Just try to wipe the smile off my face tonight! What a day it was in Minneapolis! This morning in the midst of the Rules Committee meeting, the esteemed Chairman of Georgia announced Senator McCain’s VP choice, and the room erupted in a spontaneous standing ovation and cheers. When it was time for the press conference, we recessed and watched the news together…one man and one woman from every state and U.S. territory…the chemistry in the room was reflected in our new GOP Presidential ticket, and the excitement was absolutely delicious! We clapped until our hands were numb, smiled until it hurt, and cheered with reckless abandon. We all felt that we were witnessing something truly great and historic. The McCain Mojo is alive and well in Minneapolis!!!

I must also report that my fellow California delegate to the Rules Committee, Bob Laurie, co-authored a very important amendment today that will enfranchise active duty military members in the primary and delegate selection process in our Party. It was… Read More

State Senator Lou Correa has to be wondering if Senate President Don Perata takes input from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. Today the State Senate voted on a budget plan that represents negotiations between Perata and Governor Schwarzenegger. Left out of the process in any meaningful way was Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Senate Republicans. You know what? You can tell. The so-called "compromise budget" is a bad budget, containing as its main eyesore a multi-billion dollar tax sales tax increase that will wallop California’s economy for years.

The plan put forth by the Governor deserves to be voted down outright — but the proposal on the Senate Floor is even worse than the Governor’s — the Governor calls for a three year increase in the sales taxes, followed by a decrease after that to permanently lower the state sales tax over the long haul. While we are dubious that this decrease would ever really occur, Senate Democrats want nothing of it. Their plan hikes the rate for three years, and then returns it back to existing levels.

The "roll" is still being held open in the Senate, where every… Read More

Reporting from the floor of the California State Senate…….

After over two months the Senate Democrats finally decided to put up the budget for a vote. FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.

Senator Perata just finished railing at the governor – then saying he was through with negotiating with us. The problem is – he never started negotiating with us in the first place.

Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill has asked time and time again to sit down and work out a budget deal. Perata just doesn’t respond.

The Senate Democrats have taken the tack of working out a "deal" with the governor – which includes a tax increase – then having the governor "pick off" the two weakest Republican Senators.

They’re doing this because its a tried and true tradition – it’s exactly what they did last year. And didn’t that work out well….. Remember last year? We were called "terrorists", "whackos" and "extremists" – then locked in the chambers overnight to try and force us into… Read More

I’m shedding tears of joy.

McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as his Vice-Presidential running mate is spectacular. Yes, the media will focus on her being well a woman. I understand that. But she is more than that. Palin is a reformer. She has a track record fighting corrupt sell out Republicans. She has taken on pork barreling and big government

She is a sportsman, sorry sportswoman or is it sportsperson? Bottom line. She can shoot a gun.

Palin is pro-life in theory and practice. Here is her statement on the birth of her son this year Down’s syndrome.

"Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed."

She has a another kid headed to Iraq.

And just wait until Joe Biden and her tangle on oil-drilling.

I am still crying.… Read More

UPDATE 5:03pm – Based on some e-mail traffic, it would appear that I need to be more specific on what I was told on this. Besides what I said below, Morgan conveyed that this idea is not one that has been floated by Assembly Republicans, and that, to be clear, Republicans would not put up votes on a budget (that requires a two-thirds vote) if the Democrats separately pass this scheme (which they can do by a majority vote if they wanted).

Sometimes there are complex policy issues that come up that are difficult to distill in a blog-length post. But I am going to try to explain. But let me place the conclusion first, and the details afterward. Basically, there is some talk in the Capitol that there is a way to raise local sales taxes by .25 percent by just a majority vote (I’ll explain below), and that doing so would bring in $1.4 billion in new tax revenue. Some of the “chatter” was that this proposal might get “sign off” from Republicans in a budget deal.

Not true. I spoke with Morgan Crinklaw, Communications Director for Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, who checked with his boss, and… Read More

Today, Senator John McCain has chosen a Governor, a fellow maverick, a mother, and the first woman to ever be a part of the Republican presidential ticket. After watching Senator Barack Obama last week make what I thought was a weak, defensive and underwhelming choice of Senator Biden as his running mate, I am thrilled that McCain used this opportunity to seek out someone who can turn the election on its head.

Governor Sarah Palin has chief executive experience – something frankly no one else on the ticket on either side can boast, but is greatly needed in the White House. And I know there will be lots of talk about experience during this election cycle, especially with Obama’s lack of it. But with Sarah Palin, she brings another kind of experience that is found nowhere else on the ticket. She is a mother of five. As a new mother of one, I am blown away by her resiliency and her efforts at doing it all.

Also intriguing is the perspective she might bring as a union member, the mother of a serviceman who is headed to Iraq, a former member of the PTA, and the mother a special needs child.

In addition, her appeal in the west… Read More

As a Jewish Republican, it’s kind of novel to be singled out by Governor Schwarzenegger in Yiddish, which is what happened a couple of days ago when the Governor participated in a video-conference interview with the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune. But I must admit to being honored to have two outstanding called-out ”colleagues" – KFI radio talk show hosts John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou – great Americans. Longtime FR friend Chris Reed is a member of the U-T’s Editorial Board and blogged about a quip made by the Governor:

BONUS TIDBIT: The governor made clear he’s paying close attention to the media in the budget battle, and not just mainstream heavyweights like the Sac Bee and the L.A. Times. He said he hoped his recently aggressive push to sell his compromise budget as a "way out of the problem, solving it once and for all" would make Republican lawmakers more comfortable with his plan. If he gets them aboard, "then maybe there’s only out there John & Ken… Read More

There are a lot of reasons why legislators should be opposing Senator Don Perata’s SB 1407. This measure which would raise all kinds of fees associated with courts in order to then finance $5 BILLION in bonds (that would take about $10 BILLION in funds to repay over time) in order to build new and modernize old court facilities.

I am quite sure that there is merit in the argument that the infrastructure for our state’s court system is in need of modernization.

But the means to achieve this, as set out in SB 1407, is extremely poor public policy. You can read a cornucopia of reasons to oppose it in a column penned for the FlashReport last week by Assemblyman Joel Anderson. I will reinforce what is clearly the single most important reason. As a matter of principle and sound public policy, legislators should not incur debt for the taxpayers of California without first taking the… Read More