09:55 PM PDT on Saturday, October 16, 2010

By BEN GOAD
Washington Bureau

With control of the House of Representatives on the line, recent months have seen a flurry of campaign fundraising and spending in tight races from coast to coast.

The battles for Inland Southern California’s two most hotly contested seats are no exception, with campaign fundraising and expenditures well above previous election totals in California’s 44th and 45th congressional districts.

11:14 PM PDT on Saturday, October 16, 2010

By ALICIA ROBINSON
The Press-Enterprise

Riverside resident Jeff Hall’s run for a seat on a local water board has so far been under the radar.

He didn’t submit a statement about himself for the official voter guide, nor did he attend a candidates forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, and the only way he is represented on the ballot is with his name — no title or occupation are listed, unlike most other candidates on the fall ballot.

Next to nothing is known about Jeff Hall, the candidate. But Jeff Hall, the head of a neo-Nazi group, is well-known in Riverside.

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Measure alters 3 elective posts
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/16/2010 10:02:41 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO – Voters here have a little more than two weeks to decide if they want to restructure their city’s government.

Measure C would amend the City Charter to give the City Council and mayor authority to appoint the city attorney, city clerk and city treasurer.

The Nov. 2 election has a crowded ballot that also includes races for governor, legislative offices and nine statewide propositions.

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Objectivity in negotiations at issue
Chantal M. Lovell, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/16/2010 10:02:43 PM PDT

REDLANDS – Endorsements and campaign contributions were called into question last week by some who wonder whether one could objectively negotiate the contracts of city employees who had offered campaign support.

The Redlands Professional Firefighters Association endorsed Paul Foster, Bob Gardner and incumbent Jon Harrison for the City Council and the Redlands Police Officers Association endorsed Foster and Harrison. Since then, the firefighters contributed to all three candidates and sent out mailers on their behalf.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Created: 10/16/2010 10:02:43 PM PDT

A series of mailers targeting San Bernardino County supervisorial candidate Janice Rutherford appears to have violated California’s Political Reform Act.

The negative advertisements, which popped up recently in mailboxes in Upland, Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, indicate they were sent by a campaign committee called Citizens Against Corruption Opposing Rutherford for Supervisor 2010. The mailers lack a statement that indicates they were not authorized by a candidate in the race or a candidate’s committee.

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October 16, 2010 6:06 PM
Brooke Edwards

For the next 40 years, property owners from across the Victor Valley are on the hook to help pay down tens of millions of dollars in debt for failed or stalled Victorville projects.

Last year alone, more than $2.3 million in property taxes from portions of Apple Valley, Hesperia and unincorporated San Bernardino County went toward a $21 million payment on bonds for Southern California Logistics Airport. And the Daily Press has learned that at least a quarter of the $300 million in outstanding bonds funded Victorville’s own projects off SCLA property, including land for a city-owned library and work on the Victorville 2 power plant.

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Public safety unions have a lot of influence in Sacramento and on voters. The GOP gubernatorial candidate says that’s not why she’d let them keep their pensions.

By Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times
October 17, 2010

Meg Whitman has repeatedly said she exempts police and firefighters from her plan to switch state workers from pensions to 401(k)-style retirements because they have dangerous jobs. But analysts say the GOP gubernatorial nominee’s stance is also a shrewd political move.

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As Whitman tries to project a common touch, Schwarzenegger continues to shape-shift, and Bill Clinton hopes his words are still golden in this state.

By Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times
October 17, 2010

Three things could be gleaned from a cursory look at the political world last week, three weeks out from California’s most competitive election in decades.

Meg Whitman likes food.

Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to antagonize.

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PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
October 16, 2010 | 9:19 pm

Meg Whitman’s statewide bus tour was in Northern California on Saturday, concluding a three-city swing at the Black Bear Diner in Redding, where she bought a stuffed teddy bear and ordered “Bob’s Big Bear Burger” with cheese and fries, to go.

Whitman’s stop came as Sarah Palin stumped for Republicans in Anaheim, an appearance Whitman pointedly skipped as she tries to appeal to centrist, undecided voters. She sidestepped questions about Palin and kept the focus on her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown.

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Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, October 17, 2010

(10-17) 04:00 PDT Los Angeles —

Bill Clinton, who as president made more than 70 trips to California, has returned on a mission – to ensure that the blue-leaning state does not fall to fired-up Republicans as Democrats struggle to maintain their tenuous majorities in the 2010 midterm elections.

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PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
October 16, 2010 | 1:40 pm

Former Republican presidential contender John McCain reunited with his onetime advisor Carly Fiorina on the campaign trail Saturday in San Diego, offering a blistering indictment of Barbara Boxer’s record on military issues and calling her the “most bitterly partisan, most anti-defense senator in the United States Senate today” — an assessment he said he’d made while having “the unpleasant experience” of serving with her.

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Sarah Palin gives the keynote speech during the Republican National Committee’s “Victory Rally” at the Anaheim Marriott on Saturday.

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Published: Oct. 16, 2010
Updated: 7:41 p.m.

By JEFF OVERLEY
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
joverly@ocregister.com

ANAHEIM – Sarah Palin brought her bold brand of folksiness and ferocity to Orange County on Saturday, telling a throng of admirers that Republican success on Election Day is their only hope of “saving our republic as we know it.”

Ear-splitting applause erupted from the 2,000-person audience as Palin, sporting a gray pantsuit, took the stage inside an Anaheim Marriott ballroom.

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Published: Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Democrat Kamala Harris, running for attorney general, began running a 30-second television ad in major markets this week trumpeting opponent Steve Cooley’s plans to accept both a salary and county pension if elected as the state’s top cop.

The ad consists entirely of a video clip of a debate between Harris and Cooley, Los Angeles County district attorney, that was held Oct. 5 at the University of California, Davis, Law School.

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Published: Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Californians – or at least California politicians – appear to be obsessed with Texas these days.

Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, says California should emulate Texas’ pro-business policies to resuscitate its recession-wracked economy.

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L.A. NOW
Southern California — this just in
October 16, 2010 | 5:36 pm

Peter B. Lewis, a retired insurance company executive, has donated $209,005 to the campaign to pass Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure on California’s Nov. 2 ballot.

The contributions — to the main campaign committee as well as an independent one — make Lewis the biggest contributor to the effort after Richard Lee, the Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who sponsored the measure and has spent more than $1.5 million .

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By Daniel Weintraub
Special to The Bee
Published: Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1E

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will leave office in January with California’s finances in much the same shape as they were when he rode into Sacramento seven years ago on a wave of voter anger over the state’s persistent budget deficits.

His final spending plan, which he signed this month after a 100-day stalemate with the Legislature, is a collection of mostly one-time spending cuts, optimistic assumptions, temporary federal funds and simple gimmicks. The next governor will confront a projected deficit almost as big as the one Schwarzenegger inherited in 2003.

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