I just finished reading a wonderful book about California and one of the biggest forces to ever impact California politics. Big Daddy:Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics is a well written biography by Bill Boyarsky.

Boyarsky is perfectly positioned to write this book because of his background as a reporter and his personal interaction with Unruh.

Unruh did have an enormous impact on California policy. Some of it good. Some of it bad. The Lanterman Act, Unruh Civil Rights Act, and a full-time Legislature were all accomplished or driven by Unruh.

Boyarsky clearly seems to admire the policy accomplishments of Unruh. However, his word choice when describing the personal life of Unruh when in Sacramento left me wondering what he thought about the man.

Chapter 8 in the book is titled "Animal House". It describes the atmosphere of Sacramento during the time Unruh served in the Assembly. What I can’t believe is that with stuff like this being written… Read More

From the "At least make it user friendly" department… Few politicians – among Republicans, anyway – would ever think of taking a tax bill presentation on the road and making a success of it. San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister has done just that over the last few years.

Winning office in 2003 against scandal-ridden incumbent Bart Hartman, rookie officeholder McAllister immediately embarked on an effort to turn on its head the otherwise understated position of treasuer-tax collector, which he calls “the Maytag repair person of local elected politics.” Realizing the last time the property tax bill had been updated was 1951, he decided to go to the public to determine how best to make a necessary evil better for the hard-working folks having to decipher and pay it.

“What in business hasn’t changed in half a century?” he asked, “We need change. How can we create a kinder, nicer, friendlier, easier-to-read tax bill?”

Taking the old bill “on tour,” McAllister sought input from dozens of community groups, service clubs, and every one of 18 city councils in… Read More

To win the honors of being the Democrat on the ballot for President this November, either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama must win a majority of 4049 delegates. So, to put it another way, the first one to get to 2025 gets to claim the Gold Medal for Dems. Much has been made about how Senator Obama has been exceeding expectations, virtually in a neck-and-neck tie with Hillary at this point in the nomination contest. In fact three more states will hold their primaries today, and some say that Obama will out-delegate Clinton. But the real question is this — are all of the primaries and caucuses being held around America by Democrats just for show? Are they just beauty contests? Is it the case that the Democratic Party may be totally misnamed — because as people are just now starting to understand, there may not be much democratic (small d) input into their nominating process. Why is this? The complex and arcane rules of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) provide that of the 2025 delegates to their convention this summer, 796 of them are not chosen by rank and file Dems (whether by primary or caucus). Rather,… Read More

I have been too optimistic in my reports on McCain’s acceptance at CPAC.

I spent some time last night and today looking for real and enthusiastic support for McCain among CPAC participants. There is indeed some such support,for examplemy fellow American Conservative Union Board member Charlie Black is indeed one of McCain’s campaign spokesmen and strategists. But the fact is, where McCain does havesupport, itseems more"resigned" or "grudging" than enthusiastic.

For sure, McCain got a great response, and gave a great speech on Thursday, timed as it was just a fewhours after and at the same forum that his chief opponent, Mitt Romney, chose to announce the suspension of his campaign.McCain made the case, logically, thathis record reflects he is a mainstream conservative.

But plenty of people here are not buying it, and not just thesmall percentage of the usual kooks at the fringesof the conference.While the mood here is definitely not gloomy, and people seemed fired up against Hillary and Obama, in talking to people I am sure McCain has not completely "closed the… Read More

Among a group of other RNC Members, the McCain campaign has announced the endorsement of California’s National Committeewoman, Barbara Alby. I have not heard of California’s two other “Superdelegates” – State GOP Chairman Ron Nehring and National Committeeman Tim Morgan – endorsing as of yet…… Read More

To win the honors of being the Democrat on the ballot for President this November, either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama must win a majority of 4049 delegates. So, to put it another way, the first one to get to 2025 gets to claim the Gold Medal for Dems. Much has been made about how Senator Obama has been exceeding expectations, virtually in a neck-and-neck tie with Hillary at this point in the nomination contest. In fact three more states will hold their primaries today, and some say that Obama will out-delegate Clinton.

But the real question is this — are all of the primaries and caucuses being held around America by Democrats just for show? Are they just beauty contests? Is it the case that the Democratic Party may be totally misnamed — because as people are just now starting to understand, there may not be much democratic (small d) input into their nominating process. Why is this? **There is more – click the link**

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Some of the hallway discussions at CPAC have focused on the plight of Paul Jacobs, a leading light andpromoter ofterm limits. Jacobs, a founder of the organization U.S. Term Limits, was a leading candidate for the so-called "Ronald Reagan" award, which is an annual cash prize bestowed on an exemplary conservative by the American Conservative Union Board of Directors at CPAC. This year’s winner will be announced at a dinner tonight.

Jacobs has allied with Californians more than once to promote and preserve term limits through initiatives.

Sadly, Jabobs efforts are not so appreciated in Oklahoma. He is currently under criminal indictment in the Sooner State for importing "out of state" petition gatherers to work on a state spending limit initiative. Criminal indictment.

Professional petition gathering is not a pretty business. It is not easy to find a person willing to volunteer to faceexposure andrejection 2 or 3 times a minute. The people who charge for these services and actually enjoy it are rare and a special type of person. Often, in a successful petition gathering… Read More

I have been surveying tried-and-true conservatives on their reactions to the McCain speech at CPAC in Washington, D.C. yesterday, and to be honest, most want to talk about the Romney speech earlier in the day, in which Romney announcedhe was "suspending" his campaign, and not the McCain speech.

Gary Kreep of Ramona, CA, the President of the US Justice Foundation and a CPAC "old-hand" summed up the comments I am receiving. He told me this afternoon, "Romney sounded like he was running for President in 2012." Even though Romneymade it plain that the time for a Republican president was now.

I took a second to take that in, and then said, "well, do you think Romney is supportive of McCain in 2008?" And Gary answered, "yes, but my feeling is the speech was about him, not McCain, and that he is running in 2012."

Interesting.

I have had opportunity to commune with a whole lot of people. My friend Lew Uhler, who I have worked with many times, the extremely intelligent lawyer Joe Morris of Chicago, who was Don Devine’s General Counsel at the U.S. Personnel Management… Read More