The California Fair Political Practices Commission issued its required upward adjustment of the California state election contribution limits this week. A detailed chart of the new limits is attached. As a result of low inflation, candidates for State Assembly and State Senate after 1/1/11 can still receive $3,900 per person in contributions, other statewide candidates can still receive $6,500 per person but Jerry Brown can now receive $26,000 towards his re-election race, raised just a hundred bucks from previous levels.

Under existing law there is no limit to what a political party can give to a candidate for state office, however, the revised rules allow a person to give an extra $100, now, $32,500 to a party, over the previous limit, and still $200 to a so-called "small contributor" committee, and $6,500 for a PAC that contributes to state candidates. (The unlimited support a partisan candidate can receive from a political party keeps them relevant even if Proposition 14 is upheld, which does not change that aspect of campaign finance.) There is no limit to contributions to committees… Read More

We elected a bunch of crazy leftists in California, but local elected officials are a bright spot for us in Fresno County. For conservatives, we should forget the nonsensical waste of time and money trying to compete Statewide – it isn’t going to happen. Focus on the local – and watch homegrown leaders move up the ranks. Click here for the story…..… Read More

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

Jerry Brown’s Tough Odds Jerry Brown, who will once again serve as California governor next month after a 28-year absence, is sending signals on how he plans to deal with the state’s budget crisis. As expected, higher taxes are in the cards. Step One is the usual post-election revelation of the true extent of the problem, which is always downplayed before the vote. "What we’re looking at today is much worse than it’s ever been before," he told an audience of local officials recently. His best estimate of the state’s deficit over the next 18 months is $28 billion, which is larger than annual state spending on prisons,… Read More

It seems that we are already starting to hear the "insider" crowd in Sacramento talking about a budget deal that includes more cuts combined with some sort of tax increase . It wasn’t so long ago that we heard this same idea. In fact, it was just last year when the Governor and the legislature concocted a plan to jam average tax payers with over $12 billion in higher income, sales and car taxes (as well as a cut in the child tax credit) in exchange for what? Yes, there were some spending cuts — but California can’t print money (thank goodness), so cuts will happen as a function of running out of spendable cash. The "big" reform put on the table by politicos was a very weak ballot measure that purported to be a spending cap but was proven to not be able to withstand a concerted effort by a future Governor and legislature to overspend. And to get that weak spending reform one had to vote to extend the massive tax increases for yet another two years. It’s also worth mentioning that in the 2009 budget was a sickening back-room side-deal where a portion of the new revenues captured by all of the broad… Read More

Almost three years ago I penned a blog on this very web site expressing my dismay that Republicans were participating in the “There Ought to Be a Law” contest favored by legislators in generating new ideas for bills. Just because a legislator can introduce a new law doesn’t mean he or she should. Every legislative session the Democrats burden Californians with excessive taxes and regulations. Republicans have the perfect opportunity to provide a stark contrast as the smaller-government party. I suggested a “There Ought NOT to be a Law” contest as an alternative for Republicans to show ways they are reining in spending and cutting bureaucracy. Well, freshman Senator (and fellow FR blogger) Doug LaMalfa has taken … Read More

A few random thoughts for your Tuesday amusement…

One has to wonder when observing the "Christopher Columbus Myth Free Zone" signs when entering Berkeley if there are any normal people left in that city, which has become a petri dish of left-wing experimentation. Tonight the City Council will consider a resolution that more or less heaps exalted status on Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is suspected of providing WikiLeaks with over a quarter-million confidential military documents, a new city policy concerning radioactivity from cell phones, and receive a staff report letting them know that their decision to create two "parking meter holidays" in December will cost the city $52,000 bucks. All in a nights work in whacky-town. This week State Senator Mark Leno, who hails from San Francisco, introduced legislation that would require that public school classroom textbooks be re-written with historical details about the gay movement, and to highlight GLBT people who have played a significant role in our country’s history. GLBT stands for gay/lesbian/bisexual/transsexual. According to … Read More

There are two recounts in progress in OC.

One was initiated by a Fullerton planning commissioner Doug Chaffee, a Democrat who was down 90 votes in the certified results. After today, he is now down 91 votes. Maybe he’ll give tomorrow a try again, but with loosing a vote, I can’t imagine he’d want to keep paying to loose ground.

The other recount was started by Constantine “Dean” Zarkos, appointed Los Alamitos Councilmember who is down 20 votes. Not much to report there. I wish Zarkos had won. But it is very hard to make big swings in votes on recounts – especially in such a well run shop as OC Registrar Neal Kelley runs.

Political attorney Steve Baric is working for both McKinley, who is ahead of Chaffee in Fullerton and for Zarkos. Also on hand today at the Registrar were McKinley consultant Dave Ellis and GOP staffer George Andrews.… Read More

This just in from Mark Standriff, Communications Director over at the California Republican Party…

(Alternative working title: There’s nothing very funny about THIS Leno) During last summer’s budget debate on the state Senate floor, it was particularly disturbing to hear Senate Budget Chairwoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego) attempt to equate tax cuts with spending increases. I suppose from a balancing-the-books-on-a-squeaky-unicycle point of view, it makes some sense to look at tax cuts and government spending increases in the same light. Setting aside the fact that tax cuts actually spur economic growth while spending increases only increase spending, each makes it difficult to immediately balance a complex budget. That’s the problem with confusing the never was with the already has. But our lawmakers are supposed to be fiscally savvy. They are our public servants. When… Read More