Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney, talks with reporters in Sacramento about the tax measure she’s backing.(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

Wyatt Buchanan
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Sacramento –Supporters of two ballot initiatives that would raise taxes to fund public education and other services said on Monday they will not back down from those efforts, upending Gov. Jerry Brown’s crusade to clear the November ballot of any competing tax measures.

Backers of the so-called “Millionaires Tax” officially began a signature-gathering effort Monday, while the wealthy proponent of another measure, speaking to the California State PTA in Sacramento, pledged that she would spend millions to get her initiative on the ballot.

Those actions could significantly undermine Brown’s efforts, as voters are known to reject all tax measures when faced with multiple initiatives. Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney from Southern California whose family is worth billions, rejected the notion that she or others should show deference to Brown by letting his tax measure be the only one on November’s ballot.

“I don’t think we’d have a very good functioning democracy if we always just did what one person at the top wanted,” Munger told reporters after presenting her plan to members of the state PTA, which has endorsed the measure. She received an extended standing ovation after her remarks.

She added that, “In fact, one of the reasons we have democracy is because that old method, which is to just do what the king says, led to some very bad decisions over time.”

Under Munger’s plan, called “Our Children, Our Future,” the income tax for everyone in California would increase, though with the largest increases on the highest wage earners. She estimates the proposal would generate $10 billion a year that would be dedicated solely to education, with criminal penalties if lawmakers try to adjust that. It would expire after 12 years.

Another version would dedicate some of the money to pay back the state’s debt for the first few years, and Munger said backers have yet to decide which to pursue. Munger has been the sole large contributor to the effort so far, giving $800,000, according to the secretary of state.
‘Millionaires tax’

The other measure, for which proponents started a signature-gathering effort Monday, would increase income taxes on people who earn more than $1 million a year in California. Backers estimate that would generate about $9.5 billion annually, with the bulk dedicated to education. Health services and public safety would get some of the new revenue as well. It has no expiration date.

That measure, “The Millionaires Tax of 2012,” is supported by the California Federation of Teachers, the Courage Campaign, the California Nurses Association and others. Leaders of the effort, along with Munger on her initiative, said they had not personally heard from the governor with a pitch to end their efforts.

Both also expressed confidence that conventional wisdom is wrong and that one or more tax measures could pass even with multiple initiatives on the ballot.

“We’re not concerned that there will be multiple measures on the ballot,” said Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, adding that he had confidence voters would “be able to decide which makes sense for them.”

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Gov. Jerry Brown’s campaign to balance the state budget with new income and sales taxes took a double hit Monday.

Brown has been describing his temporary sales and income tax increases as necessary to protect schools and public safety. But a new report on school finance from the Legislature’s budget analyst, Mac Taylor, makes it clear that even were Brown’s taxes to be increased, his budget would continue to reduce California’s per-pupil spending. Virtually all of the school money in the package would just pay schools what the state already owes them.

Meanwhile, Molly Munger, a wealthy civil rights attorney, declared that she intends to spend whatever is necessary to place her own $10 billion-a-year income tax increase just for schools on the same November ballot, saying it would boost per-pupil spending by an average of more than $1,500 per year.

Brown has made no secret of his desire to have the only tax boost on the ballot, fearing that multiple measures would confuse voters and perhaps lead them to reject all. He persuaded the Think Long Committee for California to suspend its complex tax reform campaign, but Munger spurned entreaties from the Brown camp to do likewise.

Munger took a couple of indirect shots at Brown’s $7 billion-per-year measure during a speech in Sacramento to state PTA leaders, who pledged to become her field army. She told reporters later that she hadn’t talked directly to Brown about the conflicting proposals, but refused to say whether she had talked to Brown’s wife, Anne.

To read entire story, click here.

Sunday, February 5, 2012 – 06:00 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, February 6, 2012 – 10:55 a.m.

San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Chairman James Ramos must be wanting a seat on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in the worst way.

Since 2010, a whopping $592,000 has been funneled to two Ramos-controlled campaign committees.

By whom you ask?

Indian gambling interests.

An amount making up 82.41% of his total campaign war-chest raised.

For a candidate with many vulnerabilities, this falls into the category of major stupid

Ramos, a democrat, has been trying to distance himself from his title as Tribal chairman, and instead adopt the bait and switch title of businessman, hasn’t figured out that the already received money is now a landmine.

Throwing the Tribe’s money around the community in an effort to raise his profile likely isn’t enough to counteract the negatives.

Supervisor Neil Derry, the republican that Ramos is trying to unseat, has a twelve-point party registration advantage in the conservative Third District.

Ramos likely has a solid thirty-percent of the vote at best.

Sources say Ramos’ own internal polling shows as much.

The attempt at buying the seat combined with not paying various state income and property taxes is problematic.

The more of this type of ammo that Ramos provides Derry makes Ramos’ defeat less and less costly.

Some of the issues at hand already has Ramos’ supporters second guessing themselves.

Here is a more detailed look at Ramos’ casino-related campaign windfall.

.

