CalWatchdog Morning Read – May 9

• Soda Tax just more revenue?
• Madeleine Albright opposed as commencement speaker
• Republican leaders hold off on Trump
• Race for second for U.S. Senate
• More questions over Hunter’s spending

Good morning! Happy Monday.

What is being billed as a “common sense” ballot initiative to tax sodas one cent per ounce in Oakland has no hard requirement for how the money should be used. 

While advocates say it’ll fund programs fighting obesity-related public health problems, the lack of specificity in how the money will be spent raises questions about the city’s decades-long financial troubles. 

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news: 

• The choice of Madeleine Albright — who served as the first female U.S. secretary of state — as a commencement speaker has caused a backlash at the all-woman Scripps College in Claremont, reports the Los Angeles Times. Some students have denounced her as a “war criminal,” while others oppose her position that “there’s a special place in hell” for women who don’t support Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  
• While Republican legislative leaders have yet to endorse presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is holding out as well. According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, Faulconer doesn’t support the business tycoon’s “divisive rhetoric.”
• With CA Attorney General Kamala Harris looking increasingly likely to be the top vote getter in the primary for U.S. Senate, the real battle is for second place, reports Capitol Weekly. 
• More digging from The San Diego Union-Tribune into Rep. Duncan Hunter’s campaign finance disclosures show purchases of groceries and gas. While these are not entirely uncommon in campaign finance disclosures, they do raise red flags after the Alpine Republican purchased “video games, oral surgery, private school tuition, a garage door and unspecified items at a Coronado surf shop” with campaign funds. 

Assembly:

– In at 1 p.m. Packed Revenue and Taxation Committee hearing at 2:30 p.m. 

Senate:

– In at 2 p.m. Packed Appropriations Committee hearing at 10 a.m. 

Gov. Brown: 

– No public events scheduled. 

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