Excerpted from The Record
By Daniel Thigpen
Record Staff Writer
November 10, 2009

SACRAMENTO - They haven't come together on much lately, but there was one thing Assemblywoman Alyson Huber and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office could agree on Monday: Plastic crates full of postcards are heavy.

The Democratic lawmaker, whose district includes portions of San Joaquin County and the Delta, continued her public protest of Schwarzenegger's support for a peripheral canal with an early morning photo op outside his Capitol office, where she hand-delivered an estimated 2,000 postcards from concerned constituents.

The postage-paid correspondence - detached from anti-canal mailers Huber circulated late last month - came from all over her district spanning San Joaquin, Sacramento, El Dorado and Amador counties.

They carried brief messages and many exclamation points, from "impeach!" and "is he crazy!!" to "this idea is simply ridiculous!"

Huber again chided the governor for his pro-canal comments last week during a visit to Stockton, where the idea of sending water past, rather than through, the Delta has virtually zero support.

"It's a little like wearing a Dodgers jersey to a Giants game," Huber said, echoing an oft-repeated one-liner, on the day Schwarzenegger was set to sign an $11 billion water bond measure that would pay for new dams, groundwater banking, Delta restoration and other water projects if approved by voters next year.

The package of legislation lawmakers passed last week does not authorize a canal but delegates such a decision to a new seven-member council. Four members of that panel would be appointed by the governor.

"What it does is it takes that authority out of the hands of the Legislature and puts it in the hands of a bunch of unelected bureaucrats," said Huber, whose bill to put the canal to a statewide vote was killed in the California Assembly last week.

Moments later, Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger, stepped outside the double doors of the governor's office to take the hefty postal load from Huber, who was straining a bit from the weight.

He reiterated Schwarzenegger's canal support and hailed the water package. "The governor's very proud of our historic accomplishment last week," he said.

Then he set down the crate. "I went to the gym this morning," McLear said.

Contact reporter Daniel Thigpen at (209) 546-8254 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Excerpted from the Amador Ledger Dispatch By Roger Phelps
Thursday, October 22, 2009

Salaries for a never-audited body of state boards and commissions are still a target for Assemblywoman Alyson Huber despite a Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger veto of her bill to force an ongoing series of audits.

Assembly Bill 579 was vetoed Oct. 11. Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) got backing of both houses of the State Legislature for her proposed audit of "the bloated salaries of ex-legislators and the politically connected who are appointed to state boards and commissions." She noted Schwarzenegger is on public record himself as pointing public scrutiny toward some board salaries.

"It is unfortunate that despite the governor's own call for reform of state boards and commissions, he chose to veto AB 579," Huber said.

The bill passed out of both houses of the State Legislature with "overwhelming" bipartisan support, said Jennifer Wonnacott, spokeswoman for Huber.

Schwarzenegger in a veto message to legislators said, "I am supportive of the intent of this bill to audit the workload of salaried board members or commissioners, beginning with the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. However, the legislature already has a process in place through its Joint Legislative Audit Committee, to request audits conducted by the California State Auditor on virtually any state operation. Therefore, the statutory authorization to do so in this bill is unnecessary."

Excerpted from: Mother Lode News
By Mike Roberts
October 11, 2009

EL DORADO HILLS - Residents here turned out in force last week for a pair of informative transportation meetings - and turned the heat up on an issue that's been simmering in the little understood Transportation Commission since former El Dorado County Supervisors Rusty Dupray and Helen Baumann were in office.

Last Monday El Dorado Hills was brought up to speed on the large road projects in the area in a prime time Department of Transportation show-and-tell. A day later an estimated 160 residents and government officials overflowed the El Dorado Hills Library meeting room. Most were there to lobby for greater representation on the county Transportation Commission.

The county Transportation Commission is not a county agency. It lobbies for and eventually "programs" federal and state road and trail dollars, which make up less than half of Western Slope road spending annually.

The six member commission is currently made up of three county supervisors, two of whom represent El Dorado Hills: John Knight and Ray Nutting. Three Placerville City Council members also sit on the commission, one of whom is Jack Sweeney, who represents Placerville's district.

Excerpted from: Mother Lode News
By Mike Roberts
October 05, 2009

El Dorado County's two fresh-faced Assembly members made a rare joint appearance at the El Dorado County Association of Realtors annual Government Officials Luncheon on Friday.

Rookie District 10 Democrat Alyson Huber hails from El Dorado Hills, the only portion of the county in her district, which includes parts of three other counties. Republican Ted Gaines resides in Roseville. He won District 4, which includes the balance of El Dorado County, in 2006.

At first blush, these two well-spoken local "pols" seem to come from opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, but the room full of real estate professionals, developers and a who's who in local government were, for the most part, impressed by the refreshingly cooperative bipartisanship they witnessed on Friday.

This ideological odd couple has found large land masses of common political ground upon which to lay the foundations for a better California.

Huber, the more effusive of the pair, said she and Gaines agree on much more than they disagree on, specifically, "We agree on reforming how we govern the state of California, and also on tax reform."