Free Republic

Rep. Dan Lungren has decided against challenging fellow Republican Congressman Tom McClintock and instead will run in what is a swing district that extends from Elk Grove to Folsom, his campaign manager said today. "Unless something changes, he will run in the 7th Congressional District and is confident in doing so," Lungren adviser Rob Stutzman told The Bee. Lungren had toyed with running against McClintock, the more conservative of the two, in the 2012 GOP primary for the 4th Congressional District.

When the Virginia Legislature invited Churchill to address them, he said, “Do you not think you are running some risk (by) inviting me to give you my faithful counsel on this occasion? … I might easily, for instance, blurt out a lot of things, which people know in their hearts are true, but are a bit shy of saying in public, and this might cause a regular commotion and get you all into trouble.” I apologize in advance for serving up some cold and bitter truths with tonight’s dinner, but the events in Sacramento of the last few days simply...

The campaign of Republican congresisonal candidate Tom McClintock said the vote tally released late Friday from Placer County "mathematically ensures McClintock victory" in the 4th District. "Placer County today completed the process of counting absentee and provisional votes, and Tom McClintock gained 1,464 votes," the campaign announced. "The final Placer County tally gives McClintock a lead of 1,793 votes over (Democrat) Charlie Brown. With the vote tally completed in Placer and Nevada Counties, there is no mathematical way Charlie Brown can overtake McClintock’s lead in the Fourth Congressional District election. “The votes are almost all in and the result is...

This poll is from the website of the station that launched Rush Limbaugh to national prominence - KFBK 1530 AM in Sacramento, CA. There is a congressional election primary fight underway between Conservative Hero Tom McClintock and RINO Sellout Doug Ose. Would those of you who wish to see conservative good-guy Tom McClintock in Congress cast a ballot for him? Look to the left side of the page - scroll down just a bit. VOTE FOR TOM McCLINTOCK FOR CONGRESS!CLICK HERE to VOTE

Former Gov. Pete Wilson has lashed out at GOP state Sen. Tom McClintock, saying McClintock couldn't be counted on in the Legislature and should not go to Congress. Wilson, a fellow Republican, made the remarks during a campaign event for the 4th Congressional District GOP primary organized by McClintock rival Doug Ose. The two are battling to replace incumbent GOP Rep. John Doolittle, who is retiring. McClintock was in the state Assembly while Wilson was governor. Wilson said McClintock was the first to criticize but the last to help his own team. McClintock's campaign did not immediately respond to a...

Advanced word on the Governor’s State of the State message (ironically abbreviated “S-O-S”) is that he intends to blame the state’s massive budget deficit on formulas that lock in spending. A gubernatorial minion opined today that “about 90 percent of the state's budget is tied to spending formulas, contracts and/or statutes, requiring spending to increase by specific amounts each year.” What hogwash. Since I first arrived in Sacramento in 1982, governors have used this sophistry to excuse their mismanagement of the budget, and there’s just one problem with it. Virtually all of the “formulas, contracts and/or statutes” can be suspended...

The core of the governor’s socialized medicine proposal is a mandate that every Californian MUST carry health insurance and that every insurance company MUST cover anyone who applies, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions. It’s called “guaranteed issue,” and it sounds too good to be true. That’s because it is. But if you are guaranteed health insurance AFTER you get sick, why would you pay for it when you are healthy? The governor’s advocates say that’s not a problem, since everybody will be required to carry health insurance, thus spreading the risk. Wait a minute. We already have a law that...

According to news reports yesterday, behind closed doors the Department of Finance is privately admitting to a $14 billion shortfall between this and the budget year. Assuming that this shortfall occurs AFTER blowing through the $4 billion reserve, that makes the actual operating deficit $18 billion. (If that’s a surprise, read my blog of November 15th). The good news is that the state’s cash position slightly improved in November. According to the Controller’s monthly report, actual revenue growth has increased 2.3 percent for the first five months of the fiscal year compared to one year ago. (Last month year-to-date growth...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told social service advocates Tuesday that the state's anticipated budget shortfall -- already feared to be the worst since he took office -- has widened to $14 billion, according to people at the meetings. That new figure indicates that the state's fiscal fortunes are declining even more rapidly than many leaders had expected. Less than a month ago, the Legislature's chief budget analyst calculated that California is on track to come up $10 billion short by June 2009, when the state ends its next fiscal year. A $14-billion budget gap would translate to more than 12% of...

