The convention wisdom in modern American politics is that in a primary, a Republican should run to the "right" and a Democrat to the "left" — seeking to tie down core base voters of their party. Then, in a general election, the candidates who emphasize those issues that would appeal to voters in the other party. Apparently no one has given John McCain the important memo — the one that has two parts. First, you’re in a GOP primary. And the second — you do not get the ‘internationally famous movie star turned politician’ exemption to this rule. Last year, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lurches to the ideological left that most infuriated GOP leaders and activists around California was his calling for the passage of Assembly Bill 32, dubbed by the environmental-extremist community as the "Global Warming Solutions Act" — legislation which has called for increasing regulations in California to fight an alleged… Read More

Shortly after the conclusion of the CRP convention last week, my fellow FR correspondent Brandon Powers of the LA region shared his insights on the potential open seat in AD 60, currently held by conservative Republican Bob Huff.Assemblymember Huff may vacate AD 60 to seek a potentially open State Senate seat. (I say “potential” as a result of the term limits modification measure that may be up in February). My friend Brandon Powers lists several good candidates for the 60th, but he incorrectly identified the constituency’s demographics as only taking in a “sliver of San Bernardino County.” Read about it here.

Actually, AD 60 includes the growing and VERY Republican city of Chino Hills, which is actually the largest city in the district. This means that any candidate who calls Chino Hills home begins with a geographic base that is crucial to success in this district.… Read More

The convention wisdom in modern American politics is that in a primary, a Republican should run to the "right" and a Democrat to the "left" — seeking to tie down core base voters of their party. Then, in a general election, the candidates who emphasize those issues that would appeal to voters in the other party. Apparently no one has given John McCain the important memo — the one that has two parts. First, you’re in a GOP primary. And the second — you do not get the ‘internationally famous movie star turned politician’ exemption to this rule. Last year, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lurches to the ideological left that most infuriated GOP leaders and activists around California was his calling for the passage of Assembly Bill 32, dubbed by the environmental-extremist community as the "Global Warming Solutions Act" — legislation which has called for increasing regulations in California to fight an alleged… Read More

When I was campaigning for the 18th AD, people asked me about my stance on abortion all the time. They wanted to hear me say pro-choice or pro-life, because they bought into the idea that a person had to be one or the other, and that divisive camps are somehow helpful. I disagree. This was my answer on abortion: “I’m Catholic, and I believe life is precious at every stage. I’d like to see abortion rates come down every year …but I’d like that to happen through freedom of choice. I’d like to do such a good job of supporting women through their reproductive choices that abortion becomes a product that womenno longer want to buy, but we don’t need to take it off the shelf to accomplish that.” By suggesting a free market solution vs. a mandated solution, I found that people who were pro-life and pro-choice could support my stance…and more importantly, they felt less need for a "pro-something" label, and more need to really engage in a freedom-based solution. They could see that while labels are convenient for those who need money, power, headlines, foot soldiers, and protesters – the fact is, those labels divide our country unnecessarily for the… Read More

Bills, bills, bills:

There are 435 members of the House of Representatives. In the 109th Congress, these members introduced 6,438 bills. Only 294 of them passed in the House, the Senate, and were signed into law by the president. That is less the one bill per member of Congress. So, suffice it to say, we do not measure ourselves by how many bills pass with one’s name on them. That would be a small number unless you are a committee chairman

But, we still need to try. Over the next two weeks, I will give you a list of the things I am working on. In some cases, I am the "lead" sponsor of the bill. In other cases, I am a "co-sponsor" of the bill. In all cases, these are issues in which I am engaged.

Some of these bills do not have a snowball’s chance in Hades of becoming law in this Congress for various factors. These range from the fact that Democrats are in control to that the particular measure is a big idea which will take years to cultivate. I often point out the efforts of my predecessor, Christopher Cox, to end the death tax. He began this quest in 1988. Now, 20 years later we have gotten close, but the… Read More

Farsighted state employees are realizing that state pension benefits are an illusion. Nowhere in the world does any government match the pension benefits as California state employees. However, many economists are warning that as billions and billions that will become due, those employees will get stiffed.Consider San Diego on steroids.

So what to do? Bring in financial experts in a special commission.

Would you hire a person who publicly opposed the Recall that got this Governor elected, who nearly bankrupted the Republican Party, who personally stiffed RNC funds for the nearly successful McClintock comptroller campaign in 2002, who testified against the GOP pension fix in 2005, presided over the scandalous UC payroll cover-up,was sued by Treasury Secretary William Simonand has a blatant conflict of interest because hemakes millions managing CalPERS money?

The choice of Parsky is laughable throughout California and extending to Washington where Parsky tried but failed to impose himself as Secretary of Treasury.

Goodness knows that this post employment benefits commission is doomed before it starts.… Read More

Last December I posted about the Democrats zeal in having the state take over health care in California. In an effort to be clever and make the point of how terrible it would be having bureaucrats make decisions about our health care, I titled the post "The Health Care Challenge — or — If You Love The DMV, You’ll Love Government Run Health Care". I concluded it writing "If we let the government take it over, we’ll get the same loving care as we get at the DMV"

I thought I’d made a pretty good point, and I discovered I also hit a nerve at the DMV. Lo and behold, George Valverde – the Director of the DMV – commented immediately:

The debate over a statewide health care system aside, Sen. Jim Battin’s comparison to the DMV is misplaced (The health care challenge – or if you love the DMV, you’ll love government run health care, 12/12/06 blog in FlashReport). Over the past three years, the DMV has achieved remarkable results in creating a customer-friendly atmosphere. We… Read More

The Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill today released her analysis of the governor’s proposed budget for 2007-08. What’s the bottom line on the budget proposal, from her point of view? Hill says that the budget result in a $726 million deficit as opposed to the Administration’s projection of a $2.1 billion reserve.

Here are a few noteworthy excerpts from the analysis’ highlights. All of the documents can be accessed here.

* Based on our projections, we estimate that the Governor’s budget plan would result in 2007-08 expenditures exceeding revenues by $2.6billion. This would leave the state with a $726million year-end deficit, compared to the Governor’s January 10th estimate of a $2.1billion positive reserve.

* In addition, the… Read More