If you live in Sacramento County, the loud ‘sucking sound’ you hear is an alliance of billionaires and bureaucrats who are salivating at the thought of gauging county taxpayers with a new 1/4 cent increase in the local sales tax — and for what?

Well, according to a story that was first reported below by ace Sacramento Area FR Correspondent Joe Justin and also now appears on the Sacramento Bee website, the tax would provide public funding for a new stadium/arena for the Sacramento Kings, and also provide addition funds into the hands of local politicians to spend as they see fit. Specifically $1.2 billion or so is projected to be raised by this tax increase,… Read More

I might be missing something, but it appears that the unions are so nervous about keeping the seats they hold given the potential for an Angelides route……it’s only July and their a bit paranoid as you can see from this pithy little piece by State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, AFL-CIO attacking Arne Simonsen…..… Read More

The Steve Poizner for Insurance Commissioner campaign announced that Jennifer Kerns is the new communications director for the campaign.

Kerns has long Orange County ties having previously worked for former OC Assemblywoman Pat Bates and been a leader in the OC Young Republicans.

Most recently Kerns was Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Planning under SOS Bruce McPherson.

An Oklahoma native Kerns campaigned for former U. S. Rep. J. C. Watts in his first election.

Jennifer Kerns has a good reputation with CA political press and editorial boards. Watch out Cruz.… Read More

Put on your thinking caps and starting considering how the war in the Middle East between Israel and the terrorist organization Hezbollah will impact the November elections. Because it will. And in fact, it already is. Even here in California.

The Fall elections, according to gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides and his campaign co-chair House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, are about “change.” A change in direction, a change in leadership. And to make their point, Phil and Nancy will attempt to tie President George W. Bush around the necks of Republican incumbents in hopes of making them sink to the bottom.

This strategy, which seemed ominous for candidates like Schwarzenegger just a week ago, may now be dying on the vine. Witness the recent action of Angelides’ campaign co-chair, Ms. Pelosi:

“House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) approached Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the floor Tuesday evening to see if she would attach her name to the most recent version of a joint resolution supporting Israel in its battle with two militant Islamic groups.

“After five days of wrangling between the two… Read More

A good friend of mine, attorney Guillermo Cabrera, serves on the San Diego Ethics Commission. Gil and his fellow commissioners have apparently been pretty busy.

Most recently, the Ethics Commission has received a significant amount of press relating to Gil’s proposal toprohibitlobbyists who raise at least $5,000 in contributions or solicit donations from 50 or more people on behalf of a successful candidate from lobbying the elected official they supported. This has been pretty widely reported in San Diego press (read one article here). Short version of the proposal: The Ethics Commission didn’t have sufficient votes to recommend the measure’s adoption by the City Council. Not that this matter is dead, according to my correspondence with Gil. He says he’s got some other ideas on how to head offlobbyist influence in San Diego city government.

Now Gil is a swell guy, an excellent lawyer and a very good friend. But personally I disagree withhis proposal and I… Read More

Gov. Schwarzenegger authorized a $150 million taxpayer funded loan today to the stem cell institute (formally known as California Institute for Regenerative Medicine). The decision comes on the heels of President Bush’s veto yesterday of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

You will recall that in 2004 the voters overwhelmingly approved a $3 billion bond for embryonic stem cell research and biomedical cloning, which has been tied up in the courts.

KQED’s John Myers has a good write up on the governor’s loan and its political significance. Here are a couple of excerpts:

"The Schwarzenegger decision, interestingly enough, is linked to a similar effort to provide a kind of ‘bridge loan’ to the CIRM by state Treasurer and gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides. Last year, Angelides helped enact a plan to get as much as $200 million to the CIRM through the sale of bond anticipation notes."

"There’s no question that today’s loan decision is interesting as a policy matter. But it also has… Read More

If you’ve got a song title that would make a great analogy for the announcement that the Kings and Sacramento have reached a deal on a new arena….send it my way…otherwise….read about it here.… Read More

It occurred to me that in my commentary on Tuesday, I suggested reporters call a political attorney before writing about conflicts of interests.

Here, for the benefit of political and government reporters are some attorneys that I have worked with or seen in action (sometimes on the opposite side of one of my clients). They all have experience with political law and are good at what they do:

Ben Davidian Law offices of Ben Davidian Fair Oaks

Dana Reed Reed & Davidson Los Angeles

John Ramirez Rutan & Tucker Costa Mesa

Michael Houston Rutan & Tucker Costa Mesa

Chuck Bell Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk Sacramento

Tom Hiltachk Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk Sacramento

Mark Rosen Law offices of Mark Rosen Santa Ana

Jim Lacy Wewer & Lacy, LLP Laguna Niguel

Fred Woocher Sturmwasser & Woocher LLP Santa Monica

Darryl Wold Irvine

Chip Nielsen Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello et al Mill Valley

And last but not least…added at the… Read More