Former Vice President Dick Cheney today endorsed the candidacy of Meg Whitman for Governor. You can read his lengthy column in today’s Orange County Register which was as notable for his glowing praise of Whitman as its harsh words for Whitman’s primary opponent, Steve Poizner.

In conjunction with the announcement of Cheney’s support, the Whitman campaign has unleashed pre-recorded messages from Vice President Cheney to Republican primary voters. In the all-positive call, Cheney calls Whitman the "clear conservative choice…"

Cheney is a favorite of most conservatives, thus this a significant "third party endorsement" of Whitman.

You can listen to Cheney’s message below…… Read More

I think it’s close enough to Election Day to start posting what political mail I received. I’ll start with this weekend:

* Gubernatorial candidate Whitman “Tough as Nails” about illegal immigration (good piece, clear)

* Yes on Proposition 16 (good piece, clear)

* California Voter Guide “Leadership for California” (above US Senate candidate Fiorina it says ‘Sarah Palin says: vote for Carly”)… Read More

The Sunday roundup from around the region… Docs Weigh in for Wells in AD 77… In what has been a fairly quiet race to succeed Assemblyman Joel Anderson in the 77th District (at least compared to what I’m used to in prior Steve Baldwin, Jay La Suer and Anderson dust-ups), things may finally be getting interesting. The California Medical Association yesterday filed a late independent expenditure report to the tune of over $19,500 for a mailer in support of Bill Wells, as he vies against Brian Jones and Christine Rubin.

The amount may not jump out as that significant, but in a race where fundraising has been on the low side, it may be huge indeed(cash-on-hand for the three contenders was in the 25-30k range thru March 17).

Additionally, in the last couple of days, I’ve received two mailers from Jones and one from Wells. All positive…thus far.

Please toss me a note, if you see anything of interest in… Read More

We happily share conservative icon Tom McClintock’s recommendations each election. These are straight from his own blog… McClintock On the Propositions: Prop. 13. Seismic Retrofits. YES: Earthquake proofing your house shouldn’t trigger a tax increase until you’re ready to sell. Any questions? Prop. 14. Distorted Primary. NO: This was the result of the corrupt deal for the tax increase… Read More

The new Republican Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, is quickly achieving legendary status… Need to know why? Check out this "confrontation" between Governor Christie and a liberal MSM reporter… Simply awesome.

I get so sick of the ad hominem "news stories" every budget cycle about how the poor and disabled are going to be hurt by every single budget the Governor proposes. These stories always lay the pretext and give fuel for the Democrats in the Legislature to tear apart necessary reforms. I frankly think they are coordinated with the Democrat leaders in the Legislature. Today the Los Angeles Times once again includes an above the fold headline "Governor’s budget deals blow to poor" and a story about how children, state workers, and welfare will be affected. One of these days I am going to hire ace researcher Jim Sills to track every headline the L.A. Times has ever written about Arnold’s budgets, or Pete Wilson’s budgets and predecessor’s budgets, and publish them here. They will most certainly be rehashes of the same old story by lazy journalists just doing things the easy and expected way.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see a headline like,… Read More

Americans for Prosperity of California, part of the national grassroots taxpayer advocacy organization, issued its own statement about the Governor’s revised budget today, which I have posted below. One of the key budget points for taxpayer protection groups is the Governor’s commitment to cutting spending.

As noted in the press release below, Democrats are simply returning to an already-dry well by demanding more and higher taxes. This is a short-sighted plan that will only serve to worsen California’s dwindling tax base. It may seem like inverse logic to Democrats, but cutting taxes in the short-term will actually lead to increased tax revenue in the long-term as businesses and taxpayers thrive and the tax base grows.

My statement on the May Budget Revision…

“The budget cuts proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger are tough ones – but are realistic ones, given that revenues simply aren’t available to fund state government and its spending programs at their current level. The reality is that California is in a recession, and when the economy restricts, that means that the size of the state government must do the same. What cannot be on the table – which seems to be acknowledged in this May revision – is asking already over-taxed Californians to pay more in taxes. Blame lies on the Democrats for the tragedy of this situation – which has been directly caused by excessive social program spending, massive and unsustainable concessions to public employee unions, and draconian regulations that have caused terrible damage to this state’s economic health. I commend the Governor for having the courage to set out as a priority in this budget… Read More