Today’s California Blog Roundup on the flip.  Teasers:  Schwarzenegger’s steadfast commitment to saying whatever he thinks people want to hear, Westly & Angelides, immigration / mother tongues / National Guard, CA-04, CA-11, CA-50, other fun stuff.

Race for Governor

• At Alliance for a Better California, Juila was whacking Schwarzeneger like a piñata over the weekend. First, she notes that Arnold seems to be trying to buy off the voters with his sudden leftward shift. Then, Arnold abandons George Bush for the election, at least. Last, Arnold’s consistent first person singular followed by excuses.
• Bill Cavala (guest-post, CPR) thinks that the way the Democratic gov’s primary is being fought won’t really make a difference in the November general.
• Scott Clayton of Get Your Blog Up is not so optimistic. He thinks that Californians (especially the SoCalis) are pretty much “and a pony” thinkers, and worries about the tax-and-spend attacks from Schwarzenegger.
• Dan Ancona at Speak Out California responds (implicitly) to Scott. Did you know that California’s tax system is regressive overall? Also, Angelides’ people respond to the Westly “$10 Billion” ad at Speak Out CA.
• The Mad Professah endorses Angelides.
• The Pragmatic Progressive semi-endorses Westly (and makes some endorsements in other races as well).

Immigration Issues

• Ariel doesn’t like the Senate’s recent vote to make English the official US language. Nope, not one bit.
• Martini Republic thinks that we should purge the Spanish place names. I agree, and since the Catholic Church is immigrant-friendly, let’s get rid of the Catholicism as well. I, for one, want to live in Frank, California.
• And a post you really should read on this language issue: “ The Language Policy Debate” By US West (a Citizen).
• Marc Cooper reprints a NYT Editorial on the immigration mishigas (that last is a foreign word). It’s shockingly sensible.
• Frank Russo collects a variety of source materials on the issue of deploying the California National Guard at the Mexican border.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• CQ Politics gives us their view of the CA-11 race. The anger at Paid-For Pombo’s reflexive hatred of the planet is center-stage.
• In that vein, it appears that Paid-For Pombo is feeling the heat. He’s started to be for destroying the environment in committee, but against destroying the environment on the floor of the House. Come on, Paid-For! Be a man! Destroy the environment all the time or not at all. And don’t forget to lie about how much the environment hates America.
• Down With Tyranny on the importance of the CA-11 primary for grassroots politics.
• Jonathan Singer of MyDD interviewed Jerry McNerney.
• The CA-11 Blog tells us that the Cook Report has moved CA-11 into “Lean Republican” from “Likely Republican”.

15% Doolittle / CA-50

• It’s possible that the Auburn Journal (15% Doolittle’s hometown paper) has endorsed Mike Holmes in the Republican primary. And this sort of thing may be why.
• Words Have Power reminds us that 15% Doolittle has already pocketed $37,500 of the $250,000 that Dick Cheney has raised for him. I wasn’t aware that it was possible for money to be tainted in that many ways.
• One more time: 15% Doolittle is corrupt.

CA-50, Miscellany

• Down With Tyranny on the importance of the CA-50 special election runoff for grassroots politics. Yes, it’s the same post.
• Dogged Blog asks the question nobody dares to ask: “ Is Gavin Newsom pretty enough to be President?”
• Robert Haaland of Left in SF takes Debra Saunders to task for her attacks on the LGBT community. Frankly, Saunders’ work is barely worth the pixels it takes to display her name, but I can understand why Robert was ticked.
• Loni Hancock, guest posting at California Progress Report, explains that the high school exit exam is not a best practice.
• The Santa Clara County Dems blog finds the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commmerce crossing the line in their recent mailer for the San Jose mayor’s race.
• Good gravy, mandated term limits are stupid.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. I’m pressed for time, so it ain’t as pretty as it normally is, but I’ve tried to sort things properly. No teasers, sorry.

