Currently held by Alan Nakanishi, the race in the 10th district is starting to come into shape. The strongest candidates making moves early on have been Paul Hegyi (Assemblyman Tran COS), David Sander (Mayor of Rancho Cordova), and Jack Sieglock (former San Joaquin County Supervisor). After a recent conversation I held with El Dorado County Supervisor Helen Baumann it now seems there are four at the head of the pack.

Baumann has hired consultant Jim Nygren and has strong ties in the wine industry which will help not only in Amador but in San Joaquin as well. If Baumann can make inroads into Lodi’s wine industry in San Joaquin it will make life much more difficult for Sieglock, who needs to have a solid win out of San Joaquin to win. Now the question is if Rusty DuPray, her colleague in El Dorado gets into the race. Two candidates splitting such a small geographic region could easily isolate them both.… Read More

"’Schwarzenegger is what conservatives think the future is,’ says Gerald Dorfman, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and an expert on British and European politics."

What?

Are these think tank guys mental? Let’s put aside social issues. We knew what we were getting there. How is running a structural deficit in any way related to what conservatives think our future is. I respected the Governor until November, 2005. Now, I don’t at all, politically. You cannot reward his spending all of our record revenue increases, continued borrowing, and stumping for necessary but unnaffordable bond measures as "business savvy". It isn’t. And we will be paying dearly for all of this inside of 18 months. Take it to the bank.

The Governor could have won re-election easily and balanced the budget at the same time and made a conscious decision not to. That is not conservatism, nor is it its future. It’s the same failed policy that led to our ouster in Washington last November.… Read More

I think that Fabian Nunez owes a beer to his friend Jerry Brown. Below is the official Title and Summary of Nunez measure that WEAKENS term-limits. It’s sure hard to tell from what the AG wrote:

Date: April 11, 2007 Initiative No. 07-0004 Amendment No. 1S

The Attorney General of California has prepared the following title and summary of the chief purpose and points of the proposed measure:

LIMITS ON LEGISLATORS’ TERMS IN OFFICE. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Reduces the total amount of time a person may serve in the state legislature from 14 years to 12 years. Allows a person to serve a total of 12 years either in the Assembly, the Senate, or a combination of both. Provides a transition period to allow current members to serve a total of 12 consecutive years in the house in which they are currently serving, regardless of any prior service in another house. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local governments: This measure would have no direct fiscal effect on state or local governments. (07-0004.)… Read More

Yesterday I penned a lengthy commentary entitled, Who’s in charge over at the Coastal Commission? The Commissioners? Or the Staff? Well, today we got the answer to that question. The members of the Coastal Commission voted by a large 8 – 3 majority to oppose Assemblyman Lloyd Levine’s extremest legislation that would have banned the use of fractional ownership (timeshares and the like) in coastal resort developments.

This after rumors were widely circulating that their own Commission Executive Director, Peter Douglas, had played a role in the crafting of the legislation. Douglas’ staff recommendation to the Commission, by the way, was NOT to oppose the bill, but to amend the bill (by the way, his recommended amendment would still have usurped authority currently held by his bosses on the Commission).

Apparently the dog is wagging the tail after all. Perhaps this is an indicator that the Commission staff needs to understand where it is the Commission would like to go, and work to get there. Not, as rumor… Read More

Yesterday Truong Nguyen filed an application for an emergency writ to the Court of Appeals regarding his election contest with Janet Nguyen, who has been seated as an Orange County Supervisor. Trung Nguyen won the election day vote by seven votes and after the recount Janet was declared the winner by 3 votes. Truong then filed an election contest to the issue as to whether or not, in a recount, the paper trail that is produced by electronic voting machines must be recounted. The trial judge ruled that they did not have to be recounted, and Truong appealed this on this ground and on the ground that someone requesting a recount cannot shift counting methods back and forth between machine counts and hand counts based on what beneifts them the most. The Court of Appeals summarily denies 98.5% of writs filed before them, either on the grounds that it is not an emergency, or on the grounds that the writ has no merit. Today the Court of Appeals issued and order in this case taking up the matter and ordering that briefing be completed by May 7, 2007. The decision in this… Read More

Who’s who in the zoo?

State Chairmen: Senate GOP Leader Dick Ackerman and Assemblyman Tony Strickland.

Co-Chairmen: Former CRP Chairman Mike Schroeder, Congressmen John Campbell and Buck McKeon; current or former State Legislators Anthony Adams, Scott Baugh, Russ Bogh, Bob Dutton, Doug LaMalfa, Bob Margett, Jim Silva, Audra Strickland and Mark Wyland; and Fresno Councilman Jerry Duncan. (h/t to Bob Salladay at the LA Times Political Muscle Blog)… Read More

West Covina is on the cutting edge of technology. The issue is who should be Mayor. I really don’t want to get into the background on this thorny issue, but at the council meeting a citizen (assisted or not assisted by a councilman), showed a video of past comments made by council members at council meetings to embarass the council majority. See article here.

Local officials beware!!!… Read More

This came in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary e-mail, titled in their table of contents as "The GOP’s Al Gore"…

The Greening of Arnold

Arnold Schwarzenegger likes being called "the Green Giant" for his take-charge attitude on global climate change. He’s on the cover of this week’s Newsweek and jets to Washington D.C. today to participate in that magazine’s environmental forum, where he will unapologetically claim the mantle of federalism to push a California-only solution to limits on carbon emissions. "Look, we don’t need Washington," he told Newsweek.

But the Governator is having less luck in… Read More