Apparently other things have happened while the Legislature was pulling an all-nighter:
• Rasmussen is not a good pollster and they often skew right, but the trend looks better for Carly Fiorina against Sen. Barbara Boxer, with the latest show Boxer up 45-41, compared to 47-38 in March. Those results are basically within the margin of error of one another, so I wouldn’t be too alarmed. Meanwhile, did you know that anonymous sources find Boxer abrasive and outspoken? I know because Politico told me. Amazing how the anonymous commentary on successful women always seems to line up, huh?
UPDATE: Sen. Boxer is looking for health care horror stories at her website.
• Dianne Feinstein is still being a jerk on health care. With the Senate due to recess before passing a bill, she’s going to have to be told by her constituents on that break that we want a good bill with a public option.
• Hopes of those who want to see marijuana legalized and taxed were dashed by the White House drug czar, who said today, “Legalization is not in the president’s vocabulary, and it’s not in mine.” I would remind folks that there’s cost savings in decriminalization, too, savings to the prisons and the criminal justice system. So that could be a fallback.
• The President also announced the “Race to the Top” contest for education stimulus funds today, but as long as California doesn’t use student test scores to evaluate teacher performance, the state will not qualify for the money. Now that could spark an interesting debate inside the education community.
• Lots happening in the CA-10 race: John Garamendi took the coveted Cal Labor Fed endorsement as well as the Napa-Solano Central Labor Council (Solano County is in the district). Mark DeSaulnier keeps picking up local endorsements. Joan Buchanan took the endorsement of EMILYs List, though I thought their principle was that early money is like yeast – aren’t we five weeks out at this point? And Anthony Woods, in a major coup, scored the endorsement of the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which should give him lots of money and volunteer support. It was notable that DeSaulnier dropped endorsements of local LGBT leaders right after that announcement – obviously Woods has become a threat. You can see Anthony Woods tonight on Real Time With Bill Maher on HBO. And Calitics has interviews with Woods and DeSaulnier that they will roll out in the next week or so.
Just what we need, more union bashing. It has been severe during this crisis, especially in California.
I’m actually surprised there’s this heavy emphasis coming from the administration on student test scores. These student tests are for shit — test based learning like this is the hallmark of No Child Left Behind, which we really need to dismantle. I thought that was the one good thing CA did in ’06 was to keep test scores out of it. So this is dismaying.
And NO I am not a teacher. Just to head THAT off.
Though the vote was to authorize the negotiations of furloughs. (And they really are pay cuts, they’re “non-teaching day furloughs.”) Anyway, there now will be a 10% pay cut (for a total of 25% in expected salary that has been forfeited the last two years).
I’ve not personally experienced a clearer shock doctrine strategy.
http://www.chron.com/disp/stor…
no-confidence vote in Charles Reed, the CSU chancellor. He’s a reprehensible individual. I can’t imagine who has confidence in his leadership.
How is it a “major coup” for the LGBT candidate to get endorsements from LGBT organizations?