I hate to interrupt the all budget all the time vibe we have going on here, but this was really too juicy to pass up. Yesterday, San Bernadino County Assessor Bill Postmus was arrested and charged with several felonies related to drug charges and possible money laundering. We’ll see more as the case proceeds, but it has become clear that at the very least, Bill Postmus is addicted to methamphetamines.
Postmus isn’t the first to become addicted to meth, and surely won’t be the last. Meth has ruined lives up and down the state. It has decimated rural populations where meth labs sprout up faster than they can be eliminated. Even after psueodephedrine, the main ingredient in the original form of Sudafed, was made a controlled substance, it is cheap and easy to manufacture. Well, an asterisk thrown in there on the easy part, because on occasion the meth labs end up like this photo, you know, big fiery explosion. And in California, the problem is particlurly acute. Not only in rural parts of the state, where the problem was bad enough back in 2000 for McClatchy to write up a whole series on the problem in the Central Valley, but also in the cities. It has hit the gay community particularly hard, where it has become a party drug.
And this is where Postmus comes in, it seems Postmus has been hiding secrets for most of his life.
More about those secrets over the flip.
It’s not hard to do a little sleuthing on the Internet to find compelling evidence of his sexuality now. In fact, today the San Bernadino Sun sees fit to mention it in the portrait they published today:
One of his closest friends said Postmus’ meth addiction stems from the years he has spent hiding his sexual orientation, attempting to resist “carnal pleasures” and cloaking his sexual identity as a gay man from not only voters, but his family, friends and political allies. (SB Sun 1/16/09)
And one lie begets another. It is very hard to lie about something as central as sexuality and remain honest elsewhere. Lying breeds lying, and it became a habit for Postmus.
He began his political career quite young, running for Supervisor, and winning, at the age of 28. He was billed as a reformer at a time of scandal, and was swept into office. He worked hard, but questions always loomed:
But over the seven years he served on the board, his career was riddled with controversies and scandal – the most prominent being the secret negotiations Postmus engaged in that led to the $100 million Colonies settlement, which government watchdogs criticized for being excessive and illegal. Postmus and Supervisor Paul Biane reached the settlement with The Colonies Partners LP, a major Upland developer in a closed-door deal after banishing county attorneys from the room.(SB Sun 1/16/09)
After he left the Board of Supervisors, he eventually ran for, and won, the position of Assessor in 2006. He kept a long line of attractive young men around him, and towards the end, actually doing all of his work for him. His largess eventually failed to keep friends, and now even his top deputy, Adam Aleman has flipped on him. He’s expected to be the star witness in any case against Postmus:
A yearlong grand jury investigation led to a criminal investigation by the district attorney and the arrest June 30 of Adam Aleman, once Postmus’ most trusted confidante and top assistant. Aleman is standing trial on six felonies, from destroying evidence to falsifying documents, in what investigators say was an attempt to mislead the grand jury. (SB Sun 1/16/09)
In the end, Postmus was overcome by the lies and the drugs. Despite two stints in rehab, he kept coming back. Like so many other victims of meth, he simply could not break the addiction.
I’m not one to go on “outing” rampages, as I think we all have the right to be as open about our sexuality as we care to be. Consenting adults should be able to do whatever we damn well please within the confines of our own bedrooms. Yet, there is a very real danger to one who hides the truth. It is the risk that they will go beyond the bounds of the law and good ethics to protect their secret. It is hard work to protect a secret like that, and Postmus is an example of what happens when it all comes crashing down.
On Thursday, Brian Dennert of the Ventura County Star blog Brian Dennert Here had an an excellent and informative interview with current LACDP Chair and CDP Vice-Chair Candidate Eric Bauman.
Dennert talked with Eric about Proposition 8, partisanship, the budget crisis and much more. Here’s a taste:
Q: The state budget is in obvious trouble with problems obviously this year and in coming years. Many point to the contracts with state workers including pension obligations.
Within that context do you remember the last time you disagreed with the tactics, budgetary priorities, or views of any of the large state unions both public employees and private sector unions?
A: California’s budget situation is a disgrace. This governor was elected on a pledge to “cut up the credit cards” and sweep the special interests out of the Capitol.
In the end he has done neither. Under his watch we have a far larger deficit than we did under Governor Davis and the divisiveness between the parties is at an all time high.
This governor cannot deliver a single Republican vote for his budget plan and it is so bad the members of the Republican caucus wore name tags to a meeting with him because he has so little
contact with them.
