This is hot off the presses from the Secretary of State’s office.  The initiative is now cleared for signature gathering.  They need to collect 433,971 valid signatures by Feb 4th to get on the ballot.

I will have more on this later, but look at what Arnold said today.  Gah!  What the heck do we have to do to get the man to read it!!

“To me, what we have in place right now works … I feel like if you all the sudden in the middle of the game start changing the rules it’s kind of odd, it almost feels like a loser’s mentality, saying I cannot win with those rules, so let me change the rules. I have not made up my mind yet in one way or the other, because I haven’t seen the details on it but basically I would say there is something off with this whole idea,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said.

Heh.  Nehring says blah, blah, blah and Arnold calls it “a loser’s mentality”.

Presidential Electors Initiative Enters Circulation

Presidential Electors.  Political Party

Nomination and Election by Congressional District.  Statute.

SACRAMENTO – Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for his measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions.  When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State.  The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures.  The Attorney General’s official title and summary for this measure is as follows:

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS.  POLITICAL PARTY NOMINATION AND ELECTION BY CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.  STATUTE.  Requires California to join two other states in selecting electors for president by the plurality vote in each congressional district.  Provides for political party nomination of electors pledged to vote for that party’s candidate.  Independent electors to be chosen by independent presidential candidates and also elected by congressional district.  Two at-large electors to be selected based on plurality of statewide vote for president.  Mandates that electors vote for candidate for whom they are pledged.  Eliminates $10 compensation and 5 cents per mile reimbursement of electors.  Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government:  Reduced state expenses of less than $10,000 every four years.  (Initiative 07-0032.)

The Secretary of State’s tracking number for this measure is 1268 and the Attorney General’s tracking number is 07-0032.

The proponent for this measure, Thomas W. Hiltachk, must collect the signatures of 433,971 registered voters – the number equal to 5% of the total votes cast for governor in the 2006 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify the measure for the ballot.  The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for this measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by February 4, 2008.

I am crazy busy between all of the projects I am working on, but this is too amusing to me not to write up.  Fred Thompson has now hired both Todd Harris and Karen Hanretty for his now official, not illegal presidential run.  Those two were key consultants on Arnold’s disastrous 2005 special election.  It was his aides that convinced him that a bunch of power grab measures and attacking labor was a good idea.  Wrong.  Oh so wrong.

Arnold is doing much better since he dropped the DC Navigators crew.  Indeed his former re-elect staffers were snapped up by other campaigns, way before Frederick got Harris and Hanretty.  BTW, anything that Mike Murphy says about Thompson should be considered coming from the campaign.  Todd Harris is a principle at Murphy’s firm DC Navigators. 

I have two favorite moments of Harris during that campaign.  The first was when he brought a bunch of interns over to CTA’s offices in Sacramento to “protest”.  Needless to say, Republicans are terrible chanters.  The kind teachers were worried that the kids needed some sustenance, so they brought out some cookies and milk for them.  The chant leader told them to stay away, lest they create a nice photo-op, but Harris couldn’t help himself.  Here he is chewing away.

The second one was the time he was caught by Warren Beatty taking pictures of his wife Annette Benning at a campaign stop.  Benning and Beatty were on a bus tour for us and high-jinks ensued.  Heh even Nehring is mention in Carla Marninucci’s blog post:

The Academy Award-nominated actress won over legions of fans, even on the GOP side. Holding her husband’s hand, she posed for photos with union members, talked up the election, and remained serenely gorgeous throughout the day, even after she and Beatty became the target of some decidedly nasty personal attacks from state GOP vice chair Ron Nehring, who dismissed them as “over the hill” and “B” actors.

Beatty, in an affectionate nod to his wife, addressed the crowd in admiration, saying: “Give me liberty or give me .. Annette Bening!”

Even Schwarzenegger spokesman Todd Harris couldn’t resist, snapping some photos of her. That’s when Beatty strangled him in mock exasperation while pleading, “Todd, join us!”

Harris instead rushed back to combat duty — on the press bus.

I was amused to see Maviglio defending Schwarzenegger’s star power today in Carla’s article on the hires, oh and even Gary South shows up:

And Maviglio said Thompson doesn’t compare with the California governor when it comes to star power.

“Muttering a few lines at the end of a ‘Law & Order’ episode isn’t the same as a multimillion-dollar blockbuster,” Maviglio scoffed. “It doesn’t translate.”

Garry South, the sharp-tongued former strategist for Davis, said Thompson has other problems.

Harris and Hanretty are “both really worthy additions to the (Thompson) team,” South said. But … the candidate is “an empty vessel into which (the conservative right) are pouring all their hopes. Fred Thompson is no Ronald Reagan,” or even an Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“He’s not an upbeat individual. He comes off like a grouchy, grumpy old man … Can you see the words ‘shining city on a hill’ coming out of Fred Thompson’s mouth?”

How many CA hacks can I tie into this story? sheesh.