What happens when the big hitters like Senator John Kerry come to California to start bringing the Democrat faithful home for Angelides? They stay home.

Only 75 people showed up for this rally at a half-empty West Hollywood gymnasium.

We all know that Angelides is only getting only 55% – 60% of Democrat voters and he needs to be in the mid 70 range to be competitive. Everybody is anticipating those voters to come home for him, but when? Time is winding down.

If somebody could get a picture of the empty gymnasium, I’d be happy to share it.

A hat tip to Bill Bradley’s New West Notes for the link.… Read More

You have to love the internet and the creative team over at the California Republican Party.

We all know that the major defining issue between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Phil Angelides is that Republican Schwarzenegger has made a strong a firm commitment against raising taxes or fees on Californians while Democrat Angelides has already pledged to raise over $18 billion in new taxes as Governor (and that number is probably low).

So now you have to check THIS out. There is a new perfect "mascot" for Phil Angelides!

No, mascot isn’t the correct term. What they have come up with is Phil Angelides’ alter-ego: The Tax Man!

He’s a caped crusader out there fighting "the dark forces of low taxes," as it says on his Myspace page (add him as your friend on Myspace).

This is one of those silly and fun things that pop up during… Read More

I represent the Apartment Association of Orange County on the board of the Orange County Taxpayers Association. I want to share with FR readers OCTax’s excellent appraisal of Proposition 89, the nurses union-sponsored measure that would tax corporations tofund political campaigns.

OCTax’s position: Proposition 89 wins the Huey Long Award as the most blatantly political initiative on the ballot. It’s 55 pages long. The first five pages purport to document the “corruption” of the present electoral system, apparently because anti-business zealots and public employee unions lack the ability to appoint the state’s legislators without the annoying interference of competing views from businesses and taxpayers. The remaining 55 pages would limit business participation… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger issued a joint announcement of an "Agreement on Ocean Health" with the Democratic Governors of Washington and Oregon — Governor Ted Kulongoski and Governor Chris Gregoire (lefty Gregoire won office in 2004 by 129 votes statewide over GOPer Dino Rossi).

Because of the featured column today from Congressman Richard Pombo on his DOER Act, I wanted to bring attention to one clause in this agreement that Schwarzenegger signed with these two liberal Governors: Send a joint message to the President and Congress reinforcing our opposition to oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development off our coasts. In light of the fact that the DOER legislation proposed by Congress would take California (and Oregon and Washington) out of the business of lobbying President and the Congress on this issue, and instead place the issue under the control of each state, why… Read More

Today in USA Today, the newspaper has a pretty hard-hitting and right-on column blistering Congress for their serious earmarking/pork addiction. Newly re-minted United States Congressman Brian Bilbray has a short column (reprinted below by Duane Dichiara as well) in which he praises the action taken late last week by the House of Representitives to start shining light on the ‘earmarking’ process:

Last week, the House of Representatives took the first step in changing the culture that has left so many Americans disillusioned with their government. With the public demanding reform, the House adopted rule changes to the practice of… Read More

… Read More

The Long Beach Press-Telegram has an article detailing what County Supervisors get in LA County. Of course we lead they way. I like the $2,200 they get to spend on plants myself. See the article here.… Read More

POMBO LOOKS OUT FOR STATE’S RIGHTS – WITH THE DOER ACT! Right now, there is no federal law that bans drilling for oil off of the coastline of the United States. There are two temporary bans — one that is passed annually by Congress, and another which is even more tenuous, an "executive order" of the President which the Chief Executive can undo with the stroke of a pen. There are many who believe that drilling for oil offshore is a bad idea, and some that think it is a good idea. California Congressman Richard Pombo has been pushing hard to pass legislation that simply makes the issue of whether such oil drilling should happen off of the coast a state’s rights issue rather than a decision made by politicians in Washington, D.C.

The political reality is that the California legislature would never approve such drilling on its own coastline, but that doesn’t mean that other coastal state governments might choose to… Read More