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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested Tuesday that Assembly Democrats are losing a public relations war by resisting the nomination of his choice for lieutenant governor. At a news conference, the governor read from editorials and columns published in California newspapers that called the Assembly "shameful" and "infantile" for voting Thursday against state Sen. Abel Maldonado, a Republican from Santa Maria. Schwarzenegger announced Friday he would withdraw and then resubmit Maldonado's nomination. He made it official Tuesday. "I challenge the Assembly Democrats to set aside the partisan bickering and confirm Sen. Maldonado once and for all," Schwarzenegger said. Asked why he thought...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will re-nominate his failed pick for lieutenant governor rather than face a costly legal battle against the Legislature. Schwarzenegger is asking the Legislature to vote again on the nomination of Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria. He made the request in a statement Friday. The Senate approved Maldonado's nomination this week, but the Assembly rejected it.

California's 80-member Assembly on Thursday failed to confirm Sen. Abel Maldonado, the governor's nominee for lieutenant governor, on a 37-35 vote - four votes short of the required majority - but in an unexpected move, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he will swear in the Republican legislator anyway, citing the lack of a majority vote on either side. The governor's surprise maneuver - an extraordinary move even in dysfunctional Sacramento - could lead to an expensive legal fight between the Democratically led lower house and Republican governor who appointed Maldonado, a moderate from Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County). Under state law,...

Californians are disgusted with the petty antics of the governor and the Legislature, polls tell us, and want them to balance the deficit-ridden state budget and otherwise do the public's business. However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders of the state Assembly are locked in a political, semantic and ultimately legal duel over something that should have taken about five minutes – confirming Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado to serve 10 months in the completely meaningless office of lieutenant governor. The state Senate confirmed Maldonado handily Thursday, but the more partisan Assembly deadlocked, with Maldonado failing to achieve a majority. And...

The state Assembly failed today to approve Sen. Abel Maldonado for the vacant lieutenant governor post, setting the stage for a possible legal fight over his confirmation. After being confirmed by the Senate this morning, Maldonado ultimately fell four votes short of 41-vote majority needed in the Assembly, where the final tally was 37-35. A rejection leaves Maldonado in his Senate seat, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger perhaps looking for a new nominee. Maldonado has said he will run for the office this year no matter what. But the governor's office challenged the assertion that the Assembly vote counts as a...

The nomination of Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) to be the state’s next lieutenant governor was turned down on a preliminary 36-34 vote Thursday by the state Assembly, leaving Republicans scrambling to try to salvage Maldonado’s bid. [Updated at 12:06 p.m.: An earlier version of this post, along with the headline, said Maldonado had been rejected for the job; as the post explains, though, the vote was preliminary.]

An Assembly committee voted Tuesday to send state Sen. Abel Maldonado's nomination to fill in as lieutenant governor to the full Assembly – but only after the Republican was grilled about his ambition, immigration, taxes, higher education, gay rights and other subjects. The Assembly Rules Committee, however, made no recommendation on Maldonado, who was nominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill the vacant position for 10 months. Assemblymen Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, and Sandre Swanson, D-Alameda, were particularly critical. They accused Maldonado of trading pivotal budget votes he cast last year – one to raise taxes – to garner support for...

The Legislature's ideological polarization is often cited by critics – correctly – as one of its major deficiencies. Uber-liberal Democrats and ultra-conservative Republicans occupy all but a handful of the Legislature's 120 seats, thanks largely to term limits and gerrymandered districts. Neither faction can impose its will on the other, especially when the issue requires a two-thirds vote, such as the budget, taxes, urgency bills and constitutional amendments. As they play their gotcha games, however, the state budget goes unbalanced, the Legislature becomes increasingly irrelevant and unpopular to voters who are neither very liberal nor very conservative, and the messy...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado received a thumbs up Wednesday from the Senate Rules Committee, the first step toward confirmation and a 10-month stint as lieutenant governor. "My vote today is not a political endorsement," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, the committee's chairman, who said he has had many disagreements with the Santa Maria Republican. Steinberg noted that Maldonado had bucked GOP pressure on key decisions, casting a vote last year to increase income taxes temporarily rather than slash more deeply into education and services. The Democratic leader said Maldonado's bipartisan history was one of the main reasons he...

31 December 2009 “LIKE DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN” SNIPPET: “There is overlap in space if not in time between NW 253 bomber Abdulmutallab and various unsavory characters and websites. Perhaps it’s just a case of like-minded people moving through similar places at similar times in their lives, but then again, maybe Abdulmutallab came into contact with some of these people, particularly in what appears to be his critical period of radicalization in London circa 2005-2007. At this point all I have are suspicions and some interesting data points to share.”

