The RP’s Weekly Web Gems- The Politics of the States

California Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, a Democrat representing suburban Los Angeles, has said that Assembly Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) has furloughed his staff as retaliation for being the only Democrat to bote against this year’s state budget. In response, Portantino is hosting a “Lemon Aid” event on October 5 in his Pasadena office. Participants will be asked to bring non-perishable food items, and Portantino aides will be 0n-hand to provide contact information for state agencies to assist constituents while his office is closed beginning October 21. [Sacramento Bee]

Colorado State Senator Crisanta Duran (D-Denver) sent out an e-mail to supporters asking them to donate to the House Majority Project, a pro-Democratic Colorado PAC, while slamming Republican efforts to create stricter voter-registration laws, calling them “racially-charged” and “anti-immigration.” She specifically cited the example of Pueblo County Clerk Bo Ortiz, whom Secretary of State Scott Gessler forbade from sending absentee ballots to some 70 inactive military voters. Gessler’s office, for its part, claims that Ortiz was not meeting state deadlines and referred to Duran’s e-mail as a “fundraising pitch.” [Denver Post]

Fair Elections Ohio has compiled some 318,460 signatures to put House Bill 194 on the November 2012 ballot and stop it from going into effect as planned. The Republican-backed bill would, according to opponents, curtail voting rights by decreasing the amount of time in which voters can register for absentee ballots and bans in-person voting for most of the weekend. [Columbus Dispatch]

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Ken Brynien, president of the Public Employees Federation, are at a standstill in terms of negotiations, after a tentative contract failed a Tuesday vote. The governor, who has been criticized by teachers’ unions for his education reform proposals, said that he was open to minor, “revenue-neutral” changes to the contract with PEF. [Albany Times Union]

Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, has slammed that state’s Republican Party for its decision to flout national Republican rules and move its primary up to January 31. throwing the entire GOP primary calendar into disarray. Two of the three Democrats on the 9-person state panel voted against the move, which Smith called “a slap in the face to their own party and the bipartisan rules agreed upon over a year ago to ensure an orderly primary process.” [St. Petersburg Times]

Illinois is headed for an $8.3 billion shortfall this year, according to Civiv Federation, a Chicago-based watchdog group. In spite of an income tax increase and spending cuts, the state faces shortfalls in pensions and Medicaid,two issues that have not been touched by Governor Pat Quinn (Democrat), though the top Democrat and Republican in the Democratically-controlled state legislature have pushed for addressing those issues. [Illinois State Journal-Register]

Millionaire Stanford physicist Charles T. Munger, Jr., long a bankroller of moderate Republican causes, has said he does not have any regrets about backing last year’s Proposition 20, which created the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, even if it may end up solidifying Democrats’ power in the state legislature. Citing notoriously pro-incumbent lines as a “shortsighted and frankly vicious act of selfishness,” Munger said he would have promoted Proposition 20, and Proposition 11, its failed 2008 predecessor, even if Republicans had controlled the state legislature or California’s congressional delegation. [Sacramento Bee]

Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, has slammed that state’s Republican Party for its decision to flout national Republican rules and move its primary up to January 31. throwing the entire GOP primary calendar into disarray. Two of the three Democrats on the 9-person state panel voted against the move, which Smith called “a slap in the face to their own party and the bipartisan rules agreed upon over a year ago to ensure an orderly primary process.” [St. Petersburg Times]

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, a Democrat, has promised that his city’s police department will be “brutally efficient” when that city hosts the Republican National Convention next summer. While Buckhorn said he would support peaceful, legal protest, he vowed to protect against “mayhem” and illegal, violent protests. [St. Petersburg Times]

The National Organization for Marriage continues placing billboards around the state slamming Republicans who voted in favor of same-sex marriage this past summer. NOW, which is currently celebrating the election of anti-gay marriage Republican Bob Turner in the state’s 9th Congressional District, has dumped some $40,000 in billboards targeting James Alesi of Suburban Rochester, Roy McDonald of Suburban Albany, Mark Grisanti of Buffalo, and Stephen Saland, who represents rural stretches of the Hudson Valley near Albany. [NY Daily News]

In Wisconsin, Keith Gilkes, Chief of Staff to embattled governor Scott Walker, has left the administration to work on an expected recall election campaign. This is a sign that the governor is taking seriously the threat that Democrats, livid over Republican efforts to curtail public unions collective bargaining rights, will attempt to recall Republican Walker, as they have done for State Senate seats throughout the state. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]