Free Republic

Is it 2010 already? No, but in order to defeat an incumbent, challengers have to start early.  California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore wants to get an early jump on the Senate race in which Barbara Boxer will seek election, and his first web ad ties her to Harry Reid and a boondoggle in the news of late: The visitors center gives a good demonstration of what’s wrong with Washington.  They spent over $600 million on a self-laudatory monument, which came in late at more than twice its proposed cost.  What was its main benefit?  According to Harry Reid, he doesn’t have...

click here for more information I’ve opposed all the mega-billion dollar bailouts – they reward failure and bad decisions and leave us and our children to pay the trillion dollars in new debt. And, if you think this out of control spending is bad now with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barbara Boxer in Congress and President Bush in the White House, just wait until Obama is President and even more liberal Democrats run Congress. Now we hear about the new Congressional visitor center, the one Harry Reid said would allow his colleagues to no longer have to "smell...

The Golden State had a recall almost five years ago. California had a huge budget deficit at the time and soon-to-be-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was promising to “cut up the credit card.” By the March 2004 primary, Schwarzenegger, by then governor, was promoting the passage of ballot Propositions 57 and 58. Prop. 57 was a $15 billion deficit bond designed to refinance the short-term debt California incurred under Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (with a few billion left over for future needs, the last $3 billion of which was borrowed a few months ago). Prop. 58 was a supposed spending cap of...

in·cred·i·ble –adjective 1. so extraordinary as to seem impossible: incredible speed. 2. not credible; hard to believe; unbelievable: The plot of the book is incredible. —Synonyms: farfetched, astonishing, preposterous. "It's an incredible plan," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles). The Speaker’s quote about the just-struck agreement on government healthcare with Governor Schwarzenegger unintentionally speaks volumes. Incredible, farfetched, preposterous, hard to believe – call it what you will, the plan will cost far more than advertised and will drive business out of state, reducing state tax revenue and throwing people out of work. Beginning with a low-balled $14 billion price...

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a unanimous Sunday morning vote, hundreds of members of the California Republican Party agreed to work to end the state’s 31-year ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants. The official vote was taken at the California Republican Party’s semiannual convention which featured appearances by presidential candidate U.S. Senator John McCain, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the governors of Texas, Florida, Utah, and Minnesota. The pro-nuclear power resolution, authored by California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), was unanimously approved the day before by the state Party’s Initiatives Committee. The resolution places the full weight of...

California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore wants to remove a law passed in 1954 that noted, Communists cannot have a political party in the state of California and, you cannot hold elected office in one country and hold office in a California elected office. The Communist party is the most evil party on the planet. An evil idology that has killed millions. Like Lincoln and slavery, we must not allow it to continue, let alone let it hold office in the state. Hopefully you will see his legislation or contact his office and tell him to stop his legislation Assembly Bill 137.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled his long-awaited universal healthcare plan. A centerpiece of that plan is a new 4% payroll tax on any business with 10 or more employees, as well as a 4% tax on hospitals and a 2% tax on doctors. This represents a clear and direct violation of the governor’s campaign pledge not to raise taxes. Schwarzenegger’s staff is trying mightily to spin it otherwise, calling his tax hike ideas “fees” not taxes. This should be opposed for two reasons: the governor’s own claims during his campaign against Phil Angelides, and the California constitution’s protection against...

Mr. DeVore (R.-Irvine) represents 450,000 people in coastal Orange County's 70th Assembly District. He also serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard. California is known for titanic and sometimes meaningful political battles, and this year is proving no exception. Among the seven statewide candidates and 13 ballot measures are three particularly high-profile campaigns, accounting for more than $200 million in campaign spending. These include the Schwarzenegger-Angelides race for governor as well as two ballot measures, Proposition 86, a $2.60-per-pack tobacco tax increase, and Proposition 87, a $4-billion tax on oil to fund research on ethanol and other...

Panel suggests penalties on employers State should crack down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants, GOP's reform team says. By Alicia Robinson California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore leads an illegal immigration task force hearing at the Tustin community center Wednesday. TUSTIN — If a group of Republican state legislators gets its way, California will start cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. Penalizing employers who use illegal workers was the dominant suggestion at a Wednesday hearing by a state GOP task force that aims to bring forward immigration-reform bills in 2007. Newport Beach Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who is helping lead...

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore Hosts Illegal Immigration Taskforce WHAT:Assemblyman DeVore (R-Irvine) will lead an informational hearing open to the public on illegal immigration as a part of the Republican Taskforce on Illegal Immigration (Taskforce). Several illegal immigration experts,representing various facets of the illegal immigration debate, will present testimony before a panel of legislators. Following the testimony, suggestions from the public will be read aloud and may be considered as possible legislation for next year. WHEN: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. WHERE: Community Center Tustin City Hall 300 Centennial Way, Tustin WHO: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Moderator Members of the...

