Every once in a long while a tide shift occurs in government that shifts power. In the form of a vote on firefighter’s raises, such a tide shift happened in the City of San Diego Tuesday afternoon.

At stake was actually much more than a raise firefighter union leaders wanted. At stake was who is in charge: the public employee union leaderswho, with the labor funded city council of now-disgraced Mayor Dick Murphy, drove San Diego to the verge of bankruptcy OR Republican Mayor Sanders and the reformers.

The vote on labor’s desiredraises was 4 to 4, a deadlock which ment no action (who besides the City of San Diego would have an even number of councilmembers?). Then the Mayor’s proposal to instead simply fix the firefighter’s ailing healthcare plan passed 6 to 2.

For more insight into this glorious revolution see today’s www.redcountysandiego.com.… Read More

Next year, conservative icon Tom McClintock will reach the limit of his allowable service in the State Senate under the term limits approved by California voters in 1990. McClintock’s 19th State Senate District, which is centered in Ventura County, stretches from Santa Barbara down to Los Angeles County (and even includes the Channel Islands), is favorable to a Republican candidate. As just about every FR reader knows, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland (pictured to the left), fresh off of the statewide campaign trail in 2006 where he failed in his bid to become California’s next Controller, is now running an aggressive campaign to succeed McClintock. The Assembly District that Tony represented for six years is fully within the Senate seat, and is currently (and conveniently) occupied by his wife, Audra, who is in the middle of her second two-year term… Read More

Next year, conservative icon Tom McClintock will reach the limit of his allowable service in the State Senate under the term limits approved by California voters in 1990. McClintock’s 19th State Senate District, which is centered in Ventura County, stretches from Santa Barbara down to Los Angeles County (and even includes the Channel Islands), is favorable to a Republican candidate. As just about every FR reader knows, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland (pictured to the left), fresh off of the statewide campaign trail in 2006 where he failed in his bid to become California’s next Controller, is now running an aggressive campaign to succeed McClintock. The Assembly District that Tony represented for six years is fully within the Senate seat, and is currently (and conveniently) occupied by his wife, Audra, who is in the middle of her second two-year term… Read More

Senator Dave Cogdill’s bill, SB 59, to build much needed water supply via new dams,was defeated this morning in the Senate Natural Resources and Water[less] Committee, by a party line vote of the 3 Reps aye and 4 Dems no, with one Dem abstaining.

Statements in opposition include that lakes cause global warming and that even though there will be 12 million more Californians by 2030, that we will be using less water in totalby then. This is the kind of genuine give and take we have when discussing water policy in this state. Look for this to become an initiative, where I believe that voters will see through the distorted logicand support new water supply. Too bad this legislature cannot see the light and place it on the ballot itself, giving the voters the option without an expensive qualification petition effort… Read More

Welcome to Anaheim, California. As you read this column, there are professional signature gatherers who have been hired by a coalition headed up by the Walt Disney Corporation to qualify a ballot measure in this central Orange County city. No, the measure is not to name Mickey the official mouse of the Anaheim (I would be surprised if that wasn’t the case already!). Actually, the measure they are circulating is a very bad one — which actually is the reason for me spending some time on this local issue.

The measure, in a nutshell, would institute an extreme form of what is called ‘ballot-box zoning’ in this city of well over 300,000 residents. Specifically, Disney is pushing a measure that would set into stone the current city zoning ordinances (the ones that dictate the ‘acceptable uses’ on property) in the Disney Resort Area around the Magic Kingdom. It would do so by requiring that ANY changes (like if you own a coffee shop and want to convert the use into an apartment building) would have to go through a citywide vote for approval at the next regularly scheduled municipal election. Normally you would pursue this… Read More

Rumor abound around the capitol that revenue is falling short of projections in last year’s budget. The May revise, coming soon, is said to be gloomy, although no one has said so publicly yet. Capitol bean counters have an interesting method for determining what receipts from income taxes will be. If you will recall on your tax form, you send your return to one address if you owe money, to another if you get a refund. By counting the trucks going to each address, the estimators know, within a couple of million dollars, exactly how much the state is going to receive.

That being said, it appears that the state is on the verge of another budget crisis.

I survived two such crises during my fourteen years in the Legislature. The first began in 1991 and ended in 1994, after several years of increased spending, an average of 11 percent per year in the late 1980s. Governor Deukmejian tried to stave off the crisis by returning surpluses to the taxpayers, as he did in 1986, with the billion dollar rebate. The CTA responded with Proposition 98, which required any surpluses to be spent on education, and put all education spending on autopilot. The… Read More

Welcome to Anaheim, California. As you read this column, there are professional signature gatherers who have been hired by a coalition headed up by the Walt Disney Corporation to qualify a ballot measure in this central Orange County city. No, the measure is not to name Mickey the official mouse of the Anaheim (I would be surprised if that wasn’t the case already!). Actually, the measure they are circulating is a very bad one — which actually is the reason for me spending some time on this local issue.

The measure, in a nutshell, would institute an extreme form of what is called ‘ballot-box zoning’ in this city of well over 300,000 residents. Specifically, Disney is pushing a measure that would set into stone the current city zoning ordinances (the ones that dictate the ‘acceptable uses’ on property) in the Disney Resort Area around the Magic Kingdom. It would do so by requiring that ANY changes (like if you own a coffee shop and want to convert the use into an apartment building) would have to go through a citywide vote for approval at the next regularly scheduled municipal election. Normally you would persue this… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail:

Freedom Fighter

Ward Connerly is on a roll. Less than six months after leading a successful effort to abolish race and gender preferences in government contracting and college admissions in Michigan, the former University of California regent is taking his cause on the road again. This week he announced he will promote anti-quota ballot measures in Colorado, Missouri, Arizona and Oklahoma in the November 2008 elections.

"We’re calling it the Super Tuesday of Equality," says Valery Pech Orr, who is spearheading the fight in Colorado. The measures are… Read More