Well, 120 California legislators can enjoy their weekends, as I just got off of the phone with Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman who told me that there will not be any budget nogiations taking place over the weekend, at least not on the Senate side of the building.

Ackerman did say that he expects more activity on the budget next week.

In the meantime, the taxpayers can be assured that the legislature will not be convening over the weekend. UPDATE: Genuinely nice guy and devout socialist Frank Russo has a post up at the left-of-Berkeley California Progress Report website that (if you can get past Frank’s rhetoric) contains a nifty transcript of the from-the-roster dialogue between Perata and Ackerman at the end of the lock-down this morning.… Read More

I am a little worked-up that our intrepid publisher tag-lined my last post on the Fabrizio national Republican poll to somehow undercut the import of this unbiased survey showing broad support for Giuliani as a secondary note of the poll, by qualifying my post, in red no less, that I am also a Giuliani supporter! In response, and rather than bury my thoughts in a comment, I am issuing this blog challenge, and not to Fleischman! Hey Jon, I’m just reporting what I heard a respected pollster say, who is not a Giuliani consultant. I hope when I go see the Red Sox play the Angels in a couple of weeks here in Anaheim, that you won’t tag-line my further posts thinking I’ve joined the Romney road show with Mike Schroeder (former CRP Chairman), Scott Baugh (current OC GOP Chairman), and Adam Probolsky (respected OC-based pollster), all of whom have endorsed Romney, and call Orange County "Romney country." Well, I’ll be rooting for the Angels during that series. I hereby challenge Schroeder, Baugh and Probolsky to show up at the upcoming Angels/Red Sox series wearing those same questionable Red Sox hats they quite visably sported in the media when… Read More

We here at the FR have carte blanche to pick up Senator McClintock’s posts from over at the Citizens for the California Republic website, and here’s what he says in the wake of the liberation of the Senators from their chambers: **This is a good chance to remind all of our GOP legislators that if you send in commentary or thoughts on the budget or other issues, we try within reason to get those posted up.**

From the Senator:

BUDGET VICTORY – THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU FOR YOUR CALLS AND E-MAILS – YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE. … Read More

Well the lockdown is over – we’re FREE!

After a fruitless effort of trying to break us into passing the irresponsible Assembly budget, the seige is over.

Finally, calmer heads have prevailed and instead of the "we’ll break ’em" tactics, Senator Perata has decided that we should negotiate like adults.

We are working toward a budget without a deficit – that’s our goal. Our budget team will be working over the weekend with the Democrats. Hopefully we will get there.

Senator Perata is a bit testy, but at least we’re free.… Read More

And then there were two. Radlovic, Escobar and now Stan Carroll have abandoned thier bids for the 60th AD race to replace Bob Huff. That leaves Larry Dick and Curt Hagman to slug it out. See here. See previous post on Carroll here.… Read More

As the State Senate was debating the budget that was rejected by over two thirds of Assembly Republicans, Tom McClintock gave the following floor speech. As you read this, we are all in solidarity with Tom and his colleagues who have been "locked in" to the Senate chambers…

Mr. President: A year ago, this legislature adopted a budget that ran up the biggest general fund deficit in California’s history. The architects of this budget admit to adding another half billion dollars to the cumulative shortfall, and expect that this looks good in comparison. … Read More

As the State Senate was debating the budget that was rejected by over two thirds of Assembly Republicans, Tom McClintock gave the following floor speech. As you read this, we are all in solidarity with Tom and his colleagues who have been "locked in" to the Senate chambers…

Mr. President: A year ago, this legislature adopted a budget that ran up the biggest general fund deficit in California’s history. The architects of this budget admit to adding another half billion dollars to the cumulative shortfall, and expect that this looks good in comparison. There are two problems. First, by their own… Read More

MEMO TO GOP SENATORS

TO: Sam Aanastad, Dick Ackerman, Roy Ashburn, Jim Battin, Dave Cogdill, Dave Cox, Jeff Denham, Bob Dutton, Tom Harmon, Dennis Hollingsworth, Abel Maldonado, Bob Margett, Tom McClintock, George Runner, Mark Wyland

FROM: Jon Fleischman and the FR Team

RE: The Immaturity of Don Perata

You fifteen are now officially martyrs for all California taxpayers. Don Perata (pictured) clearly is acting about four years old with this tactic of ‘locking you in’ the Senate chambers throughout the night.

It’s actually quite unbelievable.

It is a demonstration of how far out of touch liberal Democrats truly are with the reason WHY you folks have not signed off on a budget. They just don’t understand that the state government of California is too big and spends too much. The idea of not spending more than you make is a foreign concept. But then these are the people that see an increase of less than what they want as a spending cut.

Well, I cannot imagine being in your… Read More