As the new Legislature is sworn into office there are hopes that the change in personalities might lead to a resolution of the budget crisis. Many of the new members are hoping to produce exactly that. And while their desire to solve the crisis is admirable, they may not yet have realized that solutions lie outside the Capitol, not inside it.

The San Francisco Chronicle article on the new lawmakers explains their desire to produce change:

Paul Fong, previously a community college trustee, said his first priority will be "to make friends with Republicans and get them to see the light" when it comes to approving new taxes and fees to ease the state's budget shortfall.

I have to guess that's a remark for the media - hopefully Fong realizes that the Republicans are in no mood to "see the light" on the budget. They have shown themselves to be quite happy obstructing the budget and demanding destructive, reckless cuts that will push California deeper into an already severe recession. Many of the new Republican legislators made a show of signing anti-tax pledges, making them even less willing than their predecessors to agree to new revenues.

More importantly, Fong's desire to "make friends with Republicans" is misplaced. It's not Republican legislators he needs to court - it is Republican voters, constituents of Republican legislators. They're the ones who can force the obstructionists to give way to common sense and dire economic necessity.

The most important thing the new class of legislators must learn is that the budget crisis will not be solved in Sacramento. Not in the back rooms, not on the chamber floor. The last few years should have proved that already.

Instead it will be solved in the public - in the streets, at the kitchen tables, at the ballot box. The most consequential budget-related actions in this decade came not from legislators but from the people, whether it was the 2003 recall or the 2005 defeat of Arnold's right-wing agenda.

It's Californians themselves who need to be reached out to, mobilized, engaged. Don't stay holed up in the Capitol - get out there and get the public involved in solving this crisis. Reach out not to obstructionist Republican who will *never* give in, but reach out instead to the decline to state and moderate Republican voters.

Follow the Obama model. Take your message to the places where Democrats have traditionally not organized. Mobilize your base and then use them to reach out to the millions of Californians desperate for change, desperate for solutions.

Democrats have to build a coalition with the people of California. Arnold has been a complete failure as governor, and the Republicans are busy thinking up new anti-labor, anti-environment demands for the hostage crisis they've provoked.

Californians voted overwhelmingly for people-powered change on November 4. It's time for the new legislature to bring that home and engage the public more directly and fundamentally on solving this crisis.

An interesting trend in the primary results is that the more progressive candidates tended to win the state legislative races - Yamada over Cabaldon in AD-08, Leno over Nation in SD-03, to give just a few examples - but the more moderate candidates had success in the Congressional races.

It's hard to make a direct comparison, because many of the contested legislative races were usually not in the same places as the contested Congressional races. The legislative fights tended to be in safe Democratic districts (with AD-80 being a notable exception) whereas the Congressional fights were of necessity in those districts where Republicans currently hold the seat.   Read More »