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE RAMOS, RAMOS FAMILY, AND OTHER TRIBAL MEMBERS
DATE       CONTRIBUTOR                                      AMOUNT
02/10/10   JAMES RAMOS SR.                                  $   5,000
03/01/10   CARLA RODRIGUEZ                                  $   1,500
04/14/10   LYNN VALBUENA                                    $     500
09/22/10   CARLA RODRIGUEZ                                  $   2,500
05/10/11   RAMOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD COMMITTEE          $  50,000
06/13/11   VANESSA RAMOS                                    $   5,000
06/15/11   ROWENA RAMOS                                     $  10,000
06/16/11   JAMES RAMOS                                      $  50,000 (LOAN)
06/19/11   ALAINA MATTHEWS                                  $   5,000
06/19/11   THERESA RAMOS                                    $   5,000
06/22/11   SANDRA MARQUEZ                                   $   6,000
06/28/11   RAMOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD COMMITTEE          $ 150,000
09/06/11   DELORES FIELDS                                   $   1,000
11/14/11   KEN RAMIREZ                                      $  10,000
12/26/11   CARLA RODRIGUEZ                                  $  10,000
12/27/11   JAMES RAMOS                                      $  50,000 (LOAN)
SUB-TOTAL $ 376,500
.
INDIAN TRIBES
DATE       CONTRIBUTOR                                      AMOUNT
02/03/10   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  15,000
02/16/10   SOBOBA INDIAN TRIBE                              $   1,000
02/22/10   SANTA YNEZ INDIAN TRIBE                          $   5,000
03/04/10   ONEIDA INDIAN NATION                             $   5,000
03/19/10   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $   5,000
03/20/10   BARONA INDIAN TRIBE                              $   1,000
03/25/10   SYCUAN BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                   $   1,500
04/14/10   AGUA CALIENTE INDIAN TRIBE                       $     500
05/26/10   SHINGLE SPRINGS BAND OF MIWOK INDIANS            $     500
09/01/10   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $   5,000
09/22/10   ONEIDA INDIAN NATION                             $   5,000
09/27/10   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $   5,000
09/28/10   PALA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                     $   2,500
09/28/10   SANTA YNEZ INDIAN TRIBE                          $   1,000
03/30/11   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  15,000
05/10/11   SANTA YNEZ INDIAN TRIBE                          $  10,000
05/31/11   RINCON BAND OF LUISENO INDIANS                   $  10,000
06/16/11   SYCUAN BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                   $   2,500
06/19/11   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $  10,000
10/03/11   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  10,000
10/25/11   PALA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                     $   5,000
11/15/11   MORONGO BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                  $  10,000
11/18/11   SAN MANUEL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  10,000
11/18/11   SOBOBA INDIAN TRIBE                              $   5,000
11/18/11   YOCHA DEHE WINTON NATION                         $   5,000
12/12/11   SYCUAN BAND KUMEYAAY NATION                      $   5,000
12/14/11   AGUA CALIENTE BAND OF CAHUILLA INDIANS           $   2,500
12/14/11   SANTA YNEZ BAND OF MISSION INDIANS               $  10,000
12/15/11   SAN PASQUAL BAND OF MISSION INDIANS              $     500
12/27/11   29 PALMS BAND OF MISSION INDIANS                 $   1,000
SUB-TOTAL $ 164,500 . OTHER CALIFORNIA CASINOS AND GAMBLING ASSOCIATIONS
DATE       CONTRIBUTOR                                      AMOUNT
10/26/10   CALIFORNIA NATIONS INDIAN GAMING ASSN.           $    1,000
06/16/11   CALIFORNIA COMMERCE CLUB                         $   10,000
06/22/11   CALIFORNIA NATIONS INDIAN GAMING ASSN.           $    5,000
11/14/11   CALIFORNIA COMMERCE CLUB                         $   10,000
11/15/11   HAWAIIAN GARDENS CASINO                          $    5,000
11/18/11   HOLLYWOOD PARK RACETRACK AND CASINO              $    2,500
11/15/11   THE BICYCLE CASINO                               $    5,000
12/15/11   LAKE ELSINORE HOTEL AND CASINO                   $    2,500
12/22/11   CALIFORNIA NATIONS INDIAN GAMING ASSN.           $   10,000
SUB-TOTAL $ 51,000
.
TOTAL $ 592,000
.
Source: San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters

Supervisor Neil Derry left. San Manuel Tribal Chairman James Ramos right.

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Published: 05 February 2012 07:09 PM

Fun time is over in the increasingly rough race between San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry and San Manuel tribal Chairman James Ramos for the 3rd District seat.

In a Derry campaign flier that was emailed to 11,000 residents this week, Derry accuses Ramos of links to “gang members … drug dealers … killers for hire.” It goes on to describe him as a “casino boss” and includes pictures of what is suggested to be a gang member, drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Dave Gilliard, a political consultant for Ramos, described the piece as “gutter” politics. “To call it desperate would be charitable,” he said.

Derry defended the flier as accurate and said the public deserves to know the truth about Ramos’ stewardship as chairman. As for the tone of the piece, he said, “I totally expect (Ramos) to go negative.”

The flier refers to a 2008 law enforcement investigation into criminal gang activity, including members of the Mexican Mafia, on the San Manuel reservation. Derry said crime continues to be a problem on the reservation, but Ramos says the reservation is a safe community.

Ramos, however, said he tackled the criminal element when he took over as chairman a few months after the criminal problems came to light. The tribe agreed to allow county sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors access to the reservation, he said, and held the tribe’s members to account in tribal court.

His campaign has cited endorsements from leaders in the law enforcement community, including District Attorney Mike Ramos, who is not related, Assistant Sheriff Bob Fonzi, and the police chiefs of Redlands, Yucaipa and Highland as a sign of his public safety credentials.

Pulaski Phil

When the date of a contentious congressional hearing coincides with the name of a popular movie, the film references come fast and furious.

Last week, several members of the House Oversight Committee couldn’t resist peppering their remarks with witty at least intended as such references to the fact that it was Groundhog Day.

In almost four hours of interrogation by the committee, Attorney General Eric Holder and Democratic lawmakers that jumped to his aid noted that he already had answered questions about the botched Operation Fast and Furious and that Thursday marked the sixth time he’d done so before Congress. Cue the references to the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, however, seemed a little fuzzy on the film. Addressing Holder, the Ohio Democrat suggested the embattled attorney general must feel like the lead character who kept reliving the same day — “Tom Hanks.”

Moments later, Kucinich, who had left the room, returned to correct the record, prompting this exchange with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, the panel’s chairman.

KUCINICH: “So I just want to make sure that you know. I thought that you may have felt like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day,” not Tom Hanks.

ISSA: I thank the gentleman. And for the record, it was 38 days in a row in which that it repeated itself for “Groundhog Day.”

KUCINICH: So we have 32 more of these to go?

ISSA: I hope not.

Endorsement envy

Democrats will gather in San Diego this weekend to consider party endorsements for the June 5 primary.

To read entire story, click here.

While the GOP primary battle moves full steam ahead, local political observers and Republican lawmakers agreed this week that Gov. Mitt Romney is likely to face President Barack Obama in November.

Experts and Republican lawmakers from the Inland Empire said Romney has what top contender Newt Gingrich doesn’t have electability.

“Newt Gingrich is among the most deeply unpopular politicians in the United States outside of the Republican base,” Romney said. “Very few people like him, and even within the Republican Party (those) that know him, like him the least.”

Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney said the former Massachusetts governor has an advantage over his opponents because he has “a lot of money, and positions that are broadly acceptable to the Republican Party, and yet they could also be acceptable to a general electorate as well.”

“Romney is a flawed candidate, and we saw that this week with his comment on poverty,” Pitney said of a gaffe in which Romney told CNN, “I’m not concerned about the very poor.”

“He has problems, but compared with the utterly unelectable Gingrich, he looks pretty good,” Pitney said.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, who stumped for Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Iowa, is now supporting Romney since Perry dropped out of the race. Hagman said he’s in talks with Romney’s camp to stump for the candidate.

