Today, Assembly member Spitzer commented on the problem of prison overcrowding in California. A number of stories in a number of papers talked about Judge Karlton’s decision, but missed one very important point. Judge Karlton attributed the overcrowding to "Governor Schwarzenegger’s support of the three strikes law."

Judge Karlton is wrong. Dangerously wrong.

Three Strikes has done more to relieve prison overcrowding than any other single law in recent history. More important, Californians are safer today because of three strikes than they were in the 1970’s when Jerry Brown (our soon to be Attorney General) and his judges (more particularly Rose Bird) were letting bad guys go to relieve prison overcrowding.

In the two years following the passage of the three strikes law, California’s crime rate dropped 45 per cent. Despite the stories of pizza and underwear thieves being sentenced to life, people in the state got it. They figured out that two serious or violent felonies were enough. If a criminal was stupid enough to commit a third felony, that crimimalwas likely to continue to be a threat to the safety of… Read More

Calpeek is one of the "must subscribe" political newsletters in California. Dick Rosengarten is always a credible source and has a stable of consultants and political leaders on both sides of the aisle. You can find out more here.

Calpeek’sDecember 11,2006 edition has the following article about the CRP turnout operation and what others think. This echo’s what I hear almost daily from consultants, candidates, party activists, and GOPcounty chairs. May won’t speak up for fear of the Governor’s political operation. (You’ll know it isn’t my writing bcause the grammar and speliing is pretty good).

One part of the story isn’t correct. We still don’t have a full accounting!

DOUBTS STILL LINGER ABOUT $20 MILLION CALIF. REPUBLICAN PARTY GOTV EFFORT THAT FLOPPED

TIME TO CONSIDER MAKING CALI A CAUCUS STATE? There is an adage that says, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." Los Angeles Times writer George Skelton has been consistently producing his column on Golden State politics for a long, long time. To be honest, most of the time, while I think Skelton brings up pertinent topics, I rarely agree with his ideas or his conclusions. Actually, if I did, it would probably really worry George, since he hardly sees himself as a darling of conservatives. That having been said, today in his column, George Skelton floats an idea that has a lot of merit and is worth a healthy discussion. Skelton throws out the idea that perhaps California should consider becoming a caucus state in terms of Presidential elections. What does this mean? It means that instead of voters going to the polls in the primary, instead voters of each political party would be invited to attend an actual meeting in their area where interested members of each party would show up and vote for delegates to their party’s national convention, pledged to certain… Read More

Capitol Resource Institute received the following letter from a trustee in the Antelope Valley Union High School District. You can click here to see previous posts about the High School production of "Cabaret" that included students in lingerie. BTW: I have been sent some pictures if you are an adult and your wife thinks okay. I’ll email you a link.

Here is the letter

"Thank you for your note of concern. There was an article in today’s newspaper that clarifies the high school district’s involvement and only action we could take.

“Please understand that this is not a high school or district sponsored event. There are high school students, who are enrolled in a drama class at Antelope Valley College (with parental consent) that are participating in this production. The High School District has no control over the student involvement in this production.… Read More

Former Assemblyman Tom Umberg will have more than just name identification and the ability to raise funds for the upcoming special election in Orange County for the supervisorial seat vacated on Lou Correa’s recent election to the 34th State Senate District. What Umberg also has is a little money left over from his own losing race against Correa in the Senate primary — about $45,000 cash on hand, according to his most recent campaign disclosures, most of which he will likely be able to use in the supervisorial race should he decide to run in the special election. Though the Orange County campaign ordinance as originally enacted bans transfers to a county candidate committee from other candidate committees, an opinion of the California Attorney General issued in March, 2002 [85 Op. Atty. Gen. Cal.4] determined that the Orange County ban was unconstitutional as applied to "intra-candidate" transfers (for example, a transfer of surplus campaign funds from a State Senate campaign account to a county… Read More

Activists David Hernandez and Ted Hayes filed a lawsuit challenging Measure R. Successfully passed by the voters, Measure R loosened term limits for Los Angeles City Council Members AND tightened control on lobbyists. The City Attorney had warned the council that such a measure combined to many issues to be constitutional. A previous lawsuit was dropped, but Hernandez and Hayes picked up the baton. You can see there website here.… Read More

Two cities in Orange County have vacancies on their city council’s.

SANTA ANA When Jose Solorio was sworn in to the Assembly he left behind a vacancy on the Santa Ana city council. Now the council expects to appoint a successor on January 2nd. Applications are due by December 18th. Details here.

Santa Ana faces issues including budget shortfalls, crime, delayed street improvements and the almost enviable problem of massive amounts of commercial and residential development but a slow and ‘old school’ planning department that can’t keep up. YORBA LINDA Mike Duvall resigned from the Yorba Linda city council on December 4th to be sworn into the 72nd Assembly District seat and now the remaining four council members say they will fill the vacancy he left which will be for two years. Applications are due December 12th. Details here.

Yorba Linda faces… Read More

TIME TO CONSIDER MAKING CALI A CAUCUS STATE? There is an adage that says, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." Los Angeles Times writer George Skelton has been consistently producing his column on Golden State politics for a long, long time. To be honest, most of the time, while I think Skelton brings up pertinent topics, I rarely agree with his ideas or his conclusions. Actually, if I did, it would probably really worry George, since he hardly sees himself as a darling of conservatives. That having been said, today in his column, George Skelton floats an idea that has a lot of merit and is worth a healthy discussion. Skelton throws out the idea that perhaps California should consider becoming a caucus state in terms of Presidential elections. What does this mean? It means that instead of voters going to the polls in the primary, instead voters of each political party would be invited to attend an actual meeting in their area where interested members of each party would show up and vote for delegates to their party’s national convention, pledged to certain… Read More