Tales of the bizarre — I just got an email from State Senate hopeful moderate Jeff Stone who in a contest with conservative Assemblyman (and front runner) Joel Anderson to succeed Dennis Hollingsworth, who is term-limited out of office. The note appears to be some sort of "pre-innoculation" piece designed to warn the greater political community of impending attacks against him.

The interesting part is that this note goes well beyond the normal generalizations that you would expect, "My opponents will seek to paint me in a bad light — but don’t you believe them!"

Instead, check out this paragraph: In the final days of the campaign one of my opponents, well known for his dirty campaigning, will sling a bunch of outrageous charges against me. He will probably call me a drug dealer; he will tell you that I harm my patients; that I don’t pay my taxes or that I voted to hike your taxes; he will probably say I belong to an extremist Religious group and he will claim I have violated the public trust while an elected… Read More

* For the first time, Rasmussen is reporting that Steve Poizner is actually polling better in a matchup against Jerry Brown than is his primary foe Meg Whitman.

The National Rifle Association, one of the most reliable and effective advocacy groups in the country, stunned Second Amendment supporters by weighing in on behalf of Don Kurth over conservative pro-Second Amendment businessman Mike Morrell. Kurth’s sordid history includes efforts to gather and destroy guns in order to erect peace memorials (“Annual Gun Destruction Day”). The memorials, a passion-project of New York-based anti-arms activist Lin Evola-Smidt, stated goal is “To melt down weapons and create peace in the United States will inspire the entire world to do what is possible.”

Admirable though Ms. Evola-Smidt’s efforts may be, they are not typically an effort embraced by the Second Amendment community nor the NRA. In fact, as an NRA member, I distinctly remember the NRA aggressively attacking Dan Lungren in his 1998 run for governor for… Read More

House Republicans want to engage Americans across the country and give them a voice in creating a new agenda for Congress. The American people and my constituents need the opportunity to actually be heard by their leaders in Washington, D.C., so House Republicans are providing that forum with today’s launch of America Speaking Out.

Over the past couple years, there has been a growing distrust from the American people about what is happening in Washington, D.C. Research shows they feel as though they are being ignored and in some cases ridiculed for speaking out about their priorities.

My Republican colleagues and I want to change that and want to engage the American people in a partnership. We need a bottom-up approach where leaders are listening and leading and moving an agenda forward that reflects the ideals of the nation. Congress is, after all, the people’s House.

AmericaSpeakingOut.com is a state of the art website that allows individuals to suggest ideas of their own, or weigh in on ideas offered by others. Everyone can see the ideas that are… Read More

Today the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association put out the following statement in response to the announcement earlier today that their budget proposal includes massive tax increases…

ASSEMBLY DEMOCRAT BUDGET HARMS TAXPAYERS Proposal increases taxes and creates new borrowing while deceptively promoting job growth. Sacramento, CA – Today, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA) strongly opposed a plan brought forth by Assembly Democrats that calls for $12 billion in new taxes and borrowing. The proposal includes a new oil severance tax which would lead to lost jobs and higher gas prices. Democrats have proposed creating a $10 billion ‘Jobs and Economic Stability Fund’ in order to protect 450,000 primarily public… Read More

Okay. You’re a State Senator that voted for two horrific budgets in a row, raising the spending baselines to unsustainable levels, in effect creating the fiscal crisis we have in California today. On top of that, you cast the deciding vote to put Proposition 14 on the ballot when you thought you were running Statewide, enabling one of the biggest RINOS in the history of California, Abel Maldenado, to cut HIS budget deal to raise our taxes and further bankrupt California.

Your reward?

An endorsement in one of the most hotly contested Congressional primaries in California, from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Yep, you read it. State Senator Jeff Denham is the endorsed candidate of HJTA in the 19th Congressional District primary.

To be sure, taxpayer advocates and Lincoln Club members fell out of their chairs today all over Central California. Nobody on the HJTA board bothered to check with any of us, I guess. We actually vetted all the candidates, did the research, and came up with a dual endorsement of Pombo and Patterson. There were NO, and I mean NO, votes for Jeff Denham for an endorsement. I guess we just pay too much… Read More

KENNEDY FOR SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “Letter” this is an individualized chase letter… but Patrick you didn’t ‘see me’ when you or your walker stopped by. KENNEDY FOR SACRAMENTO CITY COUNCIL “Neighborhoods a Voice” which is a color booklet that comes in an envelope… looks expensive (Today’s winner). COOLEY FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL “Shameless” a double whack on Eastman and Harman, could have been more clear what the race was that the mailer was talking about. SLATEMAILER “Small Business Action Committee” featuring Whitman for Governor and Maldonado for Lt. Governor.… Read More

My Red County colleague published this post today about the U.S. Senate race — a must read for those deciding whether to cast their ballot for Chuck DeVore or Carly Fiorina.

Chip’s post includes an op-ed Fiorina co-bylined in 2000 in support of Prop. 26 — which would have have weakened Prop. 13 by reducing the threshold fro passing local school bonds from two-thirds to a simple majority.

Click here to read it. It’s substantive food for thought for those trying to parse through the competing claims of who the conservative in the race is.… Read More