California: Assembly

I hear from a well-positioned source that the CTA, which is furious over Karen Bass' willingness to contemplate big reductions in education spending, is pushing a challenge to her as speaker. The assemblyman who's allegedly assisting in the coup attempt...

As everyone licked their wounds, and returned to the state Wednesday, a new Big 5 began talking about the same old problem. Well, with one little twist ... Capitol Weekly reports, "As if the state budget crisis needed to be any more complicated, now the federal government has been dragged into the middle of the state’s ongoing fiscal battles. If you thought the last budget standoff was rough, just wait and see what happens now that the state’s $20 billion budget problem has gone three-dimensional."

"In essence, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger needs permission from the federal government to cut billions of dollars from the state budget. The governor outlined his proposals in a quickly-assembled budget revision last week, complete with deep cuts to education and health and human services.

Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer for the Assembly Rules Committee, called to say that yes, the Assembly's operating budget is $15 million less -- he said it had gone from $150 million to $135 million -- because the Assembly was...

The latest report of registration, current up to February 2010, shows that voters have continued to register Democratic in higher numbers even since the general election.  There are now 17.3 million registered voters, 74.4% of all eligible adults, and Democrats have a 2.32 million vote advantage over Republicans.  By the percentages, the state consists of 44.52% Democrats, 31.14% Republicans, and 19.99% decline to state, with smaller parties rounding out the rest of the voters.

2010 is the last year before a new census and new district lines, so the district-level numbers only apply for the next election cycle.  Still, a close reading makes clear where Democrats should be focusing their registration efforts and resources for the next year.