If you read my Commentary today, you’d know that I am wondering aloud at the appointment by Arnold Schwarzenegger of the California Teachers Association’s chief political strategist Joe Nunez to the State Board of Education. Nunez was appointed previously by the now-disgraced and recalled Governor Gray Davis but his term is expiring. Nunez is also the Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California (ABC) , the umbrulla group formed by all people anti-Schwarzenegger. If you don’t believe me, check out their website.

FR friend Dan Weintraub, a great columnist at the Sacramento Bee, penned an entry on this in his weblog today. Most of his piece is actually about the fact that the ABC has filed an FPPC complaint against Schwarzenegger after an appeals court ruling came down that notifications were not made in a timely fashion by the Governor’s committees formed to advocate the passage of Propositions 74, 75, 76 and 77 last year. Here is an excerpt from the end of his post (… Read More

The Wall Street Journal has released a Zogby Survey of Gubernatorial and Senate matchups around the United States. In California, they surveyed voters from March 22 – March 27, and report back that Governor Schwarzenegger is behind both of his opponents were the election held today, with Angelides besting him 45.5% to 40.7% and Westly by 47.1% to 40.7%.

Of course, the entire dynamic of this race will change when the is a strong ‘contrasting’ campaign taking place throughout the fall. But the key to a successful campaign of showing California voters the two distinctly difference choices they have between Schwarzenegger and his eventual Democratic opponent, be it Westly or Angelides, will be a campaign where the Governor campaigns on fiscally conservative themes, and takes on issues such as illegal immigration and property-rights abuse.

You can check out the Zogby survey here, or just click on the attachment below.… Read More

I first met Mike Richman when we were both working on the LA Mayors campaign of Republican Steve Soboroff in 2001. He then went on to be the Executive Director for the Republican Jewish Coalition in West LA. That is a long way from his current position as the head ground game manager for Johnson Clark Associates. In my neck of the woods he is overseeing the operations of conservative Assembly candidates Kevin Jefferies and Jim Ayres. I ran into Mike at a Jefferies for Assembly campaign meeting Thursday night. Mike does an amazing job of connecting with the grassroots volunteers of Riverside County. He does not come into a campaign HQ and play the roll of Sacramento Big Shot telling the little people what to do. Richman fits right into the mix.

Richman is destined to be one of the great political operatives of the next 20 years in California politics. He is bright, very hard working and has a great attitude for this business. He deeply cares about the craft he practices. Mike has his hand in almost all the Johnson Clark clients operations including Steve Poizner and Michelle Park Steel. Tim Clark did himself and his firm a great service when he brought… Read More

It may not be a shock to find out that there is bias in the school system on the issue of immigration. Onthis hallowed Cesar Chavez Day it may be worthy to look beyond stupid school tricks like sending buses to pick up protesting students.

Lets look at the curriculum being advocated here in Los Angeles by LA County School Superintendent Darlene Robles. Robles is co-chair of the Villagarosia Education Committee and of course has a Doctorate from USC.

Her office has put together a 90 page help for teachers. The intro claims that they are to “seek to understand and listen to all sides equally.” Page 10 then calls for teaching that is "culturally sensitive" and "anit-bias and pro-justice". However the next page starts the material from the Cesar E Chavez Foundation. Which includes giving time for students to plan protests or action plans. Page 19 has a comparison sheet for "support and resistance" to immigration reform with Government, Business, churches and workers on one side and no one listed on the other.

The other material all discuss social justice from a liberal or leftist perspective. Material from the ACLU is there.… Read More

Certainly the most intreguing news in California politics surrounds Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reappointment of Joe Nuñez to the State Board of Education earlier this week. You see, Nuñez is a State VP with the California Teachers Association — and according to the CTA’s President Barbara Kerr, Nuñez is actually in charge of their union’s legislative and political activities. Yes, this would include the massive assault on Governor Schwarzenegger and his reform agenda on last year’s special election ballot. Even better — Nuñez is actually the Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California, which is the actual front-group formed by the unions to fight the Governor. It has been postulated in at least one newspaper that Schwarzenegger may have re-appointed Nuñez in order to shepherd through the confirmation vote on his former State Education Secretary Alan Bersin, whom Schwarzenegger also appointed to the State Board of Education last year. Once appointed, you can serve up to a year without Senate confirmation, which Bersin has yet to get. As a matter of fact, his one-year is coming up soon. I… Read More

Certainly the most intreguing news in California politics surrounds Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reappointment of Joe Nuñez to the State Board of Education earlier this week. You see, Nuñez is a State VP with the California Teachers Association — and according to the CTA’s President Barbara Kerr, Nuñez is actually in charge of their union’s legislative and political activities. Yes, this would include the massive assault on Governor Schwarzenegger and his reform agenda on last year’s special election ballot. Even better — Nuñez is actually the Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California, which is the actual front-group formed by the unions to fight the Governor. It has been postulated in at least one newspaper that Schwarzenegger may have re-appointed Nuñez in order to shepherd through the confirmation vote on his former State Education Secretary Alan Bersin, whom Schwarzenegger also appointed to the State Board of Education last year. Once appointed, you can serve up to a year without Senate confirmation, which Bersin has yet to get. As a matter of fact, his one-year is coming up soon. I… Read More

A lot is happening in Orange County these days — and I have been remiss in keeping FR Blog readers up-to-date.

I’ll start with the most important news: the Wal-Mart near my house is now open 24 hours a day. OK, I admit that has zero impact on the lives of 99% of FR readers — but for a parent like me who is wont to forget until 11:00 o’clock at night that he’s supposed to bring 30 juice boxes to his daughter’s kindergarten class the next morning, it’s a very significant development. On to other news. This is the most litigious OC election season in my political memory. Tom Umberg unsuccessfully sued to have Lou Correa thrown off the 34th SD primary ballot. The Umberg camp felt they had maybe a 1 in 5 shot at winning the suit (based on the reluctance of judges to throw candidates off the ballot) — but you … Read More

Lets just look at the numbers, with minimal comments from me.

The raw numbers in AD 77

Anderson (Nygren) – 141k COH & 21k spent in period.

Beecham (Coronado) – 147k COH & 20k spent in period.

Beyer (Justin) – 85k COH & 10k spent in period. That’s pretty low COH for LaSuer’s candidate.

Dale (Wainio) – 82k COH & 38k spent in period. This campaign is spending a lot of money real early. My count shows 12k in finance and 9k in radio in this disclosure alone.

The raw numbers in AD 74

Garrick (Coronado) – 351k COH & 35k spent in period.

Packard (No Consultant) – No on-line filing. My understanding is that he has less than 35k COH.

Waldron (Gilliard) – 195k COH & 21k spent in period. Come on guys… right before every disclosure Waldron puts 100k in, and right after she takes it out. That’s nice cause the campaign can then claim to have raised 100k extra every time and at least on paper remain in the game for folks who dont pay that much attention. But in my book that means her campaign is actually at around… Read More