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Newsom, who owned numerous local businesses before taking office in 2004, said he provided health insurance to his employees. He said he does not support Ammiano’s legislation in its current form, but he nonetheless challenged the business community — known for being strong mayoral allies — and employers who do not provide health care to “step up.”
***
“We have been at every public hearing saying one thing: affordability, affordability, affordability,” Kevin Westlye, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, told the supervisors. “It needs to be affordable. The way it’s constructed, it’s not.” Westlye sat on a 41-member task force created by Newsom to study and develop the health care plan. (SF Chron 6/22/06)

So, I suppose that this is going to come down to a “progressives vs. businesses” thing like most other big efforts in SF.  However, with the Mayor’s support, I imagine that this one will happen.  Funding seems in flux, and the exact parameters of the deal are a little sketchy right now.  But, as I understand it, SF is essentially getting into the HMO business.  They will provide orimary care providers and allow preventive care.  However, the program participants will have no benefits outside of the county. 

I think this is a great idea, at least as an experiment.  We spend so much money on ER care that is essentially unnecessary.  There is a reason that the U.S. gets the least value of our health care dollar of any major industrial nation.  After the fact that we spend $0.35 of each dollar on the insurance complex, there is the fact that we spend way too much on emergency care.  It’s expensive and many of the cases could be handled a lot more efficiently in regular clinics.

So, there are details to work out, but I applaud SF for this grand gesture.  We’ll see how it works in the next few years.

From SFGate Politics Blog:

Villaraigosa, a former speaker of the state Assembly and a likely candidate for governor in the near future, won compromise on proposed legislation that would give new autonomy to the superintendent of the Los Angeles United Schools District from the school board but at the same time, give the mayor a central role in choosing the superintendent.

While some have criticized the move as a power grab intent on enhancing the mayor’s standing on education issues, Villaraigosa told reporters that he wanted the chance to help improve test scores in poor performing schools.

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But the deal also makes the mayor accountable for classroom performance of the 730,000-student system, which now has a dropout rate close to 50 percent. Villaraigosa, who came from a hardscrabble neighborhood of Los Angeles, said students in the low-performing schools deserved better. (SFGate Politcs Blog 6/21/06)

I’ve not yet seen the full agreement, but I think it’s a big risk that Villaraigosa is taking.  LA Schools are not traditionally the building grounds for a great political career.  But, if he is able to have any measure of success it will be a boon to his political future.

S-USA approval numbers are our (Thanks Julia) Arnold’s numbers are again slightly up.  The meme in the GOP circles is that he has the big mo’ (and that he’s a fun guy).  Well, don’t believe the hype, it’s hardly a dramatic shift for him.

All Adults
Approve 39% (36)
Disapprove 58% (61)
Not Sure 3% (4)

The SUSA Poll provides extensive free crosstabs, for which Juliahas done an excellent job pointing out some important ones.  Most importantly, it’s interesting to note that almost all of his gains are amongst Republicans, where his approval went from 57 to 75.  That’s a huge shift, but it doesn’t really tell us much about the race itself.  The Republicans of the state were likely going to vote for him whether or not they said they approved.  Independents ticked up a bit (42 from 38) and Dems went down (18 from 22).  I don’t think anything in this poll has changed my mind that the election will end up being a close race.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Phil Angelides, Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-04, CA-11, CA-50, Paid-For Pombo, 15% Doolittle, Jerry Lewis, David Dreier, Brian Bilbray, corruption, immigration, minimum wage, reform.

Governor’s Race

• The California Democratic Party blog actually has some California content — it’s largely themes that regular readers here and and Alliance for a Better California will have seen already, but I’m stoked to see it nonetheless.
• In that vein: Arnold Still Doesn’t Get It.
• Swing State Project bemoans Villaraigosa’s blackmail effort / power play / whatever. MyDD has more here.
• Frank Russo is not impressed with Schwarzenegger’s new official Governor’s web page, the redesign of which has absolutely nothing to do with the start of the general election campaign.
• An Old Soul has got the AP’s fisking of Schwarzenegger’s most recent ads and Steve Schmidt’s “defense”. Republican talking points never die, no matter how false they are — they just get recycled with the prefixes “some say”, or “everyone thinks”.
• Julia wasn’t too impressed with the Governor’s recent “Ask Arnold” appearance.
• Voting for the best drinking buddy… Does anyone actually hire based on this model? No? Why would we hire a governor using those criteria?
• Money has no provenance, at least not if you’re Arnold Schwarzenegger.