Later today, State Senator Jeff Denham will formally announce his candidate to be the next Lieutenant Governor of California, according to sources close to the FlashReport. Denham has become rather legendary within GOP donor and activist circles because of the failed attempt to recall him from office because of his leadership in opposing new taxes to resolve the state’s fiscal woes. As someone who follows Golden State politics closely, I welcome Denham into this race as his moxie, and straight-forward style are much desired with a party in need of solid representatives, who will clearly articulate the differences between Democrats and Republicans.

Denham is a tough and aggressive campaigner who has carried his huge Democratic-leaning Senate district – which spans the Central Valley to the Monterey Coast – 3 times. Denham was first elected in 2002 and re-elected in a landslide in 2006. As I mentioned above, earlier this year,… Read More

I serve on the Yolo Solano Air Quality Management District. In fact, in January I am scheduled to be the Chair of the district. This morning I lost on a 10-2 vote regarding some proposed amendments to the "Motor Vehicle and Mobile Equipment Coating Operations".

The vote was everyone on the Board against myself and my fellow Yolo County Supervisor Duane Chamberlain. I tend to lose quite a few votes either 3-2 or 4-1 so that is not what had me thiking about this one vote all day.

The agenda and staff report are here. I draw your attention to point 6 of the rule requirements in the staff report.

As someone that believes in limited govenrment and truly desires smaller more efficient government I am often faced with trying to help make government programs run efficiently that I don’t necessarily believe in. That is not the case with the air district. The staff is exceptional and the results that have been acheived in terms of air quality are clear.

That part that bugs me is that we set up a regulation that prohibits people from… Read More

This came in from the Governor’s office in response to my blog post below:

Earlier today Governor Schwarzenegger held a press conference, blasting state legislators for not resolving the budget crisis. We’re on our way to "fiscal armageddon" he said, announcing that the state’s fiscal hole is getting deeper by about $40 million each and every day that goes by without a resolution. Yeah, we get that.

But the Governor is living in a very simplistic world if he thinks that, from his first floor conference room, he can blast away indiscriminately at "the legislature" and expect that this is going to resolve the substantial differences that divide Democrats who want to raise taxes, and Republicans who — don’t, and won’t.

Frankly, I don’t see where the Governor is really accomplishing much of anything. He was clearly elected with a mandate from the voters to oppose new taxes, and yet has thrown that to the wind as he has developed some sort of "Solomon like" simplistic view of resolving the state’s fiscal woes — "let’s figure out the level of the program and cut half of it,… Read More

SEIU’s Plan for Belt-tightening (For You, Not SEIU)

… Read More

History. That is the secret to the budget solution in this case. It is a real simple solution. A difficult one politically, but simple in its explanation.

This is how it is done. First, get a reasonable estimate of the revenue. Second, find the last budget year in which that amount of revenue was received by the state. Next, find the budget from that year, and go through it line item by line item. Finally, set the budget amounts of each line item this year at that year’s level. That is the solution. There can be variations on that theme. The money from line items that are eliminated or reduced because those items are not that important can be added to other items so that the hit on those items is not as great, but the baseline can be that year.

Here is the good news. I haven’t done the research, but I can just about guarantee that the year in which the baseline can be set will be one of the last three years. Look at budget year 2005-06, or 06-07, or even 07-08, the year is one of those three. Wind back the hands of time. The world didn’t collapse because of spending levels in those years, people could understand and… Read More

The recent story about the boy who was held for a year against his will in Tracy and physically abused should make our state leaders reflect on the success of our child welfare system and how serious the courts deal with child abuse.

The facts around this case are horrifying. The boy was sent to live with his “aunt” Caren Ramirez (although authorities now say that there is no relation) after his being removed from his father’s care because of abuse. It’s unclear from press account how he was placed with Ramirez, but after Ramirez daughter called authorities to report the abuse, the boy was sent to a foster care home and Ramirez was jailed. Eighteen months later, the boy ran away from the home in Tracy where Ramirez and two other adults had been brutally abusing him.

Just last September, the Bay Area was rattled by the death of a 15-year-old foster child in her aunt’s care.… Read More

14 of the 29 Assembly Republicans serve in a broad leadership structure that is hand-picked by Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines.

Today Villines announced his team and we'll start by going straight to the most interesting picks first — who did Villines tap to represent the large freshman class on his leadership team? Serving as Whips are Assemblyman Jim Nielson (not surprising as he is a former State Senator), Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, and my own Assemblyman, Jeff Miller. Congratulations to all three of you!

Last week Villines announced that his #2, serving as Caucus Chairman, is Cameron Smyth. Rounding out the team: Floor Manager: Sam Blakeslee. Assistant Leaders: Roger Niello, Bill Emmerson, Van Tran, Martin Garrick and Ted Gaines. Chief Republican Whips: Anthony Adams, Chuck DeVore and Jean Fuller.… Read More