Last week, long-time Sacramento Bee columnist penned a column Both Left And Right In California Want Automatons In Office where he throws down the gauntlet of criticism on those who oppose a bigger, fatter state government (he also throws down on the other extreme, but that is not the focus of this blog post).

The California Republican Party has been frequently – and rightfully – criticized for insisting that GOP politicians adhere to a very narrow set of supposed principles, such as always opposing any purported tax increase regardless of its merits.

That rigid mindset entertains no differences between a general sales tax increase, an increase in a specific user tax such as the one on gasoline or even closing a completely unjustified special interest tax loophole, and shuns the tax reform that California sorely… Read More

There are a lot of things messed up in America today. On this, there is pretty much universal agreement. We have no energy policy, no manufacturing policy and an antiquated tax code that is complicated and inefficient. We are facing crushing deficits and debt that will soon lead to a European-style collapse. The economy continues to be weak and fewer people are working today than over 3 years ago when Barack Obama was sworn in as president. So many people have become discouraged that the number of people working or trying to find work is the lowest percentage of the eligible workforce since back in the Jimmy Carter recession days. The critical housing market is stuck, gas prices are high and going higher and the costs of our health care system keep rising and reform is needed. The public’s confidence in Congress and the President is low, perhaps even at an all-time low, and there is little trust out there for major institutions, be they public or private. We are mired in a seemingly endless conflict in Afghanistan even as we face new and changing threats all around the world.

Makes you want to fill your bathtub with beer and go drown in… Read More

Camp Carl DeMaio must be doing a jig.

Earlier this week, the councilman signed highly-respected pollster John Nienstedt of Competitive Edge Research & Communication.

So far, the polling for the San Diego mayoral race ain’t been what most of us race watchers would consider legit.

This move signifies a tipping point in the race that will no doubt lead to some substantive research providing supporters, donors and voters alike a clearer view of the field.

The most recent poll, conducted by SurveyUSA from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 for KGTV, Channel 10, showed DeMaio in the top spot with 25 percent of the vote followed closely by long-time Democrat Congressman Bob Filner with 24 percent.

Trailing behind the pair were Republicans, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis with 14 percent and state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher at 13… Read More

My apologies — as FR readers know, I am loathe to post up press releases verbatim. That said, I am out the door and I wanted to pass this along right away. A longtime friend of mine Eric Linder, who has been a grassroots leader in conservative and Republican politics for a long time now (he’s the Vice Chairman of the County GOP), has decided to run for a seat in the state legislature (apparently newspaper articles about the dysfunction that prevails in our State Capitol have not dissuaded him. Eric is a great guy, and he’s going to be running in the 60th Assembly seat that is being left by Jeff Miller as he seeks a seat in the State Senate. The two GOP candidates who have been running have been very lackluster in their fundraising — and neither of them have any kind of track record in partisan politics that is as sterling and impressive as Eric’s. Below is Eric’s inaugural press release. He’s going to be a strong candidate — keep your eye on him. His website is ericlinder.com.

CORONA BUSINESS OWNER ERIC… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

Jerry Brown’s Medicaid Blues Democratic Governor Jerry Brown of California may finally understand how frustrated Republicans feel when they try to negotiate in good faith with President Obama.

Strapped with a $13 billion deficit last year, Mr. Brown sought to squeeze $1.6 billion of savings out of the state’s Medicaid program. Since more than half of the state’s Medicaid dollars come from the federal government, Mr. Brown had to request waivers from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to implement many of his cost-saving solutions. While Ms. Sebelius last year signed off on a 10% rate cut to providers, which was projected to save the state about $600 million, she drew a line in the sand on the governor’s request to charge Medicaid recipients a co-pay for drugs ($3) and doctor visits ($5).

The co-pays would save the state more than $300 million a year, but the Obama administration reasoned that they would deter recipients from seeking treatment and thus restrict health-care… Read More

March 1, 2012 will go down in history as one of the least productive days of my life. I woke up this morning to an e-mail alert from Politico proclaiming that Andrew Breitbart, age 43, had passed away from natural causes. I stared at this alert in disbelief. I didn’t want to believe it. I quickly went to one of the Breitbart websites — Big Government, I think. And there was a post from Larry Solov, Andrew’s everything guy, confirming that this totally unique persona in American politics had left us. Even seeing it up on Andrew’s site, I still didn’t want to believe it. I emailed Larry, hoping that perhaps someone had hacked the site, and Politico got their story from that. Nope, Larry confirmed it. I had lost a friend, a mentor, a colleague. The country had lost what was without a doubt it’s most impactful warrior in the fight against a left-wing culture in America that threatens our very existence. To say that one was friends with Andrew would be to be one of many — an incredibly warm, affable if somewhat intense fellow, he was easy to befriend and I can tell you that the more you invested that relationship, the… Read More

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com… Read More

Former Assemblyman George Plescia (R) today took out papers to seek the 39th Senate District seat, setting up what could be a classic matchup against Assemblyman Marty Block (D). I have a call into Plescia for a comment.

Here is some San Diego Rostra coverage of the seat and its registration numbers by Jim Sills.… Read More