One of the cardinal principles of sportsmanship is to be a gracious winner. Every kid in little league is told to be kind and considerate to the fellow players they just bested in a competition. Apparently that principle is something that Arnold Schwarzenegger either 1) was not taught or 2) doesn’t care to follow.

This morning the governor issued the obligatory congratulatory press release praising the San Francisco Giants’ World Series win. But he didn’t stop at simply congratulating his state’s winning baseball team: he went on to attack the home state of the defeated Texas Rangers. Schwarzenegger used his press release to not only do some inappropriate campaigning against Proposition 23, he attacked Texas for having “dirty oil companies”.

Election day is finally here – the end of what has been one of the most tumultuous and unpredictable election seasons that I can recall. My election day column issues a cautionary note to Republican voters – actually, more than that – a warning. While there are not nearly as many so-called “slate cards” dropping in year’s general election as we saw in the primary, there are still a good number – and this year we have seen a rise in Mercenary Slates that are pretending to have some sort of Republican pedigree, when the reality is apparently far from the truth. I use the term “Mercenary Slates” to describe slate cards that have defining ideology or commitment to actual Republican positions on the issues. The vendors of these faux-GOP slates are mercenaries, looking to make money while advancing causes that are counter to that of the Republican Party, and voters should not be fooled. Especially while these folks hide behind the false rhetoric of saying, “But we featured the GOP ticket…” That is a false argument since voters looking to support statewide GOP candidates… Read More

The only poll that counts is the one counted tonight.

Given the states registration numbers and hyper-gerrymandered districts, we won’t like see the same wave as what we are hoping for from across the country. However, the first job of keeping the seats we have to ‘hold’ as Republicans looks very good, with up to 2 pickups on the Assembly side and par on the State Senate, though one or par is more likely in the Assembly too, given late developments if polls can be believed.

In SD 12, the Jeff Denham seat, I was very impressed as to how our nominee Anthony Cannella and his operation was doing having spent the last 2 days there, walking and knocking in Modesto. He’s a great candidate, will be a great Senator and I think a new favorite, as I got to know him better during the walks. Kudos to Asm. and [incoming Senator], Tom Berryhill for all the hard workby his team in helping this neighboring district. It was great to join with he and Anthony for part of our precinct walks. And much praise for all the staff volunteers who have traveled to Modesto, Merced, Salinas, etc. The hard… Read More

We’ve been hearing all about the Harmer – McNerney race all year long, as very quietly, with a major assist from a Lincoln Club expose on Congressman Jim Costa’s left wing voter record, CD 20 challenger Andy Vidak, despite a 20 point voter registration advantage, has made his race one of the top upset districts in the country. Real Clear Politics now has CD 20 in the lean Republican column for the first time, as Hispanic voter turnout is expected to be lower than usual, and higher than usual for the Republican challenger.

Also in the Fresno area, our race for Country Supervisor featuring Lincoln Club backed Phil Larson against left wing, SEIU backed Cynthia Sterling is proving to be the most expensive Supervisor race in County history, with SEIU pouring in over $1.5 million to defeat Larson and shift the board from fiscally conservatiive to wholly owned by the unions. This is probably the most important election in our area Tuesday, and the Fresno Bee has… Read More

This just in from Grover Norquest at Americans for Tax Reform… … Read More

How many employers out there in the private sector provide Cadillac healthcare benefits to their part time employees? The answer, of course, is virtually none. Welcome to the “good life” of many part-time local elected officials…

As economic times have gotten extremely tough in the private sector, a lot of attention has been paid to the gold-plated salaries and benefits going to many public employees at both the state and local levels. Whether it extreme defined benefit retirement plans that in many instances (especially for public safety employees) to retire making more money than they did when they worked, or salaries that are no longer comparable to the private sector which has seen so many reductions with the economic recession) or just the fact that those in government have not had to face the kinds of layoffs and unemployment issues.

While these important issues have started to dominate discussions in the public square, one of the issues that is about to… Read More

California is at a crossroads. We have reached a level of government in our state that is completely unsustainable. We have reached a point where our taxpayer dollars, yours and mine, are being so frivolously spent that there are billions upon billions of dollars in waste within government programs. We have reached our breaking point as a state. Things must change.

Californians are tired of false hopes, gimmicks, phony rhetoric and politicians taking bows for simply doing what we elected them to do. We need leaders in Sacramento who will speak straight and act proactively to better our state.

This coming Tuesday it should be clear, we need to make a real change. And that change should start at the… Read More

If I had to rank-order public employee union bosses from evil to less so, clearly on the top of the list you would have to put the California Teachers Association. Like all of the other unions they have a voracious appetite for pursuing the "standard" trio of union goals: higher wages and benefits for their members, job security for their members, and the creation of new public employee positions that are members of their union.

That said, the CTA is particularly awful because they pursue this pro-public labor agenda under the banner that somehow all of this is somehow "better for children" and helps kids to have a better education. For anyone who wants to understand how hurtful teachers union bosses can be, go see the movie Waiting for Superman, which illustrates quite well the road blocks that teachers unions put up to keep bad teachers around. Bottom line: a good teacher can make the world of difference for child, and a bad teacher can do the opposite. But the CTA protects and defends all teachers, as if they are all of equal ability.

Anyways, a friend of mine who lives in Senate District 1 just sent me a… Read More