Did They Think Pete Wilson Was a Democrat?

It’s a new mag for new Dems -- Blueprint, published by the Democratic Leadership Council.

The November/December issue’s cover story on President Bush and his political advisor Karl Rove features a cartoon captioned “Bush’s World,” a Steinberg-New-Yorker-like perspective of the view from the White House. This part of the country is labeled “Californians (they don’t like me).” Well, at least by a margin of 1.3 million votes in 2000, Californians preferred Al Gore to Bush.

Which is not to say that the fact-checkers at Blueprint are exactly on top of the Golden State’s game either. Another story, about the good news for Democrats in the 2002 elections, cited the reelection of Gray Davis, “the first Democrat to win a second term in the Golden State since Jerry Brown....” Yoo-hoo, you people 3,000 miles away in the Beltway bubble: Gray Davis is the first Democrat to win even a FIRST term since Jerry Brown. Post-Moonbeam, California elected and reelected only a pair of Republicans, George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson.

It’s the Running That Counts

Something like 17 men and women who ran for office hoping that the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood would secede (so there would be offices for them to hold) declared their intention to run for seats in the Los Angeles city government they once sought to dissect, but only a few have stayed the course to make it to the ballot.

Three of them crowd into the 12th District council race to replace the bon-voyage-bound Hal Bernson, but none of the six who’d intended to run for the 6th District council seat, soon to be left empty by termed-out Ruth Galanter, ended up certified for the ballot. And three are running for two community college board of trustee seats.

‘Two’s Company,’ a New Sitcom?

Al Franken could have a spinoff even before he has a series.

As you read here recently, Franken -- the guy whose 1996 book, “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot,” set about to let some hot air out of the conservative talk showman -- was already at work on a Capitol Hill sitcom. The premise: the real-life adventures of four congressmen sharing a D.C. townhouse during the week and hurrying home on the weekends. Among the plot complications -- dueling bedtimes, piles of unwashed dishes (and presumably unlaundered campaign contributions).

Now for the spinoff, “The Sisters Sanchez” (Las Hermanas Sanchez). The first sisters ever elected to Congress -- Democrats Loretta (a morning person) and Linda (a late-night person) -- will be sharing living quarters.

They still haven’t found a place. While the cost of living in the Hill-adjacent neighborhoods of D.C. is roughly comparable to that in Orange County -- which is to say, ridiculous -- there are distinctions. Linda Sanchez would like a place with a garage, but her sister will no doubt soon wise up the honorable freshwoman to the fact that D.C. cabs are cheap, and they’re everywhere, unlike in Southern California. Also unlike in Southern California, the subway really goes a long way.

The Latest on the California GOP

Update on California Republicans:

One: Yes, indeed, they have a pulse.

Two: Brooks Firestone, former assemblyman and, according to his news release, “leader of the mainstream of the Republican Party in California,” is the name at the top of a list of 10 state GOPsters -- none of them officeholders -- who called on Mississippi Sen. Trent “Vote Thurmond” Lott to resign as Senate Republican leader, or, as the release put it incorrectly, “as the parties Senate Leader.” (Lott belongs to more than one party?)

Three: The California GOP is still as split as a Thanksgiving wishbone. Shawn Steel, chairman of the state GOP, was censured unanimously by the 20-member board of directors of his own party after he gave a speech saying he’d try to recall any GOP legislator who votes to raise taxes to help close the mind-boggling billions of the state budget deficit. (They may not have disagreed with him, but, according to a party spokesman, “the rub” was that, if anybody’s entitled to make that threat, it’s the elected GOP legislative leaders, not the party chairman -- who, by the bye, will not be running for reelection to that job.)

Four: The Republicans gleefully pointed out that the low-key Jan. 6 inauguration planned for Gov. Gray Davis redux is still seeking “platinum sponsors” willing to donate $50,000.

Getting an Early -- Very -- Start

Has the Los Angeles mayor’s race already started three years early?

What may have been a warmup for the first mayoral debate was a Dec. 16 exchange between Mayor Jim Hahn and Assemblyman Keith Richman. Richman is a Northridge Republican who got more than half of all the votes among the 10 candidates for mayor of a San Fernando Valley city, which didn’t get the good-to-go vote, so he went back to being an assemblyman.

Hahn was in Encino to hear ideas from the 70 or so people -- including Richman -- who ran for spots in the proposed Valley and Hollywood cities’ governments. The cities didn’t get voted in, so neither did the candidates.

Richman got up and accused Hahn of trying to “circumvent” someone else’s question about a planning rule change in Chatsworth, then swung into a major-issues speech that sounded to more than a few ears like someone inaugurating a campaign for something.

“He directly challenged the mayor,” recounted Carlos Ferreyra. “He was laying out what he’s going to ding the mayor on in the campaign. That was definitely a campaign speech.”

Let’s All Get Along

Truce time in Orange County: In the spirit of bipartisanship, UC Irvine is hosting a fund-raising dinner next month to set up two new fellowships at its School of Social Sciences.

Ta-aaa! The Willie L. Brown Jr. Fellowship, named for the almost-speaker-for-life Democrat who is now the mayor of San Francisco, and the James L. Brulte Fellowship, for the Republican state Senate leader from Rancho Cucamonga.

They’ll have to live together under one roof -- the Center for the Study of Democracy at UCI. Both will be guests at the dinner, speaking on “understanding the budget” (waiter, more coffee, please). The top-dollar ticket is $25,000; the belt-tightener’s special is $200.

Points Taken

* In the running for most amusing political Christmas card of 2002, one showing an alarmed Santa seeing a television commercial reading, “Arbitrarily labeled naughty? Didn’t get the gift you requested? You may be entitled to damages.” Inside is “hope your holidays are filled with class ... not class actions,” signed by Orange County’s Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

* Those “thousand points of light” awards, switched on by the first President Bush, are being re-illuminated by his son. Among the 20 winners of the President’s Community Volunteer Award (co-sponsored by the Points of Light foundation and others) were Ernest Katz of Beverly Hills, who in 1937 founded and funded his own symphony and music training program for young musicians; Amye L. Leong of Bakersfield, who has rheumatoid arthritis and who started up Young At Heart, the nation’s biggest arthritis support group network for young adults; and Chet Cooper of Costa Mesa, who in 1995 founded ABILITY Awareness, a nonprofit organization benefiting the disabled

You Can Quote Me

“If you want to renounce your corporate citizenship, there are consequences.”

-- State Treasurer Phil Angelides, after the California Earthquake Authority cut business ties to a couple of New Jersey insurance companies that reincorporated offshore, in Bermuda.

*

COVER COUPLE: He owns Galpin Ford, the nation’s biggest Ford dealership, which is so big that it’s one of the rare features of the San Fernando Valley that’s probably visible from space. And he’s a member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, a group acutely concerned with guns. So it was a wee bit astonishing to see Bert Boeckmann and Mrs. B. posing for the Galpin 2003 calendar cover in a James Bondian setting with a hot sports car and a cleavage-packing model who was also packing a Beretta model 92FS semiautomatic handgun. “There’s nothing like a stunning Galpin Aston Martin Vanquish to bring out the Secret Agent in all of us, so let’s dress up and play Super Spy!” reads the text inside. More gun molls are featured in December’s and August’s pages.

*

Patt Morrison’s e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com. This week’s contributors include Patrick McGreevy and Jean O. Pasco.