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Recently conservative State Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries announced that he will be running for his local seat on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in 2012. This, of course, was not welcome news for the longtime incumbent of that office, Supervisor Bob Buster, who has announced his intention to seek election yet again to the office he has held since 1992.

There will be a number of key issues on which Buster and Jeffries disagree, but it would appear that one of the most significant is going to be the question of whether taxes are too high or too low. Yesterday Buster voted with a majority of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors (Benoit and Stone voting no) to endorse Governor Brown’s local government realignment plan, which is, of course, predicated on the voters of California passing the… Read More

Straight out of the "If you didn’t see it you wouldn’t believe it" files — ace political reporter Carla Maranucci has a blog post up over at the San Francisco Chronicle website with UNBELIEVABLE video from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer where she takes a couple of minutes to DEFEND President Obama’s use of the military to instigate and maintain a "no fly zone" over Libya.

Before you click through the link below to Marinucci’s post, I encourage you to take one painful minute and watch this video of Boxer speaking at an anti-war rally.

Link to Marinucci’s piece with video of Boxer supporting the U.S. military presence in Libya.

In case you might find it hand, here is a link to the definition of the world hypocrite.… Read More

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In redistricting some districts draw themselves. The population and geography just work out that way.

Consider the City of Sacramento. The incorporated area is 814 people more than the ideal population for an Assembly District.

This district would place two newly elected Members of the Assembly together in the same district. Assemblyman Richard Pan and Assemblyman Roger Dickinson both live in the incorporated city so one would have to move or they would have to run against each other in this Democrat controlled district.

The other thing that this would do is pack most of the solidly Democrat areas into one district. The other two districts that are likely to come from the remainder of Sacramento would at least be competitive for Republicans.

I plan on publishing a number of maps in the coming weeks but this is the first one.… Read More

Haven’t we see this movie before? The anti-hero makes an unacceptable take it or leave it proposition to the heroes. Being nice people they politely say No. The chorus aka the media chimes in declaring that No is not an answer. So the heroes say how about an idea that lets the voters decide if taxes should go up or should go down? True democracy at its finest where the people decide their own fate. But the anti-hero rejects this proposal and while the chorus declares him wonderful.

In the next scene the chorus declares our heroes to be inflexible, anti-democratic, not worthy of their paychecks somehow this pricks them enough to make them take the risk of bargaining with the anti-hero. Lets trade an election on taxes for pension reform? No. For spending limit reform? No. For environmental review reform? No For regulatory reform? No. After each rejection the chorus declares the anti-hero to be unbelievably flexible and our heroes to be terribly naive. How dare you make a pledge to your constituents and now refuse to ignore it!

After weeks of alternate romancing and threatening the anti-hero… Read More

If there is at least one good thing that has come out of the Governor’s bargaining with the Legislature over tax and budget issues, it is Jerry Brown’s call for closing down the redevelopment agency scam that has allowed tax-and-spend Councilmembers and City Managers in local cities like pristine Mission Viejo to declare themselves ‘blighted communities" and then setup new taxing and spending authority to build corporate welfare edifices such as shopping centers anchored by up-scale stores like Williams-Sonoma and Nordstrom’s. It just doesn’t make economic sense for taxpayers, especially most taxpayers, who shop at WalMart, not Restoration Hardware.

Republican Assemblyman Chris Norby is a fighter against the redevelopment scam, having countered the policy on the Fullerton City Council, as a County Supervisor, and now in the Legislature. He is willing to be one of the just two votes the Governor needs to knock out this bad policy and save our budget millions in useless tax and spending authority.

The… Read More

After 18 years as a CRP delegate and Executive Committee member, two terms as CRP Vice Chairman Central, a term as CRP Treasurer and the past 4 years on the CRP Rules Committee, I’ll have to admit, many CRP convention agendasdon’t inspire me to attend. In fact, if there is nothing interesting going on, in many cases I no longer attend conventions.But because the Party was considering, through the Rules Committee, a way to endorse candidates and select nominees in a post Prop 14 era, I thought I would make the trek to Sacramento to weigh in and be a part of the process this past weekend. My mission: make sure any plan passing the Rules Committee included no special protection for incumbent legislators.

I left Fresno Friday morning asa strong supporter of the Nehring plan. Here is the language I liked: (K) DISTRICTS WITH A REPUBLICAN INCUMBENT… Read More