On December 6, unless something extraordinary happens, Senator John Campbell will be elected the new congressman for California’s 48th District. But once he’s elected, half-way through the 109th Congress, what’s next?

First, he will immediately come to Washington to be sworn in by the Speaker as the 435th most powerful member of Congress and join the freshman class of the 109th Congress. He will assume Chris Cox’s spacious suite in 2402 Rayburn until the end of 2006 when he will select an office commensurate with his seniority which will likely bump him over to Longworth or Cannon (the usual first stop for freshman).

The House Republican Steering Committee (the committee on committees) will either be convened for a special meeting to determine Campbell’s committee assignments or it will be done more informally via email or phone to the 28 members of the Steering Committee who have a total of 33 votes (Speaker gets 5, Majority Leader has 2, one for each other).… Read More

District 3 San Diego Councilmember Toni Atkins on Fridayfiled a Form 501 Candidate Intention to raise money to run for the 4th District County Board of Supervisors, setting up what would be a significant showdown against incumbent Sup Ron Roberts next year.

Roberts no longer being in the hunt for an executive position at Centre City Development Corporation (see Duane Dichiara’s prior post) has scuttled Atkins’ hope for a vacancy on the Board of Sups. Yet, it is clear that her recent tenure as acting mayor in the wake of Dick Murphy’s resignation has bolstered her confidence in taking on Roberts.In recent days, Atkins indicated no interest in being city council presidentin favor of Scott Peters, thus ensuring the time needed for a campaign.

Add to this … the clear bet that… Read More

While reading OC Blog‘s indispensable daily news digest yesterday, I noticed a Daily Pilot item detailing how the City of Newport Beach had launched a blog to seek public input and reaction on a proposal to build resort on a city-owned parcel called Marinapark. According to the story, the blog was a flop because, at press time, it hadn’t generated a single comment nearly three weeks after launching:

[Assistant City Manager Dave] Kiff said the idea of the blog is to make sure people have plenty of opportunity for input on Marinapark ideas before the City Council discusses the suggestions early next year.

"Some of the criticism for the Sutherland proposal was that the public … didn’t get as many chances as they would have liked to see the other concepts that had come forward up to… Read More

ITS ALL ABOUT THE LAWYERS… Well, the new candidate on the block for State Attorney General on the GOP side, Pierre Prosper, is finding out that making his case to the GOP faithful will be a tough one. The front-runner for the Republican nomination, Chuck Poochigian, starts with a seemingly insurmountable advantage, whether you look at endorsements (Poochigian enjoys unanimous endorsements from all of the GOP legislators, and a host of others), he had a tremendous amount of grassroots support acquired from years of toiling in the vineyards for causes dear to the GOP faithful, he has raised over $3 million with around $2.5 million cash-on-hand, and has ace political guru Ken Khachigan to make sure those funds are spend wisely. All of that said, it is certainly the case that Poochigian’s substantial support was garnered in the vacuum of an unopposed… Read More

From the Californian Riverside County Sales Tax Revenues Rise

By: CHRIS BAGLEY – Staff Writer Retail sales have continued to grow in most local communities, but a number of new shopping centers have helped unincorporated areas such as Wildomar grow much faster than their city counterparts, according to a consultant’s report. Unincorporated areas of Riverside County generated $10.2 million in sales-tax revenue in the second quarter, a 34 percent gain from the second quarter of 2004, according to MBIA, a firm that does financial consulting for governments.

Yes the sound of hammers and nail guns are heard every day in Southwest Riverside County. Private capital comes in, business is created, consumers consume and wow, government has more money. Capitalism, more places should try it.

Now local government with more money is not always a good thing. The good news is that most of the local elected types here are of the conservative sort. They understand… Read More

Alternative ending to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: It’s the climactic laser-sword fight between fledgling Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and the sinister Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Young Luke is down to one arm, no weapon, and cowering precariously at the end of acatwalk when Vader lays the bad news on him: "I am your father."

Now at this point, instead of bugging out and throwing himself into the abyss, what if Luke had thought it through?

Alternative Scene One, Take One:

Vader: "I am your father."

Skywalker: "Get out. Dad wasn’t black."

Vader: "This is a mask, stupid. Join me."

Skywalker: "Well, o.k., but you’ll need to give me a hand, since you chopped off my other one."

The point is, maybe they could have worked together, as Vader suggested, whacked the Emperor, and Luke could have helped dad with some of his totalitarian and planet-destroying… Read More

I got a lot of comments on my OC Power Broker Series published yesterday. So I am continuing with it today. I want to make a few things clear. 1) These people are listed in no particular order. 2) You can be important, elected and or rich but that does not make you an OC Power Broker. To be one, you have to possess extra-ordinary ability to navigate the political and more specifically the government scene.

So below is the list continued without numbers…

Brett Barbre. Elected member of the Municipal Water District of Orange County and chief-deputy to OC Treasurer John Moorlach. Barbre is a leader in the effort to build a tunnel between Orange and Riverside counties. With Moorlach running up-opposed for OC Board of Supervisor, watch for soon to be COS Barbre to gain influence.

Gary… Read More

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is finding out that running statewide has its bumps.

First the story about his favors for "slumlords". Now the LA Weekly is exposing his firing of a tough deputy attorney that may have helped let a child molester go. Read it here.

And there is still 7 months before the primary!… Read More