We don't need no Lt. Gov.
By a 4-0 vote, the Senate Rules Committee approved Abel Maldonado to be California’s lieutenant governor, which means he’s almost certain to get the job. He’s Gov. Schwarzenegger’s nominee to replace John Garamendi, who was elected to the U.S. Congress.
But why do we even have a Lt. Gov.? Arizona doesn’t have one. When Gov. Mecham was impeached and removed from office in 1988, he was replaced by the Secretary of State. Same thing happened this year when Gov. Janet Napolitano was appointed head the Cheka, and was replaced by Sec. State Jan Brewer, now the Gov.
A year ago, Arnold cut Garamendi’s Lt. Gov. office budget from $2.8 million to roughly $1 million. Too bad he didn’t cut it to $0.00.
Although he sits on a couple of boards, the Lt. Gov.’s only real job is to get up each morning and see if the governor was rushed to a hospital cardiac unit. The post isn’t even much of a springboard to the governor’s office. In recent decades, the only Lt. Gov. to become Gov. was Gray Davis — who was then recalled.
Maldonado isn’t even being considered for the GOP governor’s nomination this year. He’s getting the job as a reward for selling out his constituents — and all California taxpayers — by backing Arnold’s tax increases last year even though he once took a solemn pledge never to increase taxes.
The betrayal won Maldonado the Richard Rich Backstabber Award from Americans for Tax Reform.
— John Seiler
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Oh, yeah, we find a Republican who has the courage to cooperate and work to help find real solutions to our state’s budget crisis, and you guys want to put his head on a stick. Americans for Tax Reform is the organization that vows to “shrink the size of government so we can drown it in the bathtub.” I’d consider it a badge of honor to be ridiculed by these right-wing zealots.
StevefromSacto: I love your posts. But you might have noticed that last year’s “real solutions” that Maldonado is responsible for didn’t solve the budget problem; there’s still a $20 billion deficit this year.
And M. did: 1. Take an anti-tax pledge, on which he was elected. 2. Break that pledge. He should have told voters, “Look, you’re not paying high enough taxes. Elect me so I can jack them up more!”
That’s how democracy is supposed to work. Present voters with at least 2 alternatives. Let them choose. Then enact their choice. Have another election. Repeat.
Next year, M. probably will get a job from Arnold co-producing “Terminator 5.”
— John Seiler
The first order of business in any budget planning for deficits – is to evaluate all your jobs and positions to find any duplicative, overlapping or unnecessary functions and restructure those positions for efficiency, efficacy and economy. The Lieutenant Governor position is all of the above and should be the first to be eliminated, immediately. While the Legislature continues to ruminate on their options, this is an easy one.
At least Maldonado tried, John. But anyone who does try to be bipartisan and find a middle ground is immediately attacked by the “heads-on-a-stick” guys. Look what y’all did to Anthony Adams.
And trust me, some Democrats are equally ideologically rabid. For examnple, the fools in the Assembly who would rather “make a statement” than gain another Senate seat for the Democrats by moving Maldonado to Lt. Gov.
No, we didn’t solve the budget crisis last year, and we probably won’t this year. But we surely won’t solve it by digging in our heels, refusing to even consider raising revenue, and destroying any legislator with the courage to try.