Governor to address legislature as new leadership team emerges. I’ll be on KALW Your Call at 10AM to discuss the State of the State.

by Brian Leubitz

There was a bit of controversy surrounding what was slowly coming into focus last week surrounding the legislative leadership races. Sen. Steinberg said last week that Sen Kevin de León was going to be the next Senate President Pro Tem. That was met with some worrying tones from Northern California, especially from the Bay Area Council:

We respect the importance of Southern California and often work closely with leaders there on key issues, but for the good of California, we must continue to share leadership.

As a region, therefore, we face an enormous and historic political test. Northern California’s senators and Assembly members should stand up for their districts, their voters, their region and this historic balance of power, and ensure that the next leader of either the Senate or the Assembly is from this part of the state. Once we lose that position of power, it’s very difficult to get it back. (Jim Wunderman, CEO of Bay Area Council , op-ed)

While this is a fuzzy kind of truth, you don’t really have to go all that far back to find contra cases. Willie Brown and Bill Lockyer were leading both chambers in the mid-1990s, but it has been something of a recent practice with the fast changing faces of the Legislature since term limits.  

At any rate, the BAC and other northern allies will have another shot at this race in two years. Atkins is term limited in 2016, while de León will face his Senate limit in 2018.

Meanwhile, the Governor has a plethora of topics to discuss at today’s State of the State. Water, climate change, the budget, and HSR all may come up.  I’ll be on KALW Your Call (91.7 in SF) at 10 AM, right after the speech to discuss it.  

Good day on Calitics all around.  Well done Calitics.  Not too much to add really, but I’ll do it anyways because that’s just what I do.

Nationally, the Pentagon is is reporting that violence is increasing in Iraq.  In other news, surge suppressors are on sale now.

At the state level, Republican infighting.  John Benoit (R-Riverside) introduced a bill to prevent candidates from simultaneously running for and raising money for both state and local office.  The culprit? Russ Bogh (R-Beaumont) who’s running for state Senate and Riverside County Board of Supervisors.  Tricky tricky…

And locally here in Sunny San Diego, Mayor Sanders has announced that he will sign the city’s $2.88 billion budget.  But oh by the way, he’s nixing funding for homeless shelters that has been at the center of budget back-and-forth all year.  The funding will be taken up again in September, and Democratic council president Scott Peters and my own councilwoman Toni Atkins are optimistic.  I’m not.  So city council, you get what you want, if by “you” one means “Mayor Sanders.”

Tonight I’m going to The Casbah to see Deep Rooted, Strange Fruit Project, and Lifesavas.  Unfortunately, you probably can’t come with me.  To ease your pain, delight: Strange Fruit Project – Pinball

“Sometimes we win big, sometimes we win small”

UPDATE by Brian: I wanted to toss a few things in this open thread:

Next year, half of San Diego’s eight city council members will be termed out, leaving open seats across town after what has been a tumultuous several years of city government.  Bribery, pension crises, “strong mayor” government, death, shady fundraising, service cuts, union strife, budget shortfalls and oh yeah- a city to run.  As the city council and the mayor continue to battle over just how much power a “strong mayor” should have, the shape of the city council is about to change in a major way.  The ramifications could dictate the fundamental course of San Diego government for quite some time.

Mayor Sanders was elected into office on a platform which called for much more power to be given to the mayor and, by extention, removed from the city council.  In the wake of the City Council missing the pension crisis and the resignations of Acting Mayor Michael Zucchet and Councilman Ralph Inzunza because of federal corruption charges, this was perhaps a natural reaction the failures of the City Council.  But in a micro version of the Bush power grab, Mayor Sanders has done everything he can to give himself complete control over the city’s budget and operation.

The city council, until recently, has been generally willing to acquiesce on these power grabs, but has begun to show some life recently.  It’s fought back over pay raises for police and fire personnel and on cuts to civic services.  It’s a toe in the water, and hopefully the beginning of better progress.  So why is this important?  Well, San Diego is the second-largest city in California, and it’s on the verge of becoming effectively autocratic.  With half the city council coming open, this is the opportunity for San Diego to decide what direction it will send its government.  For those of us who would like checks, balances, and some form of representative government, the stakes are high.  We need a city council that will keep the Mayor in control and a city council that will get San Diego on track (it is most certainly NOT currently on track).

Earlier this week, Voice of San Diego ran a great roundup of the candidates declared or mulling runs for city council districts 1 (Scott Peters), 3 (Toni Atkins), 5 (Brian Maienschein), and 7 (Jim Madaffer).  These races have already added more candidates since Monday, and the first candidate forums will be coming up later in the month.  I strongly encourage San Diegans to check the candidates and keep an eye on this.  The stakes are high and there’s tremendous opportunity to have an impact in this election for both sides.  Make sure good government wins out.