Tom Hiltachk could not have been surprised with the shrieks coming from the California political ruling class,when he filed his Electoral College reform Initiative last week. The initiative would eliminate the "winner take all" rule that gives all 55 California electoral votes to the winner.

Republicans and democrats both eliminated the winner take all rule for Presidential Primaries. Reasoning that to have a powerful campaign in California you needed retail politics in each congressional district. Since 1992, California has not had a serious Presidential campaign. We were ignored. All that voters for both parties were supposed to do was to give money to influence Iowa and Ohio.

California for Equal Representations (CER) will blow upthe rules. Candidates who want California electoral votes will have to campaign in all 53 congressional districts. California will once again become the battleground state, as it has been since Lincoln was elected in 1860.

Hiltachk typically is closed mouth. He won’t divulge his donors or his strategies or who he is working for. Still, it is now public knowledge that the Governor’s chief… Read More

Fresh from his lengthy vacation in Greece, Fabian Nunez has sent a letter to Dick Ackerman where he apparently equates a call for his return to the Capitol to being "personally maligned" — nice.

Anyway, Nunez in an effort to extend the budget kabuki dance further throws out that if budget negotiations are reopened, he and his Democrat colleagues will bloat the budget further with even more deficit spending. Anyways, you can read Nunez’ letter which is attached. Below is a response that Senate Republican Leader sent back to the Speaker just now:

Senate Pro Tem Don Perata just annnounced that he would discontinue "work on all bills until the Senate Republicans vote for the budget."

Just like Brer Rabbit said; "Don’t throw me in that briar patch."

Obviously Don was not thinking. The one thing Republicans in the Senate and Assembly think about 24 hours a day, seven days a week is how to stop bill in the Legislature. With the Democrat majority, no good Republican ideas pass, so the only bills that get out are bad Democrat ideas, or worthless Republican ideas. Threatening to kill all the bills in the Legislature unless the Republicans vote for the budget guarantees that Republicans won’t vote for the budget. It is the best of both worlds for Republicans, it stops an unbalanced budget from being enacted, and stops the latest idea for big government by the Democrats from ever becoming law.

He must be joking, foolish, or very cunning, trying to embarass Republicans with this threat. The only people he will hurt are… Read More

Today, Democrat Senate President Don Perata damaged his own (waning) credibility with the Capitol Press Corps by, frankly, saying something that simply was untrue. He held a press conference and told assembled reporters that Republican Senators want to rewrite California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regulations. Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman was forced to respond and set the record straight…

… Read More

OK, so I guess some legislators are taking their responsibilities more seriously than others. As I have opined, I think that in return for a full-time salary, state legislators should be at work, IN THE CAPITOL, until there is a budget. I know from talking to them earlier today that State Senator Dick Ackerman and Assemblyman Van Tran are in the building. And I just got off of the phone with my own Assemblyman, Chuck DeVore, who is also in the Capitol. As a matter of fact, DeVore has blogged about whom he has seen (and mostly hasn’t seen up there). I guess he just missed Senator Tom McClintock, who was also in his office.

It would be great if all of our legislators would cut short their time in their districts, and return to the State Capitol and work on producing a new budget document that will pass muster with both chambers. … Read More

This last few weeks, the mostly closely guarded piece of information in state government politics was precisely where Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez went vacationing with his family in Europe. Because I couldn’t identify precisely where on the "Continent" the Nunez family went, I reached out and used a photo of the Eiffel Tower as being symbolic of Europe.

Well, we have learned from a very reliable source that while Californian has had no budget, Fabian and family have been relaxing in Greece! So when I mentioned that he was likely eating a croissant, it was actually probably some Souvlaki.

So, we now publish a photo of the ruins of the Greek Parthenon, that sits on the Acropolis, high above… Read More

This just in from Bill Leonard: I had an excellent discussion with Finance Director Mike Genest yesterday. Among things I learned is there is a difference between the way the Department of Finance and the LAO report their Budget numbers, although they arrive at the same conclusions. On July 24, Legislative Analyst Liz Hill summarized the situation this way: “Revenues and Expenditures. The budget assumes the state will start 2007-08 with a fund balance of $4.8 billion. It projects $102.3 billion in budget-year revenues, an increase of 6.5 percent from 2006-07. The budget authorizes expenditures of $103 billion, an increase of 1.3 percent from 2006-07. The… Read More

You would have thought that Gov. Romney was in San Diego today when he made clear his position on illegal immigration–no front -of-the-line pass to for illegals! He was actually in Eastern Iowa.

ROMNEY: "And with regards to illegal immigration, I want to secure our border, I want to have an employment verification system to know who’s here legally and not, and sanction employers that hire people that are illegal once that system is in place, and finally for those that have come here illegally – welcome them to get in line for permanent residency or citizenship, but in line with everybody else. No special pathway for those who come here illegally." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSrazudhdYE

Why is it so hard for other candidates to say these words?… Read More