Democrat Senator resigns under threat of expulsion

Assholes

California Has More Than Their Fair Share

(San Francisco Chronicle)  -  Under the threat of becoming the first lawmaker to be expelled from the state Senate in more than 100 years, Democrat Sen. Tony Mendoza resigned Thursday after a Senate investigation found that he had engaged in unwanted sexual advances toward subordinate female staffers over the past 12 years.

In a letter to his fellow senators, Mendoza said he stepped down because he refused to participate “in the farcical investigation” pushed by his former roommate Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles. He accused de León, who’s challenging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the November election, of seeking his removal to score political points with the #MeToo movement.

Mendoza, a Democrat from Artesia (Los Angeles County), is the third legislator to resign in three months following accusations of sexual harassment.

The former elementary school teacher had been on paid leave since Jan. 3 during a sexual harassment investigation that found he “more likely than not” engaged in unwanted sexual advances toward subordinate female staffers over the past 12 years. His resignation takes effect immediately.

“It’s my duty as president of this body to say that we owe every employee that basic guarantee that we as an institution will not tolerate harassment nor sweep it under the rug when it is discovered,” de León said from the Senate floor.

Read More . . . .

Map of Senate District 32

COUNTIES IN DISTRICT

Los Angeles	871,577 people
Orange	61,829  people

Los Angeles

871,577 people

Orange

61,829  people

Democrats may exempt union members from paying taxes

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• California teacher's unions pour countless millions in "legal bribes" into the campaign accounts of Democrats and in return they get the inside track to the State Treasury over all other groups.
• Now the unions are pushing to have their bought and paid for lackeys in the legislature exempt them from paying taxes.

(KCBS) – In an effort to attract more people to teaching and keep educators in the profession, a California State Senate proposal would make teachers exempt from the state income tax. 

If Senate Bill 807 is approved, teachers would have to stay on the job for five years to qualify for the state tax exemption.

SB807 would also provide a tax deduction for the cost of attaining a teaching credential.

The legislature has not yet calculated the estimated loss in tax revenue to the state if the measure is approved.

California is struggling to recruit and retain teachers as baby boomers retire and meager starting salaries do little to attract young people to the profession.

According to the California Teachers Association, nearly one in three teachers leave the profession in the first seven years.

Read More . . . .

Democrat "Super-Majorities" in the People's Republic of California

Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar)

A Leftist Dictatorship is One Seat Away

• The votes are still being counted. GOP Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang is ahead by only a handful of votes for a State Senate race. A Democrat win creates a Leftist super-majority in the legislature.
• The GOP is a nearly worthless group that lives on the campaign bribes of wealthy special interest groups. But a Democrat Leftist super-dictatorship is scary.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  The Senate race between Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar) and Democrat Josh Newman has narrowed significantly, making the Democrats' chances of securing a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature suddenly much more likely.

As of Friday afternoon, as outstanding votes continued to be counted, Chang's lead over Newman had been cut to just 187 votes in the 29th Senate District, which includes parts of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

The day after the election, Chang enjoyed a nearly 3,900-vote advantage, but that lead shrank dramatically as mail and provisional ballots were tallied this week.

Democrats already have secured a supermajority in the Assembly, but doing the same in the state Senate, where they needed to flip only one seat, seemed unlikely until Friday's vote totals were reported.

With a supermajority, a political party can raise taxes, place measures on the statewide ballot, enact laws immediately with an “urgency” clause and override a governor’s veto.

It could be more than a week before the final tally is made available: Orange County, which accounts for the biggest bloc of voters in the district, says it has about 13,000 ballots left to count in the race. San Bernardino County needs to count about 2,000 ballots, according to officials.

"I don't think all the votes will be counted before Thanksgiving Day," said Jim Nygren, a consultant for Chang. "We'll just keep watching the votes."

Read More . . . .

Senate District 29 is comprised of portions of Los Angeles County,
Orange County and San Bernardino County. 