“I think Mitt Romney has more favorability against Obama head to head,” Hagman said.

“I think Republicans will rally around him. He has a very strong network and the bottom line is he’s been focused on the issues residents care about. He’s a job creator and a creator of economic growth.”

Hagman said he thinks “Newt has great ideas,” but added Gingrich has never won a statewide contest, and he’s always been in Congress.

“He’s never been in the executive branch, and that may give Mitt some advantages as well,” Hagman said.

Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucaipa, said he was impressed with Romney because he’s reached out to California.

To read entire story, click here.

Smith

**Administrator’s Note: Another candidate with absolutely zero chance of winning.

Bob Smith increases 1st District candidate field to seven
February 04, 2012 12:00 PM
Natasha Lindstrom, Staff Writer

A retired sheriff’s deputy of Helendale announced his intentions Friday to run for San Bernardino County 1st District Supervisor in the June election.

Bob Smith, now a community liaison for the 1st District under Brad Mitzelfelt, ran in the Republican primary for the 34th District Assembly seat in 2008, losing to Assemblywoman Connie Conway. Smith also serves as a commissioner on the San Bernardino County Local Agency Formation Commission.

Smith marks the seventh candidate to enter the race since Mitzelfelt announced last month his bid for the 8th Congressional District, with longtime U.S. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, retiring.

Six other candidates have confirmed their intentions to run for 1st District Supervisor:

• Ken Anderson, field representative for Mitzelfelt and Sen. Sharon Runner;

• Russ Blewett, Hesperia mayor;

• Michael Orme, field representative for U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon;

• Rick Roelle, Apple Valley councilman;

• Mark Shoup, supervising deputy public defender; and

• Jermaine Wright, a trustee with the Adelanto School District.

The 1st District includes the bulk of the Victor Valley and spans more than 15,000 square miles from Wrightwood to Baker and the Nevada and Arizona state lines. It includes Fort Irwin and the unincorporated communities surrounding Barstow.

The supervisorial election coincides with the June 5 presidential primary. Candidates must file for the race between Feb. 13 and March 9, according to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters.

For the latest on High Desert politics, follow us on Twitter @DPPolitics

Natasha Lindstrom may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at NLindstrom@VVDailyPress.com.

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Mitt Romney greets supporters in Las Vegas after winning Nevada’s Republican caucuses. (Gerald Herbert, Associated Press / February 4, 2012)

By Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times

February 4, 2012, 9:33 p.m.

Reporting from Las Vegas— Mitt Romney spent years cultivating voters in Nevada, and it paid off with a commanding victory that not only pushed him closer to the GOP nomination but laid a strong marker in a state both parties will fight to carry in November.

Romney also won the Nevada caucuses in 2008, one of the few impressive performances of his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and he never really stopped campaigning here. The only question was whether Romney on Saturday would top the 51% he received four years ago; he was winning just less than that in early returns.

Trailing far behind were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who were locked in a fight for second. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who eked out a win in Iowa but has faded since, was a distant fourth.

“Thank you, guys. What a great showing,” an exuberant Romney told supporters Saturday night in Las Vegas, as they waved white-and-blue placards reading, “Nevada believes.”

“This is not the first time you gave me your vote of confidence,” he said, “and this time I’m going to take it all the way to the White House.”

Gingrich, at a late-night news conference, said he would stay in the race until the late-summer national party convention.

“I am a candidate for president of the United States. I will be a candidate for president of the United States,” he said. “We will continue to campaign all the way to Tampa.”

It will take 1,144 delegates to win the nomination, and Romney has staked an early lead in that count after winning three of the first five contests, including a Florida blowout on Tuesday.

But more meaningful was the momentum Romney gains from his back-to-back wins, which will propel him to the next round of balloting on Tuesday in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri.

Beyond that, the former Massachusetts governor demonstrated strengths, like an impressive get-out-the-vote operation, that will serve him well in Nevada in the fall, should he emerge as the GOP nominee.

More than a quarter of the electorate Saturday was Mormon, and entrance polls indicated that more than 9 in 10 of that group voted for Romney, who shares their faith. Their percentage of the Nevada vote will shrink in the general election. Even so, Democrats acknowledge that Romney starts with a strong, highly motivated base upon which to build for November.

But Romney’s strong performance Saturday grew out of more than religious affinity; he garnered support across much of the GOP, as he did in Florida and New Hampshire, the other states he has won. Entrance polls showed him carrying just about every category of caucusgoer — but for the youngest voters, the secular and those making the least money, who preferred Paul.

Nevada saw a truncated campaign that disappointed many here who anticipated the state’s turn on the national stage and a chance to introduce Nevada’s woes and Western issues, like water and land use, into the presidential discussion.

Although Nevada has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, 12.6%, and leads the country in foreclosures, the candidates never discussed the housing collapse in any detail.

A feisty Romney alluded to both in his victory speech, laying into President Obama and denying him any credit for January’s big job-creation report and a dip in the nation’s unemployment rate to 8.3%

“Mr. President, we welcome any good news on the jobs front,” Romney said. “But it is thanks to the innovation of the America people and the private sector and not to you, Mr. President.”

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/02/2012 04:25:33 PM PST

Document: Ballot Title and Summary

San Bernardino City Professional Firefighters Local 891, the union representing 126 city firefighters, has introduced a ballot initiative proposing an elected fire chief.

In the last two years, 25 positions have been cut at the department and engine companies have dwindled from four-man crews to three-man crews, said Steve Brown, the union’s vice president.

While budget cuts factor into that scenario, union representatives say they are fed up with “politics as usual in San Bernardino.”

“Too often, the current administration at City Hall has injected politics into the management and operations of our Fire Department,” said union President Scott Moss in a statement Thursday.

An elected fire chief, Moss said, would remove the taint of politics from decisions affecting hiring, promotions and fire protection policies at the department.

A notice of intent to circulate a petition was filed with the city on Jan. 9, but the union has yet to begin gathering the roughly 12,000 signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot, Brown said.

“We’re not even sure we’ll have our ducks in a row by November. It’s a work in progress right now,” Brown said.

The proposed charter amendment would establish an elected fire chief, to be elected at the 2014 general election, who would have complete autonomy in running the department, without interference by the mayor and city manager. In addition, the proposal requires the Fire Department to have an assistant fire chief and a chief of staff, appointed by the fire chief with the consent of the mayor and City Council.

To read entire story, click here.

By Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 02/02/2012 05:36:15 PM PST

Fundraising data for Rep. David Dreier, D-San Dimas, from the last quarter of last year suggests he’s likely to retire this year, according to local political experts.

The Federal Election Commission database reports Dreier collected only $10,160 in campaign contributions in the period from October to December. The figure is paltry compared with the $207,450 received in the same period in 2003, and the $137,600 in 2009.

By comparison, fourth-quarter contribution figures for other Inland Empire politicians show much larger campaign funds. Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, received $138,039; Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea, $122,933; and $53,159 for Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, who is not running for re-election. State Sen.

Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Montclair, who is running against Baca for the 35th District seat, has already raised $77,984.

If Dreier were to run again, he should have started raising funds much earlier, said Claremont McKenna College professor Jack Pitney. Dreier, who was first elected to the House in 1980, had traditionally been among the top election fund-raisers in Congress.

The data, Pitney said, suggests Dreier will not seek another term.

Due to redistricting, his San Dimas residence is now in a district with only 28 percent of the registered voters as Republicans.

“He has great fund-raising ability and if he were to run again he could probably raise a lot in a very short period of time, but that would be an unusual way to go about it,” said Pitney.

“Most members of Congress don’t go about it that way.”

To read entire story, click here.

Neil Derry left. James Ramos right.

By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/01/2012 07:16:08 PM PST

Document: James Ramos Flier

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry has launched an assault on the character of his major opponent, San Manuel tribal chairman James Ramos, in a campaign mailer tying Ramos to “gang members,” “drug dealers” and “killers for hire.”

The flier labeled Ramos a “Casino Boss” with ties to the Mexican Mafia. It was found plastered on hundreds of windshields outside Ramos’ campaign headquarters in Redlands on Tuesday night, where Ramos was hosting a campaign kickoff event at his headquarters, said Dave Gilliard, Ramos’ campaign manager.

In a statement Wednesday, Ramos
called Derry’s hit mailer a “false and pathetic attempt to smear me by my opponent and his campaign consultant.”

“I believe that voters want and deserve something better than these types of gutter politics,” Ramos said. He said he would run a positive campaign on real issues and the future of the county, and announced he had secured the endorsement of San Bernardino District Attorney Michael A. Ramos.

Derry stands by the flier. He said it was well sourced and the information is accurate.

“That’s what happened,” Derry said, referring to a case brought to the public’s attention in 2006, when police and DEA agents arrested dozens of people in a methamphetamine distribution ring orchestrated by the Mexican Mafia. Two San Manuel tribal members, siblings Stacy Barajas-Nunes and Erik Barajas, were implicated in a murder conspiracy plot involving members of the Mexican Mafia.

Information revealed in court documents and by former tribal employees showed that the San Manuel reservation had been infiltrated by the Mexican Mafia, whose members were believed to be extorting money from tribal members, who receive monthly stipends of roughly $100,000, generated from casino profits.

In an e-mail Tuesday, Derry’s campaign manager, Christopher Jones, said the Third Supervisorial District is a “conservative, law and order stronghold.”

To read entire story, click here.

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
Posted: 02/01/2012 02:01:30 PM PST

The labor union representing roughly 11,000 San Bernardino County employees announced Wednesday it will support another union’s effort to reduce county supervisors’ jobs to part-time.

Paula Ready, president of the San Bernardino Public Employees Association (SBPEA), said in a statement that the union’s board of directors had voted unanimously to support the San Bernardino County Safety Employees Benefit Association (SEBA) in its push to slash county supervisor salaries to $60,000 a year and their district budgets from $1.5 million to $250,000.

The unions are accusing the board of foisting its duties onto county Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux and voters.

Though the board has cut its meeting schedule in half, it still reviews the same number of agenda items, only now more items are going on the agenda, county spokesman David Wert said.

He said the unions are aware of this and their arguments are ill-informed.

“The unions are close enough to the county’s operations to know those meetings are only a small portion of what board members do,” Wert said.

To read entire story, click here

Money & Politics | Daily Report

February 2, 2012 | Will Evans

If super political action committee dollars were votes in the Republican presidential primary, California would already have voted resoundingly for Mitt Romney.

Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting the former Massachusetts governor, collected $2.3 million from Californians last year, more than any other super PAC, according to new filings this week. The group boosting Newt Gingrich, on the other hand, pulled in a paltry $1,750 from California, less than any other super PAC involved in the Republican primary.

Super PACs have been omnipresent in the primary race, spending lavishly on hard-hitting TV ads and rivaling in influence the candidates’ own campaigns. The political committees are controversial because, under loosened campaign finance regulations, they allow wealthy individuals and companies to give unlimited amounts of money to directly support their preferred candidates.

Much of California’s pro-Romney money came from the world of private investment – not surprising, as Romney formerly headed investment firm Bain Capital and the industry’s business practices have become a hot issue in the campaign.

The biggest Golden State donor to Restore Our Future was W/F Investment Corp., which, together with CEO Bill Fleischman, gave $350,000. The Los Angeles private equity firm’s portfolio includes a Bavarian beer importer and The Roadium open-air market in Torrance. W/F Investment referred calls to the super PAC.

Restore Our Future spokeswoman Brittany Gross said the organization is running advertisements in Nevada, which holds caucuses Saturday, and Arizona and Michigan, which have primaries later this month. As for the donations, Gross said, “we’re going to let the numbers speak for themselves.”

The second-biggest donation, at $250,000, came from Glenbrook LLC. The Redwood City address listed on the donation is that of Glenbrook’s accounting firm, which declined to provide any information about the company.

Dick Boyce, a San Francisco partner at private equity giant TPG Capital, gave $200,000. Boyce previously worked at Bain and currently serves on the board of Burger King. TPG has investments in Petco Animal Supplies, Spanish-language network Univision, retailer Neiman Marcus and casino company Caesars Entertainment.

David Wilson, owner of several Southern California car dealerships, gave the super PAC $100,000.

To read entire story, click here.

BY IMRAN GHORI
STAFF WRITER
ighori@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 11:22 PM

An influential union that is backing a proposed ballot measure to reduce San Bernardino County supervisors’ positions to part-time has more than a half-million dollars in its political action committee fund, according to campaign finance reports released this week.

The San Bernardino County Safety Employees’ Benefit Association Local PAC, the campaign committee for the union representing about 3,100 county public safety employees, has $660,103 on hand, according to its report covering the period for the last six months of 2011.

