If you weren’t able to make it to the Democrat State Convention last weekend in Los Angeles, here is your chance to see ersatz Governor-again Jerry Brown fumble through appearances at the LGBT Caucus (courting the transgender vote made the candidate so nervous – watch him drop his cell phone!) and then the Labor Caucus. Enjoy…

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Today we publish an interview we conducted yesterday with political strategist Arnold Steinberg. He has served as a campaign strategist and adviser for countless campaigns. He has created hundreds of campaign advertising materials for print, television and radio media and conducted more than 1800 polling and focus group projects. The author of two graduate textbooks on campaign management and media, Steinberg is a court-recognized expert witness who has testified repeatedly on public opinion and attitudinal formation, demographics and voting patterns, media and advertising, and elections and ballot issues, and other aspects of political campaigns. He has been on several foundation boards as well as Federal boards in the Reagan and Bush Administrations. He also served on the California Coastal Commission. He also represented the United States… Read More

Today we publish an interview we conducted yesterday with political strategist Arnold Steinberg. He has served as a campaign strategist and adviser for countless campaigns. He has created hundreds of campaign advertising materials for print, television and radio media and conducted more than 1800 polling and focus group projects. The author of two graduate textbooks on campaign management and media, Steinberg is a court-recognized expert witness who has testified repeatedly on public opinion and attitudinal formation, demographics and voting patterns, media and advertising, and elections and ballot issues, and other aspects of political campaigns. He has been on several foundation boards as well as Federal boards in the Reagan and Bush Administrations. He also served on the California Coastal Commission. He also represented the United States… Read More

Been out out of the office all day, but this piece was in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail… … Read More

The Los Angeles Daily News posted a disturbing story yesterday about a Cal State Northridge professor who is the publisher of a web site that promotes sex tourism in Thailand. According to the news article, the associate professor, Kenneth Ng, teaches economics at the California school and in his spare time runs the web site BigBabyKenny.com. Apparently CSUN doesn’t have a problem with Professor Ng’s “extracurricular activities” because he doesn’t utilize state or university resources.

After reading the LA Daily News article, I visited Mr. Ng’s web site. A brief look at the front page shows pictures of Thai women, images of Viagra and articles about how to send money to “Your Girl” in Thailand.

With Tax day gone for 2010 many of us can breath easier. But there is a bit of controversy brewingat the largely under the radar California Board of Accountancy.

Brian Joseph at the OC Register has decided to pick on your favorite pencil pushing CPA by suggesting that the board that oversees the profession is operating in a less than transparent way.

Apparently if you go to the California Board of Accountancy web site, they fail to list every detail of everywild accusation facing CPAs in the state. Instead, they list the names of any CPA under investigation and ask that you email or call for a copy of the report. I think this is an entirely appropriate method of operation. And apparently so does the board. But they will soon revisit the policy and perhaps make the accusations public immediately.

That would be a bad move.

Professionals who are recognized and licensed by the state ought to be held to a higher standard, and they are. However, they should not be subject to… Read More

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Does the average California Democratic Party leader understand the philosophical underpinnings of personal property rights under the U.S. Constitution or do they just reflexively opt for the policy that creates more government power? I want to know. I do know one Democratic party leader in south Orange County that is a liberal, but seems to me to understand that the basic economic model of the Constitution is worth preserving. But that’s the only example I can point too. Is she the exception that proves the rule?

Reading today’s Santa Barbara News Press, I note that "Daraka Larimore-Hall," the Santa Barbara Democrat party "chair," (this inspires so many more questions I have about Democrat party leaders, especially the women. Why do they have so many unusual names like "Daraka" and "Kamala," in comparison to Republican leaders? How come the Orange County GOP "chair" isn’t named something like "Tomas Fuentes-Billingsly?") said yesterday that the Democrats are "ready to hit the ground" in the… Read More