The State Industrial Welfare Commission has the authority, apparently, to hike the state’s wage mandates on private employers, without any action of the State Legislature. That seems like a poor set-up. Mandates on employers like this should require a vote of the people’s representatives EVERY time. If jobs are going to be cut due to regulation on businesses, someone in elected office should be responsible, not some extremely obscure commission. Anyways, if you haven’t been following the debate over the minimum wage between the Governor and legislative Democrats, here is a short breakdown:

The Democrats want to raise the minimum wage. The Republican Governor wants to raise the mandated wage. Republican legislators, overwhelmingly, do NOT want to increase the mandated wage. The Republican Governor wants a $1 an hour hike. The Democrats also want $1 (they would probably go for $10 if they could), but also want to create an ‘auto-pilot’ indexing to inflation of the mandated wage). The Governor had one of the few GOP supporters … Read More

In a CD50 race focused on illegal immigration, those could be Francine Busby’s dying words…or Brian Bilbray’s last nail for her coffin. Kinda like "We don’t need no steenkin badgches." I could come up with cliches all day on this one.

I know Jon will link to the SDUT story on the main page this morning, but it’s worth doing so here as well. Staff Writer Dani Dodge nails it withher lede, "If an election can turn on a sentence, this could be the one."

The taped Busby comments are floating around, but you can hear them right here on FR…just go to Jon’s daily commentary.… Read More

Jim Ledford maybe hiding a dirity little secret. Yesterday, as part of my ongoing coverage of Jim Ledford’s battle against CRA endorsed Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, I included anarticle about his lack of disclosure of campaign contributions. See blog here.Today’s AV Press has another story detailing Ledfiord’s continued lapses in campaign filing. He is his own Treasurer. See article here.

Sometimes lack of disclosure is a mistake, but I don’t think so this time. Jim Ledford is hiding something he was hoping GOP Primary voters wouldn’t find out about. Turns out he received a late contribution of a couple thousand dollars from SEIU United Healthcare Workers West PAC. See details here. Of course this PAC has given to a whole list of Democratic candidates and liberal causes and yes Jim Ledford!

Does Ledford have other union money or liberal money he is… Read More

Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate running in the 50th CD special election against moderate GOPer Brian Bilbray, was speaking at the Joclyn Senior Center. After she spoke, during "Q&A" she was asked by a man in the audience (in Spanish): "I want to help, but I don’t have papers." Busby responded: "Everybody can help, yeah, absolutely…you can all help. You don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help." Can you believe this?!? Well, don’t take my word for it… click here… Read More

Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate running in the 50th CD special election against moderate GOPer Brian Bilbray, was speaking at the Joclyn Senior Center. After she spoke, during "Q&A" she was asked by a man in the audience (in Spanish):

"I want to help, but I don’t have papers."

Busby responded: "Everybody can help, yeah, absolutely…you can all help. You don’t need papers for voting, you don’t need to be a registered voter to help."

**There is MUCH, MUCH, more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

I know I’m going to get a bunch of flak for posting this, considering I can’t let on where I got the numbers. And, yep, I’m sure the veracity of an auto-survey will be questioned (similar to that by done Datamar in the past, but just to be clear, they didn’t do this one). And, yeah too, I know the results indicate nada about likely voters, representative samplings, etc.

Whatever. I know the survey was done, I know who did it, I know how it was conducted, and I know the results. It was not done by Horn or Thompson. That’s what I do know. I can’t speak to anything past that. If that’s not good enough for you, well, ok….there’s plenty of web out there to blog on….plus you can always post pithy comments on this page.

The survey was conducted 5/22-5/30, asking the respondents to press the corresponding numbers on their keypad. Here are the results:

1) If you are a registered Voter.

Yes – 501 No – 0

2) How would you rate Bill Horn’s job performance as County Supervisor?

Very good– 37 Good – 67… Read More

The 36th AD is very safe. The fued between the Runners and Jim Ledford has been around as long as I can remember. Ledford is a Liberal, the Runners aren’t. His challenge to Sharon in preparation of a 2008 bid has been nasty. See article here. Of course the big question is Who is donating to Ledford? He is the Treas. for the campaign and hasn’t filed. See article here.… Read More

Over the years I’ve worked for candidates from the top of the ticket all the way down to Mosquito Abatement District. They all have one thing in common: they are obsessive about yard signs. How many they have up (never enough, although the bill for the signs is always outrageous), how many their opponents have up (always tens of thousands), and, of course, who is ripping down whose signs (not us, them).

The ripping down of signs. Years ago, this was fairly common practice for signs placed in public places. There were even clever little devises invented for the task, like “The Hook” which was basically a tree branch trimmer with which you could easily cut down hard to reach signs. Or sharp straight edge blades on a stick that could cut through those new plastic fiberboard signs like a hot knife through butter. Some years ago I nearly got beat to a pulp by a particularly muscular union thug in a wife-beater t-shirt who had big long chains behind his truck with steel hooks that, when attached to a 4×8 firmly planted firmly, allowed the truck to rip the sign to shreds. Or liquids that could be brushed or squirted on signs that would make the ink… Read More