RALLIES ON IMMIGRATION REFORM Tens of thousands of protesters, in what was clearly a coordinated statewide effort, held rallies to protest what they consider to be unacceptable solutions to the country’s illegal immigation problem. This is a national debate, and while the FR is a California-centered publication, there is probably no other state that is as negatively impacted by the failure of the federal government to address this problem than ours. Mike Der Manouel has a commentary on the main page on this issue — but it seems to me that you can divide the issue into two parts. The first part — the easy part — is border control. Congress needs to put up a security barrier between Mexico and the United States, and take seriously the role of tracking who is coming into this country. Pursuant to this is an obligation to exclude from entry anyone… Read More

RALLIES ON IMMIGRATION REFORM Tens of thousands of protesters, in what was clearly a coordinated statewide effort, held rallies to protest what they consider to be unacceptable solutions to the country’s illegal immigation problem. This is a national debate, and while the FR is a California-centered publication, there is probably no other state that is as negatively impacted by the failure of the federal government to address this problem than ours. Mike Der Manouel has a commentary on the main page on this issue — but it seems to me that you can divide the issue into two parts. The first part — the easy part — is border control. Congress needs to put up a security barrier between Mexico and the United States, and take seriously the role of tracking who is coming into this country. Pursuant to this is an obligation to exclude from entry anyone… Read More

50th Polling … KGTV Channel 10 released a "favorable/unfavorable" SurveyUSA poll, which you can see here. Not sure how useful this is with out detailed info. If you’re gonna ask only one question, why not ask how the respondent will vote … but, what do I know? Here’s the toplines … for the frontrunners:

Name/Favorable/Unfavorable/Unfamiliar Busby / 38% / 26% / 20%

Bilbray /23% / 20% / 29%

Kaloogian / 20% / 18% / 40%

Morrow / 19% / 20% / 35%

Roach / 20% / 24% / 32%

Uke / 15% / 22% / 39%

If you buy these numbers, Eric Roach’s advertising has definitely impacted the race, with a higher familiarity than Morrow and Kaloogian, but it has also increased his negatives.

Weekend Events … One of the premier annual political functions in San Diego County, certainly the best put together for/by an East County politico, isn’t even a dinner… Read More

The outrageous claims and behavior of those protesting proposed immigration legislation this past week are a direct result of a "deer in the headlights Congress" and White House that have effectively traded border and national security for an increase in political support from Hispanics. End of story.

In the four plus years since the terrorist attacks Congress has squandered an opportunity to fix immigration for national security reasons – and won’t have the opportunity again until America is attacked by terrorists for the second time. Its hard to play the race card against national security but Americans are already forgetting 9-11, so the race card is out again.

Liberals and Mexican activists in effect want America to turn a blind eye toward those whose first act in entering the US is to break the law. Employers want the labor supply, so they paralyze GOP members of Congress. The situation is a crisis and a mess. Inaction will only heighten the problem and tensions in society are sure to rise with these protests.

We must utilize technology to fix our system of tracking immigrants before we establish a guest worker… Read More

Police estimate the a half a million people showed up for a rally against some anti illegallegislation in Congress. Here is the story.Of course some of them were illegal, but many weren’t. This rally shows what happens when a nation refuses to enforce our laws for two decades. Of course many want the system to stay broken. They have two decades of exploiting it.

Or maybe this was a commercial for buying land in Idaho.… Read More

It usually only happens once or twice every election cycle–the piece of campaign mail that is worthy of my sample mail file (because I might just use it myself in a future campaign, just changing the names and photos).

A cross between a timeshare sales brochure and what I imagine Don Lapre would use to promote his latest infomercial product, it’s a damn good piece of direct mail.

Dave Gilliard (GBW&A) is running Diane Harkey’s campaign for the 35th Senate District against Assemblyman Tom Harman. Giliard’s "Harman Method" highlights how Harman has ‘gotten rich’ off being a legislator. My research firm is doing Harkey’s polling.

Some people might think the piece is too cute, but it is well done and is even designed to be at first glance, a pro-Harman piece. Which is all the better because once you start reading it, it’s clearly not.… Read More

Today’s Marysville-Yuba City Appeal Democrat has a story about Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s effort to visit all of California’s Registrar of Voters offices.

Yesterday, McPherson visited his 56th and 57th counties — leaving only a visit to Los Angeles to complete his tour. According to the Appeal Democrat story, many of these smaller counties have never been visited by the state’s top election officer. It’s part of McPherson’s effort to build a strong working relationship with election officers.

For those who know Bruce, they understand this is just the type of person that he is — hardworking and always willing to reach out and work with people.… Read More

We continue to highlight the appointments made by Governor Schwarzenegger — late last week, the Governor made two important appointments, Republican Lynn Jacobs as director of the Department of Housing and Community Development and George Valverde as director of the Department of Motor Vehicles. Here is more information about them:

GEORGE VALVERDE Valverde has served the State of California for thirty years, much if it in managerial roles, with a focus on operations and budget issues. He has served the State and Consumer Services Agency (SCSA) as undersecretary since 2004. Valverde was previously deputy secretary for fiscal operations from 1995 to 2003. Prior to his tenure with State and Consumer Services, he served in the Department of Finance as an assistant program budget manager of the Capitol Outlay Unit from 1990 to 1995, principal program budget analyst from 1985 to 1990 and budget analyst from 1981 to 1985.… Read More