Capitol Alert

A Senate confirmation hearing for California State University Trustee Steve Glazer was put on hold today as Gov. Jerry Brown sought to shore up Republican support.

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff said he met with the Democratic governor today to discuss Glazer's confirmation vote and other issues. The caucus has not yet taken a position on the appointment, which requires a two-thirds vote of the full Senate.

"I think we're going to a good place," Huff said after the meeting. "We just weren't ready to make a decision this week."

Glazer, a top unpaid political adviser to Brown, was scheduled to appear in front of the Senate Rules Committee today. But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced that consideration of Glazer's appointment would be pushed back a week.

Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the "hearing was delayed to allow further conversations with the minority party."

"Steve Glazer is an excellent candidate and the pro tem looks forward to his confirmation," she wrote in an email.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Emken this week defended her work lobbying to include autism coverage in the federal health care overhaul backed by President Barack Obama in 2009, even though she opposed the bill.

Emken, one of 23 candidates challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the June 5 ballot, has come under fire from Republican opponents over records showing Autism Speaks sought to influence the outcome of the legislation when she was listed as a top lobbyist for the nonprofit advocacy group.

The Danville Republican, whose 19-year-old son is autistic, said the organization lobbied lawmakers to include language to ensure that health care companies would provide coverage for medical issues and treatment related to the condition under the new law.

Emken said that while she disagrees with the overall approach of the health care overhaul, the effort to include the language was important for her and the organization because autism is "perfect example of a catastrophic medical event" that some insurance companies will not cover.

"What we were doing is, as everyone was doing when you have a Democratically-controlled Senate, House and president, everyone, Democrats and Republicans are all working on a piece of legislation that's on the table," she said during a Sacramento press availability Tuesday. "That's how it's done. You don't just walk away if you don't like how things are going. You continue to work on it."

Emken said the reference to autism did not make it into the bill, which was signed into law in 2010, and regulatory language emerging on the issue is "extremely nebulous." She said that outcome reinforced her opposition to the law.

"The issues are so long and vast and broad with Obamacare," she said, "I really believe the only solution is to repeal it, but I do believe in replacing it with real health care reform and real health insurance reform."

Emken dismissed the attacks from opponents, saying they are "to be expected" because she won the endorsement of the California Republican Party.

"As you can imagine, it's very natural that I'm sure the other Democratic candidates are going to be making comments about Dianne Feinstein and (Republicans are) going to be making comments about me and they're going to be unified in that because I have the support of the California Republican Party," she said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Elizabeth Emken speaks at a news conference in Sacramento on April 10, 2012. Associated Press/Rich Pedroncelli

Legislation aimed at compelling the state's four major sports universities to improve treatment of their "student athletes" stalled, at least temporarily, in the state Senate Education Committee Wednesday.

While committee members appeared to favor the thrust of the legislation, they wanted to see proposed amendments in print before moving the bill.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, is carrying Senate Bill 1525, dubbing it the "Student Athlete Bill of Rights," contending that while big sports schools reap tens of millions of dollars in revenue from tickets and broadcast rights, they cast aside athletes if they don't perform as expected or become injured.

As written, SB 1525 would require the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford University and the University of Southern California to continue athletes' educations if they lose their athletic scholarships and also provide continuing medical care for any sports injuries.

Lobbyists for the UC system and the two private universities opposed the bill. Committee chairman Alan Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, said the bill has "so many unanswered questions" and contains "loose ends" that must be tightened up before the bill can receive approval. But he and other committee members said they support its thrust.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking for stories.... about himself.

The bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-politician-turned-actor has turned to Facebook to solicit ideas for his upcoming memoir, "TOTAL RECALL: My Unbelievably True Life Story."

A post on his page asks his nearly 1.5 million Facebook fans to chime in ahead of an upcoming "brainstorming session to talk about themes, stories, and ideas I might have missed."

"A million minds are better than a few, so I'm asking you to let me know: what do you want to hear about? What themes in my life? Are their any stories you really want to hear?" the post reads. "Give me your ideas. You can all consider yourselves my co-writers."

With 1,213 comments and counting on the post, we're guessing the social media contributors won't get to see their names in print with an author credit.

The autobiography, which is co-authored by former Fortune magazine executive editor Peter Petre, is expected to hit the shelves this October.

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Schwarzenegger penning autobiography to be released in 2012

PHOTO CREDIT: Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks after being honored by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce at the annual convention of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE), Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/ Mark J. Terrill).

Republicans have gained a slight voter registration edge in the targeted 7th Congressional District, closing for now a gap Democrats had argued would help challenger Ami Bera defeat GOP Rep. Dan Lungren.

The two major parties are now neck and neck in the competitive east Sacramento County district, with each representing about 38.7 percent of registered voters, according to updated figures from Sacramento County election officials. The new report shows Republicans outnumbering Democrats by a mere 202 voters.

That margin has closed significantly since January, when registration reports showed Democrats holding a one-point, 3,773-voter lead.

While Republicans were quick to credit voter registration efforts for the change, the number of registered voters in both parties -- and in the district as a whole -- fell in the new report.

VIDEO: Dan Walters says Assemblyman Jeff Gorell didn't miss much while he was gone.

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See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

Read Dan Walters' columns here.

Dan Walters, in today's video report, tells California Assemblyman Jeff Gorell what he missed during his year in Afghanistan.

There's no shortage of committee hearings under the dome, with Gov. Jerry Brown adviser Steve Glazer one of the gubernatorial appointees required to appear this afternoon before the Senate Rules Committee.

Brown has appointed Glazer trustee of California State University. Back in February, legislative Republicans blocked Brown's pick for the CSU board's chairman from coming up for a vote on the Senate floor. Today's hearing starts at 1:30 p.m. in the Capitol's Room 113.

Measures of note also come up before the education committees in both houses, with the Senate committee hearing bills on an open-source digital library, bracero education, ads on school buses and other matters. The Assembly committee, meanwhile, considers a bill on teacher misconduct backed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Click here for the Senate's daily file, and click here for the Assembly's.

NEW GIG: Longtime Sacramento Democratic consultant Roger Salazar is joining Mercury as the public strategy firm's managing director. Salazar, co-founder of Acosta|Salazar LLC, will keep working on initiative campaigns and team up with former Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez on "the firm's emerging Hispanic and Spanish language public affairs specialty practice," a news release says. Salazar will split his efforts among the firm's Washington, D.C., office as well as its California offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento, which are managed by partners Núñez and Adam Mendelsohn, a political adviser to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

LET'S CHAT: The Bee's live chat today highlights a proposition on the June 5 ballot that would impose a $1-a-pack tax on cigarettes to finance cancer research and anti-tobacco efforts. Proposition 29 would raise an estimated $855 million the first year, with revenues declining in subsequent years.

Joining us are Jim Knox, vice president of legislative advocacy for the California division of the American Cancer Society, and Tom Hudson, executive director of the California Taxpayer Protection Committee, which opposes the initiative.

The Bee's Kevin Yamamura will moderate. Watch the chat and ask questions from noon to 1 p.m. at www.sacbee.com/live.

INVITE: Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan is invited to breakfast this morning with the Teamsters, who want to talk with the Republican about a November ballot measure to ban unions and corporations from contributing directly to political candidates. As Jon Ortiz over at sister blog The State Worker reported last week, the meeting is scheduled at a restaurant Riordan owns.