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

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

It’s no secret Sacramento Democrats will take any and every opportunity to pontificate about issues outside their purview. Their most common means of expressing their opinions about national or international matters is the joint resolution. As Assemblyman Chuck DeVore pointed out via Twitter on Monday, the Assembly passed AJR 27, a resolution urging Congress to oppose a free trade agreement between the United States and the South American country Colombia. The resolution reads like it was written by labor union apologists, not unbiased evaluators of America’s relationship with Colombia. The day after AJR 27 passed the Assembly (it now needs Senate approval), the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board … Read More

It may be recorded as one of the most stunning electoral comebacks in the history of San Diego area politics.

Former Assemblyman Juan Vargas, who just two weeks ago refused to concede the race while Assembywoman Mary Salas was declaring victory and seemingly pulling away, now leads his opponent by six votes in the race for the Democratic nomination in the 40th State Senate District.

The winner will face Republican Brian Hendryin theNovember run-off. San Diego Rostra has been tracking the race all week, with Jim Sills posting breaking news updates as each of the three counties overlapping the senate district have revised their tallies with remaining absentee and provisional ballots.

"Completing an astonishing week-long comeback," writes Sills, "Juan Vargas today claimed the LEAD over rival Mary Salas in their classic primary." See the entire breaking news story posted late this afternoon.

The Rostra post was followed by on-line stories by the… Read More

We are pleased to share this piece from RNC Chairman Michael Steele…

Southern California Public Radio listeners were treated to a bit of political theater yesterday, as State Controller John Chiang and Schwarzenegger Press Secretary Aaron McLear (I grabbed McLear’s Twitter avatar so you can see him in action) discussed the (unfortunate but necessary) possibility of paying state workers minimum wage next month unless the Legislature gets around to passing a budget. Chiang is an elected Democrat (read: union tool) who has in the past rather defiantly refused to pay workers minimum wage, even though a 2003 Supreme Court ruling (White vs. Davis) says that is exactly what he must do when the state is running without a budget. In yesterday’s interview Chiang, who has unsuccessfully tried to appeal the ruling before, said that his… Read More

Jerry Brown keeps working hard to draw the “I’m just not cut out to be California’s top elected official” narrative – since the primary. First we had him compare his opponent Meg Whitman to Nazi Josephs Goebbels (yes, one of Adolph Hitler’s right hand men). Who does that? Shortly after that followed his snide retort to a reporter who asked him about state’s finances, to which he said that he had a plan, but that would tell us, “after the election.” (Seriously.)

Well, now are on to #3 of “Stupid Moments For Moonbeam’s Campaign” – the state plane that he keeps announcing he sold when Governor, that he did not sell. In a campaign video, Brown bragged up in April that he sold the Executive Jet – but he did not. But their campaign did sucker our friends Phil and… Read More

We call those views "right" and "wrong" — you decide…

… Read More