A Little Cold Water on Special Session of California Legislature to Deal with Bills Sidetracked by Extended Budget Imbroglio

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

It's a bizarre way to do business, but the guy likes grand gestures and a bit of melodrama. Not that we haven't had it already this week with the ramping up of the final week and a half of the "end of session" for the year.

Now this from Governor Schwarzenegger's office:

"Governor Schwarzenegger issued the following statement today after he canceled a planned trip to the United Kingdom to speak at the Conservatives party conference in September and postponed a trade mission to India that had been planned for later in the fall:

"David Cameron is an outstanding leader and I was very disappointed in not being able to attend the Conservatives conference next month. I look forward to participating in the conference live via satellite and will continue to work with David on combating climate change. Additionally, I have postponed my trade mission to India. California reaps tremendous benefits from these trade missions and we will work to reschedule that trip as soon as possible.

"While I am confident that we will be able to accomplish quite a bit before the end of the legislative session, I need to maintain the flexibility to call a special session. With only two weeks left, we need to finish the work we have begun on health care, a comprehensive water plan and redistricting reform."

"The Governor will participate in the Conservatives party conference live via satellite and the trade mission to India has not been re-scheduled at this time."

Response of Steve Maviglio, chief spokesperson for Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez:

"Now that the Governor has finally engaged, we are optimistic there will be no need to call a special session because of the progress we are making on health care and redistricting."

N.B. that the Governor has spent most of the session all over the world (missing much of the budget and Tahoe fire) instead of rolling up his sleeves. He still has no redistricting bill, no health care bill, and his water bill was shelved months ago.