Gotta love those Democrats. Capitol Weekly has the story about the Dems being 4 year olds (our words, not Cap Weekly’s). Speaking of the big rally — it’s tomorrow! Click on the ad at the top of the right column of ads for the details.… Read More

The 10th Assembly District which is centered in the San Joaquin and Sacramento County Areas – largely around South East Sacramento County, the Stockton area, and east into the foothills is a seat that had long been held by Republicans until last November when Democrat Alyson Huber narrowly defeated GOPer Jack Sieglock. As the saying goes, success has many fathers but failure is an orphan. In this case, no one wanted to take “credit” on the GOP side for Sieglock’s defeat and the shifting of this long-time Republican seat into the blue column. Some said that the candidate was to blame – did he campaign hard enough? Others said that funding priorities by the party and the Assembly GOP leadership were awry, and this caused the loss. I’ve heard others say that in the year of Obama, this seat was going to shift no matter what.

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Excerpted from the Assemblyman Anderson release….

The eyes of California Taxpayers will be focused squarely on the Assembly Appropriations Committee today, as Assembly Bill 1506 approaches a critical deadline … authored by Assemblyman Joel Anderson, (the bill) requires the State to accept its own IOUs as payment for taxes and fees.

Last week, AB 1506 was not allowed to come up for a vote, despite the fact that a majority of the committee’s members were co-authors of the bill. Committee Chairman Kevin De León denied Anderson’s bill a vote and sent it to the “Suspense File” – a place where bills typically go to die without a vote.

Yesterday, Assemblyman Anderson delivered more than 1,500 letters of support for AB 1506 to Chairman De León. Anderson’s office received the letters from labor unions, taxpayers, small businesses, charities, local government agencies, healthcare facilities and business leaders. California State Controller John Chiang also supports the bill.

The State has issued nearly $2 billion in IOUs since July 1st. The Controller expects to begin redeeming IOUs in early September,… Read More

Law School Professor Tom Campbell gets some serious love today from Pulitzer Prize winning columnist George Will today, with a major profile piece.

Campbell, who has served taxpayers as a Member of Congress, a State Senator and as Director of the California Department of Finance is running a spirited if financially challenged campaign for the Republican nomination for Governor.

Campbell faces uber-wealthy candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner in the June primary. No doubt Campbell would encourage those who follow California politics to look to the 1998 Democrat Gubernatorial primary, where two very wealthy candidates, former Northwest Airlines CEO Al Checchi and consumer electronics magnate Jane Harman, both spent millions out of their personal fortunes, yet it was Lt. Governor Gray Davis who emerged as the victor in that primary (who went on to trounce Dan Lungren in the general election later that year).

Campbell has… Read More

The East Bay’s Pete Stark has always been known as a Congressman lacking in tact and politeness. He continues to prove it.… Read More

The tension was already palpable at a townhall held by Democrat Congressman Jim Moran (VA) as he tried to sell Obama’s health care plan to dubious citizens. But things went from bad to worse when Moran had the audacity to ask for a constituent’s ID instead of answering the man’s question. Moran made this remarkably inept move under the auspice of controlling outside protestors from attending (and ostensibly) disrupting health care townhalls.

Moran is a poster boy for sneering, bad-mannered politicians. Americans deserve better from their representatives.

It’s too bad Moran and other Democrats don’t have this much passion for requiring ID at the voting polls as they do for ID-ing their constituents.… Read More

This Bloomberg story on how schools are refinancing existing bond debt is interesting–not only because it points out that school districts around the state may be increasing property taxes without anyone’s knowledge, but also because AG Jerry Brown is suing these districts, calling their actions unconstitutional. In the story, the Compton Unified School District is used as one of the examples. Only one out of seven trustess in Compton objected to the district’s bond refinancing scheme, saying, "Why don’t we have hearings so the community can have input on these bonds? We sit up here and shove it in their throats.” Read the full story here.… Read More

The battle lines are drawn. Fleischman says the rule on primary voting (restricting Republican primaries to Republicans alone) is necessary to "maintain a vibrant GOP." Maldanado says it is suicidal. I think it is much ado about nothing.

Tony Quinn, in his column in Fox and Hounds, gives the numbers. The number of independent voters in Republican primaries in less than four percent. Now, I have to admit, I never agree with Quinn’s assessments of what it wrong in the GOP, but numbers don’t lie. Independent primary voters are for the most part irrelevant in either party primary (being about 6 percent of the Democrat voters). That means that restricting them from our primaries won’t be disastrous,and including them won’t make the party any more or less vibrant.

On the whole, if pressed on the question, I would say that Republican primaries are for Republicans. Definitely no Democrats, but I am ambivalent on DTS voters. The reason Republicans are losing voters to DTS status is not because Republicans are too conservative, however, it is because they stand for nothing. The party of small government and less taxes,… Read More