Padilla Blinks; Steinberg Declares for Pro-Tem
In the wake of the failure of Prop 93 to pass, the race to succeed termed out State Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata has begun.
Local favorite and former LA City Council President, Senator Alex Padilla wants to toss his hat into the ring but was holding out for Perata's blessing.
In the meantime, while Padilla was waiting for annointment, Sacramento area Senator Darrell Steinberg has gone balls to the wall and was first out of the gate to declare for the powerful post. That could complicate things for Padilla.
On the Assembly side, the race to succeed FMB/Antonio BFF Fabian Nunez is less clear, with a slew of potential candidates rumored including locals such as Karen Bass, Hector de la Torre, Mike Feuer, Paul Krekorian and an old dinosaur from the Willie Brown days, Chuck Calderon.
Stay tuned!
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Local favorite and former LA City Council President, Senator Alex Padilla wants to toss his hat into the ring but was holding out for Perata's blessing.
In the meantime, while Padilla was waiting for annointment, Sacramento area Senator Darrell Steinberg has gone balls to the wall and was first out of the gate to declare for the powerful post. That could complicate things for Padilla.
On the Assembly side, the race to succeed FMB/Antonio BFF Fabian Nunez is less clear, with a slew of potential candidates rumored including locals such as Karen Bass, Hector de la Torre, Mike Feuer, Paul Krekorian and an old dinosaur from the Willie Brown days, Chuck Calderon.
Stay tuned!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 2/06/2008 02:55:00 PM
8 Comments:
We cannot have another Mexican (especially one from Tijuana)!
Does this go to the ballot box?
From Capital Alert,
Karen Bass, termed out 2010
The skinny: Bass is well regarded by her colleagues, but there are questions about her commitment to remain in the Assembly long enough to run for speaker. Instead, the Los Angeles Democrat could run for the Los Angeles City Council or state Senate.
A June primary to replace L.A. County Supervisor Yvonne Burke will leave one of those two seats open.
Bass serves as Núñez’s No. 2 in the Assembly, majority floor leader, a job that sets her up well to make the leap to speaker.
The money: Bass is the only would-be speaker to have her own ballot measure account, for which she raised $81,000 in 2007. She gathered another $490,000 in her reelection coffers. She’s spent some of that money on fellow Democrats, giving $90,000 to Proposition 93 as well as $30,000 to the Democratic Party. She ended 2008 with $285,000 cash on hand across the two accounts.
Kevin de León, termed out 2012
The skinny: De León is the potential Assembly leader who is most closely linked to Núñez – the two met in the ninth grade in the San Diego barrio of Logan Heights and have been best friends ever since.
The 40-year-old, first-term legislator has worked for the National Education Association and California Teachers Association.
His closeness to Núñez has been his biggest asset – he was introduced around the Capitol as a Friend of Fabian even before his election in 2006 – but could also prove a liability, as some Assembly members, particularly those who haven’t fared as well under the Núñez regime, could be ready for a change of the guard.
The money: He raised more money than any of his fellow contenders, a strong showing for a freshman lawmaker. He also donated to seven members of the Assembly Democratic caucus, Mark Leno, Sally Lieber, Lois Wolk, Loni Hancock, Lloyd Levine, Warren Furutani and Mark DeSaulnier, who face elections in 2008. He ended the year with $530,000 in available campaign funds.
Hector De La Torre, termed out 2010
The skinny: De La Torre currently serves as chairman of the powerful Assembly Rules Committee, which assigns bills to policy committees and enforces Assembly rules and operations.
The 41-year-old hails from South Gate, where the politics are uniquely rough and tumble. He served for eight years on the South Gate City Council, including two years as mayor.
In late 2006, De La Torre, who is Latino, had a run-in with Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, the former chair of the Legislative Black Caucus, who called him “the most racist legislator I have encountered in over 40 years" over an investigation into fake police-like badges Dymally was giving to campaign contributors.
De La Torre could be hurt by the fact that he – like Karen Bass and Alberto Torrico – is termed out in two years.
