In today’s Political Diary from OpinionJournal.com, John Fund writes about the Census Bureau’s population migration estimates. If borne out, says Fund, California will fail to gain a congressional seat in the 2010 reapportionment "for the first Census since it became a state in 1850." Fund correctly attributes this disturbing prospect to "an outflow of middle-class residents headed for other states."

Coming on the heels of a major moving company’s announcement that it is moving more people out of California than into California, that news should be a huge wake-up call to the Mensheviks running the state legislature. Sunny weather as goes so far; as long as Democrat taxation, spending and regulatory policies place California at a gross competitive disadvantage with neighboring states, we will continue to hemnorrhage productive residents.

[Political Diary is the single best deal for political junkies who want a daily fix of insider political information from around the… Read More

Probably the most telling comment of the budget announcement yesterday was when the governor made the joke about his motorcycle accident. It answered a nagging question in my mind: How much was pillow talk directing state policy? The answer is one I was fairly certain of: a lot.

In case you missed it, the governor’s joke was (as reported by the Sac Bee): "A car pulled out in front of me … I just couldn’t make a decision which way to go.… Read More

In the first California election of 2006, reform Republican Kevin Faulconer (disclaimer – Coronado Communications client) appears to have defeated the labor council’s Lorena Gonzalez 50.99% to 49.01% (14,050 to 13,506) in the race for San Diego’s 2nd City Council seat. There are 2,500 remaining absentee votes to be counted – mostly absentees. If the numbers hold, this was a huge upset that quite literally will alter the direction of the seventh largest city in America.

This victory gives Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders the leverage he needs to pass his City Hall reform agenda. There are now three Republicans on the city council, one conservative Democrat (who is Council President), one populist ("surfer chick" Donna Frye who recently lost the Mayoral race) and three machine Democrats. Better, Frye actually lost her own 6th Council seat to Sanders in the Mayoral race, which indicates she may be interested in jumping on the reform team in order to avoid the serious challenge that… Read More

This is a rare year for turnover in Fresno County elections. In our neck of the woods, those elected countywide don’t ever lose o it can get quite boring around here at times in local politics. But over the last two local election cycles most of the county administrative offices have turned over after retirements by long term officeholders. This year presents two major announcements. First, Sheriff Richard Pierce if retiring after serving two terms. He followed longtime Sheriff Steve Magarian, who was Sheriff for over a decade. Announced candidates thus far are few, but a well known Clovis City Councilman and former Mayor, Jose Flores, has announced his intention to succeed Pierce. Councilman Flores is also a captain in the Sheriff’s department and appears to be the early frontrunner. If elected, he would become one of the only Hispanic countywide officeholders in Fresno County history. And, yes, he is a recent convert to Republicanism.

The next major retirement announcement came from longtime County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Pete Mehas. A lifelong Republican, he has an educational and political resume too voluminous to reprint here.… Read More

TIME TO BUY STOCK IN JUSTIN COMPANY! Congratulations go out to FlashReport Sacramento Correspondent Joe Justin. For those who didn’t realize that in addition to writing for this site, Joe actually does other work…Joe is recognized as one of California’s most accomplished political campaign professionals. His resume is long, and his successes around the country are many. It was announced yesterday in a caucus of Assembly Republicans that Joe has been tapped by Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to be the lead political consultant overseeing efforts to pick up GOP seats in the lower house in this year’s elections! This is a great pick! Now whether even ‘Mighty Joe’ can impact the iron-clad districts of the infamous "Incumbent Protection" reapportionment plan we have in place in this state…?? … Read More

TIME TO BUY STOCK IN JUSTIN COMPANY! Congratulations go out to FlashReport Sacramento Correspondent Joe Justin. For those who didn’t realize that in addition to writing for this site, Joe actually does other work…Joe is recognized as one of California’s most accomplished political campaign professionals. His resume is long, and his successes around the country are many. It was announced yesterday in a caucus of Assembly Republicans that Joe has been tapped by Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to be the lead political consultant overseeing efforts to pick up GOP seats in the lower house in this year’s elections! This is a great pick! Now whether even ‘Mighty Joe’ can impact the iron-clad districts of the infamous "Incumbent Protection" reapportionment plan we have in place in this state…?? … Read More

Pomona is one of the largest cities in Los Angeles County. It seems to always be in the Democratic column come election time. However, the Mayor’s office has been held by Republicans most recently Eddie Cortez. He passed away last year and a special election was held to replace him.Three Republican council members jumped in.

All of them were beat by the heavily union backed Norma Torres.We are talking more mail and IE’s for Norma than the other candidates combined. One Rep councilman, George Hunter who came in second was supported by the Pomonapolice unions.

She won by about250 votes, according to the City Clerk employee I just talked to. Results MAY be posted on the web by now at the city web site.Memo to city officials—get your act together and post election results on the web!

On interesting thing is that former Pomona City Councilwoman and State Senator publicly supported Republican Dan Rodriguez. Norma Torres was going to run againstSoto for the Assembly seat she now seeks. See the rest of… Read More

Here is a ‘must read’ initial analysis by Dan Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee, from his blog (he is NOT a big fan of this budget):

The other day the governor fell off his motorcycle. Today he fell off the wagon. The budget-balancing wagon, that is.

Schwarzenegger had been making slow if not spectacular progress in balancing the state budget since he took office in the fall of 2003. The structural gap between spending and revenues estimated for the coming year shrank from about $16 billion when he took office to less than $4 billion, and a balanced budget was actually in sight. But his proposal today would spend $7 billion more next year, while the state’s revenues are expected to increase by just $4 billion. He has stopped making progress. Now he is going backwards.

The governor is… Read More