Capitol Alert

California's Capitol is full of hard-drinking, skirt-chasing, and corrupt hypocrites - or so Dianne Harman, the wife of a former state senator, would have readers of her new novel, "Tea Party Teddy," believe.

The title character is "Teddy Randall," newly elected Republican assemblyman from Orange County who hates illegal immigrants and wants to drive them out of the state, but is financially strapped from his campaign, owes money to a Mafia loan shark who's pressuring him for repayment, and is willing to be bribed to vote for an immigrant-friendly bill. Randall falls for an FBI sting, but not before learning that his wife is carrying on an affair with a Latino lawyer who champions immigrant rights.

Harman's husband, Tom, was a long-serving legislator from Orange County, and she says in her acknowledgements that he "day after day asked how the book was coming along, edited numerous drafts and gave tirelessly of his expertise on how things are done in Sacramento." She doesn't say, however, whether that expertise extended to the novel's explicit sex scenes.

"Tea Party Teddy" is a roman à clef that fictionalizes several well-known incidents, such as former Assemblyman Mike Duvall's 2009 bragging on an open mike in a legislative hearing room about his sexual exploits with a lobbyist. Duvall was forced to resign. It also draws on the FBI's undercover sting investigation of the Capitol a quarter-century ago that sent several legislators, lobbyists and staffers to prison.

The novel's Capitol readers will try to match up the fictional characters, especially the title character, with real-life politicians and lobbyists. But Harman makes one connection easy. The influential "FlashReport" blog, much loved by California conservatives, is called "FlushReport" in the book.

"Tea Party Teddy is a novel about political corruption, bribes, sex, and intrigue, which all come together in the story of a newly elected assemblyman," Harman said in an email promoting the book. "While you may think you recognize some of the books' characters as being members of the Sacramento political establishment, the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.

"If you want to know what really goes on behind the scenes in Sacramento, you'll find out when you read Tea Party Teddy. As the wife of a former California state senator, I had 12 years of firsthand experience in observing politicians, lobbyists, and consultants, as they struggled to gain political advantage."

The novel, available on-line or in print via Amazon, is reminiscent of another novel, "Capitol Punishment," written by a politician's former wife, that also depicted sex and corruption in and around the state Capitol.

The Democratic supermajority in the state Senate thinned a bit Tuesday when Republican farmer Andy Vidak captured more than 50 percent of a special election vote to win in a heavily Democratic San Joaquin Valley district.

Vidak had nearly 52 percent of the votes in the low-turnout election early today, with some provisional and mail ballots yet to be counted. His opponent, Democrat Leticia Perez, a Kern County supervisor, conceded shortly after midnight on Wednesday morning.

The election was called when Democratic Sen. Michael Rubio unexpectedly resigned early this year to become an executive in Chevron Corp. It was conducted in the 16th Senate District, which no longer exists, because Rubio was elected from that district in 2010. Vidak will have to seek re-election in the new 14th Senate District, which was created by an independent redistricting commission.

Both districts have lopsided registration majorities, but the 16th SD is heavily weighted toward Fresno County while the new 14th SD is more oriented toward Kern County. Both also include counties in between those two.

"Special elections are unique voter-turnout environments and this is clearly not the last we've heard of the immensely talented Supervisor Perez," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. "I'm proud of how our Democratic Senate supermajority and our accomplished campaign team responded to this unexpected vacancy and rallied in support of Leticia's candidacy."

Vidak's victory shaves the Democrats' margin in the Senate, which had been 29-11, by one seat, but another Democratic senator, Curren Price, is due to resign to take a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Thus chances have dimmed for the Democratic supermajority to pass a constitutional amendment or a tax increase, both of which would require two-thirds legislative votes.

Also Tuesday, Democrat Lorena Gonzalez, a community organizer, easily won a special election in the 80th Assembly District in San Diego County, defeating another Democrat, and will succeed Sen. Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, who left the Assembly after winning a special election for the state Senate. Gonzalez' victory does not affect the Democratic supermajority in the Assembly but it, too, is experiencing vacancies due to other looming resignations.

Newton Russell, who represented a swath of the San Fernando Valley in the state Legislature for more than three decades, died Saturday at his Southern California home. He was 85 and succumbed, his family said, to lung cancer.

Russell, a Republican, was dubbed the "conscience of the Senate" for his frequent admonitions to colleagues about following procedural rules and understanding the details and potential consequences of legislation. He was particularly critical of expanding "peace officer" status to additional blocs of state and local employees that would qualify them for higher pension benefits.

Russell, an insurance agent by profession, was first elected to the Assembly in 1964 from a Glendale-centered district, and a decade later won a special state Senate election. He retired in 1996. The area he represented was dependably Republican during his career but after his retirement became dominated by Democratic voters and legislators.

Russell's brother, John, who preceded him in death, was best known as the star of a popular television series, "The Lawman," in the 1960s. Both brothers served in World War II, John in the Marine Corps and Newt in the Navy.

Newt Russell is survived by his widow, Diane The couple had three children and eight grandchildren. The family is planning private services. A public memorial gathering is planned, but the details have not been set.

Professional athletes like Reggie Williams and Lorenzo Neal are accustomed to helping their teams win on the football field. They've been less successful in winning over California lawmakers.

The Assembly overrode opposition from current and former professional athletes Thursday in approving a measure to limit workers compensation claims by out-of-state athletes.

The National Football League Players Association brought Williams, Neal and other athletes to the state Capitol last month in an effort to persuade legislators to kill the legislation.

But Assembly members voted 57-1 for Assembly Bill 1309. Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, called his legislation an attempt "to ensure that California's workers comp system is no unjustly longer exploited by every professional athlete from every state in America."

"If you've at least just dressed out, maybe pitched one inning, maybe you got to play one game, maybe you suited up but never left the bench," Perea said on the Assembly floor. "But that still qualifies you to file for a California workers comp claim, even though the vast majority of your time played could have been in Florida, could have been in Texas or Massachusetts."

Perea said he wasn't trying to deny workers compensation to athletes for whom injuries are an unavoidable occupational hazard. The bill allows athletes to seek California workers compensation if they spent at least 80 percent of their career with a California team.

PHOTO CREDIT: Former Oakland Raider Nick Bell, 44, left, waits April 15 as former Cincinnati Bengals Reggie Williams uses crutches as he walks to the podium to talk about his opposition to Assembly Bill 1309. Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Sacramento Bee.

California's North Fork Rancheria Band of Mono Indians is a step closer to getting a casino after the Assembly narrowly ratified a gambling compact on Thursday morning.

The floor vote came months after Gov. Jerry Brown affirmed the federal government's determination that the North Fork tribe could acquire property about 35 miles from their ancestral lands to build a casino in Madera County. The unconventional process has spurred intense lobbying, with opponents saying it contradicts the principle of Native Americans building on existing tribal lands. The compact also are opposed by competing tribal casinos.

But Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, who carried Assembly Bill 277, cast the bill as a sorely needed economic boost for the North Fork tribe, who he said merely want "the same right granted to every other sovereign tribe in the state of California."

"This compact would put Californians back to work," Hall said in a speech on the Assembly floor, adding that "tribal gaming has replaced welfare with work. "Tribal gaming has replaced despair with hope and dependency with self-reliance."

Democracy! One of its greatest aspirations is treating elected representatives and the everyday people who elected them equally -- a leveling that, once a year in Sacramento, includes California lawmakers trying to grasp slimy frogs and then dancing around and stomping to encourage said frogs to hop.

Tuesday was the 39th annual Capitol Frog Jump day, a hallowed occasion that honors Mark Twain's well-known story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

Sen. Tom Berryhill, R-Oakdale, whose district encompasses Calaveras County, emceed the festivities.

"These frogs have a lot on the line here -- if they lose they could end up in the frying pan," Berryhill announced. A staffer told him, "We don't bite the leg that feeds us."

The results of today's festivities: A 10-foot-5-inch hop secured the longest jump title for "Notorious H.O.P." on behalf of Morgan Morales with the office of Assemblyman Eric Linder, R-Corona. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the amphibian coached by Theresa Pena of the office of Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica-- "Herkimer" managed only 1 foot, 4 inches. The Media Jump award went to defending champ Joe Michaels of Newstalk 1530 KFBK's "Christopher Ribbit II.

For the record, Capitol Alert's favorite frog names were a tie between M.C. Hopper and Betty Croaker. But enough talk, here's some videos of lawmakers and frogs.

Frog wrangler D.W. Elley was very helpful -- here he is giving Assemblyman Steve Fox, D-Lancaster, some positive reinforcement. (Elley's technique summed up: "Set him on the pad, and scare him and make him hop.")

Fox's frog, by the way, was named El Zorro. "Zorro means fox in Spanish," the assemblyman explained to Capitol Alert.

Assemblyman Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, is a freshman but has been around the Capitol for a while, so he seemed pretty confident in his technique.

Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, D-San Bernardino, was less enthused...

...although ultimately she got into it. Her frog, Larry B., though, remained indifferent.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sadly, Assemblyman Ken Cooley -- seen here with Tenaya -- did not find his prince. April 30, 2013 by Jeremy B. White/The Sacramento Bee.

In the latest sign of Democrats' determination to rein in the disputed extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, an Assembly committee on Monday advanced three bills that would halt the practice in California for the foreseeable future.

They were not the first fracking bills to make it out of committee this year, but they go further than other fracking legislation by calling for a moratorium to allow more time to study the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, which involves blasting a mix of chemicals and water deep underground. A bill by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, for instance, would prohibit the state from issuing new new fracking permits only if a study on fracking was not completed by Jan. 1, 2015.

Paul Deiro, a lobbyist testifying on behalf of the Western States Petroleum Association, said previous bills were "far more reasonable than the three moratorium bills you hear today" and argued that there is no evidence that fracking is unsafe.

"The proponents of a moratorium have often said we don't know, we need to collect information and find out," but there are no cases of proven well failure or groundwater contamination in California, Deiro said. He added that a fracking ban would mean the energy-rich Central Valley "loses the potential of creating millions of jobs."

But lawmakers said they were responding to constituents who were alarmed by the fact that fracking is moving forward in California with seemingly little oversight or regulation.

"It's clear that we must heed the call from our concerned constituents and demand answers about the safety of fracking," said Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, author of Assembly Bill 1323.

A branch of the Department of Conservation has released some draft regulations that would govern fracking, but lawmakers have criticized the proposed rules as too vague and lambasted the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources for moving too slowly.

"The lack of regulations in an environment that should be regulated is a recurrent theme," said Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, author of Assembly Bill 1301. "Public and scientific concerns have increase exponentially yet regulatory oversight lags behind."

Bloom said a moratorium would offer a needed window for study and would "get everyone to the table" to craft a framework for fracking.

"We must identify the risks and assure the public that we are doing everything in our control to protect them," Bloom said, "but to date the state has failed to do that."

The third fracking bill moved by the committee was Assembly Bill 649, by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Burbank.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rig workers drill a saltwater well to get fluids to be used in hydraulic fracturing or fracking in Anthony, Kansas, in February 2012. Bo Rader/Wichita Eagle.

An amended version of a bill that would extend new protections to California's homeless population cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, framed Assembly Bill 5 as an attempt to create a statewide baseline of homeless civil rights, citing a proliferation of municipal ordinances cracking down on behavior like lying or sleeping on the sidewalk as examples of the "criminalization of poor people."

"Today numerous laws infringe on poor peoples' ability to exist in public space, to acquire housing, employment and basic services and to equal protection under the laws," Ammiano said at a Tuesday morning hearing.

Ammiano's legislation faced a backlash from critics who said the bill would sanction behavior like urinating in public while exposing businesses to new litigation, undercutting the will of voters who had passed local ordinances and handcuffing city-level efforts to deal with homelessness. The California Chamber of Commerce included AB 5 on its annual list of "job killers" because it imposes "costly and unreasonable mandates on employers."

The amendments addressed those concerns, Ammiano and supporters of the bill argued. A widely derided provision establishing "the right to engage in life sustaining activities" including "urinating" was deleted. Another amendment jettisoned language prohibiting discrimination by business establishments.

Applications for permits to film pornographic films and videos "have all but ceased in Los Angeles County" due to a new ordinance requiring porn actors to wear condoms, the Los Angles Daily News reports.

The Daily News article bolsters opposition to a current bill in the state Legislature that would make the condom requirement a statewide law.

Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, is carrying Assembly Bill 332, which is patterned after the Los Angeles County ordinance approved by voters last year, and like the local law, is backed by anti-AIDS and public health groups.

"This is a workforce safety bill," Hall told an Assembly committee prior to its 5-1 vote for it. "We have to protect our workforce."

The Daily News covers the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, where porn production is a major industry and where local boosters are worried that production will move to other counties due to the ordinance. They and the industry also have told legislators that a state condom law would push production to other states.

The Daily News said Film LA, a non-profit organization that processes film and video permits, has received only two applications for porn shoots this year. In the past, about 500 such permits have been sought each year.

The newspaper quotes Diane Duke, who heads the Free Speech Coalition, a porn trade group, that "most production companies have ceased shooting in LA County." Meanwhile,it says, city officials in Camarillo, which is just across the county line in Ventura County, have been bombarded with inquiries from porn producers - so many that the city council has imposed a 45-day moratorium on porn production while it decides what to do about the situation.

PHOTO CREDIT: Assemblymember Isadore Hall, III, right, speaks while Michael Weinstein, President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, looks during a press conference hosted by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to introduce AB 332, a statewide law requiring condom use by adult film performers. (Bret Hartman / AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation).

State lawmakers are poised to blast the California Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday in light of a scathing report that questions the agency's commitment to safety.

The report, completed for the PUC by the Folsom-based Business Advantage Consulting, found that the commission's staff lack the leadership and tools needed to make safety a priority. Staff interviewed by the consultants detailed multiple issues stemming from what they called an "anti-safety" attitude held by the executive director, including "resistance to challenging utilities" and "resistance to leveling fines."

The 24-page report also blames a workplace culture that gives regulated industries too much "access to the PUC building, documents and personnel" for "sending the wrong message to both staff and regulated industries about accountability."

"The regulated industries and lobbyists come to the PUC and see how casual the attitude and culture is here," the report quotes one employee as saying. "As a result; they don't feel that they have to comply -- they are not worried. The message to them is that we are not paying attention."

A proposal to let medical professionals other than doctors perform an early abortion procedure advanced Tuesday in the California Legislature.

Assembly Bill 154, by Democratic Assemblywoman Toni Atkins of San Diego, authorizes nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, and physician assistants who undergo training to conduct aspiration abortions, a procedure that uses a suction method to remove a fetus early in a pregnancy.

The bill cleared the Assembly Business and Professions Committee on a 8-4 party-line vote.

The measure would expand a state pilot program that's been in effect since 2007, and supporters say it would ensure women have early and safe access to abortion providers in their communities. They cite a University of California, San Francisco Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health study that found low rates of mostly minor complications related to the first trimester abortions performed by pilot participants.

"The goal is to ensure that there are providers, qualified and trained, throughout every county in the state," Atkins said.

Critics at the hearing raised concerns about safety, training and expanding access to abortion in general, especially among teenage women.

"I don't think we should treat it as taking a pill or anything like that," said Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills. "This is a very complex situation."

An earlier attempt to allow non-doctors to perform the procedure fell short last year. The California Nurses Association opposed that proposal, raising concerns that a full study of the pilot program had not been completed. The bill also ran into opposition in a key Senate committee, whose members included two Democrats who opposed abortion rights.

PHOTO CREDIT: An intake worker waits for paperwork from a teenage client at a family planning and abortion clinic in San Francisco. Julie Plasencia / Associated Press file, 2005

Legislation that would require actors in pornographic films to wear condoms during sex acts won approval of an Assembly committee Tuesday despite warnings that it would drive the multi-billion-dollar adult film industry out of the state.

"This is a workforce safety bill," Assemblyman Isadore Hall, D-Compton, told the Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media Committee prior to its 5-1 vote. "We have to protect our workforce."

Assembly Bill 332's provisions are similar to those of a ballot measure that won approval of Los Angeles County voters last year.

Industry representatives told the committee that the Los Angeles ordinance has already pushed some production to other California counties and predicted that if AB 332 becomes law, it will flee to other states.

Hall's measure has support from anti-AIDS groups and one former porn actor, Darren James, who was the center of an outbreak of HIV in the industry nearly a decade ago. But a still-working porn actress, Alana Evans, testified that the industry's testing program is more effective than a condom requirement.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Mori, a health educator with Sacramento County opens a packet that includes condoms and information to get tested for STDs during a public health fair in 2011. The Sacramento Bee/Lezlie Sterling

It could become easier to fire a teacher in California: the Assembly Education Committee voted 7-0 on Wednesday to approve a bill by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, which would streamline the process for jettisoning incompetent or abusive educators.

The current dismissal process "is too long and takes too much money," Buchanan said at the committee hearing. "When it takes 18 months, two years, to resolve a case or it costs well over $100,000, not only can that money be better spent in the classroom but it's not fair to the district in its ability to move forward, nor is it fair to the employee."

The vote to advance Buchanan's bill, AB 375, comes after last year's abortive attempt to address teacher dismissal. A bill by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, faltered in part because of opposition from the California Teachers Association, but the powerful teachers union has backed AB 375.

At least two groups of lawmakers are spending their spring recess from the Capitol on overseas trips underwritten by outside groups.

Six lawmakers and the president of the Public Utilities Commission are in Poland on an eight-day trip paid for by the California Foundation on the Environment and Economy, a nonprofit group bankrolled by dozens of donors, including labor, energy, environmental and telecommunications interests.

