Free Republic

My home state of California usually interacts with the federal government by genuflecting. But, on a few issues - very few, that is - they’ve got plenty of backbone. Most notably, marijuana. Last week, the California State Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 14 (SJR14), calling on the federal government to end their “interference in state medical marijuana laws.” If passed by the Assembly, it will be sent on to Congress and the White House as an official position of the California legislature. THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE CLAUSE Under the Constitution of the United States, the federal government is authorized to exercise...

Yes on Proposition 8 campaign today accused legislators of “grandstanding for the cameras” in an inappropriate and misguided publicity stunt designed to influence the California Supreme Court in the lead-up to the Court’s scheduled hearing on the validity of Proposition 8. “You’d think that these legislators would be focused on resolving the budget deficit or improving the economy. Instead, they seem more interested in grandstanding for the cameras and thumbing their noses at voters who enacted Proposition 8 by a nearly 600,000 vote margin,” said Ron Prentice, Chairman of ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8. “Sadly, with an approval rating hovering...

The stakes may be high for the six candidates vying for the District 15 Assembly seat of termed-out incumbent Guy Houston, R-San Ramon, but there may be more on the line for the four Republican candidates. With three-termer Houston being the only Bay Area Republican serving in Sacramento, the region's Capitol contingent could become GOP-free if the Democrats win District 15 in November. Four Republicans and two Democrats have been campaigning hard for the June 3 primary, each hoping to earn their party's nomination for the November general election. Both parties recognize the need for a candidate who can appeal...

A hoary game is once again being played in the Capitol, one that illustrates why and how the building's residents expend so much time and energy to accomplish so little. Every year hundreds of bills are introduced, mostly by the Legislature's dominant Democrats. Many fall by the wayside in policy committees, and by late spring, they've been winnowed down to the real contenders. Collectively, the survivors represent the core agenda of liberal lawmakers and the major groups that stand behind them – primarily labor unions, environmental groups, personal injury attorneys and consumer activists. Elsewhere in Sacramento, lobbyists for business and...

Facing hundreds of bills in the waning days of this year's legislative session, lawmakers sent to the governor Monday measures targeting issues from firearm microstamping to child booster seats. Other proposals that cleared their final legislative hurdle are designed to tighten security of electronic databases, restrict the state's investments in Iran and create an energy-efficiency standard for common light bulbs. The microstamping measure, Assembly Bill 1471, would make California the first state to require makers of new models of semiautomatic pistols, after January 2010, to etch the gun make, model and serial number on each cartridge fired. Assemblyman Mike Feuer,...

Their budget stalemate finally behind them, at least until next year, state legislators turned Monday to the rest of their agenda with precious little time before the clock runs out on this year's session -- so little time that it may be extended. There were nearly 1,000 bills still awaiting final action Monday with just 14 working days remaining before the Sept. 14 adjournment -- or fewer if legislative leaders adjourn, as they hope to, before the Jewish High Holy Days begin. And with three of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's very contentious issues -- health care, water development and redistricting reform...

Here's the root of the problem. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed his revised budget last month, he said he was "making the difficult decisions to slow spending growth ... ." Excuse me? The difficult decisions to slow spending growth? What's so difficult? It must be an irrepressible love of spending other peoples' money that makes it difficult, as the governor confesses it is for him, to merely slow down the annual increase in government spending. Notice that we never hear the governor complain about how difficult it is to spend more. Every year he's been office, Gov. Schwarzenegger has signed...

California businesses have been hit hard by this past legislative session. First, they have been forced to swallow a minimum wage increase and caps on industrial emissions of greenhouse gases as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seeks to bolster his centrist stance in an election year. Now, there are dozens of other bills on the governor’s desk that could impose additional costs on doing business in California. Meanwhile, only a handful of bills supported by business made it through. But it could have been worse. Dozens of other bills dubbed “job killers” were defeated in the closing weeks of the session. Among...

During the legislative session that ended Thursday, lawmakers sent hundreds of bills to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his signature or veto in the next 30 days. They include: Driver's licenses: Bill would allow California to issue driver's licenses for driving only, not for use as identification, to people who cannot prove they are in the country legally. (SB 1162 by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles) National popular vote: California would join a compact of states that agree to award their Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide, not the candidate who wins the most...

Under the amended bill, California residents essentially would pay their health insurance premiums, copays and deductibles into a state-funded health insurance program. Money the state spends on health care also would go into the new system. Her bill is opposed by the insurance industry and legislative Republicans, who have said it amounts socialized medicine. Schwarzenegger has said he opposes so-called single-payer health care systems.

