I have gotten a few notes from folks asking me why I did not talk about the State Senate in my earlier post on how Republicans should not participate in coronating Democrats as Speakers.

To be honest, I didn’t leave out the Senate for any reason other than it is the Assembly that votes for a Speaker tomorrow…

That said, Republicans in the State Senate also need to change how they do things. Apparently, over there, there’s an actual roll call vote for President Pro-Tempore where GOPers have for some time been voting for the Demcrat. Ugh!

When the vote comes up for Steinberg, Republicans should be placing Dave Cogdill’s name into nomination. He will lose, but that’s to be expected. But having Republicans vote for a Republican, and not a Democrat, is the right thing to do for all of the reasons outlined in my earlier post.… Read More

In case you missed it Sunday….

Hunter’s rivals work to stand out By Michele Clock STAFF WRITER

Duncan D. Hunter is making his first run for Congress, but he’s got many of the advantages of an incumbent.

As the son of U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, the 31-year-old captain in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve has built-in name recognition and political connections, and he has raised more money than his rivals for the 52nd District seat.

How much those assets will help in the June 3 statewide primary remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Duncan D. Hunter’s three Republican rivals are using their own considerable experience and connections to collect endorsements and carve out constituencies, which could play an elevated role in a campaign in which there is little difference among the candidates on key issues.

All the Republican candidates are focusing on their backgrounds to underscore why they would be best qualified to serve the heavily Republican district, which covers much of eastern and… Read More

My friend, conservative Assemblywoman Mimi Walters, is in the political fight of a lifetime, running for an Orange County State Senate seat open due to the departure from the legislature of Dick Ackerman, my State Senator. Walters is running against Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu, who is spending a LOT of money sending out negative mail, and has a particular nasty commercial trashing Mimi that is running heavily on cable television. In that spot, the announcer hurls what is a scathing attack in Republican Orange County — “She voted to put liberal Democrat Fabian Nunez in charge of the Assembly… Twice!” Is it true? Did she? No. But read on… But I will say up front that Mimi did something that every other Assembly Republican has done… Buckle up your seatbelt for this information that I am going to share, because it makes one scratch their head to hear that this actually happens in the State Assembly…

Let me start that by saying that in Washington, D.C., the vote to… Read More

It is never a good thing to talk about elections in the middle of an election. I already know that, if there are responses to what I write, they will be mostly ad hominem. The conservative movement, however, is worth the criticism. As a political force, the conservative movement is dying in California, and it is dying because too many of our conservative leaders have allowed their personal agendas to trump the principles they claim to espouse.

Let me first explain what I mean. I don’t count consultants as conservative leaders. They will pick up the cause of whoever writes the check. One problem is that too many activists confuse consultants with principle. They believe that political consultants actually believe in more than the fifteen per cent they collect from their clients. The fact is that consultants serve candidates or their pocketbook, not causes. They are an important part of the political process but they cannot drive it. They have to feed their family first, and that need too often trumps principle.They are the tacticians, they are not the leaders. The two cannot be confused if we ever wish to create a… Read More

Sometimes, you just have to ask yourself, “What are they thinking?” Last week, Assembly and Senate Republicans held a joint press conference to introduce their proposals to solve California’s $20 billion state budget deficit. Give legislative Republicans credit for pro-actively tackling the state’s fiscal crisis. (Sacramento Bee columnist Steve Weigand praised the effort here.) Loyal FR readers will recall that I have written about the need for Republican lawmakers to stake clear ground in the budget debate. Then, I read the first bullet point:

Combat Waste, Fraud and Abuse in State Government – This proposal would strengthen the California Whistleblower Protection Act

… Read More

It is never a good thing to talk about elections in the middle of an election. I already know that, if there are responses to what I write, they will be mostly ad hominem. The conservative movement, however, is worth the criticism. As a political force, the conservative movement is dying in California, and it is dying because too many of our conservative leaders have allowed their personal agendas to trump the principles they claim to espouse.

Let me first explain what I mean. I don’t count consultants as conservative leaders. They will pick up the cause of whoever writes the check. One problem is that too many activists confuse consultants with principle. They believe that political consultants actually believe in more than the fifteen per cent they collect from their clients. The fact is that consultants serve candidates or their pocketbook, not causes. They are an important part of the political process but they cannot drive it. They have to feed their family first, and that need too often trumps principle.They are the tacticians, they are not the leaders. The two cannot be confused if we ever wish to create a… Read More

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has penned this very sobering column that exposes why the League of California Cities and the Redevelopment Community in California is so supportive of Proposition 99 — it is worse than doing nothing.

For the past several months, local government interests, including the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, have spent millions of dollars touting Prop. 99 as ironclad protection for Californians who fear having their homes seized by local governments to be turned over to private developers for strip-malls and other for-profit projects.

But the list of property rights experts who reject this claim is growing. This is because Prop. 99 includes significant loopholes… Read More

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has penned this very sobering column that exposes why the League of California Cities and the Redevelopment Community in California is so supportive of Proposition 99 — it is worse than doing nothing.

For the past several months, local government interests, including the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, have spent millions of dollars touting Prop. 99 as ironclad protection for Californians who fear having their homes seized by local governments to be turned over to private developers for strip-malls and other for-profit projects.

But the list of property rights experts who reject this claim is growing. This is because Prop. 99 includes significant loopholes that will allow public agencies to continue… Read More