From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

The California Shake-Up

The California Citizens Redistricting Commission released the first drafts of the new political maps on Friday, and the changes are immense. The commissioners, tasked with drawing districts that reflected common interests and sane geography rather than sheer partisan advantage, seem to have largely met those goals.

Californians can expect a greater number of competitive races under the plan. An analysis by the Sacramento Bee estimated that the number of true swing districts will increase to two from one in both Congress and the state Senate, and to five from two in the state Assembly. Still, that competitiveness comes largely at the expense of the GOP. Given the party’s continued decline in California — only 31% of voters are registered Republicans — the map necessarily gives a boost to Democrats. It does so, however, in a qualified manner. Some seats that used to be unflinchingly Democratic are now just marginally so.

Still, for the first time in decades Democrats have a… Read More

In his latest video production, Governor Jerry Brown says that he is “perplexed” as to why there are not four Republican votes to pass his proposed budget, which would include placing on the ballot the largest tax increase in California history. What Governor Brown casually mentions as “temporary extensions” of taxes represents every family in California making a four digit mandatory shift of money from their family budget over to the state’s budget. Brown fails to mention that the five years of “temporary extensions” that he proposes are in fact a renewal of taxes that were sold to Californian’s in 2009 as temporary themselves. It begs the question of what is the difference, really, between a permanent tax and a temporary tax that keeps getting extended? Brown fails to mention all together in his video that he is not only asking for Republicans to put up votes to advance the prospects of tax increases, but that he wants the legislature to also simply raise taxes for a year regardless of what the outcome of a special election might be.

One cannot blame Jerry… Read More

You just can’t satisfy those Dems. For years, they said “If we only got a majority vote on the budget, it would solve all the fiscal problems of the state.” I actually agreed with them. In tough budget years, the only way they could get a tax increase was because, in order to have a budget, some Republicans had to vote for it. Once they voted for the budget, which some felt compelled to do, voting for the taxes included in that budget was easy. Republican activists would beat them up for voting for a budget that “included” tax increases (even though a trailer bill would be necessary to actually enact the taxes), and Democrats would accuse them (rightly) of being hypocrites if they didn’t vote for the taxes. The pressure of being “responsible” (meaning the state had to have a budget), and the political hit for voting for the budget with taxes, made it easy to actually enact the taxes once the budget was passed.

That pressure is gone now. It will not be that big a deal in budget surplus years. The Dems will spend like drunken sailors in those days. But we are not there now. In tough years, Dems will have… Read More

It’s funny watching the Sunday political programs and the sheer frustration among the MSM that the GOP presidential field isn’t set. They are so accustomed to a certain field that they don’t know how to cover something this fluid.

Some of them dismissed the potential of a Texas Gov. Rick Perry candidacy because he “hasn’t done the things you need to do.” Well, in this nomination process, you don’t need to do what you need to do. Perry could wait another two months and if he picks his spots right, be a legitimate contender. He has a strong record in Texas on job creation and is a trusted conservative and if his message resonates and he positions himself credibly, donors and organization will develop around him.

The first binding process is still over six months away, even while numerous debates, straw polls, caucuses and assorted non-binding beauty contests occur. But the current field is so fluid that candidates can afford to skip a few and determine the best place to make their play.

To wit, both Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have publicly declared that they will not participate in the Iowa Caucuses, historically a must for any… Read More

While you are doing whatever you do, patriot Congressman Dana Rohrabacher is fighting for liberty and freedom in Iraq. The senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, while leading a delegation of Members of Congress that Middle East country has openly questioned the involvement of the Iraqi government in the mass death of some Iranians, and also has suggested that maybe, when they are flush with cash ago (that oil keeps on pumping) that they might pay back the United States for some of the generosity our government has shown to theirs.

For his trouble — yeah, they kicked him out of the country.

I don’t know about you, but if that is how the Iraqi government is going to treat a U.S. Member of Congress, then I saw we oblige them in a big way — when don’t we just take all of our Americans and leave. We’re supposed to have all of our troops out of Iraq by year’s end – right now I’m inclined to say that the soldiers should be with their kids on Fathers Day.… Read More

Today I called upon the Governor and Legislature to enact a six month interest and penalty holiday to help struggling small business owners and other taxpayers who have fallen behind on tax payments during the recent economic downturn.

The state’s job is to collect taxes, not penalties and interest. Too often heavy penalties and punitive interest charges actually make it more difficult for struggling taxpayers to catch up on late payments. If we want more jobs, we need to help California’s job creators get back on their feet.

Instead of increasing taxes or cutting vital programs, we ought to learn from the experience of other states where these programs have successfully raised millions of dollars. I believe a California program would generate several billion dollars of revenues for state and local government.

A tax interest and penalty holiday would be a win-win for both California’s job creators and state coffers.

Below is the text of my letter.You can find mypress release here.

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June 10,… Read More

Yesterday, the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights announced that a prominent conservative Orange County political action committee has joined a coalition of taxpayer and private property rights organizations in calling for the abolition of California redevelopment agencies (RDA).

RDAs have come under considerable public scrutiny for wasteful government spending, eminent domain abuse and, according to independent state analysis, failing to increase the overall number of California jobs. In March, only one Republican legislator, Orange County Assemblyman Chris Norby, joined Democrats in supporting Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to abolish redevelopment agencies. Failing to generate one more Republican vote, taxpayer funding of RDAs continue.

Several Orange County Republican legislators that have been critical of redevelopment agencies in the past, now defend their very existence.

“GOP support for redevelopment agencies is an affront to conservative values,” said Family Action PAC chairman Larry Smith. “During these tough economic times, providing taxpayer funding for private development, sports arenas and luxury golf courses is not a… Read More

Last week, the House voted down a debt limit increase without any conditions by a vote of 97-318. Not a single Republican voted for it. Then, last Tuesday, the President invited the entire Republican caucus to the White House for a discussion on the debt limit. Frankly, all the President succeeded in doing was angering us. His arrogance, haughty nature and his unwillingness to say anything other than his campaign talking points left us all quite discouraged about any potential agreement. Still, the debt limit looms. Treasury Secretary Geithner says that we have already technically hit the ceiling, but that he is raising cash using “extraordinary measures” until August 2nd, at which he point he predicts we will be at the end of our financial rope and run out of cash. Conveniently, that day is just a couple of days before the House and the Senate are scheduled to go on summer recess. The potential to have to cancel that recess will focus negotiators in Washington.

So, what happens if we breeze past August 2nd without increasing the debt limit? Virtually every media outlet would have you believe that we will default on our debt. Even the… Read More