Last year I wrote some commentaries about a local politician out in San Bernardino County – Mark Nuaimi. Nuaimi, to whom I have referred to as the “Conflict King” is simultaneously the Assistant City Manager of Colton for his day job, and he is also the elected Mayor of the nearby city of Fontana. Nuaimi’s reputation for being a pretty arrogant guy reaches all of the way up to Sacramento, where one well placed politico in the State Capitol, when I reference him, said, “Oh, you mean Mayor Big Head.”

I penned one commentary that referenced a story in his local newspaper about a controversy of Nuaimi name-calling residents of Colton using his city e-mail, and another talking about how Nuaimi sees his role as Mayor as being at the keyboard for a single-player game of “SimFontana” – which is to say that in a country where the citizens, and not the government (at any level) are supposed to be in charge, Nuaimi has his idea for what he… Read More

FR friend Gabriella Holt of Los Angeles County, who is heading up an effort to qualify an initiative to enact a part-time legislature (www.reformcal.com) sent over a note with a startling relevation that clearly demonstrates that the Democrats running the State Legislature are completely tone deaf.

According to Holt, yesterday, the State Assembly passed legislation creating the California Blueberry Commission at a cost of well over a million dollars.

“This is one more example of why we need to return to a part-time, citizen legislature in California,” says Holt — and she is right!

File this under, “You Can't Make This Up…”… Read More

Today’s Capitol Weekly features new poll results from the Capitol Weekly/Probolsky Research CA Poll. The economy still tops concerns of voters statewide.

The GOP Primary race for Governor is tightening but Tom Campbell still leads with 13% (voting for and leaning toward), Whitman gets 10% and Poizner at 8%. This represents a 100% increase in Poinzner’s numbers since our last poll. Most voters though are undecided. We changed the ballot designations for all three candidates in this poll to more accurately reflect what might appear on the ballot. Having reached out to all three candidates to provided a new preferred ballot designation, only Poizner’s campaign provided one: Entrepreneur/Educator

On the Dem side Attorney General Jerry Brown leads with 24% (we did not include Sen. Feinstein this time). San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom gets 16% and rival from the south LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rates 15% (all numbers combine voting for and leaning toward voting for).

Voters are split on whether to move full… Read More

REPUBLICANS SHOULD PRESS FOR A VOTE, AND VOTE TO SUPPORT THE GOVERNOR’S REVISIONS You’ve heard it from FR contributor and Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard already, but the first order of business in the State Capitol should be to schedule an immediate up or down vote on the Governor’s proposed budget revisions.

Newly minted Republican legislative leaders Senator Dennis Hollingsworth and Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee should ask for an up or down vote right away.

Let me tell you, there is plenty for everyone to dislike in that package, whether you hail from the left or the right. For my part, some of the cuts to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and borrowing money from local governments really don’t sit well with me. And I know that there are a lot for those on the… Read More

The Assembly is plowing through dozens of Democrat-sponsored bills today, literally “fiddling while Rome burns.” Amongst those bills that have passed today is AB 1048, by Alberto Torrico, legislation that increases from 72-hours to 30 days the amount of time parents have to “surrender” their child to the government. Many Republicans voted for this legislation today and in the past, under the impression that it is a “pro-life” policy that will save lives. Some legislation appears good public policy until it is truly examined. AB 1048 is one of those bills that initially makes lawmakers feel good about themselves, but sends the wrong message to the public.

First, the very concept of “surrendering” one’s child to the government is antithetical to the American principle of limited government. America was founded upon the belief that the church and family are the nucleus of our communities. If a woman finds herself unable to care for a newborn, she should be able to turn to her family, church, or local private charities for assistance. But as the… Read More

REPUBLICANS SHOULD PRESS FOR A VOTE, AND VOTE TO SUPPORT THE GOVERNOR’S REVISIONS You’ve heard it from FR contributor and Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard already, but the first order of business in the State Capitol should be to schedule an immediate up or down vote on the Governor’s proposed budget revisions.

Newly minted Republican legislative leaders Senator Dennis Hollingsworth and Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee should ask for an up or down vote right away.

Let me tell you, there is plenty for everyone to dislike in that package, whether you hail from the left or the right. For my part, some of the cuts to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and borrowing money from local governments really don’t sit well with me. And I know that there are a lot for those on the… Read More

If you need no greater indicator about how life as a Republican legislator in Sacramento is all about defense, you need look no further than a Facebook status update recently posted by Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Cameron Smyth, who said — “Can't believe the Assembly is voting on 93 bills today and only 4 are authored by Republicans.”

This happens because not only do Democrats author more bills, but more significantly the Democrats kill Republican bills in the various policy committees, while advancing their own.

Actually, it is probably a good sign that there are so few Republican authored bills making it to the floor — given that in order to get to the floor, they have to substantively pass must with ideological leftists.

Until there is more parody in the legislature between parties, Republicans can look forward to passing meaningless studies, non-controversial resolutions, and commemorative license plate bills.

The key, as newly appoint Assembly GOP Floor Leader Curt Hagman would tell you, is to aggresively embarrass Democrats on the floor of the legislature for “fiddling while Rome… Read More

The following had so many comments on my Facebook page yesterday (who’d of thunk FB would become a blog of it’s own), I thought I’d share it here…

Every time I receive an "Urgent Action Alert" email from someone asking for help in saving their particular entity-program-subsidy from CA budget cuts, I will now respond with, "Thanks. Please let me know what should be cut in place of your program?"

Join me?… Read More