This Monday marks the 100th anniversary of California’s initiative and referendum process, which, after then Governor Hiram Johnson convinced legislators to put the reform measure on the October 10, 1911 ballot, was enacted by 76 percent of California voters. A day-long forum in Sacramento this Monday will celebrate the centennial event with debate and discussion about the state’s system of direct democracy by a very diverse group of speakers.

The “100th Anniversary Celebration of California’s Initiative & Referendum” begins at 10:00 am on Monday, October 10, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel on 1230 J Street, just blocks from the state capitol in downtown Sacramento. The event will feature a talk about the historic 1911 effort, a morning panel on the impact of a century of voter initiatives, a lunch debate on whether the initiative process is “the problem” or “the solution” for California governance, two afternoon panel discussions, the first on reform of the process followed by a look at what the next century may bring, and will conclude with a reception sponsored by the Consulate General of Switzerland for San Francisco from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm, at… Read More

“In 1954, Joanne Schiebel was a young unmarried college student who discovered that she was pregnant. In the 1950s, her options were limited. She could have had an abortion – but the procedure was both dangerous and illegal. She could have gotten married, but she wasn’t ready and didn’t want to interrupt her education. Joanne opted, instead, to give birth to the baby and (placed him) for adoption. And so it was that in 1955, a California couple named Paul and Clara Jobs adopted a baby boy, born out of wedlock, whom they named Steven.”

From the Susan B. Anthony List (with a minor change by me in parentheses, which previously read “put him up”).… Read More

California: A Morality Tale in Three Parts

The following is a speech I delivered to the Council on National Policy on September 30, 2011

I want to welcome this groundbreaking scientific expedition to the savage lands of the Left Coast. You are here in California to answer an important theoretical question and now you have your answer.

Yes, this is what Barack Obama’s second term would look like.

Study it. Fear it. And then go home and make sure that it never happens to the rest of the country.

Of course, in spite of all of its problems, California is still one of the best places in the country to build a successful small business. All you have to do is start with a successful large business.

Laugh if you will, but as you whistle past this cemetery, do heed the medieval epitaph: “Remember man as you walk by, as you are now so once was I; as I am now so you will be.”

Mark that well, because if we lose this struggle for the future of our country, you too someday will live in a California – only without the nice climate.

Bad policies. Bad… Read More

During the August recess, the captivating Mrs. Campbell and I always go to Carmel for the annual car show. Early one morning up there, I watched several shopkeepers sweeping the sidewalk in front of their stores. I got to thinking that shopkeepers must have been doing this for centuries, if not millennia. Several weeks later, I was down in Fredericksburg, Virginia and watched another shopkeeper carefully rearranging a display in the window. It struck me that these acts represented pride in one’s work and one’s place of work. No work rules made them do it. They just did it because those shops were theirs and they take pride in what is theirs. And, I thought, it has ever been thus.

When Mr. Obama talks about the economy and jobs, he invariably mentions teachers and firefighters. Fine. Those are noble professions. But, I can’t help but think that he does so because teachers and firefighters almost always are employees of some government entity and are almost always compelled by law to join a union as a condition of having the job. And, they pay forced union dues, some of which will be involuntarily sent to the campaign… Read More

Last month we published our annual Top 20 Bill To Veto column. Senators Doug LaMalfa and Mimi Walters culled through every bill that was sent to the Governor at the end of the session, and the worst of the worst made our list. You can read the original column here. Below we have pulled the actual 20 bills and as the Governor acts on them, we will continue to update this post… As of 10/4/2011, the Governor has acted on three of the Top 20 — signing two, and vetoing one…

Assault on the Family

AB 433 (B. Lowenthal) – Requires the state to issue a new birth certificate to California-born, but now out of state residents that have undergone sex-change surgery. Also allows them to petition the court to have their new gender recognized as such.

AB 499 (Atkins) – Tramples parental consent by allowing… Read More

Last November, FR friend Joel Fox over at his Fox & Hounds website was prescient in his blog post saying that the action by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to both ban plastic shopping bags and impose a tax on paper bags would be challenged on the grounds that it violates newly-passed Proposition 26. Well today Hilex Poly, a large-scale producer of plastic grocery bags filed just that lawsuit. Under the state constitution, a tax on paper bags clearly would need to go to a vote of the people. However advocates are trying to say that because the ten-cent per bag tax is mandated by the government, but not collected by the government (grocers apply the fee and are then forced to spend the funds at the direction of the county), then it is not actually a tax. Of course that argument is ludicrous on its face.

“Los Angeles County’s bag ‘charge’ on consumers violates Proposition 26, which clearly requires local taxes be approved by a two-thirds vote. The ten-cent tax imposed on bags was never approved by voters much less by a… Read More

California Crime Watch: Dangerous Criminals Coming Soon to Your Community Assembly Republican Caucus

[Publisher’s Note: We are pleased to present this guest column and video from the Assembly Republican Caucus … Flash]

Under the Governor’s dangerous public safety realignment program which takes effect today, 52,000 offenders will no longer be serving time in state prison by 2013-14. They will instead be sent to overcrowded county jails.

Many criminals will only serve a fraction of their sentences, while others will be granted early release to make room for the influx of state felons into local communities.

Here is our video featuring former Board of Prison Terms Chairman, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, outlining how this plan will put public safety at risk.

For additional information, visit: http://arc.asm.ca.gov/cacrimewatch/… Read More

In a striking blow to the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and Labor Union bosses around the state, the San Diego Pension Reform measure appears to be on its way to the ballot box this morning.

Comprehensive Pension Reform (CPR) for San Diego is announcing at this moment that the campaign turned in a whopping 145,027 signatures to the San Diego City Clerk’s office early this morning to qualify the measure for the June 2012 ballot.

More than 120,000 of those signatures have been verified already using a 100% signature verification method, according to the CPR campaign. The 145,000+ signature turn-in is well in excess of the 94,346 valid signatures which are required to place the measure on the ballot.

In a failed effort that received much media attention, public employee union bosses attempted to keep this and other measures off the ballot by running phony radio ads to scare people from signing, over fear of identity theft. Today’s overwhelming turn-in proves that labor’s efforts to intimidate and deceive voters were trumped by the desire of citizens to achieve real pension reform.… Read More