IN 1966, California voters created a full-time Legislature after Speaker Jesse Unruh promised a dazzlingly “professional” Legislature instead of part-timers earning $6,000 yearly. By 2007, legislators will earn $145,097 in wages and per diem, costing roughly $200 million annually, yet taxpayers get a dubious “product” in return: mountains of pointless laws. We are drowning in 47,000 new laws enacted since 1966, covering everything from the size of typeface on official notices on employee bulletin boards to the arcane timing dictating when you must use your windshield wipers. You couldn't know this, but it's illegal to throw away your cell phone....

Members of the Democratic-controlled Legislature set the stage Saturday night for the first on-time passage of California's budget in 20 years, but Republicans warned that problems with the spending plan may doom the vote. The Legislature's powerful budget conference committee voted 4-2, along party lines, to close out discussion on a compromise version of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed $131.1 billion spending plan. The move sends to the full Assembly and Senate a budget, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, that lacks some of the core components Schwarzenegger trumpeted when releasing the plan last month. For example, instead of spending...

Boycott of Fox a protest By: RAY HAYNES - Commentary The president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, spoke to the California Legislature on Thursday; this while the U.S. Senate was voting on an immigration bill. I chose not to go to the Fox speech. Since many people may misconstrue what occurred, I believe a statement explaining my actions is needed. I have been in the Legislature for some time, and I have seen many heads of state pass through. The American republic and its operations are fascinating to these foreign politicians, and addressing the California Legislature is often a high point...

Assemblyman Tom Harman held on to a razor-thin lead to defeat Dana Point Councilwoman Diana Harkey in the bitterly fought contest to fill the vacant 35th state Senate District seat.

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger came up looking pretty good this week. That may not have been readily apparent from the results of a new poll that showed Californians give him a meager 37 percent approval rating. But the good news for the governor is that in a democratic system, the public grades on a curve, and his opponents are doing much worse. Things look even rosier for the governor's re-election prospects when only likely voters are considered. Forty-seven percent in that category think Schwarzenegger is doing a good job. The poll by the Public Policy Institute of California shows the deadlock...

The Nov. 8 special election, which ended with voters defeating all eight ballot initiatives, commanded most of the legislature's and governor's attention. That prompted Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, to characterize 2005 as "a year of wasted opportunities." As a result, no single issue dominated the session. Two bills that led to lengthy debates — one to legalize same-sex marriage and another to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants — were vetoed by Schwarzenegger. Minors who want a body piercing must have permission from a parent or guardian. The law makes it an infraction, with a potential fine...

Only a handful of California legislators have turned down the nearly $12,000-a-year pay hike scheduled for December. Nine of every 10 lawmakers remain on track to receive the increase, according to records of the state controller's office. Of Sacramento-area representatives, only Republican Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi of Lodi has formally rejected the raise. Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said Friday that he plans to notify the state soon not to sweeten his paycheck. Statewide, the 12 percent boost is likely to be unpopular with voters but probably won't spark a backlash at the polls, analysts said. "Most legislators are in safe...

SACRAMENTO -- The state Assembly approved a bill Monday that allows cities and counties to regulate certain breeds of dogs, a reaction to a wave of pit bull attacks in the San Francisco Bay area. Current state law prohibits municipalities from passing any ordinance that targets a specific breed of dog. SB862, by Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, allows local governments to require spaying and neutering of specific breeds and to shut down so-called "backyard breeders" that are linked to the breeding of attack dogs. It passed on a 46-18 vote.

The Terminator is enlisting new terminators and urging them to get rid of the "girlie men" in the California state Legislature who are blocking his budget from passage. According to the Associated Press (AP), Gov. Schwarzenegger said that lawmakers should act in a bipartisan manner and put the people's interests first. He charged that Democrats were holding up the budget by refusing to back down on issues favorable to trial lawyers and unions. "If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those...

<p>Among its other shortcomings of omission and commission, the California Legislature is a very inconsistent purveyor of public policy, constantly enacting legislation that reverses other laws, sometimes even within the same legislative session.</p> <p>While the syndrome is not a new one, the rapid turnover of legislators mandated by term limits may exacerbate it as it damages institutional memory. New people have new slants on matters of public policy and are not shy about engraving them into law, regardless of how they may conflict with past policies.</p>