Jim Lacy has been getting the same mail I have.

These Taxpayer Protection Committee people are all over the place. I got a piece of mail at home yesterday from the California Taxpayer Protection Committee supporting Frank Sieferman, Jr. for Woodland City Council.

This piece of mail follows an automated call for Sieferman as well as another piece of mail to the good people of Woodland telling them all of the great things he is going to do for the taxpayers of my city.

For those of you that don’t know, Frank Sieferman, Jr is a former County Supervisor that I was forced to run against and beat in 2006.

Sieferman was a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors when he voted to use eminent domain to seize 17,000 acre Conaway Ranch so that the government could do exactly what the private owner was doing with it. This seizure was one of the reasons that Prop 98 is on the ballot on Tuesday.

Sieferman supported John Kerry for President, redecorated his office during tough budget times, accepted and supported pay raises while in office, opposed the parental consent measure on the ballot, and supported a gay pride resolution on several… Read More

If a textbook on winning campaigns is ever written, exhibit A should be the State Assembly Campaign of Nathan Fletcher. He cleared the Republican field in the open seat of one of the prize Assembly seats in California —beautiful, prosperous, coastal– yet Republican. The seat is about 80% city of San Diego, with Poway, some county land, and part of Escondido rounding it out.

Historically, this seat has been a vicious primary— lot of candidates, lot of money and the winner emerging in a tight and hotly contested race. The 2008 contest for the open seat of termed out Assemblyman George Plescia looked early to be no break from the past.

Surprisingly, when Republican voters go the polls next Tuesday they will see only one choice: Nathan Fletcher.… Read More

The most important measure on this year’s statewide ballot is Proposition 98, the anti-eminent domain protection measure, sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Please vote "Yes" on Prop. 98, and "No" on Prop. 99, the phony alternative supported by the California Democratic Party.

That said, I received a "slate mailer" from an obscure outfit called the "California Taxpayer Protection Committee" out of Gold River, California. The mailer has some local candidates on it and explains the group is made up of volunteers and unnamed "affiliated groups" that oppose"out of control spending," claim"taxes are too high" and that "new borrowing" is "not the answer."

Now of course, I am biased here, because I represent the slate mail industry in court, havewon two Federal cases enjoining campaign restrictions against slate mail, and have a few I produce myself. I think slate mail is effective, and it is an important enough medium to have its own sections of the Political Reform Act.

But not all the Republican… Read More

There was an impressive turnout of volunteers this morning at the Modesto headquarters of Senator Jeff Denham’s campaign against the recall.Almost 100activists heard words of encouragement from Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill, California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, Assemblyman Tom Berryhill and congressional candidate Dean Andal (see them all, along with Senator Denham, in the photo below to the right, taken by Bob Phelan).Despite the noteworthy presence of several of the state’s top GOP leaders, a number of the volunteers were local Democrats outraged at Don Perata’s abuse of the recall process.

Senator Denhamtold the assembled precinct walkersthat even thoughSenate President Pro Tem Perata has publicly declaredhe is no longer funding the pro-recall campaign, voters need to be reminded that the issue remains on the June 3rd ballot, particularly given the expected low turn-out on… Read More

If a textbook on winning campaigns is ever written, exhibit A should be the State Assembly Campaign of Nathan Fletcher. He cleared the Republican field in the open seat of one of the prize Assembly seats in California —beautiful, prosperous, coastal– yet Republican. The seat is about 80% city of San Diego, with Poway, some county land, and part of Escondido rounding it out.

Historically, this seat has been a vicious primary— lot of candidates, lot of money and the winner emerging in a tight and hotly contested race. The 2008 contest for the open seat of termed out Assemblyman George Plescia looked early to be no break from the past.

Surprisingly, when Republican voters go the polls next Tuesday they will see only one choice: Nathan Fletcher.… Read More

I think this photo of Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill and Assemblyman Tom Berryhill speaks for itself. Need some help figuring out which of these two gets an extra ‘bump" in their pay for being the Republican Leader? Think "Ralph Lauren"… LOL.

Photo credit: Bob Phelan, taken at Jeff Denham’s campaign headquarters this morning.… Read More

With reckless abandon, Los Angeles city leaders gave payroll increases and lucrative compensation packages for city workers, which can be directly attributed to the $406 million budget deficit they are now facing for fiscal year beginning in July. Sadly, city leaders knew they were putting Los Angeles’ future into financial jeopardy by agreeing to the payroll raises last year—but did so anyhow. According to the L A Daily News, May 11, 2008, “As Los Angeles grapples with its largest budget deficit in history, lucrative compensation packages for thousands of city workers are driving much of the gap , and there’s little end in sight.” It is mind-boggling that, “In the past year alone, gross annual payroll costs have soared $120 million for nearly 48,000 city employees – $90 million of that going to 35,000 civilian and sworn workers- and bumped the total… Read More

The Assembly finished it’s work last night at about 6:30, getting through a deadline for settling the bills from the "House of Origin."[It is kind of strange finishing a deadline not at 3 AM] That means that a bill introduced by a member of the Assembly had until the end of business today to be voted off of our floor or the bill dies. [Win or go home as they say in the playoffs] The Senate faced the same deadline for their House ofOrigin and was finishing their work yesterday also.

There is one bill of note that passed jumps out that I haven’t reported on yet from yesterday. [I decided that it would be nice to get home at a decent hour while the kids are awake or not ‘make’ my staff stay late and write an analysis of the days work for me, I’ll have more later on some of the actions taken…we did stop a few bad bills or discourage some from even being taken up!]

The bill had to do with aerial spraying in the Bay Area. A pest known as the Light Brown Apple Moth has become enough of a problem that the Ca Dept of Food and Ag, with others had moved to eradicate the pest. This has touched off a… Read More