After a short and relatively predictable debate, five revised Indian gaming agreements were ratified by the state Senate this morning. But as they head to the Assembly, their fate remains much more uncertain.

None of the five compacts signed by Governor Schwarzenegger-- with the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians-- passed with overwhelming support.

But they did get both Republican and Democratic votes. And despite a full-court press by labor unions, who remain unhappy with the language in the compacts related to casino workers and their ability to organize, the upper chamber decided the new deals were reasonable.

Some senators said their vote was because the tribes have legal rights to expand their gaming; others supported the agreements because they include provisions that might provide several hundred million dollars in payments to the state.

But the Assembly is still going to be a tough nut to crack. Last year, the union forces were able to keep the compacts from being ratified in the lower chamber, and many of the same dynamics remain. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez has been searching for a compromise between the two powerful interest groups, and some have suggested a possible side agreement with the tribes that clears up organized labor's concerns.

But that's still a long shot. Just after the vote, Morongo tribal chairman Robert Martin said his tribe remains uninterested in a side deal. "There's [already] a vehicle for labor to organize," he said.

By the way, a sixth tribe also had its compact ratified by the Senate this morning: the large, and largely impoverished Yurok Tribe of Klamath. The tribe hopes to open a small (99 slot machines) casino, but has been stymied in previous years by disagreements with other tribes over the terms of the compact.

New life is being breathed into efforts to take political map drawing powers out of the hands of the Legislature, with a suggestion to give that power over to state government's existing watchdog commission.

This morning, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez unveiled his own stab at creating an independent redistricting process that would ostensibly eliminate the "safe seats" created when legislators draw the maps themselves.

But redistricting reform has been bogged down by two messy issues. First-- who draws the district maps? Government reform groups want the Legislature to have almost no say in selecting members of an independent map-drawing commission.

Speaker Nunez's plan, outlined today for Capitol reporters, clearly gives lawmakers a role... by handing over map drawing powers to the Little Hoover Commission. The organization currently makes recommendations and investigations on all kinds of thorny issues, from prison reform to legislative functions.

The 13-member commission includes four sitting legislators. But under Nunez's plan, those four members would be ineligible to particpate in redistricting. Instead, it would be left to the other nine members of the LHC, of which five are gubernatorial appointees and four are appointees of the legislative majority leadership (i.e., Democrats). Seven of the nine members would have to agree on the new political maps, which would take effect without a vote of the Legislature.

The other big sticking point has been whether the commission will draw only legislative districts, or whether it will also draw congressional districts? You can bet that issue is important to many Democrats, who hold a strong majority of California's congressional seats and aren't in a hurry to do anything that might impact the party's future control of Congress. But Nunez has included congressional districts in his proposal, even though many in his party will be unhappy with that decision.

Nunez told reporters today that, in effect, no proposal for redistricting is perfect. "This is as good as it gets," he said.

But the new proposal also will meet with instant criticism over how the commissioners are selected. "The Little Hoover Commission is made up of political appointees," said Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines. Others will also wonder what happened to a commission of California citizens which, to date, has been one of the most prominent ideas.

Of course, the real problem may be that there's no consensus at all in Sacramento... which would leave the initiative process as the only route for redistricting reform.

One of two Indian tribes looking to build a casino in Amador County has lost an appeal in court-- an appeal that they hoped would keep alive a controversial agreement between the tribe and the tiny city of Plymouth.

As reported on earlier this week on The California Report, the Ione Band of Miwok Indians plans to build a 2,000 slot machine casino on the outskirts of Plymouth. The tribe, which does not have a reservation of its own, has received tentative approval from federal officials to acquire 225 acres of land in Amador.

The court case in question, though, focuses on the validity of a 2004 agreement struck between the tribe and Plymouth city leaders. That "master services agreement" called for the tribe to pay millions of dollars to the city for various improvements, in exchange for the city offering its official blessing to the casino project. That agreement, however, was so controversial that two city council members and Plymouth's mayor were recalled in a May 2004 election.

Amador County officials then filed a lawsuit claiming that the city-tribe agreement violates state environmental laws. The tribe lost the first round in court, and then went to the state's 3rd District Court of Appeals. On Tuesday afternoon, the appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling, and declared the 2004 agreement invalid.

