links for 2010-02-12

When we spoke on Tuesday, he acknowledged speaking with Campbell about exiting the race for governor and entering the race for senator, making the point that Campbell had called him. He did not discuss, however, his conversations with Jim Cunneen.

Cunneen is a chair of the Campbell campaign. He was Campbell’s staff director in Congress and, with Campbell’s help (and that of Wilson and White), became a state assemblyman.

He is also a partner in White’s firm, California Strategies. Cunneen was intimately involved in shaping Campbell’s thinking on his candidacy.
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Meg Whitman has tried to clear the field but the truth has leaked out. Will she continue her plege to help Campbell financially at her political risk or screw Tom Campbell over? By the looks of today's fundraising numbers from Campbell it may be the latter.

Wondering which members voted "aye" and "no" and who stayed on the sidelines d yesterday's rejection failed confirmation vote on Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado's lieutenant governor nomination?
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Note: Chuck DeVore is the only Republican not voting Aye. In fact, DeVore did NOT vote at all.

Brandman University professor Mike Moodian tells Capitol Alert that he's invited Republican candidates Tom Campbell, Chuck DeVore and Carly Fiorina to square off on the campus of the university's sister school, Chapman University. Campbell and DeVore are on board and Fiorina's camp is expected to respond by early next week, he said.

Like the GOP gubernatorial debate Brandman hosted last fall, which Campbell participated in as a then guv-hopeful, this debate will integrate some questions submitted via Twitter. Also like last time, Bee columnist Dan Walters will join Moodian as a co-moderator.

"We think particularly with the Twitter angle, it's an effective way to engage the citizenry," Moodian said. "This would be a good opportunity for the candidates to come to Orange County and debate the issues … roughly five or six weeks before the vote-by-mail ballots are sent out."

The debate, tentatively titled "America in the 21st Century,"
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Carly should accept.

In an extraordinary legal power play, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger insisted that Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, will be sworn in as lieutenant governor even after the Assembly failed to confirm him in a long, drawn-out vote Thursday.

Schwarzenegger's legal team said that Maldonado was effectively confirmed because the Legislature failed to put up a majority — 41 of 80 votes — to reject him.

The Assembly voted 37-35 to confirm Maldonado, with 28 yes votes coming from Republicans, eight from Democrats and one from the lone independent — four votes shy of the 41 needed for confirmation.

The administration said it plans to swear him in on Feb. 23, despite legal questions surrounding the confirmation vote and what would appear to be a certain legal showdown.
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Up to the California Supreme Court more than likely.

Emily Robison and Martie Maguire from the Dixie Chicks will be releasing new music this spring under the name Court Yard Hounds. Check out the video above to hear Martie and Emily talk about the new project and the creative forces behind it.
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But, the vocals??

There is a move afoot among California Republican Party leaders to pressure Meg Whitman, the frontrunner for the party's nomination for governor, into a debate against rival Steve Poizner at the state GOP convention next month. The state party's board members, who are scheduled to discuss the issue in a conference call Friday afternoon, are weighing whether to require all candidates for governor and Senate to participate in a debate at the convention — and if they refuse, to deny them the ability to address the convention delegates in any other forum.
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Meg Whitman should debate Steve Poizner – PERIOD

Californians are disgusted with the petty antics of the governor and the Legislature, polls tell us, and want them to balance the deficit-ridden state budget and otherwise do the public's business.

However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders of the state Assembly are locked in a political, semantic and ultimately legal duel over something that should have taken about five minutes – confirming Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado to serve 10 months in the completely meaningless office of lieutenant governor.

Yet we shouldn’t overlook that he definitely was not a fiscal conservative when he was state finance director, nor in his comments since then about the state budget. In his biography on his campaign Web site, he boasts, “During Tom’s tenure as State Finance Director, California’s budget was balanced with no tax increases, no new borrowing, and no accounting gimmicks.” True enough. But that was at the height of the housing boom mania, when the state’s coffers were overflowing with tax money.

But just like when Gov. Gray Davis enjoyed a similar excess tax take during the dot-com boom half a decade earlier, the money was not saved, but was used for new spending. Tax revenues soared from $82.2 billion in fiscal 2004-05 to $93.5 billion in fiscal 2005-06, the only year in which Campbell had full involvement in the budget process (before he left the post). That’s an increase of $11.3 billion in just one year. Who couldn’t balance a budget with that kind of revenue?

But by combining selective facts with an over-the-top tone, the ad paints Campbell as a profligate tax-and-spender. Anyone who's watched his career in the state Legislature and Congress knows that's ridiculous. Ask card-carrying Democrats whether Campbell is a fellow traveler. Their eyes will light up like the demon sheep's.

The ad's focus on ideological rigidity says more about Fiorina than it does about Campbell. Despite being fundamentally conservative, Campbell has reached across the aisle. The message of the demon sheep is that Fiorina will not — and that, by the way, she's likely to play fast and loose with facts.

It's not what we expected of a Silicon Valley executive making the shift to public life.
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The ad was a big mistake

The gubernatorial campaign of Meg Whitman paid $20,000 for advertising on the conservative blog, Red County, that another advertiser only paid $300 for the same ad space. NBC Bay Area writer Jackson West:

Twenty thousand dollars will buy you a lot of advertising online. A lot. Especially on a site with a limited readership — like Chip Hanlon's right-wing blog Red County.

But that's how much the former eBay CEO Meg Whitman's gubernatorial campaign paid to Green Faucet, the investment firm owned by blogger Hanlon and parent company of Red County.

Hanlon told Calbuzz that the money was for advertising, however other advertisers seem to be much better at negotiating than Whitman's campaign — another advertiser is only paying $300 a month.

Chip Hanlon, the blog's proprietor, recently fired a blogger from his site that was found to receive payments from Whitman's campaign rival, Steve Poizner. Jackson West wondered if this means Hanlon will fire himself?
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Disgraceful