The decision by Governor Schwarzenegger to oppose Proposition 82 shouldn’t surprise anyone. The fact that he distanced himself from the announcement by leaving it to a campaign spokeswoman to deliver the news shouldn’t be that surprising either. The only surprise is that it took so long.

Way back in 2005, Rob Reiner’s ballot initiative to raise taxes to pay for pre-school programs looked like a pretty sure bet to pass. Taxing the wealthy is a proven vote-getter (for ballot initiatives, not candidates, Mr. Angelides,) Everybody loves pre-school. And Reiner seemed to be on track to putting together a stem cell-ish coalition to fund and pass it. California’s business community leaders announced their opposition, a number of existing preschool providers warned of its harm to their existing programs, and policy analysts began to point out that the initiative would… Read More

Today, via his campaign spokesperson, Governor Schwarzenegger issued a simple but clear statement relative to Proposition 82 that will appear on the November ballot, and raises taxes in order to create a state-controlled pre-school program:

This is a great position to take, and hopefully the Governor will spend quite a bit of time publicly speaking out against this measure and raising funds to defeat it. The Governor’s opposition to tax increases is substantially more meaningful if he vigorously fights for this important position. The first step… Read More

While normal people are doing normal things, you are reading this political website, and two of our site contributors, Duana Dichiara and Adam Probolsky, are in the midst of the only real political drama going on in California right now (other than the ‘will Roach run in June’ situation in San Diego).

Yesterday’s race in the 35th State Senate District special election didn’t end in the early evening, or the late evening — for that matter it didn’t end this morning! Actually, as of right now, niether candidate has declared victory nor admitted defeat. Conservative Diane Harkey is less than 300 votes behind moderate GOP Assemblyman Tom Harman.

All of the action today was down at the Orange County Registrar of voters where the ‘defense’ (aka…Team Harman) was headed up by Dichiara and his business partner… Read More

Busby, Bilbray Headed to Runoff in California Special Election

By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff

Wednesday, April 12

ENCINITAS, Calif. — With only provisional and absentee ballots still to be counted, it appeared former Rep. Brian Bilbray (R) could be headed back to Congress later this spring — if he can get by Democrat Francine Busby in a June 6 runoff to replace the jailed and disgraced Duke Cunningham (R) in California’s 50th district.

As the candidates await the tally of those approximately 10,000 ballots, first-time campaigner Eric Roach — a multimillionaire who bankrolled his race to the tune of at least $2 million — was a close second to Bilbray among the Republicans with 14.46 percent of the vote to Bilbray’s 15.15 percent. The closest Republican… Read More

There are times when it is convenient that there is ‘breaking news’ to cover – and today would be one of them. I’m going to take a few minutes to talk about last night’s Special Elections in San Diego’s 50th Congressional District and in Orange County’s 35th State Senate District. When I say it is ‘convenient’ — that is because in the absence of covering these races, I would be left with nothing to talk about except the poor public policy and political choiceof Governor Schwarzenegger championing a solo-war against greenhouse gas emissions that will really only serve to make it that much more expensive to work and live in the Golden State.

A California-only solution is not going to solve anything. When one looks at issues like what the proper role in government should be in protecting and preserving the environment should be, and also take into account that any time the government comes in and messes with the marketplace, there is an economic cost involved (as well as a freedom-cost depending on the specific actions of government)… Sigh. We’ll be looking at this environmental… Read More

There are times when it is convenient that there is ‘breaking news’ to cover – and today would be one of them. I’m going to take a few minutes to talk about last night’s Special Elections in San Diego’s 50th Congressional District and in Orange County’s 35th State Senate District. When I say it is ‘convenient’ — that is because in the absence of covering these races, I would be left with nothing to talk about except the poor public policy and political choiceof Governor Schwarzenegger championing a solo-war against greenhouse gas emissions that will really only serve to make it that much more expensive to work and live in the Golden State.

A California-only solution is not going to solve anything. When one looks at issues like what the proper role in government should be in protecting and preserving the environment should be, and also take into account that any time the government comes in and messes with the marketplace, there is an economic cost involved (as well as a freedom-cost depending on the specific actions of government)… Sigh. We’ll be looking at this environmental… Read More

All you hear about are the special elections in San Diego and Orange County. Big Deal. LA County has elections too you know.

Several cities are holding elections Arcadia, the scandal ridden Vernon election. You’ll see that in the paper tomorrow. And the Big one is theLong Beach Primary. Beverly O’Neil the three time Mayor (once by write in) is retiring and the race to replace includes a cop that got beat up by a park ranger (see it here). The frontrunner by most accounts is Bob Foster formerly of Southern California Edision. He is endorsed by everybody and has over 500K in the bank.

His competition comes from teo Republicans 3rd District Councilman Frank Colonna and the councilman he replaced Doug Drummond. Both are GOPers with Drummond a little more conservative than Colonna.

There are a couple hot council seats as well. I’ll report on them after the hoopla down south is over.… Read More

When the Governor gave his "I say build it" State of the State address, at least one legislator in that chamber apparently took those words to heart.

Senator George Runner (R-Lancaster), by introducing Senate Bill 1812, proposes to streamline the planning and environmental review process for Highways like State Route 138, which runs through San Bernardino County’s High Desert communities of Phelan and Pinon Hills and on into Palmdale in Los Angeles County. That particular highway is among Southern California’s most picturesque and unfortunately dangerous routes for everyone from skiers to truckers. Read about it here and here.

The fact that SB 1812 has moved out of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee is big news for the hundreds of thousands of motorists who routinely brave the blind curves, dips and scarce passing lanes that characterize one of the state’s… Read More