California: Assemblyman Chuck Devore

When I heard Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in a radio interview saying a never-discussed part of the budget debate was how California's failure to aggressively implement the 1996 federal welfare reform act had kept its welfare rolls far bigger than other...

The state’s budget negotiations continue to drag on as Democratics try to forestall cuts and Republicans seek to hold the line on taxes—especially now that brand new GOP Senate leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-El Cajon, has pledged to take tax raises off the table.

But data from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) suggests that cuts could likely hit many Republican areas hardest—while the tax burden is already falling more heavily on Democratic leaning counties.

According to the data distributed by Assembly Budget Committee chairwoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, the majority of the counties using the most in state services are generally represented by Republicans. When this data on 2007-2008 state spending is compared to registration data from the Secretary of State’s office, it shows that seven out of the top 10 counties receiving state expenditures, measured per capita, have Republican registration majorities.

The first GOP leadership challenge resulting from the budget negotiations came and went Saturday night as Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, moved unsuccessfully to unseat Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines.

In a closed-door Republican caucus before the marathon floor session, DeVore made a motion to remove Villines as GOP leader (known as "vacating the chair" in Capitol-speak). None of the other 28 Republican Assembly members seconded the motion.

"The discussion was a credit to the caucus. Nobody raised their voice, everything was logical, people made their case and I lost," said DeVore, who is plotting a 2010 run for U.S. Senate.

DeVore's motion was not seconded despite the fact that

It's a pretty brazen suggestion even for the Yacht Party, which has already made clear that it wants to force California into an economic depression - Sacramento Republicans want to divert the federal stimulus into a "rainy day fund." This would accomplish two of their goals - one, preventing California from protecting such vital services as schools and health care; and two, preventing a stabilization of the state budget that might frustrate their goal of using this crisis to impose far-right policies for good.
While many of the funds pegged for California would immediately help children, the poor and commuters, some Republican state lawmakers argue that the state should sock away some of the money for hard times in the future.