Former Orange County GOP Assemblyman Ken Maddox has been tapped by Board of Equalization Member Michelle Steel to be her Sacramento-based Director of Legislative Affairs, looking out for the insterests of her office in relation to the goings on of the legislative process taking place in the State Capitol.

This selection is a good one for Steel, who is a strong fiscal conservative. Maddox, as a GOP legislator, was a strong voice for fiscal sanity.

Maddox served three terms in the State Assembly before being forced to retire from the legislature due to term limits. Prior to serving in the Assembly, Maddox was a long-time member of the Garden Grove City Council.

Interestingly, California’s other Republican member of the Board of Equalization, Bill Leonard, also has a former Republican legislator on his team — his Chief of Staff is Barbara Alby, who has also served since 1996 as California’s Republican National Committeewoman.… Read More

From Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard:

***Huge Tax Hike on Beer Drinkers***

State law is full of gray areas and ambiguities. One old one is now the real culprit in this week’s headlines. When the Legislature wrote the first alcohol laws after Prohibition was repealed in 1933, California defined what a beer is and what wine is. The definition was simple – anything added to beer or wine renders it something else. Sometime thereafter beer and wine producers started adding things such as preservatives, flavor enhancers and other things. So narrowly reading the law there is NO such product as either beer or wine sold in California today. Now common sense and alcohol regulators know that is not true and so for years have ignored this narrow… Read More

Jon has posted a letter to the editor in the Washington Times from Nathan Fletcher. Fletcher served two years overseas in Iraq and Africa fighting for our country. He is also a top-notch political operative. I first met him when he was working for the CRP. He was the speaker along with his wife (Mindy Fletcher, Deputy Campaign Maager for the Gov.) at the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club and will also be the speaker at the South Bay chapter.

Nathan lives in San Diego. Why would he travel up her to LA? 2008 George Plescia is termed out and guess who is running for that seat?

Fletcher almost ran in ’06 when it looked like Plescia might run for Congress or State Senate. He raised around a100K in that limited time. He will be one candidate that will have to be beat.… Read More

Thegroup of Republican volunteers that filed the original failed lawsuit challenging Jerry Brown’s qualifications to be Attorney General has been allowed to amend their complaint in Sacramento Superior Court, and they are now getting a second try to keep Brownfrom taking office.Their complaint centers on the fact that Brown allowed his official status with the state bar to become "inactive" for a few years while he was serving as Mayor of Oakland. The prohibition the Plaintiffs are relying on puts form before substance in determining the qualifications of a candidate for Attorney General: it is California Government Code section 12503, which states, "No person shall be eligible to the office of Attorney General unless he shall have been admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the state for a period of at least five years immediately preceding his election or appointment to such office."

Brown was admitted to the State Bar of California in June 1965 but was an "inactive member" from Jan. 1, 1997, through May 1, 2003, bar records show.

I didn’t vote for Brown in the election, but I… Read More

Today’s Commentary is guest authored by Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association. Coupal takes the opportunity to offer his perspective on the healthcare proposal recently released by State Senate President Don Perata…

Senate leader Don Perata has a plan to provide all uninsured working Californians with Health Insurance at an estimated cost of $5 billion to $7 billion without a tax increase. Okay…

The Perata plan would force businesses that do not provide health insurance, and their employees, through a payroll deduction, to pay into a state agency that would attempt to negotiate for “affordable” coverage. When paying taxes, workers would have to show proof of medical insurance.

**There is more – click the… Read More

Today’s Commentary is guest authored by Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association. Coupal takes the opportunity to offer his perspective on the healthcare proposal recently released by State Senate President Don Perata…

Senate leader Don Perata has a plan to provide all uninsured working Californians with Health Insurance at an estimated cost of $5 billion to $7 billion without a tax increase. Okay… The Perata plan would force businesses that do not provide health insurance, and their employees, through a payroll deduction, to pay into a state agency that would attempt to negotiate for “affordable” coverage. When paying taxes, workers would have to show proof of medical insurance.… Read More

After much shedding of blood, sweat and tears, the inaugural first issue of Red County magazine is winding its way through the postal system, and should be arriving in the mail boxes of fortunate recipients as I write.

I’ll quote Editor Scott Graves:

Today for lunch, I attended a presentation by the Orange County Forum where the featured speakers included three GOP and three Democrat Legislators. The Dems were State Senator Lou Correa, Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, and Assemblyman Jose Solario The Repubicans were State Senator Mark Wyland and Assemblymembers Jim Silva and Mike Duvall. All are a talented bunch and come into their respective chambers as freshman. Emcee for the panel was Orange County Register uber-political reporter Martin Wisckol (see his word via th OC Total Buzz link under the Blog Roll above). Everyone was amiable today. We’ll see how that changes after a year or two of struggling to make do with less in Sacramento!… Read More