Sometime very soon, Randy "Duke" Cunningham will receive his sentence from the judge. The maximum penalty is 10 years in prison. Frankly, a truly remorseful Duke Cunningham should just accept the judgment of the court, and serve the time he is given.

But even now, after everything he has admitted to doing, he has his lawyers trying to lesson his sentence, to shave as much as 40% off of the decade behind bars that is his due. From the San Diego U-T:

Today’s A1, above the fold Fresno Beestory on Fresno City Police Chief Jerry Dyer potentially entering the County Sheriff’s race is a bombshell and will no doubt change the dynamics of the race. According to the Bee, Dyer is seeking a ruling from the State Attorney General’s office to find out whether he can can serve simultaneously as Police Chief and Sheriff. Should he receive a favorable ruling, he’s probably in the race and most likely the presumed front runner. The issue? Consolidation of services between the Sheriff’s office and Fresno PD. It’s an issue that has been talked about to death, but as Police Chief and candidate for Sheriff, Dyer could make it happen. He is very visible and respected in the local area.

Declared candidates with some strength behind them areSheriff’s Captain Colleen Mestas, who seems to have good community support and "under the radar" support from Congressman Radanovich’s operation; Clovis City Mayor and Clovis PD Captain Jose Flores, a recent Republican… Read More

The San Diego Union Tribune has just announced that ex-Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been sentenced to a term of 8 years and 4 months in prison. He is taken into custody, and ordered to pay $1.8,000,000.00 in restitution.

Read more about it here: SD U-T article.

* Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Dunmoyer (pictured), attended the meeting of the California Republican Lawyers Association last weekend at the State GOP confab in San Jose. Dunmoyer spent over a half hour talking to the group, and to its leaders, both publicly and privately. He made it clear that the Governor’s administration would like to appoint more Republicans, and specifically would like to work with the CRLA towards that goal. He said that he looked forward to working with CRLA to set up a specific process to engage them in the process of making suggestions for potential nominees, and would work with the group to get them information ahead-of-time on locations of vacancies. In response to this, the (very excited) CRLA members, according to their Los Angeles County Chairman Adam Abrahms, have already set up a new program, forming their own "Mini-JENY" Commission – aimed at being able to give the administration the names of Republicans to consider for… Read More

In recent days, Medical Marijuana supporters and former Assemblyman Bruce Thompson have come out in support of term limits for the SD County Board of Supervisors. Although this may seemingly put the conservative Thompson in strange company,it’s pretty clearthere appears to be no connection between the two … other than a shared dislike for incumbent Sups, or perhaps one incumbent Sup … in Thompson’s case.

Thompson’s campaign against Supervisor Bill Horn (pictured here with a mic, not a bong), rich with endorsements but apparently strapped for cash against the Horn war-chest, is simply tossing a needed issue into the public fray that Horn will either have to ignore or be hard pressed to ‘splain his position on.Here’s most of the Thompson release:

Fallbrook – 5th District Supervisor candidate Bruce Thompson formally announced today that as a County Supervisor he would immediately introduce a motion to adopt term limits for the… Read More

Eons ago I asked if Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca could be beat and promised to revisit the issue. See it here.

Since that time Baca’s run jail system has seen a week worth of riots and now they have spread to the youth facilities. See a sample here.

Baca has never been popular among most Republicans. While he nominally a registered Republican, he supports Democrats all the time, likes grabbing guns and sponsored a tax increase that failed last year.

His administration has bungled more than just the jail riots, there have been escapes and killings of witnesses while in Sheriff custody. There are whispers of corruption and clearly mismanagement is a big issue. Deputies are leaving. The early release progarms is a tragedy. Some LA papers may want Baca gone as well.

Usually, that is bad news for an… Read More

[Editor’s note: Probolsky, a regular contributor to this page, is the president of Probolsky Research, a prominent and respected political polling firm. – Flash] The Governor makes me proud every once in a while. Like a father that cries while spanking his son, it pains me to criticize the Governor when he all to often does something that upsets my conservative, limited government, pro-border security sensibilities.

But today’s Field Poll demonstrates a phenomenon that I have always claimed existed. That is that this governor will always, in the final stretch, win re-election. You can never count him out. He will raise the money he needs and his ability to develop a personal connection with the voters means he will win enough of them over to put him over the top.

Today’s Field Poll release shows the Governor about even with his Dem rivals Angelides… Read More

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown wants to be California’s next top cop. Yet, after two terms in office, Brown has not done much to fundamentally change Oakland’s crime problems. Today, he finally announced that he was putting 115 more cops on the streets after a rash of violent crime, which City Council President and mayoral candidate Ignacio de la Fuente calls a “crisis.” (We have already ha… Read More