In a separate trip, a nine-member delegation of the Assembly, including GOP leader Connie Conway, is in Taiwan to promote bilateral exchanges in trade and culture.

Lawmakers took $329,000 in free trips last year, according to financial disclosure statements filed in March.

The chairman of the state panel that sets pay for California legislators and statewide officials said today he expects the salaries to remain the same next year, even if the state's finances are strong enough to justify raises.

The California Citizens Compensation Commission met for about an hour today in Sacramento, but decided to delay a decision until after the panel gets an updated report on the state's fiscal health from the Department of Finance. By law, the commission cannot raise officials' pay unless the state shows a surplus in May.

Commission Chairman Thomas Dalzell said he sees it as "very unlikely" that members decide to increase -- or reduce -- pay levels when they meet again on June 13. Giving raises in the first year of a projected surplus, he said, would "probably be unseemly."

"The economy's fairly volatile and things could flip around and I think there are priorities greater than the legislator and constitutional officer salaries," he said after the meeting. "What we do is largely symbolic because it has no significant effect on the budget, but I think it's important symbolically to not rush ahead and to restore the cuts on the first year out."

Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare, has named nine members to the lower house's GOP leadership team for the 2013-2014 legislative session. Here is a list of the appointments:

Assistant Republican Floor Leader: Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills

Deputy Republican Floor Leader: Donald Wagner, R-Irvine

Assembly Republican Caucus Chair: Brian Jones, R-Santee

Assembly Rules Committee Vice Chair: Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita

Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chair: Jeff Gorell, R-Camarillo

Assembly Appropriations Committee Vice Chair: Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point

Chief Republican Whip: Dan Logue, R-Marysville

Republican Whips: Brian Maienschein, R-San Diego; Marie Waldron, R-Escondido

PHOTO CREDIT: Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare, seen here after Gov. Jerry Brown's State of the State address on Jan. 23, 2013. Associated Press/Rich Pedroncelli

Plans to boost California's burgeoning drone industry could generate billions of dollars and thousands of jobs for the state, industry representatives told Assembly members on Tuesday.

Much of the public debate about unmanned aircraft has focused on armed drones that patrol the skies in countries like Pakistan and Yemen, hunting for militants. In a recent Senate filibuster, Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul crystallized anxiety about the lethal technology being turned on Americans on U.S. soil.

But there is also growing interest in the potential domestic applications of unarmed drones. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 directed the Federal Aviation Administration to start creating a system for regulating and licensing unmanned aircraft, a process that will entail launching six special test sites. At a Tuesday hearing, lawmakers talked about how to ensure one of those sites is in California.

"Simply put, unmanned aircraft systems are the next big thing in the aerospace industry," said Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance. "We need to make sure that California continues to be a national and global leader in aerospace," he added. He said groups in 37 states have been working on applications.

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye implored the Legislature on Monday to better fund the court system, tying the issue to a basic guarantee of justice.

In her second State of the Judiciary speech, Cantil-Sakauye spoke repeatedly of the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright case, in which the United States Supreme Court established the right to counsel for defendants who couldn't afford a lawyer. Ongoing cuts imperil the Gideon precedent that all Americans get a fair chance in court, Cantil-Sakauye said.

"To have your day in court, you need a court room," Cantil-Sakauye said. "And I must say that what we once counted on, that courts would be open and ready and available to deliver prompt justice, is no longer true in California."

As yawning budget deficits became commonplace over the last few years, the court system was repeatedly asked to absorb deep cuts. Cantil-Sakauye has spoken often about the consequences for an overburdened justice system, a central theme of her State of the Judiciary speech last year.

Cantil-Sakauye's speech on Tuesday contained similar warnings. She invoked a list of slated courthouse closures and pointed to reduced staffing, buildings fallen into disrepair, heightened court fees and longer delays for cases. The Judicial Council, which sets policy for the court system, has voted to delay more than a dozen construction projects in recent months.

But the ground has shifted since 2012. Now that the voters have ratified Proposition 30, a ballot initiative that increases the California sale tax and raises income taxes for the state's wealthiest residents, an expected surge of new revenue appears to put California on firmer fiscal footing.

Given that sunnier budget outlook, Cantil-Sakauye has urged Gov. Jerry Brown to restore some funding to the judicial system. Brown's 2013-2014 budget proposes a $200 million reduction and asks the courts to offset it by dipping into judicial reserves.

"I worry that California is on the wrong side of history in funding justice, and I believe that if we do not reinvest in justice, you will see or will continue to see services to the public from the courts are cut or eliminated or deeply restricted," she said.

Some judges have assailed the court system's centralized authority, the Administrative Office of the Courts, for acting with a heavy hand and spending inefficiently. A May 2012 report commissioned by Cantil-Sakauye echoed those calls for reform, saying the AOC has "become dysfunctional in many ways" and strayed from its primary role of administering California's trial courts.

Cantil-Sakauye pointed to some of the progress the AOC has made, citing a costly computer system project officials decided to scrap, a series of open meetings and a review of trial court funding. But she said that tightening up practices can only go so far.

"No amount of efficiencies that we implement will ever make up for a billion dollar cut," she said, referring to the cumulative cuts of the last few years.

PHOTO CREDIT: California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 in Sacramento, Calif. Lezlie Sterling for the Sacramento Bee.

Assemblyman Henry Perea has decided not to run for the Central Valley Senate seat that fellow Democrat Michael Rubio resigned last week.

The Fresno Democrat said in a statement that while the opportunity to run in the 16th Senate District is "appealing," he wants to serve out his most recent term in the Assembly and honor a commitment he made to his wife and family to "create a balance between my home life and work."

"We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our second child in July, and I want to uphold my commitment to my family and the 31st Assembly District," he said.

Rubio, a freshman Democrat from Shafter, resigned his 16th Senate District seat last week to take a job heading California governmental affairs for Chevron Corp.

Gov. Jerry Brown has not yet set a special election date, but there is no shortage of candidates interested in seeking the seat.

PHOTO CREDIT: Two-year-old Ava Perea looks at the gallery as she is carried by her father, Assemblyman Henry T. Perea, D-Fresno, after he is sworn in during the first day of session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Dec. 3, 2012. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee file, 2012.

Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen was ordered to move immediately into a much smaller office in the wake of a failed effort within the Assembly Republican Caucus to oust its leader, Connie Conway.

The move was widely regarded as punishment for Olsen, R-Modesto, who had been touted by some Assembly Republicans as a potential successor to Conway.

The caucus decided nearly unanimously Thursday to retain Conway, with only one person voting no, members said.

"I don't know the exact circumstances of the reason for the move, but I do know that Assembly member Olsen was not the vote to vacate the chair," said Kim Nickols, Olsen's spokeswoman.

Assemblywoman Connie Conway can breathe a little easier now.

After caucusing for about an hour Thursday, the 25-member Assembly Republican Caucus voted nearly unanimously not to replace the Tulare Republican who has held the top post for two years.

A motion to vacate the chair received only one vote, two members said privately. Caucus sessions are held behind closed doors.

Conway, who is termed out of the Legislature next year, leads a caucus still reeling from the loss of three seats in last November's election, a stunning party defeat that handed Democrats a supermajority in the 80-member house.

But President Barack Obama's decisive victory in California and statewide redrawing of political districts tended to favor Democrats in other political races as well -- the GOP lost two state Senate seats, for example.

Conway replaced Assemblyman Martin Garrick, of Solana Beach, as Assembly GOP boss in November 2010. She became the fourth Republican leader of the lower house in an 18-month period. Garrick opted not to seek a second term as caucus chief.

PHOTO CREDIT: Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway, R-Tulare, during the first day of session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Monday, Dec. 3, 2012. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee

Former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla is the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors' pick to be the county's next elections chief.

Canciamilla, a former Democrat who is now registered without a party preference, will fill out the term of longtime Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Steve Weir, who is retiring next month.

Bay Area News Group political reporter Lisa Vorderbrueggen has the details:

The board of supervisors unanimously chose Canciamilla over the retiring incumbent's brother and Pleasant Hill Councilman Jack Weir about 90 minutes ago after public interviews with both men. ....

The five supervisors praised Jack Weir's public service and his managerial and data management professional background.

But all said Canciamilla brought to the job a deeper understanding of county government and politics.

You can read Vorderbrueggen's full post here.

PHOTO CREDIT: Former Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla in 2006. The Sacramento Bee/Brian Baer

Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue has opened a campaign account to raise cash for a 2014 state treasurer bid.

But don't expect to see the Marysville Republican hitting the campaign trail any time soon.

He's not actually running.

In fact, Logue said he expects a statewide campaign to be "the last thing I do" when he leaves the Assembly due to term limits at the end of next year.

"I have no plans to run for treasurer," Logue told The Bee. "I'm using that to raise some resources to help some colleagues to bring more pro-business candidates to Sacramento down the road."

Memo to thief: Wrong victim.

When Sacramento thieves stole his briefcase from a state-owned car, Assemblyman Curt Hagman took matters into his own hands Monday night -- tracking two suspects to a gasoline station off Interstate 80.

"We start walking toward the car, then they gun the engine and try to run us over," said Hagman, who is no stranger to confronting crime suspects as the owner of Apex Bail Bonds. He also is a longtime volunteer captain for a sheriff's disaster assistance team.

Hagman and California Highway Patrol Lt. Rick Campbell gave the following account of the Chino Republican's firsthand look at Sacramento crime Monday -- as a burglary victim:

Now for the money: The California Assembly has set salary ranges for a handful of new job classifications it created this month.

Dozens of aides potentially could receive pay increases if chosen for the new posts. The 80-member Assembly currently employs about 1,200 people for Capitol and district offices, policy committees, administration, security and other functions, records show.

Administrator Jon Waldie said the purpose of increasing the number of job classifications was to create promotional opportunities for existing personnel, not to expand hiring.

The changes came in the wake of voters' decision to alter California's legislative term limits, which now allow Assembly members to serve up to 12 years in the lower house, rather than six.

Anticipating that less frequent turnover of legislators will resort in more stable office staffs and fewer vacancies, the Assembly created two new positions and basically two step increases, with expanded duties, for existing office posts.

By Torey Van Oot and Jim Sanders

State legislators billed taxpayers more than $450,000 for on-the-job driving in the last legislative year, but officials won't say where the lawmakers went.

The Legislature began reimbursing members for work-related travel in their personal cars, including trips from their home to the Capitol, in Dec. 2011, after a program providing state-leased cars to members was cut by the Citizens Compensation Commission. The change saved taxpayers nearly $240,000 in its first year, a Bee analysis found.

The mileage reimbursements varied significantly by member, however. Some legislators declined to seek reimbursement, while others received large sums for driving thousands of miles for legislative or other official business. While some of the members logging the most miles represent vast, rural districts within driving distance of the Capitol, others from geographically compact districts in Southern California also racked up thousands of dollars in reimbursement costs.

Responding to changes in California's legislative term limits, the Assembly has approved a handful of new job classifications to create higher-paying promotional opportunities in an era when staff turnover is expected to be less frequent.

Calling it a staff retention plan, Assembly administrator Jon Waldie said the Rules Committee has authorized two new positions and basically two step increases for existing classifications, with expanded duties.

Voter passage of an initiative allowing lawmakers to serve 12 years in one legislative house, rather than six, means that aides can find themselves at the same job within a lawmaker's office for many years, with no vacancy to be promoted into, Waldie said.

"Your ability to rapidly move up in this organization is going to be stifled," Waldie said.

Defeated Democratic Assemblyman Michael Allen has landed a six-figure job on a state board, courtesy of his former leader in the state Legislature.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez announced today that he has appointed Allen to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. The job, a popular post-office appointment among former legislators, pays an annual salary of $128,109.

The state Democratic Party spent heavily to try to re-elect Allen, but the attorney and former labor negotiator lost to fellow Democrat Marc Levine in a newly drawn district.

The appointment was one of four announced by the speaker today. Pérez also named sitting Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, to the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission and freshman Assemblyman Ken Cooley, D-Rancho Cordova, to the Seismic Safety Commission. Those jobs are unpaid.

RELATED POSTS:
Incumbents Michael Allen, Betsy Butler narrowly trail in nailbiters

PHOTO CREDIT: Then-Santa Rosa city council candidate Michael Allen. September 10, 2008. The Press Democrat / Jeff Kan Lee.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez released today the lower house's committee assignments for the 2013-2014 legislative session.

The full list is posted after the jump:

Democratic Reps.-elect Gloria Negrete McLeod and Juan Vargas are stepping down from the California Senate today ahead of the start of the 113th Congress.

The two will be sworn in as members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. A spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg confirmed that both members have submitted their letters of resignation, which take effect later today.

Negrete McLeod, of Chino, ousted Democratic Rep. Joe Baca in the Inland Empire's 35th Congressional District, while Vargas won election in San Diego's open 51st Congressional District.

Special primary elections to fill the vacant Senate seats will be held in the coming months, on a date set by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Candidates for Negrete McLeod's 32nd Senate District seat include Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, and San Bernardino County Auditor-Controller Larry Walker.

Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso of San Diego, meanwhile, has announced his candidacy to succeed Vargas in the 40th Senate District.

PHOTO CREDITS: Left, then Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego. John Decker / Sacramento Bee file, 2003. Right, Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino, speaks at the Senate session in Sacramento, on June 14, 2012. AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli.

Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed former state Assemblywoman Alyson Huber to fill a vacancy on the Sacramento Superior Court bench.

The El Dorado Hills Democrat completed her second term in the state Assembly in November. She scrapped plans to move to Rancho Cordova to run for a third and final term in a seat created by the state's new political maps amid personal and financial issues stemming from her divorce proceedings. She worked as an associate at several law firms before running for office.

The new job comes with a big salary bump - Huber will make $178,789 as a judge, compared to the roughly $125,000 she took home in salary and per diem payments as a state legislator.

The Democratic governor announced today more than two dozen appointments to fill vacancies in courts across the state.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alyson Huber speaks at the October meeting of the Cordova Community Council at the Ranch Cordova City Hall on Friday, Oct. 17, 2008. Anne Chadwick Williams, Sacramento Bee.

Could Howard Berman finally become the speaker of the state Assembly three decades after he lost a bruising intraparty battle for the position?

Douglas Jeffe, a veteran Los Angeles political advisor and commentator, raises the intriguing possibility in a posting on the Fox & Hounds political website.

Berman lost his San Fernando Valley congressional seat this year in an expensive battle with fellow Democrat Brad Sherman, but as it happens, the local assemblyman, Bob Blumenfield, is seeking a seat on the Los Angeles City Council next spring, and if he gets it, a special election would fill his Assembly seat. Blumenfield is a former Berman aide.

Berman, Jeffe expostulates, could run for the Assembly and if elected, could succeed John A. Pérez because Pérez will be forced out of the Assembly in two years.

There's no word on whether Berman would be interested in returning to the Assembly, where he served in the 1970s and early 1980s, leaving for Congress in 1982. His departure followed a year-long battle with the late Leo McCarthy for the speakership culminated in the election of Willie Brown, who went on to become the longest serving speaker in state history.

Were Berman to run for the Assembly, he'd have the support of fellow septuagenarian Jerry Brown. Berman was one of Brown's closest allies in the Legislature during the governor's first stint, and Brown endorsed him during the duel with Sherman this year.

Newly elected Sacramento County Assemblyman Ken Cooley has joined six other capital-area legislators in rejecting the $142 per day in living expenses that lawmakers are entitled to while the Legislature is in session.

The decision will cost Cooley and each of the other local legislators between $25,000 and $30,000 for the upcoming year, based on the number of days that per diem was paid in 2012, records show.

Three other Sacramento-area assembly members who rejected per diem in 2012 have submitted letters to the Assembly asking to do the same for 2013: Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento; Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin; and Mariko Yamada, D-Davis.

Late Friday, the Assembly added another name to the list of those turning thumbs down to per diem for the coming legislative session: Freshman Democratic Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman of Stockton.

Newly re-elected Assemblyman Richard Pan opted to begin accepting per diem last January after obtaining a second residence, in the Pocket area, to run for a newly drawn Assembly seat that had no incumbent. He has not rescinded last year's request to accept the $142 per day compensation, records show.

Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, is already readying a run for the Southern California Senate seat set to be vacated by state Sen. and Democratic Rep.-elect Juan Vargas in the coming weeks.

Hueso confirmed his decision to U-T San Diego reporter Michael Gardner Monday -- the same day he was sworn in for a second term in the state Assembly. Vargas, who has yet to announce when he will give up his Senate seat, has already endorsed his candidacy.

Hueso, who just took the oath of office Monday for his second term, said he wants to move up to the Senate because it offers a "bigger base of support" to accomplish key goals. One of those is improving trade between Mexico and the U.S. and easing border crossing gridlock.

"Mexico is our largest trading partner -- larger than China," Hueso said in an interview. "They are big friends of ours."

Once Vargas resigns, Gov. Jerry Brown will call a special election to fill the seat. The primary contest will be held about sixteen weeks from that date. Sen. Gloria Negrete-McLeod, D-Chino, will also step down from the Senate to take a seat in Congress.

Because both senators were last elected to their seats in 2010, the contests will be held using the state's pre-redistricting political maps.

Democrats started the 2013-2014 legislative session today with a supermajority in both houses, but the respective leaders took different approaches to marking the occasion.

In the Senate, members were serenaded by a children's choir singing "What a Wonderful World." Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg cheered when a letter certifying the unofficial election results was read.

