As you spend today mulling over their options, weighing the importance of demanding much needed reforms in state government spending in return for providing needed votes for a big fat state budget, I know that there is concern about the perception of their efforts to the public. Our "friends" in the main stream media have yet to publish one legitimate story from the perspective of principled fiscally prudent legislators who are refusing to approve a massive budget unless it comes with some significant reforms to reduce deficit spending in future budgets, and important reforms to mitigate the potentially devastating effects of the implementation of costly regulations in the name of the ‘global warming’ battle. There is the potential to eliminate thousands of vacant positions in the state bureaucracy, and more. But we don’t read that story in the newspapers, either. We are only treated to a daily dose of "who isn’t being paid today" in an effort to create feeling that delaying the budget simply is not worth the reforms sought by responsible Senate Republicans. Guess what? At some point, there will be a state… Read More

Yesterday afternoon, I was invited to a small private reception with former United States Senator Fred Thompson at the beautiful home of the Davis family, nestled on the coastal hillside overlooking Crystal Cove State Park and the pacific ocean in Newport Beach. It truly was an intimate affair, with about twenty folks in attendance, including the Presidential aspirant, his beautiful wife, and two of Thompson’s political point people in California, longtime political strategist Ken Khachigian and local consultant Dave Ellis. All told had nearly an hour with Senator Thompson, and it was spent the way you would like it to be… We all gathered up chairs in the back patio of this gorgeous home and had an intimate chat with the man who aspires to the top elective office in our nation. Having never spent any real quality time with Thompson before, I have to say I was very impressed by him. It was very clear in hearing him talk about issues (and this was an environment where he was free… Read More

Yesterday afternoon, I was invited to a small private reception with former United States Senator Fred Thompson at the beautiful home of the Davis family, nestled on the coastal hillside overlooking Crystal Cove State Park and the pacific ocean in Newport Beach. It truly was an intimate affair, with about twenty folks in attendance, including the Presidential aspirant, his beautiful wife, and two of Thompson’s political point people in California, longtime political strategist Ken Khachigian and local consultant Dave Ellis. All told had nearly an hour with Senator Thompson, and it was spent the way you would like it to be… We all gathered up chairs in the back patio of this gorgeous home and had an intimate chat with the man who aspires to the top elective office in our nation. Having never spent any real quality time with Thompson before, I have to say I was very impressed by him. It was very clear in hearing him talk about issues (and this was an environment where he was free… Read More

With the reports in, here is how the fundraising is shaping up in the Riverside County State races for the period of January 1 through June 30. I posted only Republicans in the 37th SD and 64th AD since they are Republican seats. I will post the Democrats in a day or so for the 80th AD which is more highly Democrat than Republican:

SD 37 to replace termed out Jim Battin

Current 64th State Assemblyman John J. Benoit $441,000 Cash on Hand, $218,019 raised in the period.

Former 65th State Assemblyman Russ Bogh $427,000 Cash on Hand, $157,664 raised in the period.

Bothhave raised a mix of Sacramento and local funds.

AD 64 to replace termed out John J. Benoit

Rose Ramirez Girard$78,920 Cash on Hand, $101,901 raised. Loaned campaign $66,000, raised $37,000 from district

Kelly McCarty$81,078 Cash on Hand, raised $81,795. No personal money. Virtually all came from individual collision centers throughout the state.

John Pate$100,394 Cash on Hand, $106,840 raised. Loaned campaign… Read More

A funny thing happened while looking at the campaign reports for AD 60 candidates Larry Dick and Curt Hagman. During this early stage of the campaign there is a lot of focus on money and of course strategy. One strategy is to buy slate cards early so your opponent can’t buy them On April 18 of this year Larry Dick’s campaign sent $5,128 to the coveted “Save Prop 13 Committee” Slate and on April 26th sent a grand to probably “reserve” a slot on the "Republican Women’s Voice"Slate card. Not to be outdone Curt Hagman’s campaign on May 11 sent $1,000 to “Save Proposition 13” Slate Card and $1000 to the “Republican Woman’s Voice” Slate Card. Campaign Reports show these to be the same slates. If a candidate … Read More

The State Senate is in session tonight, and despite knowing that the Republican Caucus has not agreed to a budget deal, Perata forced yet another vote on the fat, bloated state budget.

The vote failed, but it is notable that moderate Republican Abel Maldonado decided that hanging tough for real spending cuts and programmatic reforms was a bit too much for him. I don’t know what his pressure points were but when choosin’ time came, and he voted, he went with all of the Democrats instead of his colleagues.

To be commended are the 14 solid Senate Republicans who are keeping faith with each other, and are commited to some real reforms and spending cuts.

More to come, I’m sure…… Read More

This weekend Larry Dick’s campaign for the 60th Assembly District came to part of the LA County. Walnut Valley Water Board member Ling-Ling Chang and Pomona School Board Member Andrew Wong sponsored Larry’s Luau in Diamond Bar. In the audience were quite a few “Water people”. As water board member Larry is working that angle. Water is big business in CA and there is more money there than some might think. There were also a lot of GOP activists from the SGV Valley, many that were also at the last Curt Hagman events I was at. They must be checking out the field. See here. Assemblyman Huff was there saying very nice things about … Read More

An exciting new proposed ballot proposition that would eliminate the current "winner-take-all" system of apportionment of Presidential Electoral College votes and replace it with a regionalized system based largely on voting results in Congressional districts, has been filed with the Attorney General by "Californians for Equal Representation" by Sacramento-based attorney Thomas W. Hiltachk. The ballot measure, identified as the "Presidential Election Reform Act," and identified on the AG’s system as "Initiative No. 07-0032," would give increased clout in the Presidential election to more local areas of the state, and might also help a credible third party candidate to pick-up some electoral votes, without having to win the entire state.Congressional Districts inthe Bay Area, for example, which usually vote for the Democrat, might be counted on for their electoral votes, however, Congressional districts in southern counties that usually vote for the Republican, would not have their electoral votes necessarily wasted in a Democratic sweep of the state, as in the current system. And vice-versa, were thereto be a really… Read More