When my husband and I were talking about Mayor Gavin Newsom’s public relations problems the other day, I told him that I would not be surprised if he announced a drinking or drug problem as an excuse for his, as Newsom puts it, “personal lapse of judgment.” Surprise, surprise, the mayor announced yesterday afternoon that he has a drinking problem and will seek counseling through the Delancey Street program.

That should play nicely in San Francisco where Delancey Street is a deservedly popular non-profit program. But unless they’ve radically changed their program in the past few years, Delancey Street is a live-in rehabilitation program for people coming out of prison. They go cold… Read More

So you haven’t had a chance to meet Nathan Fletcher in person? Now you can "meet him" by watching this video! Of course, you can find out more about his campaign on his website. Today, Nathan will announce his candidacy for State Assembly in AD 75 (Plescia). … Read More

This just in…

The California Republican National Hispanic Assembly endorsed Jon Fleischman for California Republican Party Vice Chairman South.

They join the overwhelming majority of GOP legislators from the region and hundreds of big donor and party activist in supporting Jon’s campaign for CRP office.

The press release from the Republican National Hispanic Assembly didn’t cite any specific reason for their support for Jon but I assume like most of Jon’s supporters they appreciate how well versed he is on the issues that affect our party and that he is so willing to speak out for what is right and good. Jon’s supporters most appreciate his ideological passion.… Read More

For those who couldn’t attend but were interested in what was said at the UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies seminar, "The 2006 Governor’s Race: An Inside View" can watch the two-day seminar on a web cast here. The web cast is divided into segments–Schwarzenegger, Angelides and Westly teams. Those who are interested in learning more about how the governor’s political staff thinks should watch the Schwarzenegger segment, "Laying the Groundwork." The team talks candidly about how they helped the governor shift from the 2005 special election loss to the 2006 gubernatorial win. … Read More

A dual congratulations this afternoon. First we would like to congratulate former Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher for being named by Governor Schwarzenegger to head of the California Department of Aging. "But Jon, What is the Department of Aging," you ask?

Here’s what they tell us: As the designated State Unit on Aging, the California Department of Aging is part of the California Health and Human Services Agency. The Department administers Older Americans Act programs for supportive services, in-home services, congregate and home-delivered meals and a system of multipurpose senior centers. It also administers the program for community service employment; programs for advocacy and protection; and programs which provide health insurance counseling, case management, Alzheimer’s Day Care Resource Center and Adult Day Health Care services. Further, it… Read More

Garden Grove councilwoman Janet Nguyen won the Special Election for Orange County’s First Supervisorial District.

With all precincts reporting…Janet won by 52 votes.

Consultant: Gilliard, Blanning, Wysocki Pollster: Probolsky Research

[Publisher’s Note: Since I am from Orange County, I will add a couple of thoughts. First and foremost is that it is astounding what a large percentage of the votes in this race went to Vietnamese candidates — ironically, both with the last name, Nguyen (pronounced "win" – hence the title of Adam’s post). Janet Nguyen took 24.2% of the vote, and Trung Nguyen scored slightly less with 24.1% — so over 48% of the votes went to these two candidates. Probably more significantly is that while Janet has a lot to be excited about, ending election day with a 52 vote lead over Trung, Registrar Neal Kelley estimates that there are about 2500 absentee ballot turned in on election day to be counted, as well as around 750 provisional… Read More

Our Folsom Prison Tour went smoothly, they let all us legislators go free…no bus ticket or $200 though. [We did fire up the Johnny Cash CD on the way out] What we in the Assembly Republican Caucus were hoping to accomplish was the first hand viewing of the overcrowding that will soon cause a Federal judge, in June or so to take over the system due to overcrowding. When you watch how the current prison system Special Master is running through our state Treasury, you should be scared for your wallet.

Our other goal of this visit was to spotlight this situation and underscore just how dire is the need to build prison space. Early release for these characters we saw in there isn’t going to cut it…maybe it does in Democrat districts, where their legislators seem comfortable with that idea, as they run out the clock towards the June deadline the Fed Courts have set, with little action taken. More later….. [See the FR … Read More

The CRP can’t show us the money because of they are over $4.5 million debt. One of the most recent attempts to explain the debt is that the millions spent were an investment in infrastructure. See here. This is not a new approach to things. The CRP did officially support two bond measures last election cycle (and of course supported one without approval). The stories coming out now about how little will be accomplished by the bonds begs the question for the CRP. Where is the infrastructure? I can’t figure it out. The paid staff has been released. The call centers are shut down. A couple County Chairs thought they were going to get some of the scanners etc… Turns out most of the equipment turns out to have been leased. The party claims to have registered around 125,000 voters (At a devastating cost to local programs. … Read More