I was proud to host Senator Fred Thompson to the 70th Assembly District today to an enthusiastic crowd of 700 people in Laguna Woods. According to my wife, Diane, Senator Thompson, “Covered all the bases. He hit all the conservative themes and he covered them articulately and with passion.” I was very glad to hear that as Diane is very tough to impress (she had a weak moment when she met me, for which I am eternally grateful). Greeting Senator Thompson at the rally were his state chairman, Sen. Tom McClintock, radio personality John Ziegler emceed the event while former...

The newspapers are reporting that the fiscal gap is $10 billion. It is actually far more serious than that. The actual figure – according to the LAO – is that the state will spend $14 billion more than it takes in between now and the end of the next fiscal year. The difference is that we will first blow through the $4 billion reserve that the state began the year with. (That reserve, by the way, is already gone.) But the LAO is still predicting that the state’s general fund revenues will grow about 3.5 percent this year. I doubt...

A LETTER FROM SENATOR TOM MCCLINTOCK TO CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY DELEGATES Dear California Republican, Since the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial Kelo v. New London case more than two years ago, over 40 states have passed some form of eminent domain reform. Since California has not passed meaningful reforms, it comes as no surprise that the Institute for Justice, the non-profit organization that litigated the Kelo case, reports that the seizing of private property from unwilling sellers is on the rise in California. According to the Center for Responsible Government, the League of California Cities and other redevelopment interests have spent...

Where I live, instead of bringing mail to my house, the United States Postal Service has set up one of those pedestals with a box lock box with twelve slots where my incoming mail is deposited. So I have to walk about 100 feet from my front door to retrieve my mail. I am sure this is done so that the mail carrier can zip up in their truck and efficiently deal with mail delivery, and zoom off again. Of course, any efficiency in the process for me is offset by the fact that I typically only bother to check...

SACRAMENTO -- California's 51-day budget impasse ended today as Republicans in the state Senate extracted enough concessions from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers to allow the $145-billion spending plan to pass. The agreement is almost identical to the plan passed by the state Assembly on July 20. To overcome the GOP objections in the Senate, Schwarzenegger had agreed weeks ago to use his veto pen to eliminate the $700-million deficit with which the state is expected to end the fiscal year June 30, 2008.

That gets the support of the Legislature's most fiscally conservative member, veteran Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks). Let the majority party rule and be accountable for the consequences, McClintock says. Give 'em the rope to hang themselves. And with a two-thirds vote still required for tax hikes, he notes, "spending can't run away."

When Mike Genest's appointment as state finance director came before the Senate last year, I voted against his confirmation. Although I had supported both of his predecessors, Genest had already demonstrated a willingness to cook the state's books in a manner that we hadn't seen since the Davis years. In the time since his confirmation, he has produced the biggest single-year general fund deficit in California's history and employed accounting gimmickry that would make an Enron accountant blush. These qualities are on full display in his recent attack (Aug. 10, Page B-7) on Sen. Jeff Denham's courageous stand for a...

It will take at least $2.9 billion of reductions to truly balance the budget and provide a prudent reserve. If that sounds like a lot, it would still leave the state spending $8.5 billion more than the year before last, and nearly $22 billion more than at the outset of this administration. Most Senate Republicans are asking for much less than that: just the $700 million of spending reductions that would balance the budget, if only on paper. So far, the governor's pledge to use his line-item veto to make those reductions doesn't ring true. For example, about $160 million...

The Senate did not meet again today, and that’s a big mistake. We are running a very real risk of another Gray-Davis-sized fiscal crisis next year and for exactly the same reason: the governor increased spending much too fast, the economy is now cooling, and the level of spending cannot be sustained. We have to take decisive action now to avert far more difficult choices in the immediate future. The proper parliamentary process is to put forth a clean senate bill that can be amended – and then to allow individual amendments to be presented – one after another –...

Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution who wrote speeches for former Gov. Pete Wilson, said Republicans may be sending a twofold message. They are showing Democrats how difficult it will be to pass new taxes in future years while also proving their relevancy to Schwarzenegger. "Eleven months out of the year, the poor Republicans in the state Senate and Assembly toil in obscurity," Whalen said. "They don't matter when it comes to party-line votes. When it comes to (Schwarzenegger's) post-partisanship, they're the ones standing on the outside while the governor basks in the spotlight." Last year,...

As last week's all-night lockdown in the state Senate ended without a budget, Sen. Tom McClintock thanked fellow conservatives on his daily blog for their calls and e-mails and proclaimed, "You've made a difference." By many accounts, so has the rock-ribbed Thousand Oaks Republican who during the current stalemate has reached out to the party faithful via the blogosphere and urged them to implore the Senate's 15 Republicans to hold firm. Railing against what he sees as profligate spending by Democrats is nothing new for McClintock, who during his 21 years in the Legislature has often been dismissed by critics...