In concert with John Doolittle’s announcement that he retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives, conservative activist, businessman, and former California state legislator Rico Oller threw his hat into the ring for the GOP nomination for the 4th District. Of course, this is an all-GOP seat now that Doolittle is out of the election picture. Sorry Charlie (Brown), the presumptive Democrat candidate, but you are now running what we call in the business, a "dead district drill" – this seat is no longer competitive. There will be a host of other candidates leaping into the race, in addition to Eric Egland, Mike Holmes and now Oller. Possibly conservative Assemblyman Ted Gaines will get into it (he’s had one foot into the race for months now) and there is talk that State Senator Sam Aanestad or retired legislator Tim Leslie might even run. Then there is former U.S. Representative Doug Ose, who as a former leader of the Republican Main Street Partnership, would be the moderate in the race. … Read More

Ceres Unified School Board Member and farmer Bill Berryhill is continuing his march through the 26th district (disclosure: Berryhill is a client) by racking up endorsements of all the GOP Supervisors in San Joaquin County along with former Assemblyman and congressional candidate Dean Andal. Supervisors Leroy Ornellas, Ken Vogel and Larry Ruhstaller add to a formidable endorsement list that includes the GOP power structure in Stanislaus County as well as local GOP Senators Dave Cogdill and Jeff Denham. The 26th district is currently held by Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, who is running for the 5th Senate District.

There were early rumblings of democrats hoping to find a viable candidate to contest this nearly even registration seat until Berryhill emerged strongly. Due to his formidable name identification advantage, 200K warchest and agricultural background it is extremely unlikely that a viable candidate will emerge. Even with all those disadvantages, there is one more disadvantage that a democrat nominee would face: Bill Berryhill’s strongest support will come from Stanislaus County and for any democrat to win they must win Stanislaus County… Read More

The California State Budget — some thoughts…..

In general, I think the Governor has made a respectable effort to implement a 10% cut to state agencies – a level of cut that should have been taken years ago to eliminate the structural deficit.

There are fewer gimmicks than previous budgets – which is good,but because he has included$430 million in revenues from the2007 Tribal compacts, it is critical that these compacts go into effect this year and that the voters approve Props 94 – 97. And speaking of Indian gaming, I am flat stunned that the Governor would fail to include any funding for local gaming mitigation grants from the Special Distribution Fund. This is a… Read More

I came to the conclusion John & Ken were intellectual frauds during the 35th Senate special election back in 2005, when they viciously and dishonestly turned on then-state Sen. John Campbell and propped up Jim Gilchrist like puppeteers.

So it was interesting to read this website posted by former KFI talk show host John Ziegler called TheRealKFI.com.

In it, Ziegler chronicles his career at KFI, the key role John & Ken played in his forced exit and his opinion, based on observing them for four years, that J & K are entertainers pretending to be a couple of Howard Beals.

A friend e-mailed the link to me, and the site must be getting overwhelmed with traffic because when I clicked the next page it usually wouldn’t load until after several attempts.… Read More

In this post and the one below it, legislative Republicans express their initial thoughts on the Governor’s budget proposal, with its across-the-board 10% cuts. Not every legislator is represented. These quotes came from the two leaders’ offices — if a GOPer isn’t here, they probably didn’t supply comment (shame on you!)…

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, Fresno — “The budget unveiled today by Governor Schwarzenegger is only the first of many steps that must be taken to get the deficit under control. Assembly Republicans share the Governor’s commitment to budget reform and no tax increases, and will introduce proposals to help fix the system.

“We believe the only responsible way to solve our budget problem is to cut wasteful spending and start living within our means. While the choices before us are difficult ones, across-the-board cuts, including the Legislature’s budget, are a good way to start the discussion about how to cut spending because they avoid picking winners and losers. One thing is clear – higher taxes will do nothing to solve the problem and Republicans will stand united in… Read More

Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin) – ““I agree with the Governor, we cannot tax our way out of this problem. We must regain control of spending and live within our means. As we move forward, the level of spending the Governor has proposed must be viewed as a ceiling and not a floor. Every decision this legislature makes between January and June from sub-committee to the Floor must be made with an eye on the state’s bottom line. We need to act quickly and responsibly if we want to reduce the impacts of our current fiscal emergency. This includes making mid-year adjustments. Now is the time to debate the state’s needs, prioritize them appropriately and ensure adequate funding for the most important first.”

Senator Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta), Budget Vice-Chair – “By no means can we solve California’s budgetary problems by raiding the taxpayers’ wallets. Though cuts are never easy, with over $140 billion annually flowing into the state’s coffers it is clear that we must cut the fat from the bloated Sacramento bureaucracy. The Governor is moving in the right direction by proposing a budget that by-and-large adheres to… Read More

My tens cents, summed up in a couple of sentences, can be found at the end of this article from The Hill on the Doolittle retirement announcement.

I will expand greatly on the situation in a future post, but here you go…

Doolittle says he will not seek reelection By Jackie Kucinich and Aaron Blake The Hill January 10, 2008 Embattled Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) announced Thursday afternoon that he would not seek reelection, yielding to pressure from his Republican colleagues to step aside amid… Read More

To add to Doug’s brief comment’s below, I would add a few thoughts. First and foremost, we will have more comprehensive coverage of the Governor’s Budget Proposal tomorrow, including an exclusive column from the Governor’s DIrector of Finance, Mike Genest (who has penned several columns for the FR). If you are overanxious, and want more detail on the budget proposal right now, the Governor’s office has set up a website on his budget proposal, which you can go to here.

The very briefing 30,000 foot summary — in order to bring down state spending, the Governor is proposing an across-the-board cut of 10% from every state agency, department and program that is financed via the state’s general fund (some large areas such as transportation, get their funds from other sources). The Governor’s idea is that it is better to "spread the pain" than it is to cut too much from any one area.

While this strategy makes sense from a marketing point of view, since it is rather easy to explain (I just did it in one paragraph), it is a controversial approach because it… Read More