With the thousands of appointments that the Governor makes, it is a frequent occurance that a release comes out from his office announcing another group of appointees. For a time I was actually posting those here, with a partisan breakdown. I stopped doing that because there were to many folks being appointed from the Party of Hillary Clinton, and it was bad for morale.

That said, as I said above, you get an indicator about someone and where they are coming from based on their voter registration. You can even try to make some generalizations when you see that someone has registered as a Decline To State voter…

So what does it mean when someone is appointed who is not registered to vote AT ALL?

I’ve never seen this before, but in the most recent list of appointees, the first appointee listed is Doctor John Chin of Sacramento, who is named to the California Medical Board in the Division of Medical Quality. The last line of this first paragraph is… Read More

Most of us are confounded by the teenage drug user who cuts herself to ‘let the demons out’.

Likewise we should be equally disturbed by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s recent sit-down with the Sacramento Bee during which he pronounced his intention to sponsor legislation that would ban fund raising at certain times of the year.

There are so many things wrong with this idea.

**There is more – click the link**

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Most of us are confounded by the teenage drug user who cuts herself to ‘let the demons out’.

Likewise we should be equally disturbed by Secretary of State Bruce McPherson’s recent sit-down with the Sacramento Bee during which he pronounced his intention to sponsor legislation that would ban fund raising at certain times of the year.

There are so many things wrong with this idea.

For one it raises the question: What is fund raising? Is a reception where people come and bring checks? Is it going to your fund raiser’s office, sitting down and making phone calls? Is it speaking to a constituent in the district at a chamber of commerce mixer and accepting an envelop with a check from an event you had several weeks before? Perhaps its all of them. I wonder if a legislator has a campaign strategy session with key supporters and business leaders during this ‘black-out’ period, would he or she be banned from mentioning the fact that they need to raise $300,000 before the Primary Election?

… Read More

I am sitting here with Mike Der Manouel, Jr, our Central Valley Correspondent. We just had come over the FlashReport transom an announcement from Californians for Schwarzenegger, announcing that Governor Schwarzenegger and ersatz Governor Angelides will be holding a debate on Saturday, October 7. (Mike points out the cleverness of a Saturday debate as no one will be watching…)

Of course, looking at things through the political prism, conventional wisdom is that the front runner wants to have as few debates as possible and the underdog would like to have as many debates as possible. Each debate presenting yet another potential opportunity for the front-runner to stumble.

So, as Mike and I have been discussing this, we both agree on a two points. The first is that the race for Governor is going to tighten up much more than it is now — as partisan voters settle into their comfort zone as election day approaches. We also agree that debates between Schwarzenegger and Angelides will be one sided, with Angelides… Read More

In the LA Times article referenced in blog posts below, Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy and Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia shrugged off the Governor’s remarks about their temperaments. Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia chose not to comment on the "deer that keeps getting caught in [Susan Kennedy’s] yard" personal description and the "wild bunch" Republican Caucus description for the Times article.

Here’s Plescia’s official response to the tape (taken froma just transmittedpress release):… Read More

Proper respect goes to the Sacto YRs for wading into the new Kings arena sales tax debate and opposing Sacramento County‘s Measures Q and R, theproposed early Christmasgifts from the taxpayers to the Maloof family. (A Sacramento Bee article mentions that Gail Kaufman, of CMR Democrat consultant insider fame, was recently hired to "drum up support" for the measures.)

Here’s the text of YR Fed’s press release I received yesterday: Sacramento Young Republicans Oppose Arena Tax Raises Taxes to Provide Millions in Corporate Welfare

SACRAMENTO – Citing the devastating impact on local taxpayers, the Sacramento Valley Young Republicans announce their opposition to… Read More

I was there in 2003, working out of the Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign press office in Santa Monica when the Los Angeles Times wrote an unsubstantiated pre-election hit piece against him.

However, today’s article by Robert Salladay, which reveals a privately tape recorded conversation between Gov. Schwarzenegger, his chief of staff and two aides, is not a case of history repeating itself.

No, something much more sinister is at work, and it doesn’t involve anyone employed by the LA Times.

Rather, this is a case of one of the governor’s staff — who apparently didn’t sign the same confidentiality agreement I was forced to sign when I went to work on his campaign three years ago — betraying his trust, calling into question the confidentiality of future private conversations the governor may have with members of the legislature, and publicly embarrassing him through a news article that is now posted on the Drudge Report, read by millions of people around the world.

Oh yes, and let’s not forget, handing his opponent, Phil Angelides, a hit piece of his own on a silver platter.

I write today… Read More

Last night was one of those nights where you just feel like tossing your cell phone into the swimming pool, or in this case, my friend Mike Schroeder’s swimming pool. Last night there was an intimate fundraising event for Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona at the home of Mike and Susan Schroeder, but I ended up missing most of the festivities as I hunted for that one spot in the backyard of the Carona Del Mar home where my cell phone could get good signal.

I was on the phone quite a bit as there was talk that Bob Salladay of the Los Angeles Times had "gotten a hold" of an audio tape, or a transcription of an audio tape of the Governor, his Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, and a couple of others where there is some colorful talk about Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia, his predecessor Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy and Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia.

It took a while but I finally was able to have someone read to me a copy of the transcribed conversation — and when they did, I said to the… Read More