Back in July, when we at FR broke the news that Brian Bilbray’s Chief of Staff Steve Danon had confirmed he was running for SD County Supervisor in 2012, as well as indicating he was "100 percent in" even if it meant taking on the incumbent, the folks at Supervisor Pam Slater-Price’s office were not the only ones raising eyebrows about how early it was to start a campaign.

Early-schmirlie. In what may clearly be the earliest (that word again) endorsement ever by the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego County in a race of such magnitude, today the organization announced it’s support for Danon. In 2012, just so we’re clear.

Keep in mind the DSA hasn’t made many (or any) endorsements for 2010 yet, as far as I can tell.… Read More

Some thoughts penned by FR correspondent Bradley Benbrook…

Why do state and local governments have public employee unions? Normal unions in the private sector organize for the purpose of negotiating with management over pay and benefits. There are two very distinct sides to the negotiating table. Not so with public employee unions. Public employee unions use millions of dollars in member dues to elect (and then strong-arm) the very same politicians who will sit across from them at the negotiating table. In other words, there is no labor-versus-management dynamic when it comes to public employee unions. In the public sector, labor has become management, and labor has predictably rewarded itself with generous pay and benefits. Of course, this only works because public… Read More

Some thoughts penned by FR correspondent Bradley Benbrook…

Why do state and local governments have public employee unions? Normal unions in the private sector organize for the purpose of negotiating with management over pay and benefits. There are two very distinct sides to the negotiating table. Not so with public employee unions. Public employee unions use millions of dollars in member dues to elect (and then strong-arm) the very same politicians who will sit across from them at the negotiating table. In other words, there is no labor-versus-management dynamic when it comes to public employee unions. In the public sector, labor has become management, and labor has predictably rewarded itself with generous pay and benefits. Of course, this only works because public… Read More

According to the latest Field poll, only 13% of Californians approve of the job the State Legislature is doing.

Good luck to those that want to “reward” the polical class in the State Capitol by weakening California's legislative term limits given this “popularity” number.

How about focusing on the real problem in Sacramento, which is not term limits — it is the pervasive and corruptive political influence of public employee unions. We note with some cynicism that the public policy advocacy group California Forward includes no curbing of union influence in their list of needed-fixes for state government. Should we be surprised?… Read More

With a h/t to FR Friend Leigh Wolfe and Patriot Axium, we present this great, short video taken at San Jose State University where the College Republicans protested a small rally in support of raising oil severence taxes, with the guest of honor — liberal State Assemblyman Alberto Torrico.

Torrico claims his legislation will generate $1 billion to fund higher education. The bill would increase gas prices and the final fiscal report on the bill shows it will generate less than half the promised $1 billion. A study of the proposal also found that it will result in the loss of 9,000 jobs in the oil and natural gas industry in California, a state that already has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

After he speaks, Torrico is confronted by College Republican activists and pressed on his support of higher taxes in a bad economy. When asked if he was ok with putting 9,000 people out of work he responded with a clear “I’m willing (for this tax) to cost 9,000 jobs."

I should add, as a former Chairman of SJSU College Republicans, that I am particularly proud of their… Read More

Gavin Newsom wants to lower the 2/3 vote threshold so bad that he mentions it not once but twice in his first campaign web-commercial…

… Read More

SacBee’s Capitol Alert is reporting that the size of a "comprehensive water solution" package is well over nine billion (with a b) bucks. That is a lot of money – and a lot of borrowing.

There are a lot of water-related policy aspects at play, and not being a water policy expert, I will leave that to others to sort through.

But I do have some concerns about the size of the package in terms of raw dollars. It seems vastly expensive. I guess the first question would be how much of that package is made up of lease revenue bonds that SHOULD come to a vote of the people but often don’t. The embarrassing approval of those prison-bonds without voter approval comes to mind. There’s been plenty of time since then to put them to a vote of the people for ratification — but, I digress…

To keep me and those taxpayer advocates that I know from opposing the "comprehensive water solution" on amount-of-spending grounds, there is a very simple test that must be applied: 1. HOW MUCH INFRASTRUCTURE DO WE NEED TO BUILD?

We need… Read More

Waiting until the last minute, late yesterday Governor Schwarzenegger took action on the hundreds of bills sitting on his desk. Each of the bills signed into law will have an impact on our state, but two in particular will impact our society and our children. SB 54 (Leno) will require California to recognize all out-of-state same-sex marriages performed before Proposition 8 was passed last year. SB 572 (Leno) will require the governor to declare every May 22 Harvey Milk Day.

Proposition 8 was such a controversial and emotional topic, you’d think the governor would be wise enough to step back from the issue for a while. But instead, he flouted the will of the people who have twice overwhelmingly declared that they intend only traditional marriage be recognized in California. By signing SB 54, Governor Schwarzenegger told Californians that he has no regard for their decision. That is a dangerous precedent to set for the governor and his successors. Distrust of… Read More