Yes, I admit I long for the days of Pete Wilson as Governor. But , Pete has moved on to bigger and wealthier things. The LA Business Journal profiles Pete Wilson and several other Government affairs attorneys in their Who’s Who in L.A. Lawreport(Think Hertzberg, Frommer). See article here.… Read More

LEGISLATURE RETURNS – TIME FOR SOME GOP SOLIDARITY AND UNITY With the legislature reconvening today in the State Capitol, it means that Assembly Republicans will all be back together for the first time since Fabian Nunez abruptly (and unwisely) adjourned the Assembly before a final budget was put on the Governor’s desk. Today would be a good day for Assembly Republicans to hold a press conference to make some key points.

We stand in solidarity with our Republican colleagues in the Senate — the reforms for which they are holding out are important, and we believe the Democrats should be listening to them. We do not support the Governor’s efforts to go into the districts of our Republican colleagues to pressure them to give up on these important reforms. We call on all Senators to reject the proposed budget as long as the tax-cut package negotiated by Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines is being held up by Don Perata. A strong statement that without that tax-cut package, there would not have been a budget passed out of the Assembly at … Read More

The Governor announced nine different LA County Judicial appointments today. The score was 5 GOP, 3 Dems and 1 decline to state. See press release here. Not impressive and doesn’t make a dent in the 2 to 1 ratio (Democrats in the lead) he has appointed since the recall. See previous post.… Read More

LEGISLATURE RETURNS – TIME FOR SOME GOP SOLIDARITY AND UNITY With the legislature reconvening today in the State Capitol, it means that Assembly Republicans will all be back together for the first time since Fabian Nunez abruptly (and unwisely) adjourned the Assembly before a final budget was put on the Governor’s desk. Today would be a good day for Assembly Republicans to hold a press conference to make some key points.

We stand in solidarity with our Republican colleagues in the Senate — the reforms for which they are holding out are important, and we believe the Democrats should be listening to them. We do not support the Governor’s efforts to go into the districts of our Republican colleagues to pressure them to give up on these important reforms. We call on all Senators to reject the proposed budget as long as the tax-cut package negotiated by Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines is being held up by Don Perata. A strong statement that without that tax-cut package, there would not have been a budget passed out of the Assembly at … Read More

Update: Assembly adjourns at 10PM, no action taken on floor.Senate stops discussions til tomorrow, session for both houses is at 11AM.

Big 5 met, things are moving, Senators getting closer to agreement, we’re waiting around on trailer bill biz, looks like another one of those late-nighters, with bills going both directions amongst Assembly and Senate.… Read More

Apparently campaigning is done a little bit "differently" if you are a Democrat legislator from Northwestern California. Democrat Assemblywomen Noreen Evans and Patti Berg apparently were so anxious to make sure that their legislative colleagues attend their upcoming fundraising events that they just distributed their event invitations right on the Assembly floor!

Looking at these photos of the campaign materials distrubuted on the desks of Democrat Members in the Assembly Chambers, there may be a bargain to he had. To be a "Plato Fuerte" sponsor for Noreen Evan’s upcoming fundraising event will cost you a cool $3600 bucks (if you are in Sacramento and free tomorrow night. But note the word "complimentary" emblazoned on both the Evans and Berg flyers. Perhaps you can print this e-mail, and take it to the event and get admitted for no charge. … Read More

The Affirmative Action Empire Strikes Back

Ward Connerly, the former University of California regent who is spearheading ballot initiatives in five states next year that would abolish racial preferences, has never seen anything like it. Knowing that voters in every state where Mr. Connerly has contested the issue have approved of his vision of a society where government policy is color-blind, Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon of Missouri has deliberately distorted the description of the initiative that will go on Missouri’s ballot.

Missouri law stipulates that ballot language be drawn up "in the form of a question using language neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create… Read More

Much of the budget negotiation wrangling that has been taking place the last couple of weeks is over the intolerable situation where, with the adoption and your signing into law of the "Global Warming Solutions Act" (also referred to by it’s bill number, AB 32), liberal Attorney General Jerry Brown is now able, using government attorneys, sue anyone trying to build anything.

The lesson to be learned here is that you are ill-serving yourself, and the people of California, when Democrats craft and you sign legislation, excluding Republican legislators from the process. In the State Senate, AB 32 was passed on a 100% party line vote, with NO REPUBLICAN SENATORS voting for it. Still, you signed it, and trumpeted his new era of "post-partisanship" (this is defined by you, apparently, as capitulating on Democrat issues unilaterally).

The very issues that Republicans have been bringing up now are those that they brought up at the time that AB 32 was being considered in the legislature. But the… Read More