This morning after my wife Valerie popped in and said that she thought it might be nice for someone other than an ‘insider’ to grade the mail each day. She clearly indicated that she would be that ‘outsider’ (It was not in my interest to argue with her assertion that she is an outsider… but I would point out that before the kids came along she worked as an account executive for Ralph Reed at Century Strategies in Atlanta, for a campaign fundraising operation in LA, and for a builders’ association in Sacramento).So she’ll be grading the February 5th mail with me each day.

Anyway…. this all being the case, the only political mail I got today was a letter from former CRP Chairmen Visco, Schroeder, and Antonovich endorsing Shawn Steel for National Committeeman. Good piece, and came with a vast endorsement list, but we feel no obligation to grade the piece because it does not deal with a race to be decided on the 5th.… Read More

The sprawling Fourth Congressional District in North Eastern California (well, Doug LaMalfa would probably call is South Eastern) east of Sacramento has been in the news a lot because of the controversies with John Doolittle that have been the source of much fodder by the press. Doolittle’s recent decision to retire has created an "open" seat that is overwhelmingly Republican.

As we’ve written about before, former state legislator and conservative Rico Oller has put his hat into the ring, and is running hard. The only other significant candidate who has been running is Eric Egland, a military veteran who starts out at a big disadvantage to the well known and well liked Oller. We keep hearing that former moderate GOP Congressman Doug Ose may jump into this primary, but he hasn’t made any such announcement yet.

For the last few months, popular local Assemblyman Ted Gaines had been making active noises about running for the House seat (perhaps even if Doolittle was still in). Shortly after Doolittle… Read More

The Secretary of State has assigned the 2 eminent domain measures their designated proposition numbers for the June 2008 primary ballot. [you know, the "other" primary]

Proposition 98 is the one qualified by the good guys, California Farm Bureau, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights.

The League of Cities flim flam fig leaf special that doesn’t reform EmDo at all will be known as No On Prop 99…I mean Prop 99.

This’ll be tough going as the goal for the 99 crowd is to confuse voters with 2 measures and get ’em to vote no on both or pass 99 and take the whole debate off the table. They will try to convince votersto believe thatthey’ve ‘done something’ to fix abusive eminent domain takingsfor future elections as they continue to steal property. You can bet on the rhetoric flying about the rent control aspectof 98 being the central issue to scare voters. 98 will pass when the truth gets out, 99 will be a lot like how Prop 93 is doing right now.… Read More

You no doubt have heard about the Stimulus Package agreement between Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader Boehner and Treasury Secretary Paulson that was announced today and is supported by the President. I won’t go through all the specifics of it directly because you will hear and see that almost everywhere over the next 24 hours. But I would like to give you what I see as the pros and cons of the thing. First of all, the good stuff:

•Raises FHA loan limits to $750,000 and also raises the "conforming" or "jumbo" home limits on loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack to the higher of $625,000 or 150% of the median house price in a market. This will help to free up more and cheaper home loan money in high cost areas like Orange County. This should help ease the housing crisis.

•Gives some taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of less than $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint) some of their tax money from 2007 back.

As far as I can tell, that’s it on the good side. On the bad side, here goes:

•Gives roughly 35 million people who paid NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES AT ALL a check for $300 per person in their… Read More

The goal is $7.5 million and Issa leads the charge…Calvert and Herger California captains…

Chairman Cole Announces Rep. Darrell Issa to Chair NRCC’s March Dinner

Washington – NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) announced today that Representative Darrell Issa (CA-49) will chair the annual NRCC March Dinner that will be held on March 12, 2008 at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

“I am very pleased to have Darrell Issa taking the lead on this year’s NRCC March Dinner,” NRCC Chairman Tom Cole said. “This is going to be a very exciting election year and we need to work together to make sure we have the resources in place to be successful.”

Chairman Cole and Representative Issa announced a goal of raising $7.5 million at the dinner, headlined by President George W. Bush.

“It is an honor to chair this… Read More

In my career as a political professional, I have had an opportunity to work as the campaign coordinator for a successful statewide ballot measure (Prop. 227, in 1998, to end bilingual education in support of English immersion). But it doesn’t even take someone with a lot of experience to make an early call on the fate of Proposition 93 a.k.a. "The Big Lie" a.k.a. the "Fabian Nunez Career Politician Term Limits Weakening Initiative."

This measure is going to be soundly defeated by California voters, preserving our state’s strong legislative term limits, and upholding the idea that the state legislature is supposed to be a place where citizens give of their time for a few years, and then return home to live under the laws they create. Californian’s will re-affirm their decision that they simply do not was a class of career politicians under the Capitol dome.

**There is more – click the link**

View Full Commentary… Read More

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