[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

It's a crowded field in the 34th AD Republican primary, but if Assembly Republican candidate Bob Smith bests his opponents on June 3rd, he'll bring with him the mutual embrace of the highly controversial vigilante anti-immigration group, the Minuteman Civil Defenses Corps.

Reports the Visalia Times-Delta:

"California Assembly candidate Bob Smith is getting some help in his campaign from a Minuteman.

Specifically, the help is coming from Chris Simcox, founder and president of the controversial Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group of private citizens that, among other things, regularly patrols portions of the U.S.-Mexico border looking for undocumented immigrants trying to cross unnoticed by U.S. Border Patrol officers. ...

There's more...

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Back in October the special session on water seemed dead. Republicans rejected Perata's water bond plan, which had no funding for dams in it and instead emphasized fixing the Delta and conservation projects. At the time the GOP's attitude was "it's our turn" - give us dams, dammit!

But just as the health care session, which also seemed to be dead, was revived when Democrats caved in to Republican demands for an individual mandate, the water session may be revived by the same means as well, as Perata has tentatively agreed to $3 billion in funding for new dams that Republicans have demanded. From the Visalia Times-Delta article:

No details of the meeting were immediately available. But going into the meeting, Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, tentatively had agreed for the first time to set aside funds, perhaps $3 billion, for work on three reservoirs if there was benefit for the ailing San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, according to the senator's office. But Perata has insisted on an annual legislative review of funding for the work, something that Republican lawmakers oppose because it could give legislative critics an opportunity to stall a project. GOP advocates of the dams want all the funding to be available once it is approved without further legislative oversight.