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.

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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
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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
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TOTAL $ 592,000
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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.

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.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Many years of partisan wrangling over the state budget reached a climax in 2010 when public employee unions and Democratic politicians persuaded voters to pass Proposition 25, eliminating the two-thirds vote for budgets.

It gave the Legislature’s majority Democrats the power to pass budgets without having to garner Republican votes. But that’s not all it did.

Worried that voters might see it as a political power play, the measure’s sponsors added a political sugarplum, one declaring that if legislators didn’t pass a budget by June 15, the constitutional deadline, their salaries would be cut off.

They also included another proviso that extended the simple-majority vote to so-called “trailer bills,” measures supposedly needed to implement the budget.

This column and other critics suggested that the trailer bills could become political Christmas trees – ways for the majority party to bypass procedural rules and jam into law things that had nothing to do with the budget.

Although the Legislature has been in session for just a month, we’ve already seen two cases of how the Democrats are treating Proposition 25.

Last year, they used their newly won authority to pass a budget without Republican votes. When Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed it, saying it was unbalanced, Democratic Controller John Chiang cut off legislators’ paychecks, citing Proposition 25.

Brown and legislators quickly cobbled together a new budget on the miraculous assumption that the state would get an extra $4 billion in revenue. Most of the miracle money didn’t show up, and the budget is about $5 billion in the red. The Legislature is now suing Chiang, claiming that he had no authority to enforce Proposition 25.

To read entire column, 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.

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 JIM MILLER
SACRAMENTO BUREAU
jmiller@pe.com

Published: 31 January 2012 07:12 PM

SACRAMENTO — The major parties’ share of the Inland Southern California electorate dipped in 2011, new state figures show, with a significant increase in the percentage of voters who lack a party affiliation.

In February 2011, Riverside County was 41.6 percent Republican, 36.4 percent Democrat, and 17.3 percent decline-to-state. San Bernardino County was 38.4 percent Republican, 39 percent Democrat, and 18 percent decline-to-state.

As of Jan. 3, Riverside County was 40.9 percent Republican, 36.2 percent Democrat, and 18 percent decline-to-state. San Bernardino County was 37.2 percent Republican, 38.8 percent Democrat, and 19 percent decline-to-state, according to Tuesday’s registration report from the secretary of state’s office.

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.

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 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.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 26 January 2012 11:52 AM

WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich is an “erratic” thinker who “abandoned his conservative principals” before leaving Congress, Inland Rep. Mary Bono Mack said Thursday on behalf of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

With the remarks, Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, joined a chorus of Republican criticism targeting Gingrich in advance of Tuesday’s Florida primary. Bono Mack, an early Romney supporter, accompanied the former Massachusetts governor on the campaign trail in Florida, along with her husband, Rep. Connie Mack, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Florida.

During a conference call organized by the Romney campaign, Bono Mack recalled serving under Gingrich as a freshman lawmaker in 1998. She said she was struck by his shifting positions.

Gingrich — who had urged Bono Mack to run to succeed her late husband, Sonny Bono — had “an erratic sense about his thinking,” she said, adding that he would say something one day and “the ideas would change the next day.”

Rank-and-file Republicans, Bono Mack said, gradually lost faith in him as their leader.

“He abandoned his conservative principles,” she said of Gingrich, a former House speaker.

She recounted a phone conversation with Gingrich, just before he announced that he was resigning his post at the end of that year.

To read entire story, click here.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman

Assemblyman Curt Hagman
Created: 01/26/2012 11:31:48 AM PST

California’s Legislature has a full plate this year: crafting a responsible budget, protecting our schools, encouraging job creation, reforming public pensions and much more. Gov. Brown has just proposed a 7 percent increase in his 2012-13 budget and again asking voters for more tax increases when the state’s economy remains stalled by already high taxes and slow growth. Yet in my time in the state Assembly, it never ceases to amaze me when liberal politicians introduce unnecessary legislation that has nothing to do with the priorities of California’s citizens.

In the past two years, I have seen bills that deal with critical issues such as changing the state rock, giving food stamps to drug felons, and dictating what bed sheets hotels can use. Now we have Assembly Bill 266, which could potentially allow boys to compete on girls athletic teams in our public schools if a boy thinks he is a girl.

Introduced by a San Francisco Assembly member, AB 266 would add another troubling wrinkle to our state’s education code by imposing a San Francisco value on all of California’s public schools. The supporters of this proposed law say it would do no such thing, but I think the actual words of the bill say otherwise. Judge for yourself:

“A pupil shall be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs, activities, and facilities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.”

