Courtesy of the Republican National Committee.… Read More

10:20am UPDATE: The Governor’s office has clarified that the first item I mentioned is on his agenda — getting a waiver for the stimulus bucks. But the other stuff is not… (At least today, eh?)

As part of his "Get As Far Away From California When My Ballot Props Flame Out Tour, " Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today will meet with California’s entire Congressional Delegation – Republicans and Democrats. I found this out when talking to Congressman and FR blogger John Campbell last night.

Undoubtedly he will be talking about a waiver to allow California to get stimulus dollars despite the SEIU’s so-far successful lobbying to get the Obama Administration to condition those funds on undoing cuts to pay for unionized home-care workers that took place last February. That’s a good idea.

He’ll undoubtedly have some bad ideas on his agenda too — like asking Uncle Sam to guarantee California’s bonds (dumb) and asking for more federal bailouts for California government (dumber) — and maybe he will… Read More

Now is the time for Republicans to claim a victory inthe defeat of the Proposition 1A tax increase, and learn a lesson to begin the resurgence of our popular appeal in California. StateSenate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, and AssemblyRepublican Leader Sam Blakeslee, now have a choice of a lifetime in politics: they can actually lead, and exercise their offices to set the future of our party on a path to broader victories statewide. Or they can blow it all, let the Democrats dominate the agenda once more, andallow for more of the sameunforced errors leading to "circular firing squad"opportunities against Republicans byopportunistic radio personalities.

On Tuesday, Californians resoundingly rejected the Democrats solution to our state budget crisis: tax increases. California taxpayers demonstrated they are sick of taxes and spending. While the politicians in Washington and Sacramento consider the next bailout measures, the citizens of California took control on Tuesday and gave themselves the only bailout theycould – a tax cut. They did it themselves, with the opposition of their Republican governor,… Read More

This column was submitted by FR reader Eric Wickland. Wickland is a recently retired urban planner and building official. He is a former director of the California Association of Professional Employees, CAPE, AFL-CIO. Wickland serves on the Executive Committee of the California Republican Party, and is a member of the Lincoln Clubs of Los Angeles County.

The Case For Taxation With Representation by Eric Wickland Tomorrow morning, after California voters’ rejection of budget balancing propositions 1A-1F, Governor… Read More

This just came in from longtime FR friend Bruce Bialosky… Give Them More Money? by Bruce Bialosky It is difficult to determine whether to give more money to our friends in Sacramento. This dilemma was no more apparent than during my just-completed road trip. I flew to Kansas to drive my son back from college for the summer.

We drove Interstate 40 through five states. We started with Oklahoma – the state… Read More

[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

As readers know, OC’s lone Democratic state Senator, Lou Correa, provided the vote necessary to pass the largest state tax increase in American history — a vote cast in violation of a promise he made repeatedly in his 2006 campaign to oppose any tax increase.

Now that the damage is done, Sen. Correa is promising that henceforth, he will not vote for any more tax increases…again…for real this time.

You can read the rest of the post here.… Read More

I remember a meeting the Governor had with Assembly Republicans right after the 2005 special election debacle. Remember that one? The Governor raised millions of dollars for some mediocre initiatives (and one good one, elimination of agency fee), spent that money on mediocre ads prepared by mediocre consultants, who gave him bad advice (specifically they told him not to put anything on illegal immigration on the ballot because it would be too controversial, even though illegal immigration was the one issue that would draw out the voters the Governor wanted to the polls), and he lost, everything.

After that election, he said he had learned his lesson, and he completely capitulated to the Democrats. He hired Susan Kennedy, one of the chief aides to the failed Governor Gray Davis (and one of the chief architects of his failures), began rolling over for Democrats, and began capitulating to the Democrats on every major issue. He was no longer the terminator, he wasn’t even a Compromisinator, he was the Capitulator. His capitulation to Legislative Democrats created the current fiscal crisis in the state, just as the capitulation of Gray Davis to the Legislative… Read More

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reform initiatives went down to defeat in the Fall 2005 special election, he reacted by embarking on a statewide "apology tour" in which he told voters he was sorry for trying to reform government along conservative lines, and promised never to do it again — a promise, it must be said, he has kept. in spades.

My question: when his latest "reform" initiatives go down to defeat tomorrow, will the Governor embark on a second "Apology Tour" and tell voters he is sorry for three-and-a-half years of boosting government spending, fattening the state payroll and imposing job-killing regulations on the state economy? And then promise never to do it again?

Don’t hold your breath. That would be hard and entail angering special interests, and Arnold don’t play that anymore.… Read More