It is always interesting to watch how a scandal can so easily jump to a parallel perp. In this case, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has a wife who seemed to serve as a role model for driving with a suspended license.

This news, dug up by my colleague Patrick McGreevy, was of note because Delgadillo was squawking about the release of Paris Hilton from jail, where she was doing time for driving with a suspended license.

Then, on Tuesday, we learned that Delgadillo’s city-owned GMC Yukon was banged up in 2004.

No big deal there, except that McGreevy’s sources leave the impression that Delgadillo might not have been behind the wheel.

It gets better…

So the L.A. Times has been all over this, putting together a list of all the questions they want answered. And in showing true Lou Correa courage Delgadillo is going to come clean on the 10th day:

Nobody, it seems, can answer my questions.

I mentioned my frustration to Delgadillo spokesman Nick Velasquez, who finally got back to me Friday afternoon to say that Delgadillo will gladly meet with me and another Times reporter Monday.

Monday?

It’s a simple question, really. Who was driving the car?

Doesn’t seem to me that the answer could change over the weekend, but come to think of it, Monday is perfect. Monday is beautiful. I like a nice round number, and Monday is Day 10 of the Rocky Horror Show. Be sure to stay tuned.

OK, I’ll stay tuned…

And like many of the recent scandals, there are bonus points…

Instead, Delgadillo spent the whole week ducking, but it seemed there was nowhere to hide. The Los Angeles Ethics Commission nailed Delgadillo with $11,450 in fines for violating campaign finance laws in an unconnected matter, and L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley accused Delgadillo of going soft on crime, charging criminals with misdemeanors instead of felonies to keep the prosecutions under his jurisdiction.

You know you’re on a really bad streak when $11,450 in campaign finance fines is the best part of your week.

Any predictions on the font size for tomorrow’s headline?

We’ve had a spirited discussion about recent events in the state Senate.  With everybody talking about winners and losers, I think it’s important to note who’s really being impacted.

Tomorrow night 60 Minutes will have a feature story on homeless dumping at Skid Row in Los Angeles.  You can watch a preview at the link, featuring an interview with a paraplegic named Gabino Olvera, who was dumped and left to pull himself across the street by his hands.

The CEO of Hollywood Presbyterian, whose hospital dumped this man downtown, blames the bus driver.  On tape.

When asked by Cooper whether the van driver was the only person who made a mistake, (Kaylor) Shemberger replies, “Well, she’s the person who made the decision to drop the patient off.” To which Cooper responds, “And to those who would say that you’re basically making a scapegoat of this low-paid van driver?”

“I don’t think anybody is making a scapegoat out of anybody,” Shemberger says.

The next time you want to rant and rave about who has a smaller office and who’s on what committee, get a mental picture in your head of Gabino Olvera pulling himself across the street, while people like Kaylor Shemberger sit in their plush office and look the other way.  Let’s not lose perspective.

(By the way, a special thanks to City Attorney and former Attorney General candidate Rocky Delgadillo, who reached a deal with Kaiser to stop the practice, which apparently Hollywood Presbyterian, in the wake of this 60 Minutes episode, will now sign on to.)

On the night before the California Primary, I’m hearing a lot of buzz among the posters at New West Notes that, while Jerry Brown should nominated Attorney General, Rocky Delgadillo may surprise everyone and make it a closer race than expected, perhaps because Brown has not been on the air. Any thoughts out there?

The down-ballot Field poll was released this morning. So, I’ll run down the numbers, starting with the Constitutional offices.

Lt.Gov

Jackie Speier has moved into a small lead over John Garamendi, apparently all those billboards aren’t paying off for him like he would have hoped.  Liz Figueroa has continued to slide into oblivion.  Currently, Speier has 30%, Garamendi 25%, and Figueroa 8% with 37% undecided. It was thought by some that Figueroa would act as a spoiler for Speier, but that doesn’t seem to be playing out.  Figueroa has only 7% of women and only 5% in Speier’s and Figueroa’s home region of Northern California.  She is a bit stronger in Southern California at 10%, but this is probably just due to Latino identity politics.  Speier’s large lead amongst women might push her over the top in a primary that is dominated by women.  She currently leads 33-21-7 on that figure.  On the GOP Side, Tom McClintock is running unopposed.

Attorney General

Jerry Brown‘s name recognition, (and a Time Magazine feature story didn’t hurt on that account), without much in the way of campaign spending, has allowed him to retain his large lead over Rocky Delgadillo.  Currently Brown has 51%, Delgadillo 24%, and 25% are undecided.  I would go deeper into the numbers, but Brown seems to be dominant in all the crosstabs.  On the GOP side, Poochigian is running without siginificant opposition.

Controller

This race has flown under the radar, with a huge 63% undecided.  Joe Dunn is clinging to the slimmest of leads with 19 points, while John Chiang has 18.  Unsuprisingly, Dunn is doing better in Southern California (21-14) and Chiang better in Northern California (25-15).  This one will probably get a lot fewer people voting on it that the gov race, and name recognition just might push a state senator over a BOE member.  But, at this point, it’s too close to call.  And on the plus side, both campaigns in this race have run great campaigns.  I’m excited to see either man win.  On the GOP side, Strickland has a 43-32 lead over Maldanado.

Treasurer

Bill Lockyer is running unopposed.  On the GOP side, Keith Richman is leading small government loon and current BOE member Claude Parrish at 18-17 with 65 undecided.

Secretary Of State

Deborah Ortiz narrowly leads Debra Bowen at 25-19.  However, this might be merely identity politics as 65% is undecidided.  Ortiz seems to be holding her home region of Sacramento and NorCal (28-15), but with undecideds so high, it’s hard to glean much from the poll.  And another thing, am I totally missing something, or does Ortiz not have a campaign website?  That would be pretty crazy, and if so I would definitely have to publicly give my support to Bowen.  C’mon folks, technology is a big part of that job, get with the 21st century.  McPherson is running unopposed for the GOP nomination.

Prop 82

Prop 82 has been crashing in support recently.  And the news today is not good either.  Currently it’s losing by a margin of 41 Yes to 46 No.  The scare tactics used by the No on 82 folks seem to be working.  And I must admit, I’ve heard several very progressive people admit that they are a bit nervous about voting for the program.  I think at some level people just don’t like instituting such a large program via direct democracy.  Also, part of this is the additional taxes.  Those on the right jsut hate government, those on the left seem to want to use those taxes for other purposes.  However, I think it’s going to be a close race for 82.  The SacBee notes that:

Despite the new poll numbers, supporters say they believe they will win. They expect to do well among Democrats, who will be more likely to go to the polls to vote in the gubernatorial primary and other hotly contested Democratic races, said Nathan James, a spokesman for the Yes on 82 campaign.

“We always knew this election was going to come down to the wire,” James said. “We have a number of advantages going into this election.”

But opponents of Proposition 82, including the California Chamber of Commerce, have been pushing the arguments that the program would be too costly and would potentially drive private preschools out of business.

Pamela Zell Rigg, president of the California Montessori Council, said opponents were hoping voters would turn against the measure as they learned more about it. (SacBee 6/3/06)

So, obviously turnout will be key in all these races. But for Prop 82, where both parties get to vote and Ds are skewed in favor of 82(53-33) and Rs are skewed against 82 (25-65), the “who” of turnout will be key.  If many Republicans stay away from what is an otherwise uninteresting primary election for them, it might allow 82 to pass.