UPDATE: Incident OVER.

While not neccessarily a CA story, it is an incredible story.

We all have campaign "war stories" — but I’ve never seen anything like this:

Campaigns & Elections Update Friday Nov. 30, 2007 Man Takes Hostages at Clinton N.H. Campaign Office; Senator Cancels DNC Speech

Just thirty minutes before U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., was scheduled to address the crowd at the Democratic National Committee’s fall meeting in Vienna, Va., her speech was canceled. Hundreds of her supporters filed out as news spread of a hostage situation at the senator’s Rochester, N.H. campaign office. Early reports of the situation have a man taking at least one hostage in the office. WMUR-TV in New Hampshire is… Read More

The editorial below ran in the Riverside Press-Enterprise today.

Budget Denial

As deficits ramp up, Democrats need to quit ducking touch choices By SENATOR JIM BATTIN

I know in polite society we aren’t supposed to say "I told you so," but listening to the latest budget news out of Sacramento, I couldn’t help but think it.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill, announced this month that California’s budget situation has "deteriorated" by almost $6 billion since the budget was signed in late August. As a result, next year’s budget deficit is conservatively estimated at $10 billion, up from about $3 billion this year. I say conservatively because state revenues are in a tailspin and the deficit could easily be billions of dollars more.

If this sounds like a broken record, here’s why:… Read More

When we pulled together the main page this morning, we missed this outstanding commentary from our own FR State Capitol Correspondent — Senator Jim Battin.

The editorial below ran in the Riverside Press-Enterprise today.

Budget Denial

As deficits ramp up, Democrats need to quit ducking touch choices By SENATOR JIM BATTIN

I know in polite society we aren’t supposed to say "I told you so," but listening to the latest budget news out of Sacramento, I couldn’t help but think it.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst, Elizabeth Hill, announced this month that California’s budget situation has "deteriorated" by almost $6 billion since the budget was signed in late August. As a result, next year’s budget deficit is conservatively estimated at $10 billion, up from about $3 billion this year. I say conservatively because state revenues are in… Read More

When the Orange County Lincoln Club endorsed the CalCounts Initiative, you knew it was only a matter of days before the big shoe would drop – a major contribution towards qualification. This is because the Lincoln Club has a long tradition of not just talking, but DOING. If you look back over the history of the Orange County Lincoln Club, you will see that they have spent a generation being at the forefront of great things. Of course, the other shoe was a six-figure one — a six figure check…

It’s actually worth taking a few minutes to read this great profile of the O.C. Lincoln Club penned by FR Blogger/OC Blog Proprietor Matt Cunningham for Red County Magazine.

We reached out to FR friend Rich Wagner, the President of the Lincoln Club, and asked him if he would put pen to paper (or more likely fingers to keyboard) and share with our readers why his organization, which is quite selective about which battles it chooses to wage, has weighed in to give the CalCounts Initiative a huge push towards qualification… … Read More

I told you so.

Yeah, I know, that is rude, but now that I am no longer in the Legislature, there are very few people who will relate the tale.

I voted for the 2004-05 budget, the Governor’s first budget, because I thought it was a responsible budget that dealt appropriately with the fallout from the Davis spending spree from 1999-2001. In those budgets, Gray Davis and the Democrats (with way too many willing Republicans), increased spending from $58 billion (general fund) to $79 billion (general fund). The next three budgets, 2001-04 moved spending from about $79 billion to $78 billion, and created a $13 billion debt, while revenue went from $66 to $76 billion over those same years. The voters passed the $15 billion bond to cover the Davis mistakes.

Governor Schwarzenegger, with the able help of his then Finance Director, Donna Arduin, brought spending under control in his first budget, increasing spending by only $100 million (as proposed in the May revise and passed by the Legislature). It was the right thing to do. Arduin then left, the Governor began his initiative campaigns, and, in the next six months, the wheels fell off the fiscal… Read More

When the Orange County Lincoln Club endorsed the CalCounts Initiative, you knew it was only a matter of days before the big shoe would drop – a major contribution towards qualification. This is because the Lincoln Club has a long tradition of not just talking, but DOING. If you look back over the history of the Orange County Lincoln Club, you will see that they have spent a generation being at the forefront of great things. Of course, the other shoe was a six-figure one — a six figure check…

It’s actually worth taking a few minutes to read this great profile of the O.C. Lincoln Club penned by FR Blogger/OC Blog Proprietor Matt Cunningham for Red County Magazine.

We reached out to FR friend Rich Wagner, the President of the Lincoln Club, and asked him if he would put pen to paper (or more likely fingers to keyboard) and share with our readers why his organization, which is quite selective about which battles it chooses to wage, has weighed in to give the CalCounts Initiative a huge push towards qualification…… Read More

In the weeks leading up to the well-advertised CNN/YouTube GOP Presidential Debate, I was actually getting pretty excited. What a great way to merge modern technology and politics, and get lots of people, especially younger ones, engaged in the process. Recently I gave a keynote address at a Junior Statesmen of America conference, and they had a room set up so that high school students could record debate questions, and I must have seen a hundred e-mails cross my desk referencing the debate, and people sending around their video taped questions for others to see. There was a great deal of buzz, and, for me, a hightened level of expectation.

As it turns out, this debate was totally hijacked by the MSM — and I don’t know whether to blame CNN exclusively, or apply some of the bad credit to the folks at YouTube. That is because I am not sure who was responsible for sifting through the thousands of video clips of questions, and choosing which ones would be asked of… Read More

As a Yolo County Supervisor one of the worst possibilities that I could see coming out of the 2008 election is that Sam Wakim from Yreka would end up representing part of my county. It would have put me in a real bind as I would not have endorsed him in the general election.

Wakim has announced that he is dropping out of the race and moving out of state.

You can read a post from the Record Searchlight on the issue here. The only thing that Ross had wrong is that we now have three candidates in the race. Former Senator Jim Nielsen, Marine Corps Lt. Col Charlie Schaupp, and retired Air Force Colonel Frank Stiglich are all still in the Republican primary.

This race saw Jason Larabee exit a few months ago and lateral his support to Nielsen. Larabee is a great guy. I hope he will run for office in the future.

Someday soon I hope to make a similar post with Wyman instead of Wakim in the title. That would be a great day but we all know my post on Wyman will be about him running for the Assembly or Senate attempting to get 2 more years on his pension so he… Read More