Last week, SEBA announced that it would help fund a proposed ballot measure that would make supervisors’ positions part-time, cut their pay and benefits and reduce their annual staff budget from $6 million to $250,000.

The announcement came the same day the union criticized a proposed ballot measure introduced by Supervisor Janice Rutherford that would require that all future employee pension increases go before voters. SEBA also has been at odds with the county in contract negotiations in recent months where the county has asked union members to provide retirement and health benefit concessions.

To read entire story, click here.

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 05:44 PM

Candidates for contested Inland House seats raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash at the end of 2011 as they jockeyed for position heading into the current election year.

Democrat Mark Takano jumped ahead of Republican John Tavaglione in the race for the Riverside-area’s open congressional district, according to newly filed campaign finance reports covering October, November and December.

Incumbent Reps. Mary Bono Mack, running for re-election in eastern Riverside County, and Joe Baca, in San Bernardino County’s west end, extended fundraising leads over their opponents.

Seven-term veteran Rep. Gary Miller has a $1 million head start as he prepares to take on a host of candidates hoping to succeed retiring Rep. Jerry Lewis.

Fourth-quarter fundraising

Though Election Day is still nine months off, the reports filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission are seen as important indicators of candidates’ viability. Later in the cycle, campaign dollars are essential to buy advertising and hold events. But early fundraising is used to build momentum, said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report.

“Right now, it’s about establishing credibility, which will then help earn fundraising, help … get media coverage, get the national party’s attention,” Rothenberg said.

41st DISTRICT

With no incumbent in the mix, the race for the Riverside area’s new 41st Congressional District is expected to be among the most contentious in the region. Takano is a member of the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees, and Tavaglione is a Riverside County supervisor.

Before the current round of campaign finance reports, they had taken in about $160,000 apiece.

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, Takano collected $125,472, and Tavaglione raised $87,345, the reports show.

“We feel confident that our strong fundraising support will continue and that we will have the resources necessary to win this election in November,” Takano said in a statement.

Tavaglione campaign consultant Jim Nygren, however, downplayed the significance.

“Supervisor Tavaglione’s far superior record of service in the district, vastly superior endorsements and far superior name ID will more than overcome Takano’s temporary fundraising lead,” Nygren said.

To read entire story, click here.

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A

Gov. Jerry Brown is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his tax campaign from California Indian tribes at the same time many tribes are seeking to renegotiate lucrative gambling compacts with him.

The Democratic governor, who proposes increasing the state sales tax and income taxes on California’s highest earners, is considered more accommodating of tribal interests than his predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his administration is in compact talks “on various levels” with 15 to 20 tribes, Brown’s tribal negotiator, Jacob Appelsmith, said Tuesday.

Any compacts Brown signs could significantly affect a gambling industry that generates more than $7 billion annually and millions of dollars in payments to the state.

More than nine months ahead of the November tax election, a handful of tribes have contributed more than $300,000 to Brown’s tax campaign, a quarter of the $1.2 million Brown on Tuesday reported raising in 2011.

Tribes donated $925,000 to Brown’s gubernatorial effort in 2010, and they contributed more than $200,000 last year to two charter schools he started in Oakland.

Brown spokeswoman Elizabeth Ashford said there is “no connection between any sort of donations and decision-making on this issue or others.”

David Quintana, a lobbyist for the California Tribal Business Alliance, is among several tribal representatives who said tribes are donating to Brown’s tax campaign because they think additional tax revenue will improve the state’s financial condition.

It could also improve tribes’ standing in future compact negotiations, relieving the state of historically “enormous pressure to try to extract more money” from wealthy tribes, said Jeff Cummins, a political science professor at California State University, Fresno.

Brown was a regular supporter of tribal interests when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, and Quintana said some tribes were “absolutely” waiting for Schwarzenegger to leave office before considering compact renegotiations.

“You had one of the worst governors for tribes of all time,” Quintana said. “Then you have a person who is the best governor for tribal governments since himself in the late 1970s.”

In one closely watched negotiation, Brown is in talks with a San Diego-area tribe that brawled with Schwarzenegger over payments to the state, resulting in a court ruling last year that Schwarzenegger overstepped when he demanded general fund payments from the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians in exchange for casino approvals.

State finance officials said at the time that the ruling would not affect $360.5 million in general fund payments this year from Indian tribes with existing gambling compacts, and the administration has said it is not obligated to renegotiate the general fund provisions of those agreements.

To read entire

A bill requiring more prominent disclosure of political donors stalled in the California Assembly on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, television advertisements would include three seconds of a black screen listing the top donors supporting the message. Similar disclosure would be required on print advertisements or campaign mailers.

“The public is frustrated and fed up with wealthy donors who manipulate elections through anonymous campaign messages,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica), in a statement. “Voters deserve to know clearly who are behind the ads.”

Because modifying the state’s Political Reform Act requires a two-thirds vote, 52 yes votes weren’t enough to pass Brownley’s bill. Twenty-six lawmakers voted against the bill. One Republican voted for the bill; the rest voted against it.

To read entire story, click here.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 – 12:30 p.m.

It’s only February and the first serious blow has been leveled in the race to represent San Bernardino County’s Third Supervisorial District.

Here is a just-released literature from the Supervisor Neil Derry re-election campaign: Ramos Casino-Boss

The first question coming to mind?

What was James Ramos thinking?

Ramos, the current millionaire chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is seeking to oust incumbent Derry.

Today’s first salvo is a prime example as to why Ramos can outspend Derry five times over and it won’t do him any good.

Now recent reports of Ramos’ own supporters questioning his viability make even more sense.

The instant campaign hit piece only deals with Mexican Mafia infiltration of the San Manuel Reservation.

Just some of the other looming issues for Ramos include;

• Not paying taxes
• Body-guard escorts
• Conflicts of interest between the county and Tribal government
• His failed businesses
• His real opposition to proposed Barstow casino competition
• His immunity from county laws and regulations
• Being a life-long democrat in a highly conservative district.

Not to mention, that in his few recent public appearances, Ramos hasn’t displayed any cognitive grasp of county government issues.

Unless talking strictly about education and singing bird songs is the main prerequisite for sitting on the board.

Maybe at some point Ramos will figure out that trying to buy the race with his Tribe’s money is a non-starter.

Don’t get us wrong. All the recipients will gladly accept the dough and say thank you.

But that’s it.

Why? Because all the people involved can see it for what it is.

Pandering.

The politicians, who jumped to endorse Ramos, have to be wondering right about now.

At least this contest will be entertaining.

