THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:Congressman endorses new iPhone

If you’ve called Newport Beach Rep. John Campbell in the last few days and he didn’t answer, you would have heard this message: “Hi! You have reached the iPhone of Congressman John Campbell, and I am very pleased to tell you that I am in the O.C. and will be here most of the time until Sept. 4. But after that I’ll be back in D.C., where the temperatures will go down and the rhetoric will heat up. Until then you can leave me a message, and I’ll get back to you. Thanks. Bye!”

The message is elaborate but not unusual — reporters and others who regularly call Campbell know his outgoing phone message changes frequently and includes a likely scripted explanation of where the congressman might be at the moment that prevents him from taking your call — long-winded hearings, a floor vote or occasionally an amusement such as golf.

But what’s new is the phone. Campbell is one of those “early adopters” who jump on new technology, and in this case he’s endorsing it. “I got it the first week that they came out,” he said when reached on his iPhone this week. “I love it.”

He doesn’t have a favorite feature, he said. It’s the combination of getting e-mails with pictures and web links, having all the phone functions, and being able to play music. He even got rid of his iPod and now has his 1,600 songs stored in the phone. So what’s in heavy rotation?

“It’ll probably be some Tom Petty, some John Cougar Mellencamp, and maybe some ’60s stuff,” he said. Campbell said he hasn’t had any problems with the iPhone yet — though the sound coming from his end was notably crackly and broke up a bit — but he does suggest a few improvements, like better synchronization with your computer for calendar functions.

 Group pledges support for pension proposal

Orange County GOP fundraising group the Lincoln Club last week pledged its support for Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry’s proposal to give voters power over future pension boosts for city employees.

If the Newport Beach City Council agrees next month, Curry’s proposal would go on the ballot next year. The measure would change the city charter to require voter approval of any future increases in employee pension benefits.

It’s the latest of a growing number of attempts to curb the costs of public employee benefits, which in some cases have caused huge fiscal liabilities. Newport Beach’s public safety employee unions are expected to oppose the measure, and representatives have said it undermines their collective bargaining rights.

“Unfunded pension liabilities for public employees have reached a crisis point statewide,” Lincoln Club leaders wrote in an Aug. 22 letter, adding Curry’s proposal is “a much-needed, common-sense step toward restoring the city’s long-term financial health, and one that we hope other cities and counties, including the county of Orange, will follow.”

Curry said Wednesday the council’s finance committee this week voted to send the measure to the full council. He’s not yet sure whether it would appear on the presidential primary ballot in February or the statewide primary in June.

 Rep. Rohrabacher gives endorsements

Now that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said he will quit in September, Huntington Beach Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is hoping a strong advisor rather than a yes man will be brought in to fill the post, he said this week.

Gonzales was a weak attorney general, Rohrabacher said Tuesday — but he’s not to blame for what Rohrabacher believes was unjust prosecution of two border patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and not following procedures.

The congressman hasn’t heard anything about who the next attorney general might be, but “by and large, the president’s appointments have been disappointing,” he said, specifically noting former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, who many said bungled New Orleans hurricane relief.

Rohrabacher wasn’t surprised to see Gonzales go, and he said won’t miss President Bush too much either when his term ends.

“I will not be sorry when the president slams the door behind him on his last day,” Rohrabacher said.