This update just in from FR friend Anthony York over at Capitol Weekly on the challenges (first reported on this website) that the Nunez Career Politician Term Extension Act is having with qualifying for the February ballot…

Just got off the phone with Conny McCormack at the LA County elections office. Here’s the latest:

First, a quick reminder on the numbers.As I wrote in my earlier story, the proponents need 763,790 to avoid the full count. So far, from the counties that have reported, they have a projected 486,508 — a validity rate of about 71.5 percent.

LA has about 264,000 of the signatures. According to McCormack, they are close to completeing their sample count. In fact, they may be reporting to the SOS as early as tomorrow. Though they are not finished, she said signatures are coming back at about a 63 percent validity rate.

That would mean… Read More

On a party line vote, all 5 committee Republicans voting no. Amends to address protection of church property, amongst many other issues, falls far short for Rep support.… Read More

A "NO" VOTE IS CALLED FOR ON ACA 8 The League of Cities and the pro-eminent domain redevelopment industry have been lobbying very hard for the passage of Democrat Assemblyman Hector De LaTorre’s proposed constitutional amendment (ACA 8) that would put a faux (fake) eminent domain reform measure on the ballot. Their bill would NOT COME CLOSE to offering ALL private property owners the protections that they deserve against governments coming in and TAKING their property for economic gain (we’re not talking about a ‘taking’ to widen a highway, but the idea that some city planner sees a different use for the land with more economic benefit to the city, and just taking it…). ACA 8 will NEVER be amended to pass muster — because there are two diametrically opposed interests here. Property rights advocates want and demand legislation to END the proactive of governments being able to forcibly take someone’s private… Read More

A "NO" VOTE IS CALLED FOR ON ACA 8 The League of Cities and the pro-eminent domain redevelopment industry have been lobbying very hard for the passage of Democrat Assemblyman Hector De LaTorre’s proposed constitutional amendment (ACA 8) that would put a faux (fake) eminent domain reform measure on the ballot. Their bill would NOT COME CLOSE to offering ALL private property owners the protections that they deserve against governments coming in and TAKING their property for economic gain (we’re not talking about a ‘taking’ to widen a highway, but the idea that some city planner sees a different use for the land with more economic benefit to the city, and just taking it…). ACA 8 will NEVER be amended to pass muster — because there are two diametrically opposed interests here. Property rights advocates want and demand legislation to END the proactive of governments being able to forcibly take someone’s private… Read More

Before anyone tries to play “gotcha,” here is a disclaimer to my postings on the term limit topic. A week ago I sought out the folks pushing the term limit proposal that changes the number of years a lawmaker can spend in the legislature from 14 to 12 years — and now I’m working for them recruiting Republicans in support of the measure.

Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to respectfully offer a counter opinion to the publisher of this esteemed web log for his position opposed to the term limit reform measure. The topic seems to generate a lot of comments and as it is going to be considered at the upcoming CRP convention, I think it should be timely.

As you will see, there is more than one layer to this onion that needs to be peeled back. Here is my first point for Republican readers to consider:

Term limit reform is directly linked to efforts to get fair redistricting reform. The primary reason that redistricting reform is on the table this year is because Governor Schwarzenegger has forced the… Read More

The lead consultants for the Speaker’s Term Limits Weakening Initiative, which apparently won’t make the February ballot, have to write a memo to their client. We decided to draft one for them…

URGENT MEMORANDUM To: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez From: Gale Kaufman and Matthew Dowd RE: Failure to Save Your Career Dear Fabian, We are in the midst of a top-to-bottom review of our collective failure to place our carefully orchestrated end-run on term… Read More

**Update 830pm – Apparently the local county registrar offices until 9/28 to perform this manual count. That is a tall order, but right about now I am sure that Fabian Nunez is using every means at his disposal to "crack the whip" on county governments. The drive of Fabian Nunez to extend his career knows no bounds — Flash**

I am on an informative trip to Sacramento today, indeed.

Unknown to all of us in the real world, apparently all of those watching the signature verification for the Perata/Nunez measure have been noting the very low percentage of valid signatures.

Well, apparently Los Angeles County just came in with what I am told is a very low 59% rate.

Now, are the low qualification numbers enough to keep this measure off of the ballot? No. But it is very likely that this will keep it off of the all-important-for-termed-out-incumbents February ballot.

When the random-sample percentages are too low, then a longer manual count begins in the 58 Country Registrar offices. But this process would take too long for the measure to be on the February… Read More

I’m in Sacramento today and rumors are swirling around the Capitol that several Assembly Republicans are getting ready to vote for the fake ban on eminent domain ACA 8 supported by the League of Cities. See Jon’s great post on it here. Republicans wanting to squish think that some amendments that would partially protect some churches (not all or the most vulnerable) will be introduced tomorrow and that gives them cover. Why would any Republican want to vote for this fake ban, when there is a nice protection being circulated by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association? Shame on them. Sources tell me that there was a caucus meeting when at least three of them have decided to help the Democrats put the fake ban on the ballot. … Read More