This year San Diego voters are being treated to a very lively contest to see who will succeed Republican Jerry Sanders as mayor of California’s second largest city. I have and will continue to write about this and other races taking place in the City of San Diego – but I think it is important to share with you that I have not endorsed any candidates for mayor or city council, nor have I made any financial contributions. The only bias that I bring to any analysis of the mayor’s race is my conservative perspective, and a disclosure that one candidate, Nathan Fletcher, has been a personal friend of mine for many years. In fact, it has been my friendship with Nathan that has made it a bit awkward for me as I have contemplated for many days what to write about his sudden decision to leave the Republican Party and become a decline- to-state voter.

Let me just throw out there that I believe Nathan’s decision to re-register was strictly a tactical maneuver for the purpose of attempting to rebrand his campaign, and improve his odds at making it into the runoff election after June. It’s pretty clear that something had to be done as survey after survey kept… Read More

San Diego Tax Fighters

10969 Red Cedar Dr.

San Diego, CA 92131

Voice: (858) 530-3027

Monday, 2 April, 2012

Press Release – Authored by Richard Rider

California “Tax Freedom Day” IMPROVES – sorta, kinda

Today the Tax Foundation released its annual computation of “Tax Freedom Day” for the nation and each state. http://taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday, “Tax Freedom Day” is the day on which the average taxpayer completes paying their taxes – federal, state and local. It’s a widely used (though incomplete) benchmark representing the tax burden to citizens.

First the seeming bad news – the 2012 California Tax Freedom Day is four days later this year than in 2011 – it’s now 20 April. The “good… Read More

Fix It: Episode III – The episodic thing makes me feel like I am writing the next Harry Potter or something. OK, enough fantasizing. On to the real stuff.

Energy: The “fix” for our energy problems is actually one of the simpler ones. And, the reason it is simple is not because of any action of Congress or the President. It is not even because of our founding fathers. It comes from God.

This country is blessed with enormous natural resources. We have more coal than any other country on earth. We can make electricity from coal. We also have enough natural gas, by some estimates, to last us for a century. We make electricity from natural gas. We have a number of nuclear plants that generate electricity and we can build more. And, we have rivers to create hydroelectric power which can be harnessed to create more power should we need it. I have just described four sources that currently create more than 90% of all the electricity in this country. And, we can expand them all if we want or need to without importing anything from any other country.

But, you say, you haven’t mentioned anything about our… Read More

If it weren’t for the Republican Party, we would not even know who Nathan Fletcher is.

That’s right, the political party he abandoned last week after 15 years of professional association; the one that provided the structure and opportunities for a politically ambitious young man to learn the system; the one that gave him the identity and resources to run and win a seat in the State Assembly; the one that put him in position today to be a leading candidate for mayor in the 8th largest city in America; and the one that put him in a position of prominence such that his quitting actually mattered to anyone.

Unfortunately, Fletcher’s quitting the GOP has been looked at through the lense of a sympathetic establishment and media who believe Republicans are too extreme. This same establishment bemoans the party’s inability to focus on unifying economic issues while playing down “divisive” social issues. What makes this narrative remarkable is that in their enthusiasm to see Nathan as the good guy and the GOP as the bad, they ignored what actually happened.

The Republican Party didn’t reject Nathan Fletcher. It embraced Carl… Read More

Nathan Fletcher was raised in Arkansas, played college baseball in California and enlisted in the Marines as a reserve in 1997. He saw combat in 2004, based in the Sunni Triangle in Iraq.

One day Fletcher’s unit went to relieve a convoy and was, in turn, ambushed by insurgents with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. According to his military records, the unit “attempted to break through the enemy line of resistance several times in order to relieve the convoy, each time coming under heavy, sustained fire, during which Sergeant Fletcher never wavered in his determination to engage the enemy.”

As detailed in fine reporting by Craig Gustafson of The San Diego Union-Tribune, Fletcher was awarded an achievement medal with a Combat “V” for Valor.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/opinion/brooks-a-moderate-conservative-dilemma.html?pagewanted=print… Read More

On Wednesday morning my friend of many years, Nathan Fletcher, who was elected as a Republican member of the California State Assembly in 2008 and re-elected in 2010, rather abruptly announced that he was changing his voter registration — leaving the GOP to be an independent (“decline to state”) voter. I also found out that his wife, Mindy, another friend, re-registered as well. We carried the video announcement recorded by Fletcher prominently on the main page of the FlashReport, and we have included links to a number of articles and columns that have appeared on the subject. When I read the news, I reached out to Nathan directly.

Since Nathan’s announcement, I have been deluged with queries from fellow activists, party leaders, and a lot of folks in the media, asking me for my thoughts. With the exception of a call from one reporter whom I have known for over two decades, I have declined to really speak to Nathan’s decision — struggling to figure out exactly what I think about it, and how to put those thoughts into the written word. I have started that column four times now, and I keep stopping. This is not the first time that I… Read More

I respect Nathan Fletcher, he’s served honorably and put his life on the line in defense of our county – we all owe him a debt for that service. He has been an able and conscience Assemblyman. And, he’s been effective, successful Republican.

But, Nathan spent much of his adult life as GOP insider, fighting and taking sides as a Republican staffer, activist and elected official. He promoted and helped Republican candidates – supporting those he thought were the “better Republican.”

A short time ago he was fighting to become the Republican standard bearer in the race for San Diego Mayor. Only after the San Diego Republican Party said “we like you, Nathan, but we think Carl is a better choice for Mayor” did he suddenly find a moral imperative to abandon the party. I don’t know what is in his heart, but I cannot help asking if this was a crisis of conscience or simply raw political opportunism.

Rather than “rejecting division,” the moves strikes me more of embracing the politics of personality over principle. To me, it screams that he values his personal success more than the ideas all of us… Read More

It’s budget week here in Washington.

That means we are debating the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. There are proposals and amendments and such.

I’ve linked a 5 minute video clip of a response I gave to another (sigh) proposal to “tax the rich more” to this post. I received a number of accolades on this speech, including many from Democrats. I hope you enjoy it.

By the way, the amendment was defeated.

Click HERE to watch my Budget Committee remarks.… Read More