While Democrats have put compromise after compromise on the table, and even the governor has acknowledged the need for new revenues, not one Republican is willing to compromise.
This governor has failed and his Republican colleagues have sold him down the river,
As to the old saw that this is the fault of the public employee unions, you and I both know that is nonsense. This fiscal crisis began when Arnold unilaterally reduced the state’s revenue by four billion dollars by cutting the vehicle license fees.
It has worsened as out economy has tanked and our outmoded tax system has been unable to maintain any balance. My goodness, more than 52% of our state’s revenues come from personal and business taxes, the most volatile possible source.
Yes, our state employees are reasonably compensated and they work hard for their money. And yes they are willing to talk about reasonable compromises to help out in this crisis. But those who are our highest earners and our largest businesses should pay their fair share and we should close every ridiculous tax loophole that we have extended to the wealthy, like the yacht tax loophole.
Finally, there are only four ways to close this budget deficit – cutting spending, raising revenue, borrowing and reforming the system, for real. Democrats are willing to do all of the above. Republicans need to get with it…
For a good read, head over to Brian Dennert Here for the rest of the interview.
Bipartisan death cultists love to tell us that the real problem in California is that gerrymandered seats lead to extremists of both sides in safe elections, and that no opposition can win in such a rigged game. Thanks to the Swing State Project and some dedicated individuals who have done the work, we can now pronounce that myth dead. Completely dead.
Volunteers processed county-level information to come up with the Obama/McCain split in virtually all California Congressional districts. Fresno, Madera, San Joaquin, Santa Clara and Ventura counties have yet to release the county-level data, so we’re missing a few districts, but hopefully that information is forthcoming. What we can already view, the data for 43 of the 53 districts, is stunning.
Obama won 34 of those 43 districts, including 7 held by Republicans. He just missed in CA-46 (McCain was under 50% and the spread was less than 5,000 votes). Also, seven of the 10 currently unknown districts are held by Democrats, and I’ll bet CA-24 goes blue as well, or at least close to it. I think we can say that Barack Obama won or was extremely competitive in 43 of the 53 Congressional districts in the state. Here are the 7 GOP-held districts where Obama won:
CA-03 (Lungren): Obama +1,600 votes
CA-25 (McKeon): Obama +3,000 votes
CA-26 (Dreier): Obama +12,000 votes
CA-44 (Calvert): Obama +2,500 votes
CA-45 (Bono Mack): Obama +13,000 votes
CA-48 (Campbell): Obama +2,500 votes
CA-50 (Bilbray): Obama +14,000 votes
The data I’ve wanted is the downticket ballot dropoff stats, and now we have them. I’ll list it for these seven key districts, plus CA-46 (Rohrabacher), which Obama nearly won. These are rough estimates of the total number of votes in the Presidential contest and the Congressional contest for each district:
Though it may have made a small difference at the margins, the ballot dropoff is relatively small, actually, and to be expected to a certain extent. Some people are just going to come out for the Presidential election, on both sides.
But what is indisputable from these numbers is that Democrats can win in California in virtually every district, even when they are “hopelessly” gerrymandered. The shifts from 2004 to 2008 are quite incredible and represent a realignment. In ’04 Kerry lost CA-03 58-41. Obama won. Kerry lost CA-25 59-40. Obama won. Kerry lost CA-26 55-44. Obama won 51-47. Etc. You can check the numbers for yourself.
There’s only one Congressional candidate who outperformed the top of the ticket and that’s Charlie Brown. Obama lost CA-04 54-44. Therefore it’s untrue that, even in unfriendly areas, there is no Democrat that can make a race competitive. The right Democrat can win in any seat in California. And I think the numbers would bear this out in the Assembly and Senate as well.
The “hopelessly gerrymandered” line is an excuse. An excuse used by elites who are pretty happy with the status quo and don’t want the crazy libs having a working majority in the legislature. An excuse used by those in Washington who don’t want to spend money on expensive California races. It’s a pernicious excuse because it restricts progress and leads us to the brink of crisis. But it’s an excuse, nonetheless.
As the Yacht Party and their kamikaze-in-chief, Arnold Schwarzenegger, bring the state closer to the abyss Controller John Chiang has had to list the payments that will be delayed in February if the Republicans do not agree to necessary tax increases. They include:
Personal tax refunds: $1.91 billion
Cal Grants: $13 million
SSI to Aged, Disabled, Blind: $188 million
CalWorks: $114 million
County Public Assistance Workers: $122 million
Medi-Cal County Administration: $22 million
Developmental Centers for Developmentally Disabled: $280 million
“For months, I have warned state leaders that our cash flow will be in serious danger this spring,” Chiang said. “Without corrective action from the governor and Legislature, there is no way to make it through February unscathed.”
