The Governor may be doing the right thing (public policy-wise) by talking about and making moves to be ‘tough on crime’ but it won’t be the reason any measured group of voters choose him in November.

Let’s travel back in time to 1998 when crime was an issue. Attorney General Dan Lungren waged a miserable excuse for a campaign. But he did have the edge on being the ‘tough on crime’ candidate and the voters didn’t care.

Today crime is even less of an issue. For all the posturing and outrage over the whatever lawbreaking activity or crime against children or seniors or investors or whomever, its not an election issue. Think illegal immigration, traffic, education.

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I receive a lot of e-mails from the Arnold Schwarzenegger camppaign.

A lot.

It started right aftert the primary election, as if some e-mail spigot was cranked wide open, and it hasn’t stopped since. Even better, I get them in triplicate, since the Arnold campaign seems to have all of my e-mail addresses.

After a while, it’s hard to keep up with them or even bother to read them all. However, three I recieved yesterday and the day before caught my eye. It must have been Message Of The Day is: Public Safety! over at AS HQ, because they were all about how tough Arnold is on the bad guys.

Which reminded me of Senior Public Defender Teresa Snodgrass-Bennett, whom the Governor appointed this January to be a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge (see my previous posts on the subject here, here and here). First, there’s the questionable wisdom of giving judicial robes to someone who has… Read More

I got ahold of these last night but didn’t have an opportunity to post them until early this morning. From the godfather of fiscal prudence:

"Here is the great paradox of the budget before us: despite a 23 percent increase in revenues in the last three years, we’re running the biggest deficit in California’s history.

"Let’s review the numbers.

"Income: $94.4 billion

"Spending: $101.3 billion

"Deficit: $6.9 billion

"We’ve enjoyed astounding 23 percent revenue growth these past three years – thanks in large part to the Governor’s determination to roll back the… Read More

I planned to write today’s commentary on the state budget, but then I read Assemblyman Chuck Devore’s e-mail to his supporters that Nicholas Romero posted yesterday afternoon and realized that there wasn’t much to say beyond what DeVore wrote (or the San Diego U-T or the OC Register).

But I do have a few thoughts on the matter.

While the Legislature and the Governor can campaign this year as having passed and signed the state budget into law before July 1 as required by the state’s constiution, no one should be throwing a party.

Sure, this year’s budget is not disastrous for the state. But neither is it responsible. How can any legislative body approve a budget that runs a deficit in a year when the state had an unexpected windfall of money?

I must say that the Republicans in the Legislature did the best they could–without the help of any major muscle flexing by the governor, a fellow member of the GOP. One can’t help wondering what the budget might have been like if Gov. Schwarzenegger had participated in the budget negotiations before the Legislature voted (it makes this Republican think fondly on… Read More

Hey, all you budget spinners out there: enough of the BS, okay? Despite one of the greatest surges in revenue in State history, the budget isn’t balanced and we continue to throw money at programs and departments that cannot justify additional spending based on performance and efficiency.

Let’s call it what it is – a "get out of town budget" designed to help the Governor’s re-election. There was an alternative you know: balance the budget and then explain why it’s important. Anyone think of that out there besides the Republicans who voted no? Balanced budgets are an understandable, mainstream position. Anyone think the wrath of the unions will be any less because their priorities received more money?… Read More

I planned to write today’s commentary on the state budget, but then I read Assemblyman Chuck Devore’s e-mail to his supporters that Nicholas Romero posted yesterday afternoon and realized that there wasn’t much to say beyond what DeVore wrote (or the San Diego U-T or the OC Register).

But I do have a few thoughts on the matter.

While the Legislature and the Governor can campaign this year as having passed and signed the state budget into law before July 1 as required by the state’s constiution, no one should be throwing a party.

Sure, this year’s budget is not disastrous for the state. But neither is it responsible. How can any legislative body approve a budget that runs a deficit in a year when the state had an unexpected windfall of money?

I must say that the Republicans in the Legislature did the best they could–without the help of any major muscle flexing by the governor, a fellow member of the GOP. One can’t help wondering what the budget might have been like if Gov. Schwarzenegger had participated in the budget negotiations before the Legislature voted (it makes this Republican think fondly on… Read More

My friend Sean Walsh has a personal boycott against the city of Berkeley. He won’t shop or eat in Berkeley, refusing to have any of his hard-earned dollars go to that insane city government.

After the Berkeley City Council’s vote yesterday, I may have to join his boycott. The City Council unanimously voted to put a measure on the ballot in November that allows Berkeley voters to vote on impeaching President Bush. Of course, the vote is meaningless and cost city taxpayers $10,000, but that didn’t deter the committed leftists on the Berkeley City Council. It’s no surprise that Cindy Sheehan was there urging the City Council on in their wackiness.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the ballot measure… Read More

Ever since Former Long Beach Mayor Bev O’Neil got arounf the two-term limit imposed by voters by sucessfully waging a write in campaign, others were bound to try to keep office the same way. Councilwoman Jackie kell tries the same thing and came up short. Now the recount has begun and guees what some wrote her name in , but didn’t fill in the bubble. See story here.Of course this amy go to court as the recount continues. I guess some of Kell’s voters didn’t do well on their school exams.… Read More