Ashburn Tells The Truth About His Fellow Cowards

Voting for the budget and facing retirement has seemed to liberate Bakersfield-area Senator Roy Ashburn. He shared coffee with a couple local reporters and dished about the behind-the-scenes budget process, confirming a lot of expectations:

In the wee hours of the Thursday before the budget vote — which had to have been Thursday, the 12th — the Senate Republican caucus met.

One of the senators pointed to four others and basically outed them for coming to his office and asking him to vote for the budget— when they didn't have the guts to do it themselves.

Ashburn wouldn't name names.

Ashburn also said senators went to state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, and asked him to put pet projects into the budget. That as Republican senators railed against overspending. Maldonado wouldn't do it, Ashburn said.

What you have with the Yacht Party is a group of lawmakers afraid of their own base. They glorify the importance of simpletons like John & Ken* to almost mythic levels, so that if they dare to step out of their comfortable ideological shells and help move the state from the brink of financial collapse, they believe it would be the end of their careers. So like all sniveling creatures, they would rather have somebody else do the heavy lifting so they could maintain their pose of anti-tax purity. And at the same time, they have the gall to ask the same people to slip in tasty goodies for themselves and their districts, so they can have all the benefits of compromise with none of the costs.

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but this is again the fruit of a dysfunctional process that enables Yacht Party cowards to extract as much as possible and maintain maximum leverage over negotiations despite their small minority. The conservative veto must end, and democracy must be restored to California.

* - Just to add to the John & Ken stuff: James Rainey, the LA Times' media critic, slaps them around a bit:

It's all the fault of those no-good illegal immigrants. Yes, the price tag that comes with a huge influx of noncitizens is rightly part of the public discourse. So why muddy the waters with some confounding information?

John and Ken wouldn't make that mistake. They make sure to mention the taxes the newcomers don't pay and the bills they run up in public hospitals. Who needs to mention the taxes they do pay, or to waste time worrying about the lower prices and convenience we all derive from their low-wage labor?

Then, please, protest the cost of state workers. It's beyond righteous to worry about the payroll growing, when everyone else is cutting back. But certainly don't remind your listeners (at least that I've heard) that the fastest-growing state job category is prison guard and that their support of tough sentencing helps explain why that part of the state budget keeps growing by leaps.

And certainly don't suggest that an economic downturn -- affecting virtually every government and business in the world -- played any role in ruining the state's finances. It's much more fun to pin it on that special someone. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "had five years to fix the problem and it got to $42 billion," KenJohn said the other day. (Sorry, I'm name-lumping. But when the two get all worked up, I can't tell their voices apart.) [...]

It should be no surprise that "California Psychics" is a frequent advertiser on the program of late.

The business offers the services of tarot card readers, clairvoyants, astrologers and the like. "I think, most of all," one satisfied customer says in the ad, "I felt validated."

It seems to me that's what John & Ken are selling too. A bit of hocus-pocus and validation of their listeners' anger with a story that doesn't bother with all the messy details.

Maldonado Deal To Secure His Own Election On The Table

Because he knows he can get it, Abel Maldonado is offering his list of demands in exchange for being the 27th vote on the budget. I guess Darrell Steinberg's "1 Republican Vote" sign got to him.

In what could be a break in state budget talks, legislative Democrats are contemplating a firm offer - approval of three constitutional amendments - from Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado as a means to closing the state's $40 billion budget shortfall.

Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, could provide the crucial 27th vote necessary to pass a budget package that has been stalled since Saturday. In a lunch meeting at Spataro with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maldonado asked for ballot measures to create an open primary system, prohibit legislative pay raises in deficit years and stop legislators from receiving salaries if they do not pass a budget on time.

Maldonado said in a brief interview Wednesday that there was "a good chance" for a budget vote tonight and that he wants all three of the reforms he has put forth to secure his budget vote.

Asked if he would settle for one or two, he said, "I'm asking for all three," before rushing into a meeting with Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines. "We're very close on the details and I just want to leave it at that."

The move here would be the one Rick Hasen at Election Law Blog came up with - to intentionally draft the law in a way that is unconstitutional. But there already is a draft of it, and it sounds similar enough to the law in Washington State that passed the Supreme Court's muster. Candidates wouldn't have to put their party on the ballot, leading to oftentimes intentional confusion. The vindictive part of me thinks I should sue to tangle this up in court until the day after the 2010 Controller's primary just to screw with St. Abel.

Oh, and Schwarzenegger has wanted this for a while. It's entirely possible that St. Abel is a sock puppet.

The three constitutional amendments, combined with the rest of the bill, would potentially put EIGHT measures on a hastily assembled ballot in May, all of which are essentially must-pass or it's back to the drawing board.

I hate this fucking broken system.

...the only saving grace is Roy Ashburn invoking Reagan raising taxes in 1967 on the Senate floor and shoving it in the rest of the Yacht Party's faces. Didn't know he had it in him.

Budget Follies: By the Skin Of Its Teeth

A day after Calitics called the roll of the Yacht Party on the budget deal to be voted upon tomorrow in the State Senate, Shane Goldmacher does the same and comes up with just three Republicans who haven't signaled a no vote:

The field of potential Republican votes for the budget compromise in the Senate -- widely viewed as the most challenging caucus to corral support -- has narrowed so significantly that only three members have yet to throw cold water on the tentative deal.

That happens to be the bare minimum of Republican votes needed to pass the $40 billion-plus budget plan.

Those three are Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill, Sen. Dave Cox of Fair Oaks and Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield.

Neither Ashburn, Cox OR Cogdill said they would actually vote for the budget, by the way. You can read all of the statements at the link. It should be noted that normally, the Senate would need only two Republican votes to pass, but since Mark Ridley-Thomas' seat is vacant (he was elected to the LA County Board of Supervisors in November) until the March special election, it takes three.