“I take this action with great reluctance,” Chiang said. “I know it will put many California families who rightfully expect their State tax refunds in a desperate position. Individuals who already are vulnerable will be hit hard. Small businesses that don’t get paid may have to lay off more workers. Rather than helping stimulate the economy, withholding money from Californians will prolong our pain and delay our economic recovery.”
It is the height of irony that a Yacht Party that claims to be about tax cuts is going to delay the payment of tax refunds owed to the people. That is a point that ought to be emphasized over and over again.
I believe that most of those who comment on the budget crisis are missing the real issues.
Yes, the Republicans gleefully chant their No New Taxes mantra while our government loses its ability to function.
Yes, the media fetish for balance results in a Rodney King answer to a reality that they don’t want to face.
Yes, the Democratic leadership of the legislature has not been willing to make the structural adjustments to the budget that are required.
Yes, it seems that everyone is putting out their own self-serving press releases which sound like the Gov’s SoS… everyone needs to change but me. AFSCME’s Make America Happen vid begins with FDR’s salient point about a generation of which much will be expected. I did not hear what AFSCME is willing to contribute.
However, two additional considerations are not being talked about very much.
The State of California has significant financial obligations based on contractual obligations to bond holders, contractors and employees that are all fixed. They are locked in and no one wants to see their own segment cut. The pressure here is to continue a all of the spending with no cuts. The easiest cuts would be to education since the employee obligation is mostly held by local school districts. Prop 98 has a built in assumption of continued growth: of General Fund revenues and of personal income. None of these are true for the present time. Yet, with approx. 50% of State spending going for education it is impossible to deal with the overall fiscal problem if education is off the table. California Young Democrats call for holding to the Master Plan for Higher Education. The solution is not whether cuts will be made, but what is being cut. Do we use a sledge hammer or a scalpel?
The likelihood that the Obama stimulus package will bring about positive economic change is pretty low. While the media calls this a massive Keynsian infusion of spending, the current plan leaves out one of the primary elements of a true Keynsian prescription, a rebalancing of income. The discussion at the blog of UCLA Environmental Economist Matthew Kahn, in particular the comments of Steve Loebs, makes this very clear.
The California Budget’s Economic Assumptions are probably far too optimistic.
Personal income is projected to grow 2 percent in 2009, 2.1 percent in 2010, and 4.6 percent in 2011, as compared to 3.7 percent in 2008. Nonfarm payroll employment is forecast to fall by 1.6 percent in 2009 and 0.5 percent in 2010, and grow 1.4 percent in 2011, as compared to a 0.6?percent decline in 2008. Source: Budget Economic Outlook
One implication for California is that the Republican stance regarding no new taxes must be shown for the fraud that it is. California’s current tax system is becoming more regressive with each knee jerk attempt to solve immediate budget shortfall.
Democrats have shown a distaste for bringing this issue to the fore. During the Gray Davis Recall election, Peter Camejo of the Green Party showed rather conclusively that there would be no budget problem if the upper 10% of the citizens of this state paid the same percentage of their income in taxes as the lowest 10%. I think it has only gotten worse since then. That is what “getting along” brings you.
This is not a generation to which much more will be given but it is definitely one of which much more will be asked.
It’s very rare to hear the problems of the state’s budget and cash crises discussed correctly, particularly in the wider media. The journalistic fetish of “balance” and making sure the only valid opinion is perfectly situated in the middle of any argument means that the go-to “experts” for the traditional media are always these Solomon-like High Broderists with advice like “the legislature should just get together for drinks more often.” Thus the breadth of opinion on a show like Warren Olney’s ranges from California Forward to a beat reporter. And the problems of the state are always ascribed to “the legislature.” Not the fact that we have a majority vote for elections but a 2/3 vote for any tax and budget issue, making it literally impossible for the elected representatives of the state to do the job entrusted them by the voters. No, that would be too simple. It must have to do with Democrats and Republicans not drinking together enough.
