Now that former Congressman and House Clintonimpeachment manager Bob Barr is the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, one might ask, will he compromise his principles and take the Federal matching funds to pay for his campaign?

Well, it’s very unlikely he’ll get any Federal money, even if he secretly wants it.

Since 1976 there has been a "check-off" on tax returns to allow taxpayers to designate what is now $3 per return to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. The Federal Election Commission has devised a formula for candidates and parties to get the money from the U.S. Treasury, but to get it there are strings attached.

Among the strings are you have to agree to abide by the "national spending limit," which for 2008 is $84.1 million; and you can’t put in more than $50,000 of personal funds. The parties also have to limit what they can spend to help out in the campaign. But if you are in a major party (i.e., Republican or Democrat) all you have to do is raise a little more than $42 million in small contributions and the government will give you a check for the… Read More

The Los Angeles Times had an article about the City of Needles considering the idea of leaving California and joining either Nevada or Arizona. It brings up important questions about the organization of California government.

101 years ago Imperial County seperated from San Diego County. That is the last time we have created another county in California.

I believe in local government. It can be very effective for the people it serves.

One way it can be more effective is to take a serious look at the way it is organized in California.

As the demographics of California have changed over the last 100 years the political boundaries have not changed at all. We end up with Los Angeles County being the home to millions while some counties are hard to justify when they are the home to less than 30,000 people.

Los Angeles County is simply too large to govern with 10 million people. Several other counties are too small to make sense as a separate government entity.

This is similar to redistricting in that people can agree that changes need to be… Read More

It’s time for The San Diego Primary Election Contest. Well, mine anyway. Read below and take a stab. Every correct answer is worth one point unless otherwise noted.

Question #1: 75th Assembly (0 points) – Name the winner of the Republican nomination. (That’s right, a throw away…you get nothing for answering this correctly, but if you get it wrong, none of the rest of your answers count, ‘cuz I’m not even gonna waste my time.)

Question #2: San Diego Mayor – Will this race be decided in the primary, yes or no?

Question #3: San Diego Mayor – Regardless of your answer to #2, which candidate will finish first in the primary?

Question #4: 78th Assembly – Which candidate will win the Democratic nomination?

Question #5: San Diego City Attorney – Name the top two primary finishers, regardless of order.

Question #6: 52nd Congressional – Although they are not presently competing directly with each other, and each is currently vying with a different number of opponents, which candidate… Read More

Daniel Weintraub has an exceptional piece in the Sacramento Bee today on the state budget crisis. Read it here.

You can’t read this and think that borrowing from future lottery revenues, increasing the sales tax even temporarily, or adjusting income taxes is the answer to the state budget problems. It proves to me that we have a spending problem.

Tax increases under the facts presented by Weintraub would do nothing but increase the size of the budget.

Blow up some boxes!… Read More

On this quiet Saturday, I thought I would take a few minutes to “vent” about something that has been bugging me. I live in Orange County, where one of the highest profile Republican legislative primaries has been the battle for the 33rd State Senate seat currently held by former Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, who is coming to end of his final term. The two candidates are conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters and Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu. Walters is from Laguna Niguel on the southern end of the large district, and Sidhu hails from the north end.

Of course there are a lot of primaries taking place all over California, but only one has a candidate who wins my hastily created “You Have To Be Kidding Me/What A Hypocrite” Award.

It’s rare to see a race where on candidate opens up with attack mailer after attack mailer, which is what Harry Sidhu has done here. I think he sent out five pieces of blistering attack mail on Walters before she finally responded in kind. To read… Read More

On this quiet Saturday, I thought I would take a few minutes to “vent” about something that has been bugging me. I live in Orange County, where one of the highest profile Republican legislative primaries has been the battle for the 33rd State Senate seat currently held by former Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman, who is coming to end of his final term. The two candidates are conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters and Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu. Walters is from Laguna Niguel on the southern end of the large district, and Sidhu hails from the north end.

Of course there are a lot of primaries taking place all over California, but only one has a candidate who wins my hastily created “You Have To Be Kidding Me/What A Hypocrite” Award.

It’s rare to see a race where on candidate opens up with attack mailer after attack mailer, which is what Harry Sidhu has done here. I think he sent out five pieces of blistering attack mail on Walters before she finally responded in kind.… Read More

There is a lot of controversy swirling around about how newly minted U.S. Representative Laura Richardson defaulted on a home loan in Sacramento house. The rub is that at the same time that she was NOT making her house payments, instead she was spending her personal cash on her Congressional campaign.

You can read the stories on the main page today.

Richardson’s got her spin out there, trying to explain it all away somehow. But apparently leaving others holding the bag for her loans is a hobby of hers. In the Daily Breeze today, they have documentation online about how she has defaulted on not one, not two, but three homes. Check it out here.

Sounds to me like she will fit in perfectly to the fiscally irresponsible House of Representatives… (H/T to FH.)… Read More

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the state’s biggest and second-largest school district in the nation with more than 700,000 students, known for incompetence and corruption, has yet again, come under investigation for spending an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars on questionable contracts – while the district, not to mention the state, is facing historic budget deficits. According to the L. A. Daily News, May 13, 2008, “With Los Angeles Unified facing spending cuts of as much as a half-billion dollars amid a statewide budget crunch, the district is coming under renewed scrutiny for its nearly $175 million in consulting contracts with outside firms covering everything from legal help to improving student achievement.” Taxpayers should be shocked to know that, “The LAUSD has dozens of multiyear professional-services consulting deals that total… Read More