AB 900, pulled together after months of discussions among the 4 leaders and many others, passes today by a vote of 70-1. This was a "between a rock and a hard place" decision for all of us under the ultimatespecter of unacceptablewholesaleearly releases of criminals by the federal judge because of the courts’ view of overcrowding. Thiscarried the most weight for Republicans, as our caucus believes that public safety is our duty and first obligation to the people of California. It provides for, via $7.4 billion in bonds, the building of 53,000 new spaces and for the expansion of the "pipeline" to train the personnel needed to staff the currently understaffed spaces andnew spaces to be built. Much will need to be done in the coming months to make this work with regard to recruiting the staff and building the new spaces needed in correlation with each other.

As our population increases by a million in this state every 2 years,many of us have realized for yearsthat we’ve needed to keep up with theseprison space needs. Instead, unfortunately, our reality is crisis-management instead oflong-term planning… Read More

With a narrow margin in the Senate, AB 900 also passed out of the Senate today, 27-10, with 3 abstentionsand will now go to the Governor. The vote was on call for awhile with 22 "aye" votes before reaching the required 2/3vote of 27.

**UPDATE (from Jon Fleischman)**

Here is information on who the GOPers were who voted against the bonds:

State Senate GOP Noes: Aanestad, Cogdill, Denham, McClintock Not Voting: Battin, Maldonado

This passed the Senate with the bare minimum 2/3 – Final Vote: 27 ayes, 10 noes, 3 not votings Assembly GOP Noes: Strickland Not Voting: Garcia, Houston Absent: Devore, Anderson Final Vote: 70 ayes, 1 no, 8 not voting, 1 vacancy… Read More

There are lots of jokes about politicians being less than honest. There are lots of jokes about politicians not being too bright. A councilman in Hawthorne has managed to combine them all in a real life drama. He lives in a house owned by a developer, and then votes to help the developer on a land issue. Duh! See the story here.… Read More

Report from the Battlefront What to expect from California College Republicans in the coming year

By Ryan Clumpner, Chairman, California College Republicans

A week and a half ago, the California College Republicans (CCR) convened to hold the first competitive leadership elections since 2004. Uncontested elections are a sign of organizational unity and CCR has flourished for the past few years. However, like any healthy organization, competition was inevitable and this year the process brought fresh vitality and a renewed interest in the direction of the organization. CCR emerged from the decisive election united and committed to an aggressive agenda for the coming year. [Their new Executive Board is pictured.]

College Republicans face some… Read More

“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” — John Quincy Adams

Standing Alone: Following the crowd is not leading, and sometimes, leading can be quite a lonely experience. I did not seek this job in Congress just to have it, and to only take actions and votes that are "safe." I took it to be a force for moving America more towards the principles of personal freedom, less intrusive government, and to help preserve America’s role as the greatest source of liberty in the world.

This week, we in Congress voted on a bill called "10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act" (HR 362). This bill is not the tipping point upon which our freedoms rest. But, it is certainly not fiscally responsible. And if we don’t start to say "no" to new spending no matter how attractive it may seem, we will never control our deficit and further reduce tax rates.

The vote on this bill, though, ended up being 389-22, which means that the vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans… Read More

Report from the Battlefront What to expect from California College Republicans in the coming year

By Ryan Clumpner, Chairman, California College Republicans

A week and a half ago, the California College Republicans (CCR) convened to hold the first competitive leadership elections since 2004. Uncontested elections are a sign of organizational unity and CCR has flourished for the past few years. However, like any healthy organization, competition was inevitable and this year the process brought fresh vitality and a renewed interest in the direction of the organization. CCR emerged from the decisive election united and committed to an aggressive agenda for the coming year. [Their new Executive Board is pictured.]

College Republicans face some… Read More

Every time legislative Republicans provide the votes to use the state’s credit card — borrowing through the issuance of bonds — it’s a big win for Democrats, and very bad news for California taxpayers. For decades now, the state budget has continues to grow and grow to the point where it is now well over $100 BILLION annually. Translation: California taxpayers are paying way too much in all of the various types of taxes and fees that go to finance state government activities and programs. With strong majorities in both houses of the legislature for many decades (with a small blip for a moment in the mid-90’s where we had a Republican majority in the Assembly for one session), it has been voracious appetites of liberal Democrats that have let us to this unfortunate spot ("Best Supporting Actor" awards go to those GOPers who roll to provide the 2/3 votes needed to pass a budget). Republican Governors were not successful at stopping this growth in… Read More

Wisconsin Right to Life was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week, an important case that will decide the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold "electioneering comunications" restrictions on advocacy groups, at a minimum, as applied to Wisconsin Right to Life, an IRS Section 501(c)(4) pro-life advocacy organization. WRTL had published a communication critical of the two senators from Wisconsin for their pro-abortion votes in Congress, but because one of them wasrunning for re-election in the time period of the communication, the FEC argues the communication was an illegal electioneering communication, even though there was no mention of an election in the communication.

At issue in the case is whether a controversial provision in McCain-Feingold, that regulates ANY broadcast communications mentioning a Federal candidate’s names 30 days before before a primary and 60 days before a general election, whether or not the communication comes from a political committee and regardless of the lack of words of express advocacy, or the intention of the group to not intervene in an election.

Liberal election lawyers are… Read More