When the November election gave the Democrats a supermajority in both houses of the legislature, press reports quickly focused on whether they would use this dominance to raise taxes. Trial balloons were floated, and the danger of tax increases has not passed, but those initial fears have so far proven unwarranted. The governor has engaged in some mostly responsible budgeting. I would make different choices in many respects – for example, our court system is being decimated and needs significant further funding. But some of the governor’s budget choices have been quite reasonable and he is proceeding on appropriately conservative assumptions.

Fortunately, the Democrats have not yet used their supermajority to spend wantonly. Unfortunately, though, spending money is only one of the things a legislature does. Another is the passing of even more laws to burden the public, and in that task, the supermajority has proven every bit as pernicious as Republicans feared right after the election.

Consider that, in just one week recently, two committees on which I serve passed the following… Read More

A little over a year ago (long before the election last year), I made the prediction that crime and tax rates would increase, and that Republicans should start simply campaigning on those two issues as quickly as possible. Since Republicans are in the minority and don’t have the governor’s office, the cacophony of events tend the drown out what small voice they have, and when crime and taxes started making headlines, having been consistent on the issues before there was a problem would pay off in rich political benefits. Good policy always makes for good politics.

Recently, Abel Maldonado started making an issue of crime. Whatever you may think of him, he should be lauded for this foresight. The Dems know it is going to be an issue, which is why they started attacking him as a racist. They want to strangle this political baby in the crib. My advice to Abel, do not fear. Show pictures of other criminals (of various ethnic backgrounds), released by Jerry Brown who have committed crimes (like the guy who killed four people in Northridge), but keep after the issue. It is only going to get worse (and, as further advice to Abel, figure out how to get right… Read More

As a result of his strong showing in yesterday’s special election in the 16th State Senate District in the Central Valley, conservative rancher Andy Vidak will soon be sworn in as the newest member of the California State Senate. Andy is a man of principle, courage and integrity, and will become a strong leader for Republicans in the State Capitol.

As much of a win as this is for Vidak and his campaign team, it is also a big boost for the California Republican Party, and its new Chairman, Jim Brulte. This was not a “safe” GOP seat — this was a highly contested seat. The State GOP put a large six figure IE into electing Vidak, which is now a pickup as the former occupant of the seat was a Democrat.

This certainly raises the stakes for 2014 — If Republicans can safely defend Senators Cannella and Vidak, and pick up the Republican leaning seat in Western and Central Orange County, they will surpass the 1/3 mark in the Senate, and Democrats will lose their super-majority (this math includes Republicans picking up what is a new “safe GOP” seat in the Inland Empire).

There are two write ups out already with more… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: Last week all of us involved with politics lost a member of our “family” with the passing of Steven Kinney. A friend, an advisor, and one of the country’s most accomplished political pollsters, Steve passed away last week after a battle with cancer. I will miss him greatly. I reached out to a mutual friend of Steve’s and mine – Dora Kingsley Vertenten – to ask if she would pen a eulogy of Steve. Steve is survived by his wife, Cynthia. Information on a memorial service to be held in early June can be found here. If you have some thoughts or memories of Steve, feel free to comment below if you are a registered Facebook user. – Jon Fleischman]

Steve Kinney was a good man, honest pollster and wonderful friend. He understood two key concepts increasingly rare in partisan politics today: protocol and respect for position. More important than his great interest and expertise in… Read More

Despite the fact that California these days is politically dominated by the axis of big government – public employee unions and radical left-wingers, there are still a lot of conservatives here in the Golden State. And we care about the future of our communities, our state, and our country. Conservatives are engaged in many ways, especially using social networking tools. One of those tools is Twitter. Over the last couple of months I have been working to compile a list of the Top 50 California Conservatives on Twitter. Between people I have been following and the overwhelming amount of input from our… Read More

On May 17th the Los Angeles Police Protective Leagues “Board of Directors” authored a post on their LAPPL blog entitled “Inventing the headline number,”attacking the research and the motives of California Public Policy Center. Here’s how the post began:

“The playbook is familiar now—gin up a study on public pensions and government debt to be released to media outlets with a headline-grabbing number shrieking doom for public finances. The latest exhibit is a propaganda piece tossed out to the media by the anti-public employees group California Public Policy Center (CPPC) purposely inflates pension debt.”

Despite claiming the CPPC study was mere propaganda, the LAPPL failed to convincingly refute any of its findings, including the estimate that California’s state and local government debt totals between $648 billion and $1.1 trillion, depending primarily on what assumptions one uses to discount future pension obligations. The “discount rate” used to estimate a present value for future retirement payments – already earned… Read More

Voters cast ballots for people, not for lists of policy positions. While a candidate’s positions on individual issues are important, voters look for signs of how the a person would use the power of government after the election, if he or she wins.

A candidate’s personal narrative is as influential, if not more so, than their party affiliation or the nuances of their philosophy. Rudy Giuliani was elected Mayor not because his party or philosophy was closest to his fellow New Yorkers in that heavily Democratic city, but rather because his personal qualifications and narrative proved more compelling than those of his rivals. The same is true of leaders including Governors Chris Christie (NJ) and Susana Martinez (NM).

The person is important.

The kind of leader a candidate proves to be on the campaign trail can provide valuable insight to how he or she will govern. It is the candidate who ultimately sets the tone within a campaign, and sends important signals with their attitude, demeanor, whom they hire, and the kind of direction they are given.

Think of a candidate you’ve met. Now, think of some of the people who were hired by that… Read More

The Caltrans Bay Bridge debacle is worse than just a case of embarrassment for government infrastructure projects. The bridge is unsafe, according to engineering experts across the country, after the discovery that a third of the of the 96 massive, high-strength steel rods, installed for seismic safety, cracked under pressure when the nuts affixed to the rods were tightened.

Under construction for more than a decade, the Bay Bridge project has not only taken much longer to build than planned, but cost overruns have escalated the total cost to build it to a whopping $6.4 billion. And that’s not the half of it.

According to CBS San Francisco, retired Bechtel metallurgist Yun Chung recently prepared an unsolicited 32-page report stating that Caltrans engineers “were ignorant to the threat of hydrogen embrittlement — a process in which high strength metals, such… Read More