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

Recently Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg talked about pulling the massive $14++ billion water bond off of the November ballot, and pushing it to a future election. His concern is that its presence on the November ballot could endanger the passage of the Governor’s proposal to increase income and sales taxes. I have written a lot about the “porkulus” so-called water bond that was the subject of a bi-partisan lard-fest in late 2009. In this article in the San Jose Mercury News, former Assemblyman Chuck DeVore suggests that the bond should be cut in half — and that most of the remaining borrowing would be repaid by those using the water. That would be a great idea. Short of that, if you can believe it or not, I’m with the Sierra Club’s Jim Metropulos: “If the legislature won’t repeal it, I want to see an up or down vote in November.”

The campaign of Presidential aspirant Mitt Romney released their statewide campaign leadership. Honorary State Chairs are former… Read More

The Center for Education Policy and Law/U-T San Diego poll released the following finds earlier this week in re the San Diego Mayor’s race:

Carl DeMaio: 24%

Bob Filner: 20%

Bonnie Dumanis: 10%

Nathan Fletcher: 10%

Undecided: 35%

This poll confirms almost exactly a Competitive Edge poll taken for the San Diego Republican Party a couple weeks ago.

Carl Demaio: 25%

Bob Filner: 20%

Bonnie Dumanis: 11%

Nathan Fletcher: 11%

Undecided: 31%

Carl DeMaio is a client of REVOLVIS.… Read More

The Californian initiative process pains me.

Great idea on paper, but in reality – we’ve allowed idle lawmakers to relinquish responsibilities to the public, which supposedly hired them for the job.

Yet, even when voters “decide” (measure proponents love to say that), it’s rarely the end of the discussion.

Days, weeks or months later, a psuedo-lamaker legislates from the bench and we’re back where we started with just a dash more bitterness.

It’s a wonder voters show up at all anymore.

In good old San Diego, there’s an epic battle playing out over an initiative that’s got all the makings of a daytime drama.

The initiative proposes reforming the City’s guaranteed pension system and replacing it with a 401(k)-style plan for “most” new hires.

Basically, the so-called “comprehensive pension reform” eliminates pensions in favor of 401(k)s for all new hires but police officers (one of the proponents, Mayor Jerry Sanders, is a former police chief) and proposes a five-year hold on current employee salaries used to calculate future pensions.

A… Read More

As an addendum to my “Fix It” episodes, I thought I’d share an op-ed I wrote that was published in the Orange County Register last Friday.

The Orange County Register: Opinion CAMPBELL: Biggest National Security Threat is Debt

Conservatives should not oppose attempts to makes cuts to defense, homeland security.

By Congressman John Campbell

As conservatives, we are always trying to reduce federal spending because there is a lot of waste and inefficiency in government, because more government spending often does not result in better outcomes, and because there are many things the federal government simply should leave to “the States respectively or to the people,” as the 10th Amendment instructs.

Clearly, spending for the “common defense,” enumerated in the preamble to the Constitution, is one of the unassailed responsibilities of the federal government. No argument there.

But, why is it conservative orthodoxy to assume that defense spending is immune from waste and inefficiency or that more spending in this area alone is… Read More

The Florida shooting death of a young black man by a white Neighborhood Watch bozo is indeed tragic. But should black men (especially Obama) be worried with getting murdered by white bigots and vigilantes? Or is the REAL danger other black males?

Everyone knows the answer, but doesn’t want to talk about it. Certainly Obama doesn’t.

Consider these factoids from Wikipedia:

A United States Department of Justice report which surveyed homicide statistics between 1974 and 2004 stated that of the crimes surveyed, 52.2% of the offenders were Black, 45.8% were White, and 2% were Other Races.

Of the victims in those same crimes, 50.9% were White, 46.9% were Black, and 2.1% were Other Races.

The report further stated that “most murders are intraracial” with 86% of White murders committed by Whites, and 94% of Black murders committed by Blacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States#Murder… Read More

Two years ago today, President Obama signed his healthcare plan into law. The President took to the national stage to do a victory lap, promising that the new law would improve health care, job creation and the economy.

Despite the President’s promises to lead the country with unmatched transparency and accountability, he, alongside Nancy Pelosi and the bi-cameral Democrat majority, hustled this government takeover of our healthcare system behind closed doors with bold partisan fervor. None of us can forget Mrs. Pelosi telling the American people: “we will just have to pass it for you to know what’s in it.”

On today’s two year-anniversary, we now know what is in it: higher taxes, more entitlement programs, excessive government spending and unconstitutional federal mandates. No surprise seeing as how this is a crowning achievement for a big government, tax and spend President.

No one can argue that our healthcare system needs reform. No one in the Republican Party is arguing that people with pre-existing conditions should be denied coverage, or that the millions of uninsured should remain uninsured. But no amount of presidential oratory… Read More