Things I’ve noticed, both in Sacramento and throughout the state, as we wait for the General Session to begin:

• Soon-to-be failed Senate candidate Chuck DeVore raised a paltry $132,000 and has more debt than cash, spending over $100K on expenses in the first quarter.  I guess non-stop Twittering costs major money!

• The great book Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency won a top prize at the LA Times Festival of Books last night.

• Saw new Assemblymember from the Palm Springs area Manuel Perez yesterday, and his entire set of bills this year are centered on the green economy, including vocational training for green jobs.  Hopefully he’ll come to Calitics and tell us about it.

• At the Progressive Caucus last night, leaders assured the crowd that the endorsement of Prop. 1A will be pulled from the consent calendar and fully debated on the floor tomorrow.  Given the rules, this will require a 60% vote on the floor to vacate the Yes endorsement.  I think it may be close, we’ll see if the institutional support can hold off the masses.  The “No” side probably has a better shot going for a netural position.  The electeds are doing absolutely everything they can to lock up votes, including fearmongering distortions of the facts.  It’s a little ugly.

UPDATE: My friend Garry Shay of the Rules Committee sets me straight on some bad information I received: “It takes a 50% vote to adopt the Yes position, or No position, when done in Convention.  It’s 60% for the Executive Board to adopt a position on a ballot measure. In neither case does it take 60% to vacate the Yes recommendation.”  That certainly makes things more interesting.

• I’m assuming Phil Angelides still has a vote on the floor, and he’s a firm no on 1A, saying that it would just push the problem forward instead of doing the structural work necessary to fix the state.

• Had some interesting conversations with Congressional candidates Mark DeSaulnier and Anthony Woods last night, I’ll expand more in a later post.

• We’ll see speeches this morning from Sen. Boxer, and gubernatorial candidates Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown, among others.  We have some blogger meetings set up with Boxer and Newsom, among others, as well.  

More later…