Gov. Schwarzenegger issued the following statement following this morning’s votes in the Legislature:

"Today is an important day for all of California. For the first time in a generation, we are making a real investment in our state’s future. "First, let me thank the legislative leaders for all of their efforts to make the Strategic Growth Plan a reality. In January, I proposed the Strategic Growth Plan during my State of the State address. Everybody said it couldn’t be done. Everybody said it was impossible to bring both parties together for such a historic undertaking. … Read More

There is a story on today’s Drudge Report about a family getting kicked out of a Chinese buffet in Iowa for leaving too much on their plates. Kinda reminds me of last night when we were making $35 Billion choices at 3AM and watching how much of it will go for hog feed. I’m very disappointed in the process.

There is great need and merit in doing the effort to improve highways, levees/flood control/water storage. Unfortunately, less than half, perhaps by far, [the ink is still drying on the bill proposals asI tap this out] will get to this type of true infrastructure. For example, there was $3 Billion ostensiblyfor levees but no programming that it will actually go for levee work in that bond. It could still end up with any given amount of the $3B going for bugs and shrubs.

Sorry folks, but I’ve watched Lucy pull the football away from Charlie Brown on previous "water bonds"[btw, no water storage either, the… Read More

Federal lobbyist and former Congressman Brian Bilbray, the Republican, is LOSING to liberal school teacher Francine Busby, the Democrat in a “safe” GOP seat as conservatives nationally, and in this coastal San Diego County district are fed up with ‘big government’ Republicanism.

I just got off of the phone with Bill Hauf. The overwhelming majority of FR readers will be unfamiliar with who that is – Hauf is one of the conservative candidates who ran in the large field to replace ‘Duke’ Cunningham in Congress. Hauf, who ran a principled campaign on the issues, didn’t fare as well as he would have liked. But he was proud that nearly 70% of the votes that went to Republicans were cast for conservative/reform candidates. Of course, Brian Bilbray who is a liberal-moderate Republican, who one with about 15% of the vote, now has to consolidate Republicans and decline-to-state voters behind him for the special election run-off on June 6th.

A lot of… Read More

The California Republican Assembly Board of Directors will have a conference call on Monday at noon to discuss the bonds and the 50th CD and the possible Roach candidacy. Sen. Ackerman has been invited to participate.

You can see my personal view on the bonds here and my personal view on the 50th CD here.… Read More

The infrastructure bonds that the legislature put on the November ballot this morning will re-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. Already armed with advantages over either of his Democratic opponents on taxes, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, and Jessica’s Law, the presence of bonds providing money for road, school and levee construction gives Schwarzenegger an issues arsenal that will be almost impossible for either Steve Westly or Phil Angelides to defeat.

The two strongest arguments against Arnold’s re-election — the criticisms that took him down in last year’s special election — have been that he has accomplished very little in office and that he’s short-changed the state’s schools. Earlier this week, it was announced that the state would take in roughly $4 billion more in tax revenue than had been anticipated. It’s a virtual certainty that Schwarzenegger will use the majority of that money to repay money that the teachers’ unions have argued he owes K-12 education, leaving his Democratic opponent to argue that they would have increased school funding one year earlier than Arnold did.… Read More

The FR got a hot tip that turned out to be very true.

I just got off of the phone with a staffer in the office of Democratic Assemblyman Juan Arambula (pictured) who confirmed that his boss has been told to pack his things — he is being moved to a new office, "5126", said the staffer. I asked him if he knew who occupied that office now, and he said, "Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee."

Have you been to Blakeslee’s office? It’s tiny.

Arambula last night had some very serious concerns about the Infrastructure Bond Package being forced through the legislature. (I hear there were issues surrounding unfairness to county governments, among other concerns). Anyways, he did not provide "aye" votes for ANY of the bond measures.

Sounds to me like the Speaker is punishing a member of his caucus for voting his conscience. I sure hope that all of his Democratic colleagues denounce this… Read More

In the mad rush to push through Bond measures to meet the imaginary deadline, Democrats didn’t make the text of the proposals available until around 5 p.m. Since then, staffers all around the capitol and in the legislative office building have been scouring them.

The word is that upon examination, the final language isn’t quite what as agreed upon in the “Secret Squirrel” Big 4 meeting – that now they are having to figure out exactly what was changed.

This is illustrative of the kinds of things that happeb when you try to rush through things.

Time to put on the brakes.

[Update: Assembly Floor session has now been delayed until 8 p.m. Delays will start to play into a new drama. This weekend is supposed to be a big GOP Legislative ‘cashectomy’ on donors in Wine Country. Wouldn’t it be just like the Dems to keep everyone in session…?]… Read More

I have never met Eric Roach. People tell me he is a great guy. He just lost an election to Brian Bilbray (pictured below, to the right) in the 50th CD. I hope he does not run another campaign June 6th.

Given all the residue from Duke Cunningham’s crimes, It is not going to be easy to hold on to this normally safe Republican seat on this confusing ballot where the general election for the special and the primary for 2006 are on the same ballot. Roach can only win the primary by bringing Bilbray down which will only help the Democrat in the race. The most likely scenario for a successful Roach is to win the primary and allow a Democrat to win the general thereby having to face an incumbent in November. That gives us a very high probability of losing the seat completely. This year will be close enough without losing what should be safe Republican seats over internal squabbles.

Politics is a team sport and the Republican… Read More