This video of Stephen Colbert interviewing California Congresswoman Jackie Speier is awesome. It is totally a must-watch video. Thank to Torey over at the SacBee for hipping me to it.

The exchanges on gay marriage are… priceless. And Colbert’s razzing of Speier’s proposal to allow 14 year olds to vote… A must watch…

We received the following volley from longtime FR friend Bob Haueter. Bob is the Chairman of the Meg Whitman for Governor Campaign in Los Angeles County…

Californians know well that our state is in a fiscal meltdown, with new budget deficit projections running as high as $25 billion.

Each of us is feeling the pain of the failure of Sacramento politicians to rein in spending and make state government live within its means.

Between budget years 1998-99 and 2007-2008, state general fund spending grew an astonishing 80 percent, from $58 billion to $103 billion. And in the past few years, while Californians faced layoffs, home foreclosures and higher taxes, state government continued to hire.

This must stop.

We need real leadership in Sacramento. We need someone who will watch out for Californians. And we… Read More

I’m at Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby’s election night party at Cherch’s Restaurant and Bar in downtown Fullerton (a neat, funky place, by the way!). The place is packed with Norby supporters and conservative friends including collleagues on the Western CPAC board, Bill Saracino and Allen Brandstater, and volunteer extraordinaire Pete Sheridan, who all came down from LA County to walk precincts for Norby today. Even some in other categories are here (I think I saw Supervisor Janet Nguyen, whom I think endorsed Norby opponent Linda Ackerman). It looks like campaign manager John Lewis did a good job chasing absentee ballots. Norby has 36% in first pass by OC Registrar; the Democrat is in second place with 28%, and Ackerman is third at 20%. Norby’s almost twenty point lead over Ackerman should hold.… Read More

After talking with a number of savvy politicos whose opinions I hold in high regard, I think it is safe to say that the expected outcome of today’s Special Election in Orange County’s 72nd Assembly District will be that Supervisor Chris Norby will win the Republican nomination, but fall well short of the outright majority of the total vote necessary to avoid a run-off election next month.

The analysis is pretty straight-forward. Chris Norby, as first a long-time Fullerton City Councilmember (the largest city in AD 72) and then as a two-time elected Supervisor, simply had too much positive name identification in the district to be defeated. Most of those to whom I spoke felt that if this election were being held on a more traditional time-line, with a much longer period of time for voters to hear from candidates and advocacy groups, that Republican National Committeewoman and Metropolitan Water District Member Linda Ackerman would have had a very good shot at winning a plurality of support from Republican voters. The short time line meant that literally only a few weeks elapsed before absentee ballots were shipped out and high-propensity AB voters… Read More

After talking with a number of savvy politicos whose opinions I hold in high regard, I think it is safe to say that the expected outcome of today’s Special Election in Orange County’s 72nd Assembly District will be that Supervisor Chris Norby will win the Republican nomination, but fall well short of the outright majority of the total vote necessary to avoid a run-off election next month.

The analysis is pretty straight-forward. Chris Norby, as first a long-time Fullerton City Councilmember (the largest city in AD 72) and then as a two-time elected Supervisor, simply had too much positive name identification in the district to be defeated. Most of those to whom I spoke felt that if this election were being held on a more traditional time-line, with a much longer period of time for voters to hear from candidates and advocacy groups, that Republican National Committeewoman and Metropolitan Water District Member Linda Ackerman would have had a very good shot at winning a plurality of support from Republican voters. The short time line meant that literally only a few weeks elapsed before absentee ballots were shipped out and high-propensity AB voters… Read More

When the dam breaks, you know that the water is going to rush through and wash out that quiet little town down the hill. With that same certainly, you knew when you saw this rather awkward (for Steve Poizner) article run over the weekend in the San Jose Mercury News, that you would invariably see the Meg Whitman campaign figure out a way to "elevate its prominence in the political marketplace" — they have created a web ad.

Of course, as I have said all along, I am a total sucker for these things. So here is a hard hitting web ad from the Whitman campaign blasting Poizner. When the Whitman campaign released the hit, they also sent out some backup materials, which you can read here.

We’ve emailed the Poizner campaign, asking them if they have any general or specific response to this piece. If we get a response, we’ll share it!

… Read More

Last I checked, Republicans are in a tough spot in the State Assembly. There are 51 Democrats, and 29 Republicans (well, 28 right now while the 72nd is vacant — it will elect a Republican shortly). That means that Democrats hold just over 63% of the chamber — bad news for taxpayers for sure.

That said, I took it pretty cynically when I ready Torey Van Oot’s morning post over on the SacBee’s Capitol Alert blog — where she wrote about Assembly Speaker Karen Bass appointing a Select Committee on Prison Re-Entry. Torey penned…

Last week the Board of Equalization released its updated e-commerce revenue estimate. The Legislature and others have long cast their attention on e-commerce revenues. It is true there are many taxable transactions from which tax is not being collected from either the Sales tax, which must be collected by companies that have California nexus, or Use tax from individuals and businesses who order something from the Internet and use or consume purchases in California.

The report states, “We now estimate annual revenue losses of $1.085 billion in calendar year 2009 (to be remitted in fiscal year 2009-10). Of the total, $600 million are owed by consumers and $485 million were unpaid by businesses. These revenues are spread among approximately 12.7 million households and 2.9 million businesses.”

This may seem like a big number, but look more closely at the math. “Unpaid sales and use tax liabilities in 2009-10 average $166 per year for each California business, and $47 per year for each California household.” To recover these unpaid liabilities, the Board staff would need to go after all these individuals and businesses. Right now it cannot be… Read More