A few samplings from the buffet line of news items as the weekend arrives...

* Voting Machine Testing: As reported here first last week, Secretary of State Debra Bowen is now prepping for a new series of tests on voting machines in California. And those plans are meeting with some early skepticism from local elections officials. The radio version of my reporting aired this morning on The California Report; you can hear it by clicking here.

* Judicial Diversity... Or Not: On this weekend's newsmagazine edition of TCR (our shorthand lingo for our newscast), host Scott Shafer examines the debate over whether Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed enough judges that actually represent the ethnic diversity of the Golden State. For local airtimes, click here.

* Au Revoir, Tout Le Monde: While many legislators will be back in their districts during next week's spring recess, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and a bipartisan group of colleagues will be in France. Why France? Why, to examine the country's high-speed rail system and to talk about global warming, bien sur! And just in case you were curious: "Assembly members will be paying for their own flights and hotels," says Nunez spokesman Steve Maviglio in an email to reporters. Incroyable!

That's the message that voters in a new poll are sending to lawmakers who hope to modify the state's 17-year old term limits law.

Just out tonight, the Public Policy Institute of California's poll finds overwhelming support for the current legislative term limits law, and just as overwhelming opposition to a proposed change that would allow legislators to serve two fewer years, but also serve their entire careers in either the Assembly or Senate.

The new PPIC survey finds that 68% of the likely voters say that the existing term limits law is a good thing. And 64% of those same voters are opposed to any plan to tweak term limits through a February 2008 ballot initiative.

The initiative in question is probably not going to be ready for signature gathering for another 10 days or so. Still, it's hard to see how the financial backers needed to gather those signatures, and run a campaign, will want to part with their cash... given how long the odds seem to be.

However, backers of the proposed term limits initiative dispute the PPIC's numbers. In fact, Democratic pollster David Binder says his poll numbers on term limits reform are much more rosy... because, he says, PPIC asked the question the wrong way. Binder and the political team of Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman sent an email to reporters today showing that when voters were told the initiative actually reduces the time served in the Legislature from 14 years to 12 years, 59% say they would vote 'yes.'

Meantime, the PPIC poll shows strong support for redistricting reform (66% yes), slightly lower-than-before job approval ratings for Governor Schwarzenegger (51% of all Californians) and surprisingly strong job approval ratings for the Legislature (41% of all Californians).

Maybe that's why they seem like to like term limits just the way they are.

To be fair, this morning's legislative conference of the California Professional Firefighters featured almost all of the state's constitutional officers wearing red and gold aprons and serving breakfast to firefighters who had gathered from around the state.

But no one's presence was more noteworthy than the guy scooping scrambled eggs: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The governor's unpublicized appearance at this morning's event seems to be the true epilogue to the story of his 2005 political meltdown. After all, it was the firefighters' union-- along with unions representing nurses and teachers-- that formed the alliance of powerful opponents to Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives. Those union members doggedly followed the governor everywhere he went during that campaign, including fundraisers on the east coast. And firefighters were some of the most prominent faces in those TV ads that kept slamming the guv.

Fast forward to this morning at the Masonic Temple in downtown Sacramento, where the governor walked into the room laughing and joking with CPF president Lou Paulson.

(Full disclosure: I was there to be part of a panel discussion on state politics; the event was closed to the press in general).

I asked the governor, as he walked in, about the change in feelings. Schwarzenegger smiled, and said that he has always gotten along with firefighters.

"We just had different opinions," he said.

The governor then donned an apron, and served up some humble pie... umm, eggs actually. Truth be told, though, the firefighters were there having to eat a little humble pie. After all, they were the ones who worked so hard to try and elect Phil Angelides in the 2006 gubernatorial race.

For now, it seems, bygones are bygones.

Four days after California's chief elections officer outlined a new review of voting machines used in the state, local elections officials say they have significant concerns about not only the timeline... but about the way the review will be conducted.

This afternoon, the California Association of Clerks And Election Officials (CACEO) submitted a formal response to the voting machine review now being organized by Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Last Thursday, Bowen unveiled a draft of the criteria to be used in the new review.

And the clock is ticking. The secretary set the deadline for public comment to be this Friday, and said she will declare the criteria to be final and official no later than next Friday; that's just 15 days in all.

