Does he have a chance?

SACRAMENTO -- Bakersfield's Republican state senator, Roy Ashburn, has begun raising money for a possible race for a powerful state tax board in 2010, when he will be facing unemployment under the current term limits law.

But he said his decision to run for a seat on the Board of Equalization may be affected by pending proposals to change legislative term limits, one of which was written by Ashburn himself. If one of the changes gets on the ballot and is approved by voters, Ashburn would have the option of running for a third four-year term in the Senate.

Ashburn has made no formal announcement about the tax board race. His plans came to light when a Sacramento political newsletter reported he had a fundraising event scheduled Wednesday evening for a committee formed for the board campaign.

Asked to explain, Ashburn said under the current law, he cannot continue to raise money for a Senate campaign after he is elected to his final term. That's why many termed-out legislators have formed committees to run for statewide offices or, like Ashburn, for the Board of Equalization.

They may or may not end up running for those offices, but Ashburn said he was definitely interested in the five-member board. It is made up of the state controller and four members elected from districts that each represent 25 percent of the state's population.

"I think it's an exciting position in state government," Ashburn said. "This is California's tax board. It exists for taxpayer fairness, and the tax disputes that come before the board have a huge impact on the taxpayers of our state."

Ashburn is a former Kern County supervisor and Assemblyman who was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and re-elected last year.

He would be a candidate for the 2nd District Board of Equalization seat now held by Republican Bill Leonard from Redlands. The sprawling 32-county district covers most of the heavily Republican inland area of the state. It includes Kern County and all of Ashburn's huge 18th Senate District, which runs from Bakersfield east to the Nevada border.

A number of other state senators have been mentioned for the seat. The best known is Tom McClintock, the ultra-conservative Republican from Thousand Oaks who came in third in the recall election race for governor won by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003. He has also run for state controller and lieutenant governor.

Leonard and Ashburn are close friends. Leonard hired Ashburn's former wife, Diane, for his staff in 2003, several months before the senator filed for divorce. Diane Ashburn no longer works for the board, Leonard said.

About Roy Ashburn, Leonard said, "He's a friend and I think he'd make a great Board of Equalization member. I also think it will be a very competitive Republican primary for this seat in 2010."

The state Board of Equalization administers and collects more than 30 taxes, including the sales tax, tobacco tax, fuel taxes and timber yield taxes. It does not administer the personal income tax. That is collected by the Franchise Tax Board. The Board of Equalization is the appeals body for taxpayers who disagree with their bills for the taxes it administers, as well as personal income tax disputes.

--Vic Pollard

In one more sign that Kern County politicians know which side their bread is buttered on, Nicole Parra was the only Democrat in the Assembly to vote against the big gun control bill of the year. It was a measure to require that firing pins and other parts of semiautomatic handguns carry tiny numbers that wold transfer to shell casings when the gun is fired. Gun control advocates and some prominent police officials said it would help identify guns used in murders and trace them to their last legal owner. Critics said it would do no good because criminals wouldn't use a weapon with "microstamping" as it's called.

The bill passed the Assembly 44-29 Monday with most Democrats voting yes and most Republicans voting no. A few from both parties abstained.

Not Nicole. But why did she vote no? Even though everyone knows valley voters don't like the government messing with their guns, she wouldn't say. Her chief of staff, Derek Chernow, said she was too busy to respond to rquests for comment.

--Vic Pollard

 

 

At the recent state Democratic Party convention in San Diego, one of the top conversation topics was a young woman with a press credential, trailed by a TV cameraman, who identified herself as Citizen Kate. Turns out she’s some kind of cross between a You Tube hottie and an enterprising free-lance reporter.  At every chance, she explained she knows nothing about politics, but she wants to learn by covering the presidential campaign. She puts her videos up on a web site, http://citizenkate.tv/, and here’s part of what she says about herself.:

Citizen Kate here. You know, I never knew that politics
was as fun and satisfying as buying Manolo Blahniks
at a seventy percent off sale and eating pancakes right
afterward, but it is! You don't need to be a pundit to cover politics.
You just need to look cute and ask questions and have a
camera to record stuff. If you're like me, and you've never
been politically active, then together we're gonna find out
about the presidential candidates and all this politics stuff. 
Whew, it's a lot of work.