• Hey, folks. Remember how much of CA’s recent good economy is built on building? Home sales are starting to tank, both north and south.
• Speaking of homes, see this guest piece from California Progress Report on some sensible measures for preventing and paying for floods.
• It’s going to be slow trains in California for the forseeable future, voter wishes be damned.
• Remember, it were a Democrat who wanted the infrastructure bond, and it were Democrats who delivered it.
• Julia on the negative air war in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Dan Ancona on the better world he wishes we lived in.
• Julia again on Schwarzenegger’s fundraising. Sure, those aren’t special interests. Sure, there’s no strings on that money. Public financing, people.
• Greg Dewar doesn’t think much of the Westly campaign.
• Arnold says, “Please stop me. I can’t control myself.“
• D-Day ain’t optimistic, given Arnold’s current “reasonable moderate” shtick. Schwarzenegger is betting the public will forget his alliance with the extremist Republicans and the expensive special election power grab of 2005 long enough for him to get a chance to do it again.
• Randy Bayne catches Schwarzenegger resurrecting a defunct agency by packing it with his cronies, just to undercut the Democrats drive for increasing the minimum wage and adding cost of living adjustments.
• For them as care, Left in SF has the SF Guardian’s endorsements for the June election (state and local).
• There are a lot of immigration thoughts this week. First, Life Goes Off.
• Next, Marc Cooper, with the “My Granny Was Legal” myth.
• Robert Silvey of Rubicon, on the Bush Border Speech. Silvey’s writing is great; I wish he wrote more about CA politics.
• The Blue Voice rounds up reactions to the Bush Border Speech.
• Brad Plumer, on the assimilation of Latino immigrants (they do, and do well).
• Remember, there’s a whole country on the other side of the proposed border wall, with its own domestic politics. Well, at least someone will make money.
• The Blue Voice rounds up reactions to the Bush Border Speech.
• Ouch, just ouch.
• Last, the Talent Show, displaying common sense and fairness.
• The Party Line has a series of reports on the 50 State Canvas: Hollywood, SoCal, Central Valley, NorCal.
• Pombo Watch on the May 16 Tracy Republican CA-11 Candidates’ Forum. Say No To Pombo was there as well, and they were not impressed with Paid-For Pombo’s performance.
• Progressive 11th notices that Paid-For Pombo isn’t keeping his term-limit promise. Big Shock. He also can’t tell the difference between “legal” and “right”. Seriously, modern Republicans simply have no moral compass.
• The Senate Elections Committee punts on AB 583, the Clean Money Bill. (More here.)
• Common Cause Comments on Clean Money. As do these two gentlemen. Last, goatchowder, posting at Daily Kos, gives the common citizen’s impressions.
• Martini Republic interviews Brad Friedman of the BradBlog voting machine police.

(Bumped for visibility over my long front-pager(s) – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: November initiative preview, the race for governor (money and TV ads, same as always), the budget process, education stuff, reform stuff, 15% Doolitle, Paid-For Pombo, immigration, typical Republicans, CA-50, CA-45, urban living.

Initiative Preview

John Myers runs down the likely November ballot initiatives, which apparently don’t include the initiative to constitutionalize religious opposition to homosexuality. We’ll be writing more about these as the summer wears on.

Governor’s Race

• More money for Schwarzenegger from the usual suspects.
• More money for Westly from the usual suspect.
• New ad from Phil Angelides, and a promised new pro-Anglides IE ad from the unions. And one more new ad each from both the Angelides and Westly campaigns.
• Greg Dewar wants you to tell him about the campaign mailers you get.

Education

• Assembly Democrats lay out their differences with Governor Schwarzenegger with respect to, vis-a-vis, and regarding the new budget. Alberto Torrico (AD-20), chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee thinks that Schwarzenegger is shorting transportation costs.
• Educational Justice Blog reminds us that the big chunk of education funding in Schwarzenegger’s budget is only there because ABC and the CTA browbeat the Governor into actually keeping his promise. Why is it that Schwarzenegger needed to be pursued by the very people he attacked last year in order to keep a promise he made to the children of California?
• California Progress Report has a guest piece expressing concerns about the high school exit exam.
• The Mad Professah has written a thoughtful (and brief) post on the high school exit exam.
• Randy Bayne is not so impressed with Sheila Kuhl’s proposal to call out the contributions of GLBT folks in California textbooks, arguing that it perpetuates labelling. I would have agreed with Randy once, but the problem is that almost everyone assumes that people (historical or otherwise) straight unless it’s pointed out that they’re not. Not mentioning a difference like that continues the assumption that GLBT folks haven’t contributed.

