Californians got to see the two top candidates for governor–Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown–debate the issues tonight. Televised statewide, the event gave voters achance to see both candidates in action and learn more about the differences between the two.

It was one of the better debates this state has seen in recent years. I believe that is because both candidates are genuinely decent people who respect the voters and the democratic process. They both clearly have a strong desire to improve the state’s economy and budget situation.But their approaches are vastly different.For those of us who see the economy, budget reform and improved education as our top issues, Whitman clearly is the stronger candidate.

Tonight at 6pm is the first (and arguably most important) debate between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown. You can watch it online here.

I will be live-tweeting throughout the event here.… Read More

The Los Angeles Times and the University of Southern California team up to conduct and present a regular survey of voters. This endeavor by one of California’s major newspapers, partnered with one of the state’s premiere private Universities, is a relative newcomer to this endeavor — with only a few surveys having been released. Other statewide polls conducted by organizations such as Field and the PPIC have been at this much longer. Over the weekend and into this week the latest LAT/USC poll results are being released — and to say that the results released thus far have been controversial would be a vast understatement…

Let me hit the "rewind" button just a bit. Last week the latest results from a Field poll were released. For the sake of brevity, let’s point out that Field shows the Gubernatorial race at a dead heat, with both Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman currently holding 41% of the vote, with the remained undecided. In the U.S. Senate race, Field has incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer at 47% of the vote and Carly Fiorina at 41%.

OK, now fast forward to this past weekend, and the… Read More

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

I’m on the road today (I’m actually in San Francisco where I am about to joust with Democratic consultant Garry South in front of execs with the Bay Area Council) — but I wanted to make sure that our site readers who do not follow our twitter feed that today Meg Whitman staked out her formal positions on the November ballot measures.

Of particular and unfortunate note was Whitman’s opposition to Proposition 23, the measure which would suspend the former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s greenhouse gas emission reduction mandates until California has recovered from this recession. (AB 32 was put on post-partisan Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk without any Republican votes.)

If you need a reminder of the reasons why Prop. 23 needs to pass and why the very underpinnings of AB 32 are counter to the very philosophy and world view of the Republican Party, you can see that… Read More

Emotion regarding social issues is clouding the political judgment of political observers and the local press in the race for the 5th Assembly District between Republican Small Business Owner Andy Pugno, Democrat Community Physician/Educator Richard Pan, and Peace and Freedom College Student Elizabeth Martinez. So the Pugno campaign will attempt to provide some facts for people to consider about the race, the district and the candidates. Pugno Fact #5 As of the 60-day close of voter registration, the makeup of Assembly District 5 is now 40% Republican, 37% Democrat. Under the 2001 redistricting plan, no Democrat has won a legislative seat when Republican registration was 40% or above. Just a short time ago, this district had more Democrats than Republicans. Today Republicans have a margin of almost 6,000 and the drive to register more Republicans continues.… Read More

The influential Club for Growth has weighed in and endorsed David Harmer in his campaign to unseat liberal Democrat Jerry McNerney in California’s 11th Congressional District (East Bay Area, and Central Valley).

I reached out to longtime FR friend Andy Roth, the Club’s Political Director, who had this to share with FR readers…

In 2008, one of the bills featured in the FR "Top 20 Bills To Veto" column (co-authored by Senator Dutton and Assemblyman DeVore) was SB 375 (Steinberg). Unfortunately, that was a bill that despite our singling it out for termination, was signed into law by the Governor. This ultimate "nanny state" social engineering bill is all about Sacramento politicos imposing their ideological agenda on local planning decisions. This was a bill that said that if local projects aren’t built to discourage commuting and force people to live a low-carbon lifestyle, then state funds would be withheld. Sound like something out of the former Soviet Union? We all thought so…

Fast forward a couple of years and now we sit on the eve the imperial California Air Resources Board getting ready to adopt new mandates for emissions reductions in planning that the contortions that would need to be gone through to meet them would completely trample the most important principles of our republic — freedom and liberty…

After SB 375… Read More