In further proof the this battle is shaping up for nowon geographical basis the Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs (ALADS) have endorsed Chris Lancaster. Their website still says they have endorsed drop out Harry Scolinos. But below you can see the letter.

The union that represents San Bernardino County Deputies has endorsed Anthony Adams for the 59th.

Both unions opposed Prop. 75 and tend to endorse Democrats. They have both endorsed Steve Westly for Governor. But in these safe GOP seats they do endorse Republicans. ALADS does have a slightly more GOP tilt with support of Strickland in the GOP primary for Controller.

FR Contributor Brad Mitzefelt has the latest previous column on this race. In that story are links to my latest previous postthat has links to all the other earlierposts. Knock yourself out by looking here.… Read More

THE WATER "FEE" IS A TAX. PERIOD. Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association penned a piece that appeared in the FlashReport, drawing the distinction between a tax and a fee. Given that he is an authorative source on the matter, let’s make no mistake about it. There is a currently a proposal on the table to increase the tax burden on Californians by several billion (yes, with a "B") a year. This proposal would place a mandatory fee of $3/month ($36/year) on every parcel of property in the state, and then these funds would go towards water-related infrastructure investments. But the key is that there is no nexus to an individual’s payment and a project nearby that directly benefits them. Instead, all of these billions of dollars collected locally will be shipped to Sacramento and spent there by politicians. If this isn’t a tax increase, I don’t know what is. This tax increase is in the fine print of a… Read More

THE WATER "FEE" IS A TAX. PERIOD. Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association penned a piece that appeared in the FlashReport, drawing the distinction between a tax and a fee. Given that he is an authorative source on the matter, let’s make no mistake about it. There is a currently a proposal on the table to increase the tax burden on Californians by several billion (yes, with a "B") a year. This proposal would place a mandatory fee of $3/month ($36/year) on every parcel of property in the state, and then these funds would go towards water-related infrastructure investments. But the key is that there is no nexus to an individual’s payment and a project nearby that directly benefits them. Instead, all of these billions of dollars collected locally will be shipped to Sacramento and spent there by politicians. If this isn’t a tax increase, I don’t know what is. … Read More

I don’t think Susan Kennedy is a Communist sympathizer. I don’t think she’s a spy for Gray Davis or Phil Angelides. I don’t know much about her politics, although it sounds like she’s somewhere to the left of most Republicans and somewhere to the right of most Democrats. Which, as most of the participants on this website have decided, is pretty much where her boss is.

But after reading Friday’s Los Angeles Times’ story on the payment Kennedy received from the Schwarzenegger campaign committee, I have an entirely different set of concerns than most of my fellow bloggers. My worry is less about ideology than it is about ethics. Or at least, the appearance of ethical questions in an administration that promised to clean up Sacramento when it came to power.

There’s all sorts of revisionist history about what elected Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first place. There are those who think it was his celebrity that pulled him into office, an opinion that not only drastically underestimates the intellectual capabilities of California voters but ignores the fact that Arnold’s campaign didn’t really catch fire until… Read More

The FlashReport started hearing a buzz yesterday that first-term Assemblyman Van Tran, who is now seeking the GOP nomination for the 34th State Senate seat being vacated by the term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn, had endorsed Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen to replace him in the Assembly.

The source of the rumors was a mailing that has gone out from Nguyen’s campaign inviting people to a February 9th fundraising event with special guest Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, on which Tran is listed at the top of the Host Committee.

Knowing how close Van is with both Nguyen and the other GOP candiate vying for his seat, businessman Jim Righeimer, I put a call into Van so that I could try to sort this out.

Van told me that, "Both Janet and Jim are friends of mine – long standing friends. Janet asked me to lend my name to be on the host committee [for this event] in early January, at least a couple of weeks before I made my announcement for State Senate, and before Jim Righeimer had let everyone… Read More

I recently read that our Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with Senater Trent Lott of Mississippi were introducing legislation aimed at getting rid of this process of Congressional ‘earmarking’ where individual Members of Congress insert their pet programs into spending bills. It was this process that allowed the discraced and soon-to-be-jailed former Congressman Duke Cunningham to slide contracts to the folks that padding him with millions in return.

I came across the analysis below from Human Events that really shows that Feinstein and Lott are trying to make the earmarking process more ‘transparent’ but are doing nothing to try and curb it, unlike two of their colleagues, John McCain and Tom Cobern.

If anyone knows if any California Members of Congress are serious about stopping this practice of earmarking, and are willing to talk about it — please have them contact me.

Here is the HE piece from their… Read More

GIVE ME A BREAK There is an article today in the Los Angeles Times injecting some controversy into the hiring of Susan Kennedy. It is easy to find the whole thing on the main page. I will say that I know Governor Schwarzenegger to be an honorable and ethical person, and so I think any implication of being ‘for sale’ is without merit.. I don’t know Susan Kennedy, though I am troubled with the central role that she played in the Gray Davis administration. Especially when you factor in her close friendship with uber-slick lobbyist/developer Darius Anderson, who was widely known to be the fundraiser-in-chief for the recalled and disgraced former Governor.

That said, if you look at the volume of contributions that come into a Gubernatorial-level campaign, the money comes from all over the place — and especially from interests that do business with or are regulated by the… Read More

GIVE ME A BREAK There is an article today in the Los Angeles Times injecting some controversy into the hiring of Susan Kennedy. It is easy to find the whole thing on the main page. I will say that I know Governor Schwarzenegger to be an honorable and ethical person, and so I think any implication of being ‘for sale’ is without merit.. I don’t know Susan Kennedy, though I am troubled with the central role that she played in the Gray Davis administration. Especially when you factor in her close friendship with uber-slick lobbyist/developer Darius Anderson, who was widely known to be the fundraiser-in-chief for the recalled and disgraced former Governor.

That said, if you look at the volume of contributions that come into a Gubernatorial-level campaign, the money comes from all over the place — and especially from interests that do business with or are regulated by the… Read More