The Sacramento Democrat addressed the supermajority power, which could allow Democrats to raise taxes or put measures on the ballot without GOP votes, throughout his address on the floor. He called the results of the election "a validation that the Legislature faced incredible challenges with strength, with decisiveness and we never flinched from the hardest of hard decisions," chronicling the deep cuts that helped the state climb back toward the black from a $42 billion budget deficit.

Some of the California Legislature's newest members are adding more than an elected title to their resume as the 2013-2014 session begins.

New leadership assignments announced by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez today put five Democratic freshman members of the Assembly in a caucus post, with more than a dozen more controlling a committee gavel as they begin what could be 12 years in the lower house. Returning Democratic Assemblyman Roger Hernández, who has been in the news over allegations of driving under the influence and other bad behavior, will not serve as Democratic whip, a position previously announced.

The Senate has not released its full committee chair lineup for the new session, but Democrats announced that they have retained Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, as majority leader. Newly elected Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, was added to the Rules Committee roster, along with Democratic Sen. Kevin de León and Republican Sens. Bill Emmerson and Jean Fuller. Senate Republicans announced that Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Rocklin, will serve as caucus chair.

Pérez , Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and Senate GOP leader Bob Huff will all remain in their leadership posts.

The full list of Assembly leadership assignments is posted after the jump, with new members designated with an asterisk.

Freshman Assemblyman Travis Allen already is in the Capitol's "doghouse," but it's nothing personal, apparently.

Allen simply was unlucky.

"The only thing you could read into who's in the doghouse right now is that as they drew names, he had a lousy draw," Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said.

Allen, a Huntington Beach Republican, was assigned a shoebox-size, fifth-floor office that is nicknamed the "doghouse" because of its history: Assembly speakers often house members there as punishment for votes or actions taken.

Allen shrugged off the matter shortly after he was sworn into the Legislature on Monday, the first day of a two-year session.

"No vote has been cast yet, so I think it would be kind of difficult to offend anybody," Allen said, smiling.

"It's an honor to serve the people of California -- in any capacity and in any office," added Allen, a certified financial planner who won the 72nd Assembly District seat from Orange County.

Allen's cramped office, Room 5126, is just 391 square feet -- 135 tinier than the next smallest Assembly office and about 300 smaller than the norm.

Pérez said that he worked with Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway in assigning GOP Assembly offices. Conway handled requests from returning members of her caucus first, Perez said.

"Neither she nor I wanted to use that office punitively, so she went through a random process of selection to decide how to house the new Republican members. ... It was literally a drawing of lots," Pérez said.

Sabrina Lockhart, Conway's spokeswoman, confirmed Pérez's account Monday.

The doghouse was assigned last year to the now former Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, an outspoken Fresno Republican who was one of the most conservative members of a predominantly liberal Assembly.

Allen said, essentially, that size doesn't matter. No hard feelings.

"We're in the building, and we all get a vote," he said simply.

PHOTO CREDIT: California Assembly website.

Richard Bloom expanded his lead over sitting Assemblywoman Betsy Butler from just 79 votes to 430 in tallies released Friday afternoon by Los Angeles County.

The two Democrats are separated by just a quarter of a percentage point in a nailbiter for Los Angeles County's newly drawn 50th Assembly District seat.

Bloom, Santa Monica mayor, has 87,270 votes in the latest count. Butler, seeking a second legislative term, has 86,840 votes.

Los Angeles has about 155,000 ballots remaining countywide. An unknown number of those ballots, a small portion, is expected to be from the 50th Assembly District, which represents about 7 percent of Los Angeles County's voters.

Bloom said Friday that the race remains undecided as vote-counting continues -- and that tension builds as the gap grows or shrinks.

"Unfortunately, this is like being on being on 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire,' except that they don't let you step out of the game, collect your winnings and leave," Bloom quipped. "You have to go to the next level."

Whoever wins the seat will be part of a Democratic supermajority in the Legislature. In the Assembly, Democrats will control 54 of 80 seats; in the Senate, 29 of 40.

* Updated at 5:10 p.m. Friday with Richard Bloom's comment and an estimate of ballots remaining countywide.

Nov. 6 wasn't a great day for California ferret lovers.

Two candidates supportive of legalizing ownership of the animals, including one who told the leader of the movement his wife wanted a ferret as a pet, lost in the general election balloting, leaving the informal lobby behind the cause to once again start its annual "Hunt for a Ferret Legislative Sponsor."

Despite having "no known supporters" in the new Legislature, LegalizeFerrets.org Founder Pat Wright found a reason for hope in the election results.

"There was one person elected who had some ferret knowledge," he wrote to supporters in a newsletter this week. "Brian Maienschein was elected in the 77th Assembly district and met Alice Kaiser and her ferrets."

Wright called on his fellow ferret lovers, who have been working for years to persuade legislators and the Fish and Game Commission to allow ownership of the animals, to create a committee tasked with calling and visiting the newly elected San Diego Republican to seek his support.

Those efforts, however, could be in vain. Maienschein's campaign manager says the assemblyman elect has no recollection of interacting with the pets belonging to Kaiser, who Wright said had to move to Arizona after former Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger vetoed legislation related to the animals in 2004.

"Brian has not ever met a ferret and he will not be sponsoring legislation to legalize ferret ownership," campaign manager Lance Witmondt said.

Still, Wright wants to rally supporters to storm the Capitol in January and meet with staff in every office until someone agrees to carry their bill.

"We have 120 targets," he wrote. "Who's interested - please contact me!"

PHOTO CREDIT: A ferret plays in a plastic toy in early January 2011 at the home of an owner who did not want to be identified. Hector Amezcua, Sacramento Bee.

Assemblyman Richard Pan opened a campaign committee to raise money for a possible Senate campaign just one day after winning re-election to the lower house from a newly drawn district he had moved into to run, records show.

The Sacramento Democrat signed documents to launch the "Dr. Richard Pan for Senate 2014" committee on Nov. 7, while absentee and provisional ballots were still being counted in Pan's easy victory over Republican Tony Amador. The filing was reported by the secretary of state's office Tuesday.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher will work for one of his district's largest employers, Qualcomm, when he leaves the Assembly next month.

The Legislature's only member not tied to a political party - the former Republican re-registered as an independent last March - will serve as Qualcomm's senior director of corporate development.

Fletcher, who announced the move Thursday in a Facebook post, is joining a global corporation that bills itself as a "world-leading provider of wireless technology and services."

Fletcher will not participate in government relations or lobbying activities as part of his new job, he said.

The 35-year-old legislator will assist with wireless health initiatives, mobile education, protection of intellectual property, and he will promote corporate citizenship, volunteerism and philanthropic activities, his announcement said.

"I believe in the power of innovation to improve people's lives," Fletcher said. "Qualcomm brings innovation to people across the globe. They are a great community partner and provide good-paying jobs for San Diegans. I am proud to join their team."

A two-term assemblyman, Fletcher ran unsuccessfully for San Diego mayor this year rather than seek re-election to the Legislature. His Assembly district stretches through San Diego, Escondido, La Jolla and Poway.

It's official: Democrats now have their Assembly supermajority.

Incumbent Republican Assemblyman Chris Norby conceded late today that he had been beaten by Democratic challenger Sharon Quirk-Silva in a newly drawn Orange County district.

"I wish my successor well," Norby said in a phone call from Honduras, where his family was spending time with his wife's ailing mother.

"I don't see any way of this turning out the way I'd like," Norby said of his prospects of overcoming Quirk-Silva in absentee or provisional ballots that remain uncounted. The two candidates were nearly 3,000 votes apart Wednesday.

Norby's concession means that Democrats will have 54 of 80 seats in the lower house next year.

Democrats also are assured of a supermajority in the Senate, marking the first time since 1883 that the party has wielded such power in the Legislature.

More than a dozen California legislators are lodged in Hawaii's fancy Fairmont Kea Lani hotel this week -- hobnobbing and talking public policy with dozens of corporate, union and other officials that do business at the Capitol.

The annual invitation-only conference is sponsored by the California Independent Voter Project, a nonprofit public policy group that is funded through various business, labor and other groups.

Legislators' travel to Maui and their hotel tabs will be picked up by the nonprofit unless they opt to pay their own way.

Dan Howle, event organizer, declined to identify members of the California Legislature participating in the annual conference. He said they consist both of Republicans and Democrats. Several of the lawmakers are paying their own way.

Democrats have captured one of the two tight Assembly seats they need to gain a supermajority in the lower house.

In a race too close to call on Election Day, Democrat Rudy Salas has defeated Republican Pedro Rios in the 32nd District of Kern and Kings county.

Salas' lead had grown from 268 votes last Tuesday to about 2,500 this morning through the counting of absentee and provisional ballots. Scattered votes have not yet been tallied, but not enough to alter the outcome.

In the other race critical to Assembly Democrats' supermajority hopes, Sharon Quirk-Silva continued to extend her lead over incumbent Republican Assemblyman Chris Norby in Orange County. Her lead of 1,004 after the precinct count widened to 2,222 votes this morning.

It's official: Democrat Ken Cooley is Sacramento County's newest assemblyman.

Republican Peter Tateishi conceded Friday to Cooley in the 8th Assembly District, stretching from Citrus Heights to south of Wilton. The vote margin between them had widened from about 4,900 to 7,400 in early counting of mail and provisional ballots.

"The trend is showing that it's not going to move," Tateishi said.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez had named the newly drawn 8th District, in which Democrats hold a four percentage point lead in voter registration, as a targeted seat for capture by his party this year. Millions of dollars were spent by each side.

Pérez, benefiting partly from a wave of youth voters and supporters of Democratic President Barack Obama, has declared victory in seizing two more Assembly seats than his party had last year, giving it a supermajority, 54 of 80 seats.

Republicans have not yet conceded in two close Assembly races, however, one in Orange County, the other in Kings and Kern counties.

Cooley attributed his victory, in part, to months of door-to-door contacts with voters. The leader of his campaign, Andrew Acosta, said it helped that Cooley had a solid record of job creation and the "ability to work across party lines to get things done."

"I'm honored," said Cooley, an attorney, legislative aide and longtime Rancho Cordova councilman. "I'll continue to work with everybody, and try to work on what really matters -- we've got to grow jobs here in California. Everybody's got to work on that."

Tateishi, former chief of staff to Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren, said he left a message on Cooley's telephone voice mail to congratulate him and wish him well in his new job, which begins in December.

"I hope he lives up to his promise to be bipartisan," Tateishi told The Bee.

Tateishi said he was proud of his campaign but was outspent by millions of dollars. Campaign documents show that about $5 million was spent by Cooley or by groups on his behalf, compared to roughly $3 million for Tateishi.

"They ran a great campaign, an effective campaign," Tateishi said of Cooley's effort. "I didn't care for all their tactics but it was a winning campaign. You have to give them credit for that."

Cooley currently is on unpaid leave of absence from his job as legislative director to Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello. Earlier this year, he served as principal consultant to the Senate's insurance committee.

Cooley's resume also includes stints as chief of staff to former Assemblyman Lou Papan, 1977-85; chief counsel to the Assembly banking and insurance committee, 1988-91; and state counsel for State Farm Insurance Co., 1991-08.

* Updated at 5:07 p.m. to add comments from Cooley.

Connie Conway was re-elected as Assembly Republican leader Thursday, two days after the GOP took a shellacking statewide that appears to have given Democrats a supermajority of seats in both houses of the Legislature.

Meanwhile, Democrats chose Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez
to remain as their leader, a move that was expected because of his past service and the party's apparent capture Tuesday of two additional Assembly seats, which would give it 54 of 80 seats.

Selection of Conway and Pérez were unanimous decisions of their respective caucuses.

"I'm very pleased, but I also understand the obligation that comes with that - and it's a serious one," said Conway, a former Tulare County supervisor.

"To make sure we are really unified," she said. "And to make sure that as a team we have goals, we express those goals, and that we try to move California in what we believe is the right direction."

Independent groups have spent more than $20 million on state legislative contests ahead of Tuesday's election.

The heaviest spending has occurred in two Sacramento-area seats so far. Independent expenditure committees reported spending nearly $2.7 million through Oct. 30 on the 5th Senate District battle between Republican Assemblyman Bill Berryhill and Democratic Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani. The Stockton-based seat is one of three swing districts that could determine whether Senate Democrats win a two-thirds majority in the upper house.

The 8th Assembly District is home to the second most expensive race, with outside groups dropping more than $2.5 million. Democrat Ken Cooley and Republican Peter Tateishi are fighting for that suburban Sacramento seat.

Spending by independent expenditure committees is certain to increase in the last week of the campaign, as the groups make their final appeals to voters. The committees can raise and spend unlimited amounts on state elections, provided they do not coordinate with candidate campaigns.

Democratic Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi's last days in the lower house apparently won't mark the end of her long-running battle with a faction of physical therapists.

A Southern California physical therapist who has battled for years with the Castro Valley Democrat over legislation affecting his trade is leading a new committee aimed at derailing the termed-out legislator's bid for an open seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

MORALS PAC, which stands for Masses Organizing Research Against Lying and Stealing Opposing Mary, distributed its first anti-Hayashi mail piece this week. The piece hits Hayashi not on legislative actions opposed by physical therapists, but her 2011 arrest on suspicion of taking more than $2,000 worth of clothes from a San Francisco Nieman Marcus without paying.

The mailer, designed as a riff on a movie poster for the 1998 comedy "There's Something About Mary," says the candidate's "political ambition and lavish lifestyle is starting to cloud her judgment and her ability to be an effective politician."

"Shoplifting is obviously a much more newsworthy thing than patients being denied access to physical therapy services," said Paul Gaspar, the physical therapist chairing the committee.

Hayashi, who pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor shoplifting charge, maintains the theft was not intentional. She is one of four candidates seeking to replace former Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, who stepped down earlier this year after her struggle with addiction and issues with her marriage to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer's became public.

Gaspar said the effort was created out of concerns that Hayashi will use the vacant supervisor seat as a stepping stone to return to the Legislature in 2014, when a state Senate seat in her area will be up for grabs.

"There's a pattern of behavior here with her dishonesty and the way she's acted not in the public's or the patients' best interest," he said.

Hayashi's political strategist could not immediately be reached for comment on this ad.

SomethingaboutMary1st Mailer

A 31-year-old woman has obtained an emergency order against Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, claiming that the West Covina Democrat caused "visible injury" by striking her with a belt and slamming her against the wall during an argument last summer.

The woman "fears for her safety due to Hernandez using cocaine," according to her application for a protective order, which was signed by a judicial commissioner Sunday.

The incident marks Hernandez's second brush with the law this year. He was arrested in March on a charge of drunken driving in Concord, but later was acquitted of the charge in a jury trial.

Hernandez, through his chief of staff, characterized the incident as a personal matter and referred calls to attorney Anthony Falangetti, who said, "I can tell you flat out that all of this is a complete fabrication, it's totally bogus."

Hernandez and the woman had been involved in a relationship, but no longer are, Falangetti said. He declined to elaborate.

Asked specifically about the allegation of cocaine use, Falangetti called it "ridiculous" and "absurd." Hernandez will submit to a drug test to refute that accusation, the attorney said.

The newly issued emergency order was served Sunday on Hernandez. It will remain in effect until 5 p.m. Friday, after which the woman must decide whether to seek a temporary restraining order in court.

With Election Day just over a week away, many California legislators and candidates are highlighting their interest in working across the aisle.

But voting records suggest those promises won't translate to frequent splits from the party line once they get to Sacramento.

An analysis of voting records by The Bee's Phillip Reese found that even the most independent legislators voted against the majority of members of their party less than 10 percent of the time.

See the full analysis, as well as a ranking of the most and least independent legislators when it comes to party loyalty, at this link.

San Bernardino County law enforcement authorities discovered guns, ammunition and grenades at the Hesperia home of a legislative aide who was arrested earlier this week.

Rebecca Tennison, who works as a field representative for Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, and her husband were both arrested at their home Tuesday, according to a report published in several Los Angeles News Group publications.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports:

At about 3:45 p.m. deputies responded to a call of a man with a gun. The caller alleges that a man came to his home and yelled at him about his barking dog then pointed a gun at him. ... Deputies went to the Tennison home located in the 14000 block of Harding Court in Hesperia to talk to him, but when he answered his door he slammed it in the deputy's face refusing to talk about the incident according to a sheriff's news release.

Rebecca Tennison came out of the house, and refused to listen to deputies making the situation worse according to authorities.

Knight's declined to comment on the incident itself earlier this week, but told the paper that the "assemblyman and his staff are committed to being there for Rebecca and her family during this difficult situation."

His office said late Thursday that Tennison had been arraigned and that the charges against her had been reduced to a misdemeanor offense of not following the orders of an officer.

Click here to read the full story.

Editor's note: This post was updated at 3:36 p.m. with additional information from Knight's office.

How often do California state legislators break from their party line when voting on bills?

Hardly ever.

An analysis by The Bee's Phillip Reese shows that Democrats voted the same way as most of their fellow party members 99 percent of the time in the 2011-2012 legislative session. Republicans voted with GOP colleagues 94 percent of the time.

Click here to see the full analysis.

With four weeks to go until Election Day, Assemblyman Dan Logue is abandoning his bid for an open state Senate seat because of health issues.

Logue was one of six candidates seeking to replace former Sen. Doug LaMalfa in the 4th Senate District. LaMalfa, who is running for Congress in a safe GOP district, resigned at the end of the legislative session so that the special primary for his seat could be consolidated with the November general election.

