Is The East County Californian, the local weekly (and formerly daily) newspaper of record since 1892, trying to change its left-leaning tilt with the hiring of longtime local news hound Greg Eichelberger as editor? One might have hoped.

The paper’s 12/27/07 “A year in review: 2007,” by Nick Pellegrino, noted as one of the year’s top stories the announcement by perennial-office-seeker Vickie Butcher that she would now seek the Democratic nomination for the 52nd Congressional District. Good for her, making the list of the year’s most significant stories.

Yet, nowhere in the yearly recap was any mention of the similar announcements by Republicans Duncan D. Hunter, Brian Jones, Ken King or Bob Watkins. It speaks loads that the declaration by one that has run unsuccessfully multiple times for city council is deemed more noteworthy than that of, say, Councilman Jones, or School Board Trustee Watkins, or even Hunter, son-of-the-current-congressman. Apparently, from a news standpoint, such titles are of the chopped liver variety.

Maybe it’s not because the writer deemed none of those announcements newsworthy… Read More

Tomorrow the State Legislature will reconvene. Despite the fact that California has a massive mega-billion dollar operating deficit, Democrats will once again start to introduce more bills to spend even more money. There must be a ten-step program for their addiction to spending other people’s money.

Less people participate in the obscure Iowa Caucus system than vote in many individual California counties. It’s clear that our Presidential nomination process is flawed when so much attention is paid to so few voters. Although this Iowa-thing probably is great for the obscure and heavily taxpayer subsidized ethanol industry.

After all is said and done, it looks like John McCain’s chances of pulling off an upset to get the GOP nomination will be cooked if he cannot pull off a win in New Hampshire’s primary next week. Too bad the McCain-Feingold legislation is making it so hard for him to raise money. There’s some irony there.

Speaking of the New Hampshire primary. It turns out that it falls on the same day (this Tuesday) that Governor Schwarzenegger is scheduled to give his State of the State Address. Historically, Governor’s… Read More

Tomorrow the State Legislature will reconvene. Despite the fact that California has a massive mega-billion dollar operating deficit, Democrats will once again start to introduce more bills to spend even more money. There must be a ten-step program for their addiction to spending other people’s money.

Less people participate in the obscure Iowa Caucus system than vote in many individual California counties. It’s clear that our Presidential nomination process is flawed when so much attention is paid to so few voters. Although this Iowa-thing probably is great for the obscure and heavily taxpayer subsidized ethanol industry.

After all is said and done, it looks like John McCain’s chances of pulling off an upset to get the GOP nomination will be cooked if he cannot pull off a win in New Hampshire’s primary next week. Too bad the McCain-Feingold legislation is making it so hard for him to raise money. There’s some irony there.

Speaking of the New Hampshire primary. It turns out that it falls on the same day (this Tuesday) that Governor Schwarzenegger is scheduled to give his State of the State Address. Historically, Governor’s… Read More

February 5, voters in California will have the chance to accept or reject changes in term limits through Prop. 93. The campaign will be marked by high profile media campaigns and discussion of Nunez and Perata and their records in office. So the geniuses on the council in Downey decided Feb. 5 would be a good day to try to loosen the term limit provision in the Downey City Charter.

The proponents are free to make their case on why they want longer terms, but why get it caught up in the statewide campaign. Just brilliant.… Read More

Today we are pleased to feature this guest commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

The potential recall of State Senator Jeff Denham is a tragic example of what happens in Sacramento when one has the audacity to stand on principle. Denham realized that voting for a budget that started out $700 million in the hole was not a good example of fiscal stewardship. For this, he and other balanced budget supporters were labeled "fiscal terrorists" by the tax and spend lobby. Ultimately, Denham’s continued resolute support of the principle that we should live within our means saw him removed from powerful legislative committees (keeping him from serving his constituents) and made him the target of a recall.

Not surprisingly, evidence has emerged that the puppet master funding and behind this shadowy endeavor is Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Perata is no stranger to… Read More

Today we are pleased to feature this guest commentary from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association…

The potential recall of State Senator Jeff Denham is a tragic example of what happens in Sacramento when one has the audacity to stand on principle. Denham realized that voting for a budget that started out $700 million in the hole was not a good example of fiscal stewardship. For this, he and other balanced budget supporters were labeled "fiscal terrorists" by the tax and spend lobby. Ultimately, Denham’s continued resolute support of the principle that we should live within our means saw him removed from powerful legislative committees (keeping him from serving his constituents) and made him the target of a recall.

Not surprisingly, evidence has emerged that the puppet master funding and behind this shadowy endeavor is Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. Perata is no stranger to… Read More

It seems to me like one objective sign that candidates are serious about campaigning for California delegates would be what we will call, “resource allocation” – which is to say, if you want to get votes in California, you have to go get them.

Since we are more focused on the GOP primary here in California, I will ask an open question. At what stage should we see resources being visibily committed by a campaign before we can assume they are not serious about competing for our boatload of delegates?

Resource Test #1 – Absentee Voting in California Starts Around Now. Are candidates sending mail to Republican absentee voters? What about a chase program? Do they have enough volunteers to make follow up calls?

Resource Test #2 – Television and Radio Advertising as well as Mail Pieces California’s a big state. It is very expensive to advertise here if you look at it as one big buy. But it isn’t. We are really a group of media markets, and presidential contenders don’t need to go for the whole thing.

It seems to me that Mitt Romney has, more or less, bottomless… Read More

Recently, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denied the State of California’s request for a waiver of existing law so that California could adopt it’s own regulations for the fuel economy (greenhouse gases) of cars and light trucks. Note that California was asking to be exempted from the federal law which reserves this regulatory control exclusively to the federal government. Last Wednesday amidst a flurry of press conferences predicting the end of the earth, the State of California sued the federal government over this decision and Speaker Pelosi announced that Congressional Hearings will be held to investigate the decision – A decision to not exempt a state from something.

Now, let’s forget about whether you do or do not believe that the non- polluting greenhouse gases emitted by cars and trucks should be regulated. That proverbial ship has sailed for the present. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards exist and they will for the foreseeable future to deal with either dependence of foreign oil or greenhouse gases. The debate here is what those standards will be and who will regulate them.

Just before the EPA… Read More