One Party Rule - California Democrats could regain supermajorities in Legislature

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• As the pathetic GOP vanishes into the dust bin of history California "elections" become Democrat vs Democrat affairs. Election "reform" has taken away any other choices for voters.
• Other countries where only one party is on the ballot include Communist North Korea, Communist China, Communist Vietnam and Communist Cuba. Now the People's Republic of California joins their overseas Brothers in holding mock, pretend elections.
• Election Reform  -  But the idea of true election reform is dead on arrival.  All hail corrupt elections and the one-party state.

(Sacarmento Bee)  -  One hundred state legislative seats will be filled four weeks hence, and the Capitol will see a final wave of newcomers as 20 legislators depart under the state’s old term-limit law.

Under revised term limits enacted in 2012, legislators may remain in one house for up to 12 years, dampening the forced turnover that had seen about a third of the 120 seats change occupants every two years.

After this year, for instance, no Assembly member will be forced to leave until 2024. Thus, this could be the last election until then for interest groups to have a major effect on the Legislature’s partisan makeup and the tenor of its Democratic majority.

This could be a very rough year for Republicans as California turns ever bluer. The GOP’s share of registered voters has dipped to scarcely a quarter while those of Democrats and declined-to-state voters continue to swell, with the latter now just three percentage points behind Republicans.

Moreover, it’s a presidential year, which means a higher voter turnout that favors Democrats, especially as they gleefully use Donald Trump as a club to batter GOP legislative and congressional candidates.

Democrats gained two-thirds supermajorities in both legislative houses in 2012, but lost them two years ago, when voter turnout plunged to a record low. They need two more Assembly seats and one more in the Senate to regain their supermajorities, and there are enough shaky GOP-held districts to make it possible in at least one house.

Four first-term Republican Assembly members who grabbed seats two years ago, all in districts with Democratic registration pluralities, are under siege – David Hadley, Young Kim and Marc Steinorth in Southern California and Catharine Baker in Contra Costa County.

Two open Senate seats in Southern California that had been held by Republicans also could change partisan hands this year.

That said, even if Democrats regain supermajorities, it may not mean much in policy terms, given the substantial number of moderate Democrats who are unlikely to support such liberal goals as tax increases.

Therefore, the real legislative election issue this year is what kind of Democrats fill the seats that they either regain from Republicans or are vacant due to term limits.

Thanks to the “top-two primary,” another recent change in election law, there are 11 Assembly districts and five Senate districts that have Democrat-vs.-Democrat runoffs, and several of them are clearly contests between moderate and liberal Democrats.

The most significant is Eloise Reyes’ challenge, backed by unions and other liberal groups, to San Bernardino Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, who belongs to the Assembly’s moderate bloc. Brown is receiving heavy support from business interests, which have counted on the bloc for support on key issues such as reducing carbon emissions.

Interestingly, all of the Senate’s Democrat-on-Democrat duels, and several of those in the Assembly, including the Brown-Reyes runoff, are also contests between candidates of different ethnic backgrounds, reflecting intraparty rivalries of another kind.

more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article107368922.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article107368922.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article107368922.html#storylink=cpy

Read More . . . .

Free Elections in Germany

But NOT in California

American readers do not be frightened 
by all these parties on the ballot

Multiple political parties on the ballot and winning seats is what the rest of the world calls free elections. You can actually find parties on your ballot that you can believe in.
.
Maybe, just maybe, we should try free elections in the United States.
.
Berlin state election, 2016 

California Assembly Speaker to fight for Senate seat

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins talks with Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León

It's Democrat vs Democrat

• California elections are pathetic  -  Democrats, backed with corrupt Sacramento special interest cash, dominate a San Diego Senate District even though they have only 36% of the registered voters.
• Some 36% of the voters are independent or registered in smaller opposition political parties but they get zero representation in Sacramento.  The GOP virtually does not exist.
• But any calls for truly free and open elections are always blocked by the special interest funded oligarchy in Sacramento.