Here’s what Screen Magazine found out about her:

Sometimes, in order to get something done right, you have to leave it up to the unprofessionals. Kate Soglin is Citizen Kate, and she’s taking the virtual world by storm with her “Citizen Kate” political blog and YouTube webisode series. Claiming to know more about fashion than politics, Soglin is hot on the 2008 campaign trail and is reporting her discoveries back to her fellow laypeople, in laypeople’s terms.

Soglin’s work as Citizen Kate is a collaboration with producer/director Carey Lundin of Viva Lundin Productions, producer/director Chris Peppey and editor Steve Swanson – all Chicagoans. Coming from different professional backgrounds, Soglin and Lundin met through mutual friends and began brainstorming on the idea of a political project.

“I’m not anybody [who] knows anything about politics at all,” explains Soglin. “I’ve worked with the environment in the past and [I’ve] volunteered, but I really am clueless when it comes to politics, for the most part.” Enter Barack Obama, whom Soglin credits with igniting her interest in politics. “I have a huge love for Barack Obama,” she says. “He’s from Chicago and he is very charismatic and cute. I think everyone gets very emotional when he speaks.”

--Vic Pollard

Here’s AP’s latest story on the flap that developed Saturday over ex-pres Jimmy Carter’s evaluation of the current administration.

What do you think?

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday his remarks were "careless or misinterpreted" when he said the Bush administration has been the "worst in history" for its impact around the world.

Speaking on NBC's "Today," Carter appeared to retreat from a statement he made to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for a Saturday story in which he said: "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."

Carter said Monday that when he made the comment, he was responding to a question comparing the Bush administration's foreign policy to that of Richard Nixon.

"And I think Richard Nixon had a very good and productive foreign policy and my remarks were maybe careless or misinterpreted. But I wasn't comparing the overall administration, and I was certainly not talking personally about any president," Carter said.

"I think this administration's foreign policy compared to president Nixon's was much worse," he said, but he said he did not mean to call it the worst in history.

Deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto, with Bush at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, said Monday, "I think it just highlights the importance of being careful in choosing your words. I'll just leave it at that."

 

 

 

(With apologies to The Police [the rock group of yore])

I was sickened driving through McFarland's east-of-the-freeway streets yesterday for a follow-up on the latest gang violence.

Blatant gang graffiti dominated certain areas, especially along San Lucas, where three have been killed so far this year in a two-block stretch.

Our paper's coverage thus far has focused on the mostly black street gangs in east Bakersfield. But the recent rash of shootings in McFarland has us wondering: What on earth is going on up there? We've heard even our carriers are afraid to drive the streets.

I've learned enough to know 13 stands for the massive Surenos, or southerners, Hispanic gang based in Southern California. The Sureno/Norteno rivalry supposedly stretches from Mexico to Canada.

"13" stands for the 13th letter of the alphabet, M, which reportedly refers to the Mexican Mafia. The Nortenos use 14, for N.

Delano was at one time, and perhaps still is, the de facto dividing line between the northern and southern gangs, although our recent discussions with law enforcement don't seem to reinforce this as a current driver of conflict.

Regardless, something very scary is going on in McFarland and it was chilling to see the clear allegiance to the Surenos scrawled large on streets where young kids were out playing. Even one fence along a large church had been copiously tagged.

I'm attaching a few more pics that didn't make it into the paper or on the Web. The 13 is obvious. "Sur" is shorthand for Surenos. "Myfas," according to sheriff's Sgt. Steve Hansen, is the name for McFarland's unit of the Surenos. Hansen, who led the gang unit until recently, couldn't remember exactly what Myfa meant...possibly something about "my McFarland," he said.

