Dick Ackerman: No, No, No!
August 13th, 2008, 5:29 pm · Post a Comment · posted by BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento Correspondent
The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert has a series of interesting posts this afternoon that look at possible Senate Republican votes for the alleged deal Democrats have struck with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the budget.
Among the senators listed as a possible vote for the reported deal, which includes a 1-cent sales tax increase, is Orange County’s own Dick Ackerman, the venerable former Senate Republican Leader.
Ackerman just called me to set the record straight. He’s not going to vote for any tax increase. And there’s no deal.
The senator laughed when I asked him about Capitol Alert’s “Pickoff Target” profile of him, which says “No senator has a closer relationship to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate Leader Don Perata than Dick Ackerman… That closeness has spurred talk that Ackerman could be targeted by the governor as a potential vote for this year’s budget.” (Meaning that he’d be vote for the tax increase.)
“That’s interesting. How’d they find that out?” Ackerman said. “Especially since it’s not true.”
Ackerman said he won’t be voting for any tax increases and that any plan receiving his stamp of approval will also have to “make sense” and reduce the out year deficit.
He also echoed my earlier report that suggested there really isn’t a deal between legislative Democrats and the governor.
“There’s no deal,” Ackerman said. “I talked to Perata last night and he said there was no deal. And I talked to the governor’s office this morning - no deal.”
Ackerman picked up on the same thing I did in the Bee’s early report of the alleged deal — Perata’s comments about the governor needing to pick up Republican votes.
Ackerman said he thinks Perata is going after Republican votes because he knows some Democrats aren’t going to vote a tax increase. He specifically mentioned Santa Ana Sen. Lou Correa as a Democrat who might not vote for the budget, since Correa has promised not to raise taxes in the past.
Whatever the case, Ackerman didn’t seem too shook about the Capitol Alert piece. The man is a veteran of several budget battles, after all. “It’s just the budget dance,” he said.
