Today Governor Schwarzenegger will sign legislation that was put on his desk, without the vote of a single Republican in the State Assembly, to move the date of the Presidential primary to Tuesday, February 5, 2007. The merits, pro and con, to moving the date of the primary up have been discussed pretty thoroughly here on this website, and in many other public forums. While I can think of a few reasons to veto this legislation, the one that comes most readily to mind is one that doesn’t seem to factor into the Governor’s bill-signing methodology — and that is backing up the other players on what is supposed to be his Republican team. I have had an opportunity to speak with many Republican members of the Assembly, to talk about their concerns. Some are concerned about playing into the hands of the Democrats on their plot to try and extend their terms in office. Others are concerned about the national implications of furthering in a large way a shift to a ‘national primary’ — precluding tier two candidates from having a real shot. Others are unhappy with the additional costs of creating an extra,… Read More

The Secretary of State’s office has released the off-year Report of Registration, which shows nearly one million fewer registered voters this year than two years ago. 22 million people in California are eligible to vote, but only 15,682,358, or 69%, were registered to vote as of Feb. 10. Registration totals for the six qualified political parties and those not affiliating with any political party follow:

· Democratic – 6,667,437 or 42.52%

· Republican – 5,362,473 or 34.19%

· American Independent – 313,461 or 2%

· Green – 138,861 or 0.89%

· Libertarian – 83,420 or 0.53%

· Peace and Freedom – 58,264 or 0.37%

· Decline to State – 2,953,414 or 18.83%

·Others– 105,028 or 0.67%

… Read More

Assemblymen Jose Solorio and Chuck DeVore have teamed up on a piece of legislation that helps school districts teach students English.

Solorio (D – Santa Ana) is the author and DeVore (R – Irvine) is a co-author of AB 1177. I remember when kids who spoke another language in the home took ESL classes (English as a Second Language). Now the varnacular is English Learners (EL). Regardless of the label, Solorio’s legislation would provide state funds for school districts that have more than 50% EL students to go above and beyond to make sure they learn English before they graduate 8th grade.

I like the legislation for several reasons beyond the fact that it aims to teach English to kids. 1) it is a pilot program, 2) it includes a provision for independent review and 3) it sunsets in 2015.… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary…

Term Limits vs. Perk Limits

California’s legislature is getting ready to water down the state’s 16-year-old term limit law by allowing members to serve up to 14 years in either house and by "grandfathering" in the existing Assembly and Senate leadership, allowing members, in effect, to restart the clock on their service.

Term-limit advocates can’t do anything to block this incumbent-protection scheme from being placed before voters on February’s primary ballot. But they believe they can defeat the proposal partly by promoting a countermeasure to stir up old populist resentment of legislative perks. The measure would strip away a legislator’s cherished tax-free $153-a-day allowances for lodging and meal expenses incurred while the legislature is in session. The per diems add up to more… Read More

With a h/t to Bob Salladay at the L.A. Times Political Muscle blog, here is a list of Governor Mitt Romney’s California Finance Co-Chairman – pretty impressive:

Scott Baugh, Former Assembly Republican Leader, Orange County Dick Boyce, Partner, Texas Pacific Group, San Francisco David Bradford, CEO, OWNLI, Orange County Jonathan Bullen, CEO/President, Eagle State College Group, San Diego Malin Burnham, Chairman, Burnham Real Estate, San Diego Kelly Burt, Chairman and CEO, Price Self Storage, San Diego Roger Carter, Investments, Morgan Stanley, San Francisco Rick J. Caruso, President and CEO, Caruso Affiliated, Los Angeles Mark Chapin Johnson, President and CEO, Chapin Medical Company, Orange County John Clarey, Chairman, RF Comsites, Orange County Robert Day, Chairman, Trust Company of the West, Los Angeles Bill Draper, General Partner, Draper Richards L.P., San Francisco Steven Fink, CEO, Lawrence Investments, Los Angeles Bradford M. Freeman, … Read More

For some people in Orange County politics and government, a call from Shirley Grindle would give them the chills. She is a so-called watch-dog.

Rumored to have 3×5 index cards tracking every donor and candidate running for county office and mayor/city council in several major cities, Grindle makes it a practice of calling candidates and their treasurers on minor violations and omissions on campaign filings.

To the rest of us, she mostly is just a nuisance having authored the ordinance that restricts contributions to county office seekers to $1600 per family (which should be thrown out by a court) and limiting transfers of funds into OC candidates’ political accounts from other committees, among other things.

But if she were to get her way on her latest proposal–to create a NEW county ethics commission, it would cost upward of $200,000 and such a bureaucracy would certainly grow in purview and cost.

Her original proposal would have had the new commission looking into just about everything. After being rebuffed she is now proposing just to oversee campaign finance. She says she wants to… Read More

New Blog: I know my loyal readers here on the Flash Report will be interested to know that I have a new blog on townhall.com known as the Green Eyeshade Blog. In my new role as chair of the Budget and Spending Taskforce for the RSC I will be posting a lot of information about fiscal matters before Congress on that blog. I’ll still be posting here on the FlashReport about many other issues and things related to California politics.

American Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights: In 34 of the last 38 years, the federal government has spent more money than it received in taxes. That’s through congresses controlled by both parties and presidents of both parties and every combination thereof. When the budget of 2008 is written, it will be 35 out of 39 years. Spending has run amok on every front – entitlements, earmarks, everything. In spite of the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, revenue to the federal government constitutes about the same percentage of the economy as it has since 1960. I’ve told you before that the majority… Read More

Democrat OC Assemblyman Jose Solorio has introduced legislation that would give OC cities more of their fair share of Proposition 42 transportation funds.

The twist is that the money would come from the county’s share, not from other parts of the state.

It is well known that Orange County is major ‘donor county’. But not many people know that Orange County’s cities are not getting back their fair share of monies for street and roadway improvements from the county.

Solorio’s AB 823 simply urges the County of Orange to allocate more funds to the cities for roadway improvements. Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim collectively have $700 million in backlogs for arterial and residential street improvements. At the same time, the County of Orange has over $100 million in road fund reserves.

The county ought to be commended for banking these funds for a rainy day. But they also need to share the love. Here’s why: State formulas assume that the county maintains 25% of roadways while cities maintained the other 75% in the county.

FACT: The County of Orange actually only maintains 7.4% of county… Read More