Here in Orange County, Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Cassie DeYoung is attempting to turn a proposal to build a multi-bore traffic tunnel through the Santa Ana mountains into a re-incarnation of the anti-El Toro airport movement, and thus ride it into the 50th District Supervisor seat that will become vacant next year.

In recent weeks, she has sent out probably 250,000 pieces of mail to voters about the "Terrible Tunnel" asking them to clip and mail anti-tunnel petitons to the Orange/Riverside Major Investment Study Committee – the body studying the tunnel and other proposals to unclog the 91 Freeway. The DeYoung campaign claims around 3,500 voters did send in those petitons.

So it is a something of a defeat for the DeYoung campaign that the MIS Policy Commitee yesterday voted unanimously to move ahead with studying the tunnel. If the committee had dropped the tunnel from further consideration — as it did two other congestion relief proposals —… Read More

Rarely is there actually some exciting floor debate to watch on C-SPAN but Thursday and Friday were exceptions.

Thursday was the debate over the Deficit Reduction Act, a bill to reduce federal government spending by $50 billion. If you saw the debate around midnight, you saw Arkansas Democrat Marion Berry (no, not the former DC mayor) call Texas Republican Jeb Hensarling “Howdy Doody” and youthful Florida Republican Adam Putnam “boy.” That exchange led to a flurry of back-and-forth involving Rep. David Dreier who did receive some criticism for failing to call for Berry’s remarks to be stricken from the record.

But last night was something to behold. Republican leaders, who previously committed to bring Rep. Bill Thomas’s tax reconciliation bill to the floor withdrew the bill. Instead, they chose to call the bluff of Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha’s proposal for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, introduced… Read More

GOVERNOR & LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR SHOULD RUN AS TICKET The California State Constitution provides for the electorate to vote on the offices of Governor and Lieutenant Governor separately, each then being independently elected officials. Often times, this has led to our top two officeholders not only being from different political parties, but it has also resulted in their being virtually no professional relationship between these two top constitutional officeholders. Fresno Bee political writer and columnist John Ellis pens a column today illustrating the lack of relationship between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cruz Bustamonte.

This is a tragic waste of what could be a key position in the state government. I often cite Florida as a state from which California could learn many things. In the Sunshine State, the candidate for Governor picks a Lieutenant Governor… Read More

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is getting married on November 26th — to his ex-wife! Apparently the two of them have been divorced for the past decade, but have been close as the parents of three children AP reports.

Guess who will be flying out to Maui to "give away the groom"? None other than former Assembly Speaker-turned-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

I don’t know what the wedding colors will be, or the song that the happy re-newlyweds will pick for their first dance — but I tell you one thing is for sure — wherever they hold that reception will be a union shop!… Read More

Former GOP Assemblyman Steve Samuelian was back in the news today, although I think unfairly so. Those of you who follow State politics know that Samuelian was a long time GOP political operative, District Director for Congressman Radanovich, and then served one term in the Assembly before electing to not run for re-election. I will not go into the issues which led to Samuelian’s decision to not seek re-election. They are widely known and if you don’t know do a Google search and learn for yourself. Although he was one of my very good friends and political allies for several years, I have not seen or spoken to him for almost three years.

Since his decision to leave the Assembly he has started a lobbying firm and has been hired by many of the Central Valley’s top companies to represent their interests to State and local government. This isn’t surprising to me. For all of his previous difficulties, he is one of the hardest workers I have ever met, and he deserves a chance to make a living and support his family. The… Read More

I was inspired by Adam Probolsky’s post this morning and did a little comparison of our San Diego legislators. If Chuck DeVore has the time to compile the results, then I can find the time. With no reference to my public school upbringing, thanks to most of the rating organizations for already having figured the percentages.

San Diego shares Mimi Walters and Bill Morrow with The OC, in case you noted them on Adam’s list already. (Denise Ducheny, Ray Haynes and Dennis Hollingsworth have also been sighted in other counties at times.)

If these limited numbers mean anything other than fodder, Haynes scored the highest overall from a conservative standpoint, with Hollingsworth a close second. Although she was a strong contender as a freshman, Lori Saldaña did not quite dethrone Chris Kehoe for liberal dominance in San Diego. And, what’s up with Shirley Horton’s rather high 46% rating from Lambda? Must be the district.

By the way, Orange County has more legislators – and Republicans, for that matter – than does San… Read More

I just came from the morning breakfast meeting of the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of the Los Angeles Lincoln Club. I am a member.

The speakers were founders of the Minutemen Project Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist.

This is big news for two reasons.

1. Jim Gilchrist is a candidates for Congress in Orange County’s 48th Congressional District. The election is in a couple weeksand willdecide the successor to Chris Cox. And oh yes Gilchrist isn’t a Republican!!! Yikes, he is an American Independent Party member. The San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club Chapter head honcho, the esteemed Dr. Barbara Stone made it clear that she supported John Campbell (She claims to have known him since he was in diapers—- but that is a different story.) and that Gilchrist was going to lose as most third party candidates do.

Gilchristsays he is a Reagan Republican and a better Republican than Campbell.

2. Traditionally, the Lincoln Club is the center of more moneyed folks in the Republican Party. To have two founders of a group that Bush called "vigilantes" at such a meeting is a recognition that illegal immigration is still… Read More

So Carly Fiorina wants to be Lieutenant Governor. Or more accurately, somebody wants the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard to be LG. Whether that person is someone who knows Fiorina, advises Fiorina, or is Fiorina is unknown. But since we like unsubstantiated gossip just as much as any group of self-respecting political bloggers, let’s think this through.

First of all, she’d be running against Senator Tom McClintock, who is almost certainly the most respected conservative officeholder in California. It’s hard to imagine the amount of money it would take Fiorina to win a closed primary. In fact, that sum probably does not exist. So she’d lose and tear the party into pieces in the process. Since nobody actually ever wants to be LG unless it’s a stepping stone to another office, this wouldn’t be the best way for Fiorina to begin her political career.

But Fiorina also represents exactly the type of candidate Republicans need to recruit and run to become a majority on California. She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s articulate, and she brings a solid set of private sector and communit service credentials to… Read More