619 years ago today, the three Spanish ships — the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria — weighed anchor off the of coast of what would eventually be called the Bahamas and Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his expedition became the first westerners to discover the Americas — the new world. This day is celebrated through all of the Americas with a holidays. Well, with a few exceptions. In South Dakota it is Native American Day. In Hawaii, they use this day to celebrate their discovery by Polynesian explorers. And, of course, in the People’s Republic of Berkeley, today is indigenous people’s day.

100 years ago today, Californians changed their State Constitution to include several reforms, including the ability for the people to exercise direct democracy in the form of ballot initiatives and the referendum (the ability to take any new law and take it to a vote of the people). A century ago, these reforms were enacted in response to the domination of state government by a small group of wealthy business interests (most notably the railroad tycoons).

Today, the initiative and referendum continue to be a tool available… Read More

The ink is hardly dry on Governor Brown’s signature on SB 202, the measure that violates last year’s budget agreement (which included the placement of a “rainy day fund” measure on the June 2012 ballot) and fulfills the wishes of the state’s massive public employee unions who want all future qualified initiatives on the November ballot in order to avoid the Stop Special Interests Now ballot measure from being placed on a more hospitable June ballot.

That said, the FlashReport has confirmed through solid sources that the paperwork filing a referendum on SB 202 has already been filed with the Secretary of State’s office. Opponents of SB 202 will have three months to gather around 504,000 valid signatures. If they do so, then SB 202 will be suspended until the public can vote on it — and it would have the effect of letting the Stop Special Interests Now! (which had over 800,000 signatures turned in on petitions today) appear in June.

Here is the letter that was filed before 5 p.m. with the Secretary of State’s… Read More

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