Executive Editor Frank Pine
Created: 01/28/2012 06:06:04 AM PST

San Bernardino County’s Board of Supervisors asked county lawyers last week to draft language for a ballot measure that would give voters the final say on increases to pension benefits for public employees.

Supervisors Janice Rutherford, Gary Ovitt and Josie Gonzales voted yea with supervisors Brad Mitzelfelt and Neil Derry voting nay.

Gonzales and Mitzelfelt both expressed at least a little ambivalence, saying they wanted to wait and see the final language of the ballot measure before committing.

We didn’t quote Derry in our story, but he was the first person to comment on it once it was posted on our website, and the nuance of his nay is significant.

Derry: “This wasn’t pension reform. It was a feel-good measure that would have had zero impact on current employee pensions and would create a significant roadblock to negotiating pension reductions in the future. How is it `reform’ if the pensions aren’t being changed?”

Mere hours after the board made its decision Tuesday, the head of the county’s most powerful union – the Safety Employees Benefit Association – announced it would fund an initiative to cut supervisors’ pay by reducing their employment status to part time.

Union president Laren Leichliter said the SEBA announcement was not intended to intimidate supervisors and noted that signature gatherers were collecting names the Thursday before the pension item was placed on the supervisors’ agenda.

His quote: “All our elected officials, according to them they’re all overpaid, so we’re just trying to assist them in their progression of trying to save county residents money,” Leichliter said.

Maybe that’s the case, but the timing is pretty suspect and it’s hard to see this as anything other than the latest example of the rough-and-tumble politics of San Bernardino County in particular and California in general.

The real issue here, however, appears to be the county’s ongoing contract negotiations with SEBA. As the county struggles to close daunting budget shortfalls, those negotiations have been anything but smooth.

In December, the county threatened to impose a 14 percent reduction in pay and benefits on SEBA’s Specialized Peace Officers bargaining unit, which includes probation officers, coroner investigators and welfare-fraud investigators.

To avoid that, the unit approved a contract with a 7 percent cut in benefits and a reduction in annual merit raises from 5 percent to 2.5 percent.

The county is now negotiating with the unit that represents sheriff’s deputies, SEBA’s largest constituency.

In the context of the negotiations, both initiative proposals look a lot like bargaining chips.

The irony here is that, in these difficult economic times, both measures will probably pass if they make it to the ballot.

To read entire story, click here.

Would it be churlish to say that the much-ballyhooed Think Long Committee for California fell short on fortitude?

Or merely accurate?

Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen created the committee and invited a Who’s Who of California’s political, civic and economic upper crust – including two former governors, one former chief justice and two former secretaries of state – to become members.

It issued a “Blueprint to Renew California” that advocated major changes in how government is organized and financed, to be put before voters this year.

Berggruen, the committee and the plan received loads of mostly positive media attention – including much outside California – because it appeared to be the first potentially viable effort at structural reform to cure the state’s political dysfunction. But one segment would have been an extensive overhaul of California’s cockeyed taxation system, and it interfered politically with Gov. Jerry Brown’s relatively modest proposal for a temporary hike in income and sales taxes.

Brown doesn’t want competing tax measures on the November ballot, fearing that voters could be confused and reject them all. He and his allies pressured the Think Long Committee to back off and it did.

Instead, Think Long is endorsing some relatively minor, incremental changes in governance, such as a two-year budget cycle, proposed by California Forward, another blue-ribbon civic group.

Briefly put, an organization whose declared goal was to rise above politics-as-usual and improve governance succumbed to politics-as-usual.

To read entire story, click here.

A state senator who is running for secretary of state is urging Gov. Jerry Brown to take over California’s beleaguered online campaign finance database, which was down for most of last month.

In a letter last week, Alex Padilla, a Sylmar Democrat who has formed a campaign committee for a 2014 secretary of state campaign, asked Brown to take “immediate action to ensure the integrity of the 2012 election.”

Padilla pointed out that the Cal-Access database — based on creaky, decade-old code that predated Facebook — crashed in late November, also taking down the state’s voter registration database, CalVoter.

That prevented local election officials from registering new voters or verifying signatures on petitions to place questions on the 2012 ballot.

To read entire story, click here.

Monday, January 30, 2012 – 10:00 a.m.

Within all of San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors candidate James Ramos’ negative baggage appears to be a glimmer of a motivating interest as to why the current millionaire chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians is seeking the county post.

The Tribal chair, who is seeking to oust Third District Supervisor Neil Derry in June, may have a personal finance cause.

Ramos, with annual income of more than $1.5 million, is dipping his toe into the future of an Barstow-area Indian gaming casino proposed by the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians.

Ramos, when asked about the proposal at a recent event, says he would support the casino if it cleared all federal hurdles.

Forget about the fact the San Manuel’s have opposed the project from the start.

For Barstow, the proposed casino would be a welcome revenue generator and job creator.

For Ramos it would be competition.

Capitol Alert
The latest on California politics and government
January 29, 2012

The California Teachers Association officially agreed Sunday to back Gov. Jerry Brown’s multibillion-dollar tax plan, which should provide the governor hefty financial support for his fall campaign.

The union represents 325,000 teachers and education workers, and it is a heavy hitter in state politics. Brown is gathering signatures for a November initiative to raise sales taxes by a half-cent and income taxes on high income earners. He has structured his budget so that schools would face a $2.4 billion program cut in 2012-13 if voters reject his proposal, which he says is equal to three weeks off the school year.

The Democratic governor now has support from the state’s two most powerful public employee unions in CTA and the Service Employees International Union State Council. SEIU has not made its support public, but CTA President Dean E. Vogel told his members on Saturday that “SEIU State Council has already taken a support position,” according to a text of his speech.

SEIU spokesman Michael Cox said Sunday his organization has not taken a public position. But sources besides Vogel confirmed SEIU has privately agreed to support Brown. The governor has been working for weeks to convince other tax proponents to step aside, knowing that voters are less inclined to support any tax plan if faced with multiple options.

To read entire story, click here.

By Steven Harmon
Bay Area News Group

Posted: 01/29/2012 06:59:19 PM PST
Updated: 01/30/2012 03:20:06 AM PST

SACRAMENTO — The raging battle over the political and economic clout of labor unions is headed west to California.

The state’s powerful labor groups have anxiously witnessed union rights and benefits being gutted in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. Now, unions in California are girding for an all-out war over a ballot initiative that would curb their ability to raise political cash.

If the November measure passes, unions would have to get written permission from their members every year to use their dues for political purposes.

