As a member of the leadership team for our caucus, I must honor that our internal workings and decisions of our caucus must remain internal with the outcome being the aspect that we may or may not go public with. Obviously, with the new term and our organizational meeting on the horizon, the discussions turned to the leadership of our caucus. Controversy surrounded as to how that discussion would be carried out and when. Our unity being one of our most important assets in my 4 years in the legislature, I had great concern as to how this was going toplay out.

Our leader, George Plescia, inherited a situation not to be envied in terms of the transition. He jumped into the fire during the bond ‘negotiations’ and counter to what some may say, was not twisting arms of members to vote for any bonds. Nor during the budget, when more than the usual 6 Republicans usually needed to pass a budget were there. Members complaining about these issues and voting for them, look in the mirror.

It was a 2nd year of the session, an election year, where the leader’s job is to protect our targets and wage the battle on new seats that we… Read More

The Newport-Mesa based Daily Pilot has a story on its website today about Orange Coast (Community) College Student Trustees voting three-to-one to eliminate the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance as a regular agenda item for its meetings. It’s now a Reuters story linked on Drudge. The Daily Pilot subtitle says the "under God" part was the impetus for the removal of the Pledge, but ifone read some of the student trustees’ own quotes, one would find more pernicious reasons.

"Some of the arguments made were that the idea of nationality is divisive, and on a diverse campus such as ours, there’s no reason to be divisive,"[Jason Ball]said. "Another argument was that people shouldn’t have to display loyalty to a country through public ritual on a regular basis. Another, of course, was… Read More

The state prison guard union is running TV spots jumping the Governor. (h/t to Cap. Weekly) You can see the spot below. The Governor will be addressing prison reform in the upcoming legislative session. … Read More

Did I misunderstand him or did the governor just compare Mexican immigrants to children?

His point is exactly right–just because people yell for something doesn’t mean the rest of us have to give in. But I can’t imagine that Univision or La Opinion is going to be happy about his comparison of Mexican immigrants to his children. Probably about as happy as California Republicans are about his comments that it was time for "new blood" in Washington, D.C.

Here’s what the governor said, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle:

Asked what would be his message to the Mexican people, Schwarzenegger noted his visits to date from his movie and bodybuilding days… Read More

ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS RE-ORGANIZE; VILLINES OF FRESNO IS NEW LEADER It is traditional that within a couple of days of each General Election, the legislative caucuses in the State Assembly gather to formally elect their leadership for the coming session. The Democrats gathered and re-elected Speaker Fabian Nunez to lead the Assembly Democrats, and the institution as they are the majority Party. Assembly Republicans gathered yesterday afternoon for many hours, debating amongst themselves the future of California, and how to make Assembly Republicans most relevant in the process. Based on my understanding here is my 30,000 foot summary. Discussion centered around the best strategies to deal with the new paradigm in Sacramento, the change in political direction taken by Governor Schwarzenegger, and the challenges that Assembly Republicans had last year in being relevant… Read More

In California Political News, Steve Frank writes, "What wasn’t expected was the record low turnout of voters, mostly the GOP leaning counties. No wonder we lost so big. Where were the volunteers? How did we do so poorly in Republican Counties?" That question was preceded by Steve’s comment that Assembly Republicans were upset after being asked by leadership to "back a budget badly in deficit and bonds that were tributes to special interests." That just about answers the questions Steve poses.

I’ve never known deficit spending, big bonds and special interest commitments to be things that particularly excite the GOP base.… Read More

Preamble The position of the Republican Party is that state government is too big, and spends too much. That taxes should be cut, and many government-funded programs be eliminated. Families should be able to keep more of their tax dollars, to spend as they would see fit, not shipping them to Sacramento through high taxes and onerous fees, to be redistributed by politicians to their various causes. If everyone would ingrain that into their thinking on policy debates, then there would a better understanding about why Republicans in the legislature are not hip on drinking the ‘bipartisan’ Kool-aid being poured by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Perata and Speaker Nunez right now. You see, the Democrats are only willing to jump on… Read More

Larry McCarthy is the President of the California Taxpayers Association, and he has penned his thoughts on Tuesday’s election, and the message sent by California voters about tax increases…