The Legislature continues its march toward the end of the 2007 session, with final action on scores of bills… and more bills still in limbo. Place your bets on what day you think the session will end (Tuesday the 11th is the current fave).

Meantime, some notable developments, at the state Capitol and beyond…

* Special Session, Yes… That’s the message from Senate President pro Tem Don Perata in comments to reporters after today’s floor session. Perata said that Democrats will send their proposal, AB 8, to the desk of Governor Schwarzenegger early next week. The governor has said that he’s opposed to the bill in its current form. “The governor’s said he would veto it,” said Perata, “so the only alternative for him is to call us in special session.” Not that anyone inside the state Capitol is surprised that we’re going to extra innings on health care.

* Congressional Redistricting, No… Meantime, the Senate leader made it pretty clear that he won’t accept the creation of an independent commission to oversee the once-a-decade redistricting process if that commission also draws the state’s congressional districts. Some, but not all, Democrats believe that handing that power over to an independent group could jeopardize their party’s majority position in Congress. As we chatted about in this morning’s CN podcast, there’s been talk in Sacramento of a compromise… where the Legislature would retain the power to draw congressional districts in 2011, but not afterwards.

But Perata said today that’s not enough. “I want it out,” he said. “If Texas starts doing this [allowing the independent drawing of congressional districts], we’ll start doing it.”

* Judge Wants More Info On Bonds… State officials are going to have to come up with a new explanation for why the bond package designed to relieve prison overcrowding is constitutional. A pending lawsuit alleges that the $7 billion in lease revenue bonds contained in AB 900 violate the California constitution, because such bonds are only legal if they’re secured by revenues from the buildings being constructed. So do prisons have revenues? That’s the question Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster has told the state’s attorneys to answer more thoroughly in the order he issued today. Keep your eyes on this case… the bonds in question are a key component to a plan legislators and the governor hope will keep federal judges from releasing prisoners.

* Dems Smack Reeps, Reeps Smack Dems… Ah, what would life be without political slugfests? On the eve of the California GOP’s weekend convention, Democrats fighting a possible initiative to change presidential voting in California says they think there’s proof the national GOP is involved. The Dems today filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents they say will prove the connection. Elsewhere, the state GOP filed a formal complaint with the state’s campaign finance watchdog agency over embattled Democratic party fundraiser Norman Hsu, who made donations to everyone from legislative Democrats to presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama.