If you read the front page, you’ve already seen the pictures from the Take Back CA Rally. It was fun, even if it was a touch behind schedule. Those poor staffers were getting a little antsy, I think, with Howard and Phil both wanting to stop and talk with anybody who cared to chat, despite the heat from the lighting and the sardine-packed crowd.
As a procedural note, I should confess that the datestamp doesn’t necessarily mean that everything I’m covering happened between the last update and the current one. I use Google News Alerts on a few keywords (like Angelides, Schwarzenegger, and “California Governor”), and trawl the blogs for other leads… I’ll be making an effort to focus on the freshest news, but sometimes an interesting item that’s a few days old will fall into my lap. Also, I seem to have to compete with all the other sharp eyes here at Calitics, so apologies if somebody else is already covering an issue in more detail, that happens to float through the gubernatorial campaign.
Actual news after the jump…
Phil has stated his support Assembly Bill 32, which commits California to reining in greenhouse gas emissions. The bill seeks to implement the recommendations of a panel Arnold created to investigate the issues of how CA would be affected by global warming, and what it could do, in an economically feasible way, to fight it. Now that the bill is on the table, Arnie’s business backers are balking, and he’s threatening to veto if the Dems don’t water down the bill. So much for being an environmentalist moderate.
Highlighting another aspect of his comprehensive good-government plans — campaign finance, redistricting, and now lobbying and private-sector vs public-sector employment issues — Phil rebuked Arnold for hiring his gubernatorial chief of staff, DINO Susan Kennedy, as a campaign consultant. Can we possibly believe that actions of our supposedly impartial, technocratic civil service are actually non-partisan, when they’re allowed to be on the payroll of a campaign?
Speaking of redistricting reform, following Phil’s recent endorsement of the idea, there seems to have been a sudden call to action on this issue — possibly the GOP is seeking to use the cover of a Democratic endorsement to try to sneak through another dirty version of redistricting, or possibly they’re willing to compromise on a fair version in order to get the issue off the table. The statements coming out suggest that some kind of alteration to the term-limits system might be wrapped up with redistricting reform. I could link to individual stories, but Frank Russo already has a great round-up. The Contra Costa Times offers a shorter summary of what’s going on — or at least, what’s publicly known thus far. I don’t much like their suggestion, though. I’d rather trust the redistricting process to be constrained by impartial mathematical rules — nesting districts, a limit on the number of “edges”, where edges are limited to long-standing political boundaries, continuous stretches of non-residential streets, bodies of water, etc — than by the goodwill of any set of people, even the CA Supreme Court. The plan Phil has endorsed would make big strides in the direction of removing the overbroad discretion that currently allows partisans (whether in the legislature or on an “independent” panel) to make mischief like they did in Texas.
Healthcare is continuing to show up in the news. Phil had recently announced a package of HMO reforms, to reduce the conflicts of interest where they use delays, hidden fees, and so on. And of course in almost every speech, Phil mentions that if elected, he would immediately move to cover all California children. In a bold move, Arnold called a summit — I guess to develop a plan that he can then water down or veto, just like on global warming issues? In the meantime, Democrats in the legislature are already moving on the issue. Yesterday’s news mentions SB 1414, which simply requires large employers to provide all their employees with healthcare.
More ambitious is SB 840, a universal, single-payer plan, using an 8% business payroll tax and a 3% personal income tax. Taking into consideration that salary offers are lower because businesses factor in benefit expectations, the total 11% cost sounds quite reasonable; and of course reduced admin costs both on the insurer side and the healthcare provider side (they don’t need a fulltime person to deal with the plethora of insurance forms!), and the increased power to bargain collectively with healthcare and drug providers, would reduce costs. Unfortunately, even if this makes it through the legislature, Arnie will almost certainly veto it.
Healthcare was discussed on one of the house party conference calls with Phil during the primary. He stated his firm support for universal healthcare, though he said he was not committed to any one particular method of getting there, expressing interest in the new Massachussets model (making health insurance a personal mandate, like car insurance, then providing a subsidy for those with low incomes), as well as mandatory employer coverage, and of course the possibility of straight single-payer.
Yet one more issue where Arnold is trying to make headlines, while Phil and other Democrats are trying to make good policy, is the prison crisis. Both candidates admit the need to reduce crowding. Arnold called a special session to introduce some fairly limited fixes. The prison guards’ contract expired over a month ago, and Arnie’s administration can’t seem to get a new one signed. Phil, on the other hand, released a real comprehensive package for prison reform over a month ago. As on so many issues, we have an Actor, and a Leader.