Logue's campaign said today that the Marysville Republican has been advised by his doctor to lay low while he recovers from kidney damage caused by an adverse reaction to antibiotics. While he will remain an active candidate in the 3rd Assembly District, where he is running for a third term, his health issues will prevent him from campaigning in the special election for the 4th Senate District, which spans 12 Northern California counties.

Those special license plates for retired lawmakers might spark some nice treatment from a restaurant valet. But they didn't come in too handy last week when former lobbyist and Assemblyman Richard Robinson crashed his BMW in Sacramento and was later booked on suspicion of drunk driving.

Robinson, a Democrat who represented the Garden Grove area in the Assembly from 1975 to 1986 and then worked as a lobbyist for many years, was driving an SUV with special plates indicating he's the retired District 72 assemblyman when he crashed Wednesday night. Fox 40 TV news caught the aftermath on tape.

Incumbent Republican Assemblymen Jim Nielsen and Dan Logue formally launched campaigns against each other today for the 12-county state Senate seat that incumbent Doug LaMalfa is vacating.

Nielsen and Logue will butt heads for the predominantly Republican 4th Senate District that winds through Yuba, Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Del Norte, Nevada, Placer, Shasta and Siskiyou counties. The winner will serve the remaining two years in LaMalfa's term.

LaMalfa, R-Richvale, announced last week that he will resign the state Senate seat so that a special election to fill it can be consolidated with the Nov. 6 general election. Gov. Jerry Brown has yet to announce the election date, however.

LaMalfa is running for the congressional seat of Republican Wally Herger and is considered a shoo-in in the heavily GOP district.

In case you missed it:

A middle-class scholarship tax deal died for the year.

Gov. Jerry Brown said Democrats will try again.

A lumber tax made it through.

A bill targeting predatory disability-law lawyers cleared the Legislature.

Lawmakers approved CEQA exemptions for a major L.A. project.

An extension for Hollywood tax breaks hit the governor.

Former state legislator Ed Vincent died Friday.

The Assembly sent to the governor today a San Francisco lawmaker's bill meant to ensure that her city's trash can continue to be hauled to Solano County without restriction in years to come.

The measure by Democratic Assemblywoman Fiona Ma would prohibit voters in a city or county from restricting or limiting the importation of solid waste into a privately owned landfill.

Assembly Bill 845 passed the lower house by a vote of 46-15.

Ma's proposal stems from a fight over Measure E, a 1984 voter-approved Solano County initiative to limit the amount of waste imported into Solano County to a maximum of 95,000 tons per year, curtailing what it could accept from San Francisco.

Rancho Cordova City Councilman Ken Cooley is running in one of four California Assembly races that are being targeted by Democrats as priorities for funding and other assistance in the November election.

Besides Cooley, the other Democrats identified by Speaker John A. Pérez for campaign assistance are Rudy Salas in Kern and Kings counties; Jose Medina, Riverside County and Moreno Valley; and Al Muratsuchi, Los Angeles' south bay.

The California Democratic Party, beginning this week, will move $150,000 into each of the four competitive races, begin field operations, and launch paid media advertising efforts, according to Perez.

The Assembly leader, in a prepared statement, said the four candidates will stress a "powerful message of restoring opportunity for the people" and will remind voters that Democrats represent "the party of solutions."

Democrats currently outnumber Republicans in the Assembly by a large margin, 52-27, with one seat held by an independent legislator. Democrats would need to gain two additional seats to reach the supermajority necessary to approve tax increases.

Cooley, who works as a legislative staffer, captured 43 percent of the District 8 vote in the June primary. Republican Peter Tateishi, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, qualified for the November ballot by garnering 23.4 percent.

Assemblyman Roger Hernandez was found not guilty of drunken driving by Contra Costa County jurors today, ending a trial that lasted nearly two weeks.

The jury found Hernandez not guilty of driving under the influence, and the panel was hung on whether his blood-alcohol content was 0.08 percent, said Cindy Armstrong, clerk for Judge Mary Ann O'Malley.

The West Covina Democrat can return now to the Capitol after missing about a week of work during his trial. Lawmakers are acting on dozens of bills each day as the Legislature prepares to adjourn for the year Friday.

"I'm grateful to our judicial system for a fair and impartial process," Hernandez said in a prepared statement. "I look forward to continuing to focus on my constituents, and the people of the San Gabriel Valley. California faces huge challenges and I intend to be part of positive solutions."

As the Republican National Convention kicks off in Tampa, most GOP legislators can be found on the floor of their respective legislative chambers here in Sacramento instead of the floor of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where former Gov. Mitt Romney will accept the Republican presidential nomination later this week.

Just two Republican legislators are confirmed attendees of this week's convention in Tampa. Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Solana Beach, is serving as a delegate representing the 50th Congressional District. Sen. Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster, is heading to Tampa with her husband, Board of Equalization member George Runner, another Romney delegate, but a spokeswoman said she is ready to fly back to California if needed.

Senate GOP leader Bob Huff, whose wife is a delegate, spent the weekend with the California delegation at in St Pete Beach, but was scheduled to return home in time for Monday's floor session.

A spokeswoman for Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway said she was unaware of any Assembly Republicans planning to attend the convention.

The low attendance rate among state legislators is likely due to the legislative calendar. Both houses are set to work through hundreds of bills ahead of the end-of-session deadline on Friday.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez announced a spate of leadership and policy committee changes Wednesday, less than a month before the Legislature adjourns its regular session for the year.

Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, will assume the chairmanship of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee beginning Friday, shortly before the panel decides the fate of scores of Senate bills.

Other key changes in committee chairmanships, all involving Democrats, include these:

• Joan Buchanan of Alamo taking control of the Education Committee;
• Das Williams of Santa Barbara, Higher Education;
• Felipe Fuentes of Los Angeles, Revenue and Taxation;
• Bob Wieckowski of Fremont, Judiciary;
• Rich Gordon of Menlo Park, Business, Professions and Consumer Protection;
• Michael Allen of Santa Rosa, Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security;
• and Ben Hueso of San Diego, Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

All changes in Assembly committee chairs will take effect Friday, including two involving Sacramento Democrats: Roger Dickinson will lead the Banking and Finance Committee, while Richard Pan will assume the gavel of the Health Committee.

Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway is asking donors of a GOP candidate to help push him out of a Sacramento-area Assembly race.

Conway is taking aim at Andy Pugno, a Folsom attorney who is set to square off in November against another Republican, Assemblywoman Beth Gaines of Rocklin, for the 6th District Assembly seat based in Placer but stretching into Fair Oaks, Folsom, Orangevale and El Dorado Hills.

The oddity of two members of the same party squaring off in a general election was created by the state's new "top two" primary system, which creates a runoff between the top two finishers in primary elections, regardless of party.

Conway, in her letter dated July 30, noted that Pugno finished "far behind" Gaines in June balloting and that he had pledged not to launch an "expensive and counter-productive campaign" against Gaines if she topped him in the primary.

"I and other Republican Party leaders have asked him to keep his pledge, but so far he will not commit, and he continues to raise money for a campaign. He may have even asked you for money again," Conway's letter told donors. Read the full letter after the jump.

"As the Assembly Republican leader, I hope you will join me in urging Andy Pugno to keep his pledge and suspend his campaign, so we can all come together and concentrate on restoring conservative leadership to the state."

Pugno predicted that Conway's appeal will backfire against Gaines and party bosses, saying it demonstrates arrogance and "the establishment's lack of awareness of how unhappy voters are with incumbents."

"Eveyone knows I've been running against the establishment," Pugno said. "So contacting my supporters, urging them to back a Capitol insider, is a blunder that highlights they've lost touch with real people who are sick and tired of business as usual."

Pugno also has been in contact with his donors. He sent them a fundraising appeal shortly after the June primary, noting that it's time to "start thinking about the November runoff election" and asking for donations to "help us finish the job."

Pugno later characterized his fundraising letter as exploratory. He said Wednesday that, despite his previous pledge, he has not yet decided whether to run against Gaines in November.

Assemblyman Roger Hernández will ask a judge to throw out a blood analysis and other evidence against him Monday, the eve of his trial in Walnut Creek on suspicion of drunken driving.

The West Covina Democrat filed court documents claiming that his constitutional rights were violated by an unreasonable search and, therefore, evidence that includes the blood test, his statements, and observations of witnesses and police officers should not be accepted by a judge, prosecutor Dana Filkowski said.

Peter Johnson, Hernández's attorney, could not be reached for comment this afternoon.

Hernández was charged with driving under the influence after he was stopped March 27 in Concord, where police say the state car he was driving was weaving inside a lane on Concord Avenue.

Lab tests concluded his blood-alcohol level was 0.08 percent, the level at which a motorist can be charged with drunken driving. Hernández has apologized for any embarrassment he may have caused others, but he said that he drank only two glasses of wine between 9 p.m. and the time of his arrest, about 2 a.m.

Filkowski characterized the court papers filed by Hernández as standard in such cases, with largely boilerplate language that does not make specific accusations of wrongdoing against a particular officer.

"What they do is put the burden on us to justify it," Filkowski said of Hernández's treatment by officers.

Hernández's trial is scheduled for Tuesday in Contra Costa Superior Court in Walnut Creek.

PHOTO CREDIT: Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, D-West Covina, talks on the Assembly floor on Thursday, May 17, 2012. (Associated Press / Rich Pedroncelli)

By Torey Van Oot and Jim Sanders

At least 93 California legislative employees making more than $100,000 received raises this year, a review of newly released payroll records showed.

While six-figure wage earners represent just a fraction of total legislative staff, the Capitol now has more than 300 employees making more than $100,000.

Forty-seven Senate employees with six-figure salaries received raises between Jan. 31 and June 30 of this year. Six additional employees in that pay range received raises but were promoted or assigned to a new job. Records released to The Bee under the Legislative Open Records Act show that at least 189 employees in the upper house now make six figures or more, a net increase of 15 since Jan. 31.

Yes, California Assemblyman Henry T. Perea knows that 2 + 2 = 4.

But you wouldn't know it by looking at the Fresno Democrat's flier for an October campaign fundraising event, which promises to give donors one custom-made men's suit for chipping in $2,000 -- or two of what the flier called "suites" for $5,000.

Here's the kicker: Perea chairs the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

The unusual give-and-ye-shall-receive political event will raise money for Perea's re-election campaign and for a ballot measure committee he controls. A Sacramento clothing firm, R. Douglas, will fit each participating donor.

Julie Sandino, coordinator of Perea's event, called the faulty math a simple typographical error. The correct figure is two suits for $4,000, she said, adding with a laugh: "Unless you really like Henry or want to be very generous."

Perea's flier also misspelled the name of the participating clothier, listing him as Ryan Douglas Hammond.

His last name is Hammonds.

The state Assembly voted this afternoon to approve initial funding for California's $68 billion high-speed rail project, setting up a crucial vote in the Senate on Friday.

The bill passed by the Assembly includes $5.8 billion for construction in the Central Valley, as well as nearly $2 billion to improve regional rail systems in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas and to connect them to high-speed rail.

The Assembly's approval, on a 51-27 vote, was widely expected. A much closer vote is expected in the Senate. It remains unclear if the project has enough votes in the upper house to proceed. Senators were debating the bill in committee this afternoon.

Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, urged lawmakers to recall the work of previous generations of Californians, who built the state water project and its highway and university systems.

"We have issues, in terms of budget problems," he said. "Does that mean that we stop looking to the future?"

Republicans argued the state does not have money to invest in rail.

Citing recent polling showing high-speed rail has become unpopular since voters approved it in 2008, Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, urged the Assembly to put the project back to a public vote.

"Let them help us prioritize what's important," Hagman said.

A California lawmaker has dropped his bid to regulate and allow taxation of California's medical marijuana industry.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano today canceled a scheduled Senate committee vote on Assembly Bill 2312, saying he has decided to allow the Businesses, Professions and Economic Development Committee to hold more committee hearings and issue a report on the issue after the legislative session adjourns.

Ammiano said in a statement that while the bill "represents my best effort to regulate this industry that has existed in a patchwork of regulations and laws for the past 15 years," additional study could create an even better product.

"There is no doubt that my colleagues understand the need for this legislation, and I have a lot of faith in this committee that we can hammer out a well-balanced regulatory policy during the fall to answer calls from local governments, law enforcement including our Attorney General, patients, and the public to enact a highly regulated system for medical marijuana and provide a clear set of rules for everybody," Ammiano said.

The bill, which squeaked out of the state Assembly earlier this month on a vote of 41-28, would create a state Bureau of Medical Marijuana Enforcement to provide oversight of many aspects of the medical marijuana industry. It would also allow local governments to tax marijuana products.

Supporters said such steps would help protect California's medical cannabis growers, sellers and users in the wake of a medical marijuana crackdown by federal authorities. Law enforcement associations opposed to the bill complained that the measure was "really a giant permission slip for medical marijuana stores to operate in a virtual unfettered manner."

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California Assembly passes pot regulation bill

Assemblyman Roger Hernández is set to take his drunken driving case to a jury Aug. 7.

The West Covina Democrat was given a trial date Wednesday by Contra Costa County Judge Bruce Mills, said Karen Holder, senior deputy district attorney.

Hernández did not appear at Wednesday's brief pretrial hearing, Holder said. He was represented by attorney Carin Johnson.

Hernández was charged with drunken driving last month after Concord police officers said they observed him driving erratically March 27 at about 2 a.m. on a weekday. The legislator said that he had only two glasses of wine over a five-hour period.

Tests concluded that his blood-alcohol level was 0.08, the level at which a driver can be charged with drunken driving.

Hernández has denied officers' claims that he was weaving inside a lane of traffic. He also contends that he was not impaired when stopped by officers after driving into the parking lot of a lot of a Concord hotel.

Hernández was accompanied by a 29-year-old woman and was driving a state Assembly car at the time of the incident. He has voluntarily relinquished his right to drive a legislative car until the case is resolved.

* Updated at 5:53 p.m. Thursday to correct the spelling of Carin Johnson.

When Assemblyman Roger Hernandez was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving after pulling into the parking lot of a Concord hotel two months ago, he had a question for the police officer who stopped him.

"I'm here at the hotel and I'm not driving any more, can't you just let me go?" Hernandez asked, according to a Concord police report of the incident released Friday by Contra Costa Superior Court.

The West Covina Democrat subsequently was arrested on a drunken driving charge, pleaded not guilty, and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court for a pretrial hearing June 20.

Hernandez has apologized for getting behind the wheel after drinking, but he has insisted that he was not impaired. Tests pegged his blood-alcohol level at 0.08 percent, the level at which a motorist can be charged with drunken driving.

The second-year legislator, accompanied by a 29-year-old woman, was stopped by police about 2 a.m. on a weekday, March 27, in a state-owned Toyota Camry. His request to be "let go" came while the officer was asking a series of questions about his plans for the night.

The state's most heated legislative primary contest may be in Southern California's very wealthy, movie star-heavy, very liberal 50th Assembly District.

First-term Democratic Assemblywoman Betsy Butler now represents just a tiny slice of the 50th AD but has Democratic Party leadership support as she seeks re-election there, opposed by well-known liberal activist Torie Osborn.

The regions many political factions, including the large and influential gay community, have divided sharply, and LA Weekly newspaper lays out the dynamics of the Butler-Osborn duel in a lengthy article.

With its overwhelmingly Democratic voter registration, it's possible that Butler and Osborn will both survive the state's new "top-two" primary on June 5 and face each other again in the November election.

Democrat Xochitl Paderes is dropping out of the race for the open 13th Assembly District.

The community activist told the Stockton Record that she was worried about the effect campaign attacks could have on her family. She had recently been targeted by expenditures made by a committee backed by the California Chamber of Commerce.

The Record reports:

The 36-year-old candidate said she doesn't have the money to fight negative campaign mailers and was concerned that future personal attacks could jeopardize completion of a lengthy adoption process for her 9-year-old son.

"Any kind of misrepresentation of the facts ... could compromise our fight," Paderes said Monday. "It is just ridiculous that politics has to be so nasty and dirty and negative. I don't have the kind of money to tackle them or rebut them or do anything like that."

Paderes will still appear on the ballot and more than 20,000 voters in the Stockton-area district have already cast a vote via vote-by-mail ballots, the Record reports.

But her exit from the race could give Stockton City Councilwoman Susan Eggman, also a Democrat, a clearer shot at securing a spot in the November runoff. The two had been locked in a battle for the runoff, with Cal Chamber chipping in for Eggman and some labor unions that were upset about Eggman's actions on the council backing Paderes.

One other Democrat and two Republicans are also in the running for the seat. The top two vote-getters in the June 5 primary will advance to the November runoff, regardless of their political party affiliation.

Click here to read the full Stockton Record story.

RELATED POST:

California Chamber of Commerce spends to support Democrats running for Assembly

A political committee that Service Employees International Union California created to support moderate Republican candidates for the Legislature reported its first expenditure of the 2012 election Wednesday, dropping more than $15,000 on mail pieces opposing Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly's bid for re-election.

Donnelly, a conservative first-term assemblyman known for his vocal opposition to illegal immigration, is facing Republican Bill Jahn, the mayor of Big Bear Lake, and Democrat John Coffey on the June 5 ballot in the 33rd Assembly District.

The mailers were reported in a campaign filing posted on the secretary of state's website.The committee also reported spending about $20,000 on a survey in the safe Republican district.

SEIU California launched the Golden California Committee last year as part of an effort to elect more moderate Republicans to the Legislature. Leaders said the new district lines and top-two primary system allow more opportunities to influence the outcome in conservative districts.

The union says 87,000 of its 700,000 members are registered Republicans.

