Today Governor Schwarzenegger will sign legislation that was put on his desk, without the vote of a single Republican in the State Assembly, to move the date of the Presidential primary to Tuesday, February 5, 2007. The merits, pro and con, to moving the date of the primary up have been discussed pretty thoroughly here on this website, and in many other public forums. While I can think of a few reasons to veto this legislation, the one that comes most readily to mind is one that doesn’t seem to factor into the Governor’s bill-signing methodology — and that is backing up the other players on what is supposed to be his Republican team. I have had an opportunity to speak with many Republican members of the Assembly, to talk about their concerns. Some are concerned about playing into the hands of the Democrats on their plot to try and extend their terms in office. Others are concerned about the national implications of furthering in a large way a shift to a ‘national primary’ — precluding tier two candidates from having a real shot. Others are unhappy with the additional costs of creating an extra,… Read More

Assemblymen Jose Solorio and Chuck DeVore have teamed up on a piece of legislation that helps school districts teach students English.

Solorio (D – Santa Ana) is the author and DeVore (R – Irvine) is a co-author of AB 1177. I remember when kids who spoke another language in the home took ESL classes (English as a Second Language). Now the varnacular is English Learners (EL). Regardless of the label, Solorio’s legislation would provide state funds for school districts that have more than 50% EL students to go above and beyond to make sure they learn English before they graduate 8th grade.

I like the legislation for several reasons beyond the fact that it aims to teach English to kids. 1) it is a pilot program, 2) it includes a provision for independent review and 3) it sunsets in 2015.… Read More

Democrat OC Assemblyman Jose Solorio has introduced legislation that would give OC cities more of their fair share of Proposition 42 transportation funds.

The twist is that the money would come from the county’s share, not from other parts of the state.

It is well known that Orange County is major ‘donor county’. But not many people know that Orange County’s cities are not getting back their fair share of monies for street and roadway improvements from the county.

Solorio’s AB 823 simply urges the County of Orange to allocate more funds to the cities for roadway improvements. Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim collectively have $700 million in backlogs for arterial and residential street improvements. At the same time, the County of Orange has over $100 million in road fund reserves.

The county ought to be commended for banking these funds for a rainy day. But they also need to share the love. Here’s why: State formulas assume that the county maintains 25% of roadways while cities maintained the other 75% in the county.

FACT: The County of Orange actually only maintains 7.4% of county… Read More

Given John McCain’s clear disdain for the growth in government spending under the GOP Senate and Congress, (see the video at the bottom of this post), I don’t understand what appears to be a systematic avoidance of all of the places where conservatives, collectively, are meeting. If McCain cannot figure out how to embrace the base of the Party, his quest for the nomination will be a short one. And if you avoid the respected leaders of the Party’s base, over and over, establishing that key dialogue and winning support will be very, very difficult:

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail (with the video clip I reference below it):

Playing Hooky

Senator John McCain has raised the ire of his erstwhile media fans by appearing to pander too much to conservatives.… Read More

Vicky Murray with the Pacific Research Institute penned the following analysis as a new studies are being released… I can’t say it better than she…

Barbara Alby has been the elected Republican National Committeewoman from California since 1996, and she penned this important perspective piece. It shares her take on this notion that non-Republicans should be included in the upcoming Republican Presidential primary in California…

CAVEAT EMPTOR WHEN DECIDING TO CHANGE THE RULES TO ALLOW DTS VOTERS TO SELECT CRP DELEGATES TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION!

Here we go again: another scheme to save us. Should we risk changing our CRP Rules to allow the Decline to State (DTS) voter to help rule us? This is one of those times when I can’t help but jump in on the debate.

Some are suggesting that there may still be time to change the CRP Rules to allow DTS voters to “help us” select our California delegates to the next Republican National Convention. To comply safely with the RNC Rules, we would need to make that… Read More

Barbara Alby has been the elected Republican National Committeewoman from California since 1996, and she penned this important perspective piece. It shares her take on this notion that non-Republicans should be included in the upcoming Republican Presidential primary in California… CAVEAT EMPTOR WHEN DECIDING TO CHANGE THE RULES TO ALLOW DTS VOTERS TO SELECT CRP DELEGATES TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION! Here we go again: another scheme to save us. Should we risk changing our CRP Rules to allow the Decline to State (DTS) voter to help rule us? This is one of those times when I can’t help but jump in on the debate. … Read More

For some people in Orange County politics and government, a call from Shirley Grindle would give them the chills. She is a so-called watch-dog.

Rumored to have 3×5 index cards tracking every donor and candidate running for county office and mayor/city council in several major cities, Grindle makes it a practice of calling candidates and their treasurers on minor violations and omissions on campaign filings.

To the rest of us, she mostly is just a nuisance having authored the ordinance that restricts contributions to county office seekers to $1600 per family (which should be thrown out by a court) and limiting transfers of funds into OC candidates’ political accounts from other committees, among other things.

But if she were to get her way on her latest proposal–to create a NEW county ethics commission, it would cost upward of $200,000 and such a bureaucracy would certainly grow in purview and cost.

Her original proposal would have had the new commission looking into just about everything. After being rebuffed she is now proposing just to oversee campaign finance. She says she wants to… Read More