I read in Capitol Morning Report that Roy Allmond, filed a candidate intention statement to run for the office of California Secretary of State as a Republican.

What I found intriguing was that according to the Sacramento Bee, State Pay Results, Allmond, works for the current Secretary of State’s Office, Debra Bowen.

So why is Allmond running to replace his boss? Is she incompetent? Where has she failed?

Is Allmond planning to resign from his current job as a protest or tp remove any hint of conflicting interests?

His opponent Damon Dunn is racking up endorsements and barnstorming the state. There is a rumor that a former Secretary of State (the kind that visits foreign countries) is going to endorse soon.… Read More

On Thursday the California Senate passed a bill, ABX8 8 that will make internet retailers with affiliates in California collect sales tax on behalf of the state. The bill is now in the Assembly for a vote on concurrence. Many good points were raised in the debate. I completely agree with the Democrats that there is a great inequity between internet retailers who sell without collecting sales tax and California retailers who have to collect the tax. However, this is a fight that cannot be won because of the nature of the internet.

When Jeff Bezos was thinking about establishing Amazon back in the ’90s, his first thought was to set up on an Indian reservation. Bezos is a wonderful, mad genius, and his sophistication has only increased. When New York passed this same mandate on Amazon last year, Amazon immediately fired all of its affiliates in New York and signed up new ones in a neighboring state. You can call it radical, but it is a great business decision that is in the best interest of Amazon shareholders. Some say the answer is a national sales tax program, but that misses the mark as well. Consider that Google is rumored to be designing… Read More

As the Fresno Bee reported, last Friday’s sold out Lincon Club breakfast forum, featuring former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson, Current Fresno Council President Larry Westerlund, current State Senator Jeff Denham, and former member of Congress Richard Pombo was a great start to the public part of the campaign.

In promoting the forum, the Club promised hard hitting questioning, and our audience told us that we certainly met that test. Here issample of what we asked these four men:

California’s State Budget is a disaster of historical proportions, and yet you, in 2005-06 and in 2006-07, voted for State Budgets that raised the General Fund spending in California to unsustainable levels, from $81 billion to over $101 billion. The State Legislative Analyst correctly warned against the assumptions made in these budgets, and the LAO’s warnings turned out to be factually correct. We are still reeling from the fiscal disaster these budgets created. Later, in 2009, you voted to place… Read More

In late December I wrote that the City of San Diego has "a series of campaign laws long ripe for a challenge on First Amendment grounds," and further asked, "Yet, what candidates have ever wanted to take on those laws at the risk of being perceived in the media — and at the hands of opponents — as wanting to loosen restrictions?"

This was in response to the news that a coalition was — finally — doing just that.

In case you missed it, a Federal court last week ruled against the City of San Diego’s overly restrictive campaign laws. Jim Lacy summarized it on Wednesday in his column here on the FlashReport:

A Federal court in San Diego yesterday issued a permanent injunction against the City of San Diego’s $500 contribution limit per person to independent expenditure committees involved in City elections. The ruling quotes the recent Citizens United case we have written about, and is… Read More

The Orange County Register has an excruciatingly well-researched front page story today about how members of the California Legislature use (or abuse depending upon your outlook) so called away from home "per diem" tax-free payments that are intended to defray expenses of being away from their main homes, (presumably in their legislative districts) while tending to state business in Sacramento. One of the starkest examples provided was that of millionaire Orange County Congressman John Campbell. Campbell has a mansion in Irvine. But according to the report by reporters Brian Joseph and Molly Zisk, while in the state legislature Campbell charged the taxpayers $167,070 in addition to his salary, for away from home "per diem" expenses. In this five-year period, he purchased a home in the Sacramento suburbs for $300,000. He paid cash for the home. When he was elected to Congress, he sold the home for $665,000. The Register article claims Campbell tripled his personal investment by leveraging tax-free taxpayer supported per diem… Read More

I’ve been in politics a long time. So, count me jaded when a candidate puts out a press release that says "My poll says I’m ahead!"

Before I give any belief to a statement like that, I want to know what the questions were, how were all the candidates identified in the poll (it has to be what the ballot designation is likely to be – or it’s worthless), who is the pollster (has to be a respected one), and was this a “push” poll – where the opponents are cast in a negative light and the candidate in a positive one (these types of polls area wastebecause they don’t reflect reality).

So, I was impressed when I got the email below from Senator George Runner – candidate for BOE. Not only does it show George in the lead, but he gives us the questions that were asked, has very fair ballot designations of him and his opponents and the poll was done by Steve Kinney of Public Opinion Strategies – who I can personally vouch for as a top-flight pollster.

Poll Shows George Runner is Clear Frontrunner in BOE Race Sacramento

The results of a poll conducted… Read More

According to today’s Washington Post, conservative Republican Ken Cuccinelli, the Virginia Attorney General, was scared off of sharing the dias at CPAC today with prominent California-based conservative legal activist Gary Kreep, the cofounder of the United States Justice Foundation. The article cites a panel the two were to share, “Saving Freedom and Due Process from an Oppressive Justice Department” today at 12:15 p.m. Cuccinelli is a potential candidate for U.S. Senate or Governor in upcoming elections in Virginia. Gary is a director of Western CPAC well known for his accomplishments in the law for conservatives who also is a leading attorney, with two cases currently on appeal, challenging the eligibility of Barack Obama to be President on the claim he may not be a natural born citizen. The Post reports that Cuccinelli never agreed to serve on the panel, despite his name having appeared on the published agenda at www.conservative.org for months. His spokesman says he decided in the end to speak on another panel on economic issues. It looks odd to me that an Attorney General would be confused about whether to speak on legal issues, his field of… Read More

Just said hello to Steve Poizner at CPAC, who was huddling with Americans for Tax Reform and fellow ACU board member Grover Norquist in the coffee shop. I was able to tell him personally I just received his campaign’s check for my biggest slate card, “Lew Uhler’s National Tax Limitation Committee Early Voter Guide”. I’d say he is in the race all the way. California GOP chief Ron Nehring walked up to see Steve just as I was leaving. Conservative bad boy Floyd Brown and I decided to go to the bar for cokes and stopped on the way to talk to David Bossie, the head of Citizens United (which was founded by Floyd) to congratulate him on his big recent Supreme Court victory. CPAC staff say there will be 10,000 registered participants at this event. Wow!… Read More