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

When liberal State Senate President Darrell Steinberg announced that creating a new State Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes, staffing it up with lefty ex-newspaper reporters, and then dispatching them to do their thing, looking at whatever they want, it is of course no surprise that they are not using this as an opportunity to look at how state government is functioning internally, but rather to determine if state government is adequately (to their mind) is doing a good job at being a regulator of business.

In this case, a column from David Lazurus (who if he is not a charter member of the ACLU, it is not out of lack of desire) highlights a report due out from the "Ex-Reporters On The Taxpayer Dole Blasting Private Companies" Commission today that, in essence, takes on the Public Utilities Commission for not being strict enough on telecom companies like Verizon and AT&T.

It is significant to note that their main beef with the PUC is that over the last few years, the aforementioned companies have not lost market share.… Read More

Today was the second of my weekly appearances on Sacramento conservative talk radio station KTKZ, spending a segment with popular radio talk show host and FR friend Eric Hogue (his columns on his Hogue News website are linked often on our site’s main page — very insightful).

You can listen to the audio of my interview with Eric below — our topics? The State Budget crisis – specifically Schwarzenegger vs. Chiang, remembering Senator Dave Cox, and how the tax increase issue will dominate the GOP race to succeed him…… Read More

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