RELATED POSTS:
SEIU California launches Republican PAC to back moderates

JobsPAC, the political action committee of the California Chamber of Commerce, has recently shelled out more than $150,000 on independent efforts backing two Democrats running for the Assembly.

About $121,000 went to consultants,research, polling and mailers to support Orange County Democrat Tom Daly's run for the Assembly District 69 seat, according to the PAC's latest filings with the Secretary of State.

Daly, a moderate who OC Weekly tagged "the Joe Lieberman of Orange County politics," has a long history in public office that includes 10 years as Anaheim's mayor.

Other contenders for the Democratic-leaning seat currently held by termed-out Assemblyman Jose Solorio , D-Santa Ana, include Santa Ana City Councilwoman Michele Martinez and labor activist Julio Perez, both Democrats. Another committee backed by labor has been spending heavily for Perez.

Closer to Sacramento, the chamber supported Stockton City Councilwoman Susan Eggman's candidacy for the Assembly District 13 seat with $33,000 spent independently on consulting, research, and mailers.

Although three Republicans are on the AD 13 June primary ballot, the primary race is focused on Eggman and labor-backed Democratic community activist Xochitl Paderes, whose campaign has received nearly $20,000 from labor organizations, state records show.

The Stockton Record recently reported that the fight between the candidates is centering on Stockton's well-known fiscal problems and how the city council on which Eggman serves decided to enter confidential talks with creditors, hoping to avoid bankruptcy. That has angered unions, which have endorsed Paderes.

A proposed resolution to commend the Boy Scouts of America on its 102nd anniversary died today in an Assembly committee because the measure did not urge the group to accept gays and lesbians.

Instead, the Assembly Judiciary Committee passed a separate resolution that applauded the Boy Scouts but said its policy against accepting homosexuals is harmful and discriminatory -- and should be reconsidered.

The measure that passed, crafted by committee Chairman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, encouraged the group to "accept for membership and leadership positions all qualified boys and men, without discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or religious beliefs."

Assemblyman Mike Morrell, R-Rancho Cucamonga, wrote the resolution that died in the committee by a party-line vote, supported by Republicans. He said he simply wanted his Assembly Concurrent Resolution 94 to commend the group for its many good deeds, not to make the issue political.

"I don't think this body should impose your will upon them," Morrell told the committee.

Feuer countered that lawmakers were not imposing their will upon the Boy Scouts - and could not legally do so. But before commending an organization, the Assembly should consider all facets of it, he said.

Comparing one form of discrimination to another, Feuer said that any group that excluded potential members because of their skin color would not be popular at the Capitol.

"I don't see the difference between discrimination based on race and on sexual orientation," he said.

Feuer's Assembly Concurrent Resolution 128 passed the committee by a vote of 7-2, with Democrats supporting it.

Forget bipartisanship.

Scrap a roll call vote.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo pulled an Assembly surprise that cannot be amended, rescinded or reversed by the house Monday when he proposed marriage to his longtime love, Karina Cervantez, during a floor session.

She quickly said yes.

The Watsonville Democrat had invited Cervantez to the Capitol, in part, because the Assembly was scheduled to honor the week of Cinco de Mayo by presenting awards to Latino leaders from throughout California.

After the awards ceremony, Alejo took the microphone to introduce Cervantez, a 32-year-old student completing a doctoral degree at UC Santa Cruz. The couple, who have dated seven years, met while both were working on a school board campaign.

Recalling his proposal later Monday, Alejo said he began by introducing Cervantez as beautiful, the love of his life, the daughter of migrant farm workers, his best friend, and the smartest person he knows.

"I turned to her and said, 'Karina, on this day and at this special moment, I want to ask you if you would make me the happiest man on Earth by marrying me."

Alejo said he planned to get down on his knees, awaiting her reply, but while he was contemplating that, Cervantez began to stand.

"It was definitely not professionally choreographed," Cervantez quipped as Alejo retold the story.

She said yes on the Assembly floor - and Alejo grabbed the microphone to announce the news to colleagues and to his mother, Mary Lou Alejo, who had come to witness the proposal.

Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, then handed Alejo the diamond ring that the latter had asked him to hide.

Alejo's is the first marriage proposal on the Assembly floor in recent memory, if not the first ever. Chief Clerk Dotson Wilson said it is the only such proposal during his tenure, which began in 1992.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher's request to be replaced for today's Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, which will vote on a controversial tax proposal, has been granted by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez.

Fletcher, who recently left the Republican Party and registered as an independent, will be replaced at today's meeting by Assemblyman Donald Wagner, R-Irvine.

By missing today's Revenue and Tax Committee, Fletcher will not cast a vote on hotly contested legislation, Assembly Bill 1500, designed to raise $1 billion for college scholarships by altering tax law affecting out-of-state corporations that do business in California.

Democrats support Pérez's tax proposal while Republicans oppose it, calling it a tax increase. Fletcher's vote conceivably could have won or lost him votes in his current race for mayor of San Diego, where primary ballots will be cast next month.

Last year, Fletcher was one of two Republicans voting for another proposal that would have changed the same tax law. That measure died in the Senate.

Fletcher, in his request to the speaker's office, said the absence was due to personal business in his district, said John Vigna, Perez's spokesman. Fletcher waived the $142 he was due to receive in per diem today.

Fletcher had scheduled a San Diego press conference today at which City Council President Tony Young was endorsing Fletcher's education plan for the city.

Six Republican Assembly members gained new titles today as Republican leader Connie Conway expanded and altered her leadership team.

Conway's changes come in the wake of the GOP's Jeff Gorell returning from deployment to the Afghanistan War and Nathan Fletcher's decision to leave the party to register as an independent.

Two moderate Republicans formerly in leadership positions were not included in the new lineup: Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita, formerly an assistant leader; and Bill Berryhill of Ceres, formerly a chief whip.

Sabrina Lockhart, Conway's spokeswoman, said that the exclusions of Smyth and Berryhill were not punitive. Both are leaving the Assembly in December. Smyth is termed out and Berryhill is running for a Senate seat.

Conway, in announcing her leadership changes, vowed to "fight to protect Californians from higher taxes" and to push for "common-sense bipartisan solutions" to problems ranging from pension debt to education budget cuts.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office has filed drunken driving charges against Democratic Assemblyman Roger Hernandez of West Covina.

Two misdemeanor charges were filed, officials said, but both counts stem from the same incident in which Hernandez allegedly was driving under the influence when stopped by police March 27. He is scheduled to appear in court May 21 for arraignment.

Laboratory results found that Hernandez' blood-alcohol level at the time of the test was 0.08 percent, the level at which a driver can be charged with drunken driving. The lawmaker was tested about an hour after he was taken into custody, police said.

Hernandez could not be reached immediately for comment today. When lab results were released last week, however, he apologized for his actions and said the findings serve as a "huge wake-up call for me."'

"I may have made a poor judgment thinking that I was sober enough to drive after a couple of drinks over the course of an evening," he said. "Had I thought I was mentally or physically impaired to drive, I would not have gone behind the wheel of a car."

Hernandez, accompanied by a 29-year-old woman, was stopped by officers in the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel about 2 a.m. on a weekday. The Toyota Camry he was driving - an Assembly vehicle -- had been spotted weaving inside a lane on Concord Avenue, officers said.

The first-term legislator denied that his car had been weaving or that he was impaired at the time.

Hernandez has voluntarily relinquished his right to drive an Assembly pool car until the matter is resolved.

Laboratory test results have concluded that Assemblyman Roger Hernandez was legally drunk when arrested last month in Concord, prompting an apology from the West Covina Democrat.

Hernandez's blood-alcohol level was 0.08 percent at the time of his test, police said in a written statement. His case will be turned over to the Contra Costa District Attorney's Office for review.

Hernandez, in a written statement, apologized for any embarrassment he may have caused others and characterized the test results as a "huge wake-up call for me." He expressed hope that others can learn from the incident that it is dangerous to consume any amount of alcohol before driving.

"I may have made a poor judgment thinking that I was sober enough to drive after a couple of drinks over the course of an evening," Hernandez said. "Had I thought I was mentally or physically impaired to drive, I would not have gone behind the wheel of a car."

Hernandez did not specifically address the blood-level finding, saying simply, "I look forward to fully looking into the specifics of the test for more information."

California law deems motorists with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher to be driving under the influence of alcohol.

"Any time we send (a case) to the DA's office, we're recommending prosecution," Concord Police Chief Guy Swanger said.

Hernandez, D-West Covina, was stopped by officers in the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel about 2 a.m. on a weekday, March 27. He was accompanied by a 29-year-old woman and his Toyota Camry had been spotted weaving inside a lane on Concord Avenue, officers said.

The first-term legislator denied that his car -- one of the Assembly's pool vehicles -- had been weaving or that he was impaired at the time.

Two days after his arrest, Hernandez said that he had consumed "two, maybe three glasses of wine over the course of a period longer than four hours after dinner."

Swanger said the blood-alcohol test was administered about an hour after Hernandez was taken into custody. Officers detected the smell of alcohol in his car when it was stopped, police reports noted.

Hernandez's blood sample was not tested for drugs because there was no indication during field observations that drugs might be involved, Swanger said.

* Updated at 2:45 p.m. to add comments from Concord Police Chief Guy Swanger. Updated at 5:05 p.m. to add comments from Roger Hernandez.

The California's Commission on the Status of Women is getting a second act with a last-minute funding pledge from the state Assembly.

The commission, which Academy Award-winning Geena Davis chairs, has been advising the governor and Legislature on issues and policy affecting women in the state for more than 45 years.

The panel was set to suspended its operations due to state budget cuts, and Gov. Jerry Brown proposed in January that its remaining $265,000 budget be eliminated, saying "numerous alternative and effective forums" already perform its duties.

But it was saved from the chopping block today. Speaker John A. Pérez and members of the Legislative Women's Caucus announced that the lower house will use $150,000 from its operating budget to fund the commission.

Davis said she has heard the governor's concerns and is "moving forward in a new direction with a clarified focus and a new commitment to women and girls." She said commission officials are exploring public-private funding opportunities and are planning to focus on business, health and safety, education, gender equality in the media and women and children in military families.

"Parity in these key areas is a marker of success and opportunity in our society," she said.

The Democratic governor isn't the only one calling for cutting off money to the commission. Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto plans legislation to prohibit the use of public funds for the commission and issued a statement today questioning whether saving the commission is the best use of Assembly budget savings.

"I applaud the Speaker for his willingness to reallocate Assembly funding to other areas of the budget," Olsen said. "However, at a time when teachers are receiving pink slips and we are releasing prisoners early, why would we use this money to fund the Commission on the Status of Women instead of a priority program? That is beyond comprehension."

Pérez said the commission "is one of many" programs the Assembly is looking to bolster with the savings from ongoing reductions to its operating budget, pointing to a recent $500,000 commitment to aid the National Guard in helping returning veterans get jobs and earlier transfers to restore funding for state-subsidized child care. The Los Angeles Democrat said the commission was a worthy recipient in part because of the effect that budget cuts to social services programs have had on women and children.

"You don't need to add insult to injury and layer those cuts on the elimination of the commission that has done essential work to look at those impacts, to look at other out-year challenges for us and to look at ways to create greater equity in the state of California," Pérez said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis talks about funding for the California Commission on the Status of Women with Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, D-Los Angeles, at the Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday, April, 24, 2012. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee

Assemblyman Roger Hernandez voluntarily relinquished his right to drive Assembly pool cars Friday, hours after the lower house disclosed that he was driving one of the vehicles when arrested in Concord last month on suspicion of drunken driving.

The West Covina Democrat, in a written statement, said he learned after reviewing Assembly rules that he "should not have used a state vehicle for travel outside the Capitol to the Bay Area."

"I apologize to my constituents and colleagues for doing so," Hernandez wrote. "I do believe pending test results will make clear that I was in fact driving within the law. Until this matter is resolved,I am voluntarily relinquishing my access to drive state vehicles."

Earlier Friday, Assembly administrator Jon Waldie said that Hernandez did not have permission March 27 to take one of the Assembly's pool cars to Concord, where he was arrested in the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Hernandez was driving a Toyota Camry hybrid that had been assigned to him for travel in the Capitol area, Waldie said.

Lawmakers are making more extensive use of personal vehicles or pool cars after California's independent salary-setting commission eliminated a lease-car program serving Assembly and Senate officeholders.

The general rule is that Assembly members not take pool cars out of Sacramento without prior permission. Officials prefer that out-of-area trips be for a legislative or governmental purpose, Waldie said.

"He was not fully aware of those rules, I guess, being a first-term member," Waldie said. "He is now fully aware of those rules."

Pending results of a blood test, no charges have been filed against Hernandez in connection with the Concord arrest.

UPDATE: 4:20 p.m. The California Lottery Commission is taking down the ad. Read more at this link.

Leaders of the Legislative Women's Caucus are demanding that the California Lottery Commission take a new television ad off the air, saying a scene in which a woman slaps a man who scores a win on a scratch ticket "glamorizes violence."

"We certainly believe this commercial not only portrays women in a poor light -- by perpetrating violence -- but also endorses the act of violence itself," Sen. Noreen Evans and Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, who co-chair the caucus, wrote in a letter Wednesday to Lottery Director Robert O'Neil.

The letter, posted after the jump, asks the Lottery Commission to pull the ad and "scrutinize the content of future ads which may contain harmful messages that are paid for with public dollars."

"It is inappropriate for any entity, especially a state-funded Commission, to promote its products through the use of violence," the letter reads.

The "Luck has a new look" spot, posted below, shows a woman in black, assumed to be "Lady Luck," walking up to a man playing a California Lottery Black Scratchers ticket at a bowling alley. After she slaps him across the face, he looks at his scratch card and says, "I won!"

A spokesperson for the Lottery Commission was not immediately available for comment. The commission website lists several Lady Luck-themed promoted for the Black Scratchers game running through the month of April.

The television show about nothing has become something of an argument for an Assembly bill to change California's beverage container recycling program.

A reader passed along the Appropriations Committee analysis for Assembly Bill 1933, noting that "Seinfield" antagonist Newman makes a cameo in the three-page bill report:

As the author notes, a 1996 episode television's Seinfeld featured the efforts of supporting character, Newman, to smuggle a mail truck loaded with beverage cans out of New York, which did not offer a beverage container redemption, and into Michigan, where the cans could be turned in for a five-cent redemption value.

Calrecycle does not know how much beverage container material is imported into the state in attempts to fraudulently receive CRV for the material, a la Newman. However, the department has evidence to suspect the practice happens large scale.

The bill's author -- Democratic Assemblyman and apparent Seinfield fan Richard Gordon of Menlo Park -- is likely hoping his legislation enjoys a better outcome than Newman's scheme.

The reoccurring nemesis to the fictional Jerry Seinfield lost both the bottles and his seat in the truck by the end of the two-part episode.

For the record, the episode's math actually involved a 10-cent redemption in Michigan. New York's deposit was then and still is a nickel. Watch a clip from the episode at this link.

PHOTO CREDIT: Actors Jerry Seinfeld, left, as "Seinfeld" and Wayne Knight as "Newman," file photo, 1998.

It's all hands on deck as the deadline approaches for supporters of Gov. Jerry Brown's tax measure to turn in the hundreds of thousands of signatures they need to qualify for the November ballot.

In addition to calling and mailing voters pleas to send signatures in, campaign supporters have asked some Democratic staff members in the Legislature to circulate petitions for the constitutional amendment on their time off.

The volunteer effort is organized by the political, non-state arms of the Assembly and Senate Democratic caucuses, which are funded and staffed by the California Democratic Party, both the Assembly and Senate Democrats say.

Short and sweet.

No flowery speech from Assemblyman Jeff Gorell today as he returned to the Capitol after a yearlong deployment to the war in Afghanistan.

After leading the Assembly in the Pledge of Allegiance, the Camarillo Republican was called upon to address his colleagues.

"Did I miss anything while I was gone? The Capitol press corps tells me no," he quipped.

A framed photo of Gorell in military fatigues, signed by Assembly colleagues, had been presented to him earlier as a welcome-home gift.

"I get to come back to the best job in the world and to work with some of the best people in the world," Gorell said.

"Now let's get back to work."

Gorell, 41, was joined on the Assembly floor by his wife, Laura.

A lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, Gorell served in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer stationed with Marines at Camp Leatherneck in the Helmand province.

The chase is over: California Assemblywoman Beth Gaines accepted service today, through her attorney, of a lawsuit filed by fellow Republican Andy Pugno challenging her ballot designation as "small business owner."

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny has scheduled a 9 a.m. Monday hearing in the case.

Arguments initially were expected to be heard Thursday, but a judge ruled that Gaines had not been personally served with the paperwork.

The judge's finding prompted a futile, daylong scramble by Pugno's campaign to serve the Rocklin Republican before the close of business Thursday, the deadline for the secretary of state's office to certify ballot titles.

Pugno's lawsuit contends that his rival's ballot designation of "small business owner" is misleading because Gaines and her husband, state Sen. Ted Gaines, incorporated their family-owned insurance firm less than a month before she filed for re-election to the Assembly.

Pugno and Gaines are among candidates for the newly drawn 6th Assembly District, which is based in Placer County but extends into El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park and portions of northeastern Sacramento County.

Gaines' campaign notified Pugno's camp today that she would agree to accept service of the lawsuit through her attorney, Brian Hildreth, of the Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk law firm, said Dave Gilliard, Gaines' campaign consultant.

Gaines made the decision to end the scrambling after Pugno's representatives scoured the area for her all day, then showed up at a private event in a private home Thursday night, Gilliard said.

"So we just said, 'This is ridiculous,' " said Gilliard.

