What would you say if I told you that in the state’s current fiscal climate Assemblyman Albert Torrico (D-Newark) is carrying a bill, AB 1967 (see link to .pdf below) that if passed, would cost our state retirement funds (both Cal-STRS and Cal-PERS) billions of dollars?

AB 1967, in essence, puts some pretty huge prohibitions on where the billions of dollars in these retirement funds can be invested. Of course, right now, these funds are invested (presumably) to maximize rate of return. But under Torrico’s bill, these public funds who have to immediately and forever divest from any investments with what are called Sovereign Wealth Funds, which to put it simply are those funds that are affiliated with foreign countries. Torrico’s bill does exempt any SWF’s affiliated with a country (or countries) that have signed onto a bevy of various international human rights accords. Oh yeah, the United States, were it considered a foreign country under Torrico’s bill, would not meet the criteria as we have not… Read More

[Cross-posted from OC Blog]

The bitter battle between Corona Mayor Jeff Miller and Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Neil Blais to win the GOP nod in the 71st Assembly District is well on its way to being OC’s nastiest June contest.

Lately, the Blais campaign is going over that fine line between political hard-ball and sleazy politics.

For example, twice in the past week I’ve received a press release from the Blais campaign basically accusing Jeff Miller of public corruption.… Read More

I have always kept my hand in and paid attention to Inland Empire races. Without question, you’ve got to be tough to win Republican primaries down there. I stumbled across a website that continues that tradition, www.nonestande.com.

For Assembly race viewers, this battle between Brian Nestande and Kelly McCarty to succeed John Benoit should be highly entertaining.… Read More

What would you say if I told you that in the state’s current fiscal climate Assemblyman Albert Torrico (D-Newark) is carrying a bill, AB 1967 (see link to .pdf below) that if passed, would cost our state retirement funds (both Cal-STRS and Cal-PERS) billions of dollars?

AB 1967, in essence, puts some pretty huge prohibitions on where the billions of dollars in these retirement funds can be invested. Of course, right now, these funds are invested (presumably) to maximize rate of return. But under Torrico’s bill, these public funds who have to immediately and forever divest from any investments with what are called Sovereign Wealth Funds, which to put it simply are those funds that are affiliated with foreign countries. Torrico’s bill does exempt any SWF’s affiliated with a country (or countries) that have signed onto a bevy of various international human rights accords. Oh yeah, the United States, were it considered a foreign country under Torrico’s bill, would not meet the criteria as we have not… Read More

I don’t know if I should be excited or disappointed that our main page April Fool’s joke has been so popular. It’s only been up three hours and I literally have OVER 200 emails from FR readers telling me "you got me" or "boy did I fall for that one" or some other variation on the theme.

I’m excited because it’s always fun to successfully execute an April Fools Day "Gotcha" — I’m disappointed because in order to pull that off, you need to throw out a scenario that is so plausable that people want to believe it.

It’s too bad that a joke about the Governor leaving the GOP is so believable to so many. Sigh.… Read More

Last month, I took Asm. Kevin Jeffries to task (in this Capitol Weekly column) for a bill to address California’s maze of sign ordinances. ACR 93 asks the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and FPPC to develop a model campaign sign ordinance to be used by all of California’s local governments. As I explained in the piece, I never doubted the Assemblyman’s intentions. A California-wide guideline for sign ordinances might be helpful. Too often campaigns for State Assembly or Congress must deal with a dozen different city and county sign ordinances. However, I was deeply concerned that ACR 93 was asking the inmates to run the asylum. After all, local governments routinely pass the most restrictive and blatantly unconstitutional sign ordinances. Take a … Read More

Claremont is in Eastern Los Angeles County . It is a mix of college town and senior centers. It’s nice place, but it’s going to get uglier. The town fathers have found a scourge that needs to be removed from the city. Too many adult bookstores? I don’t think they have any? Too many liquor stores? Nope.

The answer: Too many day spas and nail salons. And yes tanning salons.

You wouldn’t know it but, there are Republicans on this City Council that are going along to limiting these kinds of establishments to second floors of commercial buildings and yes alleys.

Everybody wants to enter an alley on the… Read More

I will be making presentations on 527s, Independent Expenditures, Issue Advocacy, and Tax-Exempt Organizations and Politicial Activity, at an Election Law Seminar to be held onApril 16 in Santa Monica at the DoubleTree at 1707 4th St. in Santa Monica.

The day-long event will include presentations on California and Federal election law, voting systems and voting procedures, initiatives and referenda, and a practicum on regulation of political advertising and voter persuasion.

Confirmed speakers include Chuck Bell, senior partner of Bell, Hiltachk, LLP and general counsel of the California Republican Party; Daniel Lowenstein, a tenured Professor of Election law at UCLA Law School, one of the co-authors of the California Political Reform Act, and the first Chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission; Robert Stern, another co-author of the California Political Reform Act, principal drafter of the City of Los Angeles’ ethics and public campaign finance laws and President of the Center for Government Studies; and political consultant Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book. The moderator of and another presenter at the event is Janice… Read More