Two years ago today, Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a "financial justice" program for the city of San Francisco: the Working Families Tax Credit. Modeled after the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), San Francisco’s WFTC was designed to give working poor people several hundred dollars in additional income per year. (The federal EITC is a program which effectively gives cash grants to working poor people. Although it was designed to help offset taxes for the working poor, it has morphed into a federal welfare program, giving more money back than some people actually paid in taxes.) At the time the program was announced, Newsom said he believed the WFTC would stimulate the local economy and "reduce tax inequity by providing… Read More

UPDATE: See my analysis of the selection here.

Here is a first blush at those applying by last Friday’s deadline, as well as any web links I can find for them in a very cursory look (party registration in parentheses)….

Eric Kangas, a teacherof 37 years (unknown).

Vickie Butcher, a several-time candidate for El Cajon City Council and former member of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, appointed by Gray Davis (Democrat).

Pamela Choice…can’t find anything on her, although she may be a good Choice…do I see a campaign slogan here? (unknown).

John Johnson…way too many JJs on Google (unknown).

Marilyn Kistler…a doctor (Ph.D perhaps?) and a campaign chairperson forthe… Read More

John and Ken’s radio juggernaut will feature a live,on-location Jessica’s Law ‘Drive-By Signature show’ in Riverside today from 3 to 7 p.m. San Bernardino County Supervisor Gary Ovitt,a statewide co-sponsor of theJessica’s Law initiative,will be one of the show’sfeatured guests. The event will be held at Q-Bonkers Billiards, 9364 Magnolia Avenue. That’s where David Allyn Dokich was caught violating his parole. On their top-rated AM-640 talk show, John and Ken have pointed to Dokich, a convicted sex offender who was paroled to Riverside County, as an example of why California’s laws protecting citizens from sexually violent predators need to be strengthened. These pages have featured considerable coverage of late regarding the Legislature’s failure to pass Jessica’s Law through the normal legislative process. Today’s event is hoped by the sponsors to put the related Jessica’s… Read More

In the race for House Leader, two of the three candidates running already were in leadership posts. Roy Blunt was the current #3 in the leadership team as Majority Whip, and John Shadegg was serving in the #5 post as Republican Conference Chairman. Shadegg, believing strongly that you should leave one office if seeking another, vacated the #5 spot, while Blunt held onto his spot.

The vacancy in the Policy Committee Chairmanship (which was held by Californian Chris Cox before he was confirmed as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and then Shadegg took over for him) meant a race for a second "open" leadership spot.

A number of candidates got into the race, but for the purposes of informing FR readers, one of the candidates was California Republican Darrell Issa (pictured to the right), of northern San Diego County. The ultimate winner in the final ballot was a Florida Congressman, Adam Putnam, who by… Read More

John Boehner’s ascent to Majority Leader could mean San Bernardino County gets a third House Chairman: Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (pictured right).This would be in addition to Rules Chairman David Dreier and Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis.

Boehner is the current chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee. The post would have come up in ’07 or ’08, but is now open. The current Vice Chair of Education is Tom Petri of Wisconsin, who is the Ranking Member of Transportation and Infrastructure, and who is in line to take over that committee in the next Congress. The Education and Workforce Committee is important because it oversees the Department of Education and the Department of Labor. It will continue to be a key committee because, among other reasons, it will have oversight over "No Child Left Behind" when provisions kick in during 2008 possibly resultingin takeover of failing schools by states, charter schools, or ultimately the federal… Read More

The Washington Post has an excellent story on how the Republicans outmaneuvered the Democrats on the Alito nomination.

Steve Schmidt, Governor Schwarzenegger’s new campaign director, was the quarterback for the nomination and the piece provides some great insight for what the California Republican Party can expect when he gets on the ground this week. Here are the takeaway quotes about Schmidt’s style:

"An intense and single-minded advocate for the administration, Schmidt, 35, is considered an operative in the mold of the late Lee Atwater — kinetic and relentless. Conservative activists love him, privately referring to him as "The Bullet" for his swift and accurate aim at the target. Ultimately, Schmidt would put in place a tight organizational structure and bring every tool at his disposal to the fight — technology, the media, conservative special-interest groups,… Read More

Congratulations go out to Representative John Boehner of Ohio who was elected minutes ago to succeed Tom DeLay as the new Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 122 – 109. On the first ballot, the ‘reform’ vote was split between John Shadegg of Arizona (the former head of the conservative Republican Study Committee) and Boehner. Shadegg’s dropping off after the first ballot moved all of the ‘reform’ votes over to Boehner, who defeated the Majority Whip, Roy Blunt, who was trying to move up.

I’m sure that there are a lot of ways to read and interpret the results of this closed-door voting session, but Californians can be hopeful that it means that we are going to see a CHANGE in the way that Republicans do business in the Beltway. Perhaps it means that we will see an end to an era that has seen a 33% growth in federal spending since Republicans re-claimed control of the House in 1994. Perhaps it means that the explosion… Read More

Yesterday I got an interesting “don’t quote me” email with some news in the June race for the heavily Republican San Diego County 5th District Supervisorial race between incumbent Bill Horn and former Assemblyman Bruce Thompson. The Horn campaign, as expected, is cash rich with only more to come. On the other hand, if the information I got is accurate, Thompson’s campaign finances are really lacking. My information says the Thompson campaign will show 31k raised and 14k cash on hand. Unless Thompson has a really hefty checkbook, or newly resurgent county labor unions decide to play, this spells real trouble for his campaign. This showing is worse when you consider Thompson has the endorsement of Congressman Issa, State Senator Hollingsworth and some other notable local officials. This sort of support should translate into campaign funds, but apparently hasn’t.… Read More