You might have heard about Berkeley’s City Council’s recent vote to tell the Marines to close their recruiting station in the city. With this vote, they told the Marines that their recruiting office is not welcome in their city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as an uninvited and unwelcome intruders.

In response to this, Ihave introduced the “Semper Fi Act” in the House of Representatives. This act rescinds all of the funding contained in the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act for the City of Berkeley, CA and transfers those funds to the Marines for recruiting

During the meeting, the City Council also voted to give protest group Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week. According to the City Council agenda, they "Encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station, and applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink, that may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley."

The Marine Corps has… Read More

When you’re wrong, I have always thought, admit it. So I am going to admit it. I was wrong, this year’s California primary actually meant something. Candidates came here spent money, and actually paid attention to Californians. I thought it wouldn’t happen, and I was wrong.

I mainly objected to moving the primary forward, and I thought that, once again, that would be a futile act. It had been every other time we moved it forward, and I thought this would be no different. In my opinion, California has really screwed up the presidential primary system in its effort to be relevant. I still believe that.

I think I was wrong because of circumstances unique to this primary. For the first time since 1952, no one on the ballot has been president or vice president (that is, in every presidential election since 1952, at least one of the candidates on the ballot was president or vice president when the general election started). That leaves the election wide open, and raises a lot of uncertainty. I think that factor, more than any other, is why California was relevant this year. It is also my opinion that California would still have… Read More

When you’re wrong, I have always thought, admit it. So I am going to admit it. I was wrong, this year’s California primary actually meant something. Candidates came here spent money, and actually paid attention to Californians. I thought it wouldn’t happen, and I was wrong.

I mainly objected to moving the primary forward, and I thought that, once again, that would be a futile act. It had been every other time we moved it forward, and I thought this would be no different. In my opinion, California has really screwed up the presidential primary system in its effort to be relevant. I still believe that.

I think I was wrong because of circumstances unique to this primary. For the first time since 1952, no one on the ballot has been president or vice president (that is, in every presidential election since 1952, at least one of the candidates on the ballot was president or vice president when the general election started). That leaves the election wide open, and raises a lot of uncertainty. I think that factor, more than any other, is why California was relevant this year. It is also my opinion that California would still have… Read More

Here were my thoughts on Tuesday’s election as it relates to the Presidential race here in California. I’d encourage you to share your observations with readers in the comments section.

Back on Top Again Bill Jones — The state Chairman for Senator McCain’s campaign in California. He stuck with Senator McCain through good times and bad. Jones is a complete gentleman and tireless worker. So too is his top political adviser Rob Lapsley. They deserve a lot of credit for the McCain win in California. (full disclosure — my partner John Peschong is the State Director for the McCain Campaign).

Speaking of Secretary of State I can’t remember a more poorly run election on a national stage since Florida in 2000. Is anybody running that place over there? From what I hear, the County Registrars wont speak to Debra Bowen. Her move to decertify machines caused unnecessary confusion in major counties like Riverside, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Alameda counties just to name a few. And the changes to her website — ugh, they drove me nuts. It took me 2 minutes to find the link to election results. You… Read More

Granted, I’m well aware that 100% doesn’t necessarily mean 100% when it comes to precincts reporting, but as of this moment, with 100% reporting Romney has picked up the 42nd Congressional District by a whopping 73 votes.

Romney – 29,589 — 38.3% McCain – 29,516 — 38.3%

This one in particular matters to me, as if this holds, the three delegates Romney would have picked up are:

– Steve Baric – Ed Tolman – Yours Truly… Read More

On Tuesday the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted down a proposed charter amendment that would have placed numerous new restrictions on campaigns for county office. The proposal included such outrageous provision as the creation of a new county commission (a mini-FPPC) to oversee campaign finance in Orange County.

Theproposal even had a provisiongiving the authority to this commission to seize campaign funds if the candidate did not dot every "i" and cross every "t" in their disclosure documents. The money wouldgo to the county’s General Fund.This is the arrogance of government at its best.

Themajor proponent of the measure was Shirley Grindle (pictured above), a self-proclaimed"watch dog" of county government. I call her a lobbyist (a profession she detests, a profession I think is noble)because she is one. In the past I have accused Shirley of being paid for her work on behalf of "the people".Ihavemade a… Read More

For nearly a decade, Corona Mayor Jeff Miller has been working to build out the 91 freeway. He has been successful by targeting projects that use existing tax dollars, that fit on the existing pavement, and can be done with a minimum of permitting, regulatory backlog, etc.

Sounds like a good idea right?

Man is it ever.

These projects have added lanes now on both sides of the freeway cutting some commute times by half without disturbing any of the birds, pocket mice, and fairy shrimp that turn out herds of environmentalists to stall and stop other transportation projects all over California.

Now to the really interesting part.

Jeff not only serves as an elected official in Riverside County – he is a Chairman of the 91 Toll Road Advisory Committee for the ORANGE County Transportation Authority.

Last year he testified for ORANGE County in their pursuit of money from the flawed transportation bonds. And you know what happened? His testimony, bringing together Riverside and Orange County talked the state into spending another $20 million or so in ORANGE County.

Today, Jeff joined a legion of ORANGE County electeds in… Read More

Today’s SDUT has a list of Super Tuesday Winners and Losers,which includes the following…

WINNER – Mike Huckabee: From a nobody to household name in two months. Rudy Giuliani didn’t make the list of losers, but of course he was no longer in play yesterday, so likely not deemed eligible. Yet, considering that Rudy for several months had placed every one of his eggs in the Big Tuesday basket, aside from one large Grade AAA for Florida, he might have still been considered.

Following the pattern used in the UT’s Huckabee wording noted above, allow me to submit this…

LOSER – Rudy Giuliani: From a household name to nobody in two months.

Seriously, though, will any candidate ever again take the strategic risk of ignoring the early caucuses and primaries in the delegate weak states, while focusing solely on the big prizes, only to be left out of the headlines for weeks on end in a crucial period?

Maybe not. Yet,… Read More