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's choice of Sen. Abel Maldonado for lieutenant governor was essentially a political challenge to his fellow Republicans: Expand the party, or continue to wither on the vine of ideological purity. Maldonado's confirmation is largely in the hands of legislative Democrats, who must decide by mid-February if they will accept his nomination. The Santa Maria Republican's long-term prospects, however, could be decided by GOP activists who have held him in disdain since he voted earlier this year for a tax hike — but may need him if they are to win in a statewide race. "He...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado will run for lieutenant governor in 2010 whether or not the Legislature confirms his nomination to fill the vacant post. The Santa Maria moderate Republican confirmed his decision during a 45-minute meeting Wednesday with the Contra Costa Times editorial board. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently named Maldonado as his choice to succeed Democrat John Garamendi, who was elected to Congress in a special election in November. Since the announcement, Maldonado has been on the road pitching his qualifications for a job that many Californians, if they think about it at all, view as superfluous in a high-tech...

Let's dispose of one thing right off the bat: Whether the Democratic-controlled Legislature confirms Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado as lieutenant governor will have nothing to do with fitness, or lack thereof, for the job. It will be purely political. Insiders don't call the office's holder the "light governor" for nothing. He or she has only one real official job: Filling the governorship if the governor dies, resigns or is impeached. The last time that happened was nearly 60 years ago, when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Gov. Earl Warren as U.S. chief justice and Lt. Gov. Goodwin Knight became governor. Otherwise,...

The Top Two Primaries Act would require that candidates run in a single primary open to all registered voters, with the top two vote-getters meeting in a runoff. Last spring, two seasoned politicians squared off over a rare open congressional seat. Democrats Judy Chu, then a member of the state Board of Equalization, and state Sen. Gil Cedillo placed first and second, respectively, in a widely watched special primary election in the San Gabriel Valley-area district. Chu advanced to the July runoff with 32.6% of the vote, but not Cedillo, even though he finished ahead of 10 other candidates by...

Today Americans for Tax Reform, a non-profit taxpayer advocacy group, gave the first ever “Richard Rich Backstabber Award,” to current California State Senator and newly appointed Lt. Governor, Abel Maldonado. For those unfamiliar with Rich and why Abel Maldonado should be bestowed with an award in his name, Rich was Lord Chancellor during the reign of Henry the VI of England and Solicitor General under Henry the VIII. Rich is best known for perjuring himself in order to secure a death sentence for Saint Thomas More (who happens to be the patron saint of those who work in politics and...

Say what you will about the multi-threads of strategy encompassing State Senator Abel Maldonado’s pending nomination to be the next Lt. Governor of California, it becomes a harbinger for conservative Republican State Senator Sam Aanestad. Now that moderate Republican Abel Maldonado, (upon confirmation), has entered the race through the front door – as a selected incumbent – Abel is more than able to serve himself against the two conservative vote splitters in the primary. This end-game speed bump is buried by the immediate frenzy of schemes considered with the “Conan and Abel” confirmation process, whether the Democrats affirm to confirm...

Now the infighting begins. Democrats fired back only minutes after Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill the vacant office of lieutenant governor. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg questioned the cost: Wouldn't California be better served spending $2 million to defray college tuition rather than for a special election to fill Maldonado's Senate seat should lawmakers confirm him? "It may be both fiscally and politically prudent to permit the people to make their own selection for this statewide office next year and avoid the expense of a costly special election," Steinberg said...

Even as Sen. Abel Maldonado was being nominated Tuesday to serve as lieutenant governor, Democratic leaders expressed doubts about confirming him. "It may be both fiscally and politically prudent to permit the people to make their own selection for this state office next year to avoid the expense of a costly special election," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said in a written statement. Steinberg's reaction signals that the appointment of Maldonado, who angered members of his own party this year by voting to raise taxes, is no slam-dunk to be confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who...

Well after an insightful discussion on The Capitol Hour this afternoon regarding the merits of continuing to use precious resources on the relatively meaningless position of Lieutenant Governor, Governor Schwarzenegger has made his appointment for the most important useless job in the state. The Governor’s choice for California’s next Lieutenant Governor is Former State Senator from Santa Maria Abel Maldonado. Sources say that it came down to Maldonado and Dave Cogdill, and we had Cogdill pinned as favorite here. But for the record Maldonado was my initial favorite months ago when it was first determined that Garamendi would be vacating...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed one of his few allies in the state legislature to fill the state's vacant lieutenant governor's position. That man is state Sen. Abel Maldonado, who like the governor is a moderate Republican. A 42-year-old lawmaker and broccoli farmer from near Santa Barbara, Mr. Maldonado broke a five-day budget-session impasse in February when he cast the final Republican vote needed to approve a series of spending cuts and tax hikes to close a then-$42 billion budget shortfall. "Senator Maldonado has proven he has the strength and courage it takes to reach across the partisan divide...