Longtime Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Weintraub will soon be departing the payroll of the Bee… While he will still have columns there, he is also going to be a regular columnist for the Left Coast edition of the New York Times (well, until they figure out Dan is not a lefty) and he will work on other various projects. We wish Dan well, and hope that much of his focus remains on California policy and politics. When he does, we'll link it on our main page!… Read More

First, they banned our cell phones (with the exception of First Lady Shriver), now they want our GPS, satellite radio and garage door openers. The California Air Resources Boardhas approved a "Cool Cars" regulation that will require car windows to have an advanced glazing in order to block the sun’s heat, supposedly reducing the need for air conditioning. This was the same government agency that earlier this year floated the idea of banning black cars in California for the same reason.

Unfortunately, as withso many brilliant government ideas, the regulation was adopted before this window glazing technology was completely tested. Turns out the glazing can interfere with GPS, garage door openers, cell phones and satellite radios. The regulation will even be imposed on soft-top vehicles, leading to speculation Jeep may stop selling its soft-cover vehicles in the state. Sun roofs would be tinted so dark they would essentially be black (forget driving PCH with that California sunshine beaming down on you).… Read More

In 1996, then Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian introduced a bill that would give public employees the option of moving from the current "defined benefit" pension system to a "defined contribution" system. The major difference between the two system is that under a defined benefit system, the contributions are made to a fund, managed by someone else (in Californias case, a union elected board, with a couple of Governor appointees and appointees by the Controller and Treasurer, both union controlled Democrats), and the payment that is made to the retiree is defined by the state. A defined contribution system is a 401(k) system. It allows the investments to be controlled by the employee, and the benefit the employee receives depends on how smart the employee was in making the investment.

Kaloogians bill passed the Republican controlled Assembly at the time, and ended up in the Democrat controlled Public Employee Retirement Committee, of which I was the Vice Chair. A whole host of government employee union lobbyists (a group I used to refer to as the "Red Brigade") showed up in the committee to oppose the bill. What was most interesting… Read More

Today is the debut of the California Republican Party’s new weekly podcast program, which has the catchy title, "The Right News from the Left Coast."

This week’s episode is hosted by California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring with guests CRP Treasurer Keith Carlson and Assemblywoman Diane Harkey.

"Everyone who cares about politics and policy in their neighborhood, in Sacramento or in Washington, D.C. should be tuning into the CRP’s new weekly podcast," said Carlson when I caught up to him. "I was thrilled to be a part of the inaugural edition of the show, and I think you’ll enjoy listening to it." The Right News from the Left Coast is a 30 minute podcast available free on iTunes (here),… Read More

Disclosure: I don’t work for any of the candidates. I know Campbell and Poizner, and have met with Whitman, but my only current involvement is that I want the GOP to win because I think a Democrat Governor will mean crushing taxes and a radical agenda that will damage California for decades.

Currently there are three (3) candidates working to secure the GOP nomination – all from Northern California and all more moderate than much of the base of the Republican Party.

Many – myself included – have talked about the likelihood that a more conservative, Southern California Republican could enter the race. But the window is rapidly closing for a new entry.

Here’s a run down of the current line-up:

Tom Campbell is the candidate of ideas. He is easily the smartest, most articulate person in the race – the… Read More

Much has been whispered about and written about in passing about the fact that Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby had a sexual harassment complaint filed against him by a county employee. The matter went to court where a lot of — explicit — testimony was made on the record. The very abbreviated version is that a trial court judge found that there was some merit to the allegations however an appellate court disagreed. Ultimately the matter was settled, and as Norby is quick to point out, with no payments of taxpayer funds being paid out.

That said, expect to see a lot about this matter given the circumstances that led to the vacancy in this Assembly seat.

In what is a harbinger of what will be one of the most negative and entertaining special elections in recent memory, Linda Ackerman has dropped a mail piece that hit today hitting Norby on this issue.

In an earlier post I indicated that it was likely that the negative attacks on Norby would come from independent expenditures (rumors abound that Sacramento third-house folks are working on one). But I was wrong. This is probably an indicator that if such an independent effort is… Read More

I am not even going to waste a lot of time on this blog post. Lisa V. over at the Contra Costa Times Blog reports that earlier today it was announced that the Bay Area Council is going to dump $2 million into qualifying the measures to create a Constitutional Convention for California, if approved by the voters.

Let me make this crystal clear for the Bay Area Council and all others out there who think this might be a good idea.

Are you holding on to your chair? Here comes the truth…

California’s Public Employee Unions will try to coopt and control the convention process. If unsuccessful, they will use their vast resources to obliterate whatever that convention brings back to the voters for approval.

Instead of sinking millions into this fool’s errand, the Bay Area Council should join with those already looking at a paycheck protection measure. Until the pervasive financial influence of the public employee unions is terminated, the road to comprehensive reform of California government is impassable.… Read More

FlashReport Reader:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Western Conservative Political Action Conference (Western CPAC), I am pleased to announce that we have just confirmed that Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com, Breitbart.tv, and BigGovernment.com has confirmed that he will be giving opening comments on a star-studded political technology panel that I will be hosting this Saturday. "This Saturday," you ask??!! YES, WESTERN CPAC WILL BE TAKING PLACE THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY RIGHT IN THE HEART OF ORANGE COUNTY CALIFORNIA. If you haven’t already, you should check out our website here which is chock-full of information on the event.… Read More