The California Report

A few things of interest as we head into the holiday weekend:

• That mortgage legislation that I noted passing the Assembly yesterday was quickly taken up in the Senate (there were some amendments in the Assembly bill so concurrence was needed, and it passed easily (the vote was 32-8). The legislation will now be sent to the Governor and there are indications that he will sign it. Because of the 2/3 vote it received, most of its provisions will take effect immediately. It's a decent first step but it had better not be the last.

• The new Cook Report ratings are out, and among the slew of seats where Democrats are gaining, one race in California has shifted:

CA-46 Dana Rohrabacher Solid Republican to Likely Republican

That's pretty big news. Charlie Cook's report is widely read by insiders, and clearly they are taking notice as to the strength of Debbie Cook's campaign. Joe Shaw, communications director for Cook's campaign, calls it "the first Orange County congressional race to be considered competitive since Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’s 1996 race against incumbent Bob Dornan."

• In CA-04, Charlie Brown announced a whirlwind schedule for the 4th of July, participating in events in King’s Beach, Lincoln, Roseville, Grass Valley, Auburn, and Alturas. Tom McClintock must have seen that and scrambled up on the plane from his Thousand Oaks redoubt, because he hastily scheduled a couple campaign events. In fact, the two candidates will be in the same parade in Lincoln. That should be fun.