Two more examples of this today. First, the California Alliance for Jobs, which actually helped lead the fight for Prop. 1A’s high-speed rail bonds, has a couple radio spots out today with “funnyman” Will Durst blaming “the legislature” for stopping all those infrastructure projects and hurting the state. The MP3 is here. Amazingly, Durst spoke for 60 whole seconds and didn’t make a Monica Lewinsky joke. But he also failed to make clear in any way that any particular political party is responsible for budget gridlock. Durst says that we need a responsible budget with cuts and revenues, without mentioning that the Democrats have PROPOSED AND PASSED that.
Then wet noodle Gray Davis offers his wisdom on the crisis:
“It’s deja vu,” Davis told a cluster of reporters after listening to Schwarzenegger’s somber address. “California has experienced feast-or-famine budgeting as long as I can recall, and (it) will go on for all eternity until the people pass a genuine rainy day fund.”
Yes, THAT’S the problem. Not having revenues too closely aligned to the boom-and-bust cycle. Not ratcheting down property taxes so corporations pay less for their space than an average suburban couple in Nebraska. Not Yacht Party obstructionism. It’s all about that rainy day fund (which, by the way, was PASSED but which the Governor has continually raided).
The sad thing is that Davis knows he’s lying, but he’s either unable to or incapable of admitting it. And so the bipartisan fetishists say “can’t we all get along” without recognizing that their rhetoric, which doesn’t assign blame or give any citizen a roadmap to what the problem really is, sends the state careening into disaster. I have nothing but contempt for these people, even more than the Yacht Party in many ways, because they so blithely abuse their own power.
• The latest Don Perata story concerned money he took from his own ballot campaign account into his legal defense fund. He’s entitled to do that for the time being, but the Fair Political Practices Commission is considering new rules to strengthen the campaign finance laws around these kinds of accounts. I think “abolished” might be a good way to go for these slush funds.
• Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has a pretty cool tribute to Martin Luther King on his website today, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Eight elected officials in LA County answer the question, “What is the significance of this year’s Martin Luther King Day to you?”
• New Rep. Duncan Hunter, following in the legacy of his father, is whining about potential Guantanamo detainees behind held temporarily at Camp Pendleton. He claims their presence would “distract” the Marines there. Considering these detainees have been held in what amounts to a concentration camp and tortured, I think “distraction” is but a small price to pay.
• On yesterday’s SCHIP vote, which passed resoundingly in the House, Hunter joined most California Republicans in voting against medical care for children. Only Mary Bono Mack defied her Republican counterparts.
• The CBP blog thinks we should look at enterprise zone programs as a good place to start cutting the budget. A new study by the PPIC claims they are completely ineffective. I’m all for eliminating useless tax breaks.
• There is a Los Angeles municipal election on March 3, and the only race worth following is a crowded contest for Jack Weiss’ old city council seat. Six candidates (including progressive former Assemblyman Paul Koretz) all raised roughly the same amount of money in the last quarter.
• This is a pretty big ruling for environmentalists, as an Australian firm has bowed to pressure and scrapped their plans for an LNG terminal off of Santa Monica Bay.
• And then there’s the story about the California man who tried to sell his 14 year-old daughter into marriage for cash, beer and meat, and then attempted to have the groom arrested when he wouldn’t pay up. Hey, I didn’t know that the dowry was back in fashion!
Just when you thought the Republicans don’t have anything to say, well, they say something. Mike Villines issues a question of What ifs. Many of them conflicted with each other if interpreted in any logical way. Others are the same old tired Republican truisms that we’ve heard for years. You know them, You hate them. “waste, fraud and abuse” and “eliminate bureaucracy” to just name two of the golden oldies.
Of course, they don’t actually present any workable ideas, other than the same old “no more taxes.” But, you know, they are totally going to clear the state of the three-headed boogeymen of waste fraud and abuse. The same damn boogeymen that have been dominating Sacramento for the past quarter decade. You’d think the Republicans could clear some of that out during the 21 of 26 years that they’ve held the Governor’s gig. Or perhaps it works better as a cliche than an actual policy? No, that would be cynical, and Republicans are never cynical.
By the way, did anybody else want to take a nap after watching this?
Transcript, and a whole slew of Republican Senators’ statements, over the flip.
COGDILL:
I’m Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill.
VILLINES:
I’m Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines.
California today is a state of problems, not a state of promise.
It seems every time you open a newspaper, you read stories about our budget problems . . . Our unemployment rate . . . And our crumbling roads, levees and hospitals.
Then there’s our declining schools . . . Not to mention our broken political system.
Sometimes it seems things are hopeless in California.
But what if it didn’t have to be this way?
What if we didn’t have the highest unemployment rate in 12 years?
