Capitol Alert

VIDEO: Dan Walters predicts that California's budget will be in a world of hurt, even if Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure passes on Nov. 6.

Capitol denizens are about to get as close to a spaceship as most humans ever do.

The Shuttle Endeavour is set to fly over the dome this morning on its meandering way to its new museum home. The last Capitol Alert heard was that NASA was worried about Bay Area fog, so it has delayed the flight an hour, which should put the shuttle over Sacramento around 9:30 a.m. According to The Bee's Bill Lindelof, the Endeavour is expected to be poking along at 230 mph when it buzzes the Capitol at an altitude of 1,500 feet.

NASA Television will air its departure starting at 8 a.m. at this link. Shuttle fans are also tracking the flight via Twitter with these hashtags -- #SpotTheShuttle and #OV105, which is Endeavour's vehicle designation. Check out a NASA Fans pic of the shuttle in flight at this link.

And now, back to down-to-Earth news.

Almost one in five likely voters in California don't know which way they're going to vote on Proposition 32, which would ban unions and corporations from using payroll-deducted money for political purposes. That's according to a new survey conducted by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies and the Field Poll.

The Bee's Jon Ortiz has more details in today's Bee about the campaign finance measure, which is trailing among those likely voters. Click here to read the publicly released poll. If you want even more numbers, you'll find statistical tabulations compiled exclusively for Capitol Alert at this link.

In the Bay Area, an all-day conference examines California's fiscal crisis, zeroing in on pension reform and deficit reduction. Its keynote speaker is Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, and other participants include San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, former California Republican Party chairman Duf Sunheim, Marty Morgenstern of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency and others. The conference is sponsored by UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies. Registration is now closed, but you can read the agenda at this link.

Back in Sacramento, the Public Policy Institute of California lays out its recent poll on voters' views of the presidential candidates and the November propositions at a luncheon. Click here for more information.

ELECTION 2012: Democratic Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani formally launches her state Senate campaign in Stockton on Saturday with a keynote address from Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, followed by a neighborhood canvass and phone bank. The event starts at 11 a.m. at her Stockton headquarters, 5635 Stratford Circle.

CAKE AND CANDLES: Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, celebrates his 62nd birthday Saturday by hosting a free food literacy fair along with the California Food Literacy Center and the Oak Park Farmers Market. Find it at McClatchy Park, 35th Street and Fifth Avenue, across from McGeorge School of Law, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.