A "NO" VOTE IS CALLED FOR ON ACA 8 The League of Cities and the pro-eminent domain redevelopment industry have been lobbying very hard for the passage of Democrat Assemblyman Hector De LaTorre’s proposed constitutional amendment (ACA 8) that would put a faux (fake) eminent domain reform measure on the ballot. Their bill would NOT COME CLOSE to offering ALL private property owners the protections that they deserve against governments coming in and TAKING their property for economic gain (we’re not talking about a ‘taking’ to widen a highway, but the idea that some city planner sees a different use for the land with more economic benefit to the city, and just taking it…). ACA 8 will NEVER be amended to pass muster — because there are two diametrically opposed interests here. Property rights advocates want and demand legislation to END the proactive of governments being able to forcibly take someone’s private… Read More

A "NO" VOTE IS CALLED FOR ON ACA 8 The League of Cities and the pro-eminent domain redevelopment industry have been lobbying very hard for the passage of Democrat Assemblyman Hector De LaTorre’s proposed constitutional amendment (ACA 8) that would put a faux (fake) eminent domain reform measure on the ballot. Their bill would NOT COME CLOSE to offering ALL private property owners the protections that they deserve against governments coming in and TAKING their property for economic gain (we’re not talking about a ‘taking’ to widen a highway, but the idea that some city planner sees a different use for the land with more economic benefit to the city, and just taking it…). ACA 8 will NEVER be amended to pass muster — because there are two diametrically opposed interests here. Property rights advocates want and demand legislation to END the proactive of governments being able to forcibly take someone’s private… Read More

Before anyone tries to play “gotcha,” here is a disclaimer to my postings on the term limit topic. A week ago I sought out the folks pushing the term limit proposal that changes the number of years a lawmaker can spend in the legislature from 14 to 12 years — and now I’m working for them recruiting Republicans in support of the measure.

Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to respectfully offer a counter opinion to the publisher of this esteemed web log for his position opposed to the term limit reform measure. The topic seems to generate a lot of comments and as it is going to be considered at the upcoming CRP convention, I think it should be timely.

As you will see, there is more than one layer to this onion that needs to be peeled back. Here is my first point for Republican readers to consider:

Term limit reform is directly linked to efforts to get fair redistricting reform. The primary reason that redistricting reform is on the table this year is because Governor Schwarzenegger has forced the… Read More

The lead consultants for the Speaker’s Term Limits Weakening Initiative, which apparently won’t make the February ballot, have to write a memo to their client. We decided to draft one for them…

URGENT MEMORANDUM To: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez From: Gale Kaufman and Matthew Dowd RE: Failure to Save Your Career Dear Fabian, We are in the midst of a top-to-bottom review of our collective failure to place our carefully orchestrated end-run on term… Read More

**Update 830pm – Apparently the local county registrar offices until 9/28 to perform this manual count. That is a tall order, but right about now I am sure that Fabian Nunez is using every means at his disposal to "crack the whip" on county governments. The drive of Fabian Nunez to extend his career knows no bounds — Flash**

I am on an informative trip to Sacramento today, indeed.

Unknown to all of us in the real world, apparently all of those watching the signature verification for the Perata/Nunez measure have been noting the very low percentage of valid signatures.

Well, apparently Los Angeles County just came in with what I am told is a very low 59% rate.

Now, are the low qualification numbers enough to keep this measure off of the ballot? No. But it is very likely that this will keep it off of the all-important-for-termed-out-incumbents February ballot.

When the random-sample percentages are too low, then a longer manual count begins in the 58 Country Registrar offices. But this process would take too long for the measure to be on the February… Read More

I’m in Sacramento today and rumors are swirling around the Capitol that several Assembly Republicans are getting ready to vote for the fake ban on eminent domain ACA 8 supported by the League of Cities. See Jon’s great post on it here. Republicans wanting to squish think that some amendments that would partially protect some churches (not all or the most vulnerable) will be introduced tomorrow and that gives them cover. Why would any Republican want to vote for this fake ban, when there is a nice protection being circulated by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association? Shame on them. Sources tell me that there was a caucus meeting when at least three of them have decided to help the Democrats put the fake ban on the ballot. … Read More

Shakespeare’s classic question, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet…”, shines light on the significance of a name. It leads us to ponder the potency of a name when we hear about an ineffective San Francisco program that is called “One Stop.”

Maybe this juggernaut like name was given to the workforce development program in hopes of breaking the city’s history of bureaucratic, convoluted endeavors. In essence, the program’s name, One Stop, conveys the antithesis of its actual nature (disorganized, unaccountable, and wasteful). It’s anything but a sweet-smelling rose for taxpayers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle (August 3, 2007), “A city audit has found that San Francisco is spending at least $29 million a year on employment programs while placing a disappointingly low number of people into jobs and without knowing whether the jobs they are receiving are permanent or temporary.” The audit… Read More

I was talking to a state legislator yesterday, and he threw out to me a very disturbing thought. We’ve all read about the recent passage by Democrats of this bill to place a ‘straw poll’ vote on the February ballot on whether Californian’s support the war in Iraq. Well, it doesn’t take much thought to understand that this measure authored by Democrat Senate President Don Perata is a cynical plot to drive up liberal turnout for the election on which the Perata/Nunez Career Politician Term Limits Weakening Initiative will appear. Perata (and Nunez) are completely fixated on trying to blow a hole in the state’s term limits so that they can cling to their prestigious offices. This legislator to whom I spoke was expressing concern that perhaps the Governor would allow this Iraq-vote measure to be ‘in play’ in negotiations taking place over redistricting proposals. That he might actually be open to signing this terrible and politically-motivated bill. To this we say that our nation’s foreign policy, and the lives of American soldiers should not be chits in political maneuvers surrounding legislative… Read More