The CACEO response says Bowen's plans sound reasonable... on the surface, that is. But that seems to be where the happy talk ends.

The major concerns:

* Local elections officials question an investigation that focuses almost exclusively on the security and reliability of electronic touch-screen machines. What about paper-based voting systems? "This, to be correct, ought to [include] all systems," said Steve Weir, registrar of voters in Contra Costa County and CACEO president.

* Bowen's plan would allow teams of 'hackers' to try and gain access to a machine's memory system. But the CACEO says that plan "disregards the real world election environment." The group is also critical of Bowen's plan to allow the 'hacker team' to possibly have access to the internal source code of the touch-screen machines. "Any system can be attacked if source code is made available," says their official response.

* Finally, there seems to be serious angst about the timeline for this review of voting machines... given not only the new February 5, 2008 presidential primary, but local elections in some parts of California this November. "You can't go through this review process on a fast track," Weir said in a phone interview this afternoon.

Bowen's campaign for the job of secretary of state relied heavily on her promise to take a second look at voting machine security and reliability. But as of now, it seems many of her local partners in that process aren't so sure that she's picked the right path.

You could almost feel it in the wonkish air of this morning's Sacramento conference on California's role in the 2008 presidential election: the Golden State needs to feel the love.

The event, sponsored by the Public Policy Institute of California, the James Irvine Foundation, and the New America Foundation, featured some interesting panel discussions from lawmakers, politicos, journalists, as well as a luncheon Q&A with Governor Schwarzenegger. The event was designed to discuss the impact of the state's new February presidential primary.

But the burning question-- will we matter?-- was never fully resolved. Many panelists admitted that a lot of variables must still play themselves out.

Nonetheless, there were a few event tidbits worth noting:

* The man who helped Schwarzenegger win the 2003 recall, and then lose the 2005 special election initiatives, floated an idea on how to make presidential candidates pay attention to California. GOP political strategist Mike Murphy suggested that perhaps the governor and lawmakers place a bipartisan measure on the ballot that presidential candidates will be forced to weigh in on.

"You could follow the model of the real experts in this [presidential] game: Iowa," said Murphy. He went on to say that Iowa has used support or opposition to ethanol as just such an issue, one that forces national candidates to take a stand. Such a proposal "would give a parochial California interest some real teeth on these Washington folks who are going to come here," he said. [Hear his entire comment on the issue here.]

* Meantime, Democratic political strategist Chris Lehane posed another theory on California relevance: the sheer number of votes that can be collected before election day. "You could potentially put more absentee [Democratic] votes out of Los Angeles than are going to take place in Iowa and New Hampshire combined." In fact, he said, LA County has more registered Dems than Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada combined. And those are the party's first four stops on the 2008 election train. What would stop a candidate, mused Lehane, from mounting an aggressive absentee campaign and 'banking' those votes before Iowans ever even head to their caucus meetings? [Hear Lehane's comments here.]

* How bipartisan and chummy was the just-ended trip of California legislators visiting Washington, DC? Just ask Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines. "I took a picture with Teddy Kennedy," said Villines. "If that's not the spirit of compromise, I'm not sure what is."

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez then chimed in, saying,"I have that picture!"

To which Villines added the punchline: "Yeah, it's gonna come out in a piece of [campaign] mail, I'm sure."

* And finally, another sign that Governor Schwarzenegger is keeping the stakes high for his endorsement of any term limits reform ballot measure. When asked about the issue by PPIC pollster Mark Baldassare, the governor stated: "If they [legislators] have also redistricting [reform] on the ballot... and campaign finance reform also on the ballot, only then we should consider term limit changes. But if it's only [term limits] alone, don't go there."

Making good on a pledge from her campaign last fall, Secretary of State Debra Bowen has taken the first step toward a new review of all electronic voting machines. And the criteria for the new testing makes it clear: she may ban machines that fail the tests.

Bowen was a pretty frequent critic of electronic machines (especially touch-screen devices) both in her position as a state senator and in her statewide campaign that unseated incumbent Bruce McPherson.

Today, she released a draft document of how the new investigation will proceed. And the document raises real questions about whether some machines, as they are currently used, might fail. For example, Bowen says that all touch screen machines must have some way of blocking hackers as part of its "design, hardware, firmware and/or software."

