I think it is fairly safe to say that San Francisco Assemblyman, liberal Democrat Tom Ammiano and former California Republican Party Chairman Mike Schroeder of Orange County, who is heading up the recall of Anthony Adams for breaking his pledge not to raise taxes, have virtually nothing in common.

That said, they do share one proclivity with each other — walking out on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A couple of years ago, when Schwarzenegger came to the State GOP Convention and gave his infamous "you are losing at the box office and need to be more like the Democrats" lecture, Schroeder got up at the beginning of Arnold’s remarks and left.

Capitol Weekly reports today that Governor Schwarzenegger made an… Read More

When I met both Chris Norby and Dick Ackerman, both were serving on the Fullerton City Council. It was entertaining, to say the least, to watch the two of them duke it out in a special election for the Assembly back in the early 90’s.

Given that both the Ackermans and Norby have long histories of involvement in the city, I think it is at notable that Linda Ackerman’s campaign is rolling out endorsements from five of Fullerton’s current and former civic leaders… Current Fullerton Mayor Don Bankhead and current Councilman Dick Jones…as former Mayors Buck Catlin, Jerry Christie and Linda Le Quire (the latter of whom I enjoyed working with immensely during our time working together in the office of Congressman Ed Royce back in the day).… Read More

After last night’s AD 72 Republican candidate debate, there was some question as to whether or not Linda Ackerman, in response to a question about the Adams Recall, came out in support of the recall. Much like in a contested sporting event, we’ve gone back (along with Red County Editor Matt Cunningham) and reviewed the video. After review and discussion, it is pretty clear that anyone listening to Linda’s response to the question would have to conclude that she does, in fact, support Anthony’s ouster.

But you can be your own judge, as the actual video of Ackerman’s response to the question is now up on the Red County site here.… Read More

When was the last time you read that a President appointed a "devout" Jew or a "devout" Christian to any government post?

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Doesn’t the "I threaten to veto all bills unless" approach get a little old, especially if after the stated threat, one always comes up with a few "except that one" bills that are "too important" to have been lumped in with the rest of the lot?

Just a question.

If, in fact, we could really count on a veto of all pending bills, including the twenty or so terrible ones that Jon Fleischman has been tracking on these pages, perhaps we should actually support a no deal on water for the time being.

Just a thought.… Read More

I will have to admit – I’m tired of posers. What we need are principled fiscal conservatives leading California’s Government. I would love to go for the old "outreach template" in the Governor’s race, but its never produced an effective leader.

For those online tonight (or catching up tomorrow), I am about to “live twitter” the California Republican Assembly's candidate debate in AD 72 — where Linda Ackerman, Chris Norby, and Richard Fahr will have their first public debate. My feed is on twitter at “FlashReport”.… Read More

Dan Walters, columnist for the Sacramento Bee,wrote on Monday about California’s crumbling roads, highways and streets. Anyone with a car and a driver’s license knows Walters is right; our roads are a mess! And when compared to other states (which Walters did, having just returned from a road trip in the Northwestern states) the condition of our roads is inexcusable.

But I disagree with Walters’ assertion that our transportation infrastructure is in shambles because drivers don’t pay enough gas taxes.

With heavy use, the system needs, but is not getting, an extremely high level of maintenance to stave off deterioration. The gasoline tax, levied on gallonage, hasn’t been changed for many years. And because of greater fuel efficiency, the amount of gas being consumed has increased very little even as travel has increased sharply. Moreover, this flat revenue is being eroded by inflation.

Also on Monday, the California Taxpayers’ Association reported that the Board of Equalization released a report showing… Read More