Just moments ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office sent out a press release announcing that the big guy had tapped moderate Republican State Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria as California’s next lieutenant governor.
The lite governor’s office was open because the guy the voters put there, John Garamendi, recently was elected [...]
If it’s the holiday season it must mean that Capitol Hill is waiting to see what Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s Christmas card will look like this year.
For 2009, the Santa Ana Democrat has a new twist. She’s going high tech and is going to send an [...]
Anaheim Deputy Chief Craig Hunter has won the endorsement of a key activist group in his bid to unseat Sheriff Sandra Hutchens.
The OCCCWS — a group that is trying to gain more access to concealed weapons permits – has thrown its support behind Hunter, according to its web site. [...]
Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby has endorsed Fullerton lawyer Shawn Nelson to succeed him as the county’s fourth district supervisor.
Nelson is Norby’s first endorsement since winning a special election last week for Assembly. Norby will advance to a runoff to fill the seat vacated on Sept. 9 by Mike Duvall, [...]
Orange County Supervisors on Tuesday will consider whether to ask Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger not to sell the Orange County Fairgrounds.
The city of Costa Mesa last week approved asking the governor to scrap the sale. And if it passes, the county’s resolution will ask other Orange County cities to [...]
Majority Leader Harry Reid (R) hugs Sen. Chris Dodd. Sen. Tom Harkin looks on.
With just the 60 votes they needed, the Democrats got the okay today to begin debating an $848 billion health [...]
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln said minutes ago that she will vote to let the debate start on health care reform.
The Arkansas Democrat was the last holdout Majority Leader Harry Reid needed to start deliberations on the most massive overhaul ever of [...]
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will vote yes health bill debate.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu just announced she’s going to vote later today to allow Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill to move to a formal debate.
That [...]
Sen. Barbara Boxer
On the eve of what will be the most important vote ever on health care reform Sen. Barbara Boxer spent 30 minutes making the Democrats’ case for beginning debate on a far-reaching $848 billion bill.
“What we have before us,’’ said Boxer, D-Calif., [...]
Updated Nov. 23 with comments from Mike Schroeder.
The effort of two Orange County GOP activists to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was thrown out today by Secretary of State Debra Bowen after it was determined that insufficient signatures had been gathered to qualify the measure for the ballot. Recall proponents [...]
A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Republican Meg Whitman in a dead heat with Democrat Jerry Brown in the race for governor, a big swing from less than two months ago when Rasmussen showed Brown 9 percentage points ahead and this Field Poll showed him 20 points ahead.
The [...]
Tuesday’s dismal turnout at the polls added fuel to the call to do away with polling places and conduct elections entirely by mail, as is done in Oregon, two small California counties and at least one California city.
Just 9,172 - 4 percent - of the 72nd Assembly District’s voters went [...]
Over on the OC Watchdog blog, we’ve got a report about Democratic State Senator Lou Correa’s mysterious new challenger, Sue Perez, who has filed paperwork with the California Secretary of State’s office to run in the 34th Senate District, but who is still registered to vote in the 33rd.
Loyal [...]
Majority leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats unveil health bill.
The long-awaited Democratic health bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring to the Senate floor was unveiled tonight after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill [...]
The allegations that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen and so is not legitimately president continue to percolate, with an appeal filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter on Oct. 29 dismissed without trial a civil suit seeking to [...]
Of course we’ve got to wait out the democratic process to play out Jan. 12 to find out whether county Supervisor Chris Norby will be elected to the state Assembly. And yes, Democrat John MacMurray could still beat out Norby in the runoff election, although party registration in the district [...]
The nonpartisan and highly respected Legislative Analyst’s Office released a report this morning projecting that the state Legislature will have to address a new $21 billion budget deficit by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, 2010.
This comes, of course, after a brutal year of budget [...]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Sen. Dianne Feinstein told Attorney General Eric Holder this morning that she fully supports his decision to bring the masterminds of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to New York City for federal trials.
“I happen to believe that our federal judges are our [...]
Updated with Norby’s and MacMurray’s comments.
County Supervisor Chris Norby, a Republican, has a commanding lead in the race to replace disgraced former Assemblyman Mike Duvall, with 36 percent of the vote. Democrat John MacMurray is second with 28 percent, followed by Linda Ackerman with 20 percent.
29,130 mail ballots have been [...]
The race for Orange County Sheriff is looking pretty familiar with the addition Tuesday of Anaheim Deputy Police Chief Craig Hunter.
With Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and former Lt. Bill Hunt already in the contest, Hunter increases the deja vu. All three were finalists for the job last year, with the Board [...]
Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley tells me that he’ll be posting a tally of virtually every mail ballot he’s received for today’s special election at 8:05 p.m.
Since more than half the votes cast are expected to be mail ballots, we should know the results at that time unless it’s [...]
Sarah Palin’s much-hyped book, a best seller before a copy came off the shelves went on sale this morning.
I’ll have a full column in a few days as soon as I have time to fully read the tell-all book that has the John McCaincamp fuming, political pundits [...]
Rep. Ed Royce has lunch with local midshipmen at U.S. Naval Academy..
To go to one of the nation’s military academies you have to get your member of Congress to nominate you.
Today, Rep. Ed Royce went to [...]
Updated with responses from O.C. GOP Chairman Scott Baugh and O.C. Dems’ Executive Director Malahat Rafiei.
Some have touted the election of Barack Obama has heralding a “post-racial era,” but prejudice swayed some from voting for the black man and is causing many to be wary of his policies, according to [...]
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano speaking today
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today that great strides have been made in border enforcement and so the time is now for comprehensive immigration reform.
In her first major speech on the subject since she left the Arizona [...]
That question is more complicated to answer than you’d think.