I wondered: What can we do as a community?

I confess: This ultra-saturated enclave made me want to send in armed guards. As in total military lockdown.

Can anything less extreme work?

-- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer

"It's Dean Florez being an opportunist like he always is."

--Kern High School District board member Chad Vegas on state Sen. Dean Florez's bill to require all school trustees to take two hours of ethics training every two years. Florez said it was inspired by a Californian survey showing many local school board members do not report any outside income. In the survey, Vegas was one who did not report any income, although he may not have been required to under district rules.

Vic Pollard

 

 

I'm at the break in the city council meeting, where vice-man Hanson apparently helped himself to extra donuts? Check this out:

• The county invited the city to appoint TWO city councies to the new transportation funding task force;

• Hanson gets to choose;

• At tonight's early session, Hanson announced he'd chosen THREE city councies, including himself (also Scriv and Weir).

This is developing so maybe it's not as not-playing-well-with-others as it initially seems. It's not immediately clear if the county's invitation specified two city-heads or perhaps if he got a behind-the-scenes OK earlier.

Benham voted no, saying if the city has three the county will have to have three which will make a quorum of supervisors. Couch (who wanted on bad but was not surprisingly snubbed) said nothing but voted no.

No one at the meeting clarified the format of the county's invitation or whether it specifically invited two councilmembers.

Remember: INVITED!!

Hanson said he was sure the county wouldn't mind...

This will be updated later when I track down the invitation; apparently it was written down somewhere...

Comments? Rudeness??

-- Gretchen Wenner

 I'd like to know what thinkest the herd about upcoming appointments by the City Council on Wednesday (May 9):

Planning Commission
Three choices for two spots:
1. William Andrews, retired government worker, mostly social work in Compton and L.A.; field rep for Nicole Parra. Experience includes legislative analysis and housing/community development for CDB grants.
2. Marvin Dean, local builder and contractor, active in southeast Bakersfield redevelopment, publisher of Kern Minority Contractors Association.
3. Andy Stanley, field rep for Kevin McCarthy. Formerly safety technician/office manager at Ken Small Construction Inc. (now KS Industries, his resume says) and BJ Services Inc.

The planning comm spots are open in Carson's and Scrivner's wards after term expirations of John Spencer (longtime  planner) and Barbara Lomas (smart-as-a-whip rep for Ashburn). Neither reapplied; Lomas knew it would be a waste of time for her to bother. I'm not sure about Spencer's decision.

Big issues ultimately go to the City Council anyway.

Still, what do you think of the possible mix here? Another Thomas/McCarthy/Abernathy thread likely pulling the levers? Does it matter?

Fire Civil Service Commission:
1. Thomas Edmonds, retired Beverly Hills police detective
2. Joseph Hanson, a lawyer who represented the city fire department during the recent Pratt/Gentry fiasco
3. Lowell Manzer, a retired man whose application provides absolutely no info other than that. Well, he attended Bako High and Bako College and is "interested in fire department rules."

Does this commission matter other than the possible drama of more public disciplinary hearings?

Transportation task force
Two slots; Hanson will appoint; Couch wants on bad; will he be denied? Will Scrivner/Weir get it, a situation Couch pointed out would require special notification of every meeting due to a quorum of the city planning and development committee?
 

On an unrelated note, I saw a badger this weekend while driving back on remote Highway 58. I didn't know they were out here.

Thoughts? Feelings? (About commission appointments, not exclusively badgers)

-- Gretchen Wenner, staff writer

Dennis Tope of Tehachapi fired at state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, in a letter Tope sent to The Californian this week. You won't see Tope's letter printed in The Californian's letter to the editor section because it contained some factual errors. Among those errors was the contention that Florez had introduced an "unimaginable" number of bills awaiting passage in the Legislature.