(Associated Press)  -  California Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins plans to fight a fellow Democrat for a state Senate seat when her tenure expires.

Atkins will fight Marty Block for his San Diego seat next year in a highly unusual challenge that could mean a bruising and potentially costly fight in an otherwise safe district, the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/1MiSp7l) reported Saturday.

"Absolutely it makes me uncomfortable," Atkins, D-San Diego, told the newspaper. "Will I be prepared to do it? Absolutely."

Atkins said she is the first speaker from San Diego and has made things happen for the community.

"I think I'm just a better return on investment long-term," she said.

The challenge would have not only regional implications for Democrats but between the Assembly and Senate, which have a simmering rivalry even though both are Democrat-controlled.

"The soon to be ex-speaker knows very well that when one house challenges another, it's a slap in the face of the leader of the challenged house," Block told the Times.

He called it "a direct assault" on Senate leader Kevin De Leon.

In a statement, De Leon declined to say whether he considered Atkins' challenge as an affront but said Block was "an extraordinary senator."

"He deserves to be re-elected and Senate Democrats are resolutely united behind him," De León said.

John Burton, chair of the California Democratic Party, declined to comment, as did an aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, the Times said.

Atkins became Assembly speaker in 2014 and was praised for helping craft a $7.5-billion water bond that voters approved last year. She has had trouble this year in advancing another priority: a bill to expand affordable housing.

Earlier this month, Anthony Rendon, D-Los Angeles, was chosen to succeed her as speaker next year.

Block represents the 39th District, which covers most of San Diego along with Coronado and Del Mar. Democrats hold a large edge in voter registration there.

Read More . . . .

39th State Senate district

Sen. Richard Pan given $95,000 to push vaccine bill

Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento)

"Corruptus in Extremis"

A Corrupt Bastard?  You decide if getting $95,000 

to push through a bill is bribery or not.

(Sacramento Bee)  -  A subplot to the vociferous debate over the student vaccination bill moving through California’s Capitol is opponents’ allegations that the effort reflects the influence of the pharmaceutical industry.

Critics of Senate Bill 277, which would eliminate the personal belief and religious exemptions for schoolchildren, accuse the measure’s supporters in the Legislature of doing the bidding of donors who make vaccines and other pharmaceuticals.

The bill’s proponents and drug companies dismiss the charge. The companies’ lobbyist filings for the first quarter of this year as well as legislative committee reports show no connection between the pharmaceutical industry and SB 277.

“We aren’t pushing this bill behind the scenes,” said Priscilla VanderVeer, the senior director for communications for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, the industry’s main trade group. The group has no taken no position on SB 277, although the group has long backed vaccinations as sound public health policy, she said.

Other legislation has a more direct bearing on the industry, and it is an active political player. Pharmaceutical companies and their trade groups gave more than $2 million to current members of the Legislature in 2013-2014, about 2 percent of the total raised, records show. 

Nine of the top 20 recipients are either legislative leaders or serve on either the Assembly or Senate health committees. Receiving more than $95,000, the top recipient of industry campaign cash is Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and doctor who is carrying the vaccine bill.

In addition, the industry donated more than $500,000 to outside campaign spending groups that helped elect some current members last year.

Pharmaceutical companies also spent nearly $3 million more during the 2013-2014 legislative session lobbying the Legislature, the governor, the state pharmacists’ board and other agencies, according to state filings.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article24913978.html#storylink=cpy

Read More . . . .

Legal Bribery
If you hand a Senator a suitcase of cash in return for him ramming through a bill benefiting your company you can go to jail.  But it is legal bribery to hand a Senator a check made out to his "campaign" committee for the same amount of money to ram through the same bill.

