Tales of the bizarre — I just got an email from State Senate hopeful moderate Jeff Stone who in a contest with conservative Assemblyman (and front runner) Joel Anderson to succeed Dennis Hollingsworth, who is term-limited out of office. The note appears to be some sort of "pre-innoculation" piece designed to warn the greater political community of impending attacks against him.

The interesting part is that this note goes well beyond the normal generalizations that you would expect, "My opponents will seek to paint me in a bad light — but don’t you believe them!"

Instead, check out this paragraph: In the final days of the campaign one of my opponents, well known for his dirty campaigning, will sling a bunch of outrageous charges against me. He will probably call me a drug dealer; he will tell you that I harm my patients; that I don’t pay my taxes or that I voted to hike your taxes; he will probably say I belong to an extremist Religious group and he will claim I have violated the public trust while an elected… Read More

Today the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association put out the following statement in response to the announcement earlier today that their budget proposal includes massive tax increases…

ASSEMBLY DEMOCRAT BUDGET HARMS TAXPAYERS Proposal increases taxes and creates new borrowing while deceptively promoting job growth. Sacramento, CA – Today, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) strongly opposed a plan brought forth by Assembly Democrats that calls for $12 billion in new taxes and borrowing. The proposal includes a new oil severance tax which would lead to lost jobs and higher gas prices. Democrats have proposed creating a $10 billion ‘Jobs and Economic Stability Fund’ in order to protect 450,000 primarily public… Read More

KENNEDY FOR SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “Letter” this is an individualized chase letter… but Patrick you didn’t ‘see me’ when you or your walker stopped by. KENNEDY FOR SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “Neighborhoods a Voice” which is a color booklet that comes in an envelope… looks expensive (Today’s winner). COOLEY FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL “Shameless” a double whack on Eastman and Harman, could have been more clear what the race was that the mailer was talking about. SLATEMAILER “Small Business Action Committee” featuring Whitman for Governor and Maldonado for Lt. Governor.… Read More

Back in March I featured a guest column from Chason Bullock, the head of Students for Meg Whitman. I got a lot of positive feedback, and told Chason that as we got closer to the primary I would love to get an update on how things are going… Below is a new column from Chason for your perusal…

Students For Meg Get Organized For Final Push By Chasen Bullock, Statewide Youth Coordinator of Students for Meg and a senior at California State University, San Marcos The Students for Meg Coalition now has 40 chapters on California college campuses and students up and down the state are doing their part… Read More

Assemblyman Jeff Miller is an endorser and supporter of (very) longtime FR friend and Assemblyman Joel Anderson’s campaign for State Senate. Anderson is running for the seat currently held by Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, who is retiring at the end of this year. Last week, Miller brought a group of folks down to help Anderson with get-out-the-vote activities…

Big Team Effort Will Elect Joel Anderson To The State Senate By Assemblyman Jeff Miller Last year, when my Assembly Republican colleagues asked me to serve as the Elections Chairman for the Caucus, I pledged that we would campaign aggressively at the grassroots level and energize our efforts in the field. The leader who first approached me… Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Opinion Page…

Cap and Flee: California refutes its own ‘green jobs’ policy. California, that former land of opportunity, was one of the first states to pass its own version of "cap and trade" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007 when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the law, called AB-32, he said it would propel California into an economy-expanding, green job future. Well, a new study by the state’s own auditing agency—its version of the Congressional Budget Office—has burst that green bubble. The study released May 13 concludes that "California’s economy at large will likely be adversely affected in the near term by implementing climate-related policies that are not adopted elsewhere." While the long-term economic costs are "unknown," the study finds… Read More

My Red County colleague published this post today about the U.S. Senate race — a must read for those deciding whether to cast their ballot for Chuck DeVore or Carly Fiorina.

Chip’s post includes an op-ed Fiorina co-bylined in 2000 in support of Prop. 26 — which would have have weakened Prop. 13 by reducing the threshold fro passing local school bonds from two-thirds to a simple majority.

Click here to read it. It’s substantive food for thought for those trying to parse through the competing claims of who the conservative in the race is.… Read More

Mike Murphy of the Meg Whitman campaign shared a brief memo from their campaign pollsters with me. I pass it along to you. It is attached below. Upshot – internal poll shows Whitman up by 26% (53% to 27%).… Read More