Given that there is no requirement for any medical validation of gender identity disorder, AB 266 theoretically allows any athlete to “declare” his or her gender for purposes of gaining advantage for competition. In other words, a boy who does not want to compete with his school’s cross country team could ask to participate in the girls cross-country team so he can have a better chance of winning. To deny the boy could subject the school to charges of gender discrimination.

Even more troubling, AB 266 requires that a student be allowed to change clothes and shower in the locker room of the child’s self-identified gender. Put simply, schools would be required to allow boys who identify as girls to shower with girls and vice versa. It would also apply to restrooms.

To read entire story, click here.

Dan Walters

By Dan Walters
Published: Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Last Tuesday, the Public Policy Institute of California issued a new poll that found, among other things, just 17 percent of the state’s voters like the Legislature’s performance.

Simultaneously, the Legislature’s top leaders provided another reason for Californians to harbor such scorn.

Assembly Speaker John Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced that they would spend untold amounts of taxpayers’ money on high-priced lawyers to sue state Controller John Chiang over his decision to withhold legislators’ paychecks last year after they failed to enact a balanced budget.

Chiang was merely enforcing a new provision of the state constitution that voters enacted in 2010 – a change of budget law that the Democratic legislative leaders themselves had championed, along with their allies in public employee unions.

Proposition 25′s chief purpose was to eliminate the two-thirds legislative vote requirement on budgets, thereby allowing Democrats to pass budgets without Republicans. Concerned that voters would see that as a naked power grab, the measure’s sponsors included a sweetener: legislators’ pay would be docked if they didn’t balance the budget by June 15.

It was a campaign gimmick, and the measure’s sponsors never thought that it would actually be applied. After all, they assumed, the Legislature could pass some kind of budget by June 15 and pronounce it balanced to technically comply.

That’s exactly what the Legislature did, but Gov. Jerry Brown then vetoed the plan, declaring it unbalanced, and Chiang invoked Proposition 25 to cut off legislators’ pay.

The howling from the Capitol’s occupants was tellingly self-serving. How dare Chiang take the measure seriously, they complained; isn’t he a loyal Democrat?

To read entire column, click here.

By Shane Goldmacher
Updated: January 26, 2012 | 5:34 p.m.
January 25, 2012 | 9:30 p.m.

A sleepy race for a California Legislature seat is turning into a fractious family feud that pits a former top staffer to Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, against the congressman’s wife.

“Actually,” said Scott Wilk, McKeon’s district director from 2001 to 2006, “she’s running against me.” He insisted he was in the contest first.

So it has been in the bitter early going of a Republican primary still five months away but already splintering longtime allies of McKeon, who has served in the House since 1993. The fight has now devolved into the personal.

Wilk said the congressman didn’t call to inform him that Patricia McKeon would challenge him for the California Assembly seat. Instead, the lawmaker dispatched an aide to Wilk’s home at 9 p.m. to break the news, Wilk said. This, after Wilk’s family had donated $6,000 to McKeon’s campaign committee over the last five years.

“I started laughing because honestly that’s a scenario that never crossed my mind,” Wilk said. “Her political acumen stops at seating charts.”

Wilk, 52, is a longtime political staffer who serves on his local community college board, has been chief of staff to two state legislators, and made an aborted run for the Assembly in the mid-1990s. Patricia McKeon, 69, has been a “full-time mother” (of six), president of a local PTA, and a community volunteer, according to a letter she sent to supporters. She’s been married to Buck McKeon for 49 years.

Rep. McKeon has already thrown his considerable weight behind his wife’s run. He hosted a fundraiser for her last fall in Washington, blocks from the Capitol.

“His main role has been that of a supportive husband,” said Alissa McCurley, the congressman’s spokeswoman. Patricia McKeon and her campaign declined to comment for this story. Wilk said they are running a purposefully stealthy campaign.

“The congressman has told people in the district that he plans to lock her in the room, raise all of her money, and win it on her name ID,” Wilk said.

Neither Wilk nor McKeon has filed a fundraising report yet, though McKeon has seeded her campaign with $40,000 of her own money, state records show.

The stature of McKeon’s husband is already a factor in the race. One of Wilk’s early backers reneged out of fear of offending the congressman. State Sen. Tony Strickland said he withdrew his endorsement after launching his own bid for Congress to replace retiring Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif.