In California, that’s a fight that could eclipse a presidential ballot filled with other intriguing and controversial measures, including Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to hike taxes temporarily.

“This could change the balance of power long after the governor’s taxes are expired,” said Thad Kousser, a political-science professor at UC San Diego. “Defeating this has got to be the top goal of labor. If they don’t, they could become almost extinct in California politics.”

Labor interests are expected to shell out more than the $28 million they spent seven years ago to defeat a similar measure.

On the surface, going after the unions’ clout in California might appear to be a fool’s errand.

Labor is the backbone of the state Democratic Party, which controls the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature. And the state’s voters have gone blue in all five presidential contests since 1992.

Growing resentment

In 2010 alone, labor spent more than $30 million to help elect Brown over free-spending Republican Meg Whitman, in addition to tens of millions more to secure Democratic victories up and down the ballot.

In 1998 and again in 2005, labor groups thwarted statewide initiatives aimed at cutting off their political lifeblood by prohibiting unions from using dues for politics.

But buoyed by labor’s setbacks in the Midwest, a group of Orange County GOP activists is hoping to tap into growing voter resentment toward public employee unions’ pensions and other perks.

A recent Field Poll showed that a growing number of Californians — from 32 percent two years ago to 41 percent in December — believe public workers’ pensions are too generous. One big reason: Many workers in the private sector have seen their wages drop and pensions disappear in recent years.

Some labor leaders fear that the anger against public unions could raise voters’ ire against all unions. In addition, another planned November ballot measure designed to roll back the pensions of public employees could feed into the hostile environment for labor.

America’s economic anxiety has emboldened conservatives to curb labor’s power, said Joseph McCartin, a professor of labor history at Georgetown University. Labor is under fire around the country from Republicans and wealthy donors such as David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers who bankrolled the tea party movement.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

When a political party achieves dominance of any government, one expects that it would use its hegemony to enact its public policy agenda.

That’s the way democracy is supposed to work.

Using dominance to change the political system with the aim of perpetuating control is another matter. It fixes the game and undermines democracy.

The most obvious example is redrawing legislative and congressional districts to ensure that particular parties or politicians will win subsequent elections, a practice called gerry- mandering that was common in California until voters created an independent redistricting commission.

Gerrymandering, however, is not the only way dominant politicians attempt to predetermine election outcomes.

Commonly, for example, the Legislature places measures on the ballot and dictates the precise ways they are described – words that often shade the truth about the measures’ true effects to persuade voters to vote for something they might not otherwise enact.

That’s fixing the game.

Last year, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and a Legislature controlled by his party decreed that all initiative and referendum ballot measures appear on the November ballot, rather than both the November and the June primary elections, the practice for the last four decades.

Why? Everyone knows that it was to diminish chances that voters would pass a so-called “paycheck protection” measure that would eat into unions’ ability to gather campaign funds from public employees – money that almost always goes to Democrats.

To read entire column, click here.

By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 – 6:57 am

Jon Fleischman, the conservative blogger, was brooding the other day on Facebook, underwhelmed by the presidential candidates he has left to choose from.

It’s “pretty alarming to me,” the former executive director of the California Republican Party wrote, “how dispassionate, or non-interested I am in this new battle for the Republican nomination between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.”

For like-minded Republicans – a cheerless majority of the party in California, according to a recent poll – a virtual therapy session ensued.

One friend recommended a prescription for Xanax, another a vote for Ron Paul.

Joe Ludlow, who helps run a political action committee in Southern California, said to treat the election like exercise.

“It’s not fun for me, I may not like it, it may be painful,” Ludlow wrote. “However, failure means a miserable life 20 and 40 years from now. … Four more years of Obama is death.”

As in any election, determined and enthusiastic volunteers are still working hard for their choices. Paul, in particular, has a fervent base of support.

But Ludlow, whose preferred candidate is Romney, is among those who aren’t exactly inspired as hope fades for any alternative to the current field.

Of California’s likely Republican voters, 52 percent say they are unsatisfied with their presidential choices, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last week. Fleischman, who supported Rick Perry before the Texas governor quit the race, thinks the number is even higher.

“Loyal Republicans,” he said, “are not likely to share with a pollster that they are unhappy with their choices.”

There are any number of reasons for Republicans to be unhappy with Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, or Gingrich, the former House speaker. Fleischman calls them “the plutocrat” and “the genius.” He wishes for a Mitch Daniels or Jeb Bush.

Other Republicans blame the party’s sore feelings not on any one candidate, but on the prickliness of the campaign.

“When they start fighting over who hates illegal immigrants more, and beating each other up for capitalism and Bain Corp., just the general negativity, it’s going to turn off Republican voters,” said Matt David, who was former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s campaign manager before Huntsman dropped out.

The longer it continues, David said, the more it will help Democrats in President Barack Obama’s re-election bid.

Even the most dour Republicans don’t want that.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Fleischman said. “Either Gingrich or Romney would be a better solution.”

To read entire story, click here.

George Skelton

Gingrich bristled at Romney’s L-word tag, but it’s all semantics.
By George Skelton Capitol Journal
January 30, 2012

From Sacramento

Without picking a side in the entertaining Republican presidential contest, let us stipulate that Mitt Romney was smack on target when he called Newt Gingrich an influence peddler.

A lobbyist? No, not in a legal sense. But did he lobby? Yes, in the common usage of the word.

An influence peddler? That pretty much covers it.

Many Sacramento lobbyists and their cousin “consultants” got a chuckle out of the fiery Romney-Gingrich exchange in the Jan. 23 Florida debate.

There was Romney, pulling out the old pejorative “lobbyist,” and the former House speaker resisting it as if he were being called a con man or a pimp.

“Even Romney was putting lobbyists in a bad light,” notes longtime Sacramento highway construction lobbyist Dave Ackerman, who began his career working for Republican politicians.

“Obama hasn’t said anything about lobbyists yet,” he adds tongue-in-cheek, referring to the irony of his livelihood being picked on by a fellow Republican. “I guess we’re just fun to take shots at. It’s a free shot and no one’s going to defend us.”

Ackerman has a little sign in his office that reads: “Don’t tell my mother I’m a lobbyist. She thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse.”

There are hundreds — maybe thousands, no one keeps count — of Gingrich-type non-lobbyist consultants in Sacramento. Many, like Gingrich, have learned the legislating ropes, developed relationships and earned redeemable chits in the legislative or executive branches.

They have influence and peddle it to special interests of all kinds.

It’s the American way. We all have a right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances. You can look it up in the 1st Amendment.

