Due to a supposed staff error, Governor Brown’s proposed state budget was released yesterday, instead of next Tuesday. I was actually shocked when I read that general fund spending in the new budget is $92.5 billion. This actually represents a roughly $6 billion or so increase in the size of the state’s general fund… Yes, Jerry Brown is proposing that state government increases in size.

Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, the Vice Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said this of the Governor’s proposal, “The Governor’s proposed budget increases spending by a whopping 7% based on his rosy assumptions. The Legislature and Governor need to get real about reforming this perpetually-flawed budget process by examining every department and expenditures of government to ensure that taxpayer priorities are being met. I suggest performance-based or a zero-based budget, with a hard spending cap and a reserve as a very good start.”

Nielsen also said, “The last thing we want to do is stomp on California’s recovering economy by raising taxes. If the state cannot live within a 7.7%… Read More

Well, there were plenty of naysayers who said it couldn’t, even shouldn’t, be done, but it now appears all but certain that the Senate redistricting referendum will qualify for the ballot and the Redistricting Commission’s gerrymandered Senate plan will be on hold for 2012 and hopefully for good. With 13 counties representing almost 30,000 signatures left to count, the random sample is showing us with 490,357 valid signatures, exceeding the 95% threshold that triggers a full count and only 14,403 signature short of the 100% mark. My projection is that we will maintain or exceed our current validity rate in the remaining counties and finish at 511,000 or more.

After the full count is completed the referendum will appear on the November ballot, where voters will have a choice between the Commission’s lines and those adopted by the Court for the 2012 cycle. Given recent revelations, with more… Read More

As all following California politics know, Governor Jerry Brown, unsuccessful at getting Republican votes to either raise taxes by a vote of the legislature or get GOP votes to place tax increases on the ballot, is now spearheading an effort to place a massive tax increase measure on ballot for this November — seeking to get voters to increase state income taxes on the wealthy, and hike the sales tax for everyone. This is a terrible idea. Newly elected Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff says it well, and succinctly, in a column today in the FlashReport: “Higher taxes are not the answer. There is a better way. New taxes will only cripple the economic recovery now underway in California.”

The Governor and his political allies will have to spend several million dollars to get this initiative qualified for the ballot, and so the main stream media is now starting to report on who is dropping in the big bucks to advance the tax increases. Of course you would expect the state’s public employee unions to be helping. But I was a little taken off… Read More

There are many, many fallacies in the sometimes explicit but often IMPLICIT reasons given for paying out great government pensions. Here’s my selection for the top ten bogus excuses: 1. “Public employees deserve high pensions because they work for low wages.” FALSE. Perhaps true at one time, but not any more. In many instances, today’s government employee is earning 10%-30% more than their true private sector counterparts — and with far better job guarantees. BTW, the bogus union salary comparisons usually cherry pick the private sector — including in their “surveys” only the largest and wealthiest private sector employers — along with monopoly public utilities. 2. “Government employees should not have to save for retirement.” … Read More

Tonight maybe as many as 130,000 Iowans will gather in 1,714 precincts to hear from the candidates from the GOP nominees (or in almost every case, their surrogates), to debate among themselves, and ultimately to cast secret ballots for their candidate of choice. As this takes place, I find myself as a Republican activist and (at times) leader for nearly a quarter-century wondering what has happened to my party. I joined the Republican Party because I am a conservative. I’m a Republican because mine is a party that believes in God, and in moral absolutes. I am a Republican because my party believes in the principle of natural law, and in the genius of our United States Constitution — a vision for a limited role for government in order to maximize liberty, freedom, risk and reward for all Americans. I am a Republican because to study the advance of “progressivism” and the increasing size and scope of government in this country, at every level, we are facing a crisis of epic proportions, and I believe the GOP can put forward candidates who will fight to push back against the expansion – in the same dogmatic, obsessive ways that liberals seek to… Read More

Since December 21, The Real Clear Politics average of all recent polls of Iowa Caucus goers shows a very tight race between Mitt Romney (22.8%) and Ron Paul (21.5%) with Rick Santorum (16.3%) trending up into third place. What to draw from this?

Over this period, Romney and Paul have been fairly consistent in their tracking with Romney’s high-to-low at 19-25 and Paul’s at 20-22 (other than one 19, he reads 22-25). While Newt Gingrich (13.7%) shows an uptick from the freefall of last week (12-16), Rick Santorum (16.3%) is steadily trending up from 15-18.

Romney, Santorum, and Paul all draw from different ideologies and geographies in the state. Romney, the establishment favorite, who has been portrayed as a moderate, will need to draw heavily from moderate east Iowa. Santorum, who is an evangelical, is being propelled by the social conservatives that dominate the northwest of the state. And Paul depends on more libertarian non-establishment conservatives and young activists and will benefit from a strong turnout from college towns like Ames.

In 2008, the RCP average going into the Primary was Huckabee 34.4%, Romney 25.2%, McCain 13%, and Paul… Read More

Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s felony theft prosecution by the San Francisco District Attorney for stealing over $2,000 in merchandize from the Union Square Neiman-Marcus store has seen two delays now in simply setting a date for a preliminary hearing. Some observers believe the delays in what would otherwise be a very routine shoplifting case are occurring because the Judge handling the case, Gerardo Sandoval, is himself a former partisan Democrat and elected official, having served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, is giving special privileges to fellow Democrat Hayashi so she can buy time to stay in the Assembly as long as possible. This is because if Hayashi is convicted of the shoplifting (which will surely happen in a quick trial if the case gets to a jury) she will have to resign from the Assembly, and her seat will become vacant (for a period until a special election is held) thus threatening the Democrats near super-majority hold on the lower house of the Legislature. Sandoval has also excused Hayashi from even having to personally attend the two hearings already held.

The Hayashi felony theft case is now scheduled to be in Sandoval’s… Read More

I have said for a number of years that the purpose of the political process is to persuade people to entrust you with power. Republicans have generated messaging to do just that in the past, and it led to a Republican revival of biblical proportions in the past. We are at such a crossroads now, and the lessons from the past are worth studying to see the future.

The time was 1976. Republicans had just undergone the complete collapse of the party following Watergate, and had substantially less than a two thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature. Jerry Brown has just been elected Governor, and the liberals were in full control of the state. It was a time of darkness for Republicans in California. In those days, members of the Assembly didn’t have to press their buttons for each vote. They could put books down on the button, and each time the bell rang, the vote would be recorded according to whichever button had the books on it. For Republicans, this meant they could put their books on the NO button, leave the Legislature and go fishing. Which is exactly what they did. It didn’t really matter, they lost every single vote there was. Republicans,… Read More