Free Republic

A breakdown in protocol caused two Republican senators to miss last Wednesday night's important floor session on bonds. The incident has led to a contrite sergeant at arms and a discussion over the ubiquity of Blackberry wireless devices in the Capitol. More importantly for Republicans, it caused a spat between Senate minority leader Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, and Senator Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, the party's candidate for lieutenant governor. It all started last Wednesday afternoon as Senators were waiting for an announced Wednesday night session to try to work out a compromise on the infrastructure bond. Shortly after 5 p.m., Secretary...

SACRAMENTO — A day after lawmakers failed to pass Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bond plan for the June ballot, the governor and legislative leaders vowed Thursday to put a proposal before voters in November — though efforts will likely get tangled in the budget and election-year politics. At the same time, Bay Area lawmakers attacked state government secrecy in light of the historic amounts of money in public works ballot bonds and in the wake of reports of dismal state compliance with the Public Records Act. Schwarzenegger remained optimistic about his $222 billion, multi-year plan to upgrade infrastructure. "As long as...

SACRAMENTO – Hours after suffering a major election-year defeat by failing to put his ambitious public works bond on the June ballot, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger guaranteed that the entire package would be put before voters in November. “We are going to have this year the infrastructure done. That I can guarantee you,” Schwarzenegger told a Capitol news conference yesterday. “We will have it done this year. We haven't been able to do it by June. But we will do it by November.” As a deadline approached Wednesday night, marathon negotiations to place a $50 billion bond issue on the June...