As the State GOP Convention begins, I wanted to get a late word in for my friend Mike Osborn, Chairman of the Ventura County Republican Party, who is running for the CRP’s Central Coast Vice Chairman position. He’s running unopposed, but yet is worthy of a shout-out. He’s certainly got my support, and I hope he has yours! Here is something he wrote for your perusal…

Today I announced my intention to run for the second district seat on the California Board of Equalization – the seat is currently held by Bill Leonard, who is termed out in 2010.

My goal is to serve as a voice for California taxpayers and business owners who are increasingly faced with hostile environments created by burdensome regulations and laws. California’s hard-working families already pay the highest income and sales taxes in the nation – they deserve a dedicated taxpayer advocate on California’s Tax Board.

I am proud to announce my steering committeewho areelected officials, sheriffs, district attorneys and organizational leaders throughout the BOE second district, including:

•Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), Chief Deputy Whip •Senator Sam Aanestad (R-Grass Valley) •Senator Bob Dutton (R-San Bernardino) •Senator Tony Strickland (R-Camarillo) •Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills) •Assemblywoman Audra Strickland (R-Camarillo) •Assemblyman Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita) •Former Assemblywoman Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) •California… Read More

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to join my new FaceBook group, "Never Elect Abel Maldonado To Anything, Ever Again," which launched late yesterday morning. We have more than 300 members and counting.

One byproduct is a message I received from Chris Tolles, the CEO of Topix, LLC. You can read it here.

Chris identifies himself as a Republican, but blasts those of us who oppose the massive tax hike as "obstructionists" who need to follow Arnold Schwarzenegger’s example if there”s to be any hope of growing the California Republican Party.

And in a startling example of cognitive dissonance, Tolles also exclaims — while praising the virtues of Arnold’s leadership — that we need to end public employee unioon control of state government.

Tolles is correct about the unions, of course, but how that meshes with devotion to Arnold doesn’t compute. Arnold apologized for his attempt to tame union power in 2005, and the unions have actually… Read More

[Cross-posted from OC Blog]

Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner rightly labeled the tax hike/budget package a "raw deal." Even better than words is some action: Poizner will not go ahead with a scheduled March 5 event he was headlining to raise money for Assemblyman Anthony Adams re-election.

Adams, as readers know, is one of the Quisling Six Republicans without whose votes the rest of us wouldn’t be getting hit with a huge tax increase.

Kudos for Steve Poizner for putting some walk into the talk.

Now maybe those Assembly Republicans who have endorsed Adams’ re-election will yank there endorsements and maybe recruit a challenger.… Read More

This just in from Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner…

The budget deal passed by the Legislature is a raw deal for the people of California.I have repeatedly and vigorously spoken out against this budget deal. It is simply the latest example of the fundamental dysfunctionality of Sacramento.

California already has the highest income taxes and the highest state sales tax.This dealraises them even higher.The car taxwill be nearly doubled – a slap in the face of working Californians who thought the 2003 recall had resolved that issue in favor of the taxpayer.

As I'vepreviously said, it is astounding to me that while the Obama White House is proposing a tax cut for 95% of all Americans, the Sacramento politicians are proposing a tax increase for 95% of all Californians. Either raising taxes in the middle of a deep economic recession is good public policy or it is bad public policy, but it cannot be both.

As newspapers havereported, the state budget deal severely limits any positive financial benefit for the people of California from the federal economic stimulus package. Instead,the tax… Read More

Politics is more like a chess game than a checkers game — it’s complex, and people who want to seriously understand why things happen, and what some of the real motivations are, should take the time to step back, and take things in context.

First and foremost, it’s obvious on the face of it to be able to say that the six Republican legislators (Senators Ashburn, Cogdill and Maldonado and Assemblymen Adams, Niello and Villines) who actually voted for the bill that imposed over $14 billion in new taxes were critical to its passage. Shame on them. Truly, they have done a tremendous disservice to their state and to their party.

But in taking some time to contemplate the politics of the final hours of this Big 5/Big Taxes deal passing out of the legislature, you have to say, how did it happen? After all, the votes to pass the plan simply were not there in the State Senate. You needed three Republicans to support the actual tax increase legislation, and they were one vote shy. Eleven GOP Senators basically said there was no way there were going up on the tax bill (Aanestad, Benoit, Denham, Dutton,… Read More

From Capitol Alert:

This morning, Adams joined Assembly GOP leader Mike Villines and Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, as the three GOP votes needed, along with every Democrat, to pass the $40 billion budget deficit package in the lower house. The plan includes $15 billion in spending cuts, $12.8 billion in temporary tax increases, and $11.4 billion in borrowing.

By the time of the vote, Adams had gathered signed 2010 endorsements from every single Republican in the Assembly.

"While all the members may not feel the same way that I do about the matter, they are still very supportive of me and know that I’m doing this on principle and not for some giveaway or something like that," Adams said.

Un-fer-reaking-believable.

What does Adams have to do for his colleagues to yank their endorsements: Burn a picture of Ronald Reagan on the Assembly floor?… Read More

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has put out a statement on the recent adoption of the Big 5/Big Taxes budget: “The budget that was passed by the State Legislature is not the solution. Instead of respecting taxpayers and championing job creation, Sacramento is increasing taxes on the middle class. The proposed budget will kill jobs, hurt families and make future deficits even worse.”

We couldn’t agree with Whitman more. The center piece of this budget deal is the largest tax increase at the state level in the history of the United States of America.

Whitman’s campaign also released a list of her Finance Committee which predictably contains a lot of heavy hitters from the Silicon Valley, as well as from around the state. Our personal favorite: Jenny Craig! (Out of deference to Ms. Craig, we… Read More