That basically means that full caucus unity is needed from the Democrats, and these three votes would have to come through, for the budget to pass. And we know that Lou Correa is wavering.

And the outside pressure is on. Opportunists like Steve Poizner are slamming the deal, and advocacy groups on both sides are urging a no vote.

GOP conservatives were incensed at the notion of a colleague supporting tax hikes, while labor and environmental groups were mad at what they consider Democratic concessions.

"If we're going to win elections in 2010, we have to say that we're the other party – that we're going to stop tax increases," said Jon Fleischman, a conservative blogger and a vice chairman in the state Republican Party.

Jeanine Meyer Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the state council of Service Employees International Union, representing 750,000 workers statewide, was upset by spending restraints and billions in budget cuts in the proposal.

"We're making it clear to all the legislators that if they vote for this, they're not representing our members," she said.

This morning's Republican press release painted the budget as a necessary evil, so the skids are being greased for passage. Still, with nobody owning the bill and lots of variables, it's entirely possible that it goes down tomorrow. Given some of the details, I'm not convinced that's a bad thing. But clearly, tomorrow should be... interesting.

Yacht Party Wankers Of The Day

Two nominations here. By the way, since it recently came up in comments, the reason we here at Calitics call the California Republican Party the "Yacht Party" can be best explained here and here.

Nominee #1: Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield, who introduced a bill that would eliminate IOUs for tax refunds.

State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, has introduced legislation requiring California’s controller to issue state income tax refunds in cash.

Controller John Chiang has announced his office will have to delay refunds for 30 days starting Feb. 1 because of the state’s cash-flow problems. He has threatened he may have to issue refunds in the form of IOUs if a budget addressing the $41 billion shortfall the state’s projected to have by mid-2010 isn't passed.

Chiang has said refunds will resume when he’s sure there’s enough state cash on hand.

Ashburn has said tax refund money belongs to the taxpayers, not the government, and taxpayers should get it back in the form it was paid — “cold, hard cash.” California’s constantly taking in cash, he’s said.

Hey Roy, I know a bill you could pass that would get cold hard cash back in the hands of your constituents. It's called the budget, and without it California is out of money, and fiduciary responsibilities (sorry for the $1 word) stipulate that other priorities must be paid first. It's called "how government works," and though you're a State Senator I'm not surprised at your ignorance.



Nominee #2: Faux-moderate Abel Maldonado, angry about the Controller's office "requesting new furniture" even though the current Controller, uh, didn't do that.

"I don't like the fact that hard working people in my district are getting IOUs and he's buying millions of dollars worth of furniture," Maldonado said in an interview. (For the record, taxpayers due refunds from the state and others missing payments aren't getting IOUs just yet. They're simply not receiving anything at all.) [...]

Chiang's office struck back, calling Maldonado's accusation "pathetic."

"Had he done any homework, the senator should have realized that the expansion project, including furniture,...began before Controller Chiang took office," his office said.

Further, Chiang's office argued, the controller "demanded that staff cut down the costs, and by changing financing, materials, design, and construction, reduced the overall expense of the project by more than 50 percent" - a $4 million savings.

Next for Maldonado, he'll lambaste Arnold Schwarzenegger for Prop. 187. Wanker.

Soft Yacht Party Underbelly?

Well this is kind of interesting. So the Yacht Party put together their "Let Them Eat Cake" budget in the Senate today, and predictably, it was voted down. What was not predictable is that two Republicans didn't vote for it, the precise number needed to flip to get a budget passed.

In the end, despite all Republican Senators being present, only 13 voted for the bill, AB 1793, and 21 Democrats voted against it. The two Republican Senators who did not vote, Abel Maldonado and Roy Ashburn, raised eyebrows as some consider their move to indicate they could conceivably be two votes in play for some compromise. Together with Democratic votes they could give the necessary votes to reach the two-thirds supermajority needed to pass a budget but gave no other outward signs that this would be the case [...]

Democrats are caucusing right now, after the vote. Senator Perata at the end of the Senate debate was clearly frustrated. He asked the Republicans necessary to pass the budget to contact him and let him know what was needed for their votes—or to do so publicly.

It's instructive to see what the Yacht Party budget would actually do, for the purposes of electoral politics. I'd love to see it mailed to independent voters in swing districts (call it the "Contract On California"). But in the short term, troops should be deployed to Sens. Maldonado and Ashburn's districts immediately. Ashburn has already proven himself amendable on a budget solution, as has Maldonado. Neither of them have to run again (the primary's already over in Maldonado's election) so that common Yacht Party threat is irrelevant. We need to end this stalemate as soon as possible, to literally save lives and end suffering, and so it's time to get it done. Fighting 2/3, or getting 2/3, is the medium-term goal right now.

Overall, I think we're seeing some coalescing on 2/3. High Broderist George Skelton came out for it today. Of course, a majority budget with a 2/3 rule for taxes is effectively useless. But at least the blame is being directed nominally correctly. Even multiple Republicans are quoted in the article agreeing on doing away with 2/3, for instances of accountability. I'm more than happy to have that argument because conservative policies are deeply unpopular.

Now, the corrections officers want to float a recall petition for the Governor, which I find hilarious (Arnold's laughing too). But it's hardly fair to blame him and not the structural problems that make California ungovernable. I agree that Schwarzenegger has been a horrendous chief executive, mainly because he lied about his ability to actually work within those ungovernable guidelines.

Pick off who you have to pick off to get the budget done. Then get 2/3. And make Republicans pay for their intransigence and anti-Democratic stances.