Free Republic

On the Propositions: Prop. 13. Seismic Retrofits. YES: Earthquake proofing your house shouldn’t trigger a tax increase until you’re ready to sell. Any questions? Prop. 14. Distorted Primary. NO: This was the result of the corrupt deal for the tax increase engineered by Abel Maldonado that included this measure to by-pass party primaries in a manner Maldonado believed would enhance his future election prospects. Instead of voters of each party putting their best candidate forward, this jerry-rigged system is designed to disguise the difference between the parties and force those pesky third parties off the general election ballot entirely. Prop....

The state Senate this afternoon voted 25-7 to confirm Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger’s nomination of state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, as lieutenant governor; the governor will swear him into office tomorrow. As I’d said Friday on KQED Channel 9’s “This Week in Northern California,” don’t mistake this for an instance of politics being put aside. Democrats supported Maldonado only because they want him out of the Senate so they can try to win his 15th State Senate District seat, and only now because confirming him earlier wouldn’t have allowed the SD-15 special election to be consolidated with November’s general election,...

It's traditionally a job of limited power for a politician, more of a handy springboard to something grander in California politics. But this year's contest for lieutenant governor has taken on new meaning, at least among Republicans. It's become a proxy war inside the party over the kind of image the GOP should nurture to win in a state that's gone more Democratic and is more ethnically diverse than the GOP. As the June primary to nominate candidates heats up, two top GOP rival candidates personify this internal friction. Sen. Abel Maldonado of the coastal community of Santa Maria, 42,...

Say what you will about the multi-threads of strategy encompassing State Senator Abel Maldonado’s pending nomination to be the next Lt. Governor of California, it becomes a harbinger for conservative Republican State Senator Sam Aanestad. Now that moderate Republican Abel Maldonado, (upon confirmation), has entered the race through the front door – as a selected incumbent – Abel is more than able to serve himself against the two conservative vote splitters in the primary. This end-game speed bump is buried by the immediate frenzy of schemes considered with the “Conan and Abel” confirmation process, whether the Democrats affirm to confirm...

Irked by state Sen. Sam Aanestad's continuing criticism of his wilderness bill, Rep. Mike Thompson Wednesday said the Grass Valley state legislator was ignorant. "He doesn't understand the North Coast or its economy," said Thompson, D-Napa Valley, in a telephone interview. Aanestad doesn't understand his bill, either, he added. Thompson, who represented Butte County in the state Senate before he was elected to Congress, has been promoting legislation to designate as wilderness more than 300,000 acres of land along California's northern coast. After Thompson introduced his latest version of this bill, House Resolution 233, in January, Aanestad attacked it as...