Our Capitol Bureau colleague, Shane Goldmacher, has a couple of reports you should check out if you haven't already:
From Shane's A1 exclusive in today's Bee:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is selling access to a pair of social soirees at his Brentwood mansion to deep-pocketed political donors willing to hand over at least $100,000 for his political fund.
Donors who cut six-figure checks will be able to sip cocktails with the celebrity governor and first lady Maria Shriver at their Southern California home this Thursday and dine again there early next month, according to the four-page fundraising invitation obtained by The Bee.
You can read that story here.
Then over on his blog, Capitol Alert, Shane has the details on SEIU's $500,000 deposit into the campaign to defeat Prop 1A.
Some Capitol insiders are telling us that the union's opposition to 1A is the reason that Republicans will hold up AB 964, the bill that cements SEIU Local 1000's new labor contract. The thinking from these people (who all work for Democrats, by the way), is that the Republicans see the union state council's 1A opposition as a double-cross of what all had agreed to during the bitter budget battle earlier this year.
(SEIU Local 1000, which represents 95,000 state workers, has been silent on 1A. Its members' interests are probably best served if the measure passes, since the bill raises taxes to relieve the state's cash-strapped coffers. But the local hasn't said anything, most likely to avoid crossing the union state council.)
As we reported Monday, it now looks like AB 964 will stall in the Assembly without the three Republican votes it needs to get the required two-thirds to pass.
IMAGE: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver / December 2008, Sacramento Bee, Brian Baer
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