Today State Senator Jeff Denham shared with the Modesto Bee that he is dropping out of the race for the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor and is instead running for the 25th State Assembly seat currently occupied by Tom Berryhill, who has announced that is running for State Senate (the seat currently occupied by Dave Cogdill, who is retiring).

For the Assembly seat, this pits Denham against former Modesto Councilwoman Janice Keating. While Modesto is the largest city in the Assembly District, Denham's entry into the race makes him a clear front runner. His name ID is undoubtedly through the roof. Not only has he represented much of this district in the Senate for many years, but has also been actively campaigning for LG for over a year. And let's not forget the massive name ID that will come from the failed recall attempt orchetrated by former Senate President Don Perata.

Of course, Denham is also aided by gaving a campaign bank account flush with cash. We're going to assume that Denham is not likely to offer refunds to donors who thought they were staking a candidate for statewide office. Denham will have to move into the 25th Assembly… Read More

…they would grow up, stop trying to blame RedCounty.com for the fact they were secretly paying one of our bloggers to attack Meg Whitman and spout obsequiously pro-Poizner pap, and move one.

Instead, they seem to think keeping that story is alive is a smart thing to do.

Rather than understand they we might be just a little upset that they had used us an unwitting cut out for their campaign, the Poizner campaign is now, in essence, saying they did nothing wrong, and that even if they did, Red County was asking for it.

Even though it was Red County that risked embarrassment to itself to break the story, the Poizner campaign is, amazingly, claiming it is we who have been caught "red-handed" via their "PoiznerFacts.com" website:

You can read the rest at RedCounty.com… Read More

Last week, I proposed legislation to authorize the California Highway Patrol to activate the state’s Emergency Alert System and issue a “Blue Alert” when necessary to speed apprehension of criminals who attack or kill local, state, or federal law enforcement officers. Similar to the “Amber Alert,” which is employed when children are abducted, the Blue Alert will be activated only if a peace officer is killed, seriously wounded or assaulted with a firearm.

Blue Alert programs have been established in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma and can help avert further harm to officers and the public when a description of the offender’s vehicle or license plate are available for broadcast.

The cold-blooded killing of four officers in Oakland and four Washington State officers just this year serves as a grim reminder that law enforcement officers must often confront criminals capable of incredible violence. When attacks on peace officers do occur, law enforcement agencies and the public may be better served by activation of a Blue Alert.… Read More

Back in the 90’s there was a song, Kick Him When He’s Down by the group Offspring.

The title of that song came to mind as I recently came across the news that the controversial “Conflict King” of Colton and Fontana, Mark Nuaimi, had been axed from his full time job as Assistant City Manager for the Inland Empire City of Colton. Nuaimi apparently still retains his elective office of Mayor of the City of Fontana, which is just blocks from Colton. It was Nuaimi’s “dual role” of being a top level management official in one city while being the top level elected official in the neighboring city which earned Nuaimi the title of “Conflict King” – and garnered him a starring role in a lot of You Tube videos such as this one below…

… Read More

For the past few years public employee unions have been on the march in San Diego County. In the 2008 elections, these unions rode the Obama wave to crushing victories over center right candidates countywide in cities as diverse as Chula Vista, San Diego, and Escondido.

The tip of the public employee union spear countywide has been the various firefighter unions who, like many of their brethren statewide, have been radicalized by the expectation that the large benefit and salary increases they accumulated during economic good times would get even better in bad times.

Flush with the 1998 victories, these same unions decided to push further. The City of Oceanside had a 3:2 Republican/Labor council, and for the first time in recent memory a Democrat Presidential candidate, Obama, carried the city. The fiscally responsible majority in the city, well aware that city finances were going to be impacted by the recession for years to come, opposed further firefighter benefits and salary increases.

So the fire union, and their labor allies outside Oceanside, decided to teach officials countywide, and really statewide, a lesson by recalling one of the Republican… Read More

RedCounty.com CEO Chip Hanlon posted about a discovery he made regarding the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign’s approach to our blog, RedCounty.com:

Someone should tell Steve Poizner that Red County would have covered his Gubernatorial campaign for free.

You see, I’ve recently learned something which, in retrospect, might not come as a complete shock to all our readersgiven the nature of his content: I have it in writing that the Poizner camp has been secretly paying one of our writers, “Sgt. York,” for favorable coverage all year long.

Now, to be fair, the Poizner camp wasn’t paying him directly. Instead, they were paying a “consultant,” and that person was paying our now-former writer. But it isa factthat theperson was paying York explicitly for pro-Poizner, anti-Whitman commentaries, articles specifically to be written on RedCounty.com.

I disclose this publicly here to preserve… Read More

Last Friday, I visited an oil drilling platform, known as “Irene,” five miles off the Coast of Santa Barbara County. I had a chance to witness first-hand the good work that goes on here to supply energy to American families.

Irene is part of the Tranquillon Ridge Project, which would allow one of California’s leading oil and natural gas producers, Plains Exploration & Production Co., to access oil and gas reserves located beneath California state waters.

The project is a win-win for the environment and the economy:

•PXP will convey approximately 3,900 acres of land to The Trust for Public Land, including approximately 3,700 acres adjacent to the Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve in the Lompoc Valley and up to 200 acres on the Gaviota Coast. These lands will be permanently protected for open space and public access.

•The T-Ridge project will include a legally enforceable “end date” which ends all PXP’s offshore oil production on four platforms and removes the associated onshore support facilities.

•By limiting the life of the platform operations, the T-Ridge “end date” significantly reduces the risk of an… Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court indeed issued decisions in three cases this morning but did not publish an opinion in the very important campaign finance reform case of Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which remains pending.… Read More