Of course, some have more money to spend on exercising this right than most. They hire influence. And many arrange to nourish the politicians with campaign contributions, what the late Assembly Speaker Jesse “Big Daddy” Unruh famously called “the mother’s milk of politics.”

There are roughly 1,200 lobbyists registered and regulated today in Sacramento. And there are the countless consultants. They all have the same basic mission: to influence public policy.

In the Florida debate, Romney brought up Gingrich’s work for Freddie Mac, the federally backed mortgage guarantor, a GOP villain in the housing meltdown. Gingrich’s consulting firm was paid $1.6 million by Freddie — not to lobby, he has insisted, but to provide perspective as “a historian.”

“They don’t pay people $25,000 a month for six years as historians,” Romney said.

The former Massachusetts governor also mentioned Gingrich’s work for healthcare companies. And he articulated common sense:

“If you’re getting paid by health companies … that could benefit from a piece of legislation, and you then meet with Republican congressmen and encourage them to support that legislation, you can call it whatever you’d like. I call it influence-peddling.”

Romney added that “it is not right.” But I wouldn’t go that far. It’s legal, far as we know.

To read entire story, click here.

BY ALICIA ROBINSON
STAFF WRITER
arobinson@pe.com

Published: 28 January 2012 06:31 PM

The Riverside mayor’s race could now be a six-way contest, with a little more than a month left until the candidate filing deadline.

The latest entrant is Peter Benavidez, a local nonprofit CEO and member of the city’s charter review committee, who recently took out a petition for signatures in lieu of the filing fee.

Benavidez may ultimately square off against former Councilman Ed Adkison, who opened a campaign in early 2010; Councilmen Mike Gardner, Andy Melendrez and William “Rusty” Bailey; and teacher Dvonne Pitruzzello, who ran against Gardner and two other candidates for the Ward 1 council seat last June.

The contest for the mayor’s seat was expected to be lively because five-term Mayor Ron Loveridge plans to retire, leaving the seat open for the first time since 1994. Voters will choose the next mayor June 5, or if no one wins outright, in a November runoff.

Benavidez, 55, heads Blindness Support Services Inc., which offers programs and services to promote independence of blind and vision-impaired people; he himself is vision-impaired. He chairs the citizens’ advisory committee of the Riverside County Transportation Commission and recently served on Riverside’s charter review committee.

To read entire story, click here.

REDLANDS – The latest Redlands resident to announce candidacy for the newly drawn 31st Congressional District wants to be clear that he does not live in a manicured part of town.

“I live in North Side Redlands,” stressed Robert Mardis, 25, who announced the bid Tuesday and says he’s running as an independent who understands the reality of the district.

“If you look at our city near downtown, it’s beautiful,” he said. “Cross the 10 Freeway and you’re in NSR. You can see on one entrance it’s clean and the plants are green. Go under the freeway and the plants are dead. There’s a tattoo parlor. The point is we have people in this race who act like these problems don’t exist.”

Mardis grew up in San Bernardino. He attended both San Bernardino and San Gorgonio high schools.

“The demographics of this constituency are important. This is not how these other politicians live. They don’t understand our culture; they don’t understand our society,” he said.

“I want people to know that I am from a place where someone was shot on my football team. I’ve walked these streets, and I know the people.”

Mardis says his platform is community improvement,and he’s making sure every fundraising venture he plans also serves that end.

“Instead of asking you for money and promising to back you in the long term, we’re setting up art shows and concerts to raise money. We’re effecting change.”

The message on his campaign website and emails is “Stand up. Make a difference,” and he sees the Occupy participants as people who are doing just that.

“I am not a member of the Occupy movement, but I have contributed to Occupy causes,” he said. “Before there was a Redlands one, I went to New York and helped them set up a legislative group.”

Friday night he had a speaking engagement with Occupy Riverside.

“I agree with a lot of the things they say, but I mostly agree with the idea of activism,” he said.

By trade, Mardis runs art studios around the nation, including one out of his Redlands home. He said he is also a writer.

To read entire story, click here.

By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

A California Supreme Court ruling Friday significantly raised Democratic Party prospects of gaining the supermajority needed in the state Senate to pass tax or fee increases.

The high court decided that Senate maps drawn recently by a 14-member citizens commission will be used for this year’s legislative elections, even if a pending referendum qualifies for the ballot.

The decision brought certainty for dozens of prospective Senate candidates awaiting final adoption of the maps as they begin their campaigns. And it offered the commission at least temporary validation that it performed its job as the voters intended.

Political analysts of both parties agree that the commission-drawn lines give Democrats a good chance of capturing the two seats necessary to give them a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate by December.

California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro told The Bee this week that retention of the new lines would make it “enormously difficult” to keep Democrats from a Senate supermajority.

“The political winds have been blowing against them in recent years, and unfavorable district lines make their position even worse,” said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.

Tax increases and passage of some other items would require a two-thirds vote in the Assembly, too, and Democrats are not as confident about achieving that this year. Still, a supermajority in the upper house would significantly increase Democrats’ leverage in the Legislature.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he is not “taking a victory lap” over Friday’s ruling but that California would be better off if budget deficits could be eased by revenue increases as well as cost cutting.

“We’re going to strive very hard to gain the support of the people of the state of California – and when we do, we expect them to hold us accountable,” Steinberg said.

Republican Sens. Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo and Tony Strickland of Moorpark are targeted as the most vulnerable GOP incumbents under the new maps. Blakeslee is not expected to seek re-election and Strickland is eyeing a congressional seat.

Twenty of the Senate’s 40 seats are up for grabs this year.

The Supreme Court’s 73-page ruling concluded that maps drawn by the citizens commission were the most appropriate and least disruptive for use in this year’s legislative elections.

The issue came before the high court after a Republican-backed group, Fairness and Accountability in Redistricting, filed more than 711,000 signatures with county elections offices in a referendum to overturn the new Senate maps.

County elections officials face a Feb. 24 deadline for certifying FAIR’s referendum signatures.

To read entire story, click here.

PolitiCal
On politics in the Golden State
January 27, 2012 | 10:19 am

A correction has been added to this post. See below for details.

The California Supreme Court, faced with a possible ballot measure to scrap newly drawn election districts, decided Friday to leave the boundaries in place for this year’s state Senate races.

Republican opponents of the new Senate districts asked the state high court to discard them in anticipation that voters may do so in November. A nonpartisan citizens commission drew the boundaries, which Republicans fear will reduce their numbers in the Legislature.

To read entire story, click here.