Put on your thinking caps and starting considering how the war in the Middle East between Israel and the terrorist organization Hezbollah will impact the November elections. Because it will. And in fact, it already is. Even here in California.

The Fall elections, according to gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides and his campaign co-chair House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, are about “change.” A change in direction, a change in leadership. And to make their point, Phil and Nancy will attempt to tie President George W. Bush around the necks of Republican incumbents in hopes of making them sink to the bottom.

This strategy, which seemed ominous for candidates like Schwarzenegger just a week ago, may now be dying on the vine. Witness the recent action of Angelides’ campaign co-chair, Ms. Pelosi:

“House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) approached Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the floor Tuesday evening to see if she would attach her name to the most recent version of a joint resolution supporting Israel in its battle with two militant Islamic groups.

“After five days of wrangling between the two… Read More

A good friend of mine, attorney Guillermo Cabrera, serves on the San Diego Ethics Commission. Gil and his fellow commissioners have apparently been pretty busy.

Most recently, the Ethics Commission has received a significant amount of press relating to Gil’s proposal toprohibitlobbyists who raise at least $5,000 in contributions or solicit donations from 50 or more people on behalf of a successful candidate from lobbying the elected official they supported. This has been pretty widely reported in San Diego press (read one article here). Short version of the proposal: The Ethics Commission didn’t have sufficient votes to recommend the measure’s adoption by the City Council. Not that this matter is dead, according to my correspondence with Gil. He says he’s got some other ideas on how to head offlobbyist influence in San Diego city government.

Now Gil is a swell guy, an excellent lawyer and a very good friend. But personally I disagree withhis proposal and I… Read More

Gov. Schwarzenegger authorized a $150 million taxpayer funded loan today to the stem cell institute (formally known as California Institute for Regenerative Medicine). The decision comes on the heels of President Bush’s veto yesterday of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

You will recall that in 2004 the voters overwhelmingly approved a $3 billion bond for embryonic stem cell research and biomedical cloning, which has been tied up in the courts.

KQED’s John Myers has a good write up on the governor’s loan and its political significance. Here are a couple of excerpts:

"The Schwarzenegger decision, interestingly enough, is linked to a similar effort to provide a kind of ‘bridge loan’ to the CIRM by state Treasurer and gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides. Last year, Angelides helped enact a plan to get as much as $200 million to the CIRM through the sale of bond anticipation notes."

"There’s no question that today’s loan decision is interesting as a policy matter. But it also has… Read More

If you’ve got a song title that would make a great analogy for the announcement that the Kings and Sacramento have reached a deal on a new arena….send it my way…otherwise….read about it here.… Read More

It occurred to me that in my commentary on Tuesday, I suggested reporters call a political attorney before writing about conflicts of interests.

Here, for the benefit of political and government reporters are some attorneys that I have worked with or seen in action (sometimes on the opposite side of one of my clients). They all have experience with political law and are good at what they do:

Ben Davidian Law offices of Ben Davidian Fair Oaks

Dana Reed Reed & Davidson Los Angeles

John Ramirez Rutan & Tucker Costa Mesa

Michael Houston Rutan & Tucker Costa Mesa

Chuck Bell Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk Sacramento

Tom Hiltachk Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk Sacramento

Mark Rosen Law offices of Mark Rosen Santa Ana

Jim Lacy Wewer & Lacy, LLP Laguna Niguel

Fred Woocher Sturmwasser & Woocher LLP Santa Monica

Darryl Wold Irvine

Chip Nielsen Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello et al Mill Valley

And last but not least…added at the… Read More

Today is another ‘abbreviated commentary’ day as I flew down from Sacramento yesterday just in time to don my Reserve Deputy Sheriff Uniform and work a 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at the glorious Orange County Fair (which runs pretty much the whole month of July). So, on four hours of sleep, FR readers don’t get to expect too much out of me after I have now compiled all of the day’s news on the main page. I did want to take a moment to talk about Congressman Ed Royce. Now let me start out by saying that I have known this Orange County politician since I first got involved in politics back in 1987, in my youth-activism days with Young Americans for Freedom. I really enjoyed getting to know YAF’s alumni in the State Legislature, including then-State Senator Ed Royce, who once-upon-a-time was Executive Director of California YAF (a position I went on to hold myself one day). I had an opportunity intern with Royce in the State Capitol, and I served as a special assistant to freshman… Read More

Today is another ‘abbreviated commentary’ day as I flew down from Sacramento yesterday just in time to don my Reserve Deputy Sheriff Uniform and work a 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift at the glorious Orange County Fair (which runs pretty much the whole month of July). So, on four hours of sleep, FR readers don’t get to expect too much out of me after I have now compiled all of the day’s news on the main page. I did want to take a moment to talk about Congressman Ed Royce. Now let me start out by saying that I have known this Orange County politician since I first got involved in politics back in 1987, in my youth-activism days with Young Americans for Freedom. I really enjoyed getting to know YAF’s alumni in the State Legislature, including then-State Senator Ed Royce, who once-upon-a-time was Executive Director of California YAF (a position I went on to hold myself one day). I had an opportunity intern with Royce in the State Capitol, and I served as a special assistant to freshman… Read More

Back in January, FR Publisher Jon Fleischman posted "Epicenter of the Right Wing Conspiracy: San Diego!"on the Center on Policy Initiatives and their hee-haw opus, Target San Diego, about the so-called "Right Wing Assault on Urban Democracy and Smart Government."

Fun stuff, although I wouldn’t recommend reading all 79 pages of the report, unless you re-read some Karl — or even Groucho — Marx first.

The Center on Policy Initiatives, if not establishing any real credibility, is apparently doing so with some of the media. Richard Rider of San Diego Tax Fighters says these media outlets should be ashamed, and provides agreat analysis of just why so:

San Diego Tax Fighters Press Release – Authored by Richard Rider

Bogus Think Tank Hoodwinks Press on SD Crime Stats The Center on Policy Initiatives is Actually a Labor Union Propaganda Mill San Diego – Once again, some of the press mistook the Center for… Read More