From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

Special Election Surprise in California Last year California voters approved an “open primary” in which all candidates compete on the same primary ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, head to a run off. It’s often presumed that open primaries advantage party moderates since candidates must appeal to a broader swath of voters to win both the primary and general elections. South Bay voters put that hypothesis to the test on Tuesday in the special election primary to replace retiring Democratic congresswoman Jane Harman.

According to the latest vote tally, which doesn’t take into account some 9,800 absentee and provisional ballots, Democrat Janice Hahn has won the primary by about 2,000 votes. Her victory isn’t a big surprise — Ms. Hahn is a longtime Los Angeles city council member and had the backing of most of California’s Democratic establishment, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein.… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: When I was approached by a mutual friend on behalf of Dave Kieffer, the new boss over at the state’s largest public employee union, SEIU, about whether I would be willing to feature a column from Kieffer here on the FlashReport, I have to admit I was taken a bit off guard. It is probably impossible to actually count up the number of times that contributors to this website, including yours truly, have derided the influence of public employee unions — often citing the SEIU specifically in critical commentaries.

It didn’t take me long, however, to determine that if the SEIU wants to take a direct message to the conservative statewide community, it would be both provocative and entertaining to open that forum to them. Just to double check my gut instinct, I reached out to some advisers who all agreed — run the piece. So without any further introduction, other than to say that the content of this column should really cause some angst for those who believe, as I do, that a broadening of… Read More

This just in from FR friend and San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio…

San Diego’s $1.8 Billion Retiree Health Care Giveaway

Late last week San Diego City Council majority voted to approve an unprecedented 15 year agreement that gives away $1.8 Billion in retiree healthcare benefits to City labor unions. Once again, the deal was struck behind closed doors between City politicians and public employee union bosses.

The public has a right to know what is exactly in this deal and how the numbers were reached. Instead, the media and taxpayers were provided with a 1-page handout prior the vote.

From what we do know about this deal, here are some of the glaring flaws:

15-Year Term is Unprecedented: The deal is set in a 15 year labor contract – no other labor contract in city history has ever extended for such a long period of time. City Leaders Give Up $340-530 Million in Savings: Because city leaders did not … Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail… California Finances Slightly Less Awful

Last week thousands of California teachers rallied to extend $12 billion in tax hikes, which they said would help prevent $4.7 billion in education cuts. Well, it turns out that schools won’t be whacked after all, even if the taxes aren’t extended.

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised May budget projects that the state will collect $6.6 billion more in taxes over the next two years than his administration had projected in January. That’s based on tax collections this year that have exceeded earlier projections by $2 billion.

Thanks to the state’s Proposition 98, which mandates that at least 40% of general funds be appropriated for education, schools will get about $3 billion of the “windfall.” That’s $3 billion more than they got last year. Mr. Brown’s revised budget still assumes that income, sales and vehicle tax hikes that expire this year will be… Read More

Some passing thoughts after observing the returns in the first round of balloting in 36th Congressional District special election in Los Angeles County…

Some California voters almost got their first taste of how they were misled by Arnold Schwarzenegger and the CalChamber, who promised that Prop. 14 would deliver increased voter choice. When the dust settled in the first round of voting in CD 36 on the West side of Los Angeles County, Republican Craig Huey was holding onto the second spot in the runoff by about 200 votes. The campaign of Secretary of State Debra Bowen has refused to concede, pointing out that nearly 10,000 late absentee ballots and provisional ballots have yet to be counted. Hanging in the balance is a potential big embarrassment for proponents of Prop. 14. If Bowen climbs back into second place, the “promise of choice” presented CD 36 voters would be candidates who have virtually identical positions on everything from supporting universal healthcare and defending Obamacare, both want to pull back U.S. Troops from around the world, both are proudly pro-choice, etc., etc. There is literally no choice … Read More

Many of us already considered Arnold Schwarzenegger to be among the worst governors in California history, if not the worst. Now we know that he is also one of the most despicable.

Schwarzenegger’s fundamental problem as governor is that nobody could ever trust him. Lacking any core principles, his mood and his style of governance seemed to change with the weather. One day he was a leftie environmentalist, the next a conservative born-again tax cutter. One day he is crusading to recruit jobs, the next he is driving jobs away with ill-considered policies. One day he promotes the Hummer, the next a hybrid. One day he says that the state must live within its means, the next day he is proposing an expansion of government. Negotiating with Schwarzenegger was like negotiating with a stick of butter in the hot sun. This is why he accomplished so little of substance – nobody could ever trust that they were dealing with someone who would stick to the deal for the long term.

Arnold Schwarzenegger utterly lacked principles except for one – Arnold comes first. And that is the sad story that has now been revealed with the… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: We are pleased to present this column on the National Popular Vote issue for your consumption. I interviewed one of the authors of this column, Tom Golisano, back in March. You can see that video here – Flash]

California Republicans: Nowhere To Go But Up By State Senator Mimi Walters and Tom Golisano

November 2010 turned out to be a monumental success for Republicans throughout the nation and a dismal failure for the California GOP. While… Read More

Today, voters in the 36th Congressional District go to the polls to replace Jane Harman.

The district is Democratic, but contains areas the GOP can poll strongly in. Two years ago, the idea would have been for Republicans to recruits a strong candidate and hope for a bloody Democratic primary that nominates a far left candidate. Then hope for some lightning to strike.

The GOP field is filled with several quality candidates. Mike Webb is a City Prosecutor, Mike Gin is mayor, Kit Bobko is a councilman and so far the biggest spender is Craig Huey a successful conservative. Then came Proposition 14.

Proposition 14’s passage means that should candidates get under 50% the top two REGARDLESS of party go on to the “general” election. The last time the state had an open primary that allowed voters to choose candidates from other parties, the voters in open seats went where the action was or in other words where the money was spent. Then all parties that fielded candidates had a spot in the run-off.

In this seat, despite Huey’s spending that would mean a run-off between Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Democratic… Read More