From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…

‘Election Deception,’ California-style

The profligate spending of California’s local governments means pols are going to extreme lengths to grab revenue. Voters in more than two dozen California jurisdictions, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, will be asked next week to approve telephone tax increases. Thanks to misleading summaries on local ballots, many will actually think they’re voting for tax cuts.

The California Taxpayers’ Association calls it "Deception 2008." Only two jurisdictions, Eureka and Seaside, appear to have legitimate phone tax repeals on the ballot.… Read More

MYTH: Prop 6 will fill our jails and prisons.

FACT: While California’s prison system is certainly impacted, compared to other states California is about in the middle when it comes to prison population according to a study by the very liberal Pew Institute.

What’s great about Proposition 6 is that itincludes provisions to help the prison and county jail populations: It would allow counties that have population caps on jail populations – like LA, Fresno and Sacramento – to operate emergency jails for low-offending in-mates.

Proposition 6 takes great strides in providing meaningful prevention and intervention measures as well, such as funding GPS for gang members released from jail or prison.

Many counties are already using GPS – with great success – to monitor gang members. Not only does GPS allow law enforcement to know the whereabouts of gang members, it changes the behavior of the offender.

Napa County’s probation department is in the midst of testing GPS on a handful of juvenile offenders. Chief Probation Officer Mary Butler said the youths have now become law-abiding citizens; they are attending school and thus, have… Read More

The Fresno County Republican Party, through a last minute push in voter registrations, held off the Socialist Workers Party of America, other wise known as the Democrats, by maintaining a 10,000 vote registration advantage as of the close of registration. Rumor has it that the Democrats have 110% of their eligible voters registered, slightly lower than Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Richmond and other cities where their subsidiary, ACORN, has been actively registering.… Read More

In an election shocker, 52nd Congressional candidate Duncan D. Hunter’s lead in recent polling has dropped to a mere 21 percentage points, down from 23 only about three weeks ago!.

See the memo attached below.

I think I’ll take a nap now.… Read More

I watched broadcast between 8:30 and 9:00am this morning, flipping to find commercials. Here is what I saw, with comments.

Goldsmith for City Attorney: 1 Aguirre for City Attorney: 1 (something was wrong with the color of the ad) Block for 78th AD: 3 McCann for 78th AD: 4 Bilbray for Congress: 3 Liebham for Congress: 1 Prop 2 No: 3 Prop 7 Yes: 3 (strong ads) Prop 7 No: 4 (strong ads) Prop 8 Yes: 1 Prop 8 No: 1 Prop 4 Yes: 1 (strange ad) Prop 4 No: 1 Prop 5 Yes: 2 No on B: 1 Yes on Prop S: 2 (strange ad)… Read More

Early last summer, my husband and I moved the kids 10 miles east of Oakland, “through the tunnel” as they say around here, to the town of Lafayette. We decided to start to get a little benefit of our tax dollars and take advantage of Lafayette’s excellent public schools. (There was no way they were going to public schools in Oakland.)

While we knew that we would still be surrounded by blue state voters, we hoped that Contra Costa County would feel a little more balanced and normal than Oakland. We were thrilled to be leaving Ron Dellums and the mess that is the City of Oakland behind. But, alas, it is still a sea of Obama stickers and signs out here, although there are a few McCain/Palin signs and bumper stickers as well.

As soon as the national campaign started producing “McCain/Palin” signs, I took my children down to the local GOP office in Walnut Creek and got our sign and bumper stickers. On the way home, we talked about the importance of free speech and the responsibility of voting (today, my 13-year-old’s history class is holding a mock election on the presidential race and a handful of state propositions—results will be… Read More

No matter what you think about Prop 1A no reasonable person could read the latest e-mail alert from the High Speed Rail Commission and not conclude that it is politically motivated. This one is just over the top.

It is taxpayer funded communication that even includes quotes from a US Senator from Illinois and a US Senator from Delaware that happen to be running on the Democrat ticket for President and Vice President of the United States. It might as well just have an endorsement list for Prop 1A and a "contribute here" button.

This is advocacy for Prop 1A courtesy of the taxpayers of California. It may still be legal but it is still very wrong.

You can read the latest campaign newsletter here.

They were kind enough to take me off their mailing list but enough people forwarded it to me that I got copies anyway.… Read More

The California Republican Party has released a new web video: "Joe The Plumber And Millions Like Him" — See it below… … Read More