My personal blogging is low-volume today as I am in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica for the annual convention of the American Association of Political Consultants. I was actually invited by Frank Schubert of California’s Schubert-Flint Public Affairs (Frank is on the AAPC’s Board of Directors) to speak on a panel this morning on the “business of blogging” – which was fun. Frank spoke about budgeting in a business, and also on the panel was political attorney Cary Davidson of Reed & Davidson who spoke about contracts.

Catch you all later, I am going to go mill around all of the cool vendor tables. Look! There’s Vince Monaco!… Read More

I’ve been thinking about this for a couple days now….. and I’m still scratching my head.

What the heck is the strategy behind the taxincrease games the Assembly Democrats are playing?

With the steadfast resolve put forward by the Assembly Republican leadership and members in their opposition to taxes – the thinking behind putting up a bill that would raise the price of gasoline (according to the Sac Bee) is just a little nutty.

It allows the Reps to stand strong for working families and paints the Dems as big-spending, tax-increase loving left wingers – out of touch with the mainstream. Not a place the Assembly Democrats want to be. And whatever you may think about the Assembly majority, they rarely make this kind of clunky play.

So, what’s up?

Are they trying to put vulnerable Republican targets up on "bad votes" that they can claim hurts education in the General Election?

Uber Democrat strategist Gary South thinks so.As reportedin the LA Times:

My fellow FR blogger Adam Probolsky and I today aired the first in a planned series of Red County Radio segments discussing the Red County’s recently published list: Orange County’s Top 40 Most Influential Politicos.

Adam and I covered the six listees today:

Scott Baugh

Lucy Dunn

Paul Folino

Orange County Register

Supervisor Bill Campbell

You can read the entire list on OC Blog or in the digital edition of the new Red County magazine.

And in case you are wondering, FR’s own Jon Fleischman made the list.… Read More

Which one of these is a wetland?:

This one…

Or this one…

If you picked the top photo, you’d only be half-right. The correct answer is they are both wetlands.

The second picture is of a vacant lot next to the parking lot at Sunset Harbour Marina in Orange County. When no one was paying attention, some hydrophytic vegetation crept in and the California Coastal Commission — the same folks who’d have you believe completing the 241 toll road in OC would destroy the environment — subsequently declared this to be a wetland, and therefore to be protected.

There’s even a sprinkler system installed to prevent Mother Nature from changing her mind and reclaiming it as a dryland. Call it a Brezhnev Doctrine for wetlands.

I posted on this absurdity in more detail on Red… Read More

Last night, Speaker Fabian “Louis Vuitton” Nunez convened a rare Wednesday session of the Assembly to debate their plan to raise taxes on oil production in California, which would have raised gas prices at a time when Californians are paying record prices. Democrats all but admitted that this was not a serious exercise, but just a public relations stunt to try to position themselves as “white knights” riding into to save the day from “evil Republican budget cutters.”

Democrat after Democrat rose to blame oil companies for “not paying their fair share” to the state as the reason why teachers were receiving layoff notices this month. Others bemoaned the fact that Californians received modest tax relief in recent years, blaming the repeal of the Gray Davis’ illegal car tax increase for the state’s current budget woes. They even said with a straight face that Californians have endured “heartless” budget cuts over the past four years and said they would refuse to support a budget this year that takes responsible steps to reduce spending. Perhaps we should remind them that revenue in California increased 40 percent over the past four… Read More

I just returned from San Diego, where I spent the afternoon assisting with Roger Hedgcock’s special “drive-by” radio show. The radio program focused on two initiatives that are trying to qualify for the November ballot: Protect Marriage and Sarah’s Law. With just a few weeks to go before the petition deadlines, there is a statewide push to gather the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed.

Protect Marriage is the initiative that will place Proposition 22 in the constitution, thus ensuring that the will of the people is honored in defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Sarah’s Law is the initiative that will require parental notification prior to a minor’s abortion. Both initiatives are key not only for strengthening parental rights and the sanctity of marriage, but from a political standpoint, these are issues that will draw the Republican base to the polls in November. The Save Our Kids campaign to overturn SB 777 was also present (thus my involvement), handing out flyers to alert citizens that initiative petitions will be on the street in early… Read More

Courtesy of FR friend Eric Reslock’s new website, CalClip TV, here is some footage he pieced together from last night’s floor debate in the Assembly on increasing oil taxes. Unfortunately Eric left the temper tantrum of Fabian Nunez for the very end… … Read More

The Secretary of State pulled conducted the random drawing of letters to determine ballot order, which can give a little "bump" to the first person (isn’t that sad?).

Here is the order: H, E, A, N, O, V, P, J, U, L, S, M, X, B, C, T, I, K, R, Q, D, Y, F, W, G, Z.

Seems like good news for these GOP candidates whose last name begins with an "H" — a little lift for their primary? Paul Hegyi, Sue Horne, Diane Harkey, Gabriella Holt, Curt Hagman, Bob Huff, and Duncan D. Hunter

Oh yeah, if candidates have the same first letter in their last name, apply this list to the second letter, and so on. For example, John BEnoit will be listed above Russ BOgh because "E" comes before "O" in the draw.… Read More