Free Republic

Calif. candidate pulls Mel Gibson letter By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor said he no longer will use a fundraising letter sent on his behalf by Mel Gibson, who admitted to an anti-Semitic tirade after he was pulled over for speeding. Tom McClintock decided to pull the letter after the incident, his campaign spokesman said Tuesday. "Tom saw the news and the situation as it was unfolding with Mel Gibson and made a conscious decision to direct people not to use the letter any further. He was disillusioned by the situation...

One Republican who is a maverick on this subject is conservative Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks, who received 13.5% of the vote for governor in the Gray Davis recall election and plans to run next year for lieutenant governor. McClintock has long thought that the budget should be passed by a simple majority vote. "A perverse result of the supermajority requirement is that it does not constrain state spending," McClintock says. "What it does is bid up the cost of the budget with each additional vote. Every additional vote comes with louder calls for higher spending.

One of the many controversies involving the Bay Bridge retro-fit fiasco is how to pay for it. Bay area representatives say the Bay Bridge is part of the state highway system and state taxpayers should pay. The Bay Bridge is, indeed, part of the state highway system. So why have local Bay-area governments been allowed all these years to assess tolls on the bridge to line their own pockets? The Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge were financed with revenue bonds financed by the tolls paid by users of those bridges. As originally envisioned, (and sold to the public)...

Big Five, Big Mistake by Senator Tom McClintock Date: February 3, 2005 Publication Type: Column Print Version Of all the factors contributing to California’s fiscal woes, one of the most fundamental and pervasive is the collapse of the constitutional process by which the state budget is developed in the first place. Ever since the Magna Carta, it has been a settled principle of governance that the authority that requests funds should not be the same one that approves them. This is the heart of our separation of powers, and the most important single mechanism to check the excesses and abuses...

Highway Robbery The new DMV director has proposed scrapping California's current fuel tax and instead substituting a tax based on the miles you drive. A bit of background: California's highways have traditionally been funded by fuel taxes - principally an 18-cent per gallon excise tax and a sales tax that averages 7.9 percent. It is simple and efficient to collect and provides a rough approximation of proportional use: the heavier the vehicle or the more it is used, the more fuel it uses and the more tax it pays. This system also provides a natural discount to the most fuel-efficient...

Official Sample Ballots for the California October 7 Special Election have been mailed in my county. I counted a total of 169 candidates for Governor of California on the ballot.Number of candidates per party Democrats = 50 Republicans = 42 Independents = 32 Libertarians = 2 Greens = 4 Natural Law = 2 American Independent = 1 Peace and Freedom = 1 Unknown = 1

Ok, McClintock bots: I'm fed up with you torpedoing the chances for a Republican to be elected Governor of California. Don't you realize that you're screwing up supporting a long-shot like Tom McClintock??? Don't you realize you'd be handing this recall to the Dems in a silver platter??? These are my reasons why, if I lived in CA, I'd support Arnold: 1) The chances of a hardcore conservative Republican being elected governor of California are slim to none: Might as well wait for a Green Party governor in Utah. 2) You could accuse me of compromising, but it's better a...

Memo to My Wife By Senator Tom McClintock Hi Honey, Since you've let me take over our household finances, I'm happy to report that our family budget is balanced, I've saved thousands of dollars, and I've kept us in the style to which I would like to become accustomed. You might wonder how I've been able to do all this. I just followed the easy steps that Gov. Gray Davis outlined in his May Budget Revision. I know you're upset because I spent nearly $11,000 more than we took in this year. You really need to keep things in perspective....