• Was it all too good to be true? On July 22, Assemblyman and Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) released an e-mail alleging California Democrats had “double-crossed” Republicans over cuts to corrections listed in the “Big 5” budget agreement. “Throughout budget negotiations we insisted that Republican votes would never be provided for a budget deal that included early release of prisoners,” Blakeslee said in the e-mail. ”Just two hours ago I learned from staff that Senate Democrats are concocting a radioactive corrections bill that includes the worst of the worst—sentencing commission and release of 27,000 prisoners … I have called and personally told both [Speaker of the Assembly] Karen [Bass] and [President pro-Tem] Darrell Steinberg that there will be no Republican votes for any portion of the budget if they allow such a bill to be part of the package.”
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 6, 2009.