“A lot of folks in the delegation feel uncomfortable going all-out to help me when I’m going against Buck’s wife,” Strickland said.

To read entire story, click here.

Mitt Romney left. Newt Gingrich right.

By Mark Z. Barabak and Maeve Reston
January 26, 2012, 7:11 p.m.

Reporting from Jacksonville, Fla. and Miami, Fla.— Picking up where their last debate left off, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich resumed battling Thursday night over personal integrity and the tenor of their respective campaigns, each accusing the other of unfair character attacks.

Romney, clearly itching for a fight, turned an early discussion on immigration policy into an assault on Gingrich over a radio spot he ran earlier this week on Florida’s Spanish-language airwaves. Gingrich pulled the ad, which described Romney as “anti-immigrant,” after it was criticized by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising national star in Latino politics who is staying neutral in the primary.

“That ad was inexcusable and inflammatory and inappropriate, Mr. Speaker,” Romney said. “I’m not anti-immigrant. My father was born in Mexico. My wife’s father was born in Wales…. The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”

Later, it was Gingrich who took umbrage, accusing Romney of making “personal attacks about personal activities about which you’re factually wrong.”

The debate, which also included former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, was the second this week in Florida, after Monday night’s session in Tampa. There a pugnacious Romney faced a comparatively subdued Gingrich. This time, Gingrich gave as good as he got.

When moderator Wolf Blitzer asked about the tax information Romney released earlier this week, the former House speaker initially refused to engage, characteristically chiding Blitzer for even asking the question. “I’m perfectly happy to say that on an interview with some TV show,” Gingrich said, “but this is a national debate where you have the chance to get the four of us to talk about a whole range of issues.”

With that, Romney jumped on Gingrich. “Wouldn’t it be nice if people didn’t make accusations somewhere else that they … weren’t willing to defend here?” Romney said.

Gingrich shot back, “OK. Given that standard, Mitt, I did say I thought it was a little unusual, and I don’t know of any American president who’s had a Swiss bank account,” he said. “I’d be glad for you to explain that sort of thing.”

Romney obliged, saying his investments were in a blind trust and all appropriate taxes were paid. “So look, let’s put behind this idea of attacking me because of my investments or my money,”Romney said, “and let’s get Republicans to say, you know what, what you’ve accomplished in your life shouldn’t be seen as a detriment. It should be seen as an asset to help America.”

Inevitably, after 18 debates, the candidates fell back on some familiar issues and answers.

The housing crisis has hit Florida harder than just about any place in the nation and foreclosures remain rampant. Romney used a question about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal housing giants, to hammer Gingrich for working for Freddie Mac after leaving Congress. “That was an enormous mistake,” he said. “I think instead that we should have had a whistle-blower and not a horn-tooter.”

Gingrich responded that while Romney had been “cheerfully” attacking him for his lucrative consulting work for Freddie Mac, he owned shares of both entities and made $1 million by selling some. He added that Romney had also invested in Goldman Sachs, which is foreclosing on homes here.

“So maybe Gov. Romney, in the spirit of openness, should tell us how much money he’s made off of how many households that have been foreclosed by his investments,” he said, to a mix of boos and cheers.

To read entire story, click here.

Details of the president’s annual speech to Congress came under harsh fire from members of the Inland region’s Republican delegation./AP

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 24 January 2012 09:18 PM

WASHINGTON — The central initiatives laid out in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night seem tailored to address Inland Southern California’s largest problems: unemployment and the home foreclosure crisis.

Yet the details of his plan raised concerns from some area officials and came under harsh fire from members of the region’s predominantly Republican congressional delegation, signaling a contentious election year in Washington and a tough road ahead for the president’s agenda.

Rep. Ken Calvert described the speech as overtly political — more focused on his re-election campaign and bashing Republicans than policy measures that have a chance of passing the divided Congress.

“The guy can’t run on his record, so he’s got to run against us,” Calvert, R-Corona, said after the speech.

The region’s sole Democratic House member, Rep. Joe Baca, disputed the notion that the address was designed as a campaign speech, and lauded Obama for tackling issues that hit close to home for Inland residents.

“This is not about politics,” said Baca, D-Rialto. “It’s about what’s right for our country.”

The adversarial tone in the U.S. Capitol stood in stark contrast to last year’s address, which closely followed the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and was colored by calls for decorum and bipartisanship.

“It sure felt like there was a lot less enthusiasm,” said Rep. Mary Bono Mack, who was among several lawmakers who sat with members of the opposing party this year.