Democrats to jack up business taxes

The Marxists Want More Taxes

• To Democrat Socialists there will never ever be enough money to satisfy the "needs" of different voter blocks.  The question of the day is do Republicans have any back bone at all to stand up against the endless calls to re-distribute the wealth?

(Reading Record Searchlight)  -  California businesses would pay billions more in property taxes under a longshot bid by two Democratic lawmakers to unravel some of the voter-approved tax limits in Proposition 13.

A coalition of unions and liberal groups joined state senators Wednesday to support a constitutional amendment that would roll back property tax limits on some companies and real estate owners.

Voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978 to curb the rise of property taxes on homes and other real estate. The proposed amendment, SCA5, would require commercial and industrial properties to be taxed at regularly assessed values, not just values assessed when buildings and land change ownership. Some businesses are able to avoid property tax increases through corporate restructuring.

"We have large corporations and property investors that have used loopholes in the law to avoid paying their fair share," Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, said at a news conference with her co-author, Sen. Lori Hancock, D-Berkeley.

The senators estimated their measure would raise billions of dollars annually for education and other public services. Business groups counter that the proposed overhaul would add to an already high tax burden and hinder economic growth.

"California, even with Prop 13, is a high property tax state," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which is named for the champion of Proposition 13. "There's no compelling reason given the tax revenues that are now flowing into the state."

Any effort to change the landmark property tax reform faces tough odds. It has long been considered untouchable in California politics and has never been changed.

SCA5 requires support from two-thirds of the Assembly and the Senate, including Republicans and moderate Democrats who are averse to changing property tax rules. It would then go before voters.

Read More . . . .

Telling the Marxists to shove it

Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann were the most vocal and visible advocates of Proposition 13. Officially named the "People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation," and known popularly as the "Jarvis-Gann Amendment," Proposition 13 was listed on the ballot through the California ballot initiative process.

By Proposition 13, the annual real estate tax on a parcel of property is limited to 1% of its assessed value. This "assessed value," may be increased only by a maximum of 2% per year, until and unless the property has a change of ownership. 

Two Democrats in State Senate election - Guess which party won?

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• Yet another phony and corrupt California election.  Some 57% of the voters in the San Francisco Bay Area district below are not Democrats, but the voters were force-fed a phony "choice" of two special interest funded Democrats on their ballot.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  In a battle between two Democrats, Orinda Mayor Steve Glazer was elected Tuesday to the state Senate in a special election over Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla of Concord for a seat representing the East Bay.

With 100% of precincts reporting, Glazer had 54.6% of the vote, compared with the 45.4% garnered by Bonilla.

"Our campaign struck a chord with voters frustrated by the gridlock and dysfunction in Sacramento," Glazer said when the results were in. "They want leaders who are more pragmatic than partisan, more focused on answers than ambition."

The contest proved one of the most expensive and acrimonious legislative battles in recent years, with more than $7 million spent by outside groups, in addition to the $2 million spent by the candidates themselves.

Glazer, a moderate Democrat and longtime political advisor to Gov. Jerry Brown, received outside help from the California Chamber of Commerce, while unions spent heavily for Bonilla. Glazer had angered labor by opposing strikes by public transit employees of BART, while Bonilla supports their right to strike.

The California Democratic Party had backed Bonilla. The party's executive director, Shawnda Westly, said Tuesday the party would not back down from  supporting candidates like Bonilla in the future.

"Her opponent claimed to be Democrat but ran a cynical campaign to appeal to Republican voters in a low-turnout election," Westly said in a statement. "We know that low-turnout elections favor Republicans. When Democratic voters show up and vote, Democrats win." 

The special election was held to fill a vacancy in the Senate created when Mark DeSaulnier was elected to Congress.

Read More . . . .

