A referendum to invalidate a bill just passed and signed this fall, SB 777, launched yesteday morning at a press conference on the north steps of the State Capitol. Legislators attending Friday are Co-Chairs for the campaign including Assembly Republican Caucus Chairman Bob Huff, Assemblyman Joel Anderson and myself. Co-chairs Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner had a press conference to launch it down south as well. Capitol Resource Institute, led by executive director, Karen Englandformed thenewly affiliated [c]4 arm Capitol Resource Family Impact to wage this campaign. Thanks to Karen and CRFI directors and staff for putting together the pressevent and importantly, of course, this campaign.

You’ll recall that SB 777 was the bill by Senator Kuehl that set off a shock wave that would require change to school policy and curriculum that could be seenby some to "promote a discriminatory bias" [btw, we already have more than adequateprotectionsin thelaw] and turn every policy that could be interpreted to have an impact on gender or individual sexuality into a legal nightmare.

Already scaredy-cat… Read More

As I head out to talk to voters on the last weekend before Tuesday’s election, this article in the Daily Breeze caught my eye. Hermosa Beach bar owners have people talk to patrons about who they should vote for in local elections.

I don’t know if it will work, but I know it would be easier to recruit volunteers.

Hermosa Beach voters are targeted at bars Drive seeks to influence patrons to vote for candidates who are seen as "friendly" to the business. By Andrea Woodhouse Staff Writer

The patrons at Hermosa Beach bars got more than wasted these past few weeks.

They’ve also been schooled on the local political scene from workers recruited by bar owners to register voters and collect contact information so they can be steered… Read More

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune’s Editorial page, like that of most newspapers,is normallya veryreliable source ofleft-wing drivel.

So imagine my shock at this – they’ve endorsed FR’s own Mike Spence’s re-election for West Covina School Board. I guess it’s true what they say about broken clocks — or in this case, lefty rags — even they can be right once per election.

Read what they have to say:

A good team for W. Covina schools LIKE the Beatles sang, West Covina schools are "getting better all the time." A lot better.

The school board’s relentless focus on academic performance and safety have produced huge improvements in student reading, writing, math and science scores. In the last five years, eight West Covina schools were named "California Distinguished Schools" (including West… Read More

Steve Maviglio, spokeshole for CA Assembly Speaker Fabian “Louis Vuitton” Nunez, must be auditioning for a new job. He knows his boss’ career is dying with Prop 93’s February defeat, which is why he unleashed this attack on the California Nurses Association for contributing to my wife’s campaign. Once again, Democrats attack hardworking, middle-class Californians and demonstrate how out-of-touch they are with their own union constituency. (You can read Jon’s excellent commentary this morning for the complete rundown on Nunez’s problems.)

Nunez is targeting the California Nurses Association because they had the audacity to question the Speaker’s rich and famous lifestyle paid for with their campaign contributions. Last month, the LA Times (hardly a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy), uncovered that Nunez was scamming campaign contributions from union members to pay for his… Read More

First off – a big Thank You to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Yesterday I posted about my real concerns in receiving a grade of "B" from their legislative report card and I included a letter I had sent Jon Coupal. (you can read it a few posts below this one – just scroll down)

They responded immediately and are going to put an asterisk by my grade on their website and provide a more detailed explanation as to how excused absences can effect a legislator’s grade (in my case adversely – but I actually think it improved a couple of Democrats’ scores). They are also going to explain this in their upcomingnewsletter.

Today, Cal-Tax – another fine organization committed to protecting the taxpayer – gave me a perfect 100% on their legislative vote record.

I don’t normally use this space to crow about rankings I receive from interest groups, but as much as I was concerned yesterday about HJTA’s low ranking of me – because they counted votes I missed due to illness and recovering from surgery… Read More

It would seem that the more that a microscope is applied to the dealings of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, the more it shows a pattern — that absolute power does corrupt absolutely. One can probably figure that at some point Nunez was, well, like the rest of us. You know, work hard and don’t take anything for granted? But at some point, or maybe slowly over time, the big gavel of being the Assembly Speaker has gone to the man’s head.

CHARITY-GATE Just after weeks of articles and investigative reports into the lavish and expensive expenditures from Nunez’ campaign coffers that appear to be supporting a lifestyle otherwise unattainable for a public servant, now the Los Angeles Times has revealed a startling and disturbing pattern… Read More

It would seem that the more that a microscope is applied to the dealings of Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, the more it shows a pattern — that absolute power does corrupt absolutely. One can probably figure that at some point Nunez was, well, like the rest of us. You know, work hard and don’t take anything for granted? But at some point, or maybe slowly over time, the big gavel of being the Assembly Speaker has gone to the man’s head.

CHARITY-GATE Just after weeks of articles and investigative reports into the lavish and expensive expenditures from Nunez’ campaign coffers that appear to be supporting a lifestyle otherwise unattainable for a public servant, now the Los Angeles Times has revealed a startling and disturbing pattern… Read More

There is a report in the Sacramento Bee today that Art Torres, Chair of the California Democratic Party, is claiming that the "California Counts" initiative, which would reform California’s apportionment of electoral college votes to recognize regional diversity and make our state relevant again in Presidential elections, is unconstitutional. That position is a bunch of baloney.

Long established U.S. Supreme Court case law (see Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355 (1931) and Davis v. Hildebrant, 241 U.S. 565 (1911) ) provide strong logic and support for the initiative. Those cases establish rock-solid support for the proposition that the word "legislature" in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, dealing with apportionment of Congressional districts for election purposes, includes the lawmaking process in the state as determined by its particular "polity." In these cases, "legislature" in Article 1 was interpreted to include not only the state legislature itself, but the full lawmaking process, including the Governor’s veto, and the people’s power of referendum.

In… Read More