JOBS, HOUSING, ENERGY

Obama’s proposals to boost the nation’s workforce come as the Inland area struggles with a 12.2 percent unemployment rate, nearly four points higher than the national average.

But his plan to give tax incentives to firms that bring overseas jobs to the U.S., and use disincentives such as a new global minimum tax for multinational companies, to discourage outsourcing, is the wrong tactic, said Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs.

Bono Mack, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Commerce and Trade, said incentives for companies who in-source workers would ignore “home-grown” firms that never outsourced in the first place.

Obama, she said, “clearly doesn’t understand job creation and what it will take to bring the manufacturing industry back.”

To read entire story, click here.

Looming retirements, especially of the Inland area’s Rep. Jerry Lewis, could leave the region without political heft for years

BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
bgoad@pe.com

Published: 22 January 2012 08:39 PM

WASHINGTON — When Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis leaves office at the end of the year, he’ll take with him one attribute that none of his potential successors can promise to replicate: seniority.

With 33 years in Congress under his belt, Lewis, R-Redlands, is the longest-serving California House Republican in the institution’s history. And while his unparalleled acumen in steering funds to the region has been blunted by a ban on congressional earmarks, Lewis’ remains an influential member of the committee that controls federal spending.

Reps. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, and Wally Herger, R-Chico, who have served 13 terms apiece, also are stepping down. If 16-term Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, joins them in retirement, as has been widely rumored, California’s House delegation will lose almost a century — 98 years — of combined experience in an institution where seniority often equals power.

On the Democratic side, 10-term Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and five-term Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, are retiring and 10-term Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, is quitting to run for mayor there.

The departures likely will lessen the clout that the Inland area and California wield in Washington, experts and lawmakers said.

“There’s always a potential problem when you lose that much seniority,” said Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College politics professor who served on Lewis’ staff in the 1980s.

Congress always has given great weight to seniority. The chairmanships of the committees that oversee each sector of the federal government almost always go to the longest-serving member who hails from the majority party, while the most senior member of the minority party usually becomes the “ranking member.”

Chairmen and ranking members control the hiring and firing of staffers that help shape legislation. They also decide the make-up of subcommittees that fall within the full committee’s jurisdiction. Chairmen set the committee’s agendas, deciding which issues to take up, what hearings to hold and which bills their panel will consider.

When a committee approves a bill and sends it to the House floor, it is the chairmen and ranking members who decide who may debate its passage and for how many minutes they may speak.

POSITIONS OF POWER

Lewis’ influence as a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee has been well documented.

As a chairman of multiple subcommittees and, for six years, the panel’s top Republican, Lewis had a hand in each of the 13 bills that control spending on federal programs. From that position, he used earmarks — spending directives lawmakers slip into the spending bills — to guide hundreds of millions of dollars to projects in and around Inland Southern California.

Lewis often came under fire for the largesse he steered to the region. But he argued that it was his obligation to look out for a state that sends more money to Washington in taxes than it gets back in federal funding, and to ensure that that funding doesn’t all get swallowed up by powerful interests in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

Upon regaining control of the House last year, Republicans imposed a moratorium on earmarking. They also took his mantle as top Republican appropriator, citing a term-limit rule. Still, as “chairman emeritus,” Lewis remains second-in-command on five of the panel’s subcommittees and remains heavily involved with committee business.

The halt of earmarks clearly diminishes his ability to direct money to specific projects in his home district. But he continues to influence spending decisions.

That was apparent last year when he, with help from Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, persuaded his colleagues to reinstate more than $200 million in funding that was stripped from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. Popular among many California officials, the program gives partial reimbursements to states for the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants. Lewis is also a vocal advocate for funding for medical research and flood control projects, two areas in which the Inland area has traditionally sought and received federal dollars.

With Lewis gone, California’s voice on such issues will be softened.

To read entire story, click here.

Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley/The Press-Enterprise

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
Published: 22 January 2012 07:52 PM

Workin’ It

When Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. visited Riverside last week, a lot of the discussion was about the jobs created by goods movement and related construction projects such as the Magnolia Avenue underpass.

Add Laurence Parker to the job-creation list. Parker, waving an American flag and dressed as the Statue of Liberty, crashed Boxer’s presser to get a little attention for Liberty Tax Service, which has an office on Magnolia just north of the underpass. Usually he just stands in front of the office to draw the attention of drivers, much like a sign-spinner.

Seeing a good thing, he ventured down to where television cameras had gathered. He receives a bonus, he said, if he gets some attention for the business. And it helps him keep his job as the face of the franchise.

