This morning, the US Supreme Court reached a decisionin a much-watched challenge to Vermont’s campaign finance law (Sorrell v. Randall ). This case has gathered lots of attention because of the potential it will have to impact campaign finance laws nationwide.

TheU.S. Supreme Court appears to have struck downtheVermont law that strictly limits how much money candidates for state office can raise and spend on their political campaigns. (Because the decision came this AM, I have not yet reviewed the case and there isn’t much information available. I am in the process of getting a copy of the case and will report further on it in a coming blog.)

Reports indicate that there are 4 opinions by the 6 justices held that the law was unconstitutional and3 dissents (J. Ginsburg, Souter and Stevens dissenting).

The law limited spending by candidates for governor to $300,000, for lieutenant governor to $100,000 and other statewide races to $45,000. It also limited spending on races for the state legislature.… Read More

San Francisco’s pending city budget is a great illustration of the Democrat’s priorities, both at the local and state level. Who are the the biggest winners in the new city budget? The public employee union, of course!

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, salaries and benefits for city employee will get a whopping 10.6 percent increase. City jobs will grow by 2 percent, up 646 jobs.

But the places that will get the new positions tell the real story. Take a look at the true winners in this budget:

— Municipal Transportation Agency: 157.15 — Public Health Department: 128.48 — Public Utilities Commission: 75.5 — Human Services Agency: 60.5 — General Services Agency – City Administration: 45.13 — General Services Agency — Public Works: 31.5 — Police: 18 — General Services Agency — Telecommunications & Information Services: 17.34 — Airport: 14.5 — District Attorney: 10 — Trial Courts: 10.6 —… Read More

There’s an intriguing scandal on low boil in the orderly City of Irvine, involving the city’s sister program, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, the Shanghai Communique and possible Communist Chinese investment in Irvine’s Great Park.

Yep — never a dull moment in that dull city’s politics.

I’ll try to make this long, twisted tale short — readers can fill in the blanks with my generous servings of hyperlinks.

Irvine Mayor Beth Krom — who is apparently the only person in Orange County unaware she is a pawn of liberal Irvine Councilmen/Evil Genius Larry Agran — went to Communist China along with another councilman and an Irvine staffer, Valeire Larenne, whose job it is to tend to sister city stuff. The purpose was to cement a sister city arrangement with a Shanghai suburb called Xuhui.

Now, Irvine has had a… Read More

This is being reported by the Herald Sun of Australia (!).

From the article:

A MAJOR Californian port has been closed after officials found a written threat, apparently directed at US President George W Bush, in the hold of a cargo ship.

"We got a report that there was a threatening message written on one of the stanchions in the cargo hold of a ship called Mild Lotus," outside California’s Port Hueneme, US Coast Guard spokesman Patrick Sullivan said.

"Apparently a longshoreman who was working on the vessel saw the message," he said.… Read More

(Hat tip to Assemblyman DeVore for the link to the story.)

The Associated Press posted this breaking news not long ago: Calif. gov. plans to address prison reform

Warning that the nation’s largest prison system is dangerously overcrowded, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday summoned lawmakers into a special session to decide whether to build two new prisons and adopt other relief measures.

The special legislative session will start on Tuesday.

In a speech to the California District Attorneys Association,… Read More

Last week, not much work done in the Assembly, both Mondayand Thursday floor sessions canceled.Committees did meet and more needed, quality legislation…cough…was sent onits merry way to its next committee. Budget talks started to de-ice though not enough to make it happen substantively last week.

With the apparent progress onremoving of budget $ going to health care benefits for the childrenof illegal immigrants [another reward for those that break and enter our sovereign nation’s ‘property line’], we can hope for the budget to start to wrap with the constitutional deadline of the 15th long gone,perhaps the ‘fiscal deadline’ of the 30th can be met…as long as Republican principles are met in this process. These werestated very well by Jennifer Nelson in her Budget Priority post previously on the 21st: -Drop this new inappropriate expansion of government of illegal immy health benefits from this budget proposal -Pay down debt with this one-time windfall ‘surplus’ money, [first, in my opinion, preferably to repay $ filched from the voter passed Prop 42 Trans fund…eliminate… Read More

“Founded in 1929 to unite the country after Mexico’s revolution, the PRI ruled by accepting all ideologies. It catered to unions, the rich, the poor — anyone who would support it. Its platform was maintaining power.” – Associated Press, Sunday, June 25, 2006

I’ve been thinking the past few weeks about the conservative movement and the idea of winning versus merely staying ahead —a strategy seemingly employed at the national level to ensure that the Republicans maintain themajority. Notice none of the political pundits are talking about Republicans trying to pick up seats this election cycle. They’re merely trying to stay ahead.

After reading the AP’s reference to the PRI this weekend, I concluded that I should be thinkingnot interms of staying ahead, but in terms of winning versus “maintaining power.”

Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters wrote last week about Governor Schwarzenegger’s strategy of Clinton-style triangulation to win re-election this Fall.

“As he seeks… Read More

Rarely do I have to rack what little brain I have to find a song title to make the analogy for my posts. And it was no different for my post on the Republican Legislative Nominee retreat sponsored by Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia.

My good friend Jim Brulte, and his guy Jim Richardson, have been organizing this event for most of a decade and while I have had clients go through the seminars, this was the first time I participated both as an organizer and speaker.

Watching Brulte, seeing him work the room, interact with both novice and experienced candidates alike on both policy and politics was like… Read More