With a h/t to Joe Garofoli for the title of this post, guess who got caught AGAIN on her cell phone while driving? Check out this video from TMZ… Don’t miss Joe’s take on this. … Read More

Last week, I launched the AD72 Special Twitter feed to provide California political junkies up-to-date with the latest in this whirlwind special election to fill the Assembly seat of the fallen Mike Duvall.

Joining me as inaugural contributors are FR Publisher Jon Fleischman and RedCounty.com contributor Allan Bartlett.

Allan was at last night’s AD72 special election candidate forum organized by the OC Young Republicans; you can read his Twittering of the event on the feed, and his related post on RedCounty.com. One thing is becoming clear, mystery GOP candidate Richard Faher’s sole purpose in running seems to be to wreck Chris Norby’s candidacy.… Read More

Over the weekend voters in the 72nd Assembly District were treated to positive mail pieces from both Linda Ackerman and Chris Norby.

Attached to this post is a letter that went out from Linda Ackerman as well as a brochure.

Expect to see a lot of positive mail from Ackerman’s campaign as, based on the only survey to which we are privy, she has a lot of establishing herself to do with voters — where Norby, as a current elected official has a lead.

There are lots of rumors of independent expenditures in the works on Ackerman’s behalf. If true, look for those to do the "dirty work" of going negative on her main opponent, Chris Norby.

The next post will have a piece of mail from Norby that dropped over the weekend.… Read More

After launching a first attack piece on his primary rival Linda Ackerman, Supervisor Chris Norby over the weekend sent the attached positive piece out to AD 72 voters.… Read More

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