Just as the Federal Election Commission has begun a process of establishing rules for disclosure of expenditures for "electioneering communications" in the wake of the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Wisconsin Right to Life, whatare apparently push polls have just been released in both Iowa and New Hampshire attacking Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Will these attacks on Mormonism and Romney hit California anytime soon? For details on the attacks, click here. And to hear Romney’s reponse to this activity andhis support for and articulation of stateddeficiencies in the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, see here.

Thanks to my friend and sometimes co-counsel Professor Dan Lowenstein at UCLA Law School for the tip!… Read More

I have consistently made the argument that earmarks exist to serve political ends. Well, here is the latest example. Each of the conference reports for the Defense, Labor/HHS, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs spending bills have earmarks “airdropped” into them. “Airdropping” is a way of adding earmarks to a bill during the conference report process at the last possible minute, effectively shielding the earmarks from reproach due to the lack of time for review before a vote on the floor. Many times, these reports are hundreds of pages in length and Members simply cannot thoroughly examine every page in less than 24 hours. This is a deliberate tactic to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money with complete anonymity and zero accountability. I have vocally opposed this practice as have many of my colleagues on both the House and Senate side.

However, despite the outcry… Read More

Today we are pleased to offer this Guest Commentary from Assemblyman Bill Emmerson: Government-Run Health Care Is Bad For California By Assemblyman Bill Emmerson

This week, Democrats on the Assembly Health Committee showed they weren’t interested in acting responsibly to solve California’s health care challenges by rushing through a $14 billion big government care health care scheme on a party-line vote during Wednesday’s hearing. Listening to the testimony in the hearing, it’s clear they are more interested in political stunts than real health care solutions. Many serious issues brought up by Republicans were dismissed by Democrats with little more than empty… Read More

What if you had a reoccuring nightmare, that while you were sleeping, thousands of dead bodies were rising out of their graves to come and take…your home! Sound scary? Well it is actually happenning to the owners of homes in posh Sarataga, a suburb of San Jose. In what may prove to be a "poster-child" case for eminent domain reform on next June’s ballot, the Saratoga Cemetary District has officially left their options "open" to pursue the use of eminent domain as they seek to force the owner of a home to sell their house, which abuts the Madrona Cemetary. The "urgent need" — apparently the Saratoga Cemetary District wants to expand the roadway around the graveyard. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Nikki Teeter answered a knock on her door to find a real estate agent there, representing the District, telling her that they want to buy her home. Apparently, despite protests that the Teeters have no interest in selling their home of 29 years, the realtor kept trying to set up meetings. Apparently this Cemetary District is… Read More

Our friends at the Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy have launched a radio advertising campaign against the ill-advised health care scheme being advanced by the Governor and Legislative Democrats. You can click on the ads below to hear them. CASE, you’ll recall, made a splash when they introduced the Dancing Duck television spot in January.… Read More

Tom McCintock, one of the few Sacramento pols who has been accurate in truly predicting the financial shortfall that is facing California, says this is just the beginning:

The newspapers are reporting that the fiscal gap is $10 billion. It is actually far more serious than that. The actual figure – according to the LAO – is that the state will spend $14 billion more than it takes in between now and the end of the next fiscal year. The difference is that we will first blow through the $4 billion reserve that the state began the year with. (That reserve, by the way, is already gone.)

But the LAO is still predicting that the state’s general fund revenues will grow about 3.5… Read More

Aninitiative to end the practice of governments accepting and spending non–reported dollars for political activity was launched at a press conference in Sacramento today. Proponentsare Jon Coupal of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., Jim Nielsen, Chairman of the California Alliance to Protect Prvivate Property Rights and former state senator, and Lew Uhler of National Tax Limitation Committee.

Under the present scheme, the League of California Cities and other entities can utilize so called "non-public funds" to weigh in politically on issues like, say, defeating efforts of protecting your property rights from abusive eminent domain takings. $7 million has been raised without accountability to fight Prop 90 previously and now towards the true eminent domain reform initiativecirculating thru Farm Bureau, Howard Jarvis and the CA Alliance to Protect Private Property. [They also have their own clever initiative that they are pushing and funding to make it look like they are reforming EmDo but has such weak and narrow… Read More

One of California’s most capable political consultants, Wayne Johnson (a principal in JohnsonClark — click on their ad!) has spent years giving of his time as a leader in the National Association of Political Consultants, and he just recently finished up a two-year stint as that group’s President (he now serves in the role of Immediate Past President and Chairman of the AAPC)..

Right now, Johnson and his business partner, Tim Clark, are in Bali, Indonesia for the 40th Annual World Conference of the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC).

I heard from Wayne, who had just, along with a colleague and fellow California political consultant Ben Goddard (partner on Goddard Clauseen – okay, click on their ad, too!) participated in a private meeting with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss Indonesia’s remarkable… Read More