The Republican primary for governor just got a lot more interesting.

For weeks, Meg Whitman’s been running statewide radio ads at high levels, and not coincidentally has been building herself a solid lead in early polls. Because Steve Poizner has not been spending for advertising as well, rumors have been circulating that he was not committed to the race and might even be looking for an early exit rather than try to compete with what’s likely to be huge levels of Whitman spending.

But earlier tonight, Poizner sent an email to supporters announcing that he had contributed $15 million of his own money to the campaign. That’s more than enough to finance an ad blitz that could pull him even with the frontrunners by early next year. More immediately, though, it puts the rumors to rest. Steve Poizner is definitely running for governor.

The next question is when his ads start running. Assuming that both Poizner and Whitman are willing to stay on the air all the way until June, it’s also safe to assume that every man, woman and child in California will have both candidates’ ads memorized long before the primary.… Read More

Last Tuesday’s failed recall election against Oceanside Councilman Jerry Kern was a clear repudiation of an attempt by labor to wrest control of the city council in one of San Diego County’s largest municipalities.

Fellow SD FlashReport blogger Duane Dichiara wrote about the results on Wednesday, in A Crushing Defeat for Labor in Bellweather Oceanside Election. Here too are several SD Rostra posts on the election.

In many (if not most) cases, local elected officials — including Republicans — are fearful of not having public safety union endorsements, as voters will often respond positively to police and fire association messages and endorsements. Yet, the outcome in Oceanside shows how the public will respond when they are truly informed about the issues at hand.

The overall lesson is that when a city is caught up in the emotion of a recall election for several weeks, with both sides focused on messaging in a very singular fashion (not… Read More

I’ve read some comments on this blog andanother conservative blogthat State Senator Abel Maldonado "votes with the Democrats most of the time."

I decided to invest 15 minutes of my time to research how Maldonado actually votes in Sacramento. I did not contact Maldonado, or any of his critics, to do this research. I just wanted to see what I could easily find on the internet, and do the work on my own.

Here is what I found on Abel’s voting record:

According to the California Chamber of Commerce, Maldonado votes within their highest range of support for the business community, 80% or more. On 13 bills important to the California Chamber, Maldonado supported 11 and voted against 2. By comparison, conservative State Senator Tony Strickland supported 12 and opposed 1, and liberal DemocratDarrell Steinberg, supported just 3 of the bills and opposed 10. The "median" or average Democrat vote was to support 2 and oppose 11 of the bills.

I alsoexamined the California Chamber’s 13 key bills and determined they were all pro-taxpayer,… Read More

As the United States Senate takes on the health care issue, there is a clear difference of opinion on whether this $850 billion program will rein in rising health care costs or further bankrupt our nation. In a piece written recently, Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters noted a provision inserted into the 2,000-plus page health care bill that would wreak havoc on California.

Walters wrote that 34 years ago California passed a law that imposed a $250,000 limit on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases. Walters also noted that during the 1970s, in response to the skyrocketing insurance premiums for malpractice insurance, many doctors threatened to leave the state or abandon specialized practices, particularly obstetrics.

However, California’s malpractice cap, which also was enacted in 30 other states, has been put on the chopping block by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the health care bill pushed through the House. In the recently approved House health care bill, any state that repeals the malpractice cap would receive "incentive payments"–a modern day payoff.

As noted in by Walters, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)… Read More

Part 2 of my response to the dishonest spin oozing from the Poizner campaign:

To the best of my recollection, I have never met or spoken with Jarrod Agen, spokesman for the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign. Other than a few e-mails this summer, we’ve had hardly any communication.

If the people running the show there were smart, they’d send Jarrod for a long weekend at a spa, so he can calm down, relax and start thinking straight. I figure maybe it is the stress that is causing him to needlessly pick fights and make things up about this blog.

First there’s this doozy Agen peddled to Joe Garofoli at the SFChronicle:

Yet a few weeks later, Cunningham ran a — brace yourself for this — MULTI-PART interview with Meg Whitman. Yes, the political equivalent of a unicorn sighting.

Red County’s Matt Cunningham and Steve Poizner talking about the weather.

Agen says this is because Whitman is a major advertiser… Read More

…they would grow up, stop trying to blame RedCounty.com for the fact they were secretly paying one of our bloggers to attack Meg Whitman and spout obsequiously pro-Poizner pap, and move one.

Instead, they seem to think keeping that story is alive is a smart thing to do.

Rather than understand they we might be just a little upset that they had used us an unwitting cut out for their campaign, the Poizner campaign is now, in essence, saying they did nothing wrong, and that even if they did, Red County was asking for it.

Even though it was Red County that risked embarrassment to itself to break the story, the Poizner campaign is, amazingly, claiming it is we who have been caught "red-handed" via their "PoiznerFacts.com" website:

You can read the rest at RedCounty.com… Read More

Today State Senator Jeff Denham shared with the Modesto Bee that he is dropping out of the race for the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor and is instead running for the 25th State Assembly seat currently occupied by Tom Berryhill, who has announced that is running for State Senate (the seat currently occupied by Dave Cogdill, who is retiring).

For the Assembly seat, this pits Denham against former Modesto Councilwoman Janice Keating. While Modesto is the largest city in the Assembly District, Denham's entry into the race makes him a clear front runner. His name ID is undoubtedly through the roof. Not only has he represented much of this district in the Senate for many years, but has also been actively campaigning for LG for over a year. And let's not forget the massive name ID that will come from the failed recall attempt orchetrated by former Senate President Don Perata.

Of course, Denham is also aided by gaving a campaign bank account flush with cash. We're going to assume that Denham is not likely to offer refunds to donors who thought they were staking a candidate for statewide office. Denham will have to move into the 25th Assembly… Read More

CALIFORNIA’S RACE TO THE BOTTOM Craig DeLuz

Currently, the State Legislature is in its Fifth Extraordinary Session, which was called by Governor Schwarzenegger to implement reforms to our educational system that would make our state eligible to compete for over $400 million in federal "Race To The Top" education funds. But, when given an opportunity to make substantive change for the better in California’s education system, the California Assembly’s Education Committee chose to side with those who have destroyed the system in the first place.

On a 6-5-6 vote they shot down SB X5 1 (Romero), which was a bipartisan effort supported by scores of education advocates, school districts, educators and business leaders. Conversely, they approved AB X5 8 (Brownley), which is little more than a union backed attack on California charter schools.

Romero’s SB X5 1 was largely about bringing greater accountability and flexibility to education in California. It removed the cap placed on the… Read More