This just in from longtime FR friend and conservative leader Mark Bucher… To put this in context, the City Council in Costa Mesa just announced pink slips and possible layoffs of around half of the city workforce due to a huge budget deficit. Last November the unions got a sweetheart four year extension of lucrative benefits before a change-over to a Council makeup that would likely have driven for significant reductions in employee pay and benefits… Here’s more info. On March 22, City of Orange City Manager, John Sibley, sent a letter to all city employees discussing the suicide of Huy Pham, an employee of the nearby city of Costa Mesa, who had been given notice that he was… Read More

With a h/t to commenter Colin Parenton a blog post over at the venerable SD Rostra website, we present to you the banner across the top of Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher’s official website — containing a tremendous panoramic view of the San Diego city skyline! Of course, downtown San Diego isn’t exactly a stone’s throw from Fletcher’s home and his Assembly District. Yet another sign that a run for San Diego Mayor is in the cards for the second-term Assemblyman…

We’re actually not compulsive-obsessive about Nathan’s future plans here at FR, we just thought it a fun observation, and a great way to give a shout out to the Rostra.… Read More

A brief commentary on the state budget, and the request of Governor Brown for a GOP term sheet… (Disclaimer: This is only my second attempt to cut video at my desk.)

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A few months ago I posted here a quick look at the Congressional seat currently occupied by Congresswoman Bono Mack. (See that post here.)

Now that the data is in it is probably worse that I expected.

The big issue for her is if Imperial County is included in her district, or in the one currently represented by Congressman Filner (possible candidate for Mayor of San Diego).

As you can see by the attached maps Imperial County makes all the difference in the world to her.

At this point just based on the Voting Age Population of Latinos I would bet that Imperial ends up in her district. If that happens Assemblyman Victor Manuel Perez ends up in Congress. That is a shame.

New District – All Riverside County … Read More

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail… … Read More

U.S. Representative Tom McClintock has sent the following letter to President Obama concerning recent U.S. military actions in Libya… March 23, 2011 The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States The White House Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr.… Read More

This column appears today in Capitol Weekly… GOP Convention: Opposition to Special Election Taxes By Jon Fleischman Last weekend about 1,500 Republican leaders from all around California gathered at the Hyatt Regency Hotel across the street from the state Capitol for our biennial organizational convention. As is pretty much always the case, if you read the headlines blazing across MSM newspapers and reporter blogs, you might think that the convention was a bloodbath of epic proportions. It was not, of course. I spent a lot of time at the convention talking to delegates… Read More

Assembly Speaker John Perez is a product of his environment. He spent his entire adult life working full time for labor unions (most recently the United Food and Commercial Workers) before being elected to the legislature (he never even lived in his Assembly District until he moved there to run). If you look at his voting record, he votes the left-wing/union position 100% of the time.

As the Speaker, Perez should be focused exclusively on figuring out how to resolve California’s short-term and long-term state budget mess, right? Wrong. (Apparently).

While I won’t criticize him for his odd habit of collecting ducks (seriously), it seems like every legislative session he introduces a bizarre, obscure piece of legislation about which he becomes… Read More