At the start of every winter when I was growing up I would pull my winter coat out of the closet and find some surprises that I had left in my pocket the year before. Usually, it was a half eaten pack of Lifesavers with some lint around the wrapper. (I loved it when Santa left a book of Lifesavers in my stocking.)

Every now and again, I would be shocked to find a couple bucks crumpled up from my last trip to the slopes and I would blow it on something I thought was important — some video games or a movie.

The other night The City of Sacramento found $70 million for a general fund bond to fund capital improvements. To pay off the bond the city will use local property taxes that had previously been diverted to the state — a compromise struck by the League of Cities and Governor Schwarzenegger to give local communities more control of tax dollars.

Unfortunately, we can’t count on the City of Sacramento to do the right thing and return a portion of the $6 million a year to taxpayers. So… Read More

If you are the Chairman of the California Republican Party, and your Republican Governor appoints a Democrat to be his Chief of Staff, what do you do about it? Well, today, State GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim and newly appointed Gubernatorial Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy were seen having lunch at one of Sacramento’s political ‘hot spots’ – Chops steakhouse.

One can only imagine the awkwardness of such a meeting. You have Kennedy, who has spent a lifetime toiling for Democrat causes (you’ll recall her resume — Deputy CoS for Gray Davis, Comm. Director for Feinstein, Exec. Dir. for both State Dems and Abortion Rights Action League), and is now dealing head-on with the awkwardness of having to break bread with a Republican Party Chairman. I would imagine the heat that Kennedy took working for pay-for-play Gray Davis… Read More

Businessman Jim Grimes has dropped out of the race for the 65th Assembly District seat currently held by termed-out GOP Caucus Chair Russ Bogh of Yucaipa. Yesterday, Riverside County FlashReport correspondent Phil Paule reported that Grimes had parted ways with his consultant, Tim Clark. Read it here. Grimes had nothing but good things to say about Clark today and hinted that he’s considering endorsing San Jacinto Councilman Jim Ayres in the June ’06 primary. "I’ve always been a team player," Grimes said. "As long as a Republican wins the seat and we move the party forward, that’s what I’m about." Grimes, a Realtor from Running Springs in the San Bernardino County side of the district, said Ayres’ fundraising success was too much to compete with. He also said he plans to remain active and involved in… Read More

If I were putting together a strategy for Arnold Schwarzenegger to employ that would attempt to calm the anger among Republican activists regarding his hiring of Susan Kennedy (which I am not), I would hire a Democrat to do something really extreme that reminded Republicans why Arnold is still their best option next year.

So I’m assuming that the Schwarzenegger team has put Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz on their payroll, and bribed him to propose legislation and hold high-profile hearings to push for a death penalty moratorium in California. Then the governor could spend the first few months of his re-election campaign fighting heroically to preserve the death penalty in the state, while Phil Angelides and Steve Westly looked for safe hiding places until their party’s primary was over.

But even for a principled opponent of capital punishment, and even for a legislature gerrymandered into safe districts, Koretz’s quote in this morning’s Los Angeles Times offers an excellent reminder on why competitive legislative elections would improve the quality of political debate in California. Defending his proposal, Koretz told… Read More

My first attempt at online political activism follows. The Fresno Bee has quietly, without any fanfare, cancelled the weekly John Ellis political column and reassigned him to, of all areas, the federal courts "beat". I discovered this after I sent John an email earlier this week asking him if we was on vacation, as the column didn’t appear in the paper Saturday. He informed me that the column was no longer a part of the paper!

I want to be clear: he has not asked me to campaign for the column to reappear. But it is one of the top two reasons why I even take the paper, so its important to me and many political insiders across California.

The Ellis column was the most widely read and quoted column in the Bee. I’ve seen it excerpted in the Hotline, Rough & Tumble, Calpeek and the Flashreport dozens of times and on weblogs and political websites literally every week. The Bee evidently didn’t value (or even know) of this exposure. Worse, they don’t understand that the Central Valley and State need this column. It has existed since Editorial Page editor Jim Boren had it back in the 1980’s and 90’s and probably… Read More

"Republican lawmakers scolded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, telling him in a closed-door meeting how seriously his support among party stalwarts is wavering." – Los Angeles Times

**So…want to know which 19 GOP Assemblymembers actually showed up to hear from the Governor in yesterday’s caucus meeting? It’s at the bottom of this Commentary!**

In today’s Commentary:

I continue to be knotted up inside over the… Read More

Newsflash in the San Bernardino/Riverside County 65th Assembly District. Businessman Jim Grimes has parted ways with his consultant Tim Clark. Losing a consultant this far down the road is never a good sign. Tim is one of the best and brightest in primary races of this type. With Grimes campaign sailing without a rudder, many think that the San Jacinto Councilman Jim Ayres is the leader in this race. However many insiders would like to see acredibleknown consulting firm involved in his campaign. Ayers would be smart to grab Clark before another candidate does. Hemet Councilwomen Robin Lowe has a great deal of local support and has hired Jim Nygren to help her with some of her GOP credentials. Republican Banning Councilwomen Brenda Salas is hard working, but over coming here past employment with Democratic open borders Congressman Joe Baca is going to be a challenge inthis conservative Republican district.… Read More

OK — time for some conspiratorial cynicism, or cynical conspiracy theorizing. Take your pick.

I don’t claim credit for the theory I’m going to advance — that belongs to a Sacramento insider I know.

It’s basic assumption is that Governor Schwarzenegger is an evil genius and master media manipulator, rather than dumkopf he heedlessly enrages his conservative supporters with the Susan Kennedy appointment.

The theory goes something like this:

Schwarzenegger never had any intention of granting clemency to Tookie Williams. After all, he had already denied clemency for two other convicts, so there’s no reason to think Arnold has suddenly begun agonizing over the death penalty.

However, Arnold also knew that appointing Susan Kennedy as his chief-of-staff would provoke a firestorm among California conservatives. So, rather than telling the liberal… Read More