Today, voters in the 36th Congressional District go to the polls to replace Jane Harman.

The district is Democratic, but contains areas the GOP can poll strongly in. Two years ago, the idea would have been for Republicans to recruits a strong candidate and hope for a bloody Democratic primary that nominates a far left candidate. Then hope for some lightning to strike.

The GOP field is filled with several quality candidates. Mike Webb is a City Prosecutor, Mike Gin is mayor, Kit Bobko is a councilman and so far the biggest spender is Craig Huey a successful conservative. Then came Proposition 14.

Proposition 14’s passage means that should candidates get under 50% the top two REGARDLESS of party go on to the “general” election. The last time the state had an open primary that allowed voters to choose candidates from other parties, the voters in open seats went where the action was or in other words where the money was spent. Then all parties that fielded candidates had a spot in the run-off.

In this seat, despite Huey’s spending that would mean a run-off between Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Democratic… Read More

Former Tennessee United States Senator Fred Thompson joined National Popular Vote campaign as Co-Chairman. He joins former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and former Iowa Governor Chet Culver. I don’t blame him — Tennessee is another state that is basically a “fly over” when it comes to Presidential races. On second thought, I guess that’s a bit better than being flown over and being treated as an endless cash register. That’s our role here in California.… Read More

Treasurer Bill Lockyer caused waves last month when he suggested that given Republican lawmakers’ opposition to higher taxes, their districts should bear the brunt of spending cuts. He said, “The people who want less government ought to be at the front of that line to get less government.”

Senate Democrat Leader Darrell Steinberg expressed openness to the idea, saying, “You don’t want to pay for government, well then, you get less of it.” He added that any district-targeted cuts should not hurt “kids or the vulnerable” but instead be limited to “convenience services that affect adults.”

Outrage to the proposal—appropriately so—came fast and furious.

Senate Vice-Chair Bob Huff said the proposal was “just nuts.”

Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation compared the idea to the strong arm tactics of an organized crime protection racket. He also suggested it might violate the equal protection guarantees found in both our state and federal constitutions.

Even the Los Angeles Times called the plan “ham-fisted and wrong.”

Mr.… Read More

Overtaxed Californians will find little to cheer in the Governor’s revised budget proposal.

Despite the Governor’s concession to postpone higher income taxes for a year, he continues to push for legislative approval of higher sales taxes and car taxes this year.

And although the Governor dropped his effort to abolish enterprise zones—and the jobs they create—he continues to miss the big picture: Californians need jobs, not higher taxes.

Our best hope for new revenues isn’t higher taxes, but new jobs fueled by a recovering economy. Unfortunately, the Governor has yet to truly lift a finger in the fight for California jobs.… Read More

GOP Leadership responds to Governor Jerry Brown’s May Revision of his Proposed Budget…

Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton and Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Bob Huff (jointly) “Senate Republicans believe Governor Brown is moving in the right direction by making education and law enforcement funding a top priority. We also applaud the governor for embracing Republican proposals of paying down state debt and providing some job-creation incentives.

But the May Revise goes too far on taxes and not far enough on reforms.

Rather than curbing government spending, the governor’s revised budget still sets the state on a course of excessive spending growth in the future – spending that relies on tax increases.

With $6.6 billion in new revenues, Republicans are right – we don’t need, and it’s ridiculous to… Read More

It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that Governor Brown today renewed his call to smack working Californians and their families with increases in the state’s income, sales and car taxes (with a delay of implementation of the higher income taxes until next year). Fortunately I believe that the Governor’s request in this regard, both to place these taxes on a special election ballot, and his further request to actually vote to implement new taxes on sales and car taxes starting July 1st, are DOA with legislative Republicans.

Look, every Republican legislator to whom I have spoken is painfully aware of the difficulties that present themselves when there is a significant scarcity of resources to fund state government services and operations. But they also will point out that the recession is not just taking place inside of state government, but that the people of this state are going through extremely difficult economic times. Right now, the top priority of legislative Republicans is doing everything possible to spur on private sector job creation — which is largely about trying to get state government out of the way. Clearly increasing… Read More

Housing Finance Reform: Housing is an enormous sector of our economy. We never go into recession without housing leading us in. And, we never come out without housing recovering. Arguably, part of the reason that our current economic recovery is so tepid is because the housing recovery is very weak. When you consider the construction of new houses, the sales of existing houses, the construction and remodel and renting of apartments, the home improvement industry and so forth, it represents a tremendous amount of employment, economic activity and is fundamental to a standard of living. And, none of it moves without adequate financing. Hardly anyone buys, builds or improves a house or apartment paying cash. Pretty much everyone needs to borrow some money.

The method under which most people borrowed that money during the last 70 years was through the assistance of the “government sponsored enterprises”, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And, it worked pretty well for most of those 70 years. But, as we all well know, both enterprises failed rather spectacularly in 2008 and were a major component of the economic crash that year. The… Read More

This week, the California State Assembly will be voting on legislation to enter California into an interstate compact that would allow the state to participate in a change in how it would award its electoral votes. Rather than the current winner-take-all system which does not exist in the Constitution, California would agree to award its 55 votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

Four times in our nation’s history, the winner of the national popular vote has not become President, and in fact, a switch of just 60,000 votes in Ohio in 2004 would’ve elected John Kerry as president – even as George W. Bush had 3 million more votes.

As a lifelong conservative activist and professional political consultant, I strongly support National Popular Vote. It is good for Republicans, it is good for conservatives, it is good for California, and it is good for America. Many conservative leaders including former California Senator Ray Haynes and former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson – an accomplished constitutional attorney, have also endorsed the compact. Republican leaders such as former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and former Utah… Read More