Over the next few days, as we give thanks for our many blessings, we should see fit to add something to our lists. Not the most important item, but a blessing nonetheless.

We should all be grateful that the City of San Diego recognizes its significance and rightful place of import in the region, in the State, and – yes – even in the nation and world.

Not the importance of whether libraries, parks and fire stations stay open, or even the tough decisions associated with a $2.8 billion pension deficit. It’s more than that. You see, all of those weighty issues combined are so significant to humankind – and the City of San Diego knows it – that the ceremony to administer the oath-of-office to the recently-elected individuals faced with the decisions has been given its correct due title: Inauguration.

The Inaugural Ceremonies for the mayor, four new city councilmembers and new city attorney will commence on the hallowed grounds of Golden Hall, in the City of San Diego Concourse, 202 “C” Street, at ten o’clock in… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: Today I am pleased to announce that I am seeking re-election as Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. Below my announcement letter is a partial list of my endorsements to date.]

Dear Fellow Republican:

It’s been three weeks since the Republican Party’s worst election night in four decades. Senator Barack Obama’s landslide victory along with significant Republican losses in the House and Senate requires our party to critically examine why we lost, who lead us astray and how we can win in 2010.

However, when you juxtapose the dreary national picture with California’s election results, our outlook isn’t nearly as… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: Today I am pleased to announce that I am seeking re-election as Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. Below my announcement letter is a partial list of my endorsements to date.]

Dear Fellow Republican: It’s been three weeks since the Republican Party’s worst election night in four decades. Senator Barack Obama’s landslide victory along with significant Republican losses in the House and Senate requires our party to critically examine why we lost, who lead us astray and how we can win in 2010. … Read More

The SacBee's Capitol Alert is reporting that termed-out Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is joining Mercury Public Affairs' Sacramento Office. He will join Team Arnold politico Adam Mendelsohn, and Steve Schmidt, the former campaign chief for both the Governor and for Senator McCain's Presidential bid.

Look for the Schmidt and Mendelsohn families to press for Nunez to be tapped as Managing Partner for the office soon — figuring that it will mean fine wine, luxury handbags, and a trip to France for the whole firm!… Read More

Democrat Attorney Alyson Huber is smiling tonight. In her race against San Joaquin County Supervisor Jack Seiglock, the Republican nominee in Assembly District 10 where GOPer Alan Nakanishi, late counting of ballots has propelled her into a pretty commanding 507 vote lead — with no votes left to count in Seiglock's home county. In fact, most of the (few) remaining ballots to be counted are in Sacramento County, which is where Huber closed and crossed the gap.

Pending some divine intervention, it looks like the massive union-pile-on of cash for liberal Huber will have paid off. And Assembly Republicans will number 29…

This is not good news for the GOP as this is a Dem pickup in what originally was not even a targeted seat. You can be sure of two things — the first being that quite a post mortem will take place to analyze this loss, and the second is that this seat will be the top target for the GOP in 2010… Read More

Our efforts to do something about the state’s fiscal crisisis underway. We had a package of 6 bills presented this morning, with pretty wide open language and ‘poison pills’ that all link back to tax and fee increases. Upon taking the floor for session, the Dems have decided to pare today’s work to just 2 of the 6 proposed bills, known as AB 6 and AB 7 of the 4th Extraordinary session. First up is ABX47, which does have some cuts , [including to law enforcement], and funding shifts in itand with strings attached. Next up will be AB4X 6, the Vehicle license fee tripling to 2% of car value, up from .65%, which would roughly raise the fee per car $300, or $600 for a ‘typical’ 2 car family per year.

AB 7 has just received only 40 yes votes and 30 no votes.

AB 6 also could not muster the votes needed, failing with 41 aye votes and 31 no votes.… Read More

Everyone get out their pencils and take some notes. Here's what's going on at the State Capitol this afternoon. The liberal Democrats are putting up their own budget revisions in the form of a package made up of a half-dozen or so bills.

Make no mistake about it, the package up for votes today represents no negotiation, no concessions, and no meeting of the minds. Once again the Democrats are trying to push more taxes on Californians – around $8 billion worth (just what our fragile economy needs — not!). The Democrats also put up some cuts — but it is almost impossible for this lay person to sort out potential real cuts from what appears to be a lot of accounting gimmickry (this from the people who call increasing spending less than they desire a “cut”).

Absent of course is the one item that Republicans have made clear is their Omaha Beach — a real spending cap measure to place before voters.

Look for the whole package to go down today without one Republican vote (even the cuts offered up are tied legislatively to the tax increases). As for the Democrats — let's see what some of them… Read More

One of the great challenges of terms limits is the need to educate new legislators as they arrive at the capitol. There is a "training session" they all go through, and usually a "retreat" by each of the caucuses that all attend, but, in each case, the agendas in each of those programs tend to reflect the bias of the staff or the leadership. Not that the information is bad, but I found that sometimes it is not helpful, especially when it comes to the budget. Government budgeting is not like private budgeting, whether it is individual or business budgeting. Government budgeting has, as its central guiding theme, the desire to deceive the decision-maker, to prevent oversight of government programs, and to grant to unelected bureaucrats as much freedom to spend taxpayer dollars without interference from lawmakers as possible.

One piece of advice to new lawmakers, start with Schedule 6 in the Governor’s Budget Summary . A quick look at that document show that not one single dime has been cut from overall state expenditures in the last six years. In fact, the last Governor to actually cut spending was Governor Gray Davis, in the last… Read More