Fabian Nunez hosted his final press conference as speaker yesterday, and began his post-speaker life by offering a series of proposals focused on process issues.

The redistricting component features an independent 17-member “hybrid” commission. No legislators will serve on the panel, with the majority picked randomly from a screened pool with no legislative influence and eight others picked by legislative leaders. Unlike the Voters First initiative that may appear on the November ballot, this proposal requires diversity in every step of the process and puts the Voting Rights Act first and foremost among the criteria in selecting districts. There’s also a host of transparency and public input provisions.

The term limits provision is similar to Prop 93, but excludes the provisions that protected many incumbents that drew criticism. It reduces the maximum amount of time a person can serve in the Legislature from 14 years to 12 years, allowing  a legislator to serve all their time in one house.

There’s also a fundraising blackout period prohibiting campaign contributions to legislators and the Governor from May 15th until the budget is enacted.

These would go up on the ballot for passage by voters in November once they get through the Legislature.  There is of course already a redistricting measure that appears to be on its way to the ballot, so it’s unclear whether or not this is a “confuse and kill” strategy.  But Nuñez said that his hope would be for one redistricting proposal on the ballot.

That’s the past; here’s the future.

Karen Bass has drawn up a short agenda for her two-year reign as Assembly speaker that begins next week.

There are only three items:

* Balance a state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared is “$20 billion out of whack.”

* Create a ballot initiative that would produce $300 million to $500 million annually for foster care programs.

* Restructure California’s tax system to make it conform to the modern world. Actually, she wants to create a blue-ribbon commission of “the best and the brightest” to tackle taxes.

That’s all.

Foster care programs are Bass’ pet issue, but otherwise she’s focused on, I have to say, the ACTUAL problem facing California.

We are out of money.  Not out of money in theoretical terms, or on a balance sheet somewhere, but physically out of money by August if no budget is enacted.  The cash reserves are empty and the revenues aren’t coming in.  All that matters between now and August is that we put a budget in place that is SUSTAINABLE and, as Bass notes, in line with the modern world.  All of this process stuff about redistricting and term limits is what gets pundits and press people all a-twitter, but it’s not the problem in California.  What Bass is saying without saying it is that we need to end the 2/3 requirement so we can have a legislature that reflects the will of the people.  That’s the only way we’re going to pass a sustainable budget, that’s the only way we’ll get a 21st-century revenue system.  And I believe she knows that.

The governor wants to sell out our future, sell bonds, sell the lottery, hold a fire sale and mortgage California for generations.  We should not have to stand for that.  Selling off the state to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy is not a “creative” solution.  I have no idea how Karen Bass will fare in her 2 1/2 years as Speaker, but I’m now confident that she’s at least focused on the right issues.

The intellectual inconsistencies are impossible to miss in this story on the Denham recall.  It’d be a lot more effective to cry and whine about a power grab and unfair tactics, for example, if you DON’T tip off that you’re planning on doing it yourself.

Jon Fleischman, vice chairman of the California Republican Party, said Perata was misusing the recall process, which is meant to boot people from office for serious misconduct. Fleischman and other activists in Orange County said that if the Denham recall succeeds, a similar campaign might be launched against Lou Correa, a Democratic state senator from Santa Ana.

Actually, the right answer is to reform the recall process, not to vow to “misuse” it again, if you want to remain on the intellectual and moral high ground.  

But that’s not surprising, of course, since the same people whining about the recall today are the ones who benefited from it in 2003.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supported the budget Denham refused to vote for and even traveled at the time to Denham’s district to pressure him, has disparaged the recall that’s on the June 3 ballot.

“Obviously, it is political,” Schwarzenegger said when asked about the effort at a recent Sacramento news conference, adding that the budget vote as “a reason for recall I think is ludicrous.”

Riiiight, because Gray Davis wasn’t recalled because of a budget deficit.

Like Fleischman, Denham says Perata was abusing the recall process, which is meant to remove from office people who act illegally. But backers of the recall effort note that Denham contributed $17,000 in 2003 to the Republican-led effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, who was under criticism for the budget mess but had not been accused of criminal conduct.

