In April of this year I wrote an article about what a disgruntled California conservative or libertarian should consider when pondering a move to another state. I recommended looking at the 2016 “Trump vote” as a simple indicator of the future probability of a conservative state “turning” (to use zombie parlance).

Nevada had obvious warning signs. It voted for Hillary. BOTH state legislatures are now controlled by Democrats. Only the governorship remains in GOP hands.

Even the political future of Texas is suspect long term. I have a soft spot for Tennessee, a state that voted almost 2-1 for Trump and is completely phasing out its remaining state income tax. BTW, I’m not much of a Trump fan, but that presidential vote is a great indicator of the political leaning of a state. Here’s my article: http://riderrants.blogspot.com/2017/04/2016-trump-vote-tells-us-californians.html

I thought I’d look again at one state — perhaps the first state many Californians consider:… Read More

Occasionally the public gets upset about our “bully boy” policing system. A recorded incident of a cop taking money from an unpermitted hotdog vendor in Berkeley created substantial online blowback.

There have been calls for the officer’s firing. But in truth he was “just following orders.” It’s the practice of many California police departments to grab any cash at the “scene of a crime” under the guise of “asset forfeiture.”

I feel so much safer, knowing that my California police force (each cop making well over $150,000 in total compensation annually) is out there ticketing (and stealing from) these “street criminals.” It’s a GREAT ad for why we should end asset forfeiture.

Keep in mind — these are the same Berkeley police who have REPEATEDLY refused (on orders, but still refused) to actively prevent violent left wing attacks on peaceful right wing demonstrators. REPEATEDLY.

But in the cops’ defense, there are a LOT of “illegal” street vendors out there to ticket and steal money from. It’s a matter of priorities, I guess.… Read More

The numbers were startling.

According to media reports, a newly formed group affiliated with Harvard Law School called the “Fair Punishment Project” (FPP) supposedly reviewed court decisions from 2010 to 2015 involving the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. The “study” found that the OCDA had seven convictions reversed due to prosecutorial misconduct and 24 overall findings of prosecutorial misconduct, and these numbers were ranked amongst the highest in the state. Curiously, the authors of the report chose not to “show their work” behind their claims, or list any of the qualifying cases they had deemed to be prosecutorial misconduct. The media accused our prosecutors of “cheating” to win, and wrote an editorial stating “these are not cases of errors, but of willful and serious misconduct,” while a local politician who covets the Office of the District Attorney proclaimed we had “the worst record in the entire state.”

There was just one problem: The numbers in the study were completely wrong.

In their rush to criticize the men and women of the OCDA who handle over 60,000 new cases each year, the media, politicians, and… Read More

El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Steven Bailey recently retired to run for California Attorney General. A Superior Court judge since 2009, Bailey stepped down last month to mount his campaign for the office of Attorney General.

Bailey, an attorney since 1990, was a State of California Criminal Law Specialist, and handled complex criminal matters including death penalty, life in prison, homicide and sexual offenses.

This is significant since Xavier Becerra, the current Attorney General has been a politician his entire career rather than practicing law. Becerra’s law license was filed “inactive” with the California State Bar Association until 1/1/2017.

I met with Judge Steven Bailey and we covered a lot of ground. This is Part l.

Judge Bailey, a Republican, said he decided to run for Attorney General, “when after 8 ½ years on bench, you see all of the problems that revolve through the courtroom, but have no… Read More

This week California Republican Party delegates received an email from some former legislators with the odd pitch that Republicans should preserve the deeply flawed “top two” primary system better known as Proposition 14.

While we all respect those Republicans who have served in the legislature, this request is truly bizarre given what has happened to our party under this failed system.

Proposition 14 should be repealed – immediately – so every voter in California has the opportunity to vote for a Republican in general elections.

As we all know, last year because of Proposition 14 California voters had the “choice” of voting for either liberal Democrat Kamala Harris or liberal Democrat Loretta Sanchez for U.S. Senate. This is like choosing between vanilla and French vanilla.

A choice between two Democrats is no choice at all.

Under Proposition 14, literally millions of Californians have been denied the opportunity to vote for Republican candidates for Assembly, Senate, Congress, and statewide offices because only two Democrats were in the “top two.”

How… Read More

Once upon a time, Republican elected officials from California led our nation with conservative first principles. The Golden State’s first U.S. Senator, John C. Fremont, was “Lincoln’s Pathfinder” as the first presidential candidate of the new Republican party, in 1856.

Ronald Reagan was California’s 33rd Governor, and the successful two-term 40th President of the United States.

Proposition 13 and the anti-tax movement were important and longstanding efforts to protect homeowners from the voracious appetites and confiscatory taxation ambitions of local and state governments.

Today, California Republicans are at a low ebb. Voter registration statewide has the GOP, at less than 25%, now in 3rd place, behind both registered Democrats and Independents.

The “top two” voting system means that GOP candidates don’t even appear on the general election ballot for U.S. Senator or Governor anymore.

The last time a Republican won a U.S. Senate seat in California was in 1988 (Pete Wilson). All current statewide elected constitutional officers are Democrats, and the state legislature in Sacramento is now 2/3rd… Read More

Two weeks after the 2016 election, I spoke on the House floor and warned that the greatest single obstacle to meeting the expectations of the American people was the cloture rule in the Senate. I said: “Voters elected Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and they expect action. They’ll get it from the President and from the House. But in order for the Senate to rise to this occasion, it must reform its cloture rule when it organizes in January.” It didn’t.

Cloture is the Senate motion to conclude debate, and it is based on a sound parliamentary principle: as long as a significant minority – currently 40 Senate members – want to continue debate, that debate should continue. But this principle assumes it is an actual debate between real people regarding the merits of the subject directly at hand.

But that is not what cloture has become. Today, any Senator can block virtually any bill simply by filing a protest at the desk, and until 60 of the 100 Senators agree to take up the bill, it cannot be heard.

Ironically, a motion originally designed to protect debate has degenerated into a motion that very effectively prevents… Read More

With liberal Democrats busy trying to turn California into some kind of progressive utopia, conservatives can often be heard talking about our state in dire terms, deriding it and openly discussing either leaving or rationalizing those who do.

At the same time, literally hundreds of Republican candidates are running or preparing to seek state and federal office in California in 2018.

“California is terrible, elect us to lead it” is an awful message for our team.

Spend any time traveling around the country or around the world and one very quickly realizes that California has a tremendous global brand. Most people with an opinion of California have a very positive one: they either want to visit, live in, or at least have something from here.

There’s a good reason all Apple are products specifically labeled “designed in California.”

California has a powerful brand because it is in fact one of the most amazing places on Earth. We need to recognize that, and let voters know that we know it.

Sure, California state government is a complete mess. But that doesn’t mean California is a mess. And conservatives more… Read More