From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary…

The ‘Prince of Darkness’ Was a Prince

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Yesterday I blogged about the announcement by former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina (pictured right) that she was taking the initial steps that one would take if looking at an official run for the U.S. Senate — filing her campaign committee name with the federal government, and bringing on board some communications consultants. You can read that here.

As Fiorina considers becoming a Republican candidate for the United States Senate, with an end-goal target of trying to take out liberal incumbent Barbara Boxer, she undoubtedly is well aware that she must first get through a GOP primary. For nearly a year now, conservative Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Orange County has been running an extremely aggressive campaign for the Republican nomination. I should probably… Read More

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Today Carly Fiorina, the former Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard, announced that she has filed the name, "Carly for California," with the IRS — which is the very, very first thing that you do if you are looking to run for federal office. Fiorina, who was very visible on the stump for the Presidential campaign of United States Senator John McCain last year, has been talking to people about a potential bid for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by ultra-liberal Barbara Boxer for some time now. Fiorina held a slew of meetings at last February’s State GOP convention. Shortly afterwards, however, she began treatments as she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Sources assure us that she is almost completed with those treatments, and is still very focused on exploring a bid for the Senate, hence this announcement.

About her taking this first step, Fiorina (pictured left) had this to say in a prepared… Read More

Assembly District 5 (R-Niello, open 2010) is a largely suburban Sacramento seat, and was previously represented by former Republican Leader, now State Senator, Dave Cox. There is lots of chatter amongst the political class about AD5, and whether recent registration trends have moved the seat from ‘Safe Republican’ to ‘Swing’.

Let’s start with the numbers. In 2004 the registration by party was 44.44% Republican, 37.5% Democrat, 13.61% Decline to State. In 2009 the numbers are 38.77% Republican, 37.90% Democrat, and 19.03% Decline to State. Thus, the seat is nearing a ‘push’ on partisan registration. However, I think it’s useful to look a little past of the top of the line numbers. Virtually all of the movement occurred during the 2007-2008 cycle (2 Democrat points up in this period, 2 Decline to State points up, and 3.5 points of GOP slippage). It could be argued – and I think Republicans hope – that this was largely the result of the national surge of Obamism, and the lack of a funded McCain campaign in California, and that new registration results should on the natural favor Republicans if they can… Read More

The restaurant Houstons is battling New York City’s stupid law that requires restaurant chains to print calorie counts in their menus — good for them. Maybe they can try to take on the version of the law passed here in California.

Whether or not calorie counts are listed in restaurants should be a decision made by restaurant owners, based on market conditions. Not a mandate handed down by government.

(h/t to Andy at CFG)… Read More

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that long time conservative columnist and FR friend Robert Novak passed away after a battle with cancer. He will be missed, as will his insightful and effective columns. Rest in peace, my friend.… Read More

Proposition 13 says that your property tax cannot go up more than 2% per year no matter how high inflation is. Since 1978 inflation has usually been over 2% so that incremental property tax increase has become routine. In both 1999 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index grew less than 2%, so the property assessments and taxes went up by the actual amount for those years, 1.85% and 1.86% respectively.

But what has never happened is for inflation to be less than 0%. Never until now. While the year for the CPI calculation runs to October, right now this year is running negative. If in these economic times prices decline over the entire year, then the official CPI index will be negative for the first time in the history of Proposition 13.

So each of us property owners should see a small yet real decline in property taxes. Right? Not so fast– the taxacrats are working on legal arguments to claim that a negative CPI change does not require a property tax change. Since this has never happened before and has not been addressed by the Legislature or the Board of Equalization, any decision will provoke some real controversy.

I believe… Read More