Reform & Reformers

• Californians are interested in non-partisan redistricting: SCA 3, Common Cause, and the League of Women Voters.
• Debra Bowen would like $25K from the grassroots (which one has to assume includes the netroots). If you give, throw on a penny so they know where it comes from.

Immigration

• Marc Cooper reacts to Bush’s immigration speech: tried to steer a middle course without offending anyone, and in the process, offended his base. The discussion in comments is worth reading as well.
• Tom Hilton points us to a story in which an undocumented immigrant is paid below minimum wage, fights her employer on it, and then, surprise surprise surprise, is “anonymously” reported to INS. To the extend that undocumented immigration may depress wages in certain sectors, that would be why.
• Ms. Geek has Round 2 of an immigration discussion she’s been hosting / having.
• Old Hickory’s Weblog is talking sense, and so is sure to be ignored.
• David Neiwert is not in California, but this post is worth a glance.
• Does anyone remember Cheech Marin in “Born in East LA”? The Republicans do. Papers, please.
• Ooooh, shiny!

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Apparently, Paid-For Pombo is feeling the pinch on his sacrifice of the California salmon fisheries. So, the correct response is? You guessed it: destroy marine sancturies. The guy is a one man cascade failure.
• Paid-For Pombo is all about stifling dissent, both in committee and in his campaign.
• It seems that the Pombo-McCloskey debate was a slugfest. Good.
• If I lived in CA-11, I would not vote for Pete McCloskey in the general, although I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I think a Republican majority in the House is a bad thing. The Republican Party is just too corrupt and too destructive for the few remaining honest Republicans to try to rein in. Pete McCloskey is not really a modern Republican, a charge also made by Pombo’s people. McCloskey takes umbrage and responds, proving that he’s not a modern Republican.
• Jerry McNerney on renewable energy, at Daily Kos.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• Courtesy of Down With Doolittle, this SacBee graphic showing the CA-04 candidates.
• It’s GOOD to be on the Appropriations Committee!
• 15% Doolittle hearts sweatshops. And sweatshops heart 15% Doolittle.
• 15% Doolittle also hearts his kids, so much so that he pays for their child care out of his campaign funds. Y’know, if 15% Doolittle’s wife didn’t work outside the home collecting the family kickbacks, if they had a more traditional marriage and better family values, maybe 15% Doolittle wouldn’t have to rely on his campaign donors to take care of his children.

General Purpose Republican Corruption

• Just so we’re all clear about Paid-For Pombo and 15% Doolittle, VP Dick Cheney is coming to California to raise funds for them. Three of a kind: self-dealing extremists with nothing but contempt for democracy and civil liberties.
• Still more corruption from California Republicans. This time it’s Ken Calvert (CA-44), with a classic scam: buy some land, legislate to increase the land value, sell some land, repeat until wealthier.
• Down With Tyranny continues to do yeomans’s work on the avatar of Republican corruption that is Jerry Lewis (CA-41). See also this from Pacific Views. California Republicans must be so shameless proud.

The Rest

• Now Bill Hauf is in the CA-50 primary race. Jon Fleischman must be very happy.

Also, AnthonyLA at DailyKos documents the Republican lies in CA-50 and asks, inter alia: “This is the guy that isn’t conservative enough for the California Republicans?”

• Uneasy Rhetoric puts up a good discussion of the perceived costs and benefits of living in a far-flung suburb vs. living in a city center.
• That Mad Professah is talking about AD-45 again. This time it’s about LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s endorsement.
• California Republicans at their finest.

It’s big, it’s belated, it’s bloggy. Today’s California blog roundup is on the flip. Teasers: Republican corruption, Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger, 15% Doolittle, Paid-For Pombo (and CA-11 generally), CA-50, immigration, net neutrality, voting machines, auto insurance.

