UPDATE: Congresswoman Mary Bono’s strict overlaps with much of the districts of Senator Benoit and Assemblyman Nestande. She has been a leader in the Whitman Campaign for some time now. We asked her for comment on this latest news… "I applaud the decision by Sen. John Benoit and Assemblyman Brian Nestande to endorse Meg Whitman for Governor. Their endorsements show that support for Meg Whitman is coalescing from all segments of our party, and that her ideas to return California to its rightful place as a land of opportunity and prosperity resonate with voters and members of our party across our great state."… Read More

Today the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is launching a new website focused on the state budget crisis. Their site launch comes at a key time as Democrats in the State Capitol seem intent, once again, to penalize California taxpayers for the state’s budget shortfall. Below is information on HJTA’s site launch! BUDGETFIGHT.COM LAUNCHES ON DAY OF BUDGET VOTE New Web site highlights tax increases and accounting shenanigans in latest proposal Sacramento, CA — Today, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) released a new website BudgetFight.com to keep California taxpayers and the Media apprised of the higher… Read More

2 for 2. June’s school tax elections in Los Angeles County continues. Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Parcel tax passed with 68% of the vote. Los AngelesCounty voters love passing bonds and taxes for localschools. Only one of the four scheduled for June may fail. Locals feel they get value eventhough they reject taxes at the state level.… Read More

Today’s LA Times has a story on study being released today that places blame for the loss of almost 80,000 California-based manufacturing jobs on our regulatory and tax structure. Recently, a group of us joined Assemblyman Dan Logue on a fact-finding trip to Nevada. We had a hearing with companies that have left California and heard stories firsthand just like the ones you can read about in this column. With rising unemployment, the state should be taking action to help create jobs…

I missed the original report last week but was a little surprised that Mark Jacoby, who ran a business that focused on increasing Republican voter registration, plead guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced for filing a "false" voter affidavit in Los Angeles when he actually lived elsewhere. The two concepts of "domicile" and "residence" that appear in the California Elections Code have always had a little fuzzy correlation, allowing some wiggle room, but with the heat on ACORN and other liberal groups for vote related fraud issues across the country, last fall in the closing weeks of the 2008 general election, Jacoby became sort of a "fall guy" for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and Secretary of State Debra Bowen. The back story is officials employed a fleet of local police squad cars to arrest this fellow at a temporary residence in the Inland Empire,creatinga prosecutorial media event in late October. And the irony was that amid national claims againstliberal groups for fudging the election for Obama, that California was prosecuting a Republican on seemingly similarclaims.

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Rep. John Campbell penned an excellent op-ed last Friday for the Investors Business Daily, in which he discussed the comparative chances entrepreneurism vs. Obama-Pelosi statism for reviving the American auto industry. Campbell, naturally, comes down on the side of liberty and common sense — which unsurpor5isiingly dove-tail with his 25 of experience in that industry:

INCYMI: Entrepreneurs Will Reinvent GM’s Castoffs

By Rep. John Campbell

Before I lost my mind and entered politics, I was in the car dealership business for 25 years. In fact, I was the first Saturn retailer chosen back in 1988, and served on the Franchise Operations Team. I opened one of the first 25 stores in 1990 and eventually owned and operated five Saturn Facilities in Orange County, Calif.

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As you read this, the State Legislature is gearing up to attempt its first raid on local government. The urgency of this warning can’t be overstated; If they achieve this smash-and-grab by taking (not even borrowing) the Highway Users Tax Account gasoline tax, cities and counties will see their ability to maintain their streets and roads crippled.

San Bernardino County currently relies on these gas tax dollars for potholes, rehabilitation and resurfacing of 2,700 miles of paved roads in the unincorporated areas alone. If the County were to lose just the HUTA dollars alone (about $32 million), an estimated 200 essential public works personnel would lose their jobs immediately.

Among budget proposals that will likely be voted on are billions in additional raids of transportation dollars, including deferring the first two quarterly payments of the local (city and county) share of Proposition 42 state sales tax on gas, equal to approximately $300 million, which would further hinder local road safety projects, maintenance and repairs.

These raids would disproportionately impact transportation funding, especially when the industry is facing 20%+ unemployment.… Read More

I am quite fond of former State Senator Chuck Poochigian. He’s a great guy — and a good conservative. Frankly, though, he should have turned down the offer when it was proposed to name a stretch of California highway in his name (read it here).

Frankly, it is troubling enough when we name public works for politicians who have passed on, let alone those that are with us. Frankly, every taxpayers whose money was used to fund that highway have just as much legitimate right to have their name it.

This kind of thing glorifies the role of the politician who successful spends other people’s money.

By no means is Poochigian the only living politician with something named "in their honor" — there are thousands of examples of this kind of glorification of elected officials (such… Read More