I'm thinking of suing the state for legislative pay. As a voter. To secure the vote of Republican state senator Abel Maldonado, a holdout whose vote is needed to pass a massive budget compromise bill in California, Democrats are considering Maldonado's demand for three ballot measures, the Sacramento Bee reports. The measures would create an open, or "top two" primary for the state, prohibit legislative pay raises if the budget is in deficit, and prevent lawmakers from receiving salaries if the budget is not passed on time.

Those three measures would be on top of the five other ballot measures required by other aspects of the deal. In all, Californians would have to vote on eight measures that are part of a mega-compromise. None of the measures are simple. They include changes to the state's education funding formula, the reversal of previous ballot initiatives on early childhood education and mental health, a new spending cap for the state, and a plan to borrow against future lottery revenues.

For decades, California permitted "cross filing" -- candidates for office could run for both the Democratic and Republican nominations. This practice was often used by popular Republicans (among them Earl Warren) in the first half of the 20th century, an era of Republican dominance in the state.

Now comes State Sen. Abel Maldonado, who is running for re-election. Maldonado is that rarest of creatures in the Californis state legislature -- the moderate Republican, a voice of reason in a partisan world gone mad. (He was the only Republican to vote for last year's budget negotiated by Democrats and Gov. Schwarzenegger). Maldonado's only Democratic opponent is a write-in candidate. In order to beat that opponent in the primary, Maldonado has filed as a write-in candidate in the Democratic primary. If Maldonado gets more votes than his write-in Democratic opponent, he'll be the Democratic and Republican nominee in the fall. Apparently, when cross filing was banned in 1954, they failed to close the loophole allowing write-in candidacies. (Hat tip: Calitics and Sacramento Bee).