Pugno countered that Gaines "clearly was in hiding" after Thursday's ruling that she needed to be personally served with papers.

Though Pugno missed the state's deadline for certification of ballot titles, he said there remains time for a judge Monday to order counties to make changes before the material is sent for printing.

Brad Buyse, Sacramento County's campaign services manager, said the county's position is that the deadline for changes in the ballot for the Assembly race has been missed, but "we'll try to comply with whatever the court orders."

"It really doesn't matter," Gilliard said of the deadline, "because she's going to prove quite easily that she's a business owner."

* Updated at 2:30 p.m. to say that Pugno had served Gaines with papers.

Welcome home, Jeff Gorell.

After a yearlong stint at war in Afghanistan, Assemblyman Jeff Gorell can unpack his bags now in Camarillo. He expects to finish processing paperwork today to transition out of active military duty.

"I'm back in California, I'm home," Gorell told The Bee. "It's great to be back."

The 41-year-old, first-term Republican lawmaker expects to return to the Capitol on April 9, when the Assembly reconvenes after a weeklong recess.

"I'll be there, rocking and rolling," Gorell said. "I'm looking forward to getting back in the mix."

Meanwhile, Gorell can spend time with his wife, Laura, and with their two young children.

Gorell, a Naval reservist, was deployed on active duty as an intelligence officer stationed with Marines at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan's Helmand province, spokesman Doug Lorenz said.

Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin, had good reason to avoid her office today.

The campaign manager for Andy Pugno, Gaines' GOP rival in the 6th Assembly District, staked out the hallway outside her Capitol office for hours in hopes of serving the Rocklin Republican with a lawsuit.

Pugno, a Folsom attorney, filed a lawsuit earlier this week challenging Gaines' use of "small business owner" as her job title on the ballot. Gaines says it's accurate because she and husband Ted Gaines, a state senator, own their own insurance company. Pugno's complaint says telling voters that is her "principal profession, occupation or vocation" is misleading because the company was just incorporated in late January.

The case was scheduled to be heard this morning in Sacramento Superior Court. But the question was put on hold after lawyers for Gaines successfully argued that the case should not be heard because their client had not been personally served with the paperwork. Pugno said the judge told his attorneys that they can return later today to make their case if they are able to serve Gaines.

With the clock ticking to make changes to ballot language, Pugno campaign manager Jim Dutra headed to the Capitol to try to serve Gaines there, arriving at the benches outside her fourth-floor office at about 11:30 a.m. The assemblywoman had not returned to her office as of 1:30 p.m. An aide said she was expected to be in and out of the office throughout the day but was not currently there.

Much talk, no action -- yet. California's Citizens Compensation Commission spent two hours today discussing state officeholder compensation, but no decisions were made and none of its members suggested raising pay of legislators or other statewide officeholders.

Chairman Tom Dalzell said he suspects that the state's budget crisis would bar any pay hike, even if there were sentiment to do so when the commission reconvenes in May to consider any written motions submitted by members.

Today, commissioners identified several issues they may want to consider in the future -- whether senators should be paid more than Assembly members because of larger districts, for example, and whether California's prohibition on legislative pension benefits should be taken into consideration in comparing pay to other states.

By Jim Sanders

A California lawmaker was arrested this week for suspicion of drunken driving.

Democratic Assemblyman Roger Hernandez was arrested in the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel after he failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breathalyzer test, Concord Police Chief Guy Swanger said.

Officers stopped Hernandez's white Toyota Camry about 2 a.m. Tuesday after they observed the car weaving from side to side in its lane on Concord Avenue, then turn suddenly onto Meridian Park Boulevard without signaling, Swanger said.

Hernandez, a first-term assemblyman who serves as the Democratic Caucus's assistant majority whip, was taken intially to the Concord Police Department for a blood test and later booked at the Contra Costa County jail in Martinez, Swanger said.

The West Covina lawmaker said Thursday that he had been visiting a friend in the Bay Area shortly before the incident occurred. He said he is confident that test results will show he was not drunk.

"After dinner I had a couple of drinks and because of the late hour I decided to stay in the town of Concord," Hernandez said.

Republican Assembly hopeful Andy Pugno kicked off his campaign today with a pledge that could leave him backing his rival over his own candidacy in November.

The Folsom Republican is challenging Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, R-Rocklin, in the 6th Assembly District. Under the state's new top-two primary rules, voters could send both Republicans to the general election.

But voters in the safe GOP district might be spared a second round of a same-party slug fest if that happens. Pugno said today that he would support whichever Republican gets the most votes in the June 5 primary -- even if he secures the No. 2 spot to advance to the runoff. He said he made the pledge because he believes Republicans "should not be beating up on each other in the general election"

"If I came in behind Beth Gaines, I would honor the expression of Republican voters and endorse her campaign and not actively campaign myself," Pugno said in an interview with The Bee today.

Gaines' consultant dismissed the scenario as unlikely given the presence of a Democratic candidate in the three-way race. But he said his candidate wasn't interested in joining Pugno on the issue.

"She pledges to vote for a Republican in November and it's going to be herself," Gaines consultant Dave Gilliard said.

Pugno filed to run for the office earlier this month, but spoke publicly about his plans to run for the Assembly for the first time today. The 2010 Assembly candidate and author and attorney for Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, told KTKZ (1380 AM) host Eric Hogue that he wants to position himself as a "strong advocate for conservative causes" who would "actually be there out on the frontlines engaging and fighting for us."

He later criticized Gaines as"very passive and totally inaccessible to her constituents" in an interview with The Bee.

Gilliard rejected Pugno's characterization, noting that Gaines has hosted recent town hall meetings in the newly drawn district.

"She's been very accessible," he said "I think it's a non-issue."

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly pleaded no contest today to two misdemeanor gun charges stemming from the discovery of a loaded firearm in his carry-on bag before he boarded a flight for Sacramento.

The Twin Peaks Republican was placed on probation for three years and fined $2,215, said Christopher Lee, spokesman for the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.

Donnelly faced charges of illegal possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a prohibited item in a sterile area in connection with the Jan. 4 airport incident involving a loaded .45-caliber firearm.

The two misdemeanors carried maximum jail sentences of one year and six months, respectively. Offenders also could be fined up to $1,000 for each count. Judges are free to impose lighter sentences, however, based on circumstances.

Donnelly was ordered to pay his $2,215 fine in increments of $200 per month, starting May 1, Lee said.

The assemblyman's gun and ammunition will be destroyed by law enforcement, and Donnelly was ordered not to use, possess or own a firearm not registered to him, Lee said.

Rod Pacheco, Donnelly's attorney, characterized the plea agreement as a fair resolution of a case in which the assemblyman immediately and consistently accepted responsibility

"This has been an incredible distraction for him," Pacheco said.

"He wasn't trying to sneak it in," Pacheco said of the gun. "He put the bag in the scanner, for god sakes. He obviously wasn't trying to sneak something through the scanner. You can't get a metal toothpick through the scanner, let alone a handgun."

Donnelly called the incident a regrettable but "innocent and honest mistake."

"My family and look forward to putting this behind us," he said in a written statement. "Many have sent words of encouragement throughout this time, and we are truly grateful. I am excited to move forward to continue representing the people and values of our district."

Federal Transportation Security Administration officials described Donnelly's gun as a .45-caliber Colt Mark IV. It had four rounds in its magazine and a spare magazine with five rounds, TSA officials said.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly is seeking a plea deal on misdemeanor charges stemming from the discovery of a loaded firearm in his hand-carry luggage by screeners at Ontario International Airport.

"Tim has taken responsibility for it, so this isn't like we're going to have a trial or anything, to be candid with you," said Rod Pacheco, a former legislator and Riverside County district attorney who is Donnelly's attorney.

The Twin Peaks Republican, through Pacheco, pleaded not guilty to the charges at arraignment Feb. 24.

Pacheco said he met with prosecutors today, and has talked with them in the past, to explain threats made against Donnelly and other mitigating circumstances that should be considered in resolving the case.

"The justice system needs to mete out justice in a fair manner, taking into consideration various circumstances," Pacheco said, declining to comment on what he felt would be a fair disposition.

The case of a committed public servant bringing a gun to an airport by mistake is quite different than that of a gang member trying to sneak a weapon through airport security, Pacheco said.

Officials from the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office declined comment today.

An Assembly budget subcommittee voted unanimously Wednesday to block expansion of a statewide court case management system that has become the focal point of a months-long political war between the state's judicial leadership and some rebel judges.

The latter -- backed by the politically powerful Service Employees International Union -- have complained that millions of dollars are being wasted on the computer system while local courts are being compelled to curtail their operations and lay off employees as state financing of courts is reduced.

The budget subcommittee's action bolsters the Assembly's position in a conflict with the state Senate over court management. The Assembly has passed legislation, Assembly Bill 1208, that the rebel Alliance of California Judges sponsored to give local judges more power over distribution of operational funds.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who chairs the state Judicial Council and heads the Administrative Office of the Courts, has publicly complained that the legislation violates judicial independence, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has declared that the bill will be held in his house without a vote.

Steinberg, however, is under pressure from the SEIU, which represents court employees facing layoffs and is a major source of campaign money for Democrats. Wednesday's action makes the computer system financing a potential bargaining chip in the inter-Capitol maneuvering over the legislation.

The subcommittee's action came after the Legislature's budget analyst and the state auditor delivered reports that strengthened the critics' positions.

So far, legislators were told, the Administrative Office of the Courts has spent $556.5 million on the system but it's been deployed in only a few counties. Even so, Auditor Elaine Howle pointed out, the AOC certified that the system is complete, thereby triggering a limited warranty period from the contractor that could leave the state holding the financial bag if problems crop up later.

Judges themselves are divided over the efficacy of the system, some professing that it lightens their workloads, while others saying it is unusable. In recent weeks, the chief justice and her allies have backed off their previous intent to install it in every county and indicated that they'd give local judges more leeway.

Democratic Assemblyman Ben Hueso signaled today that he is dropping his effort to strip Fish and Game Commission President Dan Richards of his appointment.

Richards came under fire from animal rights groups and Democratic lawmakers after a photo featured in a hunting publication that showed him posing with a mountain lion he shot in Idaho began circulating online. Unlike in California, where voters banned killing mountain lions in 1990, Idaho allows the hunting of the animal.

Critics say his actions, while not illegal, raise doubts about his ability to lead the commission. Hunting groups and Republican lawmakers have come to the defense of Richards.

Hueso, a Democrat of San Diego, drafted a resolution to oust the former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointee after Richards dismissed calls to step down. But the fate of the resolution, which required a majority vote in both houses, was uncertain after Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg signaled he wasn't interested in taking it up in the upper house.

In a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown, Hueso and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said they have decided to work on crafting legislation to "improve the standards and practices of the California Fish and Game Commission," including a revised conflict-of-interest code for commissioners. The lawmakers urged the Democratic governor to begin his search for a "suitable replacement who can step in and serve as soon as" Richards' term end in January 2013.

The San Jose Mercury News, meanwhile, reported that the commission could act in May to remove Richards as president of the panel.

DFG Letter

PHOTO CREDIT: Dan Richards. The Press-Enterprise/David Bauman

Republican Andrew Pugno, who wrote and served as legal counsel to California's 2008 proposition to ban gay marriage, is laying the groundwork for a possible challenge to Republican Assemblywoman Beth Gaines.

The Folsom attorney, who lost an Assembly bid in 2010, filed a statement of intention to run for the 6th Assembly District on Tuesday, according to the Secretary of State. The move allows potential candidates to open a campaign finance committee.

At least two voters in the district also received a call from a polling firm Tuesday night that asked questions about possible ballot designations and a Pugno-Gaines match up. The owner of Lawrence Research, which one voter said was identified as the polling outfit, declined to comment, citing client confidentiality policies.

Pugno, who has not responded to messages seeking comment on his plans, faces a Friday filing deadline to decide whether to enter the race. Because the period for filing nomination signatures in lieu of a filing fee has passed, he would have to pay a filing fee of roughly $953.

Despite early fundraising success fueled by Proposition 8 supporters, Pugno lost a 2010 race for the top-targeted 5th Assembly District to Democrat Richard Pan, 49 percent to 46 percent. The suburban Sacramento Assembly seat. which had a slight voter registration advantage for Republicans at the time of the election, had been in GOP hands for more than two decades.

Republicans hold a 20-point voter registration in the newly drawn 6th Assembly District, which includes parts of El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties. Gaines, who was elected to the Assembly in a 2011 special contest held to fill a vacancy created by her husband's election to the state Senate, had raised about $31,000 for her re-election bid as of the end of 2011. Republican Linda Park and Lincoln Democrat Reginald Bronner have also announced candidacies for the seat.

PHOTO CAPTION: Republican candidate Andrew Pugno talks with supporters while awaiting election returns on June 8, 2010. Randy Allen / Sacramento Bee file, 2010

In a hearing that included testimony from children as young as 6 years old, an Assembly budget panel on Wednesday rejected Gov. Jerry Brown's welfare-to-work cuts.

The Assembly's health and human services budget subcommittee voted 3-1 along party lines against cutting grant levels and eliminating adults after 24 months, instead of 48, if they cannot find work. Brown had counted on CalWORKs cuts to save $946 million to help close a deficit he estimates at $9.2 billion.

The state has reduced welfare benefits since the recession, such as shrinking the adult time limit from 60 months to 48 months and cutting maximum grants by 8 percent last year. Brown this year proposed restructuring CalWORKs to spend more on benefits for people who find work and less on those who cannot.

Welfare advocates testified Wednesday that Brown's plan would harm families because many recipients have tried and failed to find jobs in the current economy.

The panel instead agreed to find other ways to save and wait to see what the state's revenue picture looks like after tax dollars come in March and April. Though lawmakers likely won't take substantive floor action on the state budget until June, Wednesday's action marked the first significant legislative rejection of Brown's plan since he introduced it in January.

The only Brown items the panel agreed to Wednesday come with a higher immediate state cost rather than general fund savings. Democrats argue that the changes create more incentives for people to work and reduce dependence on the program in the long run. Lawmakers agreed to ignore $225 in monthly income - rather than $112 - when determining whether someone is eligible to receive welfare benefits, which would cost the state about $90 million.

They also agreed to provide a $50 monthly work bonus to non-CalWORKs families receiving food stamp benefits or state subsidized child care starting in July 2013. That change is largely intended to count more people toward meeting federal work requirements and avoid penalties, though it would cost the state $126 million annually in future years.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has been charged with two misdemeanors for bringing a briefcase containing a loaded .45-caliber firearm into Ontario International Airport last month.

The 45-year-old Twin Peaks Republican was charged Friday with illegal possession of a loaded firearm and possession of a prohibited item in a sterile area.

The two counts against Donnelly carry maximum jail sentences of one year and six months, respectively, although judges are free to impose lighter sentences based on circumstances. Each also carries a potential $1,000 fine.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney's office announced the filing of charges nearly eight weeks after Donnelly's Colt Mark IV was discovered by security screeners as he prepared to board a flight to Sacramento for the Assembly's first session of the year.

Donnelly responded Friday by calling the incident an "innocent mistake for which I have taken responsibility." He complimented law enforcement officials and said he has been candid about the matter publicly, serves his district proudly, and regrets any inconvenience he caused.

"I look forward to moving beyond this incident by continuing to focus on getting Californians back to work and getting our economy back on track," Donnelly said in a written statement.

Donnelly will remain eligible to serve in the Assembly, regardless whether he is convicted of the misdemeanor offenses. Assembly rules cut off pay for members only if they are convicted of a felony.

The second-year lawmaker, who was cited and released at the airport Jan. 4, characterized the incident shortly after it happened as a simple error in which he forgot that he had placed the weapon in his briefcase days prior.

Donnelly said that he tended to arm himself because of death threats received after he launched a referendum campaign - ultimately unsuccessful - to overturn the Dream Act, a new law permitting undocumented immigrants to qualify for state-funded college aid.

Donnelly said the chain of events that led to the citation at the airport began three days prior, a Saturday. He was working in his garage and his wife came home, so he stuck the gun in his bag nearby, he said. He later forgot to retrieve it, even after entering Ontario Airport, he said.

Donelly's gun had four rounds in its magazine, and a spare magazine contained five founds, according to Nico Melendez of the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The charges filed against Donnelly confirm TSA's contention that he did not own a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Airline passengers legally can transport firearms via airline flights, but the weapons must be unloaded and contained in a proper carrying case that is checked into the baggage department, not a carry-on, Melendez said at the time.

Sacramento County Sheriff's Capt. Doug Lee, who oversees policing of Sacramento International Airport, said that a law-abiding citizen who carries a loaded firearm to an airport X-ray machine typically is charged with misdemeanor crime.

Extenuating circumstances could make the offense a felony -- for example, if the suspect belonged to a gang, had a felony record or was not the registered owner of the firearm, Lee said.

Donnelly is scheduled to appear March 15 in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court, said Christopher Lee, spokesman for the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.

Separate from any criminal prosecution, a fine of up to $10,000 can be levied by the Transportation Security Administration when guns are confiscated, Melendez said last month.

Asked Thursday whether Donnelly had been fined, TSA officials said they do not disclose information about specific individuals. The average civil penalty for bringing a gun to an airport checkpoint is $3,000, they said.

* Updated at 12:30 p.m. to add Donnelly's response to the filing of charges. Updated at 1:08 p.m. to add the maximum penalties for each charge. Updated at 2:55 p.m. to add court date.

Assemblywoman Shannon Grove's proposal to ask voters to cut the Legislature to part time hasn't gotten much love from her colleagues under the dome.

