‘Ag Day’ Evokes Fond Memories of Austrian Farm

With the Jolly Green Giant a no-show, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger observed “Ag Day,” honoring California agriculture, with a speech on the Capitol steps last week. His remarks were perfumed with lines like, “You farmers and we here at the state Capitol, we have a lot in common. We deal a lot with a lot of manure, don’t we, huh?” He himself is “very familiar with farming,” from his Austrian boyhood, when “I milked the cows.... I went to cut the grass, fed the animals and picked crops.” He adjourned to a celebration of California’s bounty -- fruits and nuts (of course), vegetables and “livestock displays, music, food, fun and festivities.” All that abundance was spread over the west steps of the Capitol. Meanwhile, 90 degrees away, on the south steps, the Animal Protection Institute dished out free vegan hot dogs and burgers for the 20th annual Great American Meatout. For those who missed the point of the meatless meals, the group showed “When Pigs Cry,” an undercover videotape of goings-on at the nation’s pig farms. (Pigs’ intelligence ranks with toddlers; they rate just behind apes and dolphins on the nonhuman smarts scale.) Next year, will the governor go for vegan schnitzel? When pigs fly

Departing Leader Takes Shot at the Party

The party’s over for Tom Fuentes -- maybe in more ways than one. After 20 years as chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, Fuentes is departing the post. As he closed the door behind him on the way out, he fired a parting salvo at the way the GOP has changed in two decades, now that a “liberal moneyed elite,” he says, is tainting the GOP’s ideological purity.

One of the beneficiaries of this “liberal moneyed elite” -- liberal is a relative term in Orange County, remember -- was sitting right behind Fuentes: Van Tran, who won an Assembly seat thanks to that “elite,” the New Majority, which has become the state’s biggest check-writing GOP political action committee.

Fuentes wasn’t thinking of Tran, but of Assembly candidate Cristi Cristich, who had the backing of the New Majority -- a candidate, Fuentes fulminated, who “became a Republican for Clinton.” She lost to conservative Chuck DeVore, a result that made Fuentes “unabashedly joyful.”

Naming Rights May Take More Than Money

Ever since L.A. decided to consider corporate licensing, the barbs just haven’t stopped (“This intersection brought to you by Smuckers

A Cuervo spokesman says contact was made with the mayor’s office, and “they wanted more money than that,” but Jim Hahn’s office said it hadn’t heard a word about it.

For once, L.A. isn’t leading the wacky way. Snapple pays more than $3 million a year to be the official beverage of New York City; Coke ponies up $600,000 a year to Huntington Beach, and PepsiCo has the lock on San Diego for almost $2 million a year. (What do they get for that? Pop-ups on city websites? Being the “Official Beverage of the City Council?”) A dozen years ago, Paramount posed a 75-foot-tall metal cartoon character from its forgettable film “Cool World” atop the letter “D” on the Hollywood sign for several days. For the privilege, Paramount paid $27,000 to the city and $27,000 to the post-riot group Rebuild L.A. That sounds like chump change compared with a million, but as a daily rate it comes out to more than $3 million a year. No wonder Cuervo’s offer went nowhere.

Council member Eric Garcetti, who brought up the naming-rights idea along with Mayor Hahn, says his “insta-polls” show almost unanimous public support to “do stuff like make Arrowhead the official water of L.A., if it makes us money.” Council member Dennis Zine thinks it ought to be a bidding war -- like for motorcycle manufacturers to get bragging rights as the official motorcycle of the LAPD. Harleys v. Beemers -- gentlemen, start your bidding!

March Madness Around City Hall

March madness -- it’s not just for college guys in short pants.

Around L.A.’s City Hall, Council member Tony Cardenas has a reputation for being something of a softy, getting weepy in City Council meetings over little children and farmworkers and dead people. But put him on a basketball court, and watch out. A recent session of round ball put two Cardenas staff members in finger splints.

In an election night match -- one of the regular Tuesday night series between Cardenas and Council President Alex Padilla -- his spokeswoman, Stacy Bellew, wound up with a broken middle finger. And chief of staff Jose Cornejo has been roaming the city’s marbled halls with a bandaged pinky finger he swears was a casualty. Both staff members also swear that Cardenas didn’t lay a finger on them. (Gadfly alert: They’re not filing workers’ comp claims.)

More of basketball on the brain: Republican Bill Simon, who ran for governor in 2002 and wants to run for treasurer in 2006, was host for a fundraiser for Democrat Bill Rosendahl, a nonpartisan candidate for City Council next year. Simon told his guests that it was the 19th anniversary of his first date with his future wife, Cindy. Only after he made the date did he realize it was the night of the NCAA basketball championship game. He considered calling to postpone, but figured he’d better not. When he turned up at 6:30 p.m. as scheduled, Cindy said, “Can I ask a favor? The game’s on -- can we finish watching it before we go?”

Points Taken

* An endowed scholarship in environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara has been set up to honor former Santa Barbara County supervisor and City Council member Tom Rogers, who is suffering Lou Gehrig’s disease; after his diagnosis, locals staged bake sales, fish fries and concerts to pay off Rogers’ mortgage, then began raising money for the scholarship fund.

* Every year, each state lawmaker chooses someone from the district to be “woman of the year.” This year, Rialto Democratic Assemblyman John Longville chose ... his wife. Susan Lien Longville was presented with a certificate on the floor of the Assembly, went to a reception in her honor, and gets another one thrown for her next month. So what else is new? Two years ago, Montebello Democratic Assemblyman Thomas M. Calderon named his wife woman of the year. Must be cheaper than a night on the town.

* L.A. City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo has a new constituent -- his wife, Michelle, gave birth to their second son, Preston James, joining 2-year-old Christian (who’s now 14 years from a driver’s license, 16 years from voting).

You Can Quote Me

“A lot of the stories about Tom just aren’t true. He’s not hard-core, he’s soft-core.”

-- Orange County Republican Party official Bob Zemel, in his curious tribute to departing county GOP Chairman Tom Fuentes.

Patt Morrison’s columns appear Mondays and Tuesdays. Her e-mail address is patt.mor rison@latimes.com. Her earlier columns can be read at www.la times.com/morrison.

This week’s contributors include Times staff writers Jessica Garrison, Hugo Martin and Jean O. Pasco.