Actually, the 33 bills Florez has introduced (not the 35 Tope contended he introduced) is well under the maximum Florez and every state senator is allowed to introduce. That number is 50. And, according to Florez's office, 13 of the Senate's  40 members have each introduced 30 or more bills this session.

Now that may be hard to imagine. But, like it or not, Florez's 33 bills is not "unimaginable."

But it seems Tope really has a hard time imagining the content of Florez's bills.

"Does California really need some school board ethics bill or horseracing bills that he is sponsoring?" Tope asked. "Florez doesn't need much encouragement to cook up bills. Someone gets killed at a railroad crossing and out cranks a bill for more gates. A bunch of kids are overweight and our cranks a bill for more P.E. in school. Florez is bill happy and he's out to strictly impress the 681,000 voters he represents.

"Florez needs to keep his 'loaded gun of bills in its holster' before firing out another bunch of mundane bills,'" Tope wrote.

While Florez may be swimming upstream with his P.E. bill, families who have had people killed at deadly train intersection might not consider his train gate bill mundane. And after a Californian informal survey revealed the haphazard compliance with anti-political corruption laws by area school board members, an ethics course would seem to be in order.

What's "unimaginable" in one person's eyes is certainly "imaginable" in others.

Posted by Dianne Hardisty, editorial page editor

Looks like former Kern County Supervisor Barbara Patrick has taken a new job — she'll be working on special projects for  the Great Valley Center.

She's now listed on the groups "About Us" sectiion of the web site at
http://www.greatvalley.org/...

The Great Valley Center is a non-profit dedicated to improving the Central Valley of California.

Here's Patrick's bio from the organization's site:

Barbara Patrick
Special Projects Coordinator

Barbara Patrick joined the Great Valley Center staff in April, 2007, as Special Projects Coordinator.  Barbara is well-versed in San Joaquin Valley issues.  She recently retired from the Kern County Board of Supervisors, serving 12 years in that capacity.  Barbara served as Kern County’s representative to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District and as the San Joaquin Valley’s representative to the California Air Resources Board (CARB).  She was a member of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley for 2 years, serving as a liaison between CARB and the Partnership.

As Kern County Supervisor, Barbara was a representative to many committees, including:  San Joaquin Valley Regional Association of California Counties Executive Committee, Kern County Employees Retirement Association, Local Agency Formation Commission, Kern Medical Center Joint Conference Committee, Museum Authority Board and Kern Economic Development Corporation.

Barbara will be working on special projects at the Center including assisting in
GVC’s role as consultant to the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.

Barbara was a teacher for the Bakersfield City School District prior to her election to the Board of Supervisors in November, 1994.  She is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

From time to time, you've probably seen metal plaques memorializing historic sites of one kind or another, signed by the sponsoring organization, E Clampus Vitus. Last week, a column of mine described the group as "a raucous, irreverent drinking society that occasionally commemorates historical sites in the West. When they’re sober enough." It drew the following reply from a Bakersfield man who said as a member,  he was terribly offended . Now,  everything I've read about E Clampus Vitus, not to mention a few encounters,  does not give it reputation as an organization with a lot  of  "responsible and sober-minded members." But he deserves to be heard. If you know any "clampers," as its members are called, what do you think? Does he have a legitimate complaint or is he putting us on?

Here, verbatim, is an article about Thomas's new role from the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call:

Posted by Vic Pollard 

Ok. Grass roots political action alert here.

The city and county are starting a year long process to revise the Metropolitan Bakersfield General Plan.

I can't say it loud enough — If you have EVER complained about ANYTHING in Bakersfield, now's the time to get off your butt and get involved in changing the place you live. The General Plan controls everything from how fast we grow to where growth happens and how much it impacts our everyday life.

There are four public meetings being held this month. The meetings are being run by Vision 2020 and help planners know what things they should focus on when they start studying the situation.