The Bakersfield Republican characterized the reactions and talked about how her own experiences since being elected in 2010 have shaped her views on the issue in an interview with The Bee's Capitol Bureau.

In the videos below, Watch Grove, who filed a constitutional amendment to have the Legislature meet just three months a year, and People's Advocate's Ted Costa, address those issues, as well as criticism that a part-time Legislature would not attract quality candidates.

Jim Sanders has more from the interview at this link.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani is proposing legislation that would require California taxpayers to pick up the tab for a gruesome multicounty search for victims of the "Speed Freak Killers."

Searches have been under way in Calaveras and San Joaquin counties. The tab in the latter hit $90,000 last Friday, said Galgiani, whose bill also will seek reimbursement for any DNA testing done.

At separate San Andreas sites, bone or other remnants have been found of victims Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, who disappeared in 1998, and of Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, 16, who was reported missing in 1985.

Officials also have uncovered hundreds of human bones at one San Joaquin County well site and have been told of two other well locations by convicted killer Wesley Shermantine of the "Speed Freak Killers."

Shermantine and his partner, Loren Herzog, are suspected of serial murders in decades past.

Shermantine, who remains on death row, was convicted of four murders. Herzog was found guilty of three killings, but his conviction was overturned on appeal and he later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Paroled last year, Herzog hanged himself inside his trailer last month.

"Certainly no one could have anticipated this happening," said Galgiani, D-Livingston, said of the wide-ranging search for bodies.

The tab is particularly onerous to Calaveras and San Joaquin counties because it comes at a time when California's economy has been weak, said Galgiani, who said total costs could reach $500,000.

State taxpayers have an interest in the case because nobody yet knows how many murder victims there are, where their families are located, or how many counties will be affected, Galgiani said.

Elected to serve portions of San Joaquin County, Galgiani said she will amend an existing bill in the Senate to contain the reimbursement language. She has not yet finished crafting the measure, she said.

PHOTO CREDIT: San Joaquin Sheriff detectives Paul Hoskins, left, and Lindsay Smith sift on Feb. 12 for remains excavated from the abandoned well in the background that is believed to be a burial site of "Speed Freak Killers" Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. Craig Sanders / The (Stockton) Record.

Backers of a proposed constitutional amendment to reduce the Legislature to part time say they hope to raise $2.6 million for the effort, but records show that contributions have been few and relatively small in the campaign's first few weeks.

Assemblyman Shannon Grove, in a meeting today with The Bee Capitol Bureau, said that even Republican legislative colleagues have been reluctant to help finance the measure thus far.

"No one has stepped forward yet," Grove, R-Bakersfield, said of GOP legislators.

Of $85,000 in contributions reported to the secretary of state, Grove's Assembly campaign committee has been the single largest donor, $30,000. Seven other donations have been reported, ranging from $5,000 to $20,000, records show.

Asked if she expected a wealthy activist with deep pockets to bankroll the campaign, Grove smiled.

"I wouldn't turn it down if they decided to show up," she said.

Taking the gloves off, opponents of a proposal to convert the Legislature to part time took a personal shot today at the measure's sponsor - urging Assemblywoman Shannon Grove to voluntarily reduce her own salary and per diem payments.

"I'd respectfully suggest that (Grove) would be a lot more credible on this issue if she would practice what she preaches," former Democratic Assemblyman Dario Frommer, now leading opposition to Grove's proposal, said in a written statement.

Grove, a Republican from Bakersfield, must collect 807,615 valid voter signatures to qualify her constitutional amendment to have the Legislature meet for only three months per year, rather than nine, for the November statewide ballot.

The measure also would cut lawmakers' annual pay from $95,000 to $18,000, require legislators to adopt two-year state budgets and bar officeholders from accepting state employment or appointment to a state post while serving in the Capitol or for five years afterward.

In a four-minute video released last week, Grove asked voters to help her "take back this great state." Some new laws passed by the Legislature are outrageous - such as regulating shark fins -- and a part-time Legislature would "reduce the damage" it causes to the state, she said.

Since Grove feels that lawmakers should be paid only $1,500 per month, she should lead by example and cut her own $95,291 salary, according to Frommer, of Los Angeles, who also suggested that she turn down $142 per diem payments for the six months that she seeks to slice from the Legislature's annual session.

Grove and partner Ted Costa of People's Advocate are scheduled to be interviewed by The Bee's Capitol Bureau at 11 a.m. today. Readers are welcome to submit questions on the Capitol Alert Facebook page.

The California Legislature conducted its second "per diem session" of the year Friday, with both legislative houses meeting briefly, thereby allowing their members to leave town for a three-day holiday weekend without losing their $141.86 per day, tax-free expense payments.

Had the Legislature not met Friday and observed Monday's Presidents' Day holiday, lawmakers would have lost the payments for four days, totaling nearly $70,000.

The Senate met for about 20 minutes, doing little more than ceremonial events. The Assembly devoted its session, about 45 minutes, mostly to a resolution marking the 70th anniversary of the 1942 presidential order, issued in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, that citizens and residents of Japanese ancestry, many of them in California, be rounded up and placed in internment camps.

The per diem payments, averaging more than $25,000 per year per legislator on top of their salaries, are supposed to compensate legislators for housing and meals in Sacramento. The state constitution says that the payments continue seven days a week, as long as the Legislature is not out of session for more than three consecutive days.

The Legislature's long-standing practice is to meet from Monday to Thursday - the latter having been dubbed "getaway day" -- unless there's a crunch of business, but when there's a Monday holiday, it routinely has brief sessions on Fridays to avoid violating the three-day rule.

In effect, it's a four-day weekend because members are off duty from Friday morning until Tuesday. A few members, however, don't accept the per diem payments.

California legislators would be required to post their office budgets and monthly office expenditures online under legislation proposed this week by a Republican assemblywoman.

Modesto Republican Kristin Olsen said her bill is needed because the Legislature often does not hold itself to the same standards of openness and transparency that it requires of other government agencies.

The Assembly lost a court fight last year after withholding office budgets as confidential documents. A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that member-by-member budgets are public records and ordered them released.

Olsen's Assembly Bill 1730 would require the office budgets posted online to include all allocations and expenditures, including caucus supplements, travel expenses, office rent and staff salaries.

AB 1730 does not mention committee budgets, which often are used by Assembly members to help pay salaries of personal aides. Olsen plans to amend the bill to include committee expenditures, spokeswoman Jennifer Gibbons said.

Making a personal pitch for donations and help, Assemblywoman Shannon Grove has posted an online video designed to bolster her campaign to switch California's Legislature to a part-time body.

"Help me take back this great state," the Bakersfield Republican concludes in the four-minute video produced by Tea Party United.

"Last year, Sacramento politicians regulated or legislated font size, shark fins, state rocks - it's just outrageous what they spend their time on. ... We need to reduce the damage that legislators impact on our state," Grove said.

Opponents claim that a part-time Legislature would discourage many good candidates from running, would increase reliance upon lobbyists, and would lead to a more corrupt Legislature, with many lawmakers having outside jobs that conflict with issues at the Capitol.

Grove and Ted Costa, of People's Advocate, recently received the state's green light to begin gathering the 807,615 valid voter signatures needed to place their constitutional amendment before voters in November.

The measure calls for the Legislature to meet for three months each year, rather than nine, and for lawmakers' annual pay to be cut from $95,000 to $18,000.

The proposal also would require legislators to adopt two-year state budgets and would bar officeholders for accepting state employment or appointment to a state post while serving in the Capitol or for five years afterward.

RELATED LINK: See The Bee's op-ed page today for a head-to-head debate on the issue between Pia Lopez and Ben Boychuk.

Fresh off a double-digit loss in his Los Angeles City Council bid, Assemblyman Warren Furutani has decided not to run for re-election this year.

The 64-year-old Gardena Democrat told the Daily Breeze that he won't seek a third and final term in the lower house.

"I felt that my run for the City Council needed to be an all-in situation by sending a clear message that I was in it to win it and not hedging my bet with the Assembly as my fall-back," Furutani told The Breeze.

Furutani lost a special election bid a vacant city council race to police Officer Joe Buscaino by 21 points last month. Under the state's new political maps, he would have to face fellow Democratic Assemblyman Isadore Hall of Compton in the 64th Assembly District.

He told The Breeze, "Isadore is an up-and-coming leader in the community, and so I have decided to support him."

Read the full Breeze story at this link.

PHOTO CREDIT: Assembly member Warren Furutani casts his first vote on the floor of the Assembly after he was is sworn in, Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008. Brian Baer, Sacramento Bee.

Assemblyman Mike Feuer made his candidacy for Los Angeles City Attorney official today.

The Los Angeles Democrat, who is termed out of the Assembly this year, issued a campaign announcement today pledging to "do all I can to bring energy, vision and integrity to the job."

"I'm running to become Los Angeles's next City Attorney because the people of L.A. deserve secure neighborhoods, innovative solutions to our toughest problems, and a city government that inspires confidence and trust," he said in a statement.

Feuer, who had filed papers for a possible run last September, said he has already raised more than $345,000 for his campaign. The election will be held in March 2013.

The California Assembly spent nearly $200,000 in legal fees fighting against disclosure of member-by-member budgets that allocate tens of millions in public funds, records show.

Assembly administrator Jon Waldie said the sum does not include hundreds of hours, perhaps more than a thousand hours, consumed by Capitol employees in gathering records ultimately ordered released by a Sacramento court.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley ruled against the Assembly in December, four months after the public-records suit was filed by The Bee and Los Angeles Times.

The Assembly paid up to $300 per hour for services rendered by the Remcho, Johansen & Pursell law firm, records show.

The Assembly paid $123,945 in legal fees to fight the suit and -- because it lost -- the 80-member house was ordered by Frawley to pick up the $73,707 tab for The Bee and Los Angeles Times as well.

Waldie said the issue needed court adjudication. The Assembly had argued that member budgets were preliminary documents, were private correspondence, and contained personnel information.

Frawley ruled that the "strong public interest in disclosure outweighs any reason for keeping the records secret."

Robin Swanson, spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker John A. Perez, said that the Assembly's practice had been to release audited annual budget information for 35 years prior to 2011. Expenditure reports were released 12 months after the end of a legislative year.

"Speaker Perez accelerated that process even before the court decision by posting current expenditures online," Swanson said. "Once the court determined that all budget documents, even projections, should be released, the Speaker's Office did not appeal the decision and worked quickly to comply."

* Updated at 1:40 p.m. to include statement from Robin Swanson, spokeswoman for John A. Perez.

A Democratic political strategist and a former Democratic assemblyman will help lead opposition to a proposed ballot initiative that would reduce California's Legislature to part-time.

Political consultant Steve Maviglio, former spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, said today that he has joined forces with Burbank attorney Dario Frommer, a former Assembly majority leader. Fundraising has not yet begun, Maviglio said.

The group will butt heads with Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, and with Ted Costa, the head of a political watchdog group, over the duo's proposed constitutional amendment.

The secretary of state's office gave the green light Monday for proponents of the proposal to begin collecting the 807,615 valid voter signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot.

Backers hope to encourage the election of citizen legislators who have outside sources of income and are not so politically ambitious that they become overly dependent upon powerful special interests.

The measure calls for the nation's most populous state to meet three months per year -- and for lawmakers' pay to be cut from $7,940 per month to $1,500 per month -- or $18,000 annually.

The initiative also would require legislators to adopt a balanced, two-year budget by June 15 of each odd-numbered year -- and to forfeit salary and per diem for each day it is late.

Lawmakers would be barred from accepting state employment or appointment to a state post while serving in the Capitol or for five years afterward.

Maviglio said that a part-time Legislature would discourage many good candidates from running and would lead to a more corrupt Legislature, with many lawmakers having outside jobs that conflict with issues at the Capitol.

"You'd end up with more inexperienced legislators who lack the ability to tackle the state's major challenges," he said.

PHOTO CREDIT: The California state Capitol in Sacramento, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008. Michael Allen Jones / Sacramento Bee file photo

The state Legislature has taken a loss of more than $1 million on the sale of dozens of cars it had purchased for legislators over the years.

As today's Bee reports, the Assembly and the Senate have sold 64 vehicles that were part of a now-defunct legislative car program. Instead of paying subsidized leases on a state-purchased car of their choosing, lawmakers now receive a monthly stipend to cover costs related to driving on the job.

Spreadsheets detailing the purchase and sale prices of cars assigned to members of the Assembly and the Senate are posted below (click on the Senate tab to see the upper house data). Click here to view the sheets in a new window.

The Senate also sold a 2006 Ford Crown Vic that had been assigned to special services detail for $6,500, replacing it with the 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid purchased for Sen. Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster. That car had been purchased for $15,050 in 2007. Sen. Tom Berryhill exchanged the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee he had been driving previously for the recently sold Lexus, which was an unused car in the fleet, earlier this year. The purchase price for the Lexus, which had been used by at least one other member previously, was not available at the time of publication.

RELATED STORIES:

California lawmakers say goodbye to their state-purchased cars

Editor's note: This post has been updated to note which Senate vehicles were purchased used. Some of those cars were transferred from the Assembly or other members.

Constituents are pitching in to make Assemblywoman Linda Halderman and her staff members feel right at home in the Capitol's doghouse.

The Fresno Republican has renamed her shoebox-sized office the Bulldog House in honor of the four-legged Fresno State mascot.

Supporters have contributed decorations and bulldog memorabilia to convert her cramped 391-square-foot digs into a colorful conversation piece. Giant paw prints lead from the hallway to her office. A bulldog caricature adorns her outer door. A bullseye target hangs from her inner door, which is framed to look like a doghouse.

Halderman, a conservative politician and a medical surgeon by profession, said she has no idea why Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez chose her for the tiny accommodations.

And the Los Angeles Democrat has not elaborated, she said.

"I think logic is really unlikely in the Capitol," she said. "I just figure things are random or arbitrary, and we don't really need to know."

Now that she's unpacked, however, Halderman plans to stay a while.

No bark, no bite, no complaint. "They'll have to drag me out of that office kicking and screaming," she said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, the Fresno Republican occupying the "doghouse" office at the Capitol this year, is maximizing the photo-op possibilities of the position. Feb. 1, 2012, Jim Sanders / Sacramento Bee

The Assembly rejected legislation today that would have required independent expenditure comittees to provide more disclosure of their contributors in backing candidates or ballot measures.

Assembly Bill 1148 fell two votes short of the two-thirds supermajority required for passage. Every Democrat but Cathleen Galgiani of Livingston supported it, and every Republican but Nathan Fletcher of San Diego opposed it or did not vote. The final tally was 52-26.

Democrats touted the measure as a way to ease voter cynicism by providing greater disclosure by independent committees, which can spend unlimited sums to support candidates or ballot measures.

Republicans countered that the bill would restrict freedom of speech. What the state needs instead are less restrictive candidate contribution limits, so that donors could give whatever sums they desire to candidate-controlled committees and there would be less incentive to create independent committees, GOP lawmakers said.

One day after turning thumbs down, the Assembly today passed legislation that would ask voters to alter California's "three strikes" criminal sentencing law.

Assembly Bill 327, approved by a vote of 41-33, now goes to the Senate.

Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, sought the re-vote after his measure lacked five votes for passage Monday, when 10 members either were absent or opted not to cast a vote.

"We have the opportunity not only to be tough on crime but to be smart on crime," Davis said in floor debate today.

But Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, countered that passing AB 327 would amount to "trivializing violent criminal acts."

AB 327 would ask voters to require that a third strike be a serious or violent felony before an offender could be sentenced to a 25-to-life prison term under California's three strikes law.

Legislation to create a tiered sex-offender registration system designed to focus attention on violent criminals was killed today by the Assembly.

Assembly Bill 625 died by a vote of 19-41. Its author, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said he will propose a similar measure later this year.

California law currently requires people convicted of various sex offenses to register with the state for life.

AB 625 would have created three tiers of sex registration, with offenders in the first two tiers allowed to drop off into an inactive status after 10 or 20 years, respectively.

The most lenient tier would have applied to sex offenders who did not use violence, did not molest a minor, and maintained a clean record during the 10 years they were on the active registry.

Opponents of the bill claimed that allowing some sex registrants to be placed on an inactive status would weaken current law and make communities less safe.

Hotly contested legislation that split the state's judiciary system over issues of money and power was approved today by the Assembly.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1208, passed by a vote of 41-23.

The bill was pushed by a group of judges called the Alliance of California Judges and was backed by Service Employees International Union, representing courthouse employees.

AB 1208 would shift authority from the state's Judicial Council -- led by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye -- to create a more formula-driven funding approach that would give more power to trial courts in setting spending priorities.

The bill by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, stems from years of budget crisis that have taken a toll on courts, sparking cuts of $350 million during the current budget cycle and nearly $300 in additional cuts over the past five years.

The Assembly passed union-backed legislation today that would allow charter school petitions to be rejected if they negatively affect a school district's finances.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1172, was approved by the bare minimum number of votes required, 41-27. No Republicans supported the bill by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia.

Supporters, including the California Teachers Association, contend that the bill is needed to help schools avoid fiscal insolvency, according to an Assembly analysis of AB 1172.

Opponents argue that the bill is too broadly written and that most school districts could claim a negative financial impact under it, the analysis said.

AB 1172 now goes to the Senate.

Democratic legislative leaders sued Controller John Chiang today for blocking their pay during last year's budget dispute, a decision that drew scorn from lawmakers last summer.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said the Democratic controller overstepped his bounds when he decided that lawmakers sent Gov. Jerry Brown a flawed budget last June and docked their pay. They said they are not suing for back earnings, but to ask the court whether Chiang can intervene this year if lawmakers face another budget dispute with Brown at the June 15 deadline.

