CAPITOL OFFENSES Brendan Huffman For better or for worse, whatever happens in California over the next four years will all be on Democrats as their party’s candidates swept every statewide office and increased their commanding margin in the legislature by one seat as Democrats in most other states sustained substantial losses. Furthermore, the passage of Prop. 25 allows Democrats to adopt spending plans with a simple majority instead of the previous threshold of a two-thirds vote which always required a handful of Republican legislators to cross party lines, thus ensuring that neither party could take all the blame. (Don’t worry, fair readers. Each of these Republicans have always been rewarded with plumb commission appointments that pay up to $125,000 a year to show up to a handful of meetings, which has always sounded to me to be a job promotion). Not only did Democrats sweep the statewide races, all but two of them hail from the Bay Area including Gov. Jerry Brown from Oakland, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom from San Francisco, Attorney General Kamala Harris from San Francisco, Treasurer Bill Lockyer from Alameda County, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson from Contra Costa County and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones from Sacramento. And don’t forget about U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer from Marin County and Dianne Feinstein from San Francisco along with House Democratic Leaders Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco. The concentration of Northern California power leaves Californians living south of the Bay Area with State Controller John Chiang and Secretary of State Debra Bowen, both of whom reside in L.A.’s South Bay. Not only do Democrats have the weight of California’s problems on their shoulders, it’s largely San Francisco area Democrats who, coincidentally, represent the symbolism Republicans used effectively against Democrats to gain 60 seats in Congress. In other words, any missteps by Democrats in California will potentially reinforce the perception that all Democrats are Pelosi-style liberals from the Haight-Ashbury district. Brown’s agenda Will Democrats mess this up this opportunity to fix many of the budget related problems of California? So far, Gov. Brown appears to be preparing legislators with deeper budget cuts than his predecessor ever did. It seems as if Brown is challenging legislators to approve cuts that could entice voters to extend recent tax increases to offset cuts that will impact every Californian in one form or another. Many business leaders and taxpayer advocates will object to more taxes as California employers struggle through a sluggish economy, but Gov. Brown is expected to propose a series of structural reforms to keep future state spending under control and more stable. If this sounds similar to what was on the ballot for the May 2009 special election, you have a good memory. In return for a two-year extension of the recently enacted sales tax hike, voters were asked to approve a series of reforms that purported to control spending. Voters rejected the reform proposals and sales tax extensions by a 2-1 margin. Could 2011 be different? Possibly, especially when you consider that there are more Democratic voters out there willing to support reforms crafted by a Democratic governor with positive approval ratings as opposed to a Republican governor will high disapproval ratings at the time of the election. Also, the economy today is finally showing signs of growth while in 2009 the economy was in terrible shape. To many, what is so impressive about Jerry Brown this go-round is his political instincts for these trying times. One year ago, nobody expected him to overcome Meg Whitman’s fortune – except for him. He was mocked when he didn’t go on the air with campaign ads until Labor Day. Jerry Brown showed everybody wrong and cruised to a 14-point victory. As governor, Brown does not pander to any particular interest group. He is calling for deep spending cuts and making drastic cuts to his own staff and living expenses – the types of things state officeholders should have been doing the past couple years. Experience Jerry Brown has reinvented himself as the seasoned officeholder who knows how to govern and how to fix the myriad problems confronting our state. He appears uninterested in anything other than fixing the budget deficit and living within his own means while he engages lawmakers of both parties and public officials throughout the state with invitations to propose ideas. Typically, these folks tend to hail from the “cut everyone’s budget but my own” lobby, and Brown is calling them on it. His honest assessment of our budget problems is a refreshing contrast to previous years of false promises and accounting gimmicks. Locally, several prominent politicians are getting their names out as potential mayoral candidates in Los Angeles for 2013. Just as Jerry Brown successfully conveyed that his no nonsense approach and experience in public policy was just what California needed, one might sense that County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is positioning himself in a similar fashion. Time will tell if the times in 2013 will be right for that kind of experience or if enough of L.A.’s challenges will be adequately addressed for voters to go with someone more charismatic but lacking in know-how. In light of L.A.’s growing pension problem, I suspect that voters will be looking for many of the no-nonsense qualities that Jerry Brown brought to the table in last year’s election. Brendan Huffman is the owner of Huffman Public Affairs, a San Fernando Valley based consulting firm, and the co-host of “Off The Presses,” a public affairs program streaming live every Wednesday, between 10-11 a.m. on LATalkRadio.com.
