I just got a ‘heads up’ from Ryan Sherman who handles PR for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association — one of the biggest, most influential ($$$) public employee unions in California.

In what I would call a definate gun to the temple of big political head of Fabian Nunez, this major player in state politics just announced their official opposition to the Speaker’s term-limits extension ballot measure.

This represents yet another big plus for the opposition efforts to the "Big Lie Initiative" following the announcment last week that Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner had written a $1.5 million check to aid in opposition efforts, and that was combined with a matching contribution of another $1.5 million from the U.S. Term Limits Committee.

Before any major efforts have been launched to expose the Nunez measure as a sham for self-serving politicians like Nunez, just the "word" getting around has caused the measure to plummet 10 points in the latest statewide poll, with now less than 50% of likely voters are supportive of the measure.

Ironically, most of the support currently for 93 comes from… Read More

I have consistently made the argument that earmarks exist to serve political ends. Well, here is the latest example. Each of the conference reports for the Defense, Labor/HHS, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs spending bills have earmarks “airdropped” into them. “Airdropping” is a way of adding earmarks to a bill during the conference report process at the last possible minute, effectively shielding the earmarks from reproach due to the lack of time for review before a vote on the floor. Many times, these reports are hundreds of pages in length and Members simply cannot thoroughly examine every page in less than 24 hours. This is a deliberate tactic to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money with complete anonymity and zero accountability. I have vocally opposed this practice as have many of my colleagues on both the House and Senate side.

However, despite the outcry… Read More

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