I don’t think Susan Kennedy is a Communist sympathizer. I don’t think she’s a spy for Gray Davis or Phil Angelides. I don’t know much about her politics, although it sounds like she’s somewhere to the left of most Republicans and somewhere to the right of most Democrats. Which, as most of the participants on this website have decided, is pretty much where her boss is.

But after reading Friday’s Los Angeles Times’ story on the payment Kennedy received from the Schwarzenegger campaign committee, I have an entirely different set of concerns than most of my fellow bloggers. My worry is less about ideology than it is about ethics. Or at least, the appearance of ethical questions in an administration that promised to clean up Sacramento when it came to power.

There’s all sorts of revisionist history about what elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first place. There are those who think it was his celebrity that pulled him into office, an opinion that not only drastically underestimates the intellectual capabilities of California voters but ignores the fact that Arnold’s campaign didn’t really catch fire until… Read More

The FlashReport started hearing a buzz yesterday that first-term Assemblyman Van Tran, who is now seeking the GOP nomination for the 34th State Senate seat being vacated by the term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn, had endorsed Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen to replace him in the Assembly.

The source of the rumors was a mailing that has gone out from Nguyen’s campaign inviting people to a February 9th fundraising event with special guest Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, on which Tran is listed at the top of the Host Committee.

Knowing how close Van is with both Nguyen and the other GOP candiate vying for his seat, businessman Jim Righeimer, I put a call into Van so that I could try to sort this out.

Van told me that, "Both Janet and Jim are friends of mine – long standing friends. Janet asked me to lend my name to be on the host committee [for this event] in early January, at least a couple of weeks before I made my announcement for State Senate, and before Jim Righeimer had let everyone… Read More

I recently read that our Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with Senater Trent Lott of Mississippi were introducing legislation aimed at getting rid of this process of Congressional ‘earmarking’ where individual Members of Congress insert their pet programs into spending bills. It was this process that allowed the discraced and soon-to-be-jailed former Congressman Duke Cunningham to slide contracts to the folks that padding him with millions in return.

I came across the analysis below from Human Events that really shows that Feinstein and Lott are trying to make the earmarking process more ‘transparent’ but are doing nothing to try and curb it, unlike two of their colleagues, John McCain and Tom Cobern.

If anyone knows if any California Members of Congress are serious about stopping this practice of earmarking, and are willing to talk about it — please have them contact me.

Here is the HE piece from their… Read More

GIVE ME A BREAK There is an article today in the Los Angeles Times injecting some controversy into the hiring of Susan Kennedy. It is easy to find the whole thing on the main page. I will say that I know Governor Schwarzenegger to be an honorable and ethical person, and so I think any implication of being ‘for sale’ is without merit.. I don’t know Susan Kennedy, though I am troubled with the central role that she played in the Gray Davis administration. Especially when you factor in her close friendship with uber-slick lobbyist/developer Darius Anderson, who was widely known to be the fundraiser-in-chief for the recalled and disgraced former Governor.

That said, if you look at the volume of contributions that come into a Gubernatorial-level campaign, the money comes from all over the place — and especially from interests that do business with or are regulated by the… Read More

GIVE ME A BREAK There is an article today in the Los Angeles Times injecting some controversy into the hiring of Susan Kennedy. It is easy to find the whole thing on the main page. I will say that I know Governor Schwarzenegger to be an honorable and ethical person, and so I think any implication of being ‘for sale’ is without merit.. I don’t know Susan Kennedy, though I am troubled with the central role that she played in the Gray Davis administration. Especially when you factor in her close friendship with uber-slick lobbyist/developer Darius Anderson, who was widely known to be the fundraiser-in-chief for the recalled and disgraced former Governor.

That said, if you look at the volume of contributions that come into a Gubernatorial-level campaign, the money comes from all over the place — and especially from interests that do business with or are regulated by the… Read More

Nobody blogs about it. Nobody talks about it. Yet, if you want to know the real engine behind California’s economy, you have to acknowledge its central role. If you see improving financial health in school districts and other government institutions, its at the center of the reasons why. The answer is SB 899. This bill, signed April 14th, 2004, by a Governor with a 72% approval rating, has unleashed the largest single tax cut in California history. The author of the legislation, Senator Chuck Poochigian, has put more money in the pockets of business, and saved government entities more money than any elected official – ever. The Fresno Unified School District, facing a takeover by the State due to a $31 million dollar deficit, closed the gap and balanced its books with the help of this legislation.

What was SB 899? Simply, Workers’ Compensation reform.

Workers’ Compensation is a payroll tax, a mandatory form of insurance designed to protect workers from industrial and work related injuries. In California, it became, with the help of liberal Democrats, public employee unions, and Gray Davis, one of the most significant job killing… Read More

In collegeI wanted to go out one evening with some friends, but was short of cash. Being an enterprising young man, I looked under the sofa cushions and found a couple bucks in change. That provided as you can imagine some good eatin’.

Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick has issues an audit of theLA’s transportation department that found over$12 million in funds that could be used for transportation. See the press release here and the news article here.

Shouldn’t local and state government look for these kinds of funds under the seat cushions before forcing taxpayers to foot more of the bill?… Read More

From today’s Political Diary e-mail from the Wall Street Journal:

Fools for Reform

House Republicans scrambled Wednesday to get ahead of the Abramoff lobbying scandal by passing a change in House rules that will now prohibit former members who are registered lobbyists from strolling onto the House floor or using the House gym.

The change is almost completely cosmetic: Few lobbyists are foolish enough to ply their trade in those locations. But the panic that compelled House Rules… Read More