While that doesn't necessarily mean touch screen machines will fail, Bowen's fall 2006 campaign sharply criticized the security of machines made by Diebold Elections Systems. In fact, her campaign website even included video of someone allegedly opening up the back of a Diebold machine with a hotel mini-bar key. That would certainly not seem to meet the strict anti-hacking standard outlined above.

Bowen also proposes that testers conduct a mock 'attack' on every kind of electronic machine currently in circulation, as well as a new review of all the internal computer source code of those machines.

Today's action by the secretary leads to two big questions: will she actually ban machines that fail (versus, say, easier-to-do modifications)? And can public hearings, testing, and decisions all be completed by August 3? That's the date Bowen says elections officials need to know what devices they can use for the February 2008 presidential primary.

Expect a lot of local elections officials, and voting machine makers, to weigh in on those questions in the next few days and weeks.

The full document from the secretary of state is here.

That was Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's message to conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh during a spirited, but largely predictable, 15 minute on-air discussion this morning.

For those who haven't breathlessly followed how we got here: in an NBC interview this week, Schwarzenegger was asked about criticism from conservatives like Limbaugh. The governor called Limbaugh "irrelevant." Limbaugh later fired back, calling Schwarzenegger a "sellout".

This morning, the governor...extending the shelf life of this story... spent 15 minutes on Limbaugh's show engaging in a verbal jousting match that seemed to end in a draw.

Schwarzenegger began by trying to squelch talk of a fight, explaining that as governor he has to seek compromise, even with those he disagrees with.

"When you have a radio show," said the governor, "your objective is different than mine." Later, he added: "It's not selling out. It's doing the work of the people."

But when the talk turned to issues, it was clear that the two men weren't going to get anywhere. Take the governor's decision late last year to sign a bill boosting the minimum wage. Schwarzenegger agreed to a $1 hike, but also rejected a mechanism that would have allowed automatic wage increases in the future.

Limbaugh was unimpressed, arguing the increase itself was the problem. "You compromised on the price, but you still accepted the premise," he told the governor.

Schwarzenegger shot back: "I think those things [minimum wage] do improve people's lives."

From there, they debated the governor's health care reform plan, where Schwarzenegger used his now familiar defense of the proposed tax/fee increase for businesses. That defense focuses on what he calls the "hidden tax" of costs for the uninsured being added to the costs for everyone else.

Limbaugh dismissed such differentiations, telling Schwarzenegger that a "hidden tax, or a visible tax, is still a tax."

There also seemed to be a subtle air of one-upsmanship during the interview. Limbaugh, in a very matter-of-fact- tone, proclaimed that the governor's base is unhappy with his performance. "They see a lot of about-faces," he said.

Not to be outdone, Schwarzenegger reminded the talk show host that 91% of California Republicans voted last November to give him a second term in office. And he dismissed any notion that GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill are a good role model, saying that they are "fighting over nothing" in Washington.

In the end, though, it all was hugs and kisses. "I've always liked you," gushed Limbaugh. "We're going to smoke a stogie together," said Schwarzenegger.

[update 12:05pm - Further deeming this a non-story story, the governor told a reporter during a Fresno event at midday that even though he was on the Limbaugh show this morning, "There was nothing to smooth over."]

There are now almost a million fewer Californians who are registered to vote than there were just two years ago. Meantime, the number of independent voters continues to grow.

Those are some of the findings in the voter registration stats released today by Secretary of State Debra Bowen. That report calculates that there were almost 15.7 million registered voters in the state as of early February, compared to about 16.6 million registered voters at the same time in 2005.

In a news release, Bowen says part of the change can be attributed to now having a more accurate roll of registered voters than existed in years past. That means removing people who have died, moved out of state, or been deemed as ineligible to vote.

Even so, she says, the population of eligible voters continues to grow... but the actual numbers of voters isn't keeping up.

The data also shows that Democrats continue to outnumber Republicans (42.5% of voters to almost 34.2% of voters, respectively). But both parties continue to lose members... while the number of voters who register as "decline to state" continues to grow-- now, almost 19% of all registered voters.

You can read the full report here.

In anticipation of a downright groovy weather weekend (mid 80's in Sacramento and an extra hour of daylight?), a few final crumbs to examine before they're swept off the table...

