One of the worst kept secrets in Sacramento is that many political insiders believe that the real reason Senate President Pro Tem Don (“The Golden Pig”) Perata launched the recall campaign against Senator Jeff Denham was to create an excuse to funnel money to Sandi Polka and members of his own family. Polka is the Senator’s longtime political consultant and very close friend – close to the point of actually being his girlfriend.

Now the East Bay Express newspaper, which has doggedly pursued Perata and done an outstanding job of aggressively exposing the powerful politician’s numerous ethical transgressions, has pointed to Polka’s financial well-being as the true motivation for the recall. (Their article is linked at the bottom of this post.) Perata spent more than $2 million to qualify the recall, launch misleading paid media attacks on Denham that failed miserably, and fund puppet replacement candidate and proven lightweight Simon Salinas. While Perata is a huge political loser because of the recall, not all of that campaign money appears to have been wasted from the… Read More

One of the worst kept secrets in Sacramento is that many political insiders believe that the real reason Senate President Pro Tem Don (“The Golden Pig”) Perata launched the recall campaign against Senator Jeff Denham was to create an excuse to funnel money to Sandi Polka and members of his own family. Polka is the Senator’s longtime political consultant and very close friend – close to the point of actually being his girlfriend.

Now the East Bay Express newspaper, which has doggedly pursued Perata and done an outstanding job of aggressively exposing the powerful politician’s numerous ethical transgressions, has pointed to Polka’s financial well-being as the true motivation for the recall. (Their article is linked at the bottom of this post.) Perata spent more than $2 million to qualify the recall, launch misleading paid media attacks on Denham that failed miserably, and fund puppet replacement candidate and proven lightweight Simon Salinas. While Perata is a huge political loser because of the recall, not all of that campaign money appears to have been wasted from the… Read More

Sometimes a picture (or in this case, a chart courtesy of the Heritage Foundation) is worth a thousand words. If Republicans in Congress have any trouble at all figuring out why we are facing major challenges as a party, and why we are no longer considered the party of fiscal conservatism, look at how much Republicans (with a Republican President, no less) INCREASED federal spending… We aren’t going to win with a slogan of: "Vote Republican — sure, we’ll increase spending, but not as much as THEY will…" [Orange = GOP control; Gray = Split governance but we could have stopped spending increases. See large chart here.] … Read More

You have to wonder what they are sprinkling in the Wheaties over at the Sacramento Bee. The editorial board there never ceases to amaze me. In the Bee’s lead editorial today, they have the moxie to start it by saying, "With one vote, California Senate Republicans on Thursday added $3.4 billion to the state’s $15.2 billion deficit for 2008-09…"

Right.

Read on and what you really have is yet another liberal editorial whining because Republicans have refused to sign on with the issuance of yet another $6.9 BILLION (yes, with a "B") of bonds.

What kind of screwy math do they use over there at the Bee? By their convoluted logic, the state’s entire overspending problem could just be solved by passing one big, fat bond measure, and shoving the burden for our state’s irresponsible overspending to our children and theirs.

The main premise of the editorial is that if the legislature doesn’t borrow billions for building more prisons (didn’t we already do that?) then some judge will simply order those billions straight out of the… Read More

A: A cartoon like this in your local paper –a pretty clear sign you’ve been able to get your message out.

… Read More

Today Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that several more ballot measures have qualified for November, including the Protect Marriage Constitutional Amendment.

Already qualified are:

Human Rights For Poultry More Bonds 1: Children’s Hospitals More Bonds 2: The Superduper Speedy Train (for those actually can use it) Parental Notification before a minor has abortion surgery Sentencing of Non-Violent Offenders Safe Neighborhoods (anti-gang) "Renewable" (Code for More Costly) Energy Requirements

Coming soon is the likely qualification of the Common Cause/Schwarzenegger redistricting measure…

(h/t to Shane G. at the SacBee)… Read More

OK, just to be clear, this is not internet gambling, just a chance for political prognosticators to dazzles us with their brilliance. Winner does, however, get dinner at Mikuni…

Pick your winner and post in comments (I threw SD 3 for the entertainment of the many who have suffered from a Migden tirade).

Although I am doing a number of SoCal races, I will leave to my fellow bloggers to post a competition there!

CD 4: McClintock/Ose/Terbolizard/Jones

SD 3: Leno/Midgen/Nation SD 12: Denham/Perata (recall)

AD 3: Logue/Horne AD 10: Sander/Hegyi/Sieglock AD 15: Llyod/Kamena/Rau/Wilson

Placer Board of Supervisors: Kranz/Houston

El Dorado Board of Supervisor District 1: Dorr/Knight/Norris/Frentzen El Dorado Board of Supervisor District 2: Nutting/Michelin/Teresi/Dean/ Turnboo/Smiley

Mayor of Sacramento: Fargo/Johnson/Daniel/Eldredge/Jones/Padilla/Strand.

Tie Breaker #1: % Statewide Turnout by party Tie Breaker #2: % of Denham win over recall… Read More

In the midst of some of the hottest San Diego area dust-ups in memory, there is so much going on I can barely decide where to start or end. A potpourri of just some of the fun…

The Primary Election Contest… If you haven’t emailed your guesses yet, it’s not too late, you have ’til 7:55 p.m. election night. I’m literally floating in entries thus far. Read last week’s Sunday column for the parameters, then shoot me your prognostications.

Fletchering the Competition… Speaking of my little contest, the first question is a throw away about the winner of the GOP nomination in 75th Assembly District (George Plescia’s termed seat). No one has submitted a wrong answer yet, although some folks are getting a little cute with entries such as "Mindy’s husband – I can’t remember his name" and the such.

As far as Mindy and Whatshisname, yesterday was apparently… Read More