Back When Free Elections Existed
In the olden days when legislative districts were small just about anyone could afford to run for and win political office.  A candidate might spring for a few kegs of beer for the audience and then jump on a tree stump and give a speech.  The more or less sober voters would then select the candidate that supported their views.
.
State Senate districts in neighboring Nevada have only 133,000 people. Today California State Senate districts have nearly 1,000,000 people making it insanely expensive to run for office.  So in California only millionaires or those willing to be bribed with campaign cash by Billionaire Special Interest Cartels win elections.
.
California voters are only allowed a "choice" between two bought and paid for special interest funded candidates.  It is rule by oligarchy.
.
The answer is much smaller state legislative districts and a part time legislature that meets for 90 days and the legislators are forced to return home to work for a living like the rest of us do.

California GOP lawsuit claims unlawful use of elephant logo

Democrat Fraud?

• A campaign brochure from the Asian American Small Business PAC uses the Republican elephant logo to support GOP state Senate candidate Michaela Hertle, even though she has dropped out of the race.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article12878399.html#storylink=cpy

(Sacramento Bee)  -  The California Republican Party has filed a lawsuit against a group that appears, at first blush, to be an ally: A PAC that spent $68,000 to promote a Republican in an upcoming legislative race.

But in its suit in federal court, the party claims the Asian American Small Business PAC – which is run by a Democratic political consultant – unlawfully used the trademarked elephant logo in mailers that went out to East Bay voters promoting Republican Michaela Hertle in the race for the 7th Senate District. Though Hertle’s name will be on the ballot March 17, she announced weeks ago she will not campaign and threw her support behind Steve Glazer, one of three Democrats vying to fill the seat that represents Concord, Walnut Creek and Pleasanton.

The California Republican Party has not taken a position in the race.

California voters gather around to see 
a rare site - the nearly extinct Republican elephant.
In this case the pathetic GOP can't even manage to
run a fake, token candidates for state Senate.

“Deceptive ads like these mislead voters and misinform them about the positions and endorsements of the California Republican Party,” party Chairman Jim Brulte said in a statement. “It’s egregious on the part of a Democratic Political Action Committee to intentionally deceive Californians with its use of well-known Republican images.”

The lawsuit is the latest move in a hotly contested special election to fill the California Senate seat previously held by Rep. Mark DeSaulnier. Powerful interest groups – including unions representing teachers, firefighters and other public employees, as well as business groups for dentists, builders and the Chamber of Commerce – have poured more than $1.8 million into independent campaign efforts. The California Teachers Association is backing Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan; the California Dental Association is supporting Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla; and PACs run by the Chamber of Commerce and a charter school group are spending to benefit Glazer.

All three are Democrats. If no candidate receives a majority, the top two vote-getters in March will advance to a runoff in May – regardless of their party affiliation.

Glazer believes the Asian-American PAC’s mailer supporting Hertle is intended to keep him from landing a spot in the top two, by encouraging Republicans to vote for her instead of him. Bill Wong, the Democratic consultant and former legislative staff member who runs the PAC, says his group wants to see Hertle succeed, even if she isn’t actively campaigning.

“She is the only business person in the race,” Wong said.

He called the GOP’s lawsuit against his group frivolous, and said he purchased the elephant logo from a company that sells stock images.

“When you purchase an image from a stock image company, you purchase the rights to use it. So we’re confused why, if that is their official logo, why it would be available for someone to purchase.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article12878399.html#storylink=cpy

The east San Francisco Bay 7th Senate District is 43.5% Democrat, 28.5% GOP and 28% independents and smaller political parties.

Four California legislative leaders report $48,000 in "gifts"

 "Corruptus in Extremis"

• Members of both parties in Sacramento get free vacations to Hawaii and Peru and other "gifts" from special interest groups looking to suck on tax money from the state treasury. 

California lawmakers reported Tuesday that they accepted tens of thousands of dollars in gifts last year, including concert and sports tickets, golf games, expensive dinners and overseas trips.

State officials reported trips paid for by others to Spain, Portugal, Israel, China, El Salvador, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Canada.