What if we had a more competitive business climate?
What if we passed state budgets on-time and ones that reflected the priorities of working families – and not special interests?
What if we put jobs first and restored California as a place where opportunity was plentiful for our farmers and our small business owners who have made our state great?
What if we reformed the system to ensure government worked for the people – and not the other way around?
What if state government put Californians first for a change?
This doesn’t have to be a dream . . . it can be a reality.
COGDILL:
Californians deserve better from their state government.
That’s why Republicans are fighting to change our state and pass reforms that will build a stronger California.
We want to:
* Get Californians back to work by lowering costs and promoting job creation.
* Eliminate bureaucracy to help businesses hire more workers and prosper.
* Give local schools more flexibility to put more dollars in the classroom for our children.
* Help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse wherever it exists.
* Provide greater oversight in how bureaucrats are spending your hard-earned tax dollars.
* Reform our broken budget system.
* Enact a spending limit to help our state live within its means.
* And reject tax increases that hurt California families and devastate our economy.
This is our vision for the Golden State in the year ahead.
VILLINES:
By focusing on these priorities, I know we can make California the state of opportunity, prosperity and progress that it ought to be.
COGDILL:
Thank you for taking the time to listen to us.
Statements from GOP Senators:
SACRAMENTO – Senate Republicans offer their comments regarding Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address:
Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) – “The Governor’s decision to dispense with the primetime pageantry of years past is appropriate in light of California’s dire financial condition. We see eye to eye on the fact that getting unemployed Californians back to work is vital to our economic recovery, and I’ve been pleased with his insistence that economic stimulus must be an integral component of any budget package.
“I also agree that our budget system is broken and in need of substantive and lasting reform. Senate Republicans have been proposing structural reforms of the budget process for years, and we’ll continue to press for them.”
Senator George Runner (R-Antelope Valley), Caucus Chair – “The Governor mentioned the political catchphrase of 2008: ‘change.’ The change that California needs to implement is to stop the ongoing cycle of overspending taxpayers’ dollars. California can beg, steal or borrow $40 billion today, but if we continue to spend with abandon we will be $20 billion in the hole tomorrow. Now is the time to live within ours means; we must adopt a spending limit, hold the taxations of our citizens to a minimum and allow government to provide only the most basic needs.”
Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) – “Senate and Assembly Republicans remain committed to working with our counterparts on the other side of the aisle and the Governor to solve the budget problem facing California. But there are no votes in either Republican caucus for any tax or fee hikes until permanent cuts and budget reforms are adopted by both houses of the State Legislature and signed by the Governor.”
Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) – “The Governor struck the right tone with his speech – less talk and more action. California is in an economic state of emergency and the lives of many Californians is made worse by the endless budget negotiations. There will have to be compromise on both sides and as the Governor said, real political courage is needed to move the negotiations forward.”
Senator John Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes) -“I join the Governor in his commitment to stabilizing the budget prior to anything else. This task requires the cohesiveness of all legislators to save the State money so we can provide the environment necessary to spur California’s business community into productivity and job creation. We must consider free-market measures and embrace cuts in State overspending, regulatory relief, reforming programs and a real spending cap to address California’s $42 billion deficit.”
Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced) – “California needs the action and courage Governor of 2004. Promises were made that boxes would be blown up and waste would be cut. The time to detonate the California Performance Review’s recommendations of selling off underutilized properties, like San Quentin Prison, and abolishing the Waste Board is long overdue.”
Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) – “I completely agree with the Governor that the State of California is in a state of emergency and our focus as a Legislature should be on permanently fixing the state’s budget that now projects a deficit of $42 billion over the next 18 months. This state of emergency is not only affecting state government, but all Californians who are struggling to pay their mortgage, wondering if they will be able to hold on to their job, or watching their savings and retirement funds disappear.
“A major part of the solution to this problem must be to lift the government burdens that have been placed on businesses – driving jobs out of this state over the past several years. We must do much more to protect the jobs we have while we work to create new jobs. We must make California a more business-friendly state, creating new business opportunities and energizing the entrepreneurial spirit that has made this state great.
“I look forward to working with the Governor and my colleagues in finding ways to fix this state’s budget crisis and once and for all bring state spending in line with revenues.”
Senator Tom Harman ( R-Huntington Beach) – “The Governor’s comments today underscore the seriousness of what we already know – that California is at a crossroads. The national economy is in a free fall with no end in sight and it seems unlikely California’s economy will rebound anytime soon. Every day in America 17,000 people lose their jobs, 11,000 lose their health insurance and 9,000 families have their homes foreclosed upon.
