Politicos seem to need deadlines, and so the leader of the state Assembly set a new one today: a vote on health care reform by November 26.

In his remarks at today's hearing on Governor Schwarzenegger's health care proposal, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez called for a deal on the issue by Thanksgiving. Later, his advisers clarified that a vote must come by the Monday after the holiday... or else risk missing the chance to get a health care financing initiative on the ballot in November 2008.

The hearing, which goes on at this hour, is the first real policy discussion of Schwarzenegger's proposal -- a proposal that existed largely as only a framework for months and was recently written as actual legislation.

It's also a proposal that has been modified over time, both on who's covered and who pays. But Nunez and several other Democratic lawmakers in today's hearing are suggesting it's still not close enough to a plan they can accept. Committee members grilled the governor's health and human services secretary Kim Belshe about a number of issues -- most notably criticizing the lack of specifics in the bill about what specific health care services would, and wouldn't, be covered in the kind of catastrophic plan that Schwarzenegger says everyone should be required to have at a minimum.

Meantime, the urgency is again due to the financing scheme that has developed... a financing scheme that includes everything from a new fee on businesses and hospitals to privatization of the state lottery... and one that would have to approved by voters. If that's to happen anytime soon, time is running out.

Much more on the policy substance of today's hearing tomorrow morning on The California Report.

The year's big policy debate will be back in the spotlight tomorrow as the Assembly Health Committee convenes to examine Governor Schwarzenegger's health care proposal.

Depending on who you believe, health care reform at this point either has a lot of work left to forge a compromise... or may be dead for 2007. As has been the case for most of the year, there are still strong disagreements about who should be covered and who should pay.

The most recent public spat began a few weeks ago when organized labor walked away from negotiations. And in a letter to the governor, California Labor Federation executive secretary Art Pulaski criticized Schwarzenegger for not demanding more from pharmaceutical companies when it comes to reining in the cost of prescription drugs.

Today, labor fired another salvo... releasing a report that raises a lot of questions about the governor's call to lease the California Lottery and use some of the proceeds to help pay for his $14 billion health care overhaul.

The report echoes some of what was said at a recent legislative hearing on the issue -- namely, that getting $37 billion from Wall Street investors is a very optimistic scenario, and that an amount about half that big might be more realistic. If that's true, say the labor researchers, Schwarzenegger's lottery contribution to paying for health care could run out in less than a decade. They also take aim at the governor's call to swap out K-12 education's lottery proceeds with General Fund revenues, arguing that this would only take money away from another needy state program.

Meantime, an early look at the agenda for tomorrow's hearing shows it's going to be a long day... with the governor's plan being presented by state health and human services secretary Kim Belshe and then presentations from another two dozen witnesses. The governor's press secretary said today that Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez met privately for about 90 minutes yesterday to talk about the status of health care negotiations.

It's relatively quiet these days in terms of political news in California... which means that the brawl over a ballot initiative to rejigger the awarding of electoral votes has the stage all to itself.

Today, Democrats upped the ante by filing another formal complaint against the Republican-led campaign.

Last week, we learned that the proposed initiative to end the "winner take all" system of awarding California's 55 electoral votes had been resuscitated. A new team of GOP campaign consultants, presumably infused with as much as $3 million in cash, is now quickly trying to gather enough signatures to place the measure on next June's statewide ballot. They may have as little as two weeks left to do so.

And as Democrats made clear a few days ago, they're ready to rumble.

This afternoon, Dems filed a new complaint with both the Federal Elections Commission alleging possible violations of federal election laws. Specifically, the Democrats allege that there's a formal connection between the campaign of Rudy Giuliani and the initiative, and therefore contributions to the effort must be subject to federal campaign contribution limits (which are much more strict than those allowed under California election laws).

The accusations hinge on the fact that several people who appear to be involved with the initiative campaign have, at some point, had ties with the Giuliani campaign. And the Dems howled even louder at the end of last week, when an e-mail surfaced that sounded as though it, too, was sparked by those close to Hizzoner's presidential campaign.

"Once again, all roads lead back to the Giuliani campaign," Democratic strategist Chris Lehane told reporters today.

But the initiative's campaign team denies the accusations. "It's absolutely untrue," said consultant Chris Wysocki. "We have not had any communication with the Giuliani campaign. We have not had any communication with any presidential campaign."

Formal investigations by federal elections officials don't often happen overnight, so don't expect an answer from the FEC in the near future. The next big piece of information in this saga could come later this week; that's when the initiative campaign's first campaign finance documents could be made public -- the first chance to actually see who's ponying up the cash to get the measure on the ballot.

It was not, as you know, a quiet week in California.

A week of devastating fires, heroic efforts, and questions of proper fire protection policy have left everyone... a little tired.

As frequent visitors have now surmised, there was no edition this week of the Capital Notes Podcast. We will, however, be back to gab and analyze next week.

In the meantime, I encourage you to check out our weekly newsmagazine edition of The California Report, which you can listen to below.