It’s just so hard to keep things straight, and figure out which are the RIGHT recalls and which are the WRONG ones.  So good that we have honest brokers like Jon Fleischman and Jeff Denham to set us straight.

It’s also a bad thing, we’re told, that people in Sacramento and abroad are telling the good people of the 12th District what to do.  Good thing there’s none of that happening among Denham supporters:

Denham has raised $1.1 million to fight the recall. Major contributions include $50,000 from the Los Angeles Casinos Political Action Committee and $25,000 from the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, which has a casino in Temecula.

Most of the members of the Los Angeles Casinos PAC, we all know, live in Stanislaus County.

I noticed this before Swing State Project codified it, but there were some stunning numbers in the Q1 Congressional fundraising reports that augur well for Democratic upsets in November.

We know that Charlie Brown is raising tons of money and has close to $600,000 cash on hand, and his challengers are spending all their money in a bruising primary race (Doug Ose has a million dollars in debts on his books).  We know that three California challengers raised six figures in the first quarter (Brown, Russ Warner and Nick Leibham) and have been consistently doing so.  What’s notable is the lack of fundraising prowess among key Republicans.

Dean Andal is supposed to be one of the top GOP challengers in the whole country.  Yet he could only manage $90,000 in the first quarter, which considering how much effort the GOP is putting into his race is embarrassing.

More interesting to me are the incumbents.  David Dreier raised $136,000, not all that much more than Russ Warner’s $110,000.  Dan Lungren raised around $100,000, not much more than Bill Durston’s $75,000 (very respectable for his grassroots campaign).  And then there are two in Orange County that are shocking.  Dana Rohrabacher was OUTRAISED by Debbie Cook in CA-46: $47,000 to $39,000.  And Cook didn’t get a full quarter in because she didn’t announce until late January.  (On a similar note, Julie Bornstein was able to raise $29,000 in just a few weeks after her announcement).  And in CA-42, Gary Miller was outraised by Ed Chau, a carpetbagger from Montebello, and if you add in Ron Shepston’s total Miller was significantly outraised by his challengers.

That’s quite incredible.  Miller and Rohrabacher might be dismissing the effort against them, and they still have plenty of cash on hand.  But as a symbol of support in the district, clearly Democrats have the momentum all over the state.  We’re going to be very competitive this cycle, and if one of these districts hits, the cash-poor NRCC and the pathetic fundraising prowess of these Republicans isn’t going to save them.

Charlie Brown reported $225,000 in the first quarter of 2008, with over a million dollars raised throughout the campaign.  He’s had 12,000 donors thus far.

Russ Warner took in $100,000 in the first quarter and has $220,000 cash on hand.

But I was more interested in this story, which shows the CNA making an electoral play in two swing districts to help the Democrats reach a 2/3 majority.

This year the nurses union also is backing two Democrats vying for open seats which are being vacated by Republicans:

Up north, longtime San Ramon Valley School Board trustee Joan Buchanan seeks the East Bay’s open 15th Assembly District being vacated by termed-out Assemblyman Guy Houston. In January she reported a $166,000 war chest and most likely will face off against San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson.

Down south, former Santa Barbara Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson wants to fill Ventura County’s open 19th District state Senate seat being surrendered by termed-out Tom McClintock, who’s heading north to run for an open congressional seat near Sacramento. Ex-Assemblyman Tony Strickland is the GOP’s anointed successor.

“We only need two more Democrats in the senate and six more in the assembly to have a two-thirds Democratic majority,” said CNA legislative director Donna Gerber, who spent six years as a Contra Costa County supervisor.

“When there are budget cuts those budget cuts pretty much happen in health care and education. So for sure we are supporting Hannah-Beth Jackson and Joan Buchanan. Those are two that we’re putting a lot of our energy into.”

If labor jumps in explicitly in these legislative races to aid in the drive for 2/3 then we’ll have a distinct financial advantage.  Remember that the CA Republican Party is essentially broke.  This is the best news I’ve heard all week and I know the rest of labor will follow suit.