[courtesy of California Progress Report]

• Nunez Will Step Down Sooner Than Planned
• Cogdill New Senate Republican Leader April 15th

By Marty D. Omoto
Director/Organizer
California Disability Community Action Network

Assemblymember Karen Bass (Democrat - Los Angeles, 47th District), a former community organizer will make national history when she officially as the 67th Assembly Speaker on May 15th - four months sooner than planned, with Fabian Nunez (Democrat - Los Angeles, 46th District) stepping down after four years.

"I'm excited to be a history maker. It's an honor that my accomplishments will inspire others to get involved in the process to make change a reality," said Bass, who will become the first African American woman in US history to serve as the Speaker of a state legislature.

Assembly Speaker Nunez, who will be forced out of the Assembly at the end of November due to term limits, originally planned to stay on as the Assembly's top official until the end of the 2008 session. Nunez may possibly run for Insurance Commissioner or some other statewide office in 2010.

Cogdill Takes Over as New Senate Republican Leader Succeeding Ackerman

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

It may have gone virtually unnoticed, but Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman revealed the Republican plan to balance the budget on "Which Way L.A." His solution? "Roll back" to the 2004-05 state budget. 
 
Simple enough. 
 
So here are a couple of key highlights of the Republican budget plan:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The California Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee voted yesterday today to approve Sen. Carole Migden’s SB 1115 to ban race, gender and age discrimination in awarding disability compensation to workers injured on the job after hearing compelling testimony from Milton Jones, pictured at right.

Jones told the committee: “The medical examiner said half of my disability was due to the fact that I am African-American. He reasoned that since African-Americans as a group have higher incidence of hypertension, that must have caused one-half of my disability. I was stunned. I didn’t think that you could penalize an injured worker for his race. I didn’t put my life on the line in the Middle East so African-Americans could be awarded half of what an Anglo man with the same injury would receive.” Jones broke down into tears at the end of his testimony.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Given the Senate Republicans’ ignominious recent record of political irrelevance and pointless obstructionism, it wouldn’t seem to matter all that much who replaces Dick Ackerman as their next leader.
 
Whoever gets elected -- Senator Dave Cogdill and Dennis Hollingworth being the current "favorites" -- will have wide circles run around him by the more experienced and politically-astute Senate President-designate Darrell Steinberg. These days, being the leader of the Senate Republicans is a little like being the captain of the Washington Generals (the team of proverbial patsies who consistently played and lost to the Harlem Globetrotters, for you Meadowlark Lemon non-devotees). Or the leading shareholder of Enron stock. Or, in a dated and inaccurate reference but one that will particularly infuriate our right-wing friends, a general in the French Army.
 
But, if you’re like me and you find the Republicans’ proclivity for messy infighting and political self-destruction particularly comical, then you’ll be interested to know that the word in the State Capitol among Republican staffers is that a vote to elect a Leader-designate could occur as early as this week’s Republican Caucus meeting. It’s sort of the Sacramento equivalent of watching those women of ill repute fighting over a date with broken-down rocker Bret Michaels on VH-1’s "Rock of Love." I mean, even if you win, what have you really won?

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

When Mexico's previous president, Vicente Fox visited the California legislature in 2006, the members of the Rush Limbaugh Caucus (a.k.a., legislative Repubicans) rudely protested his visit with yellow "No Mas" buttons, while others boycotted the address. This year -- with pro-immigration reformer John McCain at the top of the GOP ticket -- it appears that legislative Republicans are changing their tune after the new Mexican President Felipe Calderon appeared before a joint convention of the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento today.
 
Gone were the buttons. And the red meat anti-immigration rhetoric -- other than that from a few fervent critics -- was also (thankfully) missing. Hats off to GOP Assembly Leader Mike Villines and Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman for helping Speaker Nunez usher in some civility toward Mexico's dynamic new leader after the embarassment of the Fox visit.
 
Even the national Fox News reporter and producer who were covering the event appeared to be stunned.
 
Calderon's speech appeared to please both sides of the aisle. "I want to assure you that Mexico does not encourage its citizens to migrate," he said."I am a President who is not glad to see Mexicans migrating to the United States."