Phil Angelides’ campaign for governor is in deep trouble. In spite of having the support of organized labor, his rallies attract small, unenthusiastic crowds. Is it any wonder then that he is now desperately seeking to energize the anti-war left with an irresponsible and dangerous promise to bring the California National Guard home from Iraq? Last Saturday Angelides claimed that he would, “…do everything in my power as governor of the state of California to bring our National Guard troops home.” He hinted that he might even sue the federal government. The proposal to “bring the Guard home” isn’t new....

From the blog of Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's Blog An Array of “Interesting” People... Yesterday I had the honor of Vice Chairing the Assembly Committee on Veterans Affairs when it took up Assembly Joint Resolution 36 (AJR 36) by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock. Ms. Hancock holds the distinction of being the first female major of Berkeley. She also worked in the Carter and Clinton Administrations. AJR 36 was sponsored by Code Pink, a radical surrender group. More on them later. The non-binding resolution has no force of law and therefore only sends a message. The message? California wants the return of its...

Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, is a member of the California Assembly. Should your tax money encourage illegal immigrants to come to California by subsidizing health insurance costs for anyone who makes less than a certain amount of money, regardless of immigration status? This is the basic policy question at stake in California's budget negotiations. Healthy Families provides a subsidy to parents for children's HMO health coverage. The program now covers parents who make up to $44,000 a year for a family of four - 250 percent of federal poverty level - allowing them to purchase insurance for about $7 a month...

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore is demanding that legislative Democrats remove a $500 million budget allocation for illegal immigrant healthcare from the proposed state budget. This Saturday during the Legislative Budget Conference Committee meeting, Democrats expanded the Healthy Families program to cover illegal immigrants and families of four with annual incomes of about $53,000. "At a time when California has billions of dollars in debt, the last thing our state should be doing is increasing healthcare entitlements for illegal immigrants," explained Assemblyman DeVore. "Whatever government subsidizes, it gets more of -- we should not increase the incentives to illegally come to California."

SACRAMENTO – Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore said he is refusing to attend Mexican President Vicente Fox's speech before the California Legislature today in protest against Fox's criticism of U.S. immigration overhaul. "I don't appreciate a foreign national telling us what to do with our laws," DeVore, R-Irvine, said Wednesday. Fox has spoken out publicly against proposals to build walls or fences at the border and opposes President Bush's plan to send National Guard troops to help with border patrol. DeVore also wrote a letter to Fox decrying how Mexico treats illegal immigrants, writing, "Mexican law calls for undocumented immigrants...

The radical environmental establishment and their allies in government and in the mainstream media know how to fight with all the means at their disposal. As a California state lawmaker, I can vouch for this fact firsthand. My own experience in fighting the leftwing environmental lobby has resulted in a “long train of abuses,” to use a phrase from the Declaration of Independence. It began when I visited with California Department of Parks and Recreation employees at Crystal Cove State Park in my district just days after being sworn into office in December 2004. I asked questions of Parks staff...

Why is it that liberals, progressives, leftists, humanists and the like seeking a brave new world for the rest of us often resort to lying or cheating to turn their vision into reality? Upton Sinclair was the socialist author of The Jungle in 1906. He meant his book as an attack on what he and other socialists termed “wage-slavery” but the book’s main claim to fame was as an exposé of unsanitary practices in the meat processing industry. It was Sinclair’s sort of writing that President Theodore Roosevelt termed as “muckraking.” Sinclair also wrote The Profits of Religion, a non-fiction...

Benjamin Franklin famously observed that, “Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes.” Were he in California today, with all the empty hype from embryonic stem cell researchers and quack cloners eroding the public’s belief in the inevitability of death, he might have opined instead, “Nothing in life is certain except debt and taxes.” With $5.2 billion in unanticipated revenue swelling state coffers, and “gridlock” in danger of becoming California’s new state motto, Governor Schwarzenegger is proposing increased spending on health, education, and $68 billion in bonds over 10 years to build roads, levees, schools, prisons, and courthouses. To...

Tonight [Thursday] during Governor Schwarzenegger’s state-of-the-state address, it is widely expected the governor will call for up to $27 billion of bonds to be issued over five years as part of a 10-year, $100 billion public works program. The bonds would pay to build roads, schools, jails, courthouses, levees and retrofit hospitals. If approved by two-thirds of the legislature, they would go on the June ballot for approval by the voters. If issued, the bonds would add about $2 billion per year in principle and interest payments to California’s budget burden, adding pressure to increase taxes. It’s this last issue...

What has $4.5 billion and provides millions of dollars per year to the left in California and won’t stop until California has universal, government-run, and fully unionized healthcare? The answer, three foundations created by Blue Cross’ conversion from non-profit to for-profit status from the late-80s to the mid-90s: The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation. These three entities, hijacked by the liberal activists on their boards, fund political activity, liberal consumer rights groups such as the Consumers Union (the publisher of Consumer Reports), and the ACLU, the CTA teachers union, Planned Parenthood, the National Center...