Ione tribal representatives say they haven't yet decided whether to take the case the final step... to the California Supreme Court.

There was a lot of online chatter last week about one GOP lawmaker's alleged attempt to force legislative Democrats to choose between affordable housing and environmental protection. This afternoon, the Republican legislator agreed to consider an alternative.

The story involves AB 1096 by Assemblymember Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), a bill that would exempt low-income housing from the strict environmental review processes outlined under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

CEQA reform is a long-standing pet project of many GOP lawmakers, including DeVore. But a column last week in the Orange County Register hinted that the assemblymember's real motive may have been to force a wedge between pro-affordable housing Democrats and pro-environment Democrats. "I'm purposely 'eff-ing' with them," the column quotes DeVore as telling a group of Republican lawyers. (If you can't decipher that word, and what it stands for, I can't help you.)

This afternoon, DeVore's bill was in front of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee... whose staffers came up with a twist: rather than exempt such projects from CEQA review now, why not study the issue first, in order to see just how often CEQA reviews are actually hindering such housing projects?

DeVore agreed to accept amendments to do just that-- effectively gutting his bill-- though he suggested that he might still revive the original bill's language later, if he further studies the new proposal and doesn't like it.

Some quick hits on items of interest as the new week begins...

* Constitutional Revision: So what do you do if you can't get consensus on redistricting reform AND term limit reform AND campaign finance reform? How about... lump them all together? That's essentially the plan unveiled this morning by Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield). Ashburn, a longtime co-author of efforts to reform the redistricting process, today unveiled SCA 9, which attempts to pull off a reform trifecta. The proposed constitutional amendment would attempt to deal with multiple issues (political maps, term limits pared down to 12 years, campaign finance laws) under one umbrella. Ashburn's announcement follows several weeks of rumors about private meetings on just such a plan, with the premise that the state constitutional ban on multi-subject ballot measures and initiatives could be avoided by calling the plan a full-blown "revision."

Speaking of campaign cash...

* Who Needs An Election To Raise Money? Certainly not Governor Schwarzenegger, who appears to have picked up the pace in recent weeks on collections for his campaign coffers. The governor's California Recovery Team reports contributions of $387,700 in just the first ten days of April-- with three donations of $100,000 each. Add those recent contributions to checks written since early March, and the CRT has taken in more than $1.1 million. The committee is not subject to contribution limits, as long as the money is used for legislative advocacy or ballot measure campaigns. Published reports, meantime, say the governor is prepping for a big CRT fundraiser next week at his Brentwood mansion.

* Global Warming Funding: The Capitol is buzzing these days with lobbyists and interest groups, as the deadline for legislation to clear its first policy committee looms. But today's most interesting hearing is about existing law: 2006's greenhouse gas legislation (AB 32). A Senate budget subcommittee is asking lots of questions this afternoon about what it will take to pay for implementation of the landmark law, and how the governor's team will measure state government's success at reaching its climate protection goals.

There are about two dozen pending proposals for new Indian casinos in California. And a pair of them are both planned for a foothills community where the historic quest for gold may soon be replaced by a new one.

The community in question is Amador County, home to about 35,000 people and one existing tribal casino. Here, locals revel in the region's reputation as "the home of the Mother Lode."

But now, there are plans for two additional Indian casinos-- a tripling of the gambling industry in an area that, as one local official points out, got its first stoplight only about a decade ago. And it's ignited a debate about the proper balance between tribal rights and the rural way of life.

I examined the issue in detail on this morning's edition of The California Report. You can hear the story by clicking here.

It's been pointed out to me by a sharp-eyed watcher of campaign finance reports that seed money for the term limits initiative campaign has, indeed, been provided.

Over the last two weeks, the new "Committee for Term Limits and Legislative Reform" collected a cool $250,000. Most of that ($200K) came from the SEIU California State Council, the labor union representing many state workers. The remaining $50-grand was donated by the California School Employees Association.

That's probably enough to start the printing presses rolling on the actual initiatives for voter signatures, but more supporters will have to come on board to get the measure on the February 5, 2008 ballot.

The political chattering class' favorite initiative has just been cleared for signature gathering-- the proposal to modify California's 17-year-old term limits law, a measure which would probably also lengthen the terms in office of the powerful leaders of the Legislature.

