I still have not reviewed carefully all 185 pages, but the US Supreme Court issued the decision in Citizens United today by a 5-4 conservative majority vote and a lenthy dissent by John Paul Stevens. That means one thing: freedom and the First Anendment won! It appears corporations will no longer be banned from involvement in federal elections. More later……… Read More

Here is my executive summary on the Citizens United case and a sad prediction.

Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation (formed originally by my friend Floyd Brown) released during the last Presidential campaign a documentary movie about Hillary Clinton that was critical of her. It sought declaratory and injunctive relief in Federal Court on whether it would be subject to criminal penalties from the Federal Election Commission for distributing the movie. CU lost at the District Court level but appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts had previously decided some cases that marginalized the broad sweep of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which placed additional restrictions of First Amendment freedoms in a Federal election context, most notably, the Wisconsin Right to Life decision, which scaled back McCain-Feingold to allow for unlimited "issue advocacy" by a corporation during an election campaign.… Read More

In just a few weeks, candidates who will appear on the ballot in the upcoming June, 2010 primary election in California will submit their paperwork to the various county elections officials across the state, officially declaring their candidacies, and they will submit their names and proposed ballot designations for the ballot. In some cases they may also be allowed to pay for a short "candidate statement" to appear in the advance ballot materials sent to all voters.

In California, a candidate is allowed to have their name, including a "nick-name," and up to three words describing the "principal" "profession, vocation, or occupation" printed on the ballot. Incumbents get additional words if they want, describing the official title they hold. There is sometimes litigation over whether the chosen "profession, vocation, or occupation" of the candidate is a "principal" endeavor, since the underlying requirement of the name and ballot designation is that it must not be misleading to the voter. Sometimes there is even litigation over whether the candidate’s name is misleading or not. The… Read More

For those with a chunk of time to watch what was an amazing speech, here is the video of Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh giving his speech about the future of the GOP and of the nation, filmed last Monday night by yours truly… Big kudos to Rhonda Rohrabacher for getting it up online!

Chairman Scott Baugh from OCGOP on Vimeo.

From today’s WSJ Political Diary E-mail… … Read More

In what was a not-so-great election year for Republicans in 2008, the election of Danny Gilmore to the Assembly in the Central Valley stuck out as a big win — a Republican pickup in a seat where Democrat Assemblywoman Nicole Parra had "termed out" after serving six years.

In what is perhaps the least unexpected announcement possible, as this has been "going around" the Capitol for some time now — after serving only one term, Gilmore will be retiring from office?

It goes without saying that this is not great news for Republicans, who would undoubtedly be in a stronger position "defending" this seat as opposed to what will now be a competition for an "open" seat.

Below is a release put out by Gilmore this morning, that also includes him endorsing a replacement for his seat.

Assemblyman Gilmore Announces Retirement… Read More

California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown wants to know: Are you on Team Coco or Team Leno? This morning the presumed gubernatorial candidate tweeted: @JerryBrown2010 Big debate at the campaign office… Where do you stand? http://www.jerrybrown.org/node/590.

The link takes visitors to the Brown for Governor 2010 Exploratory Committee web site, where there is the following poll:

Pick a Team: Team Coco or Team Leno?

Big debate at the campaign office… Where do you stand? If you provide your name, zip code and e-mail, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a vintage 1974 "Brown for Governor" bumper sticker signed by Jerry.

Since the NBC debacle is the most interesting contest in California right now, it was only a matter of time before politicians began weighing in. How convenient and environmentally conscious for Brown torecycle his “vintage” 1974 bumper stickers…… Read More

The new year brings us some new great places to get insightful news and observations on the California political scene. We’ve seen the arrival of non-profit investigative journalism organizations Cal Watchdog and California Watch, both with blogs. They are already producing great content and we’ll link to their best stuff.

Today brings a new big player from the main stream media blogging front — the Los Angeles Times has partnered with the venerable Capitol Weekly newspaper to create a new California Politics blog housed on the Los Angeles Times website. You can check out the new blog page at the LA Times website here. We’re expecting big things from Anthony York (pictured), Shane Goldmacher, and more on this site. Again, we’ll link to the best of the… Read More