« October 2006 |
Main
| December 2006 »
Anthony York's profile of Schwarzenegger advisor and friend Bonnie Reiss, who is leaving her formal job with the admininistration, notes how Reiss became shocked at the power of unions in the Capitol. Dan Weintraub notices a trend among Democrats.
 One of the best Reiss stories comes from well before Schwarzenegger entered politics. It was Maria Shriver and Reiss who used Schwarzenegger for their political ends, not the other way around. Times staff writer Joe Mathews had this description of the Reiss-Schwarzenegger relationship in a recent story:
"Bonnie Reiss got a look at her future boss in action in 1979 when she and her friend Maria Shriver were trying to whip up interest in a Teddy Kennedy for President event at a roller-disco club in Hollywood. The two women coaxed Shriver's bodybuilder boyfriend into taking a stroll along Venice Beach. 'He let us walk 20 feet behind him and try to sell fund-raiser tickets to the people following him down the beach,' Reiss recalled."
Reiss is returning to Malibu, but Schwarzenegger said she will always "have a seat at the table."
- Number of public school teachers the state Legislature envisioned it would train in mathematics and reading standards under a 2001 law: 176,000
- So far, the number of teachers that districts could prove they trained: 7,230
- Taxpayer cost of program so far: $113 million (enough to fully train 45,000 teachers)
- Number of school districts that could not provide any information to the state auditor about the number of teachers who completed the required 120 hours of training: 41 of 100 surveyed.
Read the audit of the Department of Education here.
After the 2003 recall, Schwarzenegger turned down an offer to film a reality TV series based in the California governor's office. Denying the public that much sunshine into his life was probably a wise move, given that just a brief, electronically recorded glimpse caused such a "hot-blooded" stir this year.
 Now, Schwarzenegger is calling for more openness to California's school system — including putting all sorts of public information on the Internet for parents and others to see. In reality, he wants to create a marketplace for schools by forcing them to compete against each other for students. Schwarzenegger said recently:
"And my policy always has been, let the sun shine in. Let the sun shine in on everything. Let the schools open up their financial record. Let us see how they spend their money and where that money goes. And then I think that will really make it easier for parents to shop for the best schools and it will make them more competitive because all of a sudden they will see that this school is getting more students, this school is losing students. So then the ones that are losing students, they'll be getting their act together."
The governor's position is being bolstered by a new poll sponsored by Children Now that found 92% of those surveyed "favor requiring better and more accessible information so that we can understand where our education tax dollars are being spent." This gives the governor political ammunition if he supports legislation on the subject next year. He's sure to face opposition from some school and teacher groups that already feel hectored enough by achievement tests and school rankings.
Hey, what about mandatory webcams in all California classrooms so the public can view teachers and students in action? That might generate some sympathy for teachers, in fact. It would show they have to put up with students like this.
Along with schools, Schwarzenegger seems inclined for more openness in law enforcement. He recently signaled that he was interested to the concept of videotaping police interrogations of suspects arrested for violent crimes. Read the "I'm interested" veto statement here on legislation from last year.
Anna Werner, an investigative reporter with CBS-5 in the Bay Area, has a new piece on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "taxpayer-funded PR machine," which includes live webcasts and videos of the governor's public appearances. The governor's office claimed these webcasts are not edited, but Werner found some footage that "never made it to the governor's website:"
- Clip 1: Schwarzenegger gives a speech in which he tells a joke featuring his wife, Maria Shriver. "My wife came to me and she says, 'You know, what do you want for Father's Day?' I said, 'Let me think about that. Well, how about 10 more points in the polls? And how about some wild sex?' She said, 'Uh, well, let me work on the poll numbers.' " He also jokes that cigars show the "difference between Democrats and Republicans." To Schwarzenegger, a cigar means you "kick back and relax," but to Bill Clinton, a cigar is "evidence," the Republican governor says.
- Clip 2: A joke he frequently tells about his uncle-in-law, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy. Shriver tells him he is becoming more and more "Kennedyesque." Schwarzenegger muses that he must be like Robert or John Kennedy, when in fact she means he's becoming "fat" like Uncle Teddy.
