There are a number of items of interest in the news today. So for my ‘commentary’ I will draw your attention to some of the more interesting ones.

Leading the page is good news for the Governor. There is a new survey out showing that Schwarzenegger has increased his popularity numbers with the electorate, and also has increased his lead over liberal Democrat Phil Angelides. Also the many, many representatives of California’s small business community within the National Federation of Independent Business have backed the Governor’s re-election overwhelmingly (95%). This makes sense since Phil Angelides has never met a small businessman he didn’t want to tax out of business! The Golden Pen today goes to columnist Tom Elias who eloquently reminds us all that California still is getting short-changed by the federal government, as money is sucked out of the Golden State and redistributed elsewhere in the nation, or used up by the massive federal bureaucracy. Vic Pollard from the Bakersfield Californian has a must-read column with his take on the latest intrigue in the most highly targeted State Assembly seat in … Read More

Jerry Brown has said that he’d like to do for California what he’s done for Oakland. Well, yesterday there were two more homicides in Oakland, bringing the total for the year so far to 70 homicides. At this time last year, there were 39 homicides. With this abysmal crime-fighting record, let’s hope that in November California voters are smart enough to say, "thanks, but no thanks" to Brown and elect Sen. Chuck Poochigian as California’s next AG.… Read More

In a textbook Ken Khachigian move, the Poochigian campaign has been airing a version of it “Fictional Crime Fighter” web ad all over Oakland cable TV. From ESPN (for us World Cup addicts) to Food Network to A&E to Fox News, anyone watching local Oakland cable over the long holiday weekend had to have been asleep to have missed seeing at least one of these ads. Click here to watch the ad.

No doubt, Jerry Brown’s friends have been calling him saying, “Man, that… Read More

Secretary of State Bruce McPherson last week issued a press release (see attachment) listing out the ballot measures that will appear on the November ballot, along with their order and numbering. The first group, measures 1A – 1E are all part of the Infrastructure Borrowing Package (a.k.a… the ‘even though California takes in well over $100,000,000,000.00 (that’s over a hundred BILLION) a year we are going to borrow even more money rather than (gasp!) spend 5-10% of this massive budget each year on infrastructure needs’ package).

Here they are. Dan Weintraub of the SacBee lists them as well, with a bit more of a discription. Of course there is more detail in the attached release.

Prop. 1A – SCA 7 Transportation Funding Protection. Prop. 1B – SB 1266. Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality,… Read More

I may be playing ‘catch up’ for a little while, as I try to go back and catch up on things that were going on and written about during my time off – three weeks, apparently, is an enternity in the world of politics.

That said, I was looking through past issues of Capitol Weekly (a great publication, and I am not just saying that because I am a regularly featured columnist there) and in their June 29th issue, in their regular "Personnel Profile" column they did a feature on Vince Sollitto. Last March, Vince was hired by the California Chamber of Commerce as their Vice President for Media Relations and External Affairs.

While I reserve my Chamber MVP Award for the unequalled Michele Zschau (who heads up the Cal-Chamber’s political efforts), I wanted to congratulate Vince for being recognized in CapWeekly, and take an opportunity to share with FR readers that I think that, while new, Vince is already doing an outstanding job for the Chamber of Commerce.

Vince… Read More

I just received a press release from the California Republican Party announcing two new campaign ads in support of Gov. Schwarzenegger.

The first, "Cleaner," is about the governor’s environmental record, the opening line of which states, "Tomorrow will be cleaner and healthier than today for California families."

Doubting Thomases who may question the accuracy of that statement (and I imagine the governor’s campaign, er uh, the California Republican Party, will be getting more than one phone call from reporters asking for justification)are directed to such secondary sources as Rolling Stone.com and Salon.com as hard evidence that indeed, Thursday’s air will be cleaner than Wednesday’s air…for California families.

The second ad, "Air," is a hit on Phil Angelides’ environmental record, ala Steve Westly. The tag line to this ad is, "What if Steve Westly was right?"

I suspect this line could backfire on the governor. Like, "What if Steve Westly was right" … that Arnold shouldn’t be re-elected, that California… Read More

Phil Angelides was politicking at our local 4th of July parade in East Sacramento on Tuesday (some of the old timers were mad he would politicize the family event that has hundreds of kids riding their bikes around the block — but that is a different story and I like to see politicians out with the people).

A close family friend (lets call him John), he’s not a GOP activist by any stretch of the imagination, pressed Angelides with a question while he was walking passed us, "How much are you going to raise my taxes?"

Three thoughts raced through my head.

1. John naturally knew the key message of the campaign without prompting from me — 4 months before Election Day. John doesn’t get "Team Arnold" email and doesn’t go to Republican Party meetings, but he gets it. He works hard every day, he has a family to support and a mortgage to pay. He doesn’t want to pay anymore taxes.

2. I found it telling that very few people were walking up to talk with Angelides (sure he always found somebody to talk with, but no more than if another politician showed… Read More

Welcome back from your July 4th holiday! On Monday, I returned from my outstanding three-week journey from Great Britain, just in time to celebrate our country’s 230th anniversary of throwing off the oppressive tyranny of that nasty King George III and the British! Hooray! The day after a holiday is almost as always quiet, politically, as the holiday itself. Reporters like to take time off, too, and while holidays that are closer to elections are typically exceptions to this rule, Independence Day is far from the November elections (well, to normal people who aren’t hip-deep in campaigns). Today we feature a column penned by FR friend Jon Coupal, the President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (pictured). Jon has given due credit to the Governor for drawing a firm line in the sand against tax and fee increases. This is an important position of the Governor, and will help to draw a sharp contrast between… Read More