Legislators could legally accept gifts of up to $440 last year from special interest groups seeking their favors, and more for travel as long as they gave a speech as part of the trip. A bill to cut the gift limit to $200 and prohibit certain gifts, including sports and concert tickets, was approved by the Legislature last year but vetoed by the governor reports the Los Angeles Times.

The four current legislative leaders accepted a combined $48,000 in gifts last year. Senate President pro tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), who authored last year’s bill limiting gifts, accepted the most: $15,597 in 2014.

The biggest gift received by De Leon was $9,758 in airfare and other travel expenses paid for by a nonprofit group called the Climate Registry so he could attend a United Nations conference on climate change in Peru in December. The Climate Registry is a partnership between states and provinces that sets standards for calculating greenhouse gas emissions.

De Leon also accepted $440 in tickets, parking and refreshments from UCLA for one of its football games, a $243 tie and cuff from Planned Parenthood and a $137 meal from the Barona Band of Mission Indians, which operates a casino.

Assembly Republican leader Kristin Olsen of Modesto reported $13,577 in gifts, led by $5,723 in travel expenses paid for by the California Foundation on the Environment and Economy for a study trip to Canada, and a $2,914 trip to Hawaii for a conference paid for by the nonprofit Independent Voter Project.

Senate Republican leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar reported accepting $8,933 in gifts, including $3,131 in travel expenses to the Hawaii conference paid for by the Independent Voter Project, which gets its money from interests including utilities, unions and industry groups.

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) reported $9,905 in gifts, many of them flowers, cigars and wine from colleagues when she became speaker, but also $270 in tickets and brunch for the Rose Parade, from Parsons Corp., and a $325 crystal paperweight from the president of Mexico.

Fill our pockets with gold.
Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) are among the many corrupt legislators filling their pockets with "gifts" from special interest groups.

Senate Democrat Leader Lies to Voters - What Else is New?

"Corruptus in Extremis"

Senator Kevin de Leon

A liar, a crook and a jackass

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS News Sacramento)  –  Organizers of last fall’s swearing-in celebration for Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said no taxpayer money was used to put on the event at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, but a review by The Associated Press found taxpayers subsidized more than $25,000 for legislative staff and security to attend.

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins also spent $15,000 from her budget to fly staff members to swearing-in events at the Capitol and in San Diego's Balboa Park, the AP found.

Senate and Assembly expense reports obtained under the Legislative Open Records Act show nearly 30 security and top-level staffers traveled to Los Angeles for de Leon’s event while 20 legislative employees traveled to Atkins’ events.

Jon Coupal, president of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said there are instances when staff needs to travel. A swearing-in is not among them.

“It’s not like an inauguration,” Coupal said. “The pomp and circumstance for a legislative leader just doesn’t make any sense.”

The two Republican leaders, Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar, and Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto, did not hold swearing-in celebrations as minority party leaders, according to their offices. Both declined to comment on the events held by de Leon and Atkins.

Bob Stern, who ran the former government reform-group Center for Governmental Studies and worked as an aide in the Legislature, said as long as taxpayers weren’t paying for food and drinks, he thinks the spending is appropriate.

“I have no problem with staffers, particularly flying in California, to attend the swearing-in of a leader,” Stern said. “In a sense, I think they almost should be there.”

The speaker and the president pro tem are elected to lead the bodies by fellow lawmakers at the beginning of each session. Previous ceremonies took place at the state Capitol and have been relatively low-key, according to the California State Library’s research bureau. An exception was former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 1998.

De Leon invited 2,000 guests, including about 200 officeholders, to witness his swearing-in ceremony Oct. 15 at the Disney hall. The celebration included a mariachi band and food trucks, and the invitation called it an “inauguration,” language usually reserved for presidents and governors. Villaraigosa used the same description for his event.

The California Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation, which receives donations from special interests seeking influence in the Legislature, said it paid the roughly $50,000 tab for de Leon’s gathering. Caucus organizers emphasized at the time that no taxpayer money was involved.