Republican Corruption

• Now-classic Republican corruption from Jerry Lewis (CA-41). Bottom line: if you elect people who say they don’t believe in government, you shouldn’t be surprised when they steal from the taxpayers.
• Down With Tyranny has more … lots more … on Jerry Lewis’s corruption.
• Even more interesting: Schwarzenegger has taken over $87K from Brent Wilkes and associates. Seriously, pretty much every dollar Wilkes gives is tainted. It’s all gotten through bribery of politicians, and generally intended to be bribery OF the recipient politician.
• Pombo corrupt? CREW (and pretty much every vertebrate on the planet) believes that to be the case. Now if only a congresscritter would file CREW’s ethics complaint…
• Let’s see… 15% Doolittle took $82,000 in “campaign contributions” from Brent Wilkes (favorite bribery partner of many Republicans) which nets out to… $12,300 for Doolittle personally. I’m told that every man has his price, but it’s interesting that Doolittle’s is so very low.
• Wow, just wow. The House Republicans actually demanded that Nancy Pelosi remove Mollohan from the Appropriations Committee. I think that may be the paradigmatic example of gall.

Governor’s Race + A Little About Bonds

• Schwarzenegger continues to run away from his party in the hopes that everyone will forget his 2005 power grab. Today’s issue: offshore drilling. I wonder how he feels about the intentional throttling of refinery capacity to increase oil company profits?
• Run away, Arnold, run away. Maybe we’ll forget.
• This is interesting. Schwarzenegger ensures light regulation of levees to ease the way for developers to make money building behind them. No concern for the people who buy the houses, though. The developers will have already made their cash.
• Julia Rosen on the air war in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
• Randy Bayne on the bonds in the race for governor. Frank Russo on the same topic.
• Frank Russo on the divisions on the Republican side over the bonds. Also, Frank thinks that the bonds were the right thing to do for the state, regardless of the fallout. Me too.
• The Mad Professah is happy that both Westly and Angelides are supportive of equal rights for GLBT Californians. He promises an endorsement next week.
• California Observer has a rundown of the consultant situation for the three major candidates for governor. In exponentially increasing order of consultant-richness: Angelides, Westly, Schwarzenegger.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Richard Pombo’s hometown newspaper comes out for McCloskey in the Republican primary in CA-11. So does the Sacramento Bee (and they endorse Filson in the Democratic primary). The Merc endorsed McCloskey and McNerney.
• The League of Conservation Voters has endorsed Pete McCloskey, as has the California Teachers’ Association.
• The Progressive 11th has a summary of McNerney & Pombo news.
• Down With Tyranny endorses McNerney… again. No, seriously, it’s worth a read.

CA-50

• SD Politics has Busby tied with Bilbray on June 6 in a SurveyUSA poll. Could be an outlier, though. SD Politics also asks a good question: if Bilbray can’t get his party to line up behind him, can he get voters to do so?
• Speaking of that, apparently another extremist Republican is considering running against Bilbray.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

Dump Doolittle has one of the best letters to the editor that I think I’ve seen. Also, they’ve got the SacBee’s endorsement of Mike Holmes in the CA-04 Republican primary.

Immigration

• Ms. Geek walks through some of the issues that should be considered in thinking about immigration policy.
• So does janinsanfran.
• It’s not from California, but let’s be clear: Nativism has a long history in the US and it almost always sounds exactly the same.

Net Neutrality

• Nancy Pelosi comes out for net neutrality. We are pleased.
• Greg Dewar has a long piece on why net neutrality is important, given that individuals have very little choice about their internet provider. Actually, it’s an extended rant on how his ISP has failed him, but it amounts to the same thing.

Other

• Someone explain to me again exactly why electronic voting machines are a good idea. I’m just not seeing it.
• I’m stoked. Dave Johnson at Seeing The Forest has a rare post on California politics, and it’s even on auto insurance. Specifically, it’s on the auto insurance companies’ anti-Garamendi IE campaign.
• The Educational Justice Blog posts on Governor Schwarzenegger finally starting to keep his word on repaying the money borrowed from school funding. (A word to the wise: Just because you can do all kinds of fun things with font size and color, doesn’t mean you should.)
• John Drzal rips into Wally Herger for the classic bait-and-switch Republican tax tactic.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers: infrastructure bonds and the governor’s race, just the governor’s race, CA-50, CA-04, CA-11, immigration, CA-45, auto insurance, levees.

