Your attention, please

Who in the California Legislature will fail to deliver health care reform next?

Now that voters here have rejected term-limit reforms proposed in Proposition 93, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez must step down at the end of the year and the race is on to become his successor.

La Canada-Flintridge Democrat Anthony Portantino tossed the first hat into the ring, officially speaking. At least 10 others have expressed interest.

Portantino seems a long shot at best. He is neither Latino nor from the city of Los Angeles, so I'd guess press coverage is about all he's going to get out of his campaign. Real players usually wait for the press to call them rather than the other way around.

Which brings us to Assemblyman Charles Calderon from the City of Industry. He sent yellow roses to all the women in the lower house to encourage their support. Do you think he paid for them out of his own pocket?

The Sacramento Bee says the front-runner in the race appears to be Assemblywoman Karen Bass. That seems a safe bet, even if she does have to leave office in 2010. Bass hails from Los Angeles, she's black, she serves on the health committee and she's a woman - an irresistible combination for California Democrats in a year in which Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are knocking down barriers.

Better yet, the Bee says she has union support.