You're angry. You want to punish the politicians. And so... if you're like your fellow Californian who's been polled in recent weeks... you're going to cast a vote for Proposition 1F with glee. Off with their heads, er, pay raises!

Prop 1F was the focus of this morning's final look at the May 19 special election on The California Report.

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[UPDATE 2:33pm - Apparently the governor was watching what happened, as described below. He's just announced three new members of the commission, thus filling all the vacancies. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says the governor supports the 10% lawmaker pay cut that failed to be enacted this morning, and says the guv was surprised that one of the standing commissioners voted against it. What do you think the odds are that these three new folks support the pay cut? --JM]

The intersection of populist anger, ballot measure directives, and unexpected legal intricacies could be found this morning at the scheduled meeting of the obscure commission that sets the salaries of elected officials.

When it was all over, those salaries remained just as they are... even as the state's finances keep crumbling down around them.
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Unless something incredibly crazy happens, here's the first and only campaign prediction you'll see on this newsblog: Proposition 1F is going to pass on May 19. Big time.

The last public poll showed a whopping 81% of voters surveyed like the measure to deny pay raises for elected officials in bad budget years for the state. Shocking, no?

But the foregone conclusion feeling surrounding Prop 1F begs the question... what is state Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) really selling on his new campaign website? The answer: a lot.
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