Some think Orange County is undergoing a Pringle-ization. SeeFR’s Matt Cunningham’s post here.It must apply to everywhere except the jury that said the Anaheim Angels can now be called the Los Angels Angeles or the LA A of Alegally. See article here.… Read More

In a runoff election for the mayor’s office in San Bernardino County’s seat of government and largest city, voters yesterday overwhelmingly chose Superior Court Judge Pat Morris, a Democrat, to replace Democrat Mayor Judith Valles, who opted not to stand for a third term,tolead the troubled City of San Bernardino for the next four years. Morris (pictured left) beat his opponent, elected City Attorney Jim Penman, an Independent, by a 63- to 37-percent margin in an election that saw only 21 percent of voters casting ballots.

Mayor-elect Morris will inherit the mayor’s office as the City of San Bernardino continues to grapple with a crime rate that far exceeds those of surrounding communities. During the weekend of February 4-5, violence claimed three lives in a six-hour period. Morris topped the five-candidate field November 8 in the first round of balloting with 43.7 percent of the vote in the non-partisan contest. Runner-up City Attorney Penman claimed 27 percent. Councilman Chas Kelley, though… Read More

There has been speculation on various websites, and in huddled water-cooler conversation about whether Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will be running for Congress this year, and if he does run, who would replace him, presuming that it wouldn’t be practical to campaign for Congress and toil statewide for Assembly Republicans. I haven’t spoken with Kevin about this yet (he’s hosting a retreat for his colleagues, so I’ll call him on this when that is over). But I think he has made it clear that he has an interest in running for Congress. So this debate is less centered around what will Kevin do, and is more about what will Bill Thomas do? Thomas, who has been representing the Kern County area in Congress for decades, is now 65 and was rumored to be strongly considering retirement this year. Thomas is the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee (a position he used last year to earmark a massive amount of money for his district last year,… Read More

There has been speculation on various websites, and in huddled water-cooler conversation about whether Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy will be running for Congress this year, and if he does run, who would replace him, presuming that it wouldn’t be practical to campaign for Congress and toil statewide for Assembly Republicans. I haven’t spoken with Kevin about this yet (he’s hosting a retreat for his colleagues, so I’ll call him on this when that is over). But I think he has made it clear that he has an interest in running for Congress. So this debate is less centered around what will Kevin do, and is more about what will Bill Thomas do? Thomas, who has been representing the Kern County area in Congress for decades, is now 65 and was rumored to be strongly considering retirement this year. Thomas is the Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee (a position he used last year to earmark a massive amount of money for his district last year,… Read More

Yesterday the Governor made a few more key appointments that are worthy of being highlighted — two Republicans and a Democrat. Especially notable is first appointment listed below – that of Nicole Rice as a Deputy Appointments Secretary. The FR has heard great things about Rice, and, of course, these positions in the Appointments Unit have a lot of sway over many other future appointees into the administration.

Nicole Rice, 34, of Sacramento, has been appointed deputy appointments secretary for the Office of the Governor. Since 2004, she has served as public affairs representative for Southern California Edison. Prior to that, Rice was a legislative advocate for The Advocacy Group, now known as Strategic Council, from 2002 to 2004. She served as a consultant to the Assembly Republican Caucus from 2000 to 2002. Rice is a… Read More

At the direction of the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee, and following in the footsteps of the Santa Cruz City Council, the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors is poised to pass a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. Read the Matier-Ross column on this here or read the resolution for yourself by clicking here (Item #44).

Left-wing supervisor Chris Daly cheerfully told the Chronicle that he was “just being a good Democrat” by introducing the resolution. Look for other liberal cities to follow suit (the city council of … Read More

I want to give a FlashReport ‘shout-out’ to my newly elected Congressman John Campbell. Campbell won the recent special election in the 47th District in Orange County. He replaced long-time Representative Chris Cox, who was tapped by the President as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Campbell will be a great Congressman, and he is off to a running start with the announcement that he has been appointed, as a freshman, to two key House Committees – the Budget Committee and the Financial Services Committee (and also to the lesser heralded Veterans’ Affairs Committee).

Of course, our first counsel to the newly minted Congressman would be to use his position on the budget committee to ferret our earmarks, pork projects, and seek to REDUCE entitlement spending, and shrink the size of the federal budget, returning control ($$$) back to the people. Well, this is preaching to the choir with Campbell. He’s a great conservative!… Read More

The CATO Institute seeks to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets and peace. Toward that goal, the Institute strives to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, concerned lay public in questions of policy and the proper role of government.

As CATO’s Director of Tax Policy Studies, Chris Edwards is a top expert on federal and state/local tax and budget issues. Edwards has penned a column entitled, "Busting the State Tax-Revenue Boom."

His piece is centered around the fact that when times are good, and state revenues are on the rise, state budgets grow. But then it becomes increasingly difficult for state’s to… Read More