Parker drew a shout-out from the senator, who came to town to tout federal funding for local overpass projects.

“While Lady Liberty is waving the flag, let me say this: We don’t have our liberty and freedom while we are stuck in traffic,” Boxer said.

Getting back to work

A little spinal fusion isn’t going to keep Assemblyman Paul Cook from missing out on legislative business or a competitive congressional race.

Cook, R-Yucca Valley, went under the knife Dec. 3 and had his spinal column fused in three places. The surgery was the second major operation on Cook’s back, which was peppered with shrapnel when the former Marine was wounded in Vietnam.

Cook, however, was in the Assembly when it reconvened Jan. 4, standing out in a large brace and neck collar. On Jan. 12, he announced he was running for the 8th Congressional District, which stretches from Yucaipa to beyond Mono Lake.

“I look like a goofball with the collar on. People kid me that I’m doing it so I don’t have to wear a tie,” Cook said.

His recuperation is going smoothly, Cook added, and he hopes to lose the brace soon. “I’m certainly not doing push-ups. You’ve just got to be patient,” he said.

Cook said he has been cleared for the coming campaign in a field that includes several other Republicans, including San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt.

“If the surgery had gone south, I wasn’t going to run for anything,” Cook said.

Momentum seen

To read entire column, click here.

Neil Nisperos and Benjamin Demers, Staff Writers
Created: 01/22/2012 06:22:41 PM PST

For two Rancho Cucamonga businessmen, the road to victory on Election Day in November got a tad easier in the wake of Rep. Jerry Lewis’ retirement earlier this month.

But before being able to represent the newly drawn 40th Assembly District, Republican Mike Morrell and Democrat Russ Warner will have to get past each other.

Morrell may have a tad more name recognition as the assemblyman represents the 63rd District after being elected in November 2010. He has offices in Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino and Redlands.

Warner though will be able to lean on his party holding a slight edge – 40 percent to 38 percent edge – over Republicans among registered voters in the 40th District, which extends from Rancho Cucamonga to part of the High Desert through San Bernardino and into Redlands.

“I look forward to a spirited campaign in 2012 between myself and incumbent Mike Morrell,” Warner said.

That Morrell and Warner will face off against each other is likely being greeted with a sense of relief by the candidates as well as their supporters.

Until Lewis, R-Redlands, retired Jan. 12, Morrell was expected to have his hands full against former state Senate GOP Leader Bob Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, in order to be elected to represent the 40th District.

Dutton, who has been a state lawmaker since 2002, decided last week that he would instead run for the 31st Congressional District.

“I think (we) were both relieved,” Morrell said about himself and Dutton. “A lot of people liked us both. I think the relief goes up and down the line.”

About a week ago, Warner decided to not run for the 31st District seat and set his sights on the 40th.

Warner would have faced an uphill battle in the 31st as several Democrats – Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, nonprofit founder Renea Wickman, educator Rita Ramirez-Dean and Justin Kim, a lawyer from Loma Linda – have expressed interest in running for the seat.

Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, also recently entered the fray in the 31st.

Warner said representatives from the state Democratic Party look at him as someone who will be able to work with Democrats as well as Republicans in Sacramento and do what’s best for California.

“Although Bob Dutton and I seldom agree on much politically, I recognize the senator’s ability to reach across party lines in the state Legislature and work beyond a rigid and extreme ideological agenda,” Warner said.

Warner’s platform on his campaign Website seems to indicate his willingness to be open to opinions not always echoed by his party. For example, he criticizes reckless spending by lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

To read entire story, click here.

Derry

Saturday, January 21, 2012 – 06:15 p.m.

The highway funding arm of the U.S. Department of Transportation has cleared San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor Neil Derry to resume voting on federally-funded expenditures in his duties as an elected official.

The Federal Highway Administration gave Derry the green light effective Friday.

Derry lost his voting authority last year after he was charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor for failing to properly report a single $5,000 campaign contribution.

The charges arose when Derry fell prey to San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, who pushed a politically-motivated investigation of Derry to the state Attorney General’s office with a request that Derry be charged.

Former Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Ramos friend, Gary Schons agreed.

A move designed to hurt Derry’s reelection bid and assist Ramos’ friend and political ally James Ramos.

Ramos, a life-long democrat and chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is trying to unseat Derry in June.

However, a San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge saw through the sham and forced the dismissal of both felonies and refused to strip Derry of his right to hold office and seek reelection.

