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As if her job isn’t already hard enough, the task for Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway got a bit tougher yesterday. You see she, along with her counterpart, State Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, are spending a lot of their time convincing potential donors that it if we want to stop tax increases in California, it is critical that enough Republicans occupy each chamber of the legislature to block the two-thirds vote threshold required to raise taxes under the State Constitution. This pitch, by the GOP leaders, is pretty persuasive — especially when you consider how aggressively Capitol Democrats try to raise taxes. However, the presupposition of their pitch is that… Read More

The trial lawyers and radical environmentalists took it in the shorts over the weekend as the California Republican Party voted overwhelmingly to oppose Prop 37, the ballot measure that would ostensibly require the labeling of “genetically modified food.”

I engaged in the battle against Proposition 37 after receiving an email from a political operative for the “Yes on 37” campaign ahead of this weekend’s state party convention and it became clear the liberals were going to make a play.

During my four years as state party chairman, the liberals would occasionally show up and lobby the party to back one of their big government propositions if they thought they might be able to get away with it. Fortunately, we stopped them every time.

Prop 37 of course isn’t really about food – it’s about lawsuits. It would require food sold at the grocery store, convenience store or other shop to bear a label if it contains genetically modified ingredients (as though genetically modified foods are potentially harmful, which of course they are not).

The real objective behind Prop 37 is to open the floodgates for a new round of lawsuits against… Read More

BURBANK — The California Republican Party convention is taking place this weekend in Burbank, CA. While there have been guffaws and snickers about the relevance of the Caalifornia Republicans, the party made significant gains in the June primary, but this was largely ignored by most of the California media.

The convention agenda is not packed as full as previous meetings given that many politicians are campaigning for November races, but there is still plenty of red meat being offered.

Repeal Obamacare

A forum on “The Future of Health Care” was an excellent panel presentation to a packed room. Health care insiders presented facts about the impacts of Obamacare, and John Eastman discussed Obamacare following the recent Supreme Court decision.

Eastman, an attorney, Professor and Dean at Chapman Law School, and former candidate for State Attorney General, asked audience members, “What happened on June 28, who did it, and why?”

“There was this little case up at the Supreme Court,” Eastman said. “28 states sued the federal government. Eastman said that liberals predicted case wouldn’t even get to Supreme Court.… Read More

The California Air Resources Board seems to be on everyone’s list of what not to do in state government. Charged with implementing AB 32, the California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, CARB is under increasing scrutiny for operating as a rogue agency, appearing to be accountable to no one.

All attempts to reel in the agency have failed, including another attempt to audit its operations and finances–thanks to Democratic legislators who clearly are getting marching orders from Assembly and Senate leaders.

A Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing on Wednesday brought CARB close to accountability with the threat of the six-month state audit. But the committee chairman, Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, surprised everyone when he nixed the plan after having made the pretense that he was on board.

CARB and AB 32

In 2006, the Legislature promised that AB 32 would help clean the environment while still protecting the economy. Supportive legislators promised that utility and gasoline costs would not increase with the implementation of the climate change law.

The opposite has happened, and businesses are now… Read More

Prior to joining the Legislature, I was a lawyer for over 13 years, with a primary emphasis in business disputes. I still work as a lawyer since I left the Legislature for the last six years. Of course, while in the Legislature, I served on the Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committees, given my experience in the law and litigation.

Why is that important? Because during my time as a lawyer, I had more than one client weave conspiracy theories about what was going on in their cases. My response always was: What is the evidence? What can we prove? What documents or witnesses do you have? Of course, there are two types of evidence admissible in a court action, direct evidence and circumstantial. Both are of equal weight in a court action. Direct evidence can best be described as Jack sees John shoot Ted. Jack’s testimony about what he saw is direct evidence. Circumstantial evidence is Jack hears a gunshot, runs into the room, and see John standing over a dead Ted, holding a smoking gun. It is this type of circumstantial evidence that always leads people to look “for the smoking gun” in any conspiracy type claims. It also leads those who… Read More

One of the biggest problem with our tax system in America, and here in California, is that it is overly complex and is filled with all kinds of special treatment for one group or another. It is filled with subsidies, credits and exemptions — each of which, when it comes down to it, is a result of the politicians in Washington, D.C., or in Sacramento picking winners and losers. Long has there been a movement to establish a “flat tax” system, where there is one tax rate paid by everyone, and no longer would those in political favor get preferential treatment in the tax code, nor would the tax code be used as a tool to manipulate the behavior of the people to the liking of the political class. So while I appreciate that NASCAR gets a tax break, end it. And while those who make rum get favorable tax treatment, that should end. And if you want to make corn ethanol, that’s great — but you shouldn’t get a break on your taxes for it.

Of course, it takes a lot of commitment to truly support a flat tax — where the government treats everyone the same. It seems like there will always be temptation to want to use the power of government to… Read More

It’s not fair; it’s not constitutional, but thanks to Governor Jerry Brown and the Legislature, fire tax bills are coming all the same.

The State of California will begin mailing the first of more than 825,000 “Fire Prevention Fee” bills on Monday, August 13.

The tax, approved as a fee by a simple majority vote of the Legislature last year, charges residential property owners in rural areas $150 for each habitable structure located on their land. Property owners who pay for local fire protection will receive a $35 reduction.

To help inform California taxpayers, I’ve established a website, calfirefee.com, providing information about the new fire tax. Californians can visit this site to find out if they might soon receive a fire tax bill. You can also find details regarding the process, timeline and grounds for filing an appeal.

The bills will go out in alphabetical order by county between August and early December. The state has released the following partial mailing schedule:

ALAMEDA August 13th through… Read More

Yesterday the trial lawyers and radical environmental groups launched a campaign to dupe the California Republican Party delegates assembling this weekend to back their big government “genetically modified food” labeling initiative, Prop 37. Here is the warning I sent to delegates about this trial lawyers’ dream:

The trial lawyers and radical environmentalists are trying to fool CRP delegates about an upcoming proposition, and I wanted to bring it to your attention right away.

Let me explain.

During my four years as Chairman, once in a while the leftists would show up at convention trying to dupe the CRP into supporting their liberal, big government propositions when they thought they might get away with it.

Fortunately, we stopped them every time and the CRP has been very consistent in supporting good initiatives and opposing bad ones.

Well, now they’re back.

Earlier today you received a very misleading email from a “Tom Fendley” spinning why Proposition 37 is a great idea.

It is terrible public policy and we need to oppose it.

The trial lawyers and radical environmental… Read More