The Republican National Committee is meeting as we speak in New Mexico. For some time now (actually for many years) the RNC has been debated how to reform the GOP Presidential nominating process in a way that might make more sense. State GOP Chairman Ron Nehring who is at the meeting just sent over this news:

The net effect of the Ohio plan is that large states like California will never be among the first states voting. Under the… Read More

“OSE CAMPAIGN ACCUSED OF VIOLATING FEDERAL ELECTION LAWS” Placer County GOP Files Complaint against Ose for Failing to Disclose Contributions

Roseville— The Placer County Republican Central Committee Thursday filed a formal complaint with the Federal Elections Commission in Washington D.C. alleging that Doug Ose’s Campaign for Congress distributed a direct mail piece that violated federal elections laws.

Ose is running against State Senator Tom McClintock in the Republican Primary for the 4th Congressional District to replace Rep. John Doolittle.

“Placer County Republicans request an immediate investigation,” said Tom Hudson, chairman of the Placer County Republican Central Committee. “We believe that the Ose Campaign engaged in unfair campaign practices and violated federal election laws.”

According to the complaint, the Ose Campaign for Congress recently sent voters a direct mail piece that shows an illustration of opponent Tom McClintock that is both silly and demeaning. The problem for Ose is the so-called ‘creative material’ is identical to the graphic artwork used against McClintock by then-opponent Dean Andal… Read More

You may not know it, but Sen. Lou Correa strongly opposes completing the 241 toll road.

True, it is Rep. Loretta Sanchez is the OC legislator who has garnered the attention — and just criticism — for her efforts to kill the 241 completion: a politically curious position considering the 47th Congressional District isn’t a hot-bed of environmental activism. That strain runs more strongly through affluent districts where residents can afford to be no-growth environmentalists.

Yet Sen. Lou Correa — who represents many of the same union households as Loretta — also opposes completing the 241. He”s just been quiet about it.

During January’s California Coastal Commission hearing on the 241, the various commissioners had to declare their ex parte communications on the issue.

Commissioner Larry Clark described his being lobbied by Sen. Correa:

On the 24th of January, and again on the 4th of February, I received telephone calls from Senator Lou Correa, from the 34th Senatorial District. Senator Correa conveyed this information to me, and position, his strong opposition for the 241 toll

[Cross-posted from OC Blog]

The bitter battle between Corona Mayor Jeff Miller and Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Neil Blais to win the GOP nod in the 71st Assembly District is well on its way to being OC’s nastiest June contest.

Lately, the Blais campaign is going over that fine line between political hard-ball and sleazy politics.

For example, twice in the past week I’ve received a press release from the Blais campaign basically accusing Jeff Miller of public corruption.… Read More

I have always kept my hand in and paid attention to Inland Empire races. Without question, you’ve got to be tough to win Republican primaries down there. I stumbled across a website that continues that tradition, www.nonestande.com.

For Assembly race viewers, this battle between Brian Nestande and Kelly McCarty to succeed John Benoit should be highly entertaining.… Read More

What would you say if I told you that in the state’s current fiscal climate Assemblyman Albert Torrico (D-Newark) is carrying a bill, AB 1967 (see link to .pdf below) that if passed, would cost our state retirement funds (both Cal-STRS and Cal-PERS) billions of dollars?

AB 1967, in essence, puts some pretty huge prohibitions on where the billions of dollars in these retirement funds can be invested. Of course, right now, these funds are invested (presumably) to maximize rate of return. But under Torrico’s bill, these public funds who have to immediately and forever divest from any investments with what are called Sovereign Wealth Funds, which to put it simply are those funds that are affiliated with foreign countries. Torrico’s bill does exempt any SWF’s affiliated with a country (or countries) that have signed onto a bevy of various international human rights accords. Oh yeah, the United States, were it considered a foreign country under Torrico’s bill, would not meet the criteria as we have not… Read More

I don’t know if I should be excited or disappointed that our main page April Fool’s joke has been so popular. It’s only been up three hours and I literally have OVER 200 emails from FR readers telling me "you got me" or "boy did I fall for that one" or some other variation on the theme.

I’m excited because it’s always fun to successfully execute an April Fools Day "Gotcha" — I’m disappointed because in order to pull that off, you need to throw out a scenario that is so plausable that people want to believe it.

It’s too bad that a joke about the Governor leaving the GOP is so believable to so many. Sigh.… Read More

Last month, I took Asm. Kevin Jeffries to task (in this Capitol Weekly column) for a bill to address California’s maze of sign ordinances. ACR 93 asks the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and FPPC to develop a model campaign sign ordinance to be used by all of California’s local governments. As I explained in the piece, I never doubted the Assemblyman’s intentions. A California-wide guideline for sign ordinances might be helpful. Too often campaigns for State Assembly or Congress must deal with a dozen different city and county sign ordinances. However, I was deeply concerned that ACR 93 was asking the inmates to run the asylum. After all, local governments routinely pass the most restrictive and blatantly unconstitutional sign ordinances. Take a … Read More