“In our haste to address the state’s fiscal problems I want to be sure the policies we adopt do not make things harder for struggling Californians. Tax increases would fall into that category. Californians are already among the top taxed people in the nation. I would urge the legislative leaders and the Governor of the need to act quickly but without haste. California cannot afford mistakes. Any meaningful solution to this crisis must address both the immediate cash crunch and long term job growth. Helping businesses and jobs flourish in California will result in a robust state treasury.”
Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) – “2008 was a tough year. A weakened economy, a decline in the housing market, and a lack of the Legislature’s will to rein in government spending has wreaked havoc on the hardworking taxpayers of California. As we look to 2009, I am encouraged that the Governor’s top priority will be to restore the foundation of our state’s fiscal house, for we are hamstrung by a budget crisis that dwarfs all other issues.”
Senator Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) – “I think the Governor is right that this is a year of political courage. We need an overhaul on reform, not a bandage solution that equates to a Bill Murray movie of Groundhog Day where we relive the same budget problems year after year. I am hopeful that we will move forward with real structural reform.”
Senator Mark Wyland (R-Carlsbad) – “I’m pleased that Governor Schwarzenegger is focused 100 percent on reforming and balancing California’s budget. In fact, I propose that this year the Legislature work with the Governor to focus exclusively on the budget first, then only his legislative package-and I’ve introduced measures to accomplish this. It’s the excess of unnecessary bills clogging the Legislature that weigh us down and take our attention away from what we should really be doing: evaluating the effectiveness of state programs and working on nothing but crafting a fiscally responsible budget for an entire year each session.”
I will be discussing the budget crisis tomorrow morning at 7:00am on “The Morning Review,” with Roy Ulrich on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles. You can listen live online here, and if you miss it in the morning an archive is kept here.
While I appreciate all these mailed-inpressreleases reacting to Arnold’s State of the State Address (shorter Arnold: not my fault!), I find them to be astonishingly ineffective. Maybe they provide a good pull-quote or two for state media, but they do little to educate citizens about the state of affairs, because they are dryly forwarded to the same places to be seen by the same news junkies and nobody else.
In this respect I have to commend Assmeblywoman Nancy Skinner for an innovative way to connect with constituents and deliver a quick but important message on the budget crisis.
As your State Assemblymember from the East Bay, I am concerned about how the economic downturn is affecting our California communities. Job loss and foreclosures are at an all time high and our neighborhoods are hurting.
In Sacramento, I am working with state leaders on budget solutions that will preserve vital services, protect our children’s schools, and restore funding to shovel ready infrastructure projects that can put people back to work up and down our state.
With the enormity of Californias budget deficit such a solution requires a balanced package of spending cuts and new revenues.
But Governor Schwarzenegger has not been able to lead his own party to a reasonable compromise.
We can do better.
Join me, tell the Governor we can fix Californias budget problems without rollbacks to worker and environmental protections or devastating our schools.
Together lets move California forward.
Yes, it has the look and feel of a campaign ad. And that’s the point. This is a PERFECT way to use off-cycle messaging to make the case for a responsible budget solution. And with a local cable buy (CNN, MSNBC, CNN Headline News, CNBC, Fox News, and Comedy Central), it is relatively cheap for Skinner to do so. It’s not surprising that Skinner’s Chief of Staff is former California Progress Report editor Frank Russo. He understands well that this kind of direct communication has been sorely lacking over the past few years.
In the coming months, as the crisis grows bigger, there’s going to be an effort by the Governor to use the bully pulpit to cast the whole thing as a problem of “the legislature” instead of laying the blame where it belongs. It is crucial for progressives to push back against that, and Skinner has shown the way. Of course, her Bay Area audience doesn’t really need to be convinced. The Speaker or the Senate President Pro Tem or even the CDP should take this model and push it out in areas with close Assembly races last cycle or even just Republican communities. That would be some forward thinking that would make the case for a responsible budget instead of ceding the territory to talk radio or worse. It’s time for Democratic leaders to fill the news gap and begin to educate Californians.
charged with several felonies related to drug charges and possible money laundering. We’ll see more as the case proceeds, but it has become clear that at the very least, Bill Postmus is addicted to methamphetamines.
And one lie begets another. It is very hard to lie about something as central as sexuality and remain honest elsewhere. Lying breeds lying, and it became a habit for Postmus.