The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today obliterating the Federal Election Campaign Act’s 40 year-old restriction on total contributions to Federal candidates by individuals is a stroke for free speech and a long time coming. After the FEC was created in the wake of Watergate, the restrictive new Federal campaign statute was tested in the landmark case of Buckley vs. Valeo, and the Court made significant changes to the law, ruling restrictions on so called “independent expenditures” to be unconstitutional stifling of free speech and not sufficiently related to the statute’s intention to root out “quid pro quo” corruption of the election campaign process.

Campaigns adapted under the new rules and legal precedents, which affected many state campaign finance systems as well. But the FEC law continued to contain unaddressed issues. After enactment of the sweeping “McCain-Feingold” campaign finance reform amendments to the FEC Act about ten years ago, the Supreme Court had reason to become re-engaged in looking not only at those gruesome amendments (from a free speech standpoint) but to re-think its approach to the… Read More

For public officials, generosity can be the mother of invention – and not in a good way.

This is certainly so when it comes to generous pension promises to government employees. Up and down California, politicians have had to scramble for inventive ways to pay for their munificence to public-sector retirees.

Too often the funding strategies are more reckless than resourceful.

As the pothole-pocked streets in many communities show, “delayed maintenance” is one formula for freeing up money for pension costs.

Scores of California localities have also turned to risky finance in the form of “pension obligation bonds.” Either they’ve sold bonds in order to pay near-term pension bills with long-term borrowing (essentially off-loading today’s financial woes onto the next generation), or they’ve tried to master the arcane Wall Street art of… Read More

As one talks about the “culture of corruption” in the State Legislature, there is still an unbelievable sense of entitlement and living “above the law” that permeates the building.It was once again on full display as Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg, flanked by his chosen successor Senator Kevin DeLeon, spoke in the Capitol, capturedin this short video clip from the Sacramento Bee.All you need to do is go to the 30 second point on the video to find Steinberg saying, “While the Senate itself and its members are not responsible for the alleged abhorrent behavior of two members, we are going to take … Read More

One primary reason California has the highest cost-of-living (and cost of doing business) in America, combined with a crumbling infrastructure, is because California’s construction unions have allied themselves with environmental extremists and crony “green” capitalists, instead of fighting for what might actually help their state.

California’s construction unions ought to take a look around the rest of the country, where thousands of jobs are being created in the energy industries – really good jobs – doing something that actually helps ordinary people. Because the natural gas revolution unleashed inNorth Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio is creating thousands of jobs in those states at the same time as it lowers the cost of energy for consumers who struggle to make ends meet.

More generally, construction unions should remember that it is not only how much their own members earn that matters, but how much things cost everyone. If things cost less, you can make less yet enjoy the same standard of living. When unions fight for high paying jobs on projects that are useless, they only help… Read More

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[Publisher’s Note: We are pleased to offer this original commentary from Assemblyman Don Wagner (R-Irvine) – Flash]

You don’t get to keep stolen property.

That’s a pretty basic legal principle. If your property gets stolen and sold by the thief, the buyer does not get to keep it; you get your stolen property back. You might think everyone agrees with that, but you would be wrong. At a legislative hearing on Tuesday some pretty powerful business interests will argue that they should get to keep stolen property.

The bill raising this issue is AB 1698 and I am its author. It is in response to a growing problem involving real estate fraud and is supported by the California District Attorneys’ Association who see an increasing number of cases of criminals defrauding homeowners – often the elderly – out of title to their homes. The scam is deceptively easy. The criminal can merely record a deed to property, thereby appearing in the title records to actually own it, and then either sell the stolen property to a third… Read More

When one must ask “what is the definition of ‘false and misleading’? in a political campaign,” it is is evident Assembly District 73’s Anna Brysonis twisting and contorting a legal ruling against her into something that it just is not.

As many voters have grown cynical about the veracity of political candidates and politicians, sometimes “false and misleading” statements go too far. Legal mincing and parsing of words brings back former President Bill Clinton’s notorious 1998 statement to a grand jury about the Monica Lewinski affair, “It depends on what the meaning ‘is’ is.”

It’s deja vu all over again withAssembly District 73’s Anna Bryson Campaign.

The heart of the matter

At the heart of a recent issue of this nature is an official… Read More

Are Republicans gleeful over recent events impacting the State Senate? That clearly seems the case in some quarters.

Glee may be natural, given the circumstances.

Yet, I’ve been around long enough to remember some Republican legislators also nailed in stings and caught up in public corruption. That absolute power thing, it most certainly can go both ways, regardless of party.

Human nature isn’t partisan.

So, I’ll leave it to the blindly partisan to cite examples in attempts to prove which party produces the most bad apples.

I do note that Republicans in the California legislature don’t have enough clout for any influence peddlers to even tempt them with graft.

Yet, if in fact Republican legislators can somehow successfully capitalize on current events, I would caution them to remember not to someday feast at the indoor table while standing upright on two hooves.

# # #… Read More

Hey, New Jersey and Chicago, you’ve got nothing on California. For several years, the Golden State has tried to be number one among all states in tax burden – and, of course, we are very close to that prize. But now we seem to be striving for a new number one title: The most corrupt state in America.

By now, few people in California haven’t heard about the latest in corruption scandals emanating from the California Legislature. In a nutshell, liberal San Francisco democrat Leland Yee… Read More