- Clip 3: Schwarzenegger introduces his new chief of staff, Susan (No Relation) Kennedy, to the Capitol press corp. When the reporters sit silently, he jokes: "Tone it down, not so much applause."
- Clip 4: At a speech before law enforcement, Schwarzenegger jokes he hasn't seen so many police since he "had my motorcycle crash and was asked for my driver's license, which I didn't have."
 "The lesson for California Republicans is that in the governor’s office they have an egotist and an opportunist who picks his friends to serve himself and maintains his loyalties only so long as they do so. The Party — its members and organizations — should return the favor with gusto. What Schwarzenegger should get from them for the asking should be: absolutely nothing. - William E. Saracino, musing that Schwarzenegger is more like Richard Nixon than Ronald Reagan.
For Arnoldologists of this persuasion, there are even Nixon-Schwarzenegger coffee mugs available on Ebay.
I was sitting in a restaurant last night trying to figure out why a lumpy, brown, aging crab cake was floating in my gazpacho when Phil Angelides walked through the restaurant. He greeted a few people and came to the table to say hello. He had just finished a four-hour meeting with his three closest advisors — media guru Bill Carrick, campaign manager Cathy Calfo and Democratic Party strategist Bob Mulholland. Everyone had thick binders under their arms.
 After essentially three years of campaigning, it would be natural for Angelides to call a meeting to deconstruct why he suffered such an embarrassing loss to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Any politician would want to find out what went wrong.
But that is not what the meeting was about. (Although some post-election analysis did occur, Carrick said.) The meeting at the 33rd Street Bistro was to plan his comeback in California politics, which seemed sort of astonishing to the people at my table. Isn't he, like, a loser?
Mulholland came over and suggested Angelides would be a candidate in 2010 for governor or another higher office (U.S. Senate, if Barbara Boxer leaves?). He mentioned other politicians who lost big elections — Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Alan Cranston — and then came back to win higher office. Cranston, Mulholland said today in a telephone conversation, announced immediately after losing reelection for state controller in 1966 that he would run for U.S. Senate in 1968. Reporters dismissed him as crazy — he was, after all, a loser — but Cranston won.
Mulholland said Angelides has been active in Democratic politics for 15 years and "still has another good 15 years in him." He said he wants to play a big part in getting a Democratic president elected in 2008, and would look to something for himself in 2010. "Phil will not be running for Board of Equalization, let's just put it that way," Mulholland said. "I will guarantee that you will see a very active Phil Angelides in politics."
All of this seems sort of delusional to me. I still remember sitting in the piercing sun on the porch of Al Checchi's Beverly Hills mansion listening to him explain how he would remain a player in California politics even though he had just lost big to Gray Davis in the 1998 Democratic primary. Checchi really hasn't been heard from since. But Angelides is a different animal, so who knows?
Meanwhile, don't order the gazpacho at the 33rd Street Bistro.
(Photo: Rich Pedroncelli / AP)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is blowing off the Republican Governors Assn. meeting that starts today at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. Twenty other Republican governors and governors-elect are attending, including Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Rick Perry of Texas and George Pataki of New York. Currently, there are 28 GOP governors — but the party lost six gubernatorial offices in the November election.
Instead of attending, Schwarzenegger has a busy schedule dedicating a new freeway in Orange County, attending an auto show in Los Angeles, and flying to Mexico City for the inauguration of President-elect Felipe Calderon.
Why isn't Schwarzenegger attending the governors' conference? Perhaps because he isn't really a Republican governor. (Snark!) "As far as I can tell, he's never attended," said Schwarzenegger press secretary Margita Thompson. "The governor's first priority is developing policies that will be part of the next year."
It's another nightmare scenario.
In a Florida district this election, 18,000 people declined to cast a vote in a congressional race but voted in other contests on the same ballot. That was four or five times the number of "no votes" than in other elections, raising alarms about Florida's electronic voting machines.
