From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-Mail…

California’s Labor Pains Public unions in California have got to be more than a little worried after last night’s election results—and not just because of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s resounding victory.

More than two-thirds of voters in San Jose and San Diego supported ballot measures scaling back pensions for government workers. The San Diego initiative, which shifted new workers to defined contribution plans, won with 66% support. But the bigger news was in more liberal San Jose, where 70% of voters okayed benefit cuts for current workers. San Jose unions promise to sue, which would set the stage for a protracted legal battle over the extent to which pension benefits are protected under state law.

But the overwhelming support for the ballot measures reveals why Democratic legislators have refused to put California Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed pension reforms up to voters. Any pension reform initiative would almost certainly succeed. The measures also signal a decisive shift in public opinion… Read More

Unclear if/when we will post up election results on this page. I recommend that you check this page for up to date results. I will be “live tweeting” all night long here. After 8pm I will also be “live blogging” here.

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The prediction is that the turnout for today’s Presidential Primary (otherwise known as the “top-two” election for every other partisan office) will be low — very low — perhaps the lowest in history. If you need a reason, look no further than the fact that the Obama-Romney matchup for the Fall has already been decided, and that only two measures are on the statewide ballot, neither of which are on issues that drive turnout. In prior years, a hyper-low turnout would be great news for the ideological extremes in that the base vote of each party tends to be the party stalwarts on the left and on the right. Add to the mix that DTS voters, at least when looking at VBM ballot returned, have been under-performing (which is typical in a June election), and the table would be set for a banner election for partisans. Except, and a big except, we have this new top-two system courtesy of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abel Maldonado. There is simply no way to know what kind of a wrench it will throw into works, besides the obvious results of sending two R’s or two… Read More

The stakes are high for Big Labor on Tuesday, and while the national press has been largely focused on Wisconsin, union political operatives are waging a second battle that will culminate on June 5: in San Diego.

Not long ago, San Diego was dubbed “Enron by the Sea” for a pension scandal that crippled city finances and led to the resignation of incumbent Republican Mayor Dick Murphy. I served as the Chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County at the time, and can say with certainty that the subsequent election of Republican Jerry Sanders in the special election that followed Murphy’s resignation was a near-miracle at the time.

The city has embarked on a series of reforms aimed at restoring its financial standing, and doing so (at the insistence of voters) without raising taxes. The next two reforms go before city voters on June 5, and each is strongly opposed by Big Labor.

Proposition A effectively prohibits the city from insisting on expensive union-only Project Labor Agreements for future construction projects. County voters adopted a similar measure in 2010, taking away a tool union lobbyists often use to shut non-unionized firms out… Read More

Earlier today I blogged about the importance to taxpayers of being able to vote for candidates for office that are willing to pledge, in writing, that they will oppose tax increases. I am pleased to report that, despite the new “top two election” system in place because of Prop. 14, we still have very few viable Republican candidates who have not signed a written pledge. While perhaps less ideal than simply posting a long list of everyone who has signed the No New Taxes pledge, I’ve compiled a list below of viable candidates in safe Republican or competitive seats that have not signed it. If a candidate took their own No New Taxes pledge, publicly, that was similar enough to the No New Taxes pledge, we counted that as well for our purposes as a signer. You could go to the Americans for Tax Reform website to see which candidates have signed the federal or state level pledge. But they get behind with their updates at crunch time, and of course they wouldn’t have anyone listed there who took their own public, written pledge.

Feel… Read More

Today Americans across the country woke up to the report of another month of abysmal jobs numbers. But these numbers aren’t news to the millions of people unemployed or underemployed, these numbers simply codify what they already know to be true: our country is hurting and it isn’t getting better.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)announcedthat only 69,000 jobs were added in the month of May, far below market expectations and well short of the 150,000 jobs that BLS says are needed every month just to keep pace with population growth. While the announcement of any new jobs is welcomed, May marks the fourth straight month of slowing job growth and demonstrates that Americans continue to suffer through a painfully tepid recovery made even slower by the president’s failed policies.

Remember when President Obama promised that if we passed the “Stimulus,” we could keep unemployment under 8%? The unemployment rate in May increased to 8.2 percent, marking an inauspicious milestone—the 40th consecutive month that unemployment has been at or above 8 percent under President Obama. The “Stimulus”… Read More

Once every generation comes along a unique political leader.

Carl DeMaio is the real thing. In an age of political defeatism and angst, Carl earned San Diego citizens trust when they elected him to the city council. With a platform of fiscal reform, Carl offered honest and real solutions to San Diego’s financial melt-down. Carls’s ideas and approach are drawing national attention – and his success is winning converts and being imitated across the country. So much so that big labor has made him a top target to defeat in this election.

Today San Diegans face a stark choice. Ronald Reagan’s leadership was built on the idea of “raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors “. We must support those candidates with conservative, fiscally responsible values.

The resurgence of the Republican Party in California will depend on candidates advocating a reform agenda and Carl DeMaio’s campaign is the model for such resurgence.

You have probably heard of his opponent, Nathan Fletcher. Nathan worked for me twice. First with I ran for state chairman of the California Republican Party, then when I appointed him as… Read More

“I pledge to the voters in my district that I will vote against any tax increase, and oppose any efforts to raise taxes.”

This taxpayer protection pledge that every Republican legislator save two in the State Legislature has made (every California Republican in Congress has made a similar pledge) is so very simple and straightforward, and yet this year especially has been an issue of controversy when there’s really nothing that controversial about it.

The premise here is that if there is a political pendulum in the State Capitol, liberal Democrats have dominated… Read More