New Assembly Republican leader Sam Blakeslee announced his new leadership team, according to the Sacramento Bee…and it is incredibly lame.
Here is the new GOP lineup, with mostly unknown legislators from every backwater you can imagine:
- The new whips, responsible for helping to coordinate floor operations, are Tom Berryhill of Modesto, Connie Conway of Tulare, Steve Knight of Palmdale, and Brian Nestande of Palm Desert.
- Blakeslee, of San Luis Obispo, previously announced the selections of Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita as caucus chairman; Ted Gaines, Roseville, caucus floor leader; and two deputy floor managers — Mike Duvall, of Yorba Linda, and Curt Hagman, of Chino Hills.
- Jim Nielsen, of Gerber, will serve in a new caucus position, chairman of Ways and Means. As the Assembly GOP’s point man on fiscal issues, he will serve as vice chairman of both the Assembly Appropriations and Budget committees.
- Moorpark’s Audra Strickland will lead efforts to build caucus cohesion; Jean Fuller, of Bakersfield, will strive to make district operations more efficient; and Bill Berryhill, of Ceres, will coordinate member services in an attempt to improve the caucus’s support system.
Seriously? Modesto, Tulare, Palmdale, Palm Desert, Santa Claria, Bakersfield, Chino Hills and Yorba Linda? Really? That’s your Republican legislative team? Good grief…this looks like a Minor League lineup!
So there are 13 “leaders” to oversee less than thirty caucus members? Those are the sort of odds that Republicans used to make jokes about. Maybe there’s something in the Sacramento water.