Interesting look at the CA (R) approach to our budget and their backlash against Maldonado -

[pinto]

background: Sen. Abel Maldonado, (R) Santa Maria, cast the decisive vote to pass our state's budget under the 2/3 standard we have. Republicans in the Senate (they hold 15 of the 40 seats) held up the budget for months, as the state faced bankruptcy, until Maldonado's vote. While he won some concessions - the most controversial an agreement to place an 'open primary' referendum to a statewide vote - the 'moderate' Rep. Senator has been ostracized by the extremist majority in his party. - pinto

Mr. Maldonado returns to Sacramento
Abel Maldonado's vote gave California a budget, but shrank his own

BY COLIN RIGLEY



Sen. Abel Maldonado arrives to an interview without an entourage, only his family in tow. Maybe it’s fitting: He doesn’t have many Republican friends in Sacramento lately. His vote ensured that the Senate would pass a controversial budget that also came with more than $12 billion in tax increases. That vote has won him praise, and the wrath of his own party.

Maldonado, a moderate Republican representing the Central Coast, broke one of the cardinal rules in his party: never increase taxes. He described the mindset of his party as “the party of no.” No tax increases, ever, and party leadership made the message clear.

State Republican leaders swiftly punished Maldonado and five other legislators who voted in line with Democrats. Maldonado was almost publicly reprimanded for his vote (censured); instead, he lost access to party funds.

(snip)

What he got for his vote was the removal of a 12-cent gas tax and $1 million worth of furniture from the Controller’s Office budget (the state controller said money was needed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act), a ballot measure that would ban legislative raises during deficit years, and a ballot measure to create open primaries in California.

Conversely, he said, Republicans were willing to just sit idly for political gains and let the state go into bankruptcy.

“Well, they wouldn’t say it in public, but they would sit in committee hearings in our caucus and say, ‘You know what, Abel, why do you want to vote for this? Let’s let the state go off the cliff; let’s let the state go into bankruptcy to prove the other party was wrong all these years.’ And I was not going to hold the people of California hostage and I was not going to bankrupt the state.”

(more at)

http://www.newtimesslo.com/news/2125/-mr-maldonado-returns-to-sacramento/

[EFerrari]

1. Whenever I see that name, I think it's going to be a baseball thread.

:)

[ReliantJ]

3. Wow

Haha... I think

[EFerrari]

4. I forgot most of you guys are younger than I am. This was Candy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Maldonado

[ReliantJ]

5. Ehh he played for the Dodgers

:puke:

[EFerrari]

6. He played for us, too.

:)

[ReliantJ]

7. The Oakland A's?

:D
Yeah, I'm weird like that.

[EFerrari]

8. LOL! Sorry, he played for the Giants for a little while.

:)

[ReliantJ]

2. He still has his pride...

right?