AM Alert: Boxer, beefcake and back-scratching

SacBee: Capitol Alert ^ | 3/6/9 | Shane Goldmacher

[SmithL]

Politics is a back-scratching business. And after last month's budget vote, there's a lot of itching going around the Capitol.

On Thursday, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg rearranged offices in the upper house (made necessary by Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth's selection as GOP leader). Not surprisingly, Sen. Dave Cogdill, the ousted Republican chief who voted for the budget, didn't end up in the smallest of digs.

That honor went to Sen. George Runner, an outspoken member of the anti-tax faction of the caucus.

Cogdill also was handed the chairmanship of a select committee on surplus property this week.

We're hearing that more changes (likely favorable to other GOP voters Abel Maldonado and Roy Ashburn) could be in the pipeline...

Over at the Assembly, Republican Anthony Adams stuck his neck out to vote for the budget. Now, conservative forces are plotting a recall attempt.

So next month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will thank the Hesperia Republican by attending a district fundraiser tentatively scheduled for early April.

There's punishment, too, as meted out by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass when she stripped three then-committee chairmen of their posts.