* Shuffling Off To The Big House: This must have been the biggest week for prison tours since Johnny Cash played Folsom and San Quentin (Okay, sticklers, I know those weren't in the same week).

Governor Schwarzenegger visited both a state prison in Norco and the county jail in San Joaquin... while Assembly Republicans traveled to Solano County to visit two state prisons. The governor told reporters that he will meet with legislative leaders about the prison crisis on Monday.

* Brace Yourselves-- Education Spin Storm Ahead: Next week, a long-awaited series of reports on California's schools will be out, and early leaks indicate some of the research finds that education is severely underfunded. That spate of analyses will no doubt be subject to an intense spin cycle around the Capitol, both from interest groups who agree and from those who will pick apart the methodology and the meaning. In fact, the 'pre-spin' has already begun; multiple emails arrived this morning... offering reaction once Monday rolls around, and even hawking counterstudies that just happen to be coming out on Monday, too.

* Border Patrolling: On this week's newsmagazine edition of The California Report, our LA bureau chief Rob Schmitz takes a look at border patrol efforts by the National Guard, almost a year after President Bush asked for-- and Governor Schwarzenegger agreed to-- help. Rob found fewer illegal crossings... but also more violence along the border. [Click here for airtimes. Audio will be online later tonight.]

* Arnold, Can I Have Your Cheese?: And finally, you probably remember that the governor was in Washington, DC recently, where his itinerary included a dinner party at the White House.

Well, Schwarzenegger apparently made quite the impression on one of the guests who was seated near him: Jeannie Ritter, the first lady of Colorado.

(She's the woman to the governor's right in this photo seen on the LA Times' Political Muscle blog.)

In a recent interview with a Denver TV station, here's how Mrs. Ritter described her memories of her dinner date:

"I kept saying [to myself], 'Don't eat off his plate, don't eat off his plate, don't eat off his plate! But you know, he didn't, he wasn't gonna eat his goat cheese! And I love that stuff! But I didn't touch it."

The video is here, but you have to search the station's archive for it. My next assignment: is it really true that the governor doesn't like goat cheese?

The vote on the Assembly floor isn't until sometime late this afternoon, but let's end the suspense: the proposal to move California's 2008 presidential primary to February 5, 2008 is on its way to Governor Schwarzenegger, who will almost certainly sign it into law.

With that out of the way, the only meat left to pick off the bones of this story seems to be the price tag of the whole thing... and what else will appear on that early statewide ballot.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez addressed these, and other, issues in a brief morning news conference (the timing of which allowed all of us to begin filing our stories now, instead of tonight).

Nunez praised the early primary as a way to force presidential candidates to talk about issues that matter to California-- including environmental protection and immigration. "We think that we should have the right to press candidates early on their views on what constitutes comprehensive immigration reform," said Nunez.

A few critics have argued that the early contest here will just prompt other states to move up their primaries, too-- thereby watering down California's influence. But the largest criticism of the bill is that it's silent on the issue of reimbursing counties for the extra expense of a third statewide election in 2008 (since every other primary contest will still be decided in June). Estimates have suggested a total cost (for state and local elections operations) of as much as $90 million.

The Speaker told reporters that, rest assured, the state will pick up the tab. But why wasn't the bill amended to include specific language?

Not enough time, suggested Nunez. He said the plan needs to be in place now... to force candidates to campaign here. "I think a number of people are going to be impressed," he said, "the number of times that presidential candidates on both side of the aisle come to visit California." [You can hear more of that answer here.]

Later, I asked Nunez about the status of any government reform package that might appear on that presidential ballot. This weekend, the governor seemed to add another item to his wish list: campaign fundraising reform. Schwarzenegger suggested a new effort to ban fundraising during budget negotiations, something he has suggested in years past.

That item wouldn't have to necessarily go to the voters. But it could complicate efforts to amend the existing term limits law, especially if legislative action on campaign finance reform (along with redistricting reform) becomes the price for the governor's public endorsement of looser term limits.

Nunez said he's willing to work on the issue. But he also expressed skepticism... saying that fundraising restrictions only strengthen the hand of self-financed, wealthy candidates.

"A millionaire, billionaire, just digs deeper into their pocket," Nunez said. [You can hear more of that answer here.]