I missed the original report last week but was a little surprised that Mark Jacoby, who ran a business that focused on increasing Republican voter registration, plead guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced for filing a "false" voter affidavit in Los Angeles when he actually lived elsewhere. The two concepts of "domicile" and "residence" that appear in the California Elections Code have always had a little fuzzy correlation, allowing some wiggle room, but with the heat on ACORN and other liberal groups for vote related fraud issues across the country, last fall in the closing weeks of the 2008 general election, Jacoby became sort of a "fall guy" for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and Secretary of State Debra Bowen. The back story is officials employed a fleet of local police squad cars to arrest this fellow at a temporary residence in the Inland Empire,creatinga prosecutorial media event in late October. And the irony was that amid national claims againstliberal groups for fudging the election for Obama, that California was prosecuting a Republican on seemingly similarclaims.

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Today’s LA Times has a story on study being released today that places blame for the loss of almost 80,000 California-based manufacturing jobs on our regulatory and tax structure. Recently, a group of us joined Assemblyman Dan Logue on a fact-finding trip to Nevada. We had a hearing with companies that have left California and heard stories firsthand just like the ones you can read about in this column. With rising unemployment, the state should be taking action to help create jobs…

I am quite fond of former State Senator Chuck Poochigian. He’s a great guy — and a good conservative. Frankly, though, he should have turned down the offer when it was proposed to name a stretch of California highway in his name (read it here).

Frankly, it is troubling enough when we name public works for politicians who have passed on, let alone those that are with us. Frankly, every taxpayers whose money was used to fund that highway have just as much legitimate right to have their name it.

This kind of thing glorifies the role of the politician who successful spends other people’s money.

By no means is Poochigian the only living politician with something named "in their honor" — there are thousands of examples of this kind of glorification of elected officials (such… Read More

The New America Foundation sponsored a program and a lunch (thanks for food) regarding the topic "California v 2.0: The Roads to Fundamental Reform." Everybody there knew this was a promo for the idea of a constitutional convention. Panelists from the Bay Area Council, California Forward and the New America Foundation all are in favor of a convention. Other than some general assumptions about gridlock, partisanship, governance failure, and political malaise, they did not present any specifics on what the problems are, nor any proof that the Constitution has to be rewritten in order to solve these non-specific problems. In fact, one of the panelists, Dr. Thad Kousser of UCSD, spoiled the party by offering proof that California government was neither in gridlock nor overly partisan, but merely reflecting the expectations of the voters. He did offer that the years of the worst gridlock occur when the state has a governor of one party and a legislative majority held by the other party. Of course, the only way to eliminate that possibility is to switch to a parliamentary system of government that combines the legislative and executive branches, but… Read More

Quote of the week # 1: "Do me a favor: Can you say ‘Senator’ instead of ‘ma’am’? It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it. Thank you." – California Senator Barbara Boxer to a US Army Brigadier General who addressed her as "Mam" in a committee hearing June 17, 2009.

Quote of the week # 2: "Reagan was all about America, and he talked about it. Obama is, we are above that now…in a way, Obama is standing above the country, above the world. He is, sort of, god…" – Evan Thomas, Editor of Newsweek Magazine on MSNBC’s Hardball June 5, 2009.

Floor Action: Last Thursday, the House made 53 recorded roll call votes. That is the most ever in one day in history. Most of those were repeat or procedural votes brought forth by the Minority as we protested the Majority’s limitation on amendments and debate for spending bills. The Majority had proposed to limit the time of debate and the number of amendments to spending… Read More

Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced that he is not running for Governor.

Clearly a loss for any out-of-LA female television reporters — since the Mayor, thus far, has only showed a penchant for scoring them in his home market.

Conventional wisdom is that Villaraigosa's exit is a boost for the campaign of Attorney General (and former Governor) Jerry Brown.… Read More

The Politico is reporting that Antonio Villaraigosa will announce on CNN this afternoon whether or not he’s going to run for governor next year. Since politicians announcing that they are running for office tend to do news conferences and rallies with balloons and banners (oh, and supporters), the cable television option suggests that Antonio sees the poll numbers on the wall and is going to sit this one out.

That’s good news for Jerry Brown, as Villaraigosa’s base of labor and Latinos is more likely to head toward Brown than Gavin Newsom. But it opens the door even further for another Democratic candidate (Loretta Sanchez is probably already on the phone to her pollster.

And if Brown is the nominee, here’s hoping that Whitman/Poizner/Campbell realizes that running against Governor Moonbeam, Rose Bird, and the 1970’s is a dated playbook that could use some refreshing. Hint: anyone been to Oakland recently?… Read More

Apparently while on the stump in Fresno late last week=, talking about the state’s fiscal crisis, a frustrated Fresnan lambasted the Governor for the lack of water — and calling for dams and canals to be built.

This unnamed man in the Sacramento Bee story linked above is justified in venting his frustration about the problems of water delivery in the Central Valley — that having been said, his aim is a bit off. If I am a Californian who is frustrated about the water-availability challenges facing the Golden-But-Thirsty state, I would look at these three primary causes, all of which place the blame for our current man-made crisis at the feet of Sacramento Democrats:

1) Federal laws prioritize critters and plant-life over people. The federal government primarily has passed too many laws that deprioritize the needs of people — and rather places a higher priority in the protection of critters and plants. We all understand the need for some balance to ensure that resources are available for this and future generations, but many of these… Read More