This morning, the initiative received its formal title and summary from the Attorney General's office, and became valid for circulation to collect signatures.

The initiative would shorten legislative careers from 14 years to 12 years, while allowing all of those years to be served in either the Assembly or Senate. It would also, however, allow several incumbent lawmakers now in the twilight of their Capitol careers to stick around a little longer. Most notable of the incumbents who would become eligible for additional service: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President pro Tem Don Perata.

The fate of the proposal is still very much up in the air. First, it's widely believed that the plan needs to avoid having any powerful political opposition if it's to be approved by voters on next February's presidential ballot. And that probably means the endorsement of Governor Schwarzenegger, who so far has hinted that his blessing is contingent on additional reforms, on redistricting and even campaign fundraising.

But another unknown is how the public will view a modification of term limits, a law that is pretty unpopular with lawmakers but very popular with voters. While one recent poll suggested the proposal faces an uphill battle, two other polls found a bare minimum of support for the idea-- once voters were focused on the fact that the initiative slices two years off of current legislative service.

The term limits initiative campaign is being spearheaded by Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman, the chief consiglieri to Speaker Nunez. She says it will take a few days to get it in print, and then out to the streets.

After that, who knows? The effort will certainly need a political team with deep pockets for a campaign... and supporters will have to deftly position the plan as more about good government, and less about self-preservation for current Capitol barons.

That's Governor Schwarzenegger's take on the past image of environmentalists, in a Washington, DC appearance that gave him the chance to do what he likes best: play the part of salesman.

The governor's speech today came at a Georgetown University environmental conference hosted by Newsweek magazine. By now, you probably know that Schwarzenegger is on this week's cover, and is the focus of a large spread on the changing face of the environmental movement.

Schwarzenegger's speech, which lasted about 20 minutes, sounded like a call to arms for his own belief that the free market can solve many of the world's environmental crises. And it was full of one-liners that, even watching back here in Sacramento, were clear hits with the audience.

Take the governor's attempt to compare selling environmentalism to how he sold bodybuilding in the 1970s. "Bodybuilding used to have a very sketchy image," he said. "But we changed that."

And then he offered these comments on the former image of enviro advocates: "You know, the kind of serious tree huggers. Environmentalists were no fun, like prohibitionists at the fraternity party."

"For too long, the environmental movement has been powered by guilt." [Here those comments here]

Schwarzenegger also took aim at U.S. automakers, referencing a now well-publicized billboard campaign in Michigan that accuses the greening GOP governor of hurting the state's economy. To the automakers, he said: "Get off your butts, and join us."

Nonetheless, the governor's message does clash with some environmentalists who suggest he's giving too short a shrift to the need for some kinds of sacrifice and personal responsibility. But today's speech rejected such notions, almost to the point of defiance.

"We don't have to really go and take away the muscle cars, we don't have to take away the Hummers or the SUVs or anything else, because that's a formula for failure," he said. "Instead, what we have to do is make those cars more environmentally muscular."

And his message to politicians who resist his environmental message? Another fun one-liner. "If you are against taking action on greenhouse gases and carbon emissions," he said, "your political base will melt away as surely as the polar ice caps." He said such lawmakers would become "political penguins" and would be stuck on smaller and smaller pieces of political "ice."

"Goodbye, my little friend," he said, waving and drawing a big laugh. "That's what's going to happen." [Hear those comments here]

Upping the ante on a plan he announced last week, the leader of the California Senate says that the ballot of every state holding an early presidential primary should also include a referendum on ending the war in Iraq.

Senate President pro Tem Don Perata introduced legislation today calling for a non-binding advisory measure where California voters could weigh in on the war. The measure would appear on next February's presidential primary ballot.

The Oakland Democrat has taken a few hits since making the announcement, most notably from critics who say it's merely a cynical ploy to boost voter turnout for an election that may also see a term limits reform initiative on the ballot.

But Perata broadened his quest today, by sending letters to the governors of all 20 states that have either decided, or are pondering, a February 5, 2008 presidential primary. The letter urges them to jump on board with his idea for a popular vote on the war.

"I propose we also use this opportunity to tell the current President where we stand on this fundamental issue of the day," writes Perata. "It's time for our citizens to be heard."

The pro tem's office says he also sent similar letters to each of the Democratic presidential candidates.