According to the Governor’s calendar, tomorrow at 3:30pm the Governor will hold a meeting of the "Big 5" — himself and the four legislative leaders — to discuss budget options going forward.

That’s probably a good idea (although one of the items on their agenda should be discontinuing the back-room, exclusive format of the Big 5 to actually negotiate major policy items — that has proven to be a dismal failure — and expensive for taxpayers).

But it raises an interesting question. At the meeting will be the Governor, Senate President Darrell Steinberg, Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and…?????

Who will represent the 29 member Assembly Republican Caucus in that Big 5 meeting?

From where we sit, this is a no-brainer — it definitely should and must be Assembly Republican Leader-Elect Sam Blakeslee. He clearly has been designated as the go-to person to deal with the aftermath of the terrible… Read More

I guess there are some general guidelines you can follow in the world of Sacramento. One of them is that behind liberals creating messes by increasing the size and scope of the state’s bureaucracy is a conservative cleaning up the mess.

Recently we brought you a column from Republican Assemblyman Jeff Miller, where he went into some detail about how gas station owners are being hit with a draconian regulation to update all of their pumps with some new technology that has a fractional effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from stations. The cost for this new equipment is high, and the ability to comply difficult. Read more about that here.

It would appear that Miller’s Republican colleague, Martin Garrick, rolled up his sleeves and has, in the absence of a repeal of this draconian regulation, at least negotiated a "settlement" over this matter. We asked the Assemblyman to share with FR readers what he has pulled together… … Read More

Today is special election day, and I realized that I reached out to the five members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors to ask them their positions on the ballot propositions, but then didn’t tell you, our readers!

This is pretty simple: Pat Bates, John Campbell Janet Nguyen, John Moorlach and Chris Norby all unanimously oppose all of the Propositions. They will be voting (or have voted) no on 1A-1F!

They join Orange County’s two top law enforcement officials, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, in opposing the whole slate of ill-conceived measures.… Read More

Courtesy of the Republican National Committee.… Read More

10:20am UPDATE: The Governor’s office has clarified that the first item I mentioned is on his agenda — getting a waiver for the stimulus bucks. But the other stuff is not… (At least today, eh?)

As part of his "Get As Far Away From California When My Ballot Props Flame Out Tour, " Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today will meet with California’s entire Congressional Delegation – Republicans and Democrats. I found this out when talking to Congressman and FR blogger John Campbell last night.

Undoubtedly he will be talking about a waiver to allow California to get stimulus dollars despite the SEIU’s so-far successful lobbying to get the Obama Administration to condition those funds on undoing cuts to pay for unionized home-care workers that took place last February. That’s a good idea.

He’ll undoubtedly have some bad ideas on his agenda too — like asking Uncle Sam to guarantee California’s bonds (dumb) and asking for more federal bailouts for California government (dumber) — and maybe he will… Read More

Now is the time for Republicans to claim a victory inthe defeat of the Proposition 1A tax increase, and learn a lesson to begin the resurgence of our popular appeal in California. StateSenate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, and AssemblyRepublican Leader Sam Blakeslee, now have a choice of a lifetime in politics: they can actually lead, and exercise their offices to set the future of our party on a path to broader victories statewide. Or they can blow it all, let the Democrats dominate the agenda once more, andallow for more of the sameunforced errors leading to "circular firing squad"opportunities against Republicans byopportunistic radio personalities.

On Tuesday, Californians resoundingly rejected the Democrats solution to our state budget crisis: tax increases. California taxpayers demonstrated they are sick of taxes and spending. While the politicians in Washington and Sacramento consider the next bailout measures, the citizens of California took control on Tuesday and gave themselves the only bailout theycould – a tax cut. They did it themselves, with the opposition of their Republican governor,… Read More

This column was submitted by FR reader Eric Wickland. Wickland is a recently retired urban planner and building official. He is a former director of the California Association of Professional Employees, CAPE, AFL-CIO. Wickland serves on the Executive Committee of the California Republican Party, and is a member of the Lincoln Clubs of Los Angeles County.

The Case For Taxation With Representation by Eric Wickland Tomorrow morning, after California voters’ rejection of budget balancing propositions 1A-1F, Governor… Read More

This just came in from longtime FR friend Bruce Bialosky… Give Them More Money? by Bruce Bialosky It is difficult to determine whether to give more money to our friends in Sacramento. This dilemma was no more apparent than during my just-completed road trip. I flew to Kansas to drive my son back from college for the summer.

We drove Interstate 40 through five states. We started with Oklahoma – the state… Read More