[Editor’s Note: Diane Harkey’s campaign sent out this email yesterday, which we are reprinting.]

Dear Mark,

Why is a San Diego area politician getting involved in a real estate investor lawsuit in Orange County?

Do you do this by routine? Has your office been involved every time an investor lawsuit comes up?

NO. You got involved because you wanted to “score points” in your race for Board of Equalization. That’s why you are exploiting the Orange County real estate investor action involving my husband, Dan Harkey, and his former company.

So, you got involved. You met and strategized with the plaintiffs. You encouraged and helped develop their story. You sent your paid political consultant to sit in the proceedings – day by day – to take notes. You even created a website and briefed the press!

But, your plans were shattered when the plaintiffs and judge quickly dismissed me from the very lawsuit you were helping encourage. Most people recognized that naming me in the suit was ONLY a cheap political stunt. Apparently, you didn’t get that… Read More

Roll over, Cesar Chavez, here comes Silvia Lopez.

Silvia Lopez is a quiet, thoughtful 15-year Gerawan Farming employee, and the de facto leader of thousands of Central Valley farm workers who have been protesting for nearly a year to oust the United Farm Workers union from the farming company.

Seven hundred Gerawan farm workers took a day off without pay and descended on Sacramento Wednesday to attend a meeting at the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Then they walked to the State Capitol to meet Gov. Jerry Brown.

Six of the farm workers tried to ask Brown to intervene with the ALRB to allow them to vote on whether to keep or oust the UFW from Gerawan Farming. “Jerry Brown, we want an election at Gerawan Farming,” Lopez said, as she approached the governor’s office.

While waiting in the Capitol hallway outside, one of Brown’s employees poked her head out and asked, “Are… Read More

It’s no secret I’ve been highly critical of the Franchise Tax Board’s decision to assess five years and more than a hundred million dollars in retroactive taxes against California small businesses and start-up investors.

Thankfully this wrong was finally righted today with the Governor’s signature of Assembly Bill 1412.

AB 1412 is the product of rare bipartisan legislative cooperation. It will ensure that taxpayers who followed the law in good faith will not be taxed retroactively for doing so.

I commend all involved for their hard work in bringing about a fair and reasonable outcome for California taxpayers.

If you’d like to learn more about this issue, my letters urging action are available online: 2/5/13, 4/26/13,… Read More

Government Shutdown Day 4: This morning, with no let-up in sight on the part of the House, Senate or President Obama, here are some new factoids about the matters at hand…with only a little commentary added (-:

The House has now passed and sent 9 bills to the Senate that would either completely or partially re-open the government. Harry Reid has refused to let the Senate vote on a single one of them. Harry Reid has sent the House one single proposal in all that time. 57 House Democrats have joined every House Republican in voting for all or some of those 9 bills. That’s over one-quarter of all the House Democrats that have supported all or at least one of the Republican proposed solutions. Similar support from Senate Democrats would guarantee passage in the Senate. But, votes have not been allowed in the Senate on these bills. Speaking of Democratic support for Republican solutions, click HERE to view a chart that tracks party defections vote-by-vote on each funding bill before the … Read More

Today, California Common Sensereleased a report analyzing the California State Teachers’ Retirement System’s (CalSTRS) major $71 billion funding shortfall and the imminent risk it poses to California’s school district and overall operating budgets. The report found that the state Legislature – the only entity with the authority to adjust CalSTRS’s funding level – is primarily responsible for allowing the pension fund to descend into severely unfunded territory over the last decade.

Consequently, to regain financial stability, the pension fund now requires that school districts, state, and/or… Read More

One definition of the word freedom reads “exempt from external control, interference, regulation, etc.” Even the most progressive among us would agree that if a person were forced to give 100% of the fruits of their labor to the state or to anyone, this individual would not be free. What if it was 95% or 85% or just over half? Would that person be free?

Today, in California, the top marginal tax rates for state and federal taxes exceeds 50%. Yes, there are deductions, but there are also numerous other forms of taxation that eat away at our freedom. Payroll taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, car taxes, capital gains taxes, gas taxes, hotel taxes, transfer taxes, etc., the list goes on and on. Yet a further limiter of freedom is the time burden created by our inefficient system as Americans spend 6 billion hours per year dealing with the administrative nightmare created by our tax system.

One has to wonder, are we free from external control and interference? Are we giving up too much of our freedom?

Today I am proud to sign Americans For Tax Reform Taxpayer Protection Pledge. As a candidate for Congress in California’s 45th District I feel it is right… Read More

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Following on the heels of banning plastic bags and the sale of furs, the city of West Hollywood, California, enacted a new ordinance eliminating the use of fireplaces. The ordinance is being hailed as one of the great advances in in environmental law in the past century.

The ordinance, which becomes effective as of November 1, 2013, comes in time to eliminate the use of fireplaces during the impending winter season. Residents opposed to the new law said the killjoys in the city were particularly evil for banning the use of fireplaces just prior to the holiday season. They said chestnuts roasting on an open fire are the essence of the Christmas season, and the people outlawing the use were anti-religion.

The Mayor of West Hollywood, Abbe Land, indicated it was quite to the contrary — it is because of religion the ban was put in place. Mayor Land said the particulates released into the air from just one fireplace are as damaging as 40 tractor-trailer trucks to the environment. She said “We have allowed selfish people to destroy the air of our community for far too long. We see this as a beginning of a movement across America.”

The news has… Read More

Government Shutdown Day 3: The outcome of last night’s meeting at the White House was predictably poor. It appears that the president called in legislative leaders to tell them for the third time in 2 weeks that he refuses to negotiate or compromise on anything. This is akin to a husband or wife in the middle of a fight in which they aren’t speaking to each other, calling their spouse into the living room to exclaim to them, “I am not and will not be speaking with you.” And, then promptly dismissing them. It is counterproductive.

Back in March, when the “Sequester” first went into effect, you may remember that the president intentionally tried to create as much disruption about sequestration as possible in order to generate public pressure against it. One of his more extreme actions was to furlough meat inspectors so that no meat could legally be sold in the country, while, at the same time, not laying-off a single economist within the Department of Agriculture (note: this department has more economists than any organization on planet earth.) The public saw through this blatant abuse of power, and he was forced to put the meat… Read More