Assemblyman Joel Anderson was was appointed yesterday as the Elections Chair for the Assembly Republican Caucus by GOP Leader Mike Villines.

"I appointed Joel Anderson to serve as the Elections Chair for our Caucus because he has one of the sharpest political minds I know," said Villines, "he is a successful fundraiser and he is a team player who passionately values advancing Republican principles across California, which will translate into increasing our seats in the State Assembly."

Catching up with him in Sacramento, Anderson said he’s ready for the task: "The only way to reduce government regulation, shrink state government, and protect our freedom is to elect a Republican majority. I am honored to be elections chair and will work with my colleagues to do everything we can to win.”… Read More

Ten years ago, voters established the First 5 Commission to use tobacco tax revenues for improving the lives of California’s children. Its proponents argued that the First 5 Commission would "provide child immunizations, health care, nutrition services, domestic violence prevention, and treatment…" from the time they were born until they entered kindergarten. However, political gain and mismanagement have corrupted that noble goal.

To begin with, the First 5 Commission spent tens of millions of dollars intended to provide direct services to kids on ads advocating the virtues of preschool while an initiative to mandate preschool was being circulated by the First 5 Commissioner. Now it has been discovered that the First 5 Commission and its 58 county commissions are letting billions of dollars collect dust rather than be used to provide services for children.

According to The Sacramento Bee (January 17, 2008), the 58 "county commissions in California that decide how to use money from [Proposition 10] are sitting on a combined balance of more… Read More

For a solid day now, I keep hearing from different sources that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and his "people" have been trying to buck up some of their insider supporters of his term-limits weakening measure, Proposition 93. Over and over I keep hearing that they are saying that "internal polls" show the measure ahead with 58% of the vote. What is the polite was to say this? I don’t believe him. Unless he has a totally biased pollster who is being paid to conduct a survey designed to give artifially high positives for his measure (perhaps to encourage more potential donors). From what I hear (from reliable sources), the measure is running neck and neck, with the numbers FAR below 50%. Normally we would just have to make this a "he said, she said" situation, and shrug. But I have learned that the latest Field Poll survey data on Proposition 93 will be publicly released tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what it says. Hey, if the numbers… Read More

This morning, I wrote about Steve Poizner being "all in" relative to his aggresive leadership role in working to defeat the Fabian Nunez Term Limits Weakening Measure, Proposition 93.

Well, apparently I was wrong.

Apparently Poizner, who already had made a personal contribution of $1.5 million to the effort to defend our state’s legislative term-limits, was a million bucks shy of being "all in"…

How do we know this?

Because NOW he is ALL IN.

Today Poizner opened up his checkbook and wrote another MILLION dollar contribution (FR readers will recall that Steve Poizner, before his involvement in politics, was very successful in the Silicon Valley hi-tech field, and is not hurting for cash).

I caught up with Poizner, who has this to say about his additional, sizable contribution:

When Governor Schwarzenegger unveiled his proposed state budget earlier this month, it caused quite a stir. Instead of shrinking, the state deficit had increased to $14.5 billion, and it may end up higher than that by the June budget deadline. The state now faces a genuine fiscal emergency, and, like a broken record, many of my Democrat colleagues are calling for new taxes and fees to balance the books. I believe taxpayers are already doing their part with revenues up almost seven percent this year, but there is clearly a stark imbalance between spending and revenues. The state’s chronic budget problems are beginning to add up. This year the state must scramble to simply meet its cash flow needs, as lenders downgrade our debt and demand a budget in better financial shape. … Read More

UPDATE FROM JON FLEISCHMAN: Today the Romney Campaign will make Huff’s endorsement official. Here are statements from Romney and Huff:

Upon the announcement, Chairman Huff said, "There is one candidate with the experience and determination to strengthen our economy and promote job growth in California and across the country and that is Governor Mitt Romney. Throughout his time in the private sector, at the 2002 Winter Olympics and as Governor, he led using fiscally conservative principles, and he will do the same as President. Governor Romney will bring real conservative change to Washington , and I encourage others to join me in supporting his candidacy." "Chairman Huff and I both believe that we must keep taxes low, cut wasteful government spending and reverse the current housing crisis facing families in California and throughout the… Read More

When you play poker, the expression "all in" refers to when a player takes all of the chips in front of them, and pushes them all to the center of the table. It means that everything comes down to one hand. If you win, you win big. You win it all. If you lose, then you lose everything with which you came to the table. It takes a particularly gutsy or brave poker play to go "all in" for obvious reasons. But, while you take an incredible risk, you have the chance to reaping incredible rewards. From time to time, we have situations in politics that remind me of the poker concept of being "all in" — and we have one such political situation going on in California politics right now. … Read More

Just received word that Duncan Hunter has endorsed Mike Huckabee for president. “I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” said Hunter. “Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of ’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of ’s industrial base. "Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the industrial base, I see another quality of … Read More