The defeat of Prop. 93 tarnished California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – but he will survive to fight another day. The rest of the Prop. 93 proponents are now termed out. That means the Democrats are already fighting over who will replace Fabian Nunez as Assembly Speaker, and Don Perata as Senate President. Even the Republicans took a hit as their Senate Leader, Dick Ackerman, also got termed out.
“The opposition was led by Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who contributed $2.5 million to defeat the measure. Poizner said he was not necessarily opposed to tweaking the current term rules, but he took exception to the way Prop. 93 would benefit current incumbents,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The Proposition 93 campaign raised more than $16 million, primarily from labor unions, corporations, health-care firms and other groups that do business at the Capitol. Opponents were outspent by more than two to one,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
Besides Perata, Nunez and Ackerman, 31 other state legislators were termed out with the defeat of Prop. 93. Eight more will term out in 2010. Amen!
The San Jose Mercury News revealed who the candidates are to replace Perata, Nunez and Ackerman:
Ackerman said Sens. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, and George Runner, R-Lancaster, are potential candidates to succeed him as minority leader.
Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said Wednesday that he’s a candidate for Perata’s job, the most powerful in the Senate. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, said he is seriously considering running too.
Several lawmakers are reportedly interested in succeeding Nunez, including Assemblywomen Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, and Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco.
Good riddance to those legislators who will be passing out their resumes in November. Hopefully the next crop will be marginally better, but I doubt it.
Glad to see Slick Dick going away..
I just heard that Hector DeLaTorre is one of the potential candidates to replace Nunez as Speaker.
Poster 2,
Virtually anyone would be a welcome change from the high-rolling ethically challenged Nunez…
The next thing to worry about is whether the Governator had promised Nunez and Perata appointments to some well paying State jobs or Commissions if this proposition failed. Who knows what deals were cut when in the smoking tent.
Hector DeLaTorre, an another corruptible Latino. The politics Mexican stile.
There is great joy…in California
for the common people today!
Isn’t great when common sense and
logic rule the day?