Editorialists take on Sacramento

At least eleven of Dean Singleton's California newspapers ran front-page editorials today criticizing the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to resolve a months-old budget impasse. From the AP:

[San Jose] Mercury News Editor Dave Butler, who also serves as vice president for news for the chain's papers, said he thought the front page placement was needed to underscore the issue's importance. He said each newspaper's editor made an independent decision about whether to run the editorial out front.

Here's a sample of the outrage from the Los Angeles Daily News:

Californians should be furious. We are.

That's why the Daily News is taking the rare step of running an editorial on the front page. This inaction is so serious that it threatens the economic stability of every resident and business of this state.

We encourage others to raise their voices as well. The political cost of delay must become too high for lawmakers to cling to principles that grim economic reality have rendered meaningless.

It should be noted that most of these same newspapers shuttered their Sacramento bureaus within the last few years.

Shrinking in Sacramento

Reporters are becoming as hard to come by in Sacramento as budget deals.

On this day 74 of the Great Budget Impasse, we learn veteran political reporter Bill Ainsworth, of the San Diego Union-Tribune, has agreed to take a company buyout and will be leaving at the end of the month. His colleague in Sacramento, Bill Mendel, has applied for the buyout as well.

Their rush to early retirement is surely hastened by reports that the U-T is on the chopping block.

Ainsworth's departure is part of a depressing trend in Sacramento, as bureaus that had beefed up when Gov. Schwarzenegger first swept into office now cut back or close down altogether. The Sacramento Bee reports that both the San Francisco Chronicle and Orange County Register are down to a single reporter.

Sacramento uncovered

Capitol Morning Report reports three newspapers have folded their Sacramento bureaus in the past couple of months. The latest was the Orange County Register, which continues to have a reporter in Sacramento, except that he now works out of his apartment.

The Stockton Record and the Los Angeles Daily Journal shuttered their bureaus at the end of May and fired their reporters. A friend of mine in the Governor's press office said there's a running joke that since television is the only media still around, they might as well lay off the rest of their press secretaries and save the state some money.

Here's the release from last month's Morning Report:

The Orange County Register closed its Sacramento bureau this week though reporter Brian Joseph will continue to cover the Capitol from an office in his home, an apartment at 16th and O streets. Politics editor Julie Gallego reports the office is closing "as part of an ongoing effort to save costs." It seems only a short time ago that the Register's office was expanded to accommodate a staff of five about the time Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor. The bureau is the third Capitol news bureau to close in the past few weeks. The Stockton Record closed on May 29 laying off reporter Hank Shaw and the LA Daily Journal closed its bureau in April and laid off reporter Linda Rapattoni on May 30.

The Daily Journal's Capitol bureau used to be a two-person operation, most recently with Rapattoni and me splitting coverage of state politics. I left for KCRW and she stuck around until they killed off the bureau entirely. She was just hired as press secretary for state Sen. Gloria Romero. Here's that press release:

Sen. Gloria Romero has announced hiring Linda Rapattoni to be her press secretary. She'll be handling the media while Communications Director Russ Lopez is working on press conferences on budgetary issues for pro Tem Don Perata. Rapattoni, 54, had covered the Legislature and state government the last eight years for the San Francisco and Los Angeles Daily Journals, two legal dailies owned by the same publishing company. At the end of May Rapattoni was laid off as part of a corporate cost-cutting measure. During her 30-year career in journalism, Rapattoni also worked for Daily Variety, Copley News Service and UPI in Los Angeles and Arizona. Contact: Rapattoni 916 651-4024.

In related news: Jack Kavanagh, who runs the indispensable Rough & Tumble Web site, has yet to return from what he said was a bout with the stomach flu. In a message left on Saturday, July 12, Kavanagh said he was heading to the hospital for treatment and would update the site as soon as he was released.