Sunday, the Union-Tribune effectively ended the campaign of candidate Scott Packard in San Diego’s 74th Assembly District GOP Primary. Until fairly recently, Scott (son of former Congressman Ron Packard) was a Nevada contractor. Turns out Scott got his contractor’s license revoked in Nevada because he was found guilty serious ethical and financial violations. And he didn’t pay the fines, or a $100,000+ lawsuit judgment from one of his clients that successfully sued him. Then the Union Tribune pointed out that Scott now works for a local construction company (you guessed it) without a California contractor’s license. A representative of State of California was quoted as saying “it doesn’t sound good” that they will grant him a license after his antics in Nevada. Spiraling…

The majority of Scott’s endorsement’s are local city mayors (Carlsbad Mayor Lewis, Encinitas Mayor Guerin, Oceanside Mayor Wood, San Marcos Mayor Smith, and Vista Mayor Vance). This morning, there has been much speculation on whether or not they were made aware of Scott’s history before they endorsed, and when they will start jumping… Read More

Last week, near the East steps at the Capitol, when my Calaveras Legislative Frog Jump contestant, Bury Bonds, lurched hard left from the starting pad I was hoping it would not be indicative of the rest of the week, [nor Bury’s leftward lurch further indicative of this Capitol in November] Bury finished mid pack, without any performance enhancements. Last year was about 3rd.Hmm.

Alas, my eminent domain reform bill, ACA 22 was up in Assembly Housing and Communal, er, Community Development and after impassioned testimony by witnesses having had property bulldozed already or threatened to do so, the committee voted party line with 2 Reps supporting limiting eminent domain to true public uses and 2 Dems opposing…plus 3 Dems abstaining. Maybe if the committee members were present during testimony, they would’ve been swayed a bit. Well, OK, they wouldn’t.

This whole reform has been ignored for most of a year by this legislative body. Senator McClintockintroduced twobills on the Senate side,… Read More

Usuallycasting two ballotsin an election is against the law. Usually.

If you are a Permanant Absentee Voter in Long Beach you would have received two ballots. One for the primary and the other for the runnoff municipal electionto be held the same day. And if you get confused and return them in the wrong envelope your vote doesn’t count.

If you go to the polls, you will find two ballot boxes, two sign in tables, doulbe the poll workers and two different voting systems. (The county uses the ink spot method while the city uses a fill in the circle method.) See article here. Voting for high school student bodyofficers is less confusing. Government efficency at its’ best.… Read More

"Two Elections, One Conservative Choice." This is the big print on the first piece of political mail that will hit the mailboxes of Republican voters in the 50th Congressional District in the campaign of conservative businessman Bill Hauf, who will today announce his official ‘entry’ into the race for the regular June primary for this heavily GOP Congressional District occupied until late last year by former Congressman/now-convict Duke Cunningham. You can check out the mail piece by clicking the link to it at the bottom of this column. In April, a host of GOP candidates duked it out in the Special Election ‘primary’ and former Congressman now Federal lobbyist Brian Bilbray, with about 15% of the GOP vote in that dust-up, earned the honors to go up against Democrat Francine Busby in June. But this special election run-off is on the same ballot as the regular primary, where all of the GOP candidates who appeared on the special election ballot last month once-again appear. Bill Hauf, who had a poor showing in that April election (less than 2%) has decided to run in the regular primary. Hauf… Read More

Today, the Protect Our Homes Coalition will announce that they are turning in over a million signatures in County Registrar offices all around the state, virtually assuring that this important measure to protect Californians from eminent domain abuse will appear on the November ballot.

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters (R-Laguna Niguel – pictured to the right)) is serving as the Honorary Chairman of the Coalition, and she will be announcing the big news formally later today.

“The Protect Our Homes Initiative will restore the rights of homeowners and small businesses that were gutted by the Supreme Court’s outrageous decision in the Kelo case. This initiative will protect the average family from having their property taken by government only to be turned over to another private entity that is more influential,” said Walters.

“It is time to end the faction between local governments and special interests that sacrifice the property rights of the average citizen in order to line the coffers of… Read More

"Two Elections, One Conservative Choice." This is the big print on the first piece of political mail that will hit the mailboxes of Republican voters in the 50th Congressional District in the campaign of conservative businessman Bill Hauf, who will today announce his official ‘entry’ into the race for the regular June primary for this heavily GOP Congressional District occupied until late last year by former Congressman/now-convict Duke Cunningham. You can check out the mail piece by clicking the link to it at the bottom of this column. In April, a host of GOP candidates duked it out in the Special Election ‘primary’ and former Congressman now Federal lobbyist Brian Bilbray, with about 15% of the GOP vote in that dust-up, earned the honors to go up against Democrat Francine Busby in June. But this special election run-off is on the same ballot as the regular primary, where all of the GOP candidates who appeared on the special election ballot last month once-again appear. Bill Hauf, who had a poor showing in that April election (less than 2%) has decided to run in the regular primary. Hauf… Read More

Well, looks like Workers Comp reform is working and we have the economy to prove it. Pump $15 billion of WC savings back into job creation and you have the surge in revenue that the May budget revise showed this past week. Problem for Arnold is this: while the unions are battling to select their candidate in June, they won’t wait long before their cannons are out for him – and then its a long, miserable summer.

Repaying the "education community" and spending a breathtaking $133 billion won’t buy any love for Arnold in the upcoming election. The outrage we had at Gray Davis’ lousy $100 billion budget is but a distant memory. Conservatives have got to be shaking their heads at just how bloomin’ big the State budget has gotten. All this spendingmight give him 20 minutes or so to rest, but in the end, he’s got to define the unions before they define him and figure out a way to get conservatives out to vote in November. Both are a tall order. It’s the only way he can win in November. Do you believe in miracles?… Read More

Here is a column I wrote for this week’s issue of the OC Metro. I will have more thoughts for you on the subject of immigration after the President’s speech on Monday night. Enjoy:

Immigration Solution Broad agreement on basic tenets can point the way forward

As I write this, Congress has not yet been able to come to agreement on an immigration bill. I suspect that that will still be the case by the time you read this. This is a difficult issue to agree on because of the volatility and emotion surrounding it lately.

Our TV screens have been filled with lots of images of the extremes on the issue of illegal immigration. On one side are those who would have no border controls and allow anyone to come here and claim all the rights of citizenship on whatever basis they choose (including terrorists). On the other side are some people who are against all immigration, legal or otherwise.

Once we reject those ideas from the fringes, I think there are a few tenets of the immigration issue that can be embraced by the vast majority of rational-thinking individuals in the middle. These tenets are not a complete solution. But they are a guide… Read More