As most FR readers know, I have spent the last few months on the campaign trail as I seek election as Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. The region is vast — including Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial Counties. This large region has meant a lot of driving to event like today’s meeting of the Lincoln Club of Palm Springs. (Not to reinforce any stereotypes, but we are gathered at a country club!).

The Chairman of the club is the very energetic and very Repubican Kim Glassman, who today is presiding over a meeting of nearly a hundred GOPers from all around the Coachella Valley. The main featured speaker today is newly elected Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco (many of you may recall that for a time, then-Assemblyman Pacheco served as Assembly Republican Leader.

Also on hand are State Senator Jim Battin and freshman Assemblyman Paul Cook – both great legislators (and not just because they’ve endorsed me in my Party run).

Pacheco’s presentation was about 25 minutes long, and pretty comprehensive. He started off with a very sobering statistic that this county has well over… Read More

When Speaker Fabian Nunez held his press conference yesterday to announce that his "support" for a fair redistricting process, he didn’t count on the Mayor of San Francisco displacing all of his prime media coverage — yet that is exactly what happened. Nunez’ little tap-dance where he and his termed-out, self-interested legislative colleagues who desperately don’t want to have to return to life outside of the legislature was relegated to less optimal locations in state newspapers… We will be talking a lot here about this ‘deal’ where a weakening of California’s term-limits statute gets married up with a fair redistricting proposal, and the pros and cons. But since I am in a hurry this morning, I will jump straight to the big news of the day… San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife… Joy. The good news for Newsom is that our nation is filled with examples of public… Read More

When Speaker Fabian Nunez held his press conference yesterday to announce that his "support" for a fair redistricting process, he didn’t count on the Mayor of San Francisco displacing all of his prime media coverage — yet that is exactly what happened. Nunez’ little tap-dance where he and his termed-out, self-interested legislative colleagues who desperately don’t want to have to return to life outside of the legislature was relegated to less optimal locations in state newspapers… We will be talking a lot here about this ‘deal’ where a weakening of California’s term-limits statute gets married up with a fair redistricting proposal, and the pros and cons. But since I am in a hurry this morning, I will jump straight to the big news of the day… San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife… Joy. The good news for Newsom is that our nation is filled with examples of public… Read More

Last night the phone lines were blazing when the story hit the wires about Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with a woman who was 1) a staff member; 2) a substance abuser and 3) the wife of a staffer with whom Newsom was personal friends. Newsom’s deputy chief of staff confronted him yesterday after his wife confessed the affair.

Yesterday, Newsom refused to comment. Today, Newsom admitted the affair: "I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true, and I am deeply sorry about that. I am deeply sorry, and I am accountable for what has occurred."

I’m betting that Newsom’s public approval numbers in SF actually go UP after this story and the accompanying… Read More

Living in the Bay Area makes picking up your newspaper from the driveway such an adventure every morning. It’s truly the Forest Gump of it all…life (in the Bay Area) is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.

Today we learned the state Armory in the Mission District of San Francisco, located in the middle of a working class neighborhood, is the new home of a porn studio. The deal to purchase the Armory was played on the down low to avoid the same public raucous that ensued when low income housing advocates fought to kill a deal that would have converted the historic building into office space. I know, I know…people going in and out of that building with briefcases making an honest living is SOOOO much more offensive than people showing up for work, ready to make the sequel to the studio’s smash hits, “Men in Pain” and “Hogtied.”

Mayor Newsom said of the new porn studio, “While not wanting to be prudish, the fact that kink.com will be located in the proximity to a number of schools give us pause.” This isn’t the time to… Read More

Any commis

Virtually city council and county board of supervisors in California establish and appoint commissions that advise them on issues like planning and traffic and housing and parks. In some cases, such as with most planning commissions, they hold statutory powers to approve things like conditional use permits.… Read More

Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced legislation earlier this week to divest the Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) of investments in Iranian-connected businesses, appropriately questioning whypublic funds should support terrorist states (read the original FR post and Joel’s SDUT op-ed).

At the time, not even he likely comprehended the amount of monies invested, as research was still being conducted to determine the total. Granted, California may have the best-funded retirement system in the world, but the answer is still unbelievable.

According to Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG), a Washington, DC-based research and consulting firm that specializes in corporate ties to Iran and other security concerns, CalPERS is invested in 152 companies with ties to Iran with investments that total some $14 billion. CSAG further identifies 69 of these companies,… Read More

Assemblyman Joel Anderson introduced legislation earlier this week to divest the Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) of investments in Iranian-connected businesses, appropriately questioning whypublic funds should support terrorist states (read the original FR post and Joel’s SDUT op-ed).

At the time, not even he likely comprehended the amount of monies invested, as research was still being conducted to determine the total. Granted, California may have the best-funded retirement system in the world, but the answer is still unbelievable.

According to Conflict Securities Advisory Group (CSAG), a Washington, DC-based research and consulting firm that specializes in corporate ties to Iran and other security concerns, CalPERS is invested in 152 companies with ties to Iran with investments that total some $14 billion. CSAG further identifies 69 of these companies,… Read More