I don’t really know Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Jesse Petrilla. Yet I think every single person that reads this blog should stand with him against the majority on his City Council.

See related Jim Lacy post here.

In 2003 I was the Vice-Mayor of Woodland and was called to active duty in the Marine Corps. When I left we had no idea how long I would be gone. Could have been months or even years. We really did not know.

The people on the City Council chose not to replace me but since my term of deployment was not clear I would have understood if they did. Petrilla will be gone for just three months.

Here is the problem for the service member that is publicly reported to be deployed. To most people in the public it says "military service is an honorable thing". To some it says that "the family of the service member is vulnerable". Not cool. I am sure that Councilman Petrilla is happy to do this training but has concerns about his wife. These are… Read More

I’m a fan of Steve Harmon, who is a political reporter for the Bay Area News Group (Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, etc.) — generally I find him to be a solid reporter, and I enjoy reading his stories.

That said, Steve and I have a running disagreement that centers around whether the 2009 budget deal that saw six Republican legislators vote to enact the largest tax increase in the history of any state (sales, income and car taxes, as well as an axing of a chunk of the child tax credit) caused those six GOPers to pay a steep political price. These same six Republicans also voted to create a trigger whereby if voters passed Proposition 1A in an ensuing special election, these same taxes which had been enacted for two years would have their sunset date extended two years further out. California voters rejected 1A by nearly a two-to-one margin thus those taxes were not extended.

In a piece that Harman had published over the weekend (for which, alas, I was not called for a quote), he… Read More

I suggest you go here.

You must be doing something right, especially if the Courage Campaign is attacking you… San Diego GOP Chairman Tony Krvaric pens a detailed letter to the Union-Trib, in defense of Congressman Darrell Issa. Some excerpts:

“The (Courage Campaign) missive attacked Issa for having the audacity to reach out to job creators about impediments to job creation. Mind you, this is the exact same thing the Obama administration is doing. If you go to oversight.house.gov, you will see that all of the responses are available in a downloadable and searchable PDF. Of course, when the administration solicited the opinions of the Business Roundtable, held a CEO summit, hired a new chief of staff to build better relationships with private industry and ordered a governmentwide review of regulatory barriers to job creation, the Courage Campaign was noticeably mute…… Read More

I have to admit, I was a little mystified by Governor Brown’s comments this last week. He appeared in front of the budget committees (a little outside the norm, to be sure) to say that, if those tax increases were not on the ballot, and if they did not pass, he would only sign a budget with $25 billion in cuts, or at least that is what the paper reported he said.

The whole event was reported as a threat to Republicans, vote for my tax increase initiative or I’ll cut the budget by $25 billion.

Huh?

And the problem with that is……what? Let’s see, I’m a Republican legislator, and the Governor has given me the choice of a vote that angers all of my supporters, friends, and most Republican constituency groups or a vote that angers most government unions, left wing activists, and the Democrats in the Legislature. Is there a problem with this choice? What is it? Why would the Governor pose such a challenge to Republicans? There really is no reason now to vote to put the taxes on the ballot. Don’t throw me in that briar patch Governor. I really don’t know what to do… Read More

It is being reported over at the Los Angeles Times website that the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is going to endorse Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget, including his call for the largest tax increase in the history of this (or any state) — hammering voters for the next five years with higher income, sales and car taxes, and a reduction in the child tax credit.

The response from the greater political community to this "stunning" (I say sarcastically) move by the LA Chamber should be a collective yawn — it’s just not significant.

In 2009 when these very same "temporary taxes" on income, sales and cars were included as part of that year’s terrible budget deal, this very same Chamber of Commerce (and the State Chamber of Commerce as well) weighed in — supporting these… Read More

Well, it didn’t take long for the politics of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s patriotic showdown against the public employee unions in that state to become injected into the politics of a local Assembly campaign here in California. I just got the following release from the Beth Gaines for Assembly campaign (if I get a response to it from the John Allard campaign, we’ll let you know). Oh yes, this just goes towards rule #23 of campaigns for partisan office — being a local elected official can do nothing but hurt you in your quest for higher office.

The release from the Gaines Campaign…

John Allard is Roseville’s anti-Scott Walker in AD 4 ROSEVILLE, CA — While Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other Republican Governors around the country are courageously taking on public employee unions in his state in order to balance the state budget, State Assembly candidate John Allard is reaping the rewards of years of… Read More

President Obama could be a constructive part of trying to solve America’s debt problem. But, he has chosen not to participate. Here is my theory as to why: In his first 2 years, the President showed his true colors – enormous increases in spending and deficits and government intrusion through the stimulus plan; ObamaCare as a move towards socialized medicine; and national energy taxes in furtherance of a radical environmental agenda, to just name a few of his way left-of-center initiatives. And, although he won’t admit it publicly, I believe that he understands that the "shellacking" (his word not mine) that his party took in last November’s elections was the result of the public’s disapproval of his policies and his agenda. This is, after all, a center-right country. So now, as his re-election bid approaches, he needs voters to forget what he really believes and what he really wants to do. Since he can’t bring himself, as President Clinton did, to adopt a centrist or center-right agenda, he has chosen to simply do and propose nothing of substance. His State of the Union speech laid out… Read More