The lawmakers filed in Sacramento Superior Court, hiring Arthur G. Scotland, retired presiding justice of the 3rd District Court of Appeal, as well as the Los Angeles firm Strumwasser & Woocher. The Legislature's operating budget, financed by tax dollars, will pay for legal costs. Billing rates range from $435 per hour for the two lead attorneys to $130 per hour for a paralegal, according to the leaders' offices.

Chiang said his own party's lawmakers failed to balance the budget largely because their plan underfunded schools by $1.3 billion according to his interpretation of the state constitution. He also said they failed to pass all of the bills necessary to carry out a balanced budget. Chiang's decision came after Brown vetoed the first budget lawmakers sent him at the deadline.

Under a 2010 voter-approved law, lawmakers lose their pay and tax-free expense money if they do not send the governor a balanced budget by the June 15 deadline. Democrats added that provision as a sweetener in Proposition 25, the main thrust of which was reducing the budget vote threshold to a majority, rather than two-thirds. The controller believes he has discretion to determine what counts as a balanced budget under the initiative.

Steinberg and Pérez believe the controller has no role under Proposition 25 to determine the validity of the Legislature's budget. Scotland said today the controller illegally interfered with the Legislature's powers of appropriation.

Aside from veto powers, Steinberg said "neither the governor nor any member of the executive branch may brandish the threat of withholding legislative pay because they disagree with the decisions made by the legislative branch."

Brown and lawmakers ultimately reached agreement on June 27, costing most lawmakers about $4,830 each, equal to 12 days' worth of pay and expense money. The state saved a total of $583,200 in foregone legislative pay.

Mindful of public acrimony against the Legislature, the two leaders emphasized Tuesday that they were not asking for back pay. "Let me be clear from the outset, both the pro tem and I have waived our claims for renumeration should this lawsuit succeed," Pérez said. "This is fundamentally an issue of separation of powers."

Chiang said Tuesday in a statement that he welcomed the court's review. But he also used the words of fellow executive branch members as a retort to lawmakers.

"It is noteworthy to point out that the Legislature's budget proposal was not only vetoed by the Governor for not being a 'balanced solution,' but it was determined by the Treasurer to not be financeable, and would have, within months of its passage, led to the issuance of IOUs," the controller said.

Chiang's move gave Brown leverage in budget negotiations, as the controller essentially suggested that Brown could block legislative pay with his veto pen. Lawmakers have seethed ever since. If their lawsuit succeeds, they would not only have greater pay protection this year, but also greater leverage. Brown has asked lawmakers to pass significant cuts to health and welfare programs and to put school funding at risk if voters reject his tax plan.

A Democratic candidate for the 18th Assembly District is facing a potential second brush with the law stemming from allegations of violence.

The Oakland Tribune reports that Joel Young, who was accused last year of domestic violence following a dispute with his former girlfriend, is now under investigation for allegedly threatening an Oakland City Council staffer at a Jan. 14 event.

(Jason) Overman, an aide to Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, filed a police report Friday -- disputed by Young and his girlfriend -- stating that when he greeted Young during the event, Young told him, "Walk away before I beat your (expletive) (expletive), you piece of (expletive)."

Overman, 27, told police that Young, a 34-year-old attorney and former Cal football player, asked him to step outside and then put his face inches from Overman's and said, "You just wait until my campaign is over. I'm going to find you and beat your (expletive) (expletive), you (expletive)."

Young then "made a gurgling sound" and spat in Overman's eye before leaving the bar, according to Overman's account to police.

Young, who had not yet been contacted by authorities Monday, said he had a brief conversation that night with Overman, but denied making any threats. "None of that is true," Young said. "If I wasn't a candidate for the Assembly, I doubt Jason would be doing this."

Young is one of several Democrats expected to run for the vacant East Bay Assembly seat. His current girlfriend, who also attended the event, defended his account, saying Overman was jealous about their relationship, according to the Tribune.

Read the full story at this link.

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez will serve as a political analyst during this presidential election year for Univision Communications, a major national Spanish-language media firm.

The Los Angeles Democrat will participate with other analysts in roundtable discussions and provide commentary on the election season, presidential candidates and major political issues, according to a written statement on the company's website.

Besides assisting with election coverage, Núñez and other analysts will appear on the network's evening newscast, "Noticiero Univision"; a Sunday public affairs program, "Al Punto"; and on a morning program, "Despierta America."

Núñez led the Assembly from 2004 to 2008, when he was termed out of the lower house. He currently serves as a partner in Mercury Public Affairs -- a high-powered political consulting firm -- and he will continue to do so during his stint as an analyst, colleague Adam Mendelsohn said.

Univision's statement can be read here.

PHOTO CREDIT: Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, 2007. Associated Press/ Rich Pedroncelli.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, perhaps best known for pushing the Assembly to release member budgets after leaders threatened to furlough his staff last year, has decided not to run for state or federal office this year.

"I hope you understand that this decision in no way ends my political career," Portantino said in a written announcement Wednesday night.

"Placing it on 'hold' allows me to focus on my family while they need me. I will continue to work to put trust and accountability back into public service, now and in the future."

The D-La Cañada-Flintridge Democrat, who is termed out of the Assembly in December, has about $46,000 in a campaign finance committee named "Portantino For Senate 2016."

Gov. Jerry Brown wants the green light to move forward with construction of California's proposed bullet train.

The Democratic governor called on the Legislature to approve funding for the high-speed rail project today, telling lawmakers in his State of the State address that a revised business plan that will allow construction on the project to start by the end of the year will be released within weeks.

Despite ongoing criticisms about the cost and blueprint for the voter-approved rail project, Democratic legislative leaders appear poised to back the governor's commitment to the bullet train.

See why Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg support the project and where they stand on the question of where to start laying the track in this video from their Capitol press conference today.

It looks like Assemblyman Warren Furutani won't be leaving the Legislature this month after all.

The Gardena Democrat was defeated by Los Angeles Police Department officer Joe Buscaino in yesterday's runoff election for a vacant Los Angeles City Council seat by a 22-point margin.

The two Democrats were vying for the 15th Council District seat vacated by Democrat Janice Hahn's 2011 election to Congress.

Furutani, who was first elected to the state Assembly in a 2008 special election, will be termed out of the lower house in 2014. He has been drawn into the same district as fellow Assembly Democrat Isadore Hall for the 2012 election.

PHOTO CREDIT: Assembly member, Warren Furutani, casts his first vote on the floor of the Assembly after he was is sworn in, Thursday, Feb. 7 2008. Furutani won a special election in District 55, to succeed Laura Richardson, who was recently elected to represent the 37th Congressional District. (Sacramento Bee/ MCT/ Brian Baer / BBAER@SACBEE.COM).

Republican legislative leaders rolled out their response to Gov. Jerry Brown's 2012 State of the State address Tuesday, slamming the Democratic governor for telling Californians that the"sky will fall" without higher taxes.

"Today Governor Brown shared his vision for California for the year ahead," Assembly GOP leader Connie Conway says in a video. "Republicans were eager to hear his ideas for the many challenges facing our state. Unfortunately, the governor's vision is centered around one thing: higher taxes."

The only thing is Brown hasn't shared that vision yet.

Legislation to regulate high-interest loans in which borrowers use their vehicles as collateral died this week in the Assembly.

Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, said he was disappointed by the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee's rejection of his Assembly Bill 336 but will try again next year.

"(AB 336) would have offered at least some minimal protections to consumers for these loans, which have outrageous interest rates," he said.

Dickinson's bill targeted loans offered at annual interest rates ranging from 72 percent to 180 percent to car owners who have very low credit scores, need quick cash, and have few other options for borrowing money.

Lenders take title to the borrower's car as collateral and typically loan less money than the vehicle is worth. Thus, lenders are left with little financial risk because they benefit whether the borrower pays or the car is repossessed, Dickinson said.

State law does not restrict the interest rates charged on car-title loans of more than $2,.500.

AB 336 would have imposed additional disclosure requirements on lenders, including informing borrowers of total costs over the life of the loan. The bill also would have banned structuring car-title loans as a combination sale and leaseback.

Under Dickinson's measure, lenders would have been barred from making such loans if payments would exceed 50 percent of a borrower's gross monthly income.

Opponents of AB 336 contended that cracking down on car-title loans would leave borrowers with few other options and that high interest rates were necessary, in part, to cover costs of repossessing, handling and selling vehicles when defaults occur.

A bill to require legislative approval before any new peripheral canal could be built to divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state died this week in the California Assembly.

Democratic Assemblywoman Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills proposed the measure, Assembly Bill 550, which was rejected Tuesday by the Assembly's Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee by a vote of five yes, seven no.

The measure would have barred construction of such a canal if it would impact the Delta or its residents in ways ranging from imposing a financial burden to negatively affecting water rights, quality or supply.

Huber said Friday she will not try to revive AB 550 this year, but she will continue to push a provision calling for an independent analysis of financial feasibility prior to construction of any canal.

The Legislature, as part of a package of water legislation in 2009, created a Delta stewardship to develop a plan for long-term water supply and Delta protection. Four of its seven voting members are appointed by the governor.

Water exporters, business interests and Southern California officials have long supported construction of a new water canal to help stabilize California water supplies.

Huber contends that the stewardship council is moving toward approving such a project and that lawmakers, not appointees, should make the decision on "one of the largest infrastructure projects in California history."

"Ultimately my view lost," she said.

Tackling California's water problems pits powerful interests against each other, sparking political headaches.

"Ultimately, I think that the Legislature is afraid to be involved in decisions involving water," Huber said.

Two Republicans on the Assembly water committee opposed Huber's bill, along with five Democrats, including four from Southern California.

Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, a Fresno Republican who voted against AB 550, said that the Legislature should not renege on the commitment it made in 2009 to form the stewardship council.

"I don't believe in breaking promises," Halderman said Friday.

"In my view, once we start down that road, we create a body that's guaranteed to be dysfunctional," she said.

Assemblywoman Linda Halderman already is in the "doghouse," less than two weeks after the new legislative year began.

The 43-year-old Fresno Republican and medical surgeon was chosen by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez to replace GOP colleague Beth Gaines of Roseville in the shoebox-size Capitol office known as the doghouse.

Halderman declined substantive comment Friday, but said with a smile that the tiny office suits her fine and offers a nice view.

Though not always used as punishment, the cramped fifth-floor office attracted the nickname "doghouse" because Assembly speakers through the years have tended to assign it to lawmakers who angered them.

Pérez's office did not comment on why Halderman was assigned to the 391-square-foot office, which is 135 square feet smaller than the next smallest Assembly office and about 300 square feet less than the norm.

Pérez spokesman John Vigna said only that speakers shift member office assignments every year.

Halderman is known as one of the most conservative lawmakers in an Assembly dominated by liberal Democrats.

Privately, colleagues say that Halderman also raised eyebrows last year by joining in a failed behind-the-scenes effort to prod Connie Conway to step down as Assembly Republican leader. Halderman characterized such reports Friday as rumors.

The California Legislature conducted its first "per diem session" of the year Friday -- brief meetings of both legislative houses that allowed their members to take off a three-day holiday weekend without losing their $141.86 per day, tax-free expense payments.

Had the Legislature not met Friday -- the Senate for less than 30 minutes, the Assembly for slightly over an hour -- and observed Monday's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, members would have lost the payments for four days, totaling nearly $70,000.

The per diem payments average more than $25,000 per year per legislator on top of their salaries, although a few members don't take the money. Per diem is supposed to compensate legislators for housing and meals in Sacramento. The state constitution says that the payments continue seven days a week, as long as the Legislature is not out of session for more than three consecutive days.

The Legislature's long-standing practice is to meet from Monday to Thursday - the latter having been dubbed "getaway day" -- unless there's a crunch of business, but when there's a Monday holiday such as MLK Jr. Day, it routinely has brief sessions on Fridays to avoid running afoul of the three-day rule.

Both houses devoted much of their brief meetings to speeches commemorating King, the civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968.

Although technically it's a three-day holiday, it's more than four days for the Legislature, since it convened at 9 a.m. Friday and won't reconvene in the Capitol until midday Tuesday.

In her first public comment since pleading no contest to misdemeanor shoplifting, Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi apologized today for "unintentionally" taking clothing out of a San Francisco store but shed little light on what sparked the theft.

"I accept responsibility and I offer apologies, not excuses," Hayashi said in a written statement. She declined an interview request.

Shortly after the Castro Valley Democrat's arrest in October on a felony charge of stealing nearly $2,500 in clothing, Sam Singer, Hayashi's spokesman, said she had been inside a Neiman Marcus store and walked out of the store while talking on her cellular phone.

Following Hayashi's no contest plea -- which means no guilt was admitted -- her attorney Doug Rappaport said the legislator's behavior had been affected by a benign brain tumor that is curable, treatable and no longer is affecting her.

Hayashi, in her written statement today, did not address the severity of her tumor, when she was diagnosed, or what effect it had on her behavior.

"There were a number of personal factors that led to the situation where I made this absent-minded error," she said. "My medical condition may have complicated the situation, however, I want to be clear that I take full personal responsibility for my actions."

SAN FRANCISCO -- An attorney for Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi said today that his client suffers from a benign brain tumor that affected her judgment at the time of her shoplifting arrest.

Attorney Douglas Rappaport, who said Hayashi is now receiving treatment for the tumor, said the circumstances justified an agreement with prosecutors to drop felony grand theft charges filed by the San Francisco District Attorney to a misdemeanor.

Hayashi pleaded no contest to the reduced charge today, receiving three years probation and less than $200 in fines for leaving a San Francisco Nieman Marcus store without paying for nearly $2,500 in high-end clothing last October. She must stay more than 50 feet away from the Union Square store for the duration of her probation.

"Fortunately, it is something curable and is treatable. It is being treated and so it no longer is affecting her," said Rappaport, who said she was diagnosed prior to the incident.

The attorney prosecuting the case declined to comment. District Attorney George Gascon signaled earlier that his office would be willing to accept a reduced charge, saying he the totality of circumstances must be considered and that would support the direction of the court.

Hayashi, who has represented an Alameda County Assembly seat for three terms, declined to comment.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, pleaded no contest this afternoon in San Francisco Superior Court to a misdemeanor shoplifting charge.

After the plea, Hayashi declined comment, but her attorney, Doug Rappaport, said she had a brain tumor that affected her judgment the day of the shoplifting.

Hayashi was sentenced to three years of probation and less than $200 in fines. She was told to stay more than 50 feet away from Neiman Marcus, where she was arrested in October, during her probation.

Her plea followed the San Francisco district attorney's signal earlier today that he would be open to the court reducing the felony grand theft charge filed in the shoplifting case against Hayashi to a misdemeanor.

"This is a case that clearly contains the elements, in our opinion, of the crime as a felony, but we also recognize that the defendant in this case is a first-time offender, and I think that also plays a part in the discussion," San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said after a news conference on an unrelated case.

"If the court decides to go in a different direction, we'll support it," Gascon added.

Rappaport said the tumor affected Hayashi's judgement, but added she is on the mend.

"Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with a brain tumor," said Rappaport, who said she was diagnosed prior to the incident. "However, fortunately for her, it's benign and it can be taken care of and addressed with medication, which is exactly what happened...Fortunately, it is something curable and is treatable. It is being treated and so it no longer is affecting her."

Complying with a court order, the California Assembly released thousands of pages of documents about its members' expenditures today that it fought against providing to the public.

The documents detail budgets and spending by each of the Assembly's 80 members. The data should enable the public to better determine what portion of committee funds are used for lawmakers' personal staff.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley ordered the records to be released in a lawsuit filed by The Bee and Los Angeles Times. Frawley issued a tentative ruling in December, which the Assembly did not contest.

"How the government spends the public's money is an area of profound interest," said attorney Rochelle Wilcox, who represented the newspapers in the fight over interpretation of California's Legislative Open Records Act.

Documents released by the Assembly "provide significant information about Assembly spending of tens of millions of dollars annually," Wilcox said.

Days after he was issued a misdemeanor citation for carrying a loaded firearm into the Ontario airport, Assemblyman Tim Donnelly indicated today that he does not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

The question arose Wednesday after the federal Transportation Security Administration said that Donelly's briefcase contained a .45-caliber handgun with four rounds in its magazine, and a spare magazine containing five rounds.

The 45-year-old Twin Peaks Republican said that he had armed himself because of recent death threats, but mistakenly placed the gun in his briefcase last weekend and forgot to retrieve it before going to the Ontario airport for a flight to Sacramento.

Californians with a concealed weapons permit cannot carry a loaded gun onto an airplane. But whether Donnelly had the right to carry a loaded weapon anywhere is a separate question that was not definitely answered Wednesday.

Concealed weapons permits generally have to be obtained in the county or city in which a person lives. Donnelly lives in an unincorporated area in San Bernardino County. Sheriff's officials there said Wednesday that they had not issued him a permit.

Nico Melendez, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said Wednesday that it was his understanding that Donnelly did not possess a concealed weapons permit.

Asked directly today if he had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, Donnelly said only that he felt enough information about the concealed weapons permit issue had been released or published already. Asked if that meant that he did not have such a permit, Donnelly deflected the question.

"It's already been spoken to," Donnelly said. "It's certainly not something that I feel that I need to address. I really don't feel that there's anything more that I want to add to that story. I tried to be very forthcoming and put all the information out there ... so, I'm just going to leave it at that."