There is no doubt that in the eight years since they arrived on the California political scene, the New Majority has made a significant impact. But what is the New Majority? Who are they? And what are their goals?

Just the other day, I was invited to participate in a "media roundtable" with the leadership of the California New Majority and the Orange County New Majority Chapter. It was an informative session, and so I thought that I would share some observations with FlashReport readers.

The meeting was conducted by four leaders in the New Majority — Tom McKernan, the CEO of the Auto Club of Southern California, who is the new Chairman of New Majority, Orange County — Paul Folino (pictured left), Executive Chairman of Emulex Corporation, the Immediate Past Chairman of NM Orange County, Dwight Decker, the… Read More

There is no doubt that in the eight years since they arrived on the California political scene, the New Majority has made a significant impact. But what is the New Majority? Who are they? And what are their goals?

Just the other day, I was invited to participate in a "media roundtable" with the leadership of the California New Majority and the Orange County New Majority Chapter. It was an informative session, and so I thought that I would share some observations with FlashReport readers.

The meeting was conducted by four leaders in the New Majority — Tom McKernan, the CEO of the Auto Club of Southern California, who is the new Chairman of New Majority, Orange County — Paul Folino (pictured left), Executive Chairman of Emulex Corporation, the Immediate Past Chairman of NM Orange County, Dwight Decker, the… Read More

Look for more on this in the MSM tomorrow — but it appears that the League of Cities and the Redevelopment Industry is shifting strategies.

A coalition of organizations including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation, and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights has collected the necessary financial resources to gather signatures to really end the ability of governments to engage in eminent domain abuses, providing the real protections that ALL private property owners (individuals, businesses, places of worship, etc.) should have in place. Get more info on this important measure here.

The League of Cities and the redevelopment industry have been working overtime to try and get the state legislature to place on the ballot a faux (fake) reform measure that provides only a shadow of the protections provided by the measure now seeking qualification via signature.

So now we hear that the League of Cities is also going to go to the ballot with their vastly inferior measure. As a matter of fact, passing their measure would be worse than… Read More

Tom Hiltachk could not have been surprised with the shrieks coming from the California political ruling class,when he filed his Electoral College reform Initiative last week. The initiative would eliminate the "winner take all" rule that gives all 55 California electoral votes to the winner.

Republicans and democrats both eliminated the winner take all rule for Presidential Primaries. Reasoning that to have a powerful campaign in California you needed retail politics in each congressional district. Since 1992, California has not had a serious Presidential campaign. We were ignored. All that voters for both parties were supposed to do was to give money to influence Iowa and Ohio.

California for Equal Representations (CER) will blow upthe rules. Candidates who want California electoral votes will have to campaign in all 53 congressional districts. California will once again become the battleground state, as it has been since Lincoln was elected in 1860.

Hiltachk typically is closed mouth. He won’t divulge his donors or his strategies or who he is working for. Still, it is now public knowledge that the Governor’s chief… Read More

Fresh from his lengthy vacation in Greece, Fabian Nunez has sent a letter to Dick Ackerman where he apparently equates a call for his return to the Capitol to being "personally maligned" — nice.

Anyway, Nunez in an effort to extend the budget kabuki dance further throws out that if budget negotiations are reopened, he and his Democrat colleagues will bloat the budget further with even more deficit spending. Anyways, you can read Nunez’ letter which is attached. Below is a response that Senate Republican Leader sent back to the Speaker just now:

Senate Pro Tem Don Perata just annnounced that he would discontinue "work on all bills until the Senate Republicans vote for the budget."

Just like Brer Rabbit said; "Don’t throw me in that briar patch."

Obviously Don was not thinking. The one thing Republicans in the Senate and Assembly think about 24 hours a day, seven days a week is how to stop bill in the Legislature. With the Democrat majority, no good Republican ideas pass, so the only bills that get out are bad Democrat ideas, or worthless Republican ideas. Threatening to kill all the bills in the Legislature unless the Republicans vote for the budget guarantees that Republicans won’t vote for the budget. It is the best of both worlds for Republicans, it stops an unbalanced budget from being enacted, and stops the latest idea for big government by the Democrats from ever becoming law.

He must be joking, foolish, or very cunning, trying to embarass Republicans with this threat. The only people he will hurt are… Read More

Today, Democrat Senate President Don Perata damaged his own (waning) credibility with the Capitol Press Corps by, frankly, saying something that simply was untrue. He held a press conference and told assembled reporters that Republican Senators want to rewrite California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regulations. Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman was forced to respond and set the record straight…

… Read More

OK, so I guess some legislators are taking their responsibilities more seriously than others. As I have opined, I think that in return for a full-time salary, state legislators should be at work, IN THE CAPITOL, until there is a budget. I know from talking to them earlier today that State Senator Dick Ackerman and Assemblyman Van Tran are in the building. And I just got off of the phone with my own Assemblyman, Chuck DeVore, who is also in the Capitol. As a matter of fact, DeVore has blogged about whom he has seen (and mostly hasn’t seen up there). I guess he just missed Senator Tom McClintock, who was also in his office.

It would be great if all of our legislators would cut short their time in their districts, and return to the State Capitol and work on producing a new budget document that will pass muster with both chambers. … Read More