GOP UNDER ATTACH FROM WITHIN

BUDGET PRESSURE MOUNTING ON REPS

The temperature is heating up over the budget impasse, and now it’s the Republicans turning up the thermostat on their own party members. I’m now getting flooded with e-mails from state Republican Committee members — all with the same message: sign the budget deal now!

Leonard Lacayo, a Republican Party activist from San Francisco, says “I find the resistance to the budget by a limited number of Republicans very disappointing. Every party has its extremists, and we are no exception.” Lacayo goes on to say, “We are all being held hostage by one or two legislators whose personal agendas differ from the people’s agenda.”

Lacayo is referring to Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman of Tustin and other Republican leaders who voted down a budget deal late Wednesday night. Ackerman is holding out for deeper cuts in the budget, even though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised to use his blue pencil to eliminate millions of dollars in spending. The Assembly has already approved a $103 billion dollar spending plan and has been on vacation for several weeks…and not expected to return until Aug. 20th.

Capitol Insiders say it’s unlikely we’ll see any signs of progress on the budget until the Assembly comes back — so we can expect another two weeks of stalemate while California’s budget crisis is only getting worse — with thousands of people in nursing homes and community colleges likely to be hit hard by the impasse.