An update for the night-owls, the Assembly Republican Caucus is now meeting and legislators are ‘locked in’ which means there is likely a budget vote immenent. We’ll see what happens..… Read More

From today’s Roll Call Newspaper back in DC… Weak Fundraising Doolittle’s Latest Woe By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff Republicans in Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-Calif.) district are continuing to sour on the nine-term Congressman * but GOP leaders and potential primary challengers are for now refraining from making any public moves to push the lawmaker aside. Reflecting his weakened political position, Doolittle closed the… Read More

Some passing thoughts on today’s news…

Today, our friends over at the Capitol Weekly have released a ‘scorecard’ on the state legislature. We’re still digesting it, but are open to any observations from FR readers before we release our ‘rating of the CW ratings’ — though my first observation… In a world where traditionally the higher you score on something, the better, it is notable that on a scale of 0 – 100, it is the 0 that makes you the right winger, and a 100 that makes you a socialist. Go figure… From the "Tales of the Bizarre" files — LA Times writer Don Frederick is reporting that Barry Manilow has written a big check to the candidate of libertarian-Republican Ron Paul’s candidacy for the Presidency. I guess watching Uncle Sam take such a big cut of those checks from the MGM in Vegas finally got the better of our favorite 70’s icon. I was very impressed with the … Read More

As the budget dance continues with the legislative leaders trying to work through various issues, it would appear that there is one big question for this year’s budget… Will it be balanced? Will it spend no more than projected revenue? That ultimately is the core mission of Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines. We can have a discussion another day about what an ideal budget would look like, the kind we will never see as long as the partisan gerrymander of California ensures a liberal majority in both legislative houses. But the discussion for this year is deficit spending. There is no reason why budgeted expenditures for California government cannot fall within its income, will room to spare for a prudent reserve. Not only is this is a reasonable ‘non-negotiable’ line in the sand, but it is hard for me to figure out how this year, ANY legislator can vote for a budget that contains a budget deficit… Read More

Some passing thoughts on today’s news…

Today, our friends over at the Capitol Weekly have released a ‘scorecard’ on the state legislature. We’re still digesting it, but are open to any observations from FR readers before we release our ‘rating of the CW ratings’ — though my first observation… In a world where traditionally the higher you score on something, the better, it is notable that on a scale of 0 – 100, it is the 0 that makes you the right winger, and a 100 that makes you a socialist. Go figure… From the "Tales of the Bizarre" files — LA Times writer Don Frederick is reporting that Barry Manilow has written a big check to the candidate of libertarian-Republican Ron Paul’s candidacy for the Presidency. I guess watching Uncle Sam take such a big cut of those checks from the MGM in Vegas finally got the better of our favorite 70’s icon. I was very impressed with the … Read More

I have been hearing from a lot of Republicans on the Assembly side of the Capitol that there is a budget deal that has been crafted and approved — that it would contain some deficit spending, though closer to $500 million rather than the billions proposed by the Democrats.

That said, I think that folks are a bit premature. I just got off of the phone with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman who assures me that there is no deal as now, and that his caucus has not signed off on a budget.

So, there is still hope that before this process is over, we can get to a budget that is balanced. I certainly wouldn’t encourage any legislator to cast a vote for budget that is not.

I keep hearing that Speaker Nunez has important vacation plans that he doesn’t want to cancel. The best way to do that is to give us a budget that doesn’t spend more than projected state revenues!

Anyways, I would hope we would see solidarity among our conservatives in the legislature, and we won’t rush to put up GOP votes for a… Read More

There seems to be a little bit of confusion about the resolution passed by the CRP Board last Friday relative to GOP voters and the GOP Presidential Primary. So let me try to clarify. Back in the 2000 election cycle, when John McGraw was Chairman of the Party, the party amended its bylaws with a new system of selecting delegates to Republican National Conventions. Up to that point, since 1976, California’s GOP delegates were determined using a "winner-take-all" method where whomever got the most votes statewide was awarded all of the delegates (this was put into place in 1976 to help ensure that then-favorite son Ronald Reagan would carry the entire delegation in his primary bid against President Ford). The new rules for the GOP, which did not go into effect until after the 2000 cycle, are "winner-take-all-by-Congressional District" and they set up a system where three delegates are awarded in each House seat, to the GOP candidate who garners the plurality of the vote in each. A small number of statewide delegate positions are still awarded based on the statewide vote. This new system was rendered moot in the 2004 cycle because… Read More

Is there never a tragedy that doesn’t require a new law? It is almost funny how quickly legislators—at both the state and federal level—have to put out a press release announcing a new law after some individual tragedy. Such is the case with the death of 4-year-old Carlos Alejandro Flores at the Great America amusement park in San Jose last week. Despite the fact that Great America has announced that children shorter than 4 feet twill now be required to wear life vests in all of its 17 locations nationwide, State Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, says that she plans to introduce legislation to address the problem. Her bill would legally require children under 4 feet to were life vests at amusement parks, set a mandatory ratio of lifeguards to swimmers and require that young children not be left unattended. The key to this sad situation is that the 4-year-old boy was left unattended. We can pass a law to require parents to say with their young… Read More