From the Publisher/Arnold G. York
This is a very exciting time for the York family. Last week, we completed the purchase of two Sacramento-based political newsletters, one called Political Pulse and the other, Education Beat. Both cover the politics of our state capitol. Both newsletters, which are paid subscriptions, have been in existence for almost 20 years, written and published by two well regarded, experienced Sacramento political journalists, Bud Lembke, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, and Larry Lynch, formerly of the Long Beach Press Telegram. My son, Anthony York, also an experienced Sacramento hand, is taking over as the editor of the publications. I’ll be the publisher, which means that I got to write the check.
Anthony previously covered the California Assembly and the state Senate for Capitol Alert, an online news service of the Sacramento Bee. He then spent a year as an associate editor of the California Journal. From there it was on to salon.com for four years. His last year was spent as the Washington D.C. correspondent for salon until his hasty fire-driven exit out a third floor window. He’s happy to return to Sacramento, where he’s now looking for a ground floor apartment to rent.
For those of you who absolutely must reach me, I’ll be up in Sacramento every Wednesday and Thursday, at least initially, or until my energy runs out. If it’s an immediate editorial matter, talk to Laura Tate, our editor, at extension 109. For anything else, talk to my assistant, Kathy O’Rourke, at extension 104.
It’s a very exciting time to be dipping a toe back into the Sacramento political world. It’s been almost four decades since I was a young state Senate staffer, fresh out of law school; now everything is the same, and yet, very different. Proposition 13 has had the long-term effect of shifting most of the power to the state, since that’s where the money is now, and term limits have put the stewardship of that money into the hands of legislators who have less and less experience. The state has become so much more polarized than I remember it. The legislators work longer and harder, but they barely have time to get to know each other very well, so there is an overall climate of wariness with their colleagues. With the rapid turnover of the Legislature, money appears to have become more and more important, and the lobbyists who spread it around are getting more aggressive about what they expect for their dollars, as some of you have read about recently in the Los Angeles Times.
Then there is the movement to recall Gov. Gray Davis, which, apparently, got a major shot in the arm when Republican congressman Darryl Issa, a multimillionaire, decided to fund the drive. What started out as something almost kooky has turned overnight into something that looks very serious. It’s beginning to become apparent that, barring some court stepping in and stopping it all, there will be enough signatures and the recall will make its way to the ballot perhaps in November, or maybe next March. Of course, there is no state budget yet, and this recall movement looks to have stopped the budget process in its tracks. The Democrats need some Republican votes to pass a budget, because two-thirds is required, and the Republicans seem content to let Davis just twist in the wind. Also, whereas initially all the serious political players, both Republican and Democrats, sort of passed the recall off as some something silly, now they are taking a long, hard second look at it.
Everyone who has any gubernatorial ambitions, which on the Democratic side includes Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, Treasurer Phil Angelides, State Controller Wesley Chester and perhaps even U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, has to decide how much they really love Davis. On the Republican side, Arnold Schwarzenegger, former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, defeated gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, Congressman Issa and many others are salivating at the prospect of running against someone as unpopular as Davis.
All and all, it’s not such a great time to be a Californian with budget deficits, but it’s a wonderful time to be in the news business because there is so much happening and it’s all so erratic and unpredictable.
Stay tuned. There is probably going to be more state news mixed in with the local news in The Malibu Times because, the truth is, so much of the local news is really made in Sacramento, as we have discovered in our long battle with the California Coastal Commission.