California is a very hard state in which to elect a Republican to statewide office. And by that, I mean ANY Republican. With occasional exceptions, we have seen Republicans of all stripes – conservative, moderate, liberal – lose at the polls to the most outrageously socialist Democrats. I can throw out Tom Campbell, Bill Jones, Matt Fong and Bruce Herschensohn (pictured) as examples of GOPers of all stripes who have lost – and these are just nominees for the United States Senate. We can debate the reasons for the losses, but I am just trying to illustrate that electing a Republican in California is a challenge. The fact that we have a Republican Governor in California is a great thing, and I don’t have to remind you of the convergence of amazing things that all took place to achieve this… Read More

Yesterday, the President of the United States transmitted to the United States Senate the nomination of Sandra Segal Ikuta to serve as a Judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Since January of 2004, Ikuta has been serving as a member of the Schwarzenegger Administration, as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel to the California Resources Agency.

Prior to being tapped by the Governor, Ikuta had been an attorney in the Los Angeles office of the prominent law firm of O’Melvany & Myers. In the past she had clerked for former United States Supreme Court Justice Sanda Day O’Conner, as well as for Judge Alex Kozinski on the 9th Circuit Court.

Ikuta is a Republican, and specializes in environmental law.… Read More

The nucleus of Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election team is coming together. Here are some of the folks that are already (or are about to be) onboard to run the day-to-day operations of the re-elect, as confirmed by a source on the Governor’s re-election campaign:

As we have reported before, the Campaign Manager is Steve Schmidt. Schmidt comes back to California (where he worked on the Matt Fong campaign, among other efforts) straight from Washington, D.C., where he has been working closely with Vice President Dick Cheney. Most recently, Schmidt was the WH "jockey" in getting Justice Sam Alito through the Senate confirmation process. Also in major role with the campaign is strategist Matthew Dowd. Dowd has been a senior advisor to President Bush, and … Read More

Back by popular demand, we continue with the OC Power Brokers Series.

This time, Media.

What makes an OC Power Broker? Well it is a little different for a member of the media than for the previous groups (lawyers, and parts one and two). For a journalist it means: 1) they have wide spread relationships with people in government, politics, business and community, 2) they can be trusted implicitly, if you have a tip that can’t look like it came from you or if they call for background, you can be sure “off the record” has meaning with them, 3) they have the juice to get something published, they can stand up to… Read More

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was "rebuffed" in his attempt toinstall former Assemblyman Richard Katz as head honcho of the powerful MWD. See the article hereand see my previous post with other links here..Look for him to use his MWD appointments and power to influence state water policy anyways.… Read More

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

Yes, that’sright the Governor has appointed another Republican to the Los Angeles Superior Court. He also appointed a deputy DA who is decline to state. See the press relese here.Some newer readers may wonder why this is such a news item. These appointments makethe unofficialscore for judges 17 Dems, 9 Republicans and two decline to state types. See my previous post here.I suppose this is considered progress, but why do Republicans have to beg a Republican Governor to appoint Republicans?… 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