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

Barbara Alby has been the elected Republican National Committeewoman from California since 1996, and she penned this important perspective piece. It shares her take on this notion that non-Republicans should be included in the upcoming Republican Presidential primary in California…

CAVEAT EMPTOR WHEN DECIDING TO CHANGE THE RULES TO ALLOW DTS VOTERS TO SELECT CRP DELEGATES TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION!

Here we go again: another scheme to save us. Should we risk changing our CRP Rules to allow the Decline to State (DTS) voter to help rule us? This is one of those times when I can’t help but jump in on the debate.

Some are suggesting that there may still be time to change the CRP Rules to allow DTS voters to “help us” select our California delegates to the next Republican National Convention. To comply safely with the RNC Rules, we would need to make that… Read More

Vicky Murray with the Pacific Research Institute penned the following analysis as a new studies are being released… I can’t say it better than she…

Given John McCain’s clear disdain for the growth in government spending under the GOP Senate and Congress, (see the video at the bottom of this post), I don’t understand what appears to be a systematic avoidance of all of the places where conservatives, collectively, are meeting. If McCain cannot figure out how to embrace the base of the Party, his quest for the nomination will be a short one. And if you avoid the respected leaders of the Party’s base, over and over, establishing that key dialogue and winning support will be very, very difficult:

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail (with the video clip I reference below it):

Playing Hooky

Senator John McCain has raised the ire of his erstwhile media fans by appearing to pander too much to conservatives.… Read More

Last evening, United States Senator John McCain raised over a half a million dollars at a fundraising event at the Irvine Hyatt Hotel in Orange County. I was invited by the McCain campaign to attend not only the reception, but also an exclusive round-table discussion that took place beforehand. As a Vice Chairman of the California Republican Party, I am officially neutral in the Presidential primary, but was very pleased to accept the generous invitation of the McCain Campaign. Even better, I got an ‘okay’ to bring along the new digital camcorder that I just purchased!

The event, which probably had about 200 or so people at it, was organized by some of Orange Counties heaviest hitters — former U.S. Ambassador to Spain George Argyros, Irvine Company owner Don Bren (who, according to Forbes, is the 80th richest person in the world), renowned developer General William Lyon, and former Secretary of State Bill Jones. Introducing Senator McCain was the Irvine Company’s Dan Young, who filled in for Don Bren, who attended but was sidelined with a bad case of laryngitis. After McCain’s speech, he was followed by fundraising guru Gary Hunt.… Read More

After the recount, the margin that elected the Mayor is ONE vote. Don’t worry there will be a recount and if the Orange County folks involved in the Nguyen race get involved, who knows. See article here.See Previous FR Story here.… Read More

That is the headline from the alert I received from the Capitol Resource Institute. I have to admit, I’m surprised that there was a bump in this bill. I figured the Dems would pass it on and of course our Dudley Do-Gooder of a Governor would feel he knew better than parents what was good for everyone and of course make Merck lots of money. You can see the blow by blow here.

Kudos to GOPer’s Strickland, Huff and Gaines… Read More

The San Diego Ethics Commission has come to conclude they can over-rule the First Amendment…calling the ACLU!

(I read this first on www.redcountysandiego.com)

Rules push candidates into the woodwork San Diego Union Tribune Monday, March 12, 2007 By Logan Jenkins

News bulletin:

ZERO CANDIDATES RUNNING IN SAN DIEGO ELECTIONS!

The seats for council Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 will open up wide in 2008, thanks to term limits, but not one early riser is out on the hustings hustling love or money, the mother’s milk of political ambition.

How does one account for this remarkable restraint?

In a word, ECCO.

OK, it’s not a word. It’s an acronym, not to be confused with eco-cool Danish footwear.

In the legalistic view of the Election Campaign Control Ordinance – approved by the San Diego City Council in late 2005; fine-tuned and enforced by the city’s Ethics Commission – a candidate is not a real candidate until the moment he/she receives or spends campaign funds.

Because ECCO strictly prohibits candidates… Read More