No matter at what level you are engaged in politics here in the Golden State — Governor or a legislator, County Supervisor or a city councilmember, a Superior Court Judge, a news reporter or blogger, or one of the thousands of parties either trying to get government at some level to do something (or in many cases, not do something) – it is an accepted fact that when big-box store giant Walmart wants to open a “super center” store anywhere, local opposition often appears and a big battle ensues. There are certainly cases where a Walmart just skips into a town somewhere without a hue and cry, but examples of those don’t come readily to mind…

Recent revelations have come to light that create a very plausible reason for the consistent, organized and funded opposition to most new Walmart supercenters. Based on a story that appeared earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal, Rival Chains Secretly Fund Opposition to… Read More

A hot rumor around Sacramento lately has been the status and fate of the water bond, now known as Prop 18 on this November’s state ballot. The realities of the economy and state budget wreck have finally hit home to Sacramento decision makers that an $11 Billion measure may not fly with voters this year. Many don’t see how we will make the $900 million per yearpayments…or that they’re getting value for those payments. Today, the Governor, bond proponents,and others including Sen. Darrell Steinberg seem tonow publicly agree that this isn’t the year.

As the legislature placed it on the ballot, the legislature can move to pull it. This isn’t unprecedented with bonds, as the High Speed Rail bond was delayed a couple times during my years in the Assembly having been scheduled to be on the ballot and then pushed back for fear that voters would reject it in ’04 or ’06, asI recall. [Why it passed in ’08 is still beyond me but I digress]

One silver lining is that pushing it back to ’12 saves the state from debt it cannot now afford and gives legislators time to… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed moving the pork-laden $11++ billion “water” bond to the 2012 ballot. The Governor says it is to focus on budget issues. The correct action would be to repeal it all together. With literally billions of dollars in unneeded spending in it, there is no good time to put it before voters. That said, I commend the Governor for recognizing that spending less money is the priority right now, not spending more.… Read More

California’s November ballot will be busy with 10 propositions as Secretary of State Debra Bowen has recently certified and today numbered each for the voters to ponder. 9 of them were placed by citizen committees upon gathering the requisite signatures [and spending pretty good dollars to get them in most cases] The 10th is the $11 billion water bond placed on the ballot by legislative action.

An interesting point is there are 2 more redistricting measures on this upcoming ballot.One isto finish the job started by Prop 11 and include Congressional seats in the process that has turned drawing seats for Assembly, State Senate andBoard ofEqualization over to an independent citizens commission that is being formed right now for 2011. [Congressional seats were left out in a strategy to increase the odds of passing Prop 11 in Nov. ’08 as Pelosi and crew were sure to dump mega dollars to stop it from drawing Federal House seats]

The other measure, cynically, is to remove and deny the citizens commission [before it’s even been tried once] and turnit right back over to legislators to drawdistrict boundarieshow they see fit.… Read More

Yesterday’s column by FR friend Dan Morain (it’s true, all of our "friends" are not fellow conservatives – don’t tell!) was a very heavy read. It centered around the declining mental health of State Senator Pat Wiggins. If you haven’t read Dan’s piece, you should take a few minutes right now to do so (it’s here.)

The very brief summary of Dan’s thoughtful and thought provoking piece — is that Senator Wiggins’ mental health has deteriorated to the point where she is largely absent — both from the Senate floor, as well as from Committee (Senate President Steinberg actually removed her from all Committees). At this point, Wiggins is led into the State Senate Chambers, to a spot away from the other Senators, where she can cast votes on issues when her vote is needed. Does she even know what she is voting for? Dan Morain couldn’t tell you — Wiggins is not available to the press. One of the major newspapers in her district has… Read More

There’s more good news on the pensions front: today Gov. Schwarzenegger’s office announced tentative pension rollback agreements with two more unions: the Union of American Physicians and Dentists and the International Union of Operating Engineers. Like agreements announced earlier this month between the administration and four other unions, this means employees will contribute 5 percent more to their retirement funds and gain an unpaid leave day each month. Newly-hired employees will also have to work longer to receive their full retirement benefits.

These are not devastating sacrifices, or even tough changes. They are just slight, common sense modifications to the current system that will save the state a great deal of money in the long run. As Schwarzenegger has done a tremendous job highlighting, California’s pension system has spiraled completely out of control over the last 10 years, to the tune of 2000% increases and… Read More

The front page headline in today’s Irish Times in Ireland, a 95% Catholic country, says it all: “Increasing numbers consider abortion because of recession”.… Read More

These are not final numbers but I was looking at spending by Assembly candidates in this past primary season. My guess was that Republican candidates for the Assembly in reasonably safe seats raised and spent less money in 2010 than they did in 2008.

Total expenditures during the reporting periods are helpful because if people loan themselves money and it is real then we see it spent. $100,000 going in and out of an account does not come into play by looking at expenditures.

My comparison did not include and look at independent expenditures and was focused on the final reporting period prior to the election. 8 seats from each cycle. I tossed out AD 5 and AD 68 from this cycle because of the dominant posture of the two primary winners.

In 2008 I looked at — AD 2 (Nielsen, Schaupp) AD 3 (Logue, Horne) AD 10 (Sieglock, Hegyi, Sander) AD 15 (Wilson, Kamena, Rao, Lloyd) AD 34 (Conway, Smith, Becky Maze) AD 36 (Knight, Fox, Ledford) AD 64 (Nestande, McCarty) AD 71 (Miller, Blais)

In 2010 I considered — AD 25 (Olsen, Keating, van der Weide, Conrad) AD 29 (Halerman, McKinney, Whalen)… Read More