Infrastructure Bonds

• Alliance for a Better California outlines the effect the infrastructure bonds may have on the race for governor. Also, Julia’s got the two main Democratic candidate’s press releases on the topic: Angelides thanks the Democratic leaders, while Westly uses the “bipartisanship” buzzword.
• Frank Russo likes the bonds, but doesn’t think the bonds will help Schwarzenegger much, given that the legislative leaders asked him to just stay out of the way. Apparently, when Schwarzenegger governs least, that’s when he governs best.
• See also Bill Bradley: Arnold wants the “Bipartisan” cred anyway and is looking for ways to use the current revenue windfall, probably politically.

Gubernatorial Race

• Fired Up! California points us to a Sherry Bebitch Jeffe op-ed, which suggests that in supporting Schwarzenegger the extremist California Republican Party will, against their instincts, truly be choosing the lesser evil.
• Apparently, we now have to learn “flip-flop” in a variety of Native American languages in order to describe Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approach to Indian gaming.
• New Westly ad in Spanish: it’s clean, fast and optimistic.

CA-50

• Down With Tyranny explains that CA-50 is a choice between sane and honest Democrat Francine Busby on the one hand, and on the other either extremist Republican Roach or corrupt Republican Bilbray. Oddly, the Republicans don’t seem to be doing as well as their voter registration numbers suggest they should be.
• San Diego Politics notes that Cheney, McCain, and Hastert will be raising money for the corrupt Republican.
• Words Have Power notes that Christian values don’t seem to go much past gay-bashing and anti-choice positions in CA-50.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• Dump Doolittle has a nice summary of 15% Doolittle’s corruption, delivered in convenient bite-sized pieces, with quotes. Also, some creative signage in CA-04.
• This is rich: 15% Doolittle has gone too far in opposing civil rights even for Tex Sensenbrenner, the Republican chairman of the House Justice Committee that wanted to turn assisting out-of-status immigrants into a felony.

Immigration

• janinsanfran spent some time on Sunday thinking about the new immigration movement. In related news criticism, left i on the news notes the peculiar disparity in coverage of two different rallies.
• Dan Ancona also penned a meditation on immigration issues.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Not even Republicans like Paid-For Pombo. That makes sense. Paid-For Pombo doesn’t really like America.
• Progressive 11th has a news roundup covering Jerry McNerny and Paid-For Pombo.
• Say No To Pombo asks the timeless question: “Does Paid-For Pombo’s knowing lie in a campaign mailer constitute mail fraud?”

The Rest

• Frank Russo. One post, one idea: Clean Money.
• Get Your Blog Up notes another entrant into the CA-45 race, but doubts the wisdom of the entrant.
• Whatever It Is, I’m Against It is actually for Proposition 81, but against Proposition 82. So, I guess he’s against being against Proposition 81?
• The California Observer reports a new battle in the auto insurers’ decades-long war on John Garamendi. What’s amusing about this is that the auto insurers are attacking Garamendi in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, when his competition is Jackie Speier. First, this is just punitive, since he’s termed out of the insurance commissioner position. Second, do they think that Speier would be more insurer friendly?
• There is no industry so libertarian that it won’t seek a government subsidy.
• The mess at Devil’s Slide.
• Running statewide, downticket.
• Brian Dennert here asks a good question: Is Tom McClintock really from Thousand Oaks, or has he gone all Sacramento?
• California Progress Report asks what happens when the levees fail? Terry Preston thinks we’ll get it sorted, no help from the outside.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Teasers:Infrastructure Bonds, Governor’s Race, Immigration, 15% Doolittle, Paid-For Pombo, LA-area Assembly Races, some cynicism, Latinos as a power, labor, and some pictures.

Infrastructure Bonds

• Bonds during the day yesterday.
• Bonds today from ABC.
• Bonds today from California Progress Report.
• Bonds today from Bill Bradley.
• Bonds tomorrow from Randy Bayne.