But Senate expense receipts showed the secretary of the Senate, Daniel Alvarez, who is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Senate, traveled to de Leon’s event, as did de Leon’s policy director, budget director, communications staff and his education, environment and other policy consultants.

Those 16 staffers charged $12,000 for hotel, airfare, car rental and related expenses.

The Senate’s chief sergeant-at-arms, Debbie Manning, brought a team of a dozen security members to the event, including sergeants whose main responsibility is to provide security at the state Capitol.

Manning declined to comment about the sergeants’ expenses, which made up $13,000 of the $25,000 in costs billed to the Senate. She referred questions to de Leon’s press staff.

De Leon said the event required added security due to the number of elected officials who attended. He said Senate staff also participated in a policy retreat while there. He said the upper house has reduced overall travel expenses by 12 percent in the last year.

“When it comes to protecting state officials or their constituents, we are not in the habit of second-guessing the security recommendations of the chief sergeant or experts,” de Leon said in the statement.

Atkins was sworn in inside the 80-member chamber on May 12. She celebrated with a gospel choir, a gay and lesbian color guard, and her family. Records show seven district staffers flew up for the event at a cost of nearly $3,000 and another $3,200 was spent on program printing.

On June 6, Atkins hosted a community celebration attended by about 450 people. The free event was open to the public and the city of San Diego helped defray the costs by giving her use of the city-owned facility in Balboa Park.

Records show 10 staffers and consultants as well as three sergeants charged a little over $8,000 to staff the event. Another $800 was spent to print programs.

“All the staff was integral to the success of the event,” said Atkins’ spokesman, John Casey. He said costs were minimized and the only refreshments were cookies and water.

$2 million price tag for an election with one candidate

Then-Assembly Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield,
and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner.

It's Just Tax Money

• The Los Angeles County portion of the bill runs to $1.4 million.  San Bernardino has not said with their cost is.

(Santa Clarita Valley Signal)  -  A special election with a price tag of more than $1 million is on for March, even though only one candidate filed to put her name on the ballot, state and county elections officials said.

The name of Republican Sharon Runner will be the only one to appear on on the certified list of candidates sent out by the California Secretary of State’s office.

The special primary election for the 21st Senate District seat vacated by Congressman Steve Knight is scheduled March 17, according to state and county elections officials.

“It’s mandated we still have an election, even though there’s one candidate,” said Regina Ip, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Office of Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

The special election carries about a $1.4 million price tag in Los Angeles County alone, Ip said. 

Election officials in San Bernardino County could not be reached for information on the cost of the election for them.

The 21st district covers most of the Santa Clarita and Victor valleys as well as the Antelope Valley south of the Kern County line. The district also stretches into San Bernardino County.

Part of the rationale for continuing with the election is that someone could mount a write-in campaign for the seat.

As of Thursday, Ip said, nobody had pulled papers in L.A. County to run as a write-in candidate.

Whether there’s a write-in candidate or not, the same general rules for the special election apply. 

Should Runner, a former state Senator and Assemblywoman, win more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary election, she will be deemed elected.

Write-in candidates can only run in the primary election. They could advance to a special general election if they are one of the top two vote-getters and no candidate receives a majority of the vote.

The 21st Senate District seat was left vacant after Knight, R-Palmdale, resigned earlier this month to take his new seat in Congress.

Although a number of candidates had expressed possible interest in running in the special election to fill the remaining two years of Knight’s term, Runner was the only one to do so.

Runner served in the 36th Assembly District from 2002 to 2008 and then in the 17th Senate District from 2011 to 2012. She opted not to seek re-election in 2012 after undergoing a double lung transplant as part of the treatment for limited scleroderma, or CREST syndrome, which is an autoimmune condition.

The 21st Senate District takes in the Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita in
Los Angeles County and Victor Valley in San Bernardino County.