Last night “Republican” State Senator Abel Maldonado was hanging out with Democrat Senator Rod Wright. A number of us who saw them thought out loud that between the two, Wright is fundamentally more conservative.… Read More

OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens was appointed to her post, but it looks like the voters will keep her there. Our new Voice of OC/Probolsky Research Poll shows the Sheriff winning with a 2-1 lead.

There are a lot of undecided voters at this point. Voters are generally uninterested in who the Sheriff is unless he/she is under federal investigation or something more dramatic. As long as they feel safe and a deputy comes when you call 911 – the incumbent is probably going to win.

Hutchens is on top among all the major demographic groups like all parties, men and women and age groups. Challengers Bill Hunt, a former deputy is running along with Craig Hunter, Anaheim Deputy Chief are trailing.

Someone needs to come in with big money to change this outcome.

The article about the poll can be found here. The full report can be found here.… Read More

When Republican voters in San Diego County open their June sample ballots in the next few weeks, most will see something new — a color GOP fundraising appeal in the middle of the other usual black and white pages, touting the party’s locally supported candidates and positions on ballot measures.

When San Diego Democrats glance at their versions of the sample ballot, they obviously won’t see the Republican advertisement. Yet, they also won’t see one of their own.

A little known and perhaps long forgotten 1970s-adopted section of the California Elections coderequires every county Registrar of Voters to provide to each party committee the space for a letter or insert of solicitation in the June voter pamphlet. This year local Republicans submitted an advertisement, then yesterday successfully fended off a legal challenge over its contents in Superior Court.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

Congratulations California taxpayers! Today is Tax Freedom Day in California. That means Californians have worked well over three months of the year—from January 1 to April 14 —before they have earned enough money to pay this year’s tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels (according to data compiled by the National Tax Foundation).

That’s a slight improvement over last year when Californians achieved Tax Freedom Day on April 20 – or 110 days into the year.

(Nationally, Californians work longer than taxpayers in all but seven states to reach Tax Freedom Day).

And now the bad news: It’s highly likely that we reached this “achievement” through the federal stimulus package, which created artificial tax reductions.

But what the heck! Celebrate today – for next year and many years after you will work hard to pay off the money the government borrowed from you last year.… Read More

The Nuclear Security Summit currently taking place in Washington, D.C. is certainly a historic event in that it marks the largest gathering of world leaders in the United States since the 1945 San Francisco Conference that founded the United Nations. A central theme of the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit is the President’s call for world leaders to work together in securing vulnerable nuclear material. In lieu of recent events, however, the President must also address the recent nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia and the release of the Administration’s own Nuclear Posture Review.

I agree and support the President along with fellow world leaders on their efforts to address the growing threat posed by terrorists’ access to vulnerable nuclear materials. The global community must take swift action to ensure the safety and security of these fissile materials.

What does concern me; however, is the President’s recent nuclear weapons reduction agreement with Russia. Any plan to reduce this country’s nuclear arsenal should be met with a plan to strengthen our defense capabilities. Instead, the President has… Read More

Betty Jo Toccoli is the President of the California Small Business Association. This is the same organization which, every year, awards the most liberal Democrats in the legislature kudos for their great small business votes. Worse, every year these kudos appear in campaign mail around the state… for the worst small business votes in the state.

So I’d like to use this forum to ask Betty Jo Toccoli and the California Small Business Association exactly how they come to their decisions in handing out rankings to legislators. It’s a fairly simple question, really. What’s the process, Betty? You can either email me directly or you can post below, and I’ll repost… won’t even edit. If its a real process there shouldn’t be any problem. If I’m somehow wrong, you have a clear shot at me here.

Now of course you can figure out the next post, which is Betty not responding, and me listing their corporate donors (already saved the page, Betty), and the lobbyists who represent them in Sacramento (saved), and asking you to call them to ask them why they are paying for this nonsense… then the post after where I show the… Read More

I am not trying to pick on former Congressman and ersatz United States Senator Tom Campbell, but he is the first candidate for a Republican nomination for statewide office to send out an e-mail touting the endorsement of a newspaper editorial board for his candidacy. In this case, the San Jose Mercury news published an editorial, Campbell is the best GOP candidate for U.S. Senate.

To all Republican voters, I would say, without any hesitation: you should be very cautious if not downright skeptical of candidates who are endorsed by main stream media newspaper editorial boards. The reason for this is that with rare exceptions (a shout-out to the O.C. Register and the San Diego U.T.), these editorial boards are packed with liberals who probably feel that the People’s Park in Berkeley should be the state’s political epicenter.

Every election cycle, these Editorial Board members who I’m sure overwhelmingly vote for whatever liberal is on their general election ballot (be it a Democrat, or maybe their local Green Party nominee) put… Read More

Your FR Publisher is off to Sacramento for lots of meetings, presentations and a tax-day rally at the Capitol. We'll work on some good stories while there!

On my flight up from “The OC” are a bunch of Farmers Insurance agents going up to promote a better climate to do business (good luck with that!) and sitting in the very front row of this flight is FR friend John Cruz, Governor Schwarzenegger's Appointments Director. Sitting with me is my friend Jean Pasco, formerly a longtime MSM political reporter who for years as worked in the office of the Orange County Clerk Recorder. We'll undoubtedly share anecdotal stories of government-lameness the entire flight!… Read More