Governor’s Race

• Julia Rosen from ABC sends us to the Washington Post for an outside perspective on the Governor’s race. Shortest: California is big, nasty, and expensive. See also, this ABC post, which suggests that the race is also largely unpredictable.
• Angelides’ new ad. Not bad, IMO, but relying very heavily on the endorsement proxy-race.

Immigration

• Demosthenes at BTC News wraps some historical and personal context around the immigration issue. Terry Preston suggests that history repeats itself regularly on this issue.
• Cab Drollery has some brief thoughts on why federalism is not a good answer to concerns about immigration.

CA-4 and CA-11

• 15% Doolittle likes things just as they are. No ethics, no change. Inertia is profitable.
• Oh, and SNTP also points us to CREW ethics and IRS complaints against Richard Pombo. It’s all about the Benjamins with him, apparently.
• Say No To Pombo has a good post and really dense discussion thread concerning the DCCC’s involvement in CA-11 and other primaries.

Everything Else

• The Mad Professah adds some context to an LA Times piece on the AD-45 primary.
• Mayor Sam’s Sister City has a couple endorsement updates in AD-42 and AD-44.
• Rising Q1 foreclosure rates in California part of a longer trend.
• Guest-posting at California Progress Report, the President of PowerPAC argues that Latinos are the slumbering electoral giant in California.
• Final CDP convention post by Greg Dewar. He’s not even a little bit cynical.
• Marc Cooper lets us know about the California Legislature’s golf fundraiser with AT&T. He’s maybe a little bit cynical. Public financing, people.
• Randy Bayne attended the California Labor Federation Legislative right after the CDP Convention and gives us his impressions. See also Randy on small businesses and the minimum wage.
• Tom Hilton has two last posts with Mendocino picture sets: one and two.

OK, here’s the California blog roundup for today. There’s no immigration in it; I’m going to save all of the immigration posts (and there are lots) for tomorrow, and combine them with those that people write in the evening. Teasers: Lots of California Democratic Party Convention, 15% Doolittle, CA-04, Paid-For Pombo, CA-11, Republican corruption, this & that.

CDP Convention

• Frank Russo has a list of every candidate endorsed at the convention.
• Scott Shields at MyDD doesn’t have a dog in the Democratic gubernatorial fight, but thinks that either Westly or Angelides could win. The folks in the comments do have a dog in the fight, though. As an aside, having sat through both candidates’ speeches and their press appearance, I found genuinely puzzling Shields’ reporting that insiders think Westly has “more charisma”.
• Julia Rosen thinks that the endorsement is a good thing, but is not a huge thing. Also, a reasoned argument against negative campaigning, and an interesting take on the primary.
• Greg Dewar has a series of posts up about his experience at the convention: one, two, three, four. I think number four may be most interesting, analyzing the spin on the endorsement of Angelides.
• Here’s Julia Rosen’s liveblogging of the Convention. And the sequel.
• Frank Russo is stoked about the energy and the young folks. Frank’s semi-wrap-up is here.
• For reasons that I can’t quite identify, I prefer Marc Cooper’s brand of cynicism to certain other pundits.
• Bill Bradley tees up the attacks on Angelides for “hyper-partisanship”, even while he discounts the support Angelides receives from Democratic partisans. Okey-dokey.
• Randy Bayne writes about his experience as a volunteer.

15% Doolittle / CA-04

• From Words Have Power, 15% Doolittle pretends that the public doesn’t care how corrupt he is.
• Apparently, 15% Doolittle is convinced that his trouble is all the fault of the Sacramento Bee. Reality does have a liberal bias. BTW, I clicked through to read the Op-Ed itself, and it’s a fascinating piece of work. 15% Doolittle made his wife part of his campaign apparatus and complains that she should be off-limits. He also repeats the lie that the commission on funds raised is a common practice. Dang.
• And if you’re not down with that, Dump Doolittle points you to some collateral you can use if you’re in 15% Doolittle’s district.

