Our former State Capitol Correspondent for the FR, Karen Hanretty, maintains a regular blog over at the MSM’s News10 Website, but (with permission) I lifted this post for your reading pleasure: Robbing Small Businesses to Pay for Illegal Workers A capitol insider asked me the other week if I think anything will come this year of Governor Schwarzenegger’s $12 billion health care proposal to provide health insurance to 6.5 million uninsured people in California. … Read More

FR friend and Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-San Diego County) is running for President. Today he announced, on the steps of the State Capitol steps in the early-primary state of South Carolina that Horry County Auditor Lois Eargle, former Republican lieutenant governor candidate Henry Jordan and former state Rep. Tom Marchant would help lead his state campaign.

Needs four reasons to vote for Hunter? They’re here on his website. Hopefully we’ll get a fifth paragraph up soon, comprehensively approaching the issue of reducing the size and scope of the federal government, and addressing the over-spending of the President and Congress. Foreign policy is important, but so is domestic policy.… Read More

As they say in politics, it is the goal of every erstwhile officeholder to run for that office without an opponent. While some folks get away with that — like when then-State Senator Ed Royce cleared the primary in his race for Congress back in 1992, or when, years later, John Campbell had an unopposed run for the State Assembly — it isn’t usually the case.

It looks like popular conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters will not be "walking" into the 33rd State Senate District as she had hoped, though I would certainly catagorize her as a very strong front-runner. Today, Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu threw his hat into the ring for the GOP primary for this "safe" Republican district currently occupied by the term-limited Senator Dick Ackerman. Above to the right is a photo from Sidhu’s website with Senator and Mrs. Tom Harman. I don’t know that the Senator has… Read More

When I was campaigning for the 18th AD, people asked me about my stance on abortion all the time. They wanted to hear me say pro-choice or pro-life, because they bought into the idea that a person had to be one or the other, and that divisive camps are somehow helpful. I disagree. This was my answer on abortion: “I’m Catholic, and I believe life is precious at every stage. I’d like to see abortion rates come down every year …but I’d like that to happen through freedom of choice. I’d like to do such a good job of supporting women through their reproductive choices that abortion becomes a product that womenno longer want to buy, but we don’t need to take it off the shelf to accomplish that.” By suggesting a free market solution vs. a mandated solution, I found that people who were pro-life and pro-choice could support my stance…and more importantly, they felt less need for a "pro-something" label, and more need to really engage in a freedom-based solution. They could see that while labels are convenient for those who need money, power, headlines, foot soldiers, and protesters – the fact is, those labels divide our country unnecessarily for the… Read More

The Assembly Elections Committee on a party line 5-2 vote passed through the early presidential primary bill, SB 113. An amendment offered by Committee Vice-Chair, Assemblyman Anthony Adams [AAA] to require specific language in the bill to reimburse counties the $88 million this early election will cost was denied, by the same vote, 5 Dems-No, 2 Reps-Aye. Assemblyman Roger Niello, in committee,noted that such language is necessary in the spirit of Ronald Reagan’s "Trust but verify" when the Dems ‘promise’ to reimburse counties for this extra election. We’ll see…… Read More

Shortly after the conclusion of the CRP convention last week, my fellow FR correspondent Brandon Powers of the LA region shared his insights on the potential open seat in AD 60, currently held by conservative Republican Bob Huff.Assemblymember Huff may vacate AD 60 to seek a potentially open State Senate seat. (I say “potential” as a result of the term limits modification measure that may be up in February). My friend Brandon Powers lists several good candidates for the 60th, but he incorrectly identified the constituency’s demographics as only taking in a “sliver of San Bernardino County.” Read about it here.

Actually, AD 60 includes the growing and VERY Republican city of Chino Hills, which is actually the largest city in the district. This means that any candidate who calls Chino Hills home begins with a geographic base that is crucial to success in this district.… Read More

A week or so ago my six-year-old daughter and three year old son were playing with me on the on the bed. We were wrestling and they were having a blast. Their mother and my wife, doesn’t share the joys of messing up the bed and throwing the pillows around the room, inquired about how long we were going to keep playing around.

My daughter observantly replied, "We are playing until someone gets hurt".

It is all fun and games until someone puts an eye out. See the story here. … Read More

The Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill today released her analysis of the governor’s proposed budget for 2007-08. What’s the bottom line on the budget proposal, from her point of view? Hill says that the budget result in a $726 million deficit as opposed to the Administration’s projection of a $2.1 billion reserve.

Here are a few noteworthy excerpts from the analysis’ highlights. All of the documents can be accessed here.

* Based on our projections, we estimate that the Governor’s budget plan would result in 2007-08 expenditures exceeding revenues by $2.6billion. This would leave the state with a $726million year-end deficit, compared to the Governor’s January 10th estimate of a $2.1billion positive reserve.

* In addition, the… Read More