Capitol Alert

Losing the Green Party's presidential nomination hasn't dampened Roseanne Barr's White House ambitions.

The actress and comedian is trying to become the official candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party, competing against as many as four other presidential hopefuls at the party's convention in Los Angeles this weekend.

In a statement announcing the selection of liberal anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan as her vice presidential pick, Barr characterized the candidacy as the "'Throw the Bums Out' ticket and the 'Ballot Access' ticket."

She pledged to use her position as the nominee to encourage more Californians to register as a member of the Peace and Freedom Party, which could lose its ballot-qualified status under the state's new top-two primary system.

"I'm here to tell the voters: if you want to tell the government and the two domineering parties that you're sick and tired of all their evil, register in the Peace and Freedom Party and vote for me and Cindy," she said in the statement.

Barr will need to win support from at least half of the roughly 90 delegates attending Saturday's vote to get on the ballot as the party's nominee, Peace and Freedom Party Chair C.T. Weber said.

Rocky Anderson, former Salt Lake City mayor and Justice Party co-founder, got the most votes in the party's non-binding California presidential primary on June 5. Anderson has reportedly told party leaders that he will withdraw his candidacy.

Barr was on the June ballot here in California, but as one of three candidates running for the Green Party's presidential nomination. She lost that vote and the nomination contest to Massachusetts doctor Jill Stein.

Weber said the Peace and Freedom nominee isn't required to run in the primary election or be a registered member of the party. He said Barr, who has been registered as both a Green Party member a Democrat in California, is now registered to vote without a party preference in Hawaii, where she owns a macadamia farm. A supporter said she is working to get a Peace and Freedom Party established there.

Editor's note: This post has been updated to add that Barr was also registered as a member of the Green Party in California.

PHOTO CREDIT: Roseanne Barr for President 2012

An audit of more than 500 California special funds found most money accurately accounted for and no other instances of problems similar to those in the state parks department, state Finance Director Ana Matosantos said Friday.

State officials ordered the audit after The Bee found that the state parks department had stockpiled $54 million while community groups struggled to find funds to keep parks open.

Finance officials said they'll adopt new procedures to coordinate information between the state finance department and the State Controller's Office.

Beginning with the 2013-14 January budget, they said they will work to reconcile special funds in collaboration with the controller, as they do with the budget's general fund.

Gov. Jerry Brown issued a statement pledging to work with the state Legislature to use additional parks money to keep facilities open and fix some serious maintenance problems.

"The disclosure that the Parks department had millions in additional revenues is mixed--it's better to have more money than less, but it's totally unacceptable for Parks personnel to squirrel away public funds," Brown said. "I extend my deepest appreciation for the donors who have come to the aid of our parks in this time of need. I ask for their patience as we take all necessary steps to make sure this never happens again."

Find the audit overview here.

As the debt-saddled California Republican Party considered shuttering its Sacramento headquarters last month, another political party was quietly making moves to expand its presence in the state capital.

"Two-hundred thirty-six years after the Continental Congress set our nation on a bold experiment in representative government, the Libertarian Party of California embarked on its own bold experiment Monday, July 2, 2012, opening a new office in Sacramento," the state Libertarian Party announced on its website this week.

"The hypothesis of the experiment is that close proximity to California's Capitol will aid the Party in it's efforts to fulfill its purposes as stated in Bylaw 2," the post added. (The misspelled it's is in the original.)

For those unfamiliar with the party's bylaws, that one defines the party's purpose and activities, such as recruiting new members, endorsing and promoting presidential nominee Gary Johnson and other Libertarian candidates, and "developing an on-going political strategy to identify, expose, combat, and defeat the opponents of liberty in the political arena."

The California Libertarian Party, which claims it is the state's fastest-growing political party, now occupies a suite in building on 7th and L streets -- just six blocks away from Republicans' scaled-back operations. At last count, 93,657 Californians had registered as Libertarians, or 0.55 percent of the state's 17.1 million registered voters.

The state GOP, which has seen its membership shrink in recent years, laid off several staff members and downsized its Sacramento office space in an effort to to cut down on costs and deploy more resources in targeted districts.

OAKLAND - Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa caused a stir when he told Yahoo News the other day that he'd like to be governor.

It's a feeling the current governor, Jerry Brown, can understand.

"Join the club," Brown said when asked at a press conference in Oakland about his fellow Democrat's remark. "That's a sentiment that is not alien to me, so I wouldn't begrudge anyone wanting to be governor. But I think they should reflect on it, because it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Dan Walters says that Californians voting in November might wind up choosing local sales tax measures over state tax measures -- including Gov. Jerry Brown's.

Have a question you'd like Dan to answer? Post it on our Facebook page.

See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: Dan Walters, in today's report, says that Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure will be competing with a lot of local tax measures on California's November ballot.

It's the last Friday before the Legislature returns from its summer recess, and today we'll get a taste of what's to come as Finance Director Ana Matosantos and others lay out the results of the Department of Finance's review of more than 500 special funds.

Gov. Jerry Brown called for the review last month after Parks and Recreation Department officials discovered that the department has been sitting on nearly $54 million.

Is there more money hidden elsewhere? Come back later to Capitol Alert. That press briefing is scheduled for noon.

Speaking of special funds, Kevin Yamamura reports in today's Bee that California has reached deeper and deeper into them for purposes never intended -- to pay for schools, prisons and social services. The state now owes $4.3 billion to special funds.

Starting Monday, it's a four-week sprint to the end of the legislation session on Friday, Aug. 31. Other dates to remember including Friday, Aug. 17, which is the last day for fiscal committees to move bills to the floor.

Political junkies also have the Republican and Democratic national conventions to anticipate. The Republicans are up first, meeting Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Florida. Learn more at this link. Then it's the Democrats' turn in Charlotte, N.C., from Sept. 3-6. Click here for more information.

TWITTER: The Sacramento Bee's Capitol Bureau has been keeping track of the pithy things that Gov. Jerry Brown has been saying and tweeting them out on the Twitter feed @JerryBrownSays. We've also put together a photo gallery of pics paired with those pithy sayings. Yep, even the S-word. Check it out at this link.

CAKE AND CANDLES: Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, turns 60 on Sunday.