Paid-For Pombo / CA-11

• Down With Tyranny meditates, ferociously, on the CDP’s endorsement of Jerry McNerney in CA-11.
• Pombo badness from Progressive 11th. Of note, Pombo’s continued imperviousness to facts.
• Pombo Watch reports yet another Pombo no-show at a Republican candidates’ forum. This guy really doesn’t give a damn.

The Rest

• Words Have Power reminds us that two sitting US Representatives were very very friendly with Duke Cunningham and his pimp, Brent Wilkes. Reps. Duncan Hunder (CA-52) and Jerry Lewis (CA-41) have a lot of explaining to do, and not just to their families.
• Dunner’s Stunners on porn, zoning, easter, and the First Amendment.
• More Mendocino shots from Tom Hilton.
• Terry Preston smacks down Daniel Weintraub’s simplistic attack on Bill Lockyer.
• Jon Fleischman really wants Schwarzenegger to fire Susan Kennedy. I agree — she’s pretty much the only “bipartisan” prop that Schwarzenegger’s got left.
• The Mad Professah endorses Ron Oden for AD-80.

Today’s California Blog Roundup is on the flip. Longish, as it’s been a while. More regular roundups will resume shortly. Teasers: Marc Cooper on the state of the Democratic Party, the horse race (meh), PPIC exposes some “and a pony” thinking on education, 15% Doolittle, Paid-For Pombo, the impending Roach / Bilbray primary in CA-50, electoral and finance reform, and last, miscellany.

This roundup does not include any posts from yesterday, as I was at the CDP Convention. I’ll try to post a supplement and a Convention after-action later today.

• Marc Cooper has written a great article / blog post at LA Weekly concerning the schlerotic California Democratic Party and the extent to which the primary race for the Democratic gubernatorial candidacy is determined by ridiculous endorsement races, money tracking, all aided and abetted by the punditocracy and punditeriate more interested in color commentary on the horse race than actual issues.
• And speaking of horse race crapola, we have the Westly complaint against Angelides lodged with the Fair Political Practices Commission. I have a hard time taking seriously the Westly campaign mouth noises about positive campaigning (including Westly’s prepared speech for the CDP convention) when they’re pulling this kind of stuff.
• Frank Russo has a pretty good thumbnail of the recent PPIC poll on the most important issue for Californians: the state of our education system. Of particular interest, most likely voters want to increase funding for education, but they don’t really want to do what’s necessary to pay for it. And of course, Phil Angelides is willing to step up and challenge this “and a pony” kind of thinking that the Republicans exploit, for which he’ll no doubt be punished. See also Bill Bradley.
• Alliance for a Better California points us to a pair of SacBee articles comparing the recent Angelides & Westly ads.

CA-04, CA-11, CA-50

• Republican corruption: it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Does 15% Doolittle, family man, moral exemplar, feel any concern about his assocation with procurers? No? What about pimps?
• A small miscellany from Delta at Say No To Pombo. Also, Delta likes Steve Thomas as much as or more than either of the major candidates.
• Down With Tyranny comes out for Jerry McNerney and against both Paid-For Pombo and Rahm Emanuel.
• Words Have Power has been on fire for the last few days. First, he’s got George Will’s endorsement of Eric Roach in the CA-50 Republican primary. Sweet! And of course, one might question whether the megachurch fundamentalists in CA-50 will turn out for Mormon Roach.

Reform

• The Young Democrats have a guest post at Frank Russo’s place, laying out a new primary plan. Worth pondering. See also Mayor Sam’s Sister City on AB 2949, intended to make California’s presidential primary earliest.
• John Drzal likes AB 2948, which would throw California’s electoral votes to the popular vote winner.
• Public finance! Public Finance!

Miscellany

• One of my hobbyhorses: auto insurance companies don’t want to rate people according to their records, but extraneous personal factors.
• ABC has got this gem: Governor Schwarzenegger wants automatic increases for his own budget, even while he’s resisting cost-of-living increases in the minimum wage. Good for me, but not for thee, apparently.
• Lockyer takes on the oil companies. Go, Bill.
• Last, because it’s purty, Tom Hilton’s pictures of Mendocino.