Democratic candidate for Long Beach mayor says he’s an expert on the Roman Empire and Long Beach is having the same problems. See article here.He doesn’t nean the Huns, or the corruption of government and morals. He means the middle class is leaving. Really? What can he really do about, when is supported by the people that call more government programs? At least the Huns won’t come a knocking.… Read More

I was recently talking to seasoned Orange County political consultant Matt Holder, and he shared with me a theory concerning the recent, narrow loss of Diane Harkey to Assemblyman Tom Harman in the special election in the 35th State Senate election.

Harkey’s consultant, Scott Hart, had pointed out that Tom Harman had seen an unusually high margin of victory from asian foreign-language voters in the district — primarily Vietnamese voters — by a a very dramatic margin.

Holder’s theory is this — Harkey was depriving of an opportunity to purchase an official ballot statement for the voter guide produced and distributed by the Registrar of Voters because she was spending too much of her personal money (dumb law). Harman did have a statement, however, and it was sent to these households translated into the language of choice preferred by each voter.

Did that make the difference? It was a factor said well-respected pollster Adam Probolsky (who writes for this site). Probolsky suggested as well not to underestimate the impact of Harman’s ballot title — and that his being an elected State Legislature would have had a… Read More

House chairman disputes report of probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Republican lawmaker disputed a report on Thursday that identified him as the latest target in a series of federal investigations of members of Congress.

The Los Angeles Times quoted sources as saying authorities had begun an investigation of California Rep. Jerry Lewis’ relationship with a lobbyist linked to convicted former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Lewis said he had no knowledge of an investigation and denied wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts as the powerful chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriations… Read More

Things are getting ugly in Orange County lately.

In the 5th Supervisor District, former Assemblywoman Pat Bates (full disclosure: I do some consulting work for Pat) and Laguna Niguel Mayor Cassie DeYoung are squaring off for this open seat. DeYoung has access to a ship-load of personal wealth, and has probably spent $1.5 million thus far.

DeYoung has hit Pat with a series of negative mailers focusing on her sponsorship of a matricula consular bill — which Pat wound up being on of only 7 Republicans to vote against due to Democrat machinations. The mailers — here, here and here — depict Pat’s image on a matricula consular card.

Pat responded by taking the DeYoung campaign to court, and yesterday the judge agreed to slap a… Read More

Well, this shoe took so long to drop I’m not sure anyone will take note. But while Assemblyman Van Tran ‘effectively’ endorsed his colleague Lynn Daucher for State Senate in the 34th District some time ago by dropping out of the race, today the Daucher campaign made it official, sending out a release proclaiming that Tran has officially supporting Daucher’s candidacy.

Tran, who is riding high today because of this favorably press, is a hard-nosed campaigner. So the question was and is not whether he would endorse Daucher, but whether he will ‘turn on’ his considerable campaign operation to support her.

Tran’s number one political operative in Orange County, Barrett Tetlow, is currently heading up the State GOP/Join Arnold Victory 06… Read More

A couple of weeks ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called together a group of leaders of taxpayer advocacy groups in his office in Sacramento. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold — for the Governor to restate his commitment to holding the line against any new taxes, and also to strategize about how to tackle the upcoming state budget negotiations. I asked FR friend Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, who was at that meeting, if he would put pen to paper (or is that fingers to keyboard?) and tell us all about that meeting. When reading his piece, featured today on the main page, I was especially pleased to hear that the Governor made it clear that his opposition is to new taxes and to NEW FEES. As Coupal points out, this will foreshadow a host of vetoes during this legislative session as the Democrats love to pass fee increases left and right. Coupal’s piece ends with a warning, though. Which is that holding the line on taxation is very important, but that the big challenge ahead of the Governor is the reigning in of spending…. … Read More

A couple of weeks ago, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called together a group of leaders of taxpayer advocacy groups in his office in Sacramento. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold — for the Governor to restate his commitment to holding the line against any new taxes, and also to strategize about how to tackle the upcoming state budget negotiations. I asked FR friend Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, who was at that meeting, if he would put pen to paper (or is that fingers to keyboard?) and tell us all about that meeting. When reading his piece, featured today on the main page, I was especially pleased to hear that the Governor made it clear that his opposition is to new taxes and to NEW FEES. As Coupal points out, this will foreshadow a host of vetoes during this legislative session as the Democrats love to pass fee increases left and right. Coupal’s piece ends with a warning, though. Which is that holding the line on taxation is very important, but that the big challenge ahead of the Governor is the reigning in of spending…. … Read More

San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus scored a legal victory today in his campaign for County Assessor when Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Warner denied incumbent Assessor Don Williamson’s motion for a temporary restraining order against Postmus’ use of acampaign logo.

Williamson’s lawsuit alleged that Postmus’ logo (pictured right) implies that Postmus is the incumbent Assessor because it includes the name "Bill Postmus" and the words "County Assessor" below it in the logo graphic, without the words "Elect" or "For" included.

Ben Davidian, Postmus’ attorney and former Chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, argued that the Postmus campaign logo was created in accordance with standard business practices and design techniques used for decades in American political campaigns, and thatWilliamson’s motion was tantamount to asking the Court to design Postmus’… Read More