The long, sad saga of Poway Councilwoman Betty Rexford reached what may be its final stage this morning. The FlashReport just confirmed that the San Diego County Registrar of Voters completed its sampling of petitions submitted by recall proponents, certifying that more than the required 5,657 needed signatures were submitted. Over 6,300 valid signatures were previously turned in.

This qualifies the election for June 8, with both the Rexford recall and an "if she is recalled, who replaces her" question to appear on the ballot, sure to start a scramble by potential candidates.

"June 8 can’t come too soon," said recall organizer Steve Vaus, "It’s a bad day for Betty, but a great day for Poway."

For more on the recall: www.recallrexford.com… Read More

KTVU television reports that Democrat consultants Ace Smith and Chris Lehane will head up a new labor-funded $20 million independent expenditure campaign to start bloodying up GOP gubernatorial front-runner Meg Whitman. See the KTVU piece below, and read more about it from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Is that Steve Poizner smiling over there?

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Round trip from DC to SF at $120,000

It is really getting challenging to show patience given the tone-deaf nature of the Democrats who control the State Legislature. State Senate Democrats just unveiled their new "jobs package" (read it and weap here) that supposedly is going to create six-figures worth of new jobs here in the once-Golden state.

It is really not rocket science to figure out how the Governor and State Legislature can best act to foster an economic environment for job creation in California. I would like it if every Democrat legislator and staff reading this would put down their coffee, and stop multitasking with Tweetdeck, and pay attention to this SIMPLE TWO STEP plan that would be a huge boon to California’s economy… STEP ONE: UNDO DAMAGING TAXES AND OVER-REGULATION That’s right, we should operate under the theory that the state government should get out of the business of actually doing harm to the business climate, and restricting the growth of private sector jobs. Whether it is reducing taxation on income to stimulate spending,… Read More

Dave Gilliard, consultant for Congressional candidate State Senator Jeff Denham, fired off a note to an unknown number of recipients in which he lays out how particular "hits" on another candidate, former Congressman Richard Pombo, really drag him down in popularity. Gilliard attached to his note a memo from longtime FR friend Steve Kinney, with more summary details on a poll that Public Opinion Strategies conducted in CD 19. Below is the text of Gilliard’s note, and linked below is the Kinney memo… And who ever said politics wasn’t a contact sport?

2/10/2010 TO: Interested Parties FR: Dave Gilliard Public Opinion Strategies just completed a poll in CA 19. A memo from… Read More

This weekend, Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont), Chair of the Select Committee on the Prison and Rehabilitation, blamed Sacramento County Sheriff McGinness for the early release of Kevin Peterson, who hours after he was released from a Sacramento County jail, tried to rape a woman.

Asm. Torrico noted that the actions by the county were:

“A total aberration of the law here in Sacramento County, unfortunately. I think they had to do it intentionally, to try to lower their costs, to try to lower their population. It is a stretch beyond imagination what they have done here.” …

“It is a complete stretch to apply the legislation to a county inmate especially a dangerous one like they did here in Sacramento.” …

“What they are doing here in Sacramento is whole sale release of people who are not ready to be let out. They are giving them credit for time they don’t deserve. They are applying a statute that does not apply to county prisoners, it is a mistake and they put people in jeopardy here in Sacramento.”

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I received the following statement from Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform. FR readers will recall that is ATR’s No New Taxes pledge that Maldonado egregiously violated. No one forced him to sign the pledge, and no one forced Maldonado to vote to smack California taxpayers with the largest tax increase ever in the history of any state… “I urge California legislators to reject political payback for the guy that provided the deciding vote for the largest state level tax increase in the history of the United States.

First Abel Maldonado gets his ballot measure that would destroy the integrity of the primary election process in exchange for throwing already over-burdened California taxpayers under the bus, breaking his promise to not raise taxes in the process.

Now Abel Maldonado is on the cusp of rising to higher office.

This is not someone California taxpayers want sitting just one heart beat away from becoming governor.

The only job his recent behavior… Read More

The pervasive and corrupting influence of the state’s public employee unions is obvious. But we don’t need to tell Meg Whitman that, she’s talked about it on the campaign trail.

The Citizen Power Initiative, if passed, would curb the ability of unions to take money out of the paychecks of their members for for political purposes without their express permission.

There is no doubt that California will not get back on the right track until we can pass this important reform.

Tom Campbell has talked about this on the campaign trail — and has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

Steve Poizner has talked about this on the campaign trail — and has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

Chuck DeVore has talked about this on the campaign trail — and has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

Carly Fiorina has talked about this on the campaign trail — and today has endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative.

That leaves only one candidate left on the campaign trail for Governor… Read More