Given that incumbent State Treasurer (and former Attorney General and Senate President Pro-Tem) Bill Lockyer has been a "high profile" public official for decades… It will come as sobering news to him that nearly half of all California voters have no idea who he is…

This will be especially troubling news to Lockyer because of two very important additional factors — the first is that 2010 is shaping up, nationally, to be a good year for Republicans, the second is that thanks to a VERY competitive race for Governor and a GOP nominee in Meg Whitman who is bringing record resources to bear, the GOP ticket this year in California specifically will be strong.

Enter into the equation State Senator Mimi Walters. Walters is known for being a smart, tenacious candidate who will be campaigning all around the state as the GOP’s nominee for Treasurer.

The Walters campaign recently tagged some questions into a statewide survey from respected public opinion polling firm Public Opinion Strategies. Here are some interesting data points that Walters’ consultant, Dave Gilliard, culled from the survey (taken July 11-14, 800 likely… Read More

The LA Weekly blog is reporting the Center for Governmental Studies just issued a report showing the LA City Council votes unanimously 99.993% of the time. That’s an astounding statistic. I can’t think of any other major voting body with that kind of voting record.

Some could argue that LA politicians have figured out how to get along and therefore vote consistently. But one look at LA’s $485 million deficit and anyone could tell that if every council member for a city as large as Los Angeles is voting in one accord, they are probably not representing the best interests of their constituents.

King Ron George will finally leave the building. Chief Justice Ron George will not longer be the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Good riddance.

Ron George epitomizes what is wrong about allowing activist judges to dictate their personal views into law. Same-sex marriage is just one example of how George’s so-called leadership has played out. George’s court redefined overturned the will of the people and re-defined marriage. Then knowing there was an election just a few month away refused to stay the order. Why? In order to insure the views of the great and wonderful George could become law in a cold political calculation to influence the November election. For this he will be remembered.

The Parental consent case that George presided over showed his willingness to undermine the judicial system in order to impose his social views on the people of California. As many know a bi-partisan parental consent law was passed the Legislature and signed by Governor Deukmejian. The law was on hold until the court cases could be resolved. Turns out the California State Supreme Court actually upheld the constitutionality of the law. At that point there were… Read More

This just in from State Senate Republican Leader Elect Bob Dutton, who really calls Assembly Speaker John Perez to task… Time for Legislative Leaders and Governor to Work Out Budget Agreement Senator Bob Dutton Today marks the 14th day California taxpayers are being held hostage without a state budget. Currently, the state is spending $52 million a day more than it is bringing in. This delay has now cost taxpayers more than $725 million. As the… Read More

On Monday, I had the pleasure to sit down with my local paper, the Antelope Valley Press, to discuss California’s state budget (which, aseveryone knows is stalled in negotiations because the Democrat leaders are at odds with one another). My discussion with the AVP Ed Board resulted in this story where my message is simple: This is the time for us to seriously reset spending levels. We also discussed the wonderfully conservative governance by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has unflinchingly taken on the school and state unions, and in so doing brought fiscal sanity to a once broken state. California leaders have much to learn from Christie.… Read More

Back in 2005 the legislature passed and the Governor signed AB 1179, legislation by ultra-liberal Democrat Leland Yee. This terrible piece of “nanny-statist” legislation presumed to once again assert state government in the role of parenting our children, in this case regulating the sale of violent video games to people under 18. Completely ignoring the fact that there is an existing rating system for video games that works well, the legislature and, ironically, Governor Schwarzenegger, supported this bad bill.

Fortunately, this particular advance of big government was thwarted by numerous California courts, included a unanimous rejection by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is significant to note that this brings to an even dozen the number of similar laws around the country that have been declared unconstitutional. In the case of AB 1179, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the decision of the Court of Appeals.

Never before have U.S.courts used expressions of violence as the basis for a restriction on our Constitutional rights to free speech. You may not like certain video games, but do you really want the government to tell… Read More

Back in 2005 the legislature passed and the Governor signed AB 1179, legislation by ultra-liberal Democrat Leland Yee. This terrible piece of “nanny-statist” legislation presumed to once again assert state government in the role of parenting our children, in this case regulating the sale of violent video games to people under 18. Completely ignoring the fact that there is an existing rating system for video games that works well, the legislature and, ironically, Governor Schwarzenegger, supported this bad bill.

Fortunately, this particular advance of big government was thwarted by numerous California courts, included a unanimous rejection by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is significant to note that this brings to an even dozen the number of similar laws around the country that have been declared unconstitutional. In the case of AB 1179, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the decision of the Court of Appeals.

Never before have U.S.courts used expressions of violence as the basis for a restriction on our Constitutional rights to free speech. You may not like certain video games, but do you really want the government to tell… Read More

State Senator Dave Cox, of Sacramento, has passed away after a fight against cancer that lasted for over a decade. Our sympathies and prayers go out to the Senator’s family, staff and friends. You can read more about his passing on the Sacramento Bee website here. The th Beee piece calls Cox a "moderate conservative" — but for our part, in a legislature dominated by ultra-liberals, we found ourselves in alignment with Cox all of the time. At the end of the day, the most defining vote between whether one was a liberal or conservative Republican that came up in the legislature the last decade was the 2009 budget deal, and the passing of the largest tax increase in the history of any state (and the placement of even more taxes as Proposition 1A on the ballot). Cox was a vote against that, for which he should be praised for standing tall for the taxpayers in his district, and around California.

Much… Read More