It’s hard to keep up with the barrage of updates from Mike Spence (see the post below this one for the latest) on the GOP primary in Assembly District 60 (this seat straddles LA, San Bernardino and Orange Counties).

North Orange County is the largest piece of real estate in the 60th, and there is no member of Congress more popular in the area than U.S. Reprsentative Ed Royce, who just endorsed conservative candidate Larry Dick, who at this point is locked in battle for endorsements with San Bernardino County’s Curt Hagman.

Congressman Royce (a former employer of this humble website publisher) had this to say about Larry: “These tough times require conservative leaders like Larry Dick committed to lower taxes and to protecting taxpayers. Larry Dick has the courage and the experience to stand up to the liberals. He’s earned my trust, he deserves yours."

Since Mike keeps his updates short, I will close by saying that Royce’s endorsement is a great one to have because he works… Read More

From the onset, I always thought Tim Escobar was a front runner for this distirct. Very Popular with GOP folks. Name ID and fundraising experiencefrom taking on Linda Sanchez for Congress. He has great ties to the LA part of the disctrict, but also the OC part. Some tried to recruit him for the Dunn seat.Respected. Conservative. An awesome person and candidate.

I have confrimed he is not running. He recently returned from a 17 month tour of Iraq (he was called up) and places a premium on time withhis family. While I’m not completely shocked, he would have been my personal pick. I hope there isnext time.… Read More

The CRP held its annual fundraiser at Napa this weekend. Without question, one of the best ever (according to many long-time participants). As well as the remarkable castle dinner and the day of golf and spa experiences, the greatest part of the trip was the exceptional turnout by both legislative members and donors. Kudos to Vice-Chairman Tom Del Becarro, leaders Ackerman and Villines, and the great staff that helped make the whole experience both a success and a memorable experience.… Read More

California Republican Congressman David Dreier of the 26th Congressional district (Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties) recently hailed the accomplishments of the US House Republican Conference on Capitol Hill.According to Rep. Dreier – who is serving his 14th term in Congress and is the top Republican on the crucial House Committee on Rules – new-found Republican Party unity has inspired the House GOP to lead on implementing “lobbying reform legislation stronger than the bill introduced by Democrats, a clean supplemental spending bill for our troops in harms way, and the exposure of Democratic broken promises to run a more open and honest Congress.” Dreier has specifically highlighted the poor record of the Democratic Rules Committee on their promise of a delivering a more open debate. Members have repeatedly been turned away from the Rules Committee and prevented from even offering amendments for consideration, … Read More

California Republican Congressman David Dreier of the 26th Congressional district (Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties) recently hailed the accomplishments of the US House Republican Conference on Capitol Hill.According to Rep. Dreier – who is serving his 14th term in Congress and is the top Republican on the crucial House Committee on Rules – new-found Republican Party unity has inspired the House GOP to lead on implementing “lobbying reform legislation stronger than the bill introduced by Democrats, a clean supplemental spending bill for our troops in harms way, and the exposure of Democratic broken promises to run a more open and honest Congress.” Dreier has specifically highlighted the poor record of the Democratic Rules Committee on their promise of a delivering a more open debate. Members have repeatedly been turned away from the Rules Committee and prevented from even offering amendments for consideration, … Read More

Brian Jones, Casey Gwinn in CD 52 Fray?… If you missed it, Santee City Councilman Brian Jones has filed committee paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for an open Duncan Hunter seat (see Friday’s post).

Following the Jones news, Red County/San Diego reported that former San Diego City AttorneyCasey Gwinn is also looking at the seat. Casey moved to East County a few years back (having lived in San Carlos, pretty close already, as in a couple of blocks) and some at the time were anticipating he’d be running for Jay La Suer’s termed out 77th AD seat in 2006. That clearly didn’t happen. Has enough time elapsed since his SD days?

I consider Casey a friend and a stand-up guy. I have to urge caution here,in the extreme sense. East County is not the… Read More

In an effort to emulate my colleague Duane, and post something up on this blog that has nothing to do with politics, I thought I would throw out there my new dilemma.

Recently I picked up a new LG "Chocolate" cell phone. I have only been using it for a few days, and we’ll see if it is an improvement over the RZR or not. I won’t go into any more of that for fearing of being too "Duane-like" in this post.

While monkeying around with the phone, I found out how to download ring tones from the ether — and after spending nearly an hour listening to snipets of cool music, ultimately settled on downloading "What’s Going On?" by the amazing Marvin Gaye (pictured), whom I consider to have been one of the most amazing contributors to the music industry of all time (despite his left-wing politics).

There was also some irony my phone ringing out with "What’s Going On?" when someone… Read More

After years of effort and prodding from Supervisors Roberta MacGlashan and Susan Peters (and a looming budget shortfall) the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors finally tackled a multi-million dollar budget problem by eliminating costly “extra” benefits for future retirees.

It’s a start — but it’s not the only budget busting pension issue: Sacramento County has nearly $950 Million in pension obligation bonds that have to be serviced from the General Fund – at the same time they’re facing significant budget cuts.

The scary thing is, Sacramento is not alone – all across California, bloated and under-funded (how did they manage to do both?) pensions have spawned a financial monster; and with few exceptions, no one is dealing with it. Public employee retiree pensions and benefits threaten to swamp already stretched budgets – throwing taxpayers into a fiscal nightmare. It’s the monster under the bridge everyone tries to… Read More