On Tuesday, Governor Schwarzenegger delivered an address at the annual, massive 2008 BIO International Convention. The event is so large that it is attended by scientists and researchers from over 70 countries. You can watch the Governor’s remarks on video, courtesy of his website, here (Warning: if you watch the video, it opens with the Governor trying to make a joke after the defeat of the Lakers in the NBA finals. It falls so flat that it reinforces a stereotype — that scientists don’t watch or follow professional sports).

Since we are heading into the high-stakes season of state budget negotiations, it’s always interesting to listen to what the Governor says to look for his personal budget priorities. While enduring a few (too many) mentions of "global warming blah… Read More

Bonnie Lowenthal, the 54th AD Democratic nominee and Long Beach City Council Member has plan for health care. It is pretty simple. Make the taxpayers pay. This time it was the taxpayers in Long Beach that appeared to have paid.

Poor Bonnie Lowenthal went to a John Kerry event at the airport in 2004. Like Gerald Ford, She slipped and fell. She apparently hurt herself and instead of being made fun of by Chevy Chase she filed a claim against the City of Long Beach.

See in Long Beach appearing at a campaign event is somehow considered related to her work as a council member. Again, partisan political events were part of her “work”. As a result, she got lifetime medical for the injury and 10K. Not too shabby.

Obviously, Lowenthal was hurt. But why not file a claim against the Kerry Campaign? Or the plane manufacturer for building an aircraft with slippery steps? Or someone other than the taxpayers of Long Beach? Did she have medical insurance at the time? Questions will need to be answered before November.

Also posted on Red County… Read More

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, taking a much needed rest from running California into a $15 billion dollar deficit, weighed in on the oil/gas price crisis by emphatically stating his opposition to offshore oil drilling. The Governor, steadfastly refusing to believe that increased supplies of a commodity results in lower prices for that commodity, proclaimed his knowledge superior to that of 5,000 years recorded history, in which, in every instance, increased supply of a commodity has resulted in lower prices!

No wonder California is in such great shape!

Update: 11:05 pm – I just saw Arnold on TV explaining his position on drilling. I want to report that he is even more incoherent on his position on this issue than on the State budget.… Read More

This morning Senate and Assembly Republicans held a news conference at the State Capitol to announce a formal proposal to institute state government spending limits.

An overview of the elements of their proposal: Establishes A Spending Limit Enacts a strict spending limit that restricts spending growth each year to the combined percentage change in the state’s population growth and inflation, currently averaging about 5 percent.

Establishes a prudent Reserve Fund

Creates a Special Reserve Account that may only be spent when revenue falls below the spending limits for a given year, subject to a two-thirds vote. The maximum amount that can be accumulated in the new Special Reserve Account may not … Read More

It seems like just yesterday, but are we really celebrating the 10th anniversary of the successful campaign to pass the Proposition 227 to end bilingual education in California in favor of English immersion programs? The campaign we called English for the Children.

It seems like just yesterday when I got a phone call from my friend and political mentor at the time Lorelei Kinder. Lorelei, who is passionate about the education issue (I can still her rolling quotes from her friend and senior education official in the latter part of the Reagan Administration, Chester “Checker” Finn, off of her tongue). Lorelei asked me if I would be interested leaving my position (at the time I was a special assistant to then State Senator John Lewis) and go to work as the Campaign Coordinator for the fledgling Prop. 227 effort. I took her up on the idea, and soon found myself having a meeting with the impressive genius (literally) of this ballot measure campaign – successful Silicon Valley… Read More

It seems like just yesterday, but are we really celebrating the 10th anniversary of the successful campaign to pass the Proposition 227 to end bilingual education in California in favor of English immersion programs? The campaign we called English for the Children.

It seems like just yesterday when I got a phone call from my friend and political mentor at the time Lorelei Kinder. Lorelei, who is passionate about the education issue (I can still her rolling quotes from her friend and senior education official in the latter part of the Reagan Administration, Chester “Checker” Finn, off of her tongue). Lorelei asked me if I would be interested leaving my position (at the time I was a special assistant to then State Senator John Lewis) and go to work as the Campaign Coordinator for the fledgling Prop. 227 effort. I took her up on the idea, and soon found myself having a meeting with the impressive genius (literally) of this ballot measure campaign – successful Silicon Valley… Read More

I came home for the weekend to find the price of premium gas approaching $5 per gallon. It is about 40 cents higher than in the DC area. Not only is the price of gas unlikely to stop there, but other energy prices are rising too. The price of natural gas has risen dramatically in the last few months. Natural gas provides almost all of our home heating in California as well as about 50% of our electricity generation. Remember the spikes in electricity prices back during the energy crisis of 2001? Well, there won’t be that big a jump this time, but there will be a jump in your electric bill and your heating bill soon. So it’s not just the price of gasoline which will be impacting your wallet.

So what is happening in Washington to try to deal with this new energy crisis? Nothing. House Democratic leadership has blocked a number of Republican sponsored bills from consideration on the floor, and the only bill they are pushing is a "windfall profits" tax increase on domestic oil production which they know is going nowhere in the Senate or with the president (and which would increase the price of gas rather than decrease it anyway). So there is literally… Read More

[Meredith’s post below this one reminded me that I had intended to write on this earlier. I guess it’s "pile on Jack Scott" day…] About a month ago, State Senator Jack Scott was "hired" to be the new Chancellor of the California Community College System, said employment to begin at the end of the year. Shortly after his appointment to this post was announced, Scott tendered his resignation as Chairman of the Budget Subcommittee on Education (The Bee’s Capitol Alert carried it here – registration req’d).

At the time, Scott’s spokesperson said that the Senator, "didn’t want any possible appearance of a conflict of interest."

I guess its time to ask the obvious question — if Scott resigned from a budget subcommittee because a conflict of interest (I can’t think of a bigger one than having accepted a job at the end of your term from a public agency that is heavily… Read More