Confidential sources say Ramos’ own campaign polling shows the legal blow leveled against Derry has had little effect on his positive name identification with voters.

The fed move officially closes the door on the matter.

Gingrich left. Romney right.

Saturday, January 21, 2012 – 06:00 p.m.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who sported a double-digit lead just ten days ago, has lost the South Carolina Presidential Primary to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich by double-digits Saturday night.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and Texas Congressman Ron Paul placed third and fourth respectively.

Should Romney lose Florida, he will have a more difficult time cleanly securing any nomination.

The only saving grace for Romney?

Gingrich is not on the Virginia ballot on Super Tuesday.

Bob Dutton, left. Gary Miller, right.

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/19/2012 11:19:19 AM PST

The race for the 31st District got more interesting this week with state Sen. Bob Dutton officially tossing his hat in the ring.

Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, will face a field of contenders that includes Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar; Renea Wickman, the cofounder of a nonprofit aimed at helping juvenile offenders readjust to society; Justin Kim, an attorney from Loma Linda; and Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar.

The new 31st District seat stretches up from Rancho Cucamonga in the west through Muscoy and San Bernardino, and includes Colton, Grand Terrace and Redlands.

Dutton’s service includes two terms on the Rancho Cucamonga City Council and 10 years as a state lawmaker. In an interview on Thursday, Dutton said he hopes voters recognize that he isn’t a D.C. politician.

In a statement announcing his candidacy, Dutton said “too many Washington, D.C. politicians allow special interests to corrupt their decision making at the expense of solving local problems.”

“I don’t think people want status quo,” Dutton said.

Miller, who is a real estate developer, said he’s a natural representative for the area because of the number of projects he has in the district.

Miller said he’s also worked to provide federal help in areas of housing, water and transportation to the residents of the district. Miller, who added he will move to Rancho Cucamonga, said he’s familiar with the district because of development and real estate projects he’s overseen in the area.

“I’ve known Bob for years and he’s a friend of mine,” Miller said. “He knows I spent most of my business career in that area. I’m not a stranger at all. I have nothing negative to say about Bob. I hope we don’t go there. That’s not my goal.”

Dutton, who owns a real estate, management and investment firm in Rancho Cucamonga, said he doesn’t have active business in the area and called attention to Miller’s current dealings.

“I don’t have any real estate or investment developments in the area,” Dutton said. “Gary does, or it sounds like he does, and I think frankly, that’s a conflict of interest.”

Claremont McKenna political science professor Jack Pitney said the contest should prove expensive with two relatively well-known politicians in the race.

“Any time you have two politicians with an extensive political base going against each other in a primary, a lot of money is going to go into that campaign,” Pitney said.

To read entire story, click here.

Rep. Gary Miller

By PE Politics
January 19, 2012 12:37 PM

Days into his campaign for a new San Bernardino County-based congressional seat, Rep. Gary Miller is touting endorsements from area electeds.

San Bernardino County Supervisors Neil Derry, Brad Mitzelfelt, and Gary Ovitt; Fontana Mayor Acquanetta Warren; Fontana Councilmembers John Roberts, Michael Tahan, Lydia Wibert, and Matthew Slowik; Rialto Councilmembers Ed Palmer and Ed Scott; Upland Mayor Ray Musser; and Upland Councilmembers Gino Filippi and Ken Willis are all backing Miller, according to his campaign.

To read entire brief, click here.

Thursday, January 19, 2012 – 08:05 a.m.

The latest candidate to jump into the election fray is State Senator Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga).

After toying with the prospect of challenging Assemblyman Mike Morell, Dutton will now take on Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) for the 31st Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands).

Miller, who sports a $2 million campaign war chest and the backing of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is the odds on favorite here.

Dutton, starts out with zero dollars and a long road to raising the needed cash to make it a horse race against Miller.

Federal law prohibits the transfer of funds from Dutton’s state senate committee to his federal committee.

So basically Dutton, a staunch republican, is mounting a name identification campaign in trying to leverage his raised profile from state budget negotiations with Governor Jerry Brown.

It likely won’t be enough.

Thursday, January 19, 2012 – 07:15 a.m.

The latest results from the circus known as the Iowa Caucuses now has former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum over Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 34 votes.

Even more ridiculous is apparently some counties have lost the actual ballots and tally sheets for certain precincts and therefore those votes won’t be certified.

Meaning those numbers won’t count in the final results.

Regardless, the new development is too late for Santorum to receive any benefit.