It's a special edition of the program, examining everything from the real life horror of the southern California fires to the cost to the state to fight the fires (a story I reported; more than $96 million by week's end) and beyond.

And finally, a little levity... and some good PR... for Governor Schwarzenegger on last night's edition of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.

From Maher's monologue: "They say the fires have forged a new bond between the President and Governor Schwarzenegger. You know, they didn't like each other for a long time. And why would they get along? One is a blockhead who can barely speak English. And the other is Arnold Schwarzenegger."

And later in the show, the eternally cranky Maher heaped some praise on California's chief executive:

"I've made a lot of jokes about Arnold Schwarzenegger. But you know what? He's not the worst. He's done a lot of pretty good things. He's suing the federal government for clean air... Watching him with the fires, he looked a million times better than George Bush. Isn't it a shame this guy can't run for president?"

Two of Maher's guests -- tennis legend Martina Navratilova and conservative author Andrew Sullivan -- seemed to agree. The dissenter? Former Democratic presidential candidate and retired General Wesley Clark, who launched into some rambling discourse on a theoretical future where a foreign-born candidate (he used China as an example) could come run for president as some sort of Trojan horse strategy.

At least, that's what I think he meant. The hour was late... and the week was long.

For those who have never seen a White House press pool report (only a few reporters get to tag along, so they share their notes with all others in the press), today's fire tour with President Bush, Governor Schwarzenegger, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and others is worth checking out.

The excerpts that follow are from two different national reporters, and mostly what we call "color"; for real news from today go here.

[Some slang notes: "POTUS" is the Beltway acronym for President of the United States. "DiFi" is Feinstein. "Arnold" is... well, you know.]

"POTUS emerged from the plane, wearing an olive-colored shirt and casual black pants to a high-powered greeting committee. The air was rank with the smell of smoke. Arnold (does he really need a last name?) was there with his two young sons. A friendly greeting; each man clapped the other on the shoulder, then Arnold draped his arm around the president's shoulder. They posed for pictures with the boys. Also on hand --[U.S. Rep Darrell] Issa, [U.S. Rep. Duncan] Hunter, [U.S. Rep. Brian] Bilbray, all waiting on tarmac. DiFi emerged from plane in dark suit and baseball cap..."

"POTUS's motorcade pulled up to a canyon neighborhood of typical California stucco homes at about 10:20 a.m. local. The neighborhood seemed completely intact, until about halfway up the hill into a cul-de-sac. There, the motorcade he stopped at the burned out home of Kendra and Jay Jeffcoat. Theirs was one of four homes, side by side, on a street called Lancashire, that were destroyed... The randomness was striking.

"POTUS, Arnold, Brian Bilbray and DiFi came out of the car to meet with them. They chatted for a while, and Bush patted the dog on the head...

"After they spoke for a bit, Arnold led the delegation further into the rubble. He reached his hand out toward DiFi, who was wearing low-heeled pumps, in, but she demurred, saying, "I think I can get a good view from here." The others went in, for a perfect photograph against the staircase, with a hilltop in the background, topped by a cross."

"[POTUS] said he had come to survey the "terrible devastation." He talked about the Jeffcoats, how tough it was for them after 39 years of marriage to go through this disaster. He praised Arnold. "The thing I like about Gov. Schwarzenegger is he says, you show me a problem, I'll charge it. You show me a hill, I'll go up it..."

"And Arnold had high praise for the president, saying the response was "quick action, quicker than I expected."

Later, this pool report from a different stop...

"After open press remarks, POTUS, governor, DiFi and Bilbray spent 30 minutes shaking hands with rows of dusty fire crews at the Witch Creek Fire command post at Kit Carson city park in Escondido. "I'm proud to be here with the senator, the Terminator, can I call you that?..." POTUS began. "My wife does."

ABC reporter finds herself arm wrestling with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As we used to say... film at 11.

Okay, not really. But this clip does prove one thing: the governor's not buying any of those reports that some locals in southern California think the state's firefighting efforts could have been any better.

"You are looking for a mistake," he tells her, "and you won't find it. Because it's all good news. As much as you may hate it, but it's good news."

Beware, California voters, of emasculation -- according to Howard Dean.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee came out swinging today against Monday's news of a new campaign to qualify the initiative changing how California's electoral votes are awarded. And just like the first time the initiative surfaced, he blamed it squarely on Republicans in general, and GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani in particular.

The initiative, said Dean, is "an opportunity for the Republicans to neuter California, to take away California's role as the most powerful state in the country when it comes to selecting the president."

Dean and state Democratic party chairman Art Torres held a noontime conference call with reporters to bash the initiative that would allow 53 of the Golden State's 55 electoral votes to be awarded based on the winning candidate in each congressional district.

That would undoubtedly give the GOP presidential nominee a boost. And Dean made it absolutely clear in his comments: the eventual Democratic nominee can't win the White House without all of California's 55 electoral votes.

He said the net effect of a Republican winning, say, 20 of the state's electoral votes, is a 40-vote swing. "It's the equivalent of losing Ohio and another state," said Dean.

