Months into California’s budget stalemate and less than 24 hours into his tenure as California’s Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth is already holding a $1,000-a-head fundraiser (thanks to Capitol Weekly for posting).  So, other than it just being an utterly insane PR move, doesn’t the new Republican leader have a little more to be doing with his time than carousing with special interests?  Is he expecting the taxpayers he’s so vocally speaking out for, who can’t afford the proposed budget, to fete him with thousand dollar donations, or is it more likely that his donors will be the corporate special interests who won about $1 billion in tax breaks in this budget, as the LA Times reported Saturday:

About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks — directed mostly at
multi-state and multinational companies — is tucked into the proposal.
Opponents say the breaks will do nothing to create jobs, and the
Legislature has rejected such moves repeatedly in the past. But now, to
secure enough Republican votes to pass a budget that would raise taxes
on everyone else, the Legislature is poised to write them into law with
no public hearings at a time when the state treasury is almost out of
cash.

If, at 5:30, Hollingsworth actually walks into Cosmo Cafe — 1000 ‘K’ St, Sacramento, if you’re in the neighborhood with a video camera — and has the gall to take campaign donations in the midst of this budget crisis, I predict that he will not long serve as minority leader.  To be that completely tone deaf is mind-boggling.

I’m not sure if there are other fundraisers tonight — and they all should be cancelled if there are — but for Hollingsworth to come out of the gate with a flyer soliciting big moneyed interests to "a Reception in Support of the NEW Senate Republican Leader" is just awful. 

If you are able to get there and take a photo of Hollingsworth scoring some special interest cash, please e-mail your photos to [email protected]