This morning over 100 of Orange County’s Republican local elected officials came together in Anaheim for the first in a what promises to be a series of quarterly events for the OC GOP’s local elected officials committee.

Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle spoke to the crowd at the Disney Resort property about innovation in government including some key examples of what he has done in his town.

Pringle along with his coalition majority on the five-member city council has done some great things since they got there a little over three years ago.

The mix of a dynamic real estate market and a city government that virtually got out of the way of developers, has brought what will in the coming years be close to 10,000 new residential high-rise units to the area surrounding Anaheim Stadium that is now largely one and two story industrial.

Other great ideas that Pringle has actually implemented include:

-A tax holiday for businesses. If during a special three month period last year you moved or opened a new business in Anaheim your taxes were waived for a year. And if you were late on paying your taxes, you were able to get caught up without… Read More

The Senate is poised to further limit local government’s power to have a say in the location of cellular infrastructure. SB 1627 (Kehoe) has recently cleared the Senate’s Policy Committee and would allow wireless telecommunications companies to collocate their wireless facilities on a non-discretionary basis. Last weekSB 1627 waspassed out of the Senate Environmental Committee. It will now proceed to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill would pre-empt local government authority to regulate collocation.

Over the years state legislation and state and federal court rulings have cut away at local government’s power to regulate the aesthetic and environmental effects of cellular infrastructure.… Read More

The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story the other day that reported that DJs on Spanish radio stations were counseling immigrants not to miss work, but rather attend marches and rallies after working. Some immigrant activists are worried about a backlash of anger.

They are right to be worried. On Tuesday, President Bush told an audience in Orange County that the debate about immigration needs to be conducted in a "respectful way." That message needs to be sent to parties on both sides of the issue. One gets the feeling that Bush and his soft-on-immigration counterparts think that those who want more border control are the only ones… Read More

MAY 1 PROTESTS Sometimes, when I am up early compiling news stories, I really shake my head. Today is one of those days. On May 1st, there will be a huge day of rallies to, in essence, support illegal immigration into the United States. You can say anything else you want about it, but the bottom line is that advocates of this day of protest are actually protesting the rule of law. They are protesting the idea that there is actually such a thing as right and wrong. It is fair to engage in a dialogue with the people and with policy makers about the law, which states that there is a formal and necessary process that any potential immigrant to the United States must follow before immigrating to America. The reality is that there are now millions of residents in the United States who quite literally ignored that law, and came here anyways. Congress is in the midst of a debate about how to make sure that these immigration laws can be more effectively enforced at the points of entry to America, and they are debating what to do, in a very practical sense, about what is estimated to be well over ten million… Read More

MAY 1 PROTESTS Sometimes, when I am up early compiling news stories, I really shake my head. Today is one of those days. On May 1st, there will be a huge day of rallies to, in essence, support illegal immigration into the United States. You can say anything else you want about it, but the bottom line is that advocates of this day of protest are actually protesting the rule of law. They are protesting the idea that there is actually such a thing as right and wrong. It is fair to engage in a dialogue with the people and with policy makers about the law, which states that there is a formal and necessary process that any potential immigrant to the United States must follow before immigrating to America. The reality is that there are now millions of residents in the United States who quite literally ignored that law, and came here anyways. Congress is in the midst of a debate about how to make sure that these immigration laws can be more effectively enforced at the points of entry to America, and they are debating what to do, in a very practical sense, about what is estimated to be well over ten million… Read More

Let me get this straight, the Democratic controlled State Legislature, both Houses, are going to join the nationwide May 1st immigration rights boycott and not meet or conduct business Monday. That is fine with me, the less time they are in Sacramento the less damage done to the State. However,they also want to be paid their $138 per diem Monday.Outrageous !!! Excuse me, but If you want to skip work Monday do it on your dime not mine. I trust no Republicans will participate in this abuse of tax dollars.… Read More

No, I’m not just talking about a candidate who says what a terrible thing it is … the liberals letting these sexual predators back onto the streets and into our neighborhoods … and how he’s opposed to those in the legislature and on the bench that allow such things … and how if elected he’s gonna go to Sacramento and fight to change all that … because he’s gonna protect our children and our families. No, I’m not just talking about the candidate who says those things.

Heck, let’s face it, that about sums up the stump speech on the subject for nearly every Republican running for office … and a good number of the Democrats. No, I’m talking about the guy running for office, going door-to-door AND handing out maps of the sexual registrants in our neighborhoods.

Call Joel Anderson’s effort a campaign hook, call it theatrics, call it a media grabber, call it what you want. I don’t care … you have got to love it! Most candidates — in any… Read More

This coming weekend, the California Democratic Party will meet in Sacramento. There will be much drama surrounding whether or not State Treasurer and former State Democratic Party Chairman Phil Angelides will get the official endorsement of the Party he once led.

That said, you look at the Democratic Primary between Angelides and Westly, and any Republican really has to ask the question, which of these candidates will likely fair worse against Governor Schwarzenegger in the November ballot. If you ask Schmidt, Soderland and company, I’m sure that they will happily tell you that when we come into the home stretch, the Governator will clean the clock of either candidate handily. That said, there are a lot of folks that think Steve Westly would be a more challenging opponent for November, both because of his extremely deep pockets and the fact that Angelides is vulnerable to so many more attacks.

So here is my grand idea! For those of you who do not remember, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, unfortunately, is a liberal Democrat by the name of Susan Kennedy. While seeming to be a very nice person, Kennedy has spent her professional career… Read More