Supervisor Chris Norby is running for the state Assembly seat left empty after Mike Duvall got caught on tape bragging about his sexual escapades with a lobbyist and then resigned. Voters cast their ballots for his replacement on Tuesday.
Norby is termed [...]
Congressional approval health-care reform may seem increasingly likely, but that didn’t stop nearly 100 demonstrators - and a dozen counter-demonstrators - from hitting the streets at Fashion Island today.
“The concern now is with the Senate,” said Irvine’s Bruce Tierney, 47, who markets software. He said he [...]
Loretta Sanchez has a squishable globe in her purse.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez recently revealed some of her inner most secrets to Politico. So what did she tell them? What she keeps in her handbag.
No kidding. Sanchez is well known for [...]
Damon Dunn, a former NFL and Stanford University football player who now lives in Irvine, announced today he will seek the Republican nomination for Secretary of State next year, with eyes on challenging the Democratic incumbent, Debra Bowen, in the fall general election.
Dunn played wide receiver for the Cardinal, [...]
U.S. military members taking their oath of citizenship.
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez is commemorating Veterans Day by introducing a bill that would legalize the families of people serving in the U.S. military.
“To remove a roadblock to the [...]
A man claiming to have been Barack Obama’s homosexual lover and another claiming to have Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate say Laguna Niguel attorney Orly Taitz asked them to lie in federal court. I’ll get to the details of their affidavits with the allegations momentarily.
Taitz planned to [...]
Taped to the wall near some telephones inside Orange County Jail was a yellow, legal sized paper telling inmates who need bail to “speak to Bill in Bunk 57.”
Deputies didn’t discover the crude sign until local bail agents complained about unfair solicitation practices.
Recognizing a good idea when they see one, sheriff’s officials [...]
Rep. Loretta Sanchez talks about health reform on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
Forget about the controversy over a public option killing a health reform bill. What happened last weekend over the abortion rights issue has eclipsed that as a [...]
Laguna Niguel attorney Orly Taitz has filed a fiery motion to revive her dismissed lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency. The documents filed with federal District Judge David O. Carter’s Santa Ana court include allegations that a Carter law clerk previously worked for a law firm defending Obama, [...]
Alliance for California’s Tomorrow may have pulled the plug on campaign spending to beat Assembly candidate Chris Norby - click here for that story - but another independent group has launched the following ad on cable TV. It shows disgraced former Assemblyman “Open Mike” Duvall’s face morphing into Norby’s [...]
The political parties are wasting no time trying to make hay over Saturday’s House vote for health reform. The national Democratic Party is targeting two Orange County Reps. - Ken Calvert and John Campbell- for voting no.
Neither Calvert , R-Corona or Campbell, R-Irvine, went to the floor this past weekend [...]
Usually candidates for office need to worry most about raising money to wage their campaigns. For the two Republicans who want to take on Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer next year, their first job is to get Republicans to recognize their names.
Chuck DeVore and Carly [...]
For those of you who didn’t get enough of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio during his visit to Orange County last week, Total Buzz is digging deep into the notebook for more often-controversial “Joe-isms.”
Some may find them distasteful. Some may find them insightful. But you’ll always find them interesting. Arpaio, [...]
With House approval of a health-care reform bill, MoveOn.org is organizing rallies nationwide to encourage the Senate to approve the bill. A demonstration in Newport Beach has been scheduled for 11 a.m. on Thursday. If the last health-care rally there was any measure, opponents of [...]
Last week, I was scratching my head a little when a new Capitol Weekly/Probolsky poll showed Meg Whitman way in front of Tom Campbell for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, less than four weeks after after a Field Poll showed the two in a statistical dead heat.
But now comes an [...]
For the first time in Congress’ history, the House of Representatives passed a massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
The vote was 220-215 with only one Republican, Joe Cao of New Orleans, the only Vietnamese American congressman, voting yes. Orange County’s only Democrat, Rep. [...]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed only two amendments to be brought up to the nearly 2000-page health reform bill. One was the Republican substitute to the Democrat’s measure. The other was on abortion.
Lawmakers got 20 minutes to debate a bipartisan amendment that would make it crystal clear that [...]
Lawmakers working into the night on health reform.
Rep. Loretta Sanchez won’t say yet whether she’ll vote for the health bill even though she favors health reform and a public option.
The Santa Ana Democrat has been spending the day negotiating with [...]
Protesters demonstrate against health care bill outside the Capitol.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher got time during today’s floor debate for just one sentence. And the Huntington Beach Republican said he opposes the health reform bill because the measure will “take hundreds [...]
Speaker Nancy Pelosi,flanked by Rep. James Clyburn, left, and President Barack Obama, right.
President Barack Obama was in the White House Rose Garden a few minutes ago urging lawmakers to vote yes on health reform even [...]
Opponents of health care reform rallied in the shadow of the Capitol this week.
The House of Representatives descended into procedural chaos and contentious partisanship this morning as historic debate started on the health care debate.
One [...]
Let the speculation stop. Rep. Loretta Sanchez has told me she has no intention of running for governor of California.
Last weekend after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom bowed out of contention for the Democratic nomination for governor, Sanchez’s name again was mentioned in many quarters as a [...]
Illegal immigrants will continue to be counted in the U.S. Census as they always have, after the Senate today voted to block a Republican lawmaker’s move to require the 2010 forms to ask people whether they are citizens.
The 60-39 procedural vote stopped Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vittter from [...]
This press release just in from Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley’s office:
The Orange County Registrar of Voters invites community members to apply as volunteers for their newly created Community Election Working Group (CEW) that consolidates its various outreach committees. The working group was established to continue the Registrar of Voters’ [...]
Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief, Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter, Tony Saavedra, Register investigative reporter, Jennifer Muir, BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento Correspondent
