George Skelton, veteran columnist for the Los Angeles Times, looks at Assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, the new Assembly minority leader. Here's a quote he got from Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez about the prospects of working with Villines:

"What concerns me," says Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles), "is that [Villines] may have an ideological swerve that gets in the way of addressing things in a bipartisan fashion.

"We've been in the process of setting an example for the rest of the country. We've shown that stalemate and stagnation don't improve peoples' lives, but bipartisanship does."

You can read Skelton's complete column here.

Posted by Jim Boren at 9:00 AM | Permalink

One race that I'm a little surprised by is the campaign for the 30th Assembly District seat held By Nicole Parra, D-Hanford. According to the Secretary of State's Web site, Danny Gilmore, a retired California Highway Patrol commander from Hanford, is well ahead of Parra with 54.3% of the vote. About 46% of the precincts have reported. Parra, running for her third term, was considered a favorite in this Democratic-majority district.

Posted by Lisa Maria Boyles at 9:59 PM | Permalink