Last December, Rasmussen Reports polling showed that the Governator was down by a few points in one-on-one hypothetical match ups with Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. Now, a few weeks later, the same company is reporting that the race is neck and neck. I’ve reprinted some of their summary findings below, but you can read more, including survey crosstabs right here.

Nine days ago, I posted the Curiously Quiet SD County Board of Ed Vacancy. Why, I asked— with a January 27 deadline for applications looming and a big, beautiful website with all kinds of other news on it (bought with our public dollars) — the vacancy and the appointment process had not been posted for the public to easily see?

I also blasted the post to a pretty significant email list, including politicos, media types and the trustees at the Board of Education. Lots of response. No changes to the site, however.

It would seem that — Republican or Democrat — any board member wanting to look good in the eyes of the public and the media would be calling for complete and easy access to information as part of this process. Perhaps I need a question mark at the end of the last sentence.

At least now I know I’m not the only one doing the questioning. Marsha Sutton, the education writer for Voice… Read More

Everyone knows that Kevin McCarthy’s political machine includes the Abernathy’s and Western Political Research. What most people have forgotten is that ten years ago these very same people helped Willie Brown keep power by helping Republican puppets, Doris Allen and Brian Setenich. These consultants should be banned from party services not raking in money because they are connected to the GOP Miniority leader. See the whole post here.

Not thatMcCarthy is trying that hard to recruit candidates for a GOP Majority now. See my previous post here.… Read More

Now that we have the comment feature active, I will be posting an intro to all of our featured columns on the blog so that readers can comment…

FEES v. TAXES: MORE THAN AN ACADEMIC DEBATE by Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assocation Among tax experts and policy wonks, there has always been a debate about what constitutes a “fee” as opposed to a “tax.” The general public might have some vague notion of a difference between the two but, more times than not, they just don’t care. If a citizen pays a $10 “fee” for something, that $10 has left his or her wallet just as surely as if they had paid a $10 tax. … Read More

When Gavin Newsom was running for mayor, he was criticized by the left for being too pro-business. After his gay marriage stunt, you don’t hear the lefties criticize the mayor much…until this week. Newsom vetoed an anti-landlord bill sponsored by Supervisor Chris Daly last Friday afternoon, before leaving for an international trip. The bill would have required property owners to disclose evictions of disabled or elderly tenants to at showings and open houses. Newsom supported an amendment which would have required sellers to notify serious buyers that a disabled or elderly tenant was evicted in order to sell the property (which in itself is a silly law), but the Board refused to change the measure.

Newsom’s staff has said that he also will veto another Daly-sponsored bill which would require property owners to appear before the Planning Commission before being allowed to… Read More

HOUSE REPUBLICANS GET AN "F" – BUT THERE IS A CHANCE TO IMPROVE This morning, in the wee hours, I read a column from Sacramento Area Congressman Dan Lungren, in which he feels that there should be a new election for all of the GOP leadership, from Speaker on down. But from reading the first paragraph of his column, I’m not sure he wants to do this for the right reasons. You see, the second sentence says it all:

Lungren, who is ‘back’ in Congress, re-elected after being out of the House for over a decade, should have an outsider’s perspective – I guess… Read More

The City of Salinas received national attention last year for its decision to close municipal libraries due to a shortage in city funding and the subsequent “Measure V” campaign which raised the city’s sales tax half a cent. National figures and celebrities such as Hector Elizondo, George Lopez and others donated to the “Rally Salinas” campaign which raised over $500,000 in private funds to keep the libraries open until a public solution could be found. Mayor Anna Caballero received much of the credit for spearheading this effort and for “saving” the City of Salinas libraries.

A few weeks ago Mayor Caballero declared her intention to run for AD 28 setting up an interesting primary showdown with Watsonville Mayor Ana Ventura Phares. Although Caballero is well liked and has incredible name ID within the district, Ventura Phares has picked up some heavy endorsements including the UFW and a ton of Sacramento legislators including Cindy Montanez, Jackie Goldberg and Jenny Oropeza. … Read More

Some of the results of the Survey of San Diego County Voters conducted for the Marijuana Policy Project (January 3-4, 2006 500 likely voters +/- 4.38) conducted by Evans/McDonough. These are numbers for Supervisors in their own districts, not countywide:

Supervisor Cox (R): Strong Fav 13/Somewhat Fav 23/Somewhat Unfav 10/Strong Unfav 2/No Opinion 20/Never Heard 32

Supervisor Jacob (R): Strong Fav 26/Somewhat Fav 32/Somewhat Unfav 7/Strong Unfav 5/No Opinion 15/Never Heard 15

Supervisor Slater (R): Strong Fav 5/Somewhat Fav 22/Somewhat Unfav 10/Strong Unfav 6/No Opinion 24/Never Heard 34

Supervisor Roberts (R): Strong Fav 15/Somewhat Fav 28/Somewhat Unfav 24/Strong Unfav 10/No Opinion 18/Never Heard 4

Supervisor Horn (R): Strong Fav 11/Somewhat Fav 35/Somewhat Unfav 15/Strong Unfav 4/No Opinion 19/Never Heard 16

PLEASE NOTE: the number of voters surveyed in each Supervisorial District was 100, which increases the +/- considerably. The poll as a whole comes close to other polling I’ve seen recently, though. Term limits countywide came in 84% for 13% against, which should make folks in Sacramento who want to fix the term limit… Read More