The money: He raised less than all but one of our list of seven top contenders, pulling in $376,000 in 2007. Still, he donated $30,000 to the Democratic Party, $25,000 to Proposition 93 and ended the year with $316,000 in available campaign funds.
Alberto Torrico, termed out 2010
The skinny: Torrico, a Fremont Democrat, serves as the chair of the influential Governmental Organization Committee that handles tobacco and horse racing legislation.
That perch has historically led to strong fundraising from gambling and alcohol interests, which is the case for Torrico.
The money: He raised $533,000 in 2007 and made contributions to five fellow Assembly Democrats on top of the $45,000 he gave to Proposition 93 and $30,000 to the Democratic Party. He ended the year with $405,000 in available funds.
Fiona Ma, termed out 2012
The skinny: Ma, a political protégé of former Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, is the Assembly’s majority whip. She raised some eyebrows even before arriving in Sacramento, slogging through one of the most expensive primaries in 2006, a $1.4 million effort.
The 41-year-old Democrat is spent seven years working for Burton before serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a city known as the training ground for some of California’s best politicians.
In her first year, she carried major legislation to ban the use of potentially harmful chemicals in children’s products. She has already created a high-profile bill load in 2008, including an online registry where would-be daters could look up information about their suitors’ past domestic violence convictions.
She’s the only woman in the would-be speaker field besides Karen Bass and the only contender outside of Torrico from the Bay Area.
The money: Ma is a strong fundraiser, pulling in more than every other wanna-be speaker besides De Leon at $615,000. She spent a lot of her takings, though, ending 2007 with $115,000 cash on hand.
Charles Calderon, termed out 2012
The skinny: Calderon may be more conservative than many of his Assembly Democrats, but the quasi first-term lawmaker has already shown a penchant to make a run for speaker.
Calderon was a member of the “Gang of 5,” a dissident group of Democrats who tried unsuccessfully to oust Brown in the late 1980s.
He has more experience than any of the other speaker candidates, having served in the Assembly from 1982-90, before term limits, and in the Senate from 1990-98. He also is the only one with experience making a run at the Assembly’s top post and could prove attractive to Republicans hoping to play a role in selecting Núñez’s successor.
The money: Calderon raised $464,000 in 2007. But what makes his fundraising interesting isn’t the total raised – it’s who gave him the money. His list is long on more corporate contributors such as Intuit, the pharmaceutical industry, Philip Morris and Hollywood Park. He ended the year with $237,000 cash on hand.
Mike Feuer, termed out 2012
The skinny: Feuer raised less money than any other lawmaker on this list ($322,000 in 2007), but he did so without the benefit of a major committee chairmanship in the Assembly.
That’s because the former Los Angeles City Council member isn’t a part of the current speaker’s leadership team, which could either boost or hinder his own chances at the job.
The money: Feuer raised the least in 2007 of the list of contenders, though his fundraising did pick up in the final six months of the year, when he raised $262,000. He donated to three of his fellow Assembly Democrats – Mark DeSaulnier, Warren Furutani and Loni Hancock – as well as giving $30,000 to the party.
The dark-horse candidates:
Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, is the chair of the Latino Caucus, a powerful voting bloc in the Assembly. But he’s hardly the only Latino who wants to be speaker. Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, raised more than $430,000 in 2007, a large sum which he doled out to Democratic causes, ending the year with $77,000, after accounting for unpaid debts. The name of Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D- La Cañada Flintridge, has surfaced in the Capitol rumor mill about would-be speakers. The $535,000 he raised in 2007 has helped give those rumors legs.
Does anybody know who will be running for Nunez' Assembly seat? John Perez? and/or anyone else???
Fiona Ma is definitely the hottest of the bunch.
tell me what Padilla did for the state much less for the city council, nothing that you can remember!!! all about power, nothing about the people of California.
Bass or de Leon the most likely. Though have been hearing lots of buzz about Feurer.
I will bet anyone $100 that the eventual speaker of the Assembly is not on the Mayor Sam List.
FRIDAY MORNING HINDSIGHT:
Excellent call, Mayor Sam.
Steinberg takes the State Senate post.
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