The ‘must watch’ of the day (and perhaps the week) is from Reason television. Ted Balaker of Reason sits down with Steve Greenhut for a thoughtful interview that runs about nine minutes long. Greenhut heads up the Pacific Research Institute CalWatchdog project, which provides reporting on California state government with the healthy perspective of skepticism…

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Conservative political law observers have been rather pleased with the U.S. Supreme Court’s series of fairly recent rulings that have recognized the primacy of the First Amendment in political speech and have rolled back some infringing rules, namely, most of the McCain-Feingold "reforms," which would have had the Federal Election Commission actually banning books that mention people who are candidates for Federal office.

But the Roberts’ Court’s stalward support of free speech hasn’t resonated well at the Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento, which is apparently trying to revive in California the type of book-banning rules the Supreme Court has turned back nationwide. Today at 10:00 am, the FPPC will be holding an "interested persons" meeting at its headquarters to "elicit public input on possible Commission action focused on the Commission’s interpretation of ‘express advocacy.’" In nonlawyer talk, that means "hold onto your wallets" if you care about free speech.

"Express advocacy" is generally defined as a communication that… Read More

[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

Martin Wisckol posted about another, more reasonable campaign diagnosis by political handicapper Allen Hoffenblum: that AD68 represents an opportunity for a Democratic upset in November.

The GOP nominee is Costa Mesa Councilman Allan Mansoor and the Democratic choice is businessman Phu Nguyen.

The angle here as that Nguyen’s ethnicity and strong fundraising position him to pull off an upset in a district with lots of Vietnamese voters. The termed-out incumbent, Assemblyman Van Tran, is running against Loretta Sanchez in overlapping CD47. His efforts to turn out Vietnamese voters may well benefit Nguyen as an unintentional byproduct. If that is true, it stands to reason Phu Nguyen’s efforts to turn out Viet voters will also help Van Tran’s candidacy. The underlying presumption here is… Read More

Jim Sills at SD Rostra has the first newsbeat of the recount in the 40th District, as Juan Vargas tries to hold on to a 22 vote lead…

RECOUNT DAY 1….SALAS LOSES 1 VOTE IN SD REGISTRAR’S REPORT OF SD 40 MANUAL COUNT Day 1 of the 40th state senate recount is over in San Diego county. Juan Vargas began the day leading by 22 votes overall in the 3-county district.

And the 1st Day recount figures from San Diego show that 13 precincts from Chula Vista and Coronado were checked for accuracy with a Manual (aka “Hand”) count vs. the original machine count.

The only change came in Coronado precinct 43900. The Registrar’s report states, “Challenged Ballot did not Count… (-1 Salas).” The report thus appears to show a net loss of 1 vote for Mary Salas on the day.

Meanwhile, Riverside county is also doing a recount, but no new results are available there to date.

You can review today’s SD Registrar’s … Read More

JOHN CHIANG: CONTINUING TO PLAY THE BLAME GAME Blames old technology as the reason he’s defying the law yet refuses to explain why after four years and millions in taxpayer dollars his payroll systems remain out-of-date Thousand Oaks – Today’s Sacramento Bee published portions of an interview with Controller John Chiang that left more questions than answers about the Controller’s ability to lead and to manage taxpayer dollars. … Read More

TONY STRICKLAND ISSUES THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT ON SACRAMENTO COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE PATRICK MARLETTE’S RULING Friday’s ruling likely galvanizes John Chiang’s political operation but it unfortunately continues to highlight the fact that we wouldn’t be in this situation had John Chiang used the millions taxpayers gave him to upgrade his payroll system over four years ago. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, as of last year Chiang had spent over $70 million dollars “with few tangible deliverables to show.” Instead of legal challenges to mask over his failure to get the job done, Chiang owes the … Read More

Los Angeles Times: Some experts say California’s payroll system ‘puzzle’ doesn’t compute They say it should not be as hard as the controller says it is to reprogram the computer system to cut state employees’ pay to the minimum wage as Schwarzenegger has demanded while there is no budget. Read the entire story here: http://bit.ly/df7QAP … Read More

Today at the Newsweek Magazine website, Pulitzer Award winning columnist George Will has an outstanding commentary on the U.S. Senate race here in California between incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer and challenger Carly Fiorina. I reprint the first few paragraphs of the column below, then a link to the full piece. Take the time to read it!