 In the race, Republican Vern Buchanan has been declared the winner over his Democratic challenger, Christine Jennings. Buchanan won by 369 votes out of 238,000 cast, state officials said, but there is no paper trail to verify what happened to those 18,000 "no votes." Oh, and by the way, Buchanan and Jennings were running to replace Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, who was Florida's secretary of state during the 2000 election debacle and vacated her seat to run for U.S. Senate.
Could this happen here? What is wrong with those people? Should Florida just be eliminated as a state? Now, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein wants to answer at least one of those questions and take a hard look at electronic voting machines when the new Congress convenes.
In California, little-known to the general public, election officials have been auditing their electronic voting machines, as required by law, after the November election. Each county must compare the voting machine results from 1% of precincts to the voter-verified paper trail that the machine produced.
With all the squawking about the dangers of voting machines, a remarkably small number of people have been attending these public audits and observing the process. In some counties, nobody shows up while election officials verify the accuracy of the machines. But Kim Alexander with the California Voter Foundation, which fought to require a voter-verified paper trail in the state, and Stanford professor David Dill, who founded Verified Voting, have observed some interesting things while watching the audits over the past few days:
- It's up to county election officials to figure out the method of picking the precincts they want to audit. In San Mateo County, Dill said, they rolled 10-sided dice. Los Angeles County uses a random-digit generator. Some counties asked the voting machines themselves to pick which precincts to audit — which Dill said was like asking a bank to pick which part of the bank to audit.
 Alexander and Dill both worried that some counties were picking which precincts to audit several days before actually auditing the machines. "It does compromise the process because people know in advance what is going to be audited," Dill said, "and that means that maybe mistakes won't be caught if someone wanted to cheat."
- Alexander said that during the audit in San Joaquin County, a paper jam on one machine forced election officials to print out a new record of the votes. That meant they were using a record of votes produced by the machine and not verified by the voter on election day. "If somebody tampered with the results after the election, a printout from that same data wouldn't show that," she said.
- Few counties seemed to have written procedures for their audits. They sort of winged it. And it's unclear what is supposed to be done if errors are found. Alexander said in San Joaquin County, there was a two-vote difference between the voter-verified paper trail and the electronic results from the Diebold machine. In Yolo County, a one-vote difference was found. Which is correct?
Ordinary people can call their county elections office to see about watching e-voting audits that haven't been finished yet. Alexander has a tip sheet for observing.
For the most part, alarm bells are not ringing about California's auditing process, but look for legislation next year to reform the process and additional scrutiny from incoming Secretary of State Debra Bowen. "I've gained a lot of respect," Dill said, "about how complicated it is to do good auditing."
(Photos: George Clark / AP; Joshua Roberts / Gettty Images)
"He does not really have an in-depth interest in policy. ... He loves marketing."
—State Sen.-elect Mark Wyland (R-Del Mar), speaking about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is about to launch a policy-heavy agenda on health care, prison overcrowding and election reform.
 Ron Nehring, the vice chairman of the California Republican Party, has been in Baghdad for a first-hand glimpse of the war. He went there to train Iraqis on democracy through a group called the International Republican Institute, which says it promotes the free market and "rule of law" around the world.
Let's just say there wasn't much rule of law while Nehring was in Baghdad. You can sense how chaotic the situation has become there in just a few posts.
Nov. 22 posting: "Those I met with are good people, genuinely interested in building a new country for a new generation. It’s very different than what we see on television, which typically highlights divisions and difficulties that make for better ratings than less alarmist progress and diligence."
Three days later: "Since arriving here last Sunday I’ve had my luggage lost, car bombs detonated outside of the building where I was lecturing, mortar fire within easy earshot, flights canceled, and now uncertainty about just when I will have the opportunity to return to California."
Lisa Gates with the International Republican Institute said today that Nehring and his group have left Iraq. The Baghdad airport appears to have reopened after bomb blasts in the Sadr City slum killed more than 200 people, but Baghdad remains in chaos.
|
|
|
One of the best Reiss stories comes from well before Schwarzenegger entered politics. It was Maria Shriver and Reiss who used Schwarzenegger for their political ends, not the other way around. Times staff writer Joe Mathews had this description of the Reiss-Schwarzenegger relationship in a recent story:
Our Blogger