In concert with John Doolittle’s announcement that he retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives, conservative activist, businessman, and former California state legislator Rico Oller threw his hat into the ring for the GOP nomination for the 4th District. Of course, this is an all-GOP seat now that Doolittle is out of the election picture. Sorry Charlie (Brown), the presumptive Democrat candidate, but you are now running what we call in the business, a "dead district drill" – this seat is no longer competitive. There will be a host of other candidates leaping into the race, in addition to Eric Egland, Mike Holmes and now Oller. Possibly conservative Assemblyman Ted Gaines will get into it (he’s had one foot into the race for months now) and there is talk that State Senator Sam Aanestad or retired legislator Tim Leslie might even run. Then there is former U.S. Representative Doug Ose, who as a former leader of the Republican Main Street Partnership, would be the moderate in the race. … Read More

Ceres Unified School Board Member and farmer Bill Berryhill is continuing his march through the 26th district (disclosure: Berryhill is a client) by racking up endorsements of all the GOP Supervisors in San Joaquin County along with former Assemblyman and congressional candidate Dean Andal. Supervisors Leroy Ornellas, Ken Vogel and Larry Ruhstaller add to a formidable endorsement list that includes the GOP power structure in Stanislaus County as well as local GOP Senators Dave Cogdill and Jeff Denham. The 26th district is currently held by Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, who is running for the 5th Senate District.

There were early rumblings of democrats hoping to find a viable candidate to contest this nearly even registration seat until Berryhill emerged strongly. Due to his formidable name identification advantage, 200K warchest and agricultural background it is extremely unlikely that a viable candidate will emerge. Even with all those disadvantages, there is one more disadvantage that a democrat nominee would face: Bill Berryhill’s strongest support will come from Stanislaus County and for any democrat to win they must win Stanislaus County… Read More

First, let me commend the Governor for most of his budget. He is still claiming that a fee is not a tax, which is wrong, particularly when it is for essential government services like fire fighting, but he is finally getting around to actually cutting government. I also believe that cutting the size of state government is so important that no Republican should spend any time trying to defend any government program, even prisons. The general budget strategy of the Democrats in the past has been toincrease welfare and health care spending, and to cut police, fire and prisons. Republicans have taken the tack of pushing toincrease police, fire, and prisons, and cut welfare and health care spending. The usual compromise between Democrats and Republicans has been to increase spending on everything.

Second, let me commend Senate Republicans, whose insistence on some cuts last year turned a budget crisis that would have started out at $21 billion and grown to $30 billion, into a budget crisis that has started out at $14 billion, and will expand to $21 billion. Their willingness to sacrifice their political capital for the good of the state should be widely… Read More

Doolittle Does Something

Few Republicans were weeping yesterday when California Rep. John Doolittle announced that he won’t seek a tenth House term.

Mr. Doolittle is widely seen as departing ahead of the posse. Last year, the FBI raided his Virginia home and issued subpoenas to the congressman and five staff members in a probe of his wife’s fundraising business. The case involves Mr. Doolittle’s ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. While Mr. Doolittle has denied any wrongdoing, the reports kept alive the aura of GOP corruption that helped Democrats retake the House and Senate in 2006.

Retiring may be Mr. Doolittle’s last, best favor… Read More

This press release just came out of the Club for Growth in Washington, D.C. The CfG is one of the most important and credible fiscally conservative groups inside The Beltway. What they say and do matters, a lot. If Ose hops into this primary, it should be a fun six months for those of us who cover and follow this stuff…! Club for Growth PAC Weighs in on CA-4 Race

Washington – Now that Rep. John Doolitte has announced his retirement there is talk of two new candidates jumping into the race for California’s Fourth Congressional District seat.

The first, former Rep. Doug Ose (1999-2004), has a history of too often voting for increased government spending and increased regulation. Some of these votes… Read More

To add to Doug’s brief comment’s below, I would add a few thoughts. First and foremost, we will have more comprehensive coverage of the Governor’s Budget Proposal tomorrow, including an exclusive column from the Governor’s DIrector of Finance, Mike Genest (who has penned several columns for the FR). If you are overanxious, and want more detail on the budget proposal right now, the Governor’s office has set up a website on his budget proposal, which you can go to here.

The very briefing 30,000 foot summary — in order to bring down state spending, the Governor is proposing an across-the-board cut of 10% from every state agency, department and program that is financed via the state’s general fund (some large areas such as transportation, get their funds from other sources). The Governor’s idea is that it is better to "spread the pain" than it is to cut too much from any one area.

While this strategy makes sense from a marketing point of view, since it is rather easy to explain (I just did it in one paragraph), it is a controversial approach because it… Read More

My tens cents, summed up in a couple of sentences, can be found at the end of this article from The Hill on the Doolittle retirement announcement.

I will expand greatly on the situation in a future post, but here you go…

Doolittle says he will not seek reelection By Jackie Kucinich and Aaron Blake The Hill January 10, 2008 Embattled Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) announced Thursday afternoon that he would not seek reelection, yielding to pressure from his Republican colleagues to step aside amid… Read More

Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin) – ““I agree with the Governor, we cannot tax our way out of this problem. We must regain control of spending and live within our means. As we move forward, the level of spending the Governor has proposed must be viewed as a ceiling and not a floor. Every decision this legislature makes between January and June from sub-committee to the Floor must be made with an eye on the state’s bottom line. We need to act quickly and responsibly if we want to reduce the impacts of our current fiscal emergency. This includes making mid-year adjustments. Now is the time to debate the state’s needs, prioritize them appropriately and ensure adequate funding for the most important first.”

Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta), Budget Vice-Chair – “By no means can we solve California’s budgetary problems by raiding the taxpayers’ wallets. Though cuts are never easy, with over $140 billion annually flowing into the state’s coffers it is clear that we must cut the fat from the bloated Sacramento bureaucracy. The Governor is moving in the right direction by proposing a budget that by-and-large adheres to… Read More