Links for your weekend:

* The CA Republican party has had problems raising cash. That didn’t stop them from paying some pretty nifty salaries to the muckety-mucks though who, umm, also happen to work for legislators.  Seems sketchy.

* Speaking of the CRP, they enied the CA Republican Assemblythe fringe conservative group, access to their facilities at the state convention going on San Diego this weekend. Apparently the CRP noticed that backing Prop 187’s anti-Latino measures isn’t the way to go these days.

* Another reason to vote against Meg Whitman: she would defend Prop 8. ‘Nuff said.

* The right-wing is freaking out a little bit about Whitman’s shifting immigration stances.

Links:

* Happy Birthday to Capitol Weekly. The new version preceded us by a few days back in 2005.  It is kind of scary to look back at some of those old diary posts I (Brian) wrote back in the day.

* Prop 23 Miscellaneous Notes: Another $250K for the No on 23 campaign based upon the opportunity for new green jobs. Koch Industries, an oil company, is a big supporter of Prop 23. Oh, and they like to fund climate denial “studies.”  FInally, HuffPo has a good story on the Texas oil companies and the Adam Smith Foundation.

* Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman have been squabbling over pay and pensions for a while.  You’d think that, given her incessant television and private plane appearances, that she might want to cut back on that line of attack.

* Workers Comp insurance premiums went up sharply, mostly because Schwarzenegger has refused to let any increases for inflation.

* The Senate voted to make public university foundation records public after the CSU-Stanislaus debacle with Sarah Palin.

* Robert is heading out of town for a well-deserved vacation, but he’ll be back on Calitics’ 5th anniversary of September 1. Let’s hope California hasn’t fully melted down by then.

Links:

* State Controller John Chiang says that he will start issuing IOUs in 2-4 weeks unless a budget is passed.

* St. Abel asked to join the defense of Prop 14, the top two measure.

* Protestors in wheel chairs protested on L Street against the cuts to in-home support services.

* Bell gave loans to City employees worth about 800K.

We’re waiting for results on the Laird race, but in the mean time, Links:

* For two candidates running for statewide office, you would think Steve Cooley and Carly Fiorina would take a stand on Proposition 23, but no.  The effort to repeal AB 32’s historic greenhouse gas pollution regulations apparently don’t rise to the level of importance to take a stand.

* Speaking of Steve Cooley, California Watch exposed some punitive measures against his deputy DA’s union.  A recent lawsuit alleges that he punitively transfered deputy DAs who dared to organize, and even harassed an external media outfit working with the union. (Note: Brian does some work for Kamala Harris.)

* Roger Niello is officially running to replace the late Sen. Dave Cox, and has now received some favorable words from Cox’s widow.

* Republican SoS candidate Damon Dunn got a profile on the Sean Hannity show.  And according to the Hannity folks, he was endorsed by Willie Brown.  Except, Willie himself called that idea “crazy.”

“Hell no..are you crazy?” he said. “I do training of folks with my Institute, and I have absolutely talked to him. But I would never be for Damon Dunn against Debra Bowen, who is one of my chief operatives. One of the things I recommended to Damon Dunn is that he not run against Debra Bowen.”(SacBee)

Links:

* Sen. Steinberg says that the new federal money can be used to close the budget gap.

* Schools, including LA, improved their test scores.

* It looks like Orly Taitz is going to have to pay the fine. There are certainly enough birthers to cover that for her, right?

* Dan Walters thinks Arnold is in legacy mode.

* Carla Marinucci fact-checks Drudge on “Jerry’s double dipping”. Turns out, shockingly enough, that this was really a non-story.

Links:

* UC-Berkeley got into trouble for its genetic testing for incoming students. It was supposed to be an educational experience to talk about personalized medicine.

* Sen. Boxer got Magic’s endorsement.

* Apparently Bell was finding creative ways to pay those big salaries…by overcharging on taxes.

* Check out the Capitol Notes Podcast.

Links:

* Big news for state workers: furloughs are off (for now).  Schwarzenegger lost a court skirmish on the issue, but there is more to come on this.

* Does ballot measure wording affect outcomes? Maybe.

* Dan Schnur, the new FPPC honcho, argues for more disclosure.

Links:

* Alex Spanos, a big Republican donor, gave Jerry Brown $20,000.

* Ted Gaines made his run for Dave Cox’s senate seat official.

* Orly Taitz, birther queen, was hit with a lien because she didn’t pay a court fine.

Links:

* AD-05: Richard Pan is doing pretty well against Andy Pugno in a recent poll. See the flip for the full press release.

* State revenue is down for July.

* When it rains it pours for Bell. They just got their credit downgraded.

* A key Fiorina supporter compared Barbara Boxer to the infamous Huns.

Dr. Pan Pulls Ahead in Early Snapshot of AD5 Race

SACRAMENTO, CA – A fresh survey of the race for the area’s Assembly District 5 seat finds Democrat Dr. Richard Pan pulling ahead of his opponent Republican Andy Pugno once voters learn more about the candidates.

“Our survey finds the race begins in a statistical tie, with Dr. Pan moving to a 10-point lead over opponent Andy Pugno after voters hear both positive and negative messages about the candidates,” said Ben Tulchin of San Francisco-based Tulchin Research.  “While the race starts very close, our survey shows Dr. Pan is well positioned for victory in November.”

For the past few decades AD5 has been a safe Republican seat with a strong Republican voter registration advantage.  Since 2000 those registration numbers have been eroding and now the district is divided equally between registered Democrats and registered Republicans.  The Target Book and political pundits no longer view AD5 as a safe Republican seat, but now consider the District one of the most hotly contested legislative races in the state.  Recent polling also demonstrates that this race will be extremely close.

Richard Pan is a physician and an educator at the UC Davis Children’s Hospital, with a commitment to community service. He believes that a healthy community needs a strong local economy, good schools and access to quality healthcare. Pan aims to bring a new perspective to the state Assembly by working to fix the broken system, improve our schools and reduce health care costs for families and businesses.

“Our research shows that Pugno is too extreme for this district, which puts Richard Pan in a very strong position to win in November,” said Josh Pulliam, Pan’s campaign consultant.    

Links:

*  Much ado about gifts in Los Angeles.  DA Steve Cooley is investigating Mayor Villaraigosa and the state is going to change the rules, but meanwhile Cooley himself is accepting a slew of gifts from “close personal friends.” Friends that, generally, have some connection to the County of LA.  Funny that.  (Note: Brian works for the Kamala Harris campaign.)

* Meg Whitman sent out a mailer with a cheap (and factually wrong) attack against Jerry Brown.  Trying to tie him to Bell, Whitman played fun with numbers. The result was, funny enough, some very dark mail. The truth tells a different story.  Brown presided over a city that was better on the day that he left office than when he entered. Meanwhile, Jerry Brown investigated the actual City of Bell.

* San Bernardino County is going to face some voting rights act troubles unless they work to improve the number of minorities that are eligible to vote that actually register.

* A judged tweaked the ballot language for Prop 22.

* Meg Whitman’s (non eMeg) political donors have a strong tilt towards developers.