Jim Bopp, Jr. of Terre Haute, Indiana is an amazing constitutional lawyer. He was the lead counsel in the Supreme Court case of Wisconsin Right to Life, the biggest Federal campaign reform case since the landmark Buckley v. Valeo in 1976. Bopp’s arguments in Wisconsin Right to Life literally killed-off major portions of the largely senseless McCain-Feingold Federal campaign finance law "reform" as an unconstitutional invasion of First Amendment rights. I have had the brief opportunity to work first-hand with him in a coupleFederal courtrooms, when I joined him and other California election law attorneys in arguing against and successfully enjoining Proposition 208, and later portions of the Proposition 34 election "reforms" as unconstitutional. Jim represented CaliforniaProLife Councilin those cases.

Now Jim has done it again, here in California, representing California ProLife Council again. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has just issued an opinion usurping significant aspects of FPPC regulation of legitimate nonprofit organizations that also seek to weigh-in on ballot measure… Read More

FR Readers, we have spent a lot of time talking about the need to reform the pork-barrel mentality of Congress, which has infested elected Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. United States Senator Jim DeMint has been on of the leaders in this battle — and he has asked bloggers around the country to help him to rich his goal of having 100,000 people sign his online petition to send a message to his colleagues — it’s time to end the madness! So, if you have a moment and agree with us here at the FR that egregious earmarks are immoral and wrong, then take a moment to watch the video below (it’s short) and sign the petition now! _____________________________________ … Read More

Today we are pleased to offer this Guest Commentary from Assemblyman Bill Emmerson: Government-Run Health Care Is Bad For California By Assemblyman Bill Emmerson

This week, Democrats on the Assembly Health Committee showed they weren’t interested in acting responsibly to solve California’s health care challenges by rushing through a $14 billion big government care health care scheme on a party-line vote during Wednesday’s hearing.

Listening to the testimony in the hearing, it’s clear they are more interested in political stunts than real health care solutions. Many serious issues brought up by Republicans were dismissed by Democrats with little more than empty rhetoric.… Read More

Today we are pleased to offer this Guest Commentary from Assemblyman Bill Emmerson: Government-Run Health Care Is Bad For California By Assemblyman Bill Emmerson

This week, Democrats on the Assembly Health Committee showed they weren’t interested in acting responsibly to solve California’s health care challenges by rushing through a $14 billion big government care health care scheme on a party-line vote during Wednesday’s hearing. Listening to the testimony in the hearing, it’s clear they are more interested in political stunts than real health care solutions. Many serious issues brought up by Republicans were dismissed by Democrats with little more than empty… Read More

Tom McCintock, one of the few Sacramento pols who has been accurate in truly predicting the financial shortfall that is facing California, says this is just the beginning:

The newspapers are reporting that the fiscal gap is $10 billion. It is actually far more serious than that. The actual figure – according to the LAO – is that the state will spend $14 billion more than it takes in between now and the end of the next fiscal year. The difference is that we will first blow through the $4 billion reserve that the state began the year with. (That reserve, by the way, is already gone.)

But the LAO is still predicting that the state’s general fund revenues will grow about 3.5… Read More

Assemblyman Benoit called me and suggested I check the rest of Riverside’s Republican Delegation’s Cal-Chamber Scoresand write a high -five post to all.

Here they are:

AssemblymembersBenoit,100% (14/14), Cook, 100% (14/14), Emmerson, 100% (14/14), Garcia, 100% (14/14), Jeffries, 100% (14/14), Spitzer, 100% (14/14)

Senators Battin, 100% (13/13), Dutton, 100% (14/14), Hollingsworth, 100% (14/14)

Congratulations!

… Read More

Assemblyman John J. Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes) received a 100% rating from the California Chamber of Commerce for 2007 according to the organization’s recently released report card. The report, available online for viewing at www.calchamber.com, is published to help local Chambers of Commerce gauge their Legisla­tor’s performance. CalChamber rates each Legislator based on his or her votes dealing directly with business issues

“I appreciate being recognized as a reliable vote against ‘job-killer’ bills,” said Benoit. “When I first came to Sacramento in 2003, the state was in a fiscal crisis as businesses were fleeing the state’s anti-business… Read More

For the past 5 years, Citizens Against Govenment Waste and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association have collaborated and produced The California Piglet Book, a delightful compilation of egregious examples of government waste. Don’t read it at bedtime unless you can fall asleep burning mad.

Iwas proudly startled to seethat a post I wrote in the FlashReport made it into the book this year.

I guess that makes me a proud poster of piglet prodigality.

‘ Barry Nestande, chief of staff for Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes) and a regular contributor on the conservative FlashReport blog, wrote on January 29, 2007 about a re-striping project on the 91 Freeway near the Riverside/Orange County line. Various time delays and other red-tape bureaucracy issues have served to push the cost to $1.5 million. The project is scheduled to take a year and is complicated by the fact that another government entity, the South Coast Air Quality Management Agency, is requiring an air quality impact study, despite the fact that cars already travel on the road. The failure to repaint a freeway stripe in a year is one of many reasons why California does… Read More