The Oakland Unified School District board voted yesterday to ignore state law and grant diplomas to students who did not pass the state’s high school exit exam. It was a cheap political move by the board’s part because they know that State Administrator Randall Ward is unlikely to support the decision. Without Ward’s signoff, the vote was symbolic, allowing the board to placate the people who complain that the exit exam is unfair.

Dan Siegel, the board member who proposed the resolution, said that it is "very unfair to say to students who, for 13 years, have done what we have asked them to do, ‘You can’t graduate.’"

Clearly, the Oakland schools, as run by… Read More

There are several intense races going on here in Orange County, but I’d like to focus on one in particular: the 2nd Supervisorial District.

It’s a match-up between OC Treasurer John Moorlach and Stanton City Councilman Dave Shawver.

Some quick background. Moorlach originally ran — and lost –a race against the incumbent OC Treasurer in 1994, warning that the incumbent’s risky investment strategies were going to push Orange County into bankruptcy. The usual suspects denounced Moorlach as an alarmist and dismissed him. We all know what happened next.

After the county went bankrupt, the chastened Board of Supes appointed John to the vacated Treasurer’s spot.

Fast forward 12 years. Incumbent OC Supervisor Jim Silva is termed out and running for Assembly. John Moorlach is running to succeed him, and warning that the recent round of county employee pension spiking places county finances at serious risk.

The local government employee unions are apoplectic at the prospect of Moorlach on the Board of Supervisors.… Read More

[While this column space is usually devoted to FR Publisher Jon Fleischman’s Daily Commentary, today we are pleased to present commentary by FR’s State Capitol Correspondent Dan Schnur.]

Redistricting Reform Urged by Bi-Partisan Citizen’s Coalition by Dan Schnur What do respected conservatives like Bill Leonard, Jon Coupal, and Jim Brulte have in common with Leon Panetta, Fred Keeley, and the head of the League of Women Voters? Answer: they all agree that letting legislators draw their own districts is like letting third-graders decide how much ice cream they can have for dessert. To be fair, none of the… Read More

Down in OC 5th Supervisor District, gazillionaire Cassie DeYoung has spent nearly $2.5 million in her quest to become an Orange County Supervisor.

DeYoung is waging the nastiest political campaign OC has seen in a generation, and her target has been opponent Pat Bates, the former Assemblywoman (full disclosure: I’ve done some consulting work for Pat’s race).

DeYoung’s mail paints Pat of being a liberal illegal immigrant lover who gets teens hooked on smoking while destroying the ocean and our coastlines at the behest of the oil and gambling interests. I’m sure there are other smears I’ve missed, but you get to the point.

But suing Marian Bergeson? Isn’t that taking things just a tad too far? Tjis is from OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit yesterday:

Marian Bergeson came up to me backstage at the Performing Arts Center during our last Follies… Read More

[While this column space is usually devoted to FR Publisher Jon Fleischman’s Daily Commentary, today we are pleased to present commentary by FR’s State Capitol Correspondent Dan Schnur.]

Redistricting Reform Urged by Bi-Partisan Citizen’s Coalition by Dan Schnur

What do respected conservatives like Bill Leonard, Jon Coupal, and Jim Brulte have in common with Leon Panetta, Fred Keeley, and the head of the League of Women Voters?

Answer: they all agree that letting legislators draw their own districts is like letting third-graders decide how much ice cream they can have for dessert.

To be fair, none of the individuals listed above actually compared the members of the California Legislature to elementary school students, Neither did the eighty-plus of their fellow political, business, labor, academic, and community leaders who signed a letter this week from the Voices of Reform… Read More

This morning I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my thoughts about goings-on in San Diego County. It’s a crazy time in the county just to the south of my own…

Congressional District 50 – a.k.a. "Oatmeal vs. Acid" What do you do when the Republican candidate in the special election doesn’t excite conservative voters? The only issue on which he seems to be campaigning where he is in line with conservative voters is on the immigration issue, where he has been paid to be hardcore as he has represented (as a federal lobbyist) a hard-line immigration reform group. Bilbray moved into the district. He was tapped by D.C. power-brokers. He defeated a horribly split field of conservative candidates to eek out a plurality, most likely with the help of non-Republican voters. On many issues that I care about, he is only marginally better than the liberal Democrat Francine Busby. And so I read in ‘insider… Read More

This morning I thought I would take a few minutes to share some of my thoughts about goings-on in San Diego County. It’s a crazy time in the county just to the south of my own…

Congressional District 50 – a.k.a. "Oatmeal vs. Acid" What do you do when the Republican candidate in the special election doesn’t excite conservative voters? The only issue on which he seems to be campaigning where he is in line with conservative voters is on the immigration issue, where he has been paid to be hardcore as he has represented (as a federal lobbyist) a hard-line immigration reform group. Bilbray moved into the district. He was tapped by D.C. power-brokers. He defeated a horribly split field of conservative candidates to eek out a plurality, most likely with the help of non-Republican voters. On many issues that I care about, he is only marginally better than the liberal Democrat Francine Busby. And so I read in ‘insider… Read More

From today’s WALL STREET JOURNAL POLITICAL DIARY

Whistling Past California’s 50th District

Republican officials in California are less nervous than their national counterparts about the prospects of holding onto the San Diego congressional seat being filled next Tuesday in a special election. Republicans have been unlucky in the seat ever since the previous incumbent Randy "Duke" Cunningham went to prison for taking bribes and cast a corruption pall over the race to succeed him. The GOP primary was a contentious affair in which a former congressman turned lobbyist named Brian Bilbray came out on top with only 15% of the vote in a divided field. He now faces… Read More