One of the arguments that is used by advocates of getting rid of, or substantially relaxing California’s term-limits law is that we lose experienced lawmakers from policy committees just as they are developing extensive subject-matter expertise. This was the thought in my mind when I first started to hear the ‘buzz’ — that Speaker Fabian Nunez, a term-limits foe, had removed Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (pictured to the right) from the Public Safety Committee. Spitzer, who is entering his third and final term in the legislature is regarded as the GOP’s top ‘subject-matter expert’ on criminal safety issues. Spitzer, a former police officer and prosecutor and county supervisor, has made public safety the number one priority of his legislative career. Why would the Speaker remove Spitzer — especially when he was due to become the Vice Chairman? We have heard from more than one source that Assembly… Read More

One of the arguments that is used by advocates of getting rid of, or substantially relaxing California’s term-limits law is that we lose experienced lawmakers from policy committees just as they are developing extensive subject-matter expertise. This was the thought in my mind when I first started to hear the ‘buzz’ — that Speaker Fabian Nunez, a term-limits foe, had removed Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (pictured to the right) from the Public Safety Committee. Spitzer, who is entering his third and final term in the legislature is regarded as the GOP’s top ‘subject-matter expert’ on criminal safety issues. Spitzer, a former police officer and prosecutor and county supervisor, has made public safety the number one priority of his legislative career. Why would the Speaker remove Spitzer — especially when he was due to become the Vice Chairman? We have heard from more than one source that Assembly… Read More

I was reading the Union-Tribune the other day and stumbled on a column by Ruben Navarette, who envisions a ‘cafeteria style’ system, wherein voters pick and chose from amongst various parties and candidates based on each voters preference. In theory, that’s a wonderful system. I dream columnists and professors love to discuss at length. And I have no doubt that among some small subgroups of the population this is and has nearly always been the case. But it simply isn’t the case todayand unless we undergo a cultural revolution, isn’t going to be the case for the lion’s share of the population tomorrow. While some Americans may follow politics day to day at every level in their jurisdiction, most voters follow politics as a ‘background’ to their day to day lives. Political parties offer the invaluable service of offering the majority of the voting population a shortcut of figuring what candidate best represents their basic political philosophy. After all, particularly with the long ballot, how many people are really going to research six dozen or more candidates and measures? Not many Ruben, not many…… Read More

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer is termed out in 2008 and by all accounts will run for OC District Attorney.

Phil Paule posts about the field of potential candidates over at Red County/Riverside.

You can also catch a funny post there by Jeff Greene — chief of staff to Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries — about his retaliatory strike against Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez for misspelling Jeffries name.… Read More

Today is the deadline for our esteemed legislators to submit bills. I finally found my thinking cap and put it on and came up with some bills that should be introduced. They probably won’t be, but I welcome your suggestions. Here two of my picks.

First bill: It should be illegal to impersonate an illegal alien and gain state benefits. I’m sure that some poor US citizen in Arizona may want a tuition break at California schools or someone may want access to health care illegals get. It has to be stopped! these US citizens are feeding off tax dollars meant for hard working illegal aliens.

Second Bill. There should be a 48-hour waiting period before someone can buy pornography at an adult bookstore. This will allow the owners to do a background check to insure that no registered sex offender has access to these types of material. Just like guns there should be some type of “cooling off” period.

There were other options like laws banning spanking, letting men marry men,eliminating all transfat and raising taxesfora socialistichealth care system,but apparently those aren’t jokes.

Any other suggestions?… Read More

If you can hear the thunder in the background, it is the sound of the Sacramento Bee attempting to change the current paradigm of how major newspapers deal with politics and the internet.

The Bee was on the front end of internet blogging, providing a forum and support for columnist Dan Weintraub as he attempted to pull together the first real blog on California politics with no road map to follow. From our end of things, how would it look? How often would he write? What would be the kinds of things he would write about? From the ‘back side’ — how do you integrate the real-time efforts of a blog with the idea that editors like to review what goes up on the website? Anyways, Dan plowed through all of the challenges, and the Sacramento Bee lead what has been large cadre of journalists who now blog for their newspapers, radio stations, and even some television stations.

Now, of course, with trends showing that all print newspapers are declining in circulation as more and more readers look to the internet to get their news (blogs, podcasts, websites and more) — the Sacramento Bee is now looking to see how they can make their… Read More

If you can hear the thunder in the background, it is the sound of the Sacramento Bee attempting to change the current paradigm of how major newspapers deal with politics and the internet.

The Bee was on the front end of internet blogging, providing a forum and support for columnist Dan Weintraub as he attempted to pull together the first real blog on California politics with no road map to follow. From our end of things, how would it look? How often would he write? What would be the kinds of things he would write about? From the ‘back side’ — how do you integrate the real-time efforts of a blog with the idea that editors like to review what goes up on the website? Anyways, Dan plowed through all of the challenges, and the Sacramento Bee lead what has been large cadre of journalists who now blog for their newspapers, radio stations, and even some television stations.

Now, of course, with trends showing that all print newspapers are declining in circulation as more and more readers look to the internet to get their news (blogs, podcasts, websites and more) — the Sacramento Bee is now looking to see how they can make their… Read More

The California Republican Party, in conjunction with the Governor’s campaign embarked on a bold experimental Registration campaign in 2006.

All professional vendors were paid $13.00 an hour whether they produced or not. This effort was led by a Nathan Sproul of Arizona with his dba California Grass Roots Mobilization.Sproulwas paid over $2,100,000 last year.

This bold initiative was designed for threereasons: a ] to go to places where GOPers generally don’t , such as San Francisco. [ Sproul’s team never made it there ] and make it worthwhile to go door to door ,b] to avoid the nasty publicity two criminal investigations in San Bernardino and Orange County DA’s were conduction against fraudulent registrations, and c ] a new state law required, adding a considerableburden, that all registrations contain either a social security number or a driver license number. Who knew? . At $13,00 a hour how could this not work.

The Governor’s people, from the Bush 2004 campaign, insisted on the services of Mr. Sproul.

Sproul’s method of hiring was no different than anyone else in the registration business.… Read More