With a h/t to Bob Salladay at the L.A. Times Political Muscle blog, here is a list of Governor Mitt Romney’s California Finance Co-Chairman – pretty impressive:

Scott Baugh, Former Assembly Republican Leader, Orange County Dick Boyce, Partner, Texas Pacific Group, San Francisco David Bradford, CEO, OWNLI, Orange County Jonathan Bullen, CEO/President, Eagle State College Group, San Diego Malin Burnham, Chairman, Burnham Real Estate, San Diego Kelly Burt, Chairman and CEO, Price Self Storage, San Diego Roger Carter, Investments, Morgan Stanley, San Francisco Rick J. Caruso, President and CEO, Caruso Affiliated, Los Angeles Mark Chapin Johnson, President and CEO, Chapin Medical Company, Orange County John Clarey, Chairman, RF Comsites, Orange County Robert Day, Chairman, Trust Company of the West, Los Angeles Bill Draper, General Partner, Draper Richards L.P., San Francisco Steven Fink, CEO, Lawrence Investments, Los Angeles Bradford M. Freeman, … Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary…

Term Limits vs. Perk Limits

California’s legislature is getting ready to water down the state’s 16-year-old term limit law by allowing members to serve up to 14 years in either house and by "grandfathering" in the existing Assembly and Senate leadership, allowing members, in effect, to restart the clock on their service.

Term-limit advocates can’t do anything to block this incumbent-protection scheme from being placed before voters on February’s primary ballot. But they believe they can defeat the proposal partly by promoting a countermeasure to stir up old populist resentment of legislative perks. The measure would strip away a legislator’s cherished tax-free $153-a-day allowances for lodging and meal expenses incurred while the legislature is in session. The per diems add up to more… Read More

When I started writing this post yesterday, therewas still a bit of "hope" the Guv would use his leverage of his signature [or not] onthe Presidential Primary bill, SB 113, to get redistricting reform, the promise which has been renegedon. Thisby the Democrats at the state level, as well as the threats by Speaker Pelosi at the Federal level of no reform of Congressional district line apportionment methods. Since the ‘contract’ has been broken, the Guv should feel no obligation to sign this now until this is done right.

Instead this morning, the official news is that it will be signed at 10:30 here in town.

What a disappointment.

We will be stuck as taxpayers with the $90 million bill.

We havea 3rd election for voters to wade through in 2008 with lousy turnout expected for June.

We have noreal assurance of paying back counties.

We have already presidential candidates all over this state since it’s truly an open, "non-incumbent" electionfor the first time in many years.

The leverage will be gone to extract a true redistricting reform for the… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger will sign legislation that was put on his desk, without the vote of a single Republican in the State Assembly, to move the date of the Presidential primary to Tuesday, February 5, 2007. The merits, pro and con, to moving the date of the primary up have been discussed pretty thoroughly here on this website, and in many other public forums. While I can think of a few reasons to veto this legislation, the one that comes most readily to mind is one that doesn’t seem to factor into the Governor’s bill-signing methodology — and that is backing up the other players on what is supposed to be his Republican team. I have had an opportunity to speak with many Republican members of the Assembly, to talk about their concerns. Some are concerned about playing into the hands of the Democrats on their plot to try and extend their terms in office. Others are concerned about the national implications of furthering in a large way a shift to a ‘national primary’ — precluding tier two candidates from having a real shot. Others are unhappy with the additional costs of creating an extra,… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger will sign legislation that was put on his desk, without the vote of a single Republican in the State Assembly, to move the date of the Presidential primary to Tuesday, February 5, 2007. The merits, pro and con, to moving the date of the primary up have been discussed pretty thoroughly here on this website, and in many other public forums. While I can think of a few reasons to veto this legislation, the one that comes most readily to mind is one that doesn’t seem to factor into the Governor’s bill-signing methodology — and that is backing up the other players on what is supposed to be his Republican team. I have had an opportunity to speak with many Republican members of the Assembly, to talk about their concerns. Some are concerned about playing into the hands of the Democrats on their plot to try and extend their terms in office. Others are concerned about the national implications of furthering in a large way a shift to a ‘national primary’ — precluding tier two candidates from having a real shot. Others are unhappy with the additional costs of creating an extra,… Read More

Assemblymen Jose Solorio and Chuck DeVore have teamed up on a piece of legislation that helps school districts teach students English.

Solorio (D – Santa Ana) is the author and DeVore (R – Irvine) is a co-author of AB 1177. I remember when kids who spoke another language in the home took ESL classes (English as a Second Language). Now the varnacular is English Learners (EL). Regardless of the label, Solorio’s legislation would provide state funds for school districts that have more than 50% EL students to go above and beyond to make sure they learn English before they graduate 8th grade.

I like the legislation for several reasons beyond the fact that it aims to teach English to kids. 1) it is a pilot program, 2) it includes a provision for independent review and 3) it sunsets in 2015.… Read More

Democrat OC Assemblyman Jose Solorio has introduced legislation that would give OC cities more of their fair share of Proposition 42 transportation funds.

The twist is that the money would come from the county’s share, not from other parts of the state.

It is well known that Orange County is major ‘donor county’. But not many people know that Orange County’s cities are not getting back their fair share of monies for street and roadway improvements from the county.

Solorio’s AB 823 simply urges the County of Orange to allocate more funds to the cities for roadway improvements. Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim collectively have $700 million in backlogs for arterial and residential street improvements. At the same time, the County of Orange has over $100 million in road fund reserves.

The county ought to be commended for banking these funds for a rainy day. But they also need to share the love. Here’s why: State formulas assume that the county maintains 25% of roadways while cities maintained the other 75% in the county.

FACT: The County of Orange actually only maintains 7.4% of county… Read More

Given John McCain’s clear disdain for the growth in government spending under the GOP Senate and Congress, (see the video at the bottom of this post), I don’t understand what appears to be a systematic avoidance of all of the places where conservatives, collectively, are meeting. If McCain cannot figure out how to embrace the base of the Party, his quest for the nomination will be a short one. And if you avoid the respected leaders of the Party’s base, over and over, establishing that key dialogue and winning support will be very, very difficult:

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail (with the video clip I reference below it):

Playing Hooky

Senator John McCain has raised the ire of his erstwhile media fans by appearing to pander too much to conservatives.… Read More