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

Capitol Weekly is reporting that there very well may be a vote for the next Assembly Speaker today. Apparently in the kurfuffle between two ultra liberal Democrat lawmakers from Los Angeles with terrible voting records, one of them has beat out the other. It’s more bad news for California that the State Assembly will continue to be led by someone who thinks that taxes are too low, regulations are too lax, and that the way to stimulate growth in California is to redistribute wealth.

That said, the big question of the day for Republicans remains — will the name of Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee be placed into nomination during the speakership vote?

We sure hope so.

There will be 28 Republican legislators on hand for the vote for Speaker. Unfortunately, the outcome is preordained as all of these GOPers will have to watch the coronation of yet another Democrat.

That said, all of these Republicans deserve self-respect and as the minority party in the Assembly, Republicans should be allowed some… Read More

It would appear that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks that you (and me) are stupid.

Seriously.

Chris Reed, a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune, sent off a group of four questions to the Governor’s office all centered around the fact that the Governor himself insisted that there be a provision in AB32 that would allow for its suspension during tough economic times. Given that we are in a recession, Chris’ questions seemed on point. Here are his four questions and the four unbelievable answers from the Governor’s office…

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

It would appear that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger thinks that you (and me) are stupid.

Seriously.

Chris Reed, a member of the editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune, sent off a group of four questions to the Governor’s office all centered around the fact that the Governor himself insisted that there be a provision in AB32 that would allow for its suspension during tough economic times. Given that we are in a recession, Chris’ questions seemed on point. Here are his four questions and the four unbelievable answers from the Governor’s office…

A. Your question is premised on an unproven assertion that implementation of AB32 would be harmful to the economy when all the evidence points in the opposite direction. Major programs under AB 32 will not go into effect… Read More

RedCounty.com CEO Chip Hanlon posted about a discovery he made regarding the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign’s approach to our blog, RedCounty.com:

Someone should tell Steve Poizner that Red County would have covered his Gubernatorial campaign for free.

You see, I’ve recently learned something which, in retrospect, might not come as a complete shock to all our readersgiven the nature of his content: I have it in writing that the Poizner camp has been secretly paying one of our writers, “Sgt. York,” for favorable coverage all year long.

Now, to be fair, the Poizner camp wasn’t paying him directly. Instead, they were paying a “consultant,” and that person was paying our now-former writer. But it isa factthat theperson was paying York explicitly for pro-Poizner, anti-Whitman commentaries, articles specifically to be written on RedCounty.com.

I disclose this publicly here to preserve… Read More

For the past few years public employee unions have been on the march in San Diego County. In the 2008 elections, these unions rode the Obama wave to crushing victories over center right candidates countywide in cities as diverse as Chula Vista, San Diego, and Escondido.

The tip of the public employee union spear countywide has been the various firefighter unions who, like many of their brethren statewide, have been radicalized by the expectation that the large benefit and salary increases they accumulated during economic good times would get even better in bad times.

Flush with the 1998 victories, these same unions decided to push further. The City of Oceanside had a 3:2 Republican/Labor council, and for the first time in recent memory a Democrat Presidential candidate, Obama, carried the city. The fiscally responsible majority in the city, well aware that city finances were going to be impacted by the recession for years to come, opposed further firefighter benefits and salary increases.

So the fire union, and their labor allies outside Oceanside, decided to teach officials countywide, and really statewide, a lesson by recalling one of the Republican… Read More

Last week, I proposed legislation to authorize the California Highway Patrol to activate the state’s Emergency Alert System and issue a “Blue Alert” when necessary to speed apprehension of criminals who attack or kill local, state, or federal law enforcement officers. Similar to the “Amber Alert,” which is employed when children are abducted, the Blue Alert will be activated only if a peace officer is killed, seriously wounded or assaulted with a firearm.

Blue Alert programs have been established in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma and can help avert further harm to officers and the public when a description of the offender’s vehicle or license plate are available for broadcast.

The cold-blooded killing of four officers in Oakland and four Washington State officers just this year serves as a grim reminder that law enforcement officers must often confront criminals capable of incredible violence. When attacks on peace officers do occur, law enforcement agencies and the public may be better served by activation of a Blue Alert.… Read More