The U.S. Supreme Court issued a statement today establishing that a first round of decisions on argued cases this term will be released next Tuesday, December 8. One of the cases pending such an announcement is Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which I have reported on here several times before. A decision in that case could significantly change campaign finance law in America. Your humble political law reporter is on the case and will be watching out for you, and will post any development here in real time, even though I am going to Las Vegas on Tuesday. Stay tuned!… Read More

Quote of the week: “I didn’t see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there that the President chose to address tonight and I thought that was interesting. He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case.” – Chris Matthews on MSNBC after the President’s speech at West Point.

Wait a minute Mr. Matthews. The United States Military Academy is an "enemy camp" for the Commander-in-Chief?

Afghanistan: Before I comment on the President’s plan for the war in Afghanistan, let me reiterate that this is a very difficult situation with no easy answers. The President laid out his plan this week, and that plan will have some Republicans and some Democrats in support, and other Republicans and Democrats in opposition.

I will be one of the Republicans in opposition. Perhaps for not the reasons readers of this missive might expect. Some people will legitimately oppose this plan because the 30,000 additional troops is below the minimum range of troops outlined by General McChrystal several months ago to get the job done. He had called for 40,000 to 80,000. The strategic maxim of "overwhelming… Read More

Abel Maldonado is certainly consistent. He likes to sign commitments and then break them. We’ve written plenty about his signature on the Americans for Tax Reform No New Taxes pledge — the one he signed voluntarily with no one holding a gun to his head. Maldonado then rather infamously was a key vote in February to hit Californians with the largest tax increase in the history of any state — increasing the car, sales and income taxes for a projected tax increase of over $16 billion. Nice.

Well, apparently Maldonado signed something else besides the ATR pledge — he signed an endorsement card for the Lt. Governor campaign of his colleague, Jeff Denham! As a matter of fact, Maldonado, who has now announced that whether he is confirmed or not by the legislature he is going to seek the Republican nomination for the LG position, still has his name listed as an endorser of Denham’s — check it out here (if it is hard to find it, that’s because Denham has been the Energizer Bunny of endorsement collection, and there are like 50,000 endorsements… Read More

This week I attended the Sacramento GOP Holiday Party. Like many readers, I’ve found that some organization parties of this nature can be mind numbingly dull events, where members basically feel obliged to attend, each the much dreaded rubber chicken, and make an Irish exit as soon as the lights go down for the speaker. Other Republican events over the last few years have been full of backbiting and grousing, filled with a negative mood about the state of the Republicans generally.

This was not one of those dinners. The room was full, the food (tri-tip) was great, and the speaker, Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, gave an energetic, funny, and rousing speech. You could feel the energy in the room, and the readiness for the fight ahead, when Whitman paused for a few seconds then said the words many of us have been longing to hear for so long from our GOP candidates (paraphrased) “the state government doesn’t have an income problem, it has a spending problem”. Indeed.

I’ve spent most of my political life active in the San Diego and Orange County Republican Parties, and even though I’ve lived in Sacramento for nine years, never… Read More

California homeowners will be getting a badly-needed break in the form of tax relief due to the deflated housing market this year. For the first time since Proposition 13 passed in 1978, homeowners are likely to see a lower property tax bill. The State Board of Equalization announced recently that due to deflation in the value of real estate statewide, they will be reducing the rates this year, by about $2.60 per every $100,000 in assessed property value.

That may seem insignificant, but any decrease in taxes should come as welcome news to homeowners in California who have been saddled with some of the highest taxes in the nation. For all but 5 years since the passage of Prop. 13, the property taxes have increased at their limit of 2 percent per year. To actually have a tax bill decrease is something to celebrate.

After all, California has the 4th highest state income tax in the nation, the highest state sales tax in the nation, one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the nation, and the highest gas taxes of any state.

This is a good time to reflect on the benefits of Proposition 13, which often comes under attack when state revenues fall… Read More

It’s being reported that State Assembly Democrats are in the process of selected a new leader to succeed Karen Bass. Apparently the two "finalists" vying for the position are Assemblymen John Perez and Kevin DeLeon.

Because the voters of California have elected a healthy majority of Democrats in the Assembly (with the help of some "insider baseball" drawing of legislative districts to their extreme advantage) — the leader of Assembly Democrats is also elected to be the Assembly Speaker.

I thought I would take a quick look at how Perez and DeLeon differ on their voting record on key issues of importance to FlashReport readers — so that we could determine if, perhaps, there is a "lesser of the two evils" between these two liberal Los Angeles area Democrats…

How did Perez and DeLeon differ on these important votes?

Supporting the largest tax increase in the history of any state – $16 billion. Supporting a special election and putting before voters a similar sized additional tax increase. Criminalizing the owning of too many pets. Allowing counties to keep … Read More

This just off the transom from the Steve Poizner for Governor Campaign…

TO: Campaign Grassroots Team FROM: Jim Bognet, Campaign Manager RE: Poizner Campaign Update DATE: December 1, 2009 With 2010 on the horizon, it is important to recap our efforts and successes in 2009 and update you on our plans for the coming year: The Campaign Organization… Read More

It’s being reported as newsworthy that a "recall attempt" against State Senator Bob Huff failed to turn in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot — actually ZERO signatures were turned in.

My question is — why is this news? Elected officials are smacked with "Notice of Recall" forms fairly frequently, because doing this is not a difficult process, involving really an afternoon’s elbow grease. It’s the subsequent process, in the case of state legislators, of collecting tens of thousands of signatures that is a major endeavor.

It was clear to anyone observing the process that except for the attempted recall against Anthony Adams, that no other recalls were potentially viable.

Let’s be clear — Huff may have supported Proposition 1A on the May special election ballot (I spoke with him about it at the time, and he felt that the modest revenue smoothing measure contained within it was worth the trade-off on higher taxes — we agreed to disagree) but he opposed the February budget deal that brought us the… Read More