Word: governors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...initiative mess, the Bay Area Council, a 64-year-old San Francisco--area business lobby, has proposed a new California constitutional convention, an idea backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2010 gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman, Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown and, polls suggest, two-thirds of voters. The 1879 state constitution is the third longest in the world, and it has more than 500 amendments. But to gather this convention, Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman has to put an initiative on the 2010 ballot. "It's ironic, right? We need an initiative," he says, "to get rid of the initiative...
...embarrassing spectacle concerns the roster of speakers for Monday evening's GOP annual joint Senate and House fundraiser, the biggest Republican congressional event of the year, which is expected to rake in at least $10 million. The Alaska governor was originally invited last spring by Pete Sessions, the chairman of the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC), to address the dinner. She accepted, or so Sessions thought, and a press release went out. But there was apparently a miscommunication in Palin World between Washington and Alaska advisers, because as it turned out, the 2008 vice presidential nominee had a conflict...
Until last week, that is, when fundraiser and Palin supporter Fred Malek pushed the National Republican Senatorial Committee - headed by Cornyn - to re-extend the invitation to Palin. The Alaska governor would be in the area, marking the 50th anniversary of Alaska's statehood with a parade in Auburn, N.Y., the home of William Seward, the former U.S. Secretary of State who spearheaded the Alaska purchase. The idea, according to a Senate GOP staffer, was to make her appearance at the dinner a surprise...
This plan backfired as well, however. After Cornyn extended the second invitation to speak, Sessions, concerned that she'd upstage Gingrich, vetoed her speaking role. "Chairman Sessions is a big supporter of Governor Palin, which is why he invited her to be the keynote speaker when the event was first announced," said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain. "A great deal of effort has been put into this fundraising event, and Speaker Gingrich has gone above and beyond the call of duty. It is our hope that Governor Palin will attend the dinner and be recognized, but we understand if her busy...
Some House aides complain that Cornyn - who was responsible for pulling the plug on Palin initially, when she waffled about whether she could commit to the dinner - issued the second invitation only because he recently ran afoul of conservatives when he endorsed Florida Governor Charlie Crist over conservative darling Mark Rubio months ahead of the primary for the Florida Senate. Cornyn's folks, not surprisingly, reject this idea. (See highlights from a debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin...