(If you are at Netroots Nation, this is the place to be at 3 pm. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Once again, Calitics is convening a panel on California politics at Netroots Nation. Those of you who attended last year’s panel saw an excellent discussion, led by David Dayen, about our state’s crisis.

This year, I’m organizing and moderating a California panel titled California’s Challenge: From “Failifornia” to Progressive Laboratory, on Thursday July 22 at 3PM at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, in room Brasilia 4. The panelists include, in addition to myself and Brian Leubitz, Rebecca Saltzman of The Next Generation consulting and the excellent Oakland blog Living in the O, Tom Saenz, President of MALDEF, and Lindsey Horvath, member of the West Hollywood City Council. Former Speaker Fabian Núñez was to be a participant on the panel as well, but recently informed us he couldn’t make it, and we’re currently in discussions with a possible replacement.

The purpose of the panel is to acknowledge our state’s crisis, but also to start figuring out how we can not only get out of it, but how we can start advancing progressive solutions. California ought to be a progressive laboratory, a place where we craft good policies that can be replicated around the country, like we used to, before California’s political exports became more right-wing in nature.

Already the panel has started to get some attention. Right-wing commenter JP Freire wrote about the panel today:

Producing change? I hope they’re referring to the “clink clink” change and not Obama’s “Lobbyist Appreciation Day” variety of change, because Californians need more of the former and less of the latter. We’ve already seen what happens when the state becomes a progressive laboratory: It becomes a piggy bank for special interests.

Of course, the last time California was anything close to a progressive laboratory was in the 1970s, in Jerry Brown’s first term of office. Since 1978 we’ve been a right-wing laboratory, and the results are clear: public services that are underfunded or being slashed entirely, mass unemployment, a serious environmental crisis, and a declining quality of life. I’ll stack the 1960s and 1970s of the Governors Brown up against the right-wing experimentation any day.

But then he goes on to slam two of the panelists, starting with yours truly:

Robert Cruickshank, the public policy director at the “Courage Campaign” which bills itself as “empowering more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots activists to push for progress change and full equality in California across the country.” Buyer beware: When the numbers for netroots and grassroots are combined, they’re usually just adding up the email distribution list. Cruickshank is also the chairman of the Democratic Party in Monterrey County and started an interest group campaigning for high-speed rail. So he’s basically responsible for empowering people to elect candidates to his party to filter more dollars into his pet transit projects.

Oh, where to start? The Courage Campaign does have over 700,000 members, which is likely far higher than Freire’s readership. As the Netroots Nation panel description makes clear, I am the vice chair of the Monterey County Democrats, not the chair (just so we’re clear, Vinz, I’m not after your gig).

I didn’t start Californians For High Speed Rail, though I am now its chairman. And yes, I do want to filter more dollars into transit projects. Specifically, I need about another $30 billion for the high speed rail project, and about another $100 million for light rail to Monterey. LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s 30/10 plan is actually fully funded, they just need a federal loan to get it done in 10 years instead of 30. I’ll have to let JP know where to send the checks.

Seriously, does he have any better idea for creating jobs, reducing dependence on oil and generating economic growth by liberating Californians from the crippling costs of oil and traffic-jammed commutes? I’m sure his answer will be some sort of unfunded tax cuts that have been proven to fail every other time they’ve been tried – hence the “Failifornia” subtitle on the panel.

Even though Speaker Núñez cannot attend, I’ll stick up for him anyway:

Even better: Hon. Fabian Núñez, another panelist, who is former political director for the Los Angeles Federation of Labor and former California Assembly Speaker (he left in 2008). His current bio for Mercury Consulting lists him as a lobbyist and boasts of his experience as “the Assembly’s lead negotiator on the California state budget, responsible for producing four state budgets, which ranged as high as $103 billion.” As high as? In California’s fiscal climate, you’d think negotiating a smaller budget would be the “change.” Unions such as his previous employer are the exact reason the state is in such dire straits.

Actually, Speaker Núñez deserves kudos for his role in pushing back against Arnold Schwarzenegger’s destructive policies, helping write and get AB 32 through the legislature (a perfect example of using CA as a progressive laboratory), and in fully funding our state’s public services and other key priorities. Our economy during Speaker Núñez’s tenure was built on a house of sand, given its dependence on the housing bubble, but that wasn’t his doing, and he did a good job in ensuring that the benefits of the boom economy went into as many public services as possible.

Freire’s overall argument is that California just plain spends too much:

In other words, the panel doesn’t even need to happen. We know what it’s about because we’ve already seen it: Spend more, spend now, and spend forever. And it’s killing California.

In fact, California has had three straight years of massive spending cuts, and THAT is what is “killing California.” It’s time to bring financial responsibility and economic growth back to California, and our Netroots Nation panel is one place where we can start.