When the tale is told of this year’s legislative session, clearly one of the major themes we will see is the inability of Senate President Darrell Steinberg to actually achieve major accomplishments — unless you count the inability to do so as some sort of achievement.

Darrell "Deal Killer" Steinberg is so tied and beholdin’ to the most ideologically extreme elements of his caucus that we are about to watch opportunities to resolve issues like the water infrastructure shortage, the prison funding crisis, and our state energy challenge Perhaps I should alter my perspective a bit. As a conservative ideologue, perhaps I should relish the fact that Steinberg’s "leadership" is stopping progress in all of these areas. Invariably I probably would be less than satisfied with compromise solutions on any of these topics.

Nevertheless, I presume that Senate Democrats actually want to achieve nothing of note… Read More

Yesterday I reported that Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby called and told me that his is a candidate for the GOP nomination in Assembly District 72. Currently Norby still occupies that territory all by himself. But names are definitely swirling around of other potential candidates. These (so far) include Republican National Committeewoman Linda Ackerman (the wife of now-retired Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman), Placentia Councilman Scott Nelson, former Placentia Councilman ____, Orange Councilman Jon Dimitru.… Read More

Anyone who believes that voter fraud is a thing of the past or not a serious problem in the United States should read these headlines that were published in papers around the country in recent days:

* Two more charged with voting fraud in Lexington election * Update: Atlantic City councilman’s job status still undecided

* 11 accused of faking voter registration cards in Miami-Dade

Our right to vote is one of our most cherished freedoms. Therefore, we must never tolerate voter fraud.

To learn more what we are doing to prevent voter fraud in California, visit www.votesafenow.org… Read More

Green Jobs is a feel-good buzz term that inspires visions of blending environmental kindness with job creation and economic development in our communities.

However, the reality is California really doesn’t have a strong green job industry. Other states, like next door neighbors Nevada and Arizona, have green job industries because they have built a foundation for green job manufacturing with a friendlier overall job creation environment. (Click here to watch a video of my opposition to a measure that is predicated on California’s green job myth).

Unfortunately, California has failed to create green job manufacturing because we have spent the past decade divesting our state of the once vibrant manufacturing job sector – Another 120,000 manufacturing jobs left California just this last year.

Sure we have created a few sparks of success in niche industries related to green jobs, but we do not have full-blown manufacturing jobs because manufacturers have gone to friendlier business climes.

If the California Legislature wants to make the state a serious player in the green jobs… Read More

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At some point this morning a short statement from Assemblyman Mike Duvall appeared on his campaign website, and we reprint it for FR readers below: "I made a mistake and I sincerely apologize. I deeply regret the comments I made in what I believed to be a private conversation. This is a private matter and I ask that everyone respect the privacy of all involved." — Assemblyman Mike Duvall … Read More

While the breaking story of Assemblyman Mike Duvall talking graphically about extramarital affairs on an open legislative microphone continues to be a top story, we’ll keep bumping this to the top of the blog when new links are added.

**IT IS BECOMING ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE STORIES. GO TO A GOOGLE SEARCH OF MIKE DUVALL’S NAME FOR NEWS STORIES. BE PREPARED TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME. WE WILL KEEP UPDATING THE LIST BELOW…** Here is the link to the original KCBS/KCAL story…… Read More

The Sacramento Bee has reported that GOP Assemblyman Mike Duvall has been removed from the Assembly Rules and Utilities and Commerce Committee after the startling revelations about his extra-marital affairs with Capitol lobbyists. Also, the leader of Assembly GOPers, Sam Blakeslee, has dumped Duvall from his leadership post in the Republican Caucus.

In the story are statements from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee: