Don Perata

State Senate Pro Tem Don PerataThe national convention party for California state senators is cancelled until there's a new state budget, State Sen. Pro Temp Don Perata (D-Oakland) announced Tuesday.

With a budget more than 50 days overdue and other bills still awaiting action, Perata said in a release, the state senate will remain in session through at least the end of the month.

That would affect Democrats planning to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver, which starts Monday, and could have an impact on Republicans planning to head to St. Paul, Minn., for the Republican National Convention, which begins Sept. 1.

An event last week to help state Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Merced) retire debt from an unsuccessful recall campaign raised more than $65,000, according to a spokesman for Denham's anti-recall campaign.

Kevin Spillane said an August 14 fundraiser in Sacramento raised at least that much, with checks from the event still coming in.

Say what you want about California's powerful state prison guards union but never under estimate they're ability to know the political score in Sacramento.

With a tip of the PolitickerCA.com cap to Josh Richman over at the Oakland Tribune, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association last Friday dropped a whopping $250,000 into the Leadership California committee's accounts, reports filed with the Secretary of State's office show.

Adding to the likelihood that Sunday's budget vote in the State Assembly will be in vain, the State Senate is not scheduled to meet for a budget vote this weekend.

A brief note Friday afternoon from the office of State Sen. Pro Temp Don Perata (D-Oakland) said senators would not meet over the weekend, with a note that the situation could change.

State legislative Republican leaders made another push for a spending cap and rainy-day fund Friday to accompany any agreement on a much-overdue state budget.

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines and State Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill both made that push in advance of a committee hearing this afternoon on a Republican-sponsored bill that would put those mechanisms in place.

California Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata told the Sacramento Bee Wednesday morning that Democrats have negotiated key points of a compromise state budget with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and that he considers negotiations over.

Perata, (D-Oakland) said the compromise plan includes a major concession by Democrats -- a spending cap to limit annual state expenditures.

OAKLAND - The man authorities believe carjacked state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and who is believed to have fired shots that paralyzed a boy during an unrelated robbery, has been indicted by a grand jury this week.

The Alameda County Grand Jury indicted Jared Adams, 25, of Oakland and two other defendants officials last month, officials told the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday.

On Dec. 29, carjackers stole Perata's state-issued red 2006 Dodge Charger with 22-inch rims as he waited at a light at 51st Street and Shattuck Avenue.

On Jan. 10, Christopher Rodriguez was practicing the piano at the Harmony Road Music School when Adams allegedly robbed a gas station across the street and fired shots at an employee calling police, authorities told the Chronicle. One of the bullets fired hit Rodrigquez, leaving him gravely wounded and permanently paralyzed.

State Senate leaders called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday to exempt state corrections officers from his executive order cutting pay for about 180,000 state workers to federal minimum wage.

In a joint statement, State Senate Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) said cutting prison guard pay would put public safety at risk.

Three members of the House Judiciary Committee have recently written a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking him to begin a probe of alleged leaks from law enforcement officials to the news media on the federal corruption probe of state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.

In a July 31 letter to Mukasey, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mi.) and California House members Linda Sanchez (D-Cerritos) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) complained about alleged leaks from the Perata investigation appearing recently in newspapers around California and in particular, the San Francisco Chronicle.

Their letter to Mukasey sums up this way:

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines (R-Clovis) called on legislative Democrats Wednesday to put their proposal for a 2008-09 budget up to a vote.

"Nearly a month ago, Democrats on the conference committee put forward a budget proposal that increases taxes on working families by $9 billion, cuts local public safety programs and does nothing to reform the budget system," Villines said in a statement released by his office.  "If these are their priorities then they should be willing to bring them up in a public debate."