Today at 3:00 p.m., Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be convening a meeting of many of the leaders in California’s ongoing battle against higher taxes. The Governor, along with senior staff members Mike Genest, the State Director of Finance, as well as Deputy Chiefs of Staff Richard Costigan and Dan Dunmoyer will meet with Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assocation, Larry McCarthy, President of the California Taxpayers Association, Lew Uhler, founder and President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, Kris Hunt, Executive Director of the Contra Costa County Taxpayers Association, and others.

My understanding is that the agenda for this meeting is very straightforward – a discussion about how to hold the line in California against tax increases.

Of course, the biggest opportunity for Democrats to try to jam the Governor a legislative Republicans with tax and spending increases will be the upcoming budget negotiations. It is certainly our hope that the May… Read More

He’s Still The Terminator And He Knows It Last week’s California Field Poll found Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tied with state Treasurer Phil Angelides, his best-known potential Democratic opponent. That’s good news given that the Field Poll tilts towards Democrats by surveying "registered voters" rather than "likely voters," a group that represents a more conservative electorate.

The bad news is that Governor Schwarzenegger trails by four points the Democrat who is most likely to be his opponent: Steve Westly, the state comptroller who has now taken an 11-point lead over Mr. Angelides in the Field Poll on the strength of a massive TV ad buy paid for in part by the millions the former businessman earned as an eBay executive during the Internet bubble of the 1990s

Mr. Schwarzenegger’s approval ratings have climbed slightly from their nadir following the defeat of four initiatives he placed on the ballot in last November’s special election. His negatives have also fallen, and there is now a bloc of about 15% of voters who are… Read More

Logan Jenkins, a columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune, lays out Governor Schwarzenegger for being at fault for the current bizarre predicament facing Republicans and voters in the 50th Congressional District. Republicans just finished a bruising primary where well over a dozen candidates, for the most part overwhelmingly conservative, sliced up the special election vote so much that moderate Brian Bilbray, with about 16% of the vote, won the right to carry the GOP banner against Democrat Francine Busby in the June run-off. To the victor of this one-on-one battle goes the right to fill out the rest of Duke Cunningham’s unexpired term until the end of this year. But what about the next term? The full two years. And, of course, the decades beyond for a safely ensconced politician in a state where the partisan gerrymander ensures that general elections are not competitive? The regular… Read More

Logan Jenkins, a columnist for the San Diego Union Tribune, lays out Governor Schwarzenegger for being at fault for the current bizarre predicament facing Republicans and voters in the 50th Congressional District. Republicans just finished a bruising primary where well over a dozen candidates, for the most part overwhelmingly conservative, sliced up the special election vote so much that moderate Brian Bilbray, with about 16% of the vote, won the right to carry the GOP banner against Democrat Francine Busby in the June run-off. To the victor of this one-on-one battle goes the right to fill out the rest of Duke Cunningham’s unexpired term until the end of this year. But what about the next term? The full two years. And, of course, the decades beyond for a safely ensconced politician in a state where the partisan gerrymander ensures that general elections are not competitive? The regular… Read More

No commentary today – off to enjoy my Sunday.

On the main page today, don’t miss George Will’s column. Also, there are some great pieces including a lengthy look by Peter Nicholas of the LA Times at how donors from the New Majority GOP funding group are financing U.S. Chamber of Commerce ads that profile the positive job being done by the Governor.

Did you catch this week’s great commentaries? Check them here in the Commentary Library.

Have a great day, and remember to keep sending your suggestions and tips!

Jon

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.… Read More

OK, so who won already?… Anticipating a rather slow Easter Sunday on the FR blog, some of you may be reading this Monday. Either way, I don’t want to keep folks on pins and needles any longer about the winner of the first ever FlashReport "Pick ’em and Win" CD 50 election contest.

You may recall, part one was to select the top four CD 50 Republicans in their order of finish. They were, of course, Bilbray, Roach, Kaloogian and Morrow, like it or not. Four folks nailed the order:

John Dadian, Steve Friar, Mike Johnson and Marc Schaefer. Good going, gentleman.

Tie Break One…pick the percentage for the leading Republican. Yeah, there are like 500 ballots to count, but we’re pretty safe in saying Bilbray’s total is not gonna change more than a fraction. Yet, that makes things a bit problematic if it does change, as you can see by the picks of our remaining top three contestants, against Bilbray’s percentage:

Bilbray… Read More

Republican Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine is cop. He is now a LAPD reserve officer. In South Central there is a co-op farm the resident grow food on. Now the land owner wants his land and there is much controversy. Mayor Sam’s Sister City Blog has a story where Zine went to check out the farm at night in an unmarked police car. Was a gun drawn? Nevertheless people are ticked. Check it out here.He should have stopped at Krispy Kreme instead.… Read More

As all FR readers know, the race between Tom Harman and Diane Harkey in the 35th State Senate District Special Election came down to a difference of less than 300 votes. As a matter of fact, this margin for Harman matters a lot as Harkey prepares for a recount.

As a Harkey supporter myself, my eyes rolled to the top of my head when I got my mail today. Amidst some bills, a timeshare offer, and some coupons was a mailer from The Alliance for Orange County Taxpayers labasting Tom Harman, specifically telling the real story behind some ‘tall tales’ in Harman’s previous mail.

Well, to the extent that it enlightens some voters about Harman, great. That said, mail received four days after the election does no good whatsoever.

I would blame the folks at the "OC Taxpayers’ but my first inclination is to blame our government-run postal system.… Read More