Go to a meeting:

Tonight (May 7) : Northeast Bakersfield, Richard Prado East Bakersfield Senior Center, 2101 Ridge Road
Tuesday: Northwest Bakersfield, Greenacres Community Center, senior room, 2014 Calloway Drive
May 21: Southeast Bakersfield, Martin Luther King Community Center, 1000 S. Owens St.
May 31: Southwest Bakersfield, Bakersfield Firefighters Association Hall, 7400 Wible Road
If you can’t make these meetings, go to www.bakersfieldvision2020
.com to express your ideas.
For more information, call Lorelei Oviatt, 862-8866, or Jim Eggert, 326-3754.


James Burger
Californian staff writer

When I analyzed Kern County federal political donations last week, I found no one had given a dime to Hillary. (At least not any Kern dimes that had been reported yet to the FEC.)

After the list ran in the paper May 1st, I got a voice message from a gentleman whose name sounded like Roy Hughes, or something similar.

"I just want to let you know there has been a contribution to Hillary Clinton's campaign," Mr. Hughes-or-something said. "After reading the article I mailed off a check to her. So I was letting you know that it's been updated, and she has a contribution from Kern County. Thank you, bye."

So there you have it. She's in like Flynn in Kern with at least one fellow who has polite phone manners and a pleasing drawl.

And like Mr. Hughes-or-something, I was letting y'all know it's been updated.

Posted by Gretchen Wenner, Californian staff writer

Just heard our own Inga Barks will play pundit on Fox News Saturday afternoon, if you want to take a gander.

The KERN 1410 talk show host will weigh in on pit bulls, says KERN program director and news anchor Blake Taylor. Apparently Massachusetts legislators may consider legislation banning pit bulls or requiring that owners get training or a dangerous dog license.

"Inga is pro-pit bull," Taylor says.

She's to be on Fox News' Big Story Weekend with Julie Banderas at 2 p.m. Saturday. Previously she's been on the channel's Hannity & Colmes show discussing Dylan's Law.

Written by Christine Bedell

If you're new to Bakersfield, you may have no idea how bizarre our politics are.

If you've been here a while, you've probably sensed that they're way different from any other place in California - maybe even the country.

Your first clue should have been the defiant "Alamo/Tombstone" message and the fake missile that until recently adorned the top of the old Padre Hotel downtown. It was the legacy of a fierce battle during the 1960s and 1970s between the city council and the hotel's former owner, Milton "Spartacus" Miller, one of the most stubborn men that ever lived.

Bakersfield is still the political equivalent of the Wild West.

In local partisan politics, this is a time of transition away from more than two decades in which just-retired GOP Congressman Bill Thomas called most of the shots.

We now basically have four major political parties, instead of two.

There's the dominant local Republican Party establishment, founded by Thomas and now led by Congressman Kevin McCarthy and political consultant Mark Abernathy. Then there's the smaller conservative wing, headed by State Sen. Roy Ashburn. It is constantly battling attempts by the GOP insiders to freeze it out of power and influence.

The local Democratic Party is a battleground between two families: Florez and Parra.
It's our version of the Hatfields and McCoys, without the guns.

State Sen. Dean Florez harbors a long-running feud with Assemblywoman Nicole Parra and her dad, Pete.

Nonpartisan city and county politics are no different.

The agribusiness and oil interests that once governed Kern County with an easy-going, laissez faire outlook have faded in influence. Rising in their place is a rapidly growing urban population increasingly concerned about the quality of life here-air and water pollution and other health issues, what's happening in schools, urban sprawl, drug use, gang violence.

Politics has a bad smell to many people. Not that it doesn't deserve some of it, but politics is still the glue that holds society together while people who disagree with each other work out solutions to the problems we all face.

This blog will be devoted to bringing you the inside stories as those issues work themselves out in local, state and federal politics in the coming election year and beyond, with contributions from all Californian reporters.

We welcome your comments, but please respect the opinions of others. And if you want respect for your opinions, please have the courage to sign your real name.