The dig at Giuliani came in reference to the fact that several of the people reportedly working on the initiative have former ties to the NYC mayor.

Democrats also demanded to know who's putting up the money for signature gathers to circulate the petitions, a bank account that backers estimated would reach $3 billion in order to get the initiative on the June ballot. They appear to have as little as three weeks to do that.

As of this afternoon, no campaign finance documents have appeared showing a committee or money for this operation. But political consultant Chris Wysocki, who signed on to the electoral initiative this week, said on Monday that the campaign intends to fully comply with state election laws regarding the identities of donors.

I asked Dean whether Democrats were opposed more to the initiative itself... or the fact that it was being proposed only in California. He seemed to say that it's the latter, adding: "If the Republicans were sincere about [electoral reform] they'd be starting this in Texas and Florida, where they control the legislature and the governor's office."

Advocates of a new independent way for drawing political maps in California submitted their own proposed ballot initiative on the issue today after negotiations for a legislative change to the system failed to gain any traction this year at the state Capitol.

The initiative, filed by Kathay Feng of Common Cause California and Jeannine English of the AARP, would establish an independent citizens commission to draw state legislative districts.

It would not, however, have the new commission draw federal congressional districts -- leaving that power with the Legislature. This was one of the big sticking points this year in Sacramento. Many California Democrats balked at any plan that might threaten their power base in Congress... or more specifically, the power base of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SF). In fact, if this initiative were to make it to the ballot, the exclusion of Congress could possibly be enough for Democrats to keep their cash in their wallets... and not work to defeat it.

In a nutshell, the 14-member citizens commission would be comprised of 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and 4 independents. The commissioners would be selected through a process headed up by the California State Auditor, with legislative leaders able to reject some-- but not most-- of the nominees for the commission. And the criteria for drawing the state's 120 legislative districts are pretty simple, requiring districts that would pass the muster of federal voting rights laws and would also, when possible, be as compact and community-based as possible.

With homage to Mark Twain and his wry remarks about those who declare death too soon, the initiative to change how California's votes for the White House are counted is back... and may have enough cash to gather the needed signatures in only three weeks.

The initiative, which received nationwide attention this summer, would mean that California's 55 electoral votes would almost all be doled out by the presidential winner in each of the state's congressional districts. And given the wide swath of GOP red in inland California, that could give the Republican nominee as many electoral votes here as could be won in Ohio.

Longtime GOP attorney Tom Hiltachk, the author of the initiative, pulled out of the campaign several weeks ago. But it's now been revived by a group of conservatives that includes anti-tax crusader Lew Uhler and former 2003 recall campaigner Tony Andrade. Andrade submitted a similar initiative for circulation a few weeks before Hiltachk, but says he's put his own version "on ice," and is now focused on Hiltachk's version.

In a phone interview this afternoon, Andrade said that the campaign has amassed close to $3 million to get the roughly 434,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the June statewide ballot. He said that while volunteer signature gatherers are getting a buck per signature, paid gatherers could end up getting as much as $4 per signature by the time the dust has settled.

If that's true, even the narrow window left to qualify for the 2008 primary ballot could be made. Backers say they've been told they may need to have their signatures submitted to elections officials by as soon as mid-November.

So who's put up the cash? Andrade says that $2 million has come from what he calls a "national group," but declined to elaborate on their identity. The rest of the money, he says, comes from various social conservatives... including some who helped bankrolled the signature gathering for the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis.

If all of this comes to pass (and Andrade says the new cash-infused effort began yesterday), the Democrats will again take aim at what they claim are the partisan fingerprints on the plan.

"They're back," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane in an email this afternoon. "This Freddie Krueger of initiatives is back and once again, it appears the shadowy conservative forces behind this electoral hijacking are trying to hide where the money is coming from."

But political consultant Chris Wysocki, who has just signed on to the effort (and is also a veteran of the 2003 recall) says there will be full disclosure once the new campaign is up and running. "Californians have a right to know who's behind it," he said.

And perhaps more intriguing for political junkies: Wysocki says that even if the initiative has to wait until November... the same ballot with voters picking the next president... it could still take effect in 2008, because the Electoral College doesn't meet until December.

As the week comes to an end, there's some interesting new data compiled on the moolah presidential candidates are raising in California. In a word: lots.

The Center for Responsive Politics has compiled fundraising data on all the major party candidates, and finds that California is currently the #1 destination for picking up campaign cash in America. More than $51 million has been raised here for the 2008 race... slightly more than has been raised in New York (about $49 million) and far more than all other fundraising destinations.

Almost $14 million of the Cali cash has gone to Democrat Hillary Clinton; Mitt Romney leads Republicans in statewide fundraising at almost $7 million.

My favorite stat from the Center's analysis: a significant majority of the presidential cash raised in Bakersfield has been given to... I'm not kidding... Hillary Clinton. Bakersfield? That's generally thought to be deep in the heart of Republican California.

And the zip code in California that has given the most to presidential contenders... almost $1.6 million? Do you have to even ask?