Pundits routinely write off California as a helplessly blue state, but the fact remains that there are still many vitally important races in the state. The decennial redistricting that took place last year created several new and very competitive districts throughout the state, and the GOP has a great shot at picking up new legislative seats that were previously gerrymandered exclusively to Democrats, and of course the Mayor’s race in San Diego remains a focus of many throughout the state. The need to rebuild an ailing party in California starts with one thing: Money.

Democrats have had an advantage in California for decades due to the massive amounts of money… Read More

California Future Fund for Free Markets, a committee formed to communicate and advocate conservative and free market issues, today announced the release of a new TV ad that will all across the state of California in support of Proposition 32, the November ballot measure to restrict corporate and union political contributions to politicians.

CA Future Fund for Free Markets founder, Nick Ryan, issued the following statement:

“This ad exposes the ugly truth about what’s really behind California’s most powerful politicians – money…and a lot of it. Rather than serving the taxpayers who put them in office, California’s elected officials are serving the needs of the big corporations and government unions that are controlling them like puppets with millions and millions of dollars in contributions. This situation is not only untenable it’s killing California.”

“With 11 percent unemployment, high taxes, lavish pensions and billions in government waste, and, despite spending $50 billion per year on education, California is home to some of the worst performing schools in the country. These facts paint a sorry picture of a… Read More

Survey Results: You haven’t heard from me in a while. No need to check the obits, I’m still here. What with 2 national conventions, a busy month home in the district, and some vacation on my part, I thought I’d give us both a little break. Not that either of us could avoid the non-stop national campaigning.

When I last wrote you, I included a survey with various proposals on what to include and not include in a potential income tax reform bill next year. The results are detailed below. But, here is my “executive summary and analysis”:

• A majority of you agreed with all of my proposals.

• The most popular proposal with you all (76.9%) was to eliminate all deductions and credits except charitable contributions, home mortgage interest and non-elective medical expenses.

• The least popular proposal, albeit still over 50% at 56.3%, was to go to only 2 tax rates, one for incomes below $100,000 and one for incomes above that amount. 27.2% of you believe that we will need more rates than that, and 15.2% of you want only one rate.

• You may recall that I had a joke answer… Read More

www.ballotpedia.orgcan be an extremely useful source on elections — especially on propositions. It includes who are the backers and opponents, and who the big contributors are. But Ballotpedia “edit trolls” can alter or omit facts to suit their purposes. I just got involed in one such Ballotpedia situation on a California proposition.

Ballotpedia is very similar to Wikipedia in operation. Hence caution is advised.

I just corrected numberous errors in their post on California’s Prop 30 (on this November’s ballot) — the “Jerry Brown” MASSIVE statewide increase in taxes (income and sales taxes). http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_30,_Sales_and_Income_Tax_Increase_(2012)

EVERY error I found understated the cost to taxpayers, or just outright omitted damaging information concerning the prop. Coincidential or intentional?

I found that EVERY calculation on the income tax understated the… Read More

San Diego Politics & Media Mashup

Cross posted at San Diego Rostra

At a fundraiser for Carl DeMaio on Wednesday I heard the mayoral candidate make some points I hadn’t heard him make before.

Speaking to members of the San Diego County Apartment Association, for whom I am privileged to do some work, Councilman DeMaio said someday he would like to write a book about how he helped turn San Diego around, and the positive affect government reform has had on local neighborhoods. He said he wants to tour the world to discuss his book.

He said he would not have a Chief Operating Officer as mayor. Instead, he said, he would appoint a handful of deputy mayors. The Republican councilman and fiscal hawk also said there would be some Democrats at high levels in his administration.

The latest polling shows he and Congressman Bob Filner in a statistical dead heat, DeMaio said. It also shows, he said, that if he’s able to share his primary messages with… Read More

It will not surprise anyone reading this that serious problems persist in the housing sector. Many solutions have been proposed, including several pieces of legislation I have introduced in Congress, to help homeowners, completely reform our housing finance system and fix the housing crisis. Most of the proposals out there are focused on struggling homeowners trying to make the next payment and are about the greater good of the country. However, you may or may not be surprised that a couple of California cities have decided to not waste a good crisis, to paraphrase the now infamous axiom, realizing there is a lot of cash to be made off underwater homeowners.

In an astonishingly expansive and untenable interpretation of eminent domain authority, several local governments, notably San Bernardino, have proposed plans to override private property rights through a scheme that is specifically designed to make money for over-leveraged cities. This scheme is being sold as assistance for hurting homeowners, but it is purely a ploy to use federal tax dollars to seize distressed home loans and force unconventional, yet profitable loan modifications.

However, not only will… Read More

cross posted at CalWatchdog

Most of us would think that wealthy people would be more interested in sponsoring ballot initiatives to cut taxes, not to increase them. But of the three tax-increase ballot initiatives on the November ballot to significantly raise taxes, two were sponsored by very wealthy individuals, Proposition 38 by attorney Molly Munger and Proposition 39 by hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer.

The third is the Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 tax increase.

Prop. 39 is getting noticed. But it’s is just another retread of the 2010 Proposition 24, which voters killed.

Prop. 39 would require businesses headquartered out of the state to use the “single sales factor method,” in which their tax liability is based solely on their amount of sales in the state.

They would no longer be allowed to use the other option, known as the “three-factor method,” which bases tax liability on a combination of the sales, property and number of employees a business has in the state. That option was a tax-cut part of the budget deal in 2009… Read More

Last Friday, I penned a column where I pointed out that the Board of Directors of the California Chamber of Commerce would be meeting at the posh Casa Del Mar beachfront hotel in Santa Monica, where among other things they would be considering whether to take a position on Proposition 30, Governor Jerry Brown’s measure to hit Californians with higher income and sales taxes in order to preserve the status-quo. The CalChamber officially took a neutral position on the measure. We spoke with a number of friends on the CalChamber Board who confirmed with us that a secret ballot was taken, and that the 60% threshold to oppose the tax increase was not achieved.

… Read More