Last night Mary Salas conceded the 40th State Senate District Democrat primary to Juan Vargas, in what some are calling a victory for the big-business community, who largely funded Vargas’ effort. At least until you look it up, and realize that in six years in the Assembly, Vargas scored between zero and five percent on the CalChamber’s legislative scorecard. Just when you think you’ve heard it all, you read about an effort to hold a “virtual convention” where people can rewrite the state’s constitution using Twitter. Really. I’ll miss the dry wit of State Senator Dave Cox, who recently passed away. He once told me that a lot of what I write makes a lot of sense to him, and that this fact scared him. His passion for public service was strong, and he will be missed. The Governor’s Chief of Staff, Susan Kennedy (formerly Executive Director of an abortion-rights organization) and Mike Spence (former CRA Prez and longtime Right To Life leader) have something in common – both celebrated birthday’s last Saturday. While they can’t agree on much, I’m sure that they will … Read More

Many of us are currently preparing ballot statements for legislative and local candidates.

For those candidates running for statewide office the deadline has passed and they are now available for public review here.

Some of the highlights….

Governor Neither Meg Whitman or Attorney General Brown accepted the limits under Prop 34. The ballot statement from Libertarian Dale Ogden is quite good.

Lt. Governor Peace and Freedom candidate says "Let the super rich pay their fair share." Lt. Governor Maldonado and Mayor Gavin Newsom both have statements that hit the key points.

Secretary of State Peace and Freedom Candidate Marylou Cabral has a good one. Here is the whole thing, "Strengthen democracy by lowering the voting age to 16, extending the right to vote to immigrants and prisoners,and making Election Day a holiday." Wow.

Controller Libertarian Andy Favor might have my favorite. "Pro-business, freedom. Frugal." Short and sweet.

Treasurer Debra Reiger is the Peace and… Read More

The voracious appetite of liberals in Sacramento to use government to manipulate our behavior, and steal more of our freedom has no greater poster child than Assembly Bill 1998. Sponsored by the “environuts” at Heal The Bay, the legislation would ban every grocery store (regardless of proximity to a bay, tributary or river) from being able to put your groceries into a plastic bag.

Heal The Bay’s bag ban bill amounts to a massive tax increase on Californians (well, assuming that you go into a grocery store). Those plastic bags you use now – the stores give you those. Under AB 1998, if stores put your groceries in a paper bag, they will charge you a per-bag tax of a minimum of a nickel. It could be a lot more.

AB 1998 is not the first attempt by Heal The Bay and their allies to ban infringe on your ability to use plastic bags to take home your groceries. But this year represents the first time that the lobbying arm of the large grocery store chains is supporting the bill. Why would they do that? The key is that the per-bag tax does not go into government coffers, that money goes into the pockets of – you guessed it – the grocery… Read More

I’m on the run this morning — but this press release is worth sharing. Sorry for re-posting verbatim (I’m sure Team Carly won’t mind) — but prominent Democrats backing Fiorina is a big deal…

Former Assemblywoman Nicole Parra and Former Kern County Supervisor Pete Parra Endorse Carly Fiorina Parras to Spearhead the Democrats and Independent Voters For Carly Coalition

SACRAMENTO, CA – In reflection of the broad-based support building behind her campaign to defeat Barbara Boxer, U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina today earned the endorsement of former Kern County Supervisor Pete Parra and former California State Assemblywoman Nicole Parra.… Read More

Where there is SEIU, there is voter fraud, so we should have known. Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson found himself in the crosshairs of a $500,000SEIU barrage of false and negative advertising for six straight weeks leading up to the June primary election. Still, he survived and is headed to a November runoff against SEIU backed candidate Cynthia Sterling, a member of the Fresno City Council.

Now we find out that a Sterling volunteer probably committed voter fraud, submitting false registrations. The Bee has the story today. Why is this significant? Larson fell 20 votes short of winning this race outright. The false registrations numbered over 100. Now we need to see if those 100 votes were cast. If they were, the election should be awarded to Phil Larson.

I’ve uploaded some of SEIU’s handiwork in this race. They are first class dirtbags, that crew.

Phil Larson is a proven conservative and the swing vote for a conservative majority on the County Board. This is the most crucially important race in the County this year.… Read More

The ‘must watch’ of the day (and perhaps the week) is from Reason television. Ted Balaker of Reason sits down with Steve Greenhut for a thoughtful interview that runs about nine minutes long. Greenhut heads up the Pacific Research Institute CalWatchdog project, which provides reporting on California state government with the healthy perspective of skepticism…

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It now appears that FinReg is the generally accepted shorthand name for the financial regulatory reform bill that the president will sign into law this week. As most readers of this missive know, I opposed this bill because it will not solve the problems that led to the 2008 financial crisis and it will make consumer and small business credit more difficult to get and more expensive. Therefore, it will be another addition to the list of bills (health care, cap and trade, stimulus, etc.) which will increase taxes, lower growth, and destroy even more private sector jobs in this country. The bill has 3 basic elements which I will describe briefly below. Also, I will tell you what I think the economic and societal effects will be. When all of this becomes apparent during the next 12 months, remember that this is the piece of legislation driving it.

Derivatives regulation: I support much of this effort, unfortunately however, the bill fails to create sufficient exceptions for end users of derivatives (such as farmers), who do not use derivatives as an investment, but rather as a “hedge” to insure against market volatility in an … Read More

Jim Sills at SD Rostra has the first newsbeat of the recount in the 40th District, as Juan Vargas tries to hold on to a 22 vote lead…

RECOUNT DAY 1….SALAS LOSES 1 VOTE IN SD REGISTRAR’S REPORT OF SD 40 MANUAL COUNT Day 1 of the 40th state senate recount is over in San Diego county. Juan Vargas began the day leading by 22 votes overall in the 3-county district.

And the 1st Day recount figures from San Diego show that 13 precincts from Chula Vista and Coronado were checked for accuracy with a Manual (aka “Hand”) count vs. the original machine count.

The only change came in Coronado precinct 43900. The Registrar’s report states, “Challenged Ballot did not Count… (-1 Salas).” The report thus appears to show a net loss of 1 vote for Mary Salas on the day.

Meanwhile, Riverside county is also doing a recount, but no new results are available there to date.

You can review today’s SD Registrar’s … Read More