At today’s Vista Chamber of Commerce lunch Mayor Morris Vance spent well over a half an hour describing how he favors either a 1/2 cent sales tax increase or a property transfer tax to build a new civic center. Of course, there would be a new City Hall in the civic center. Morris Vance, for those of you not from North San Diego County was the former Vista city manager. The City of Vista is a largely Republican, conservative turf with representatives like Darrell Issa, Bill Morrow, and Mark Wyland. Hardly tax and spend turf… particularly if the taxing and spending is for new government buildings.… Read More

When the smoke cleared, there was no fire on this particular rumor…

Over the weekend, I reported on the rumor that Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative Affairs, Richard Costigan, was leaving soon to take a position in the private sector. As I said, I’d received a half a dozen different contacts on this, and so I reservedly shared the rumor with FR readers. Well, this morning I had an opportunity to "ping" that rumor with someone who would definately know if this is true or not. It’s not. While invariably Richard will leave the Governor’s staff at some point (he is in one of those "24/7"… Read More

People in positions of power inevitably attract the ‘crazies’ people who 1) have a lot of time on their hands, 2) passionately believe in something, however misguided their belief is, and 3) take action to show the world how crazy they are.

Well our own Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona is no different from any other high profile elected official. Last week the crazies came out to protest him. It wasn’t clear why they were protesting although the wife of a candidate who is opposing the sheriff was there according to the Orange County Register.

Outside of that handful of crazies, the rest of Orange County is solidly behind the Sheriff. Illustrating my point: Diane Harkey who is running for 35th Senate District brags about her endorsement from the Sheriff in the same column in today’s OC Register. As Harkey’s pollster you can bet I only advise her to promote endorsements who play well with the voters.

Also on the Carona front, the Register points out he has $340,000+ in the bank. I will let the Carona campaign… Read More

FR FEATURED IN THE CHRONICLE Yesterday, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci penned a very flattering piece on this website, which appeared on the front page of the second section of the paper! It is a great read, and a lot of folks say some very flattering things. Please take an opportunity to check it out! (This photo to the right is me working on this site – a photographer came to my home in the early hours of last Wednesday morning!)

MARK LENO: PRO-CRIMINAL Today’s lead feature column in the FR is an eye-opening piece from Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (pictured to… Read More

FR FEATURED IN THE CHRONICLE Yesterday, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci penned a very flattering piece on this website, which appeared on the front page of the second section of the paper! It is a great read, and a lot of folks say some very flattering things. Please take an opportunity to check it out! (This photo to the right is me working on this site – a photographer came to my home in the early hours of last Wednesday morning!)

MARK LENO: PRO-CRIMINAL Today’s lead feature column in the FR is an eye-opening piece from Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (pictured to… Read More

A new arena for the Kings has been the top issue in the Sacramento region for the better part of two years.

There is no desire from the community to have an arena funded with any taxpayer dollars, Sacramento doesn’t have the corporate base to fund the building of a new arena and Mayor Fargo along with the City’s leadership are so backwater that they couldn’t cut a deal if it was handed to them — which it was 6 months ago.

Some large land owners were asking the city to expedite the entitlements on property that is sure to be developed in the future. In exchange, the property owners would put up money from the profits to build a new arena at a to-be-determined location.

The city’s leadership failed to bring the parties together quickly enough, so a couple of land owners backed out of the deal at the last minute.

My crystal ball shows that it is extremely unlikely that an arena deal will get done in… Read More

I really don’t know Steve Frank very well, but one thing that’s always struck me is that Steve has the guts to question authority. He may not know it, but my sense is that he from the Bronx is not that much different than me from Michigan. Below is his latest tidbit of the week that I think is worth thinking about. Nice work Steve….here is a reprint of what Steve asked each of us aloud.

TIDBIT OF THE WEEK

Polls in January mean little in November. The real issue is whether the Democrats now "approving" of Arnold, will stay with him, or as they usually do, return home to the Democrat Party. Can Arnold energize the Republican base when even the GOP’ers in the Assembly don’t want Obligation Bonds and more debt. Except for the first couple of weeks after the Kennedy appointment, no public words from Senator Jim Brulte or Governor Pete Wilson in support of the… Read More

I had the opportunity to meet Mike Spence in person for the second time and he’s nothing like what I expected. Really smart, thoughtful, and friendly as can be. Not the right wing ogre I’ve read about in the papers. Because I’m not an activist, I understand why I may never be viewed as a part of the movement Mike (and others) lead, but I continually find myself agreeing with his posts. (ok enough with the sucking up baldie) His thoughts on inter party wars past contained in his post the other day and his references to “McCarthy” and “machines” resulted in a change to the direction of this piece…one I’ve been futzing with for days now.

At the outset the piece was to be called Should I Stay or Should I Go?,… Read More