Politics and Elections

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Good ol' Tom

And now for another installment in our irregular look at Republicans who feed at the public employee union trough. According to this press release, the California State Sheriff’s Association has just named Senator Tom Harman (R, Huntington Beach) — and

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Names! All I wanted were names!

Just thought I’d blog for a bit about the journalistic process, as it pertains to my Jan. 15 column “Using soldiers as props,” which was hooked to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address. “[I]f you look to the

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Using soldiers as props

Jan. 15, 2010 By now most people are probably tired of hearing about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jan. 6 State of the State Address. And who could blame them? You can only subject someone to arcane budget discussions and phrases like

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Bill Language To Change

After reading my story about AB 978, the bill proposing to streamline the business permitting process only for California businesses contracting with the state, the office of Assemblyman V. Manual Perez, the author of the bill, called me. Amy Wilson

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Capitol Security Conundrum

Having been recently mugged downtown, I carry pepper spray. Last week, I forgot I had it in my pocket, and went through the security screening at the entrance to the State Capitol. The metal detector beeped, I blushed and handed

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Vote by mail soars in 72nd race

Fred Smoller of Brandman University (and an advisor to CalWatchdog) made this observation regarding the 72nd Assembly District race: “With 197 of 197 precincts reporting, turnout for the 72nd special election was a dismal 14.8 percent. 81 percent of the

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Will Norby be the new McClintock?

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, a Republican from Fullerton, easily won the 72nd Assembly District seat vacated by a disgraced Mike Duvall. This was no surprise given that California’s heavily gerrymandered legislative districts assure that Republicans will win Republican seats

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Voter ID bill disenfranchised

Jan. 12, 2010 By KATY GRIMES A bill designed to combat voter fraud was disenfranchised in the state Senate’s elections committee after a close vote and plenty of testimony in opposition. The committee heard testimony of the bill proposed by

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Arnold's budget: More cuts needed

I’m working on a longer piece on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2010-11 budget proposal [pdf]. My preliminary thoughts: It’s a start on reducing a projected $19.9 billion deficit. It cuts spending an additional $8.5 billion, shifts $4.5 billion in spending, and

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Coming Initiative Tsunami

Jan. 8, 2010 By KATY GRIMES Fifty-one initiatives have been cleared for the ballot, two are pending and nine have failed to qualify as of December 30, 2009. Two of the proposed initiatives that failed to quality are the “Mandatory

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