[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

Assemblymember Mark Leno (pictured at right) walloped his opponents with 43% of the vote for the Democratic nomination to the California State Senate to former Assemblymember Joe Nation’s 29.3% and incumbent Carole Migden’s 27.7%--a much larger than expected margin. He is a shoe-in to win the November election in this heavy Democratic District. These results are with all precincts reporting.

To win this seat, Leno had to overcome the efforts of Senate President pro Tem Don Perata to protect Migden, one of his lieutenants who is the Senate Majority Caucus Chair. Leno broke the unwritten rule against challenging sitting Democratic legislators in a primary. Migden had substantial campaign funds and was endorsed by the California Labor Federation. She also had troubles with the state’s campaign spending watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission and other difficulties.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma lauds vote as “victory for public health and sound public policy”

By Frank D. Russo

As a nationwide conference convened in New York City to discuss the need for paid sick leave and heard from San Franciscan’s about the city’s groundbreaking ordinance in this area, the California Assembly passed legislation that would make ours the first state in the nation to ensure paid sick days for all workers. Around the world 136 nations—with the notable exception of the United States--guarantee at least a week of paid sick leave.

AB 2716 (Ma), the Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act, passed the Assembly yesterday in a 12 hour marathon session on a party line vote of 45 to 33, with Democratic Assemblymember Juan Arambula the only Democrat to join all Republicans in the chamber in voting against it.

AB 2716 allows workers to earn paid sick days that can be used to recover from illness, care for a sick family member, or recover from domestic violence or sexual assault. The bill moves to the Senate, where its author, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, has indicated it will be heard in June. It should pass our Democratic state Senate.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Art Pulaski
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
California Labor Federation

No one likes going to work sick, but nearly six million working Californians – that’s 40 percent of all workers in the state -- do not get any paid sick days from their employers. For these workers, staying home sick could mean losing a day’s wages, or even their jobs.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California
One of the surreal moments of the week was when lobbyist Beth Capell, in testifying in support of a bill, representing her clients Health Access California and SEIU, ceded half her time to... the NFIB.

The NFIB made its name opposing the Clinton health plan in the early 1990s. Perhaps it's a sign of the times. The bill was AB2967 (Lieber), to allow for better transparency of cost and quality from health care providers. It's disappointing, although perhaps not surprising, that doctor and hospital associations opposed more reporting on themselves.

What was new and interesting was the unique coalition in support. That included consumer groups, like Consumers Union, AARP, Health Access, and CALPIRG; many labor unions including the California Labor Federation, SEIU, AFSCME, CTA, and yes, key employer groups, with Pacific Business Group on Health, Small Business Majority, and the NFIB.

It's makes sense that purchasers of health care--whether individuals, employers, or union trusts--would want better information on what they are buying. But these alliances are less frequent than that common interest would suggest.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

(Cross-posted on the New America Foundation). 

It shows more than a little chutzpah for the California Labor Federation to demand that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez return a pile of campaign cash he is sitting on: $4 million that came from the state Democratic Party. Labor interests, as much as any interests in California, have helped create the governing system in which achieving any difficult policy requires politicians to defend their policies at the ballot. Politicians without a store of cash soon find it difficult to govern, because it's hard for them to credibly go to the ballot without a big, scary pile of greenbacks. It would be wrong if Nunez used the money for his own political career, as labor leaders say they fear. But he needs the money -- and ought to use it -- not for politics, but to govern.

Labor is really angry at Nunez because they don't like the way he's governed recently -- particularly in two policy areas. But the story of those policy areas shows precisely why he needs the cash.

There's more...

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Robert Cruickshank

Abel Maldonado is one of the most vulnerable of the Senate Republicans facing reelection this year. Democrats hold a 40-37 edge in registrations in SD-15 and the district was given a D+7.8 rating in cali_girl_in_texas' latest rankings. And he has a long, conservative voting record - including a 20% lifetime rating from the California Labor Federation (as of 2006). Maldonado's moderate reputation should be put to its strictest test yet in 2008, with a very Democratic turnout in November and a Republican Party having to defend a record of economic crisis and budgetary disaster.

So why is it that NO Democrat filed to run for the SD-15 seat?! Is Maldonado being given a free pass?