OC Political

A right-of-center blog covering local, statewide, and national politics

Posts Tagged ‘Gavin Newsom’

Full Text of Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on March 20, 2020

This is the full text of the Governor’s stay-at-home order during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis:

EXECUTIVE ORDER N-33-20

WHEREAS on March 4, 2020, I proclaimed a State of Emergency to exist in California as a result of the threat of COVID-19; and

WHEREAS in a short period of time, COVID-19 has rapidly spread throughout California, necessitating updated and more stringent guidance from federal, state, and local public health officials; and

WHEREAS for the preservation of public health and safety throughout the entire State of California, I find it necessary for all Californians to heed the State public health directives from the Department of Public Health.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the State Constitution andstatutes of the State of California, and in particular, Government Code sections 8567, 8627, and 8665 do hereby issue the following Order to become effective immediately:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:

1) To preserve the public health and safety, and to ensure the healthcare delivery system is capable of serving all, and prioritizing those at the highest risk and vulnerability, all residents are directed to immediately heed the current State public health directives, which I ordered the Department of Public Health to develop for the current statewide status of COVID-19. Those directives are consistent with the March 19, 2020, Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response, found at: https://covid19.ca.gov/.

Those directives follow:

ORDER OF THE STATE PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER
March 19, 2020

To protect public health, I as State Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department of Public Health order all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors, as outlined at https://www.cisa.gov/identifying-critical-infrastructure-during-covid-19. In addition, and in consultation with the Director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, I may designate additional sectors as critical in order to protect the health and well-being of all Californians.

Pursuant to the authority under the Health and Safety Code 120125, 120140, 131080, 120130(c), 120135, 120145, 120175 and 120150, this order is to go into effect immediately and shall stay in effect until further notice.

The federal government has identified 16 critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, economic security, public health or safety, or any combination thereof. I order that Californians working in these 16 critical infrastructure sectors may continue their work because of the importance of these sectors to Californians’ health and well-being.

This Order is being issued to protect the public health of Californians. The California Department of Public Health looks to establish consistency across the state in order to ensure that we mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Our goal is simple, we want to bend the curve, and disrupt the spread of the virus.

The supply chain must continue, and Californians must have access to such necessities as food, prescriptions, and health care. When people need to leave their homes or places of residence, whether to obtain or perform the functions above, or to otherwise facilitate authorized necessary activities, they should at all times practice social distancing.

2) The healthcare delivery system shall prioritize services to serving those who are the sickest and shall prioritize resources, including personal protective equipment, for the providers providing direct care to them.

3) The Office of Emergency Services is directed to take necessary steps to ensure compliance with this Order.

4) This Order shall be enforceable pursuant to California law, including, but not limited to, Government Code section 8665.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that as soon as hereafter possible, this Order be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this Order.

This Order is not intended to, and does not, create any rights or benefits, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, against the State of California, its agencies, departments, entities, officers, employees, or any other person.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 19th day of March 2020.

/s/ GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California

ATTEST:

/s/ ALEX PADILLA
Secretary of State

Posted in California | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

California Voters Will Confront Hundreds Of Costly Bonds This Year – My Guest Commentary in the OC Register

Posted by Craig P Alexander on February 8, 2020

On February 1, 2020 the Orange County Register published this guest commentary by me in its Opinion section.  I thank the OC Register for publishing my commentary:

California voters will confront a Vesuvius of public school bond measures on the March 3, 2020 — nine of them in Orange County. In South Orange County, the Capistrano Unified School District is pushing two bonds (Measures H and I). If passed, both would obligate CUSD voters to pay $724 million in principal and interest — on top of all of the other taxes and bonds locals already pay.

Bonds are a tax. Just as homebuyers use mortgages to borrow money, governments borrow money, and repay lenders the loan amount (the principal) plus interest, often over the course of 30 years. Few ever talk about interest payments when they talk about bonds — and those interest payments can double the announced cost of the bond, sucking up money for other essential government services.

Voters throughout the state need to ask themselves whether these bonds are truly necessary and urgent, or yet another bailout for bad financial management of the state’s schools.

I’d argue it’s clearly the latter. Our problem isn’t revenue; California residents are already among the highest taxed in the nation. California has the dubious distinction of the imposing the nation’s highest state income tax rates, the second-highest gasoline taxes (we’ll be the highest on July 1, 2020), high sales and utility taxes, and even higher DMV fees. These gold medals in taxation come at the same time that the federal government has killed the deductibility of state and local taxes.

So, our problem isn’t revenue. It’s spending — or rather misspending. Consider that in 2012, California voters passed new “temporary taxes” to support schools (Proposition 30). The teachers unions that backed Prop. 30 promised these new taxes would provide billions of dollars for the school system. Prop. 30 passed, but four years later, the same unions and their allies in government were back with Proposition 55, a measure to extend for 12 years the temporary taxes first passed in Prop. 30.

Residents in CUSD can point to a similar experience. In 1999, voters there passed Measure A, a multi-million-dollar bond advertised as urgent. District schools, Measure A supporters said, were plagued by asbestos, in need of roof repairs and earthquake retrofitting and new science laboratories. Today, 20 years later, Measures H & I CUSD use these same problems as the evidence that proves the district is starved of cash.

Voters have every right to ask where all those tax dollars went. District records show that some 86 percent of its income are spent on the salaries and benefits of its employees. Some of those employees are paid remarkably well for a district that can’t manage its money. CUSD Superintendent Kirsten Vital earned $333,267 in 2018. Her deputy, Clark Hampton clocked in at $241,556. By contrast, Gov. Gavin Newsom was given a raise in December, bringing him to $210,000 annually, making him the nation’s highest paid governor. The bottom line: Each of CUSD’s top officials earns more than California’s top elected official.

Finally, it’s important to note that student enrollment in CUSD is declining. CUSD’s internal documents confirm that district officials know this. And yet they want to use new bond taxes to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into school building projects. So why is the district asking taxpayers to pay for improvements to school sites it will likely close over the next few years? Or is the district planning to spend the bond revenue on other projects?

Voters deserve straightforward answers on what CUSD intends to do with their bond taxes before they vote to place additional 30-year tax lien on their properties.
Residents and taxpayers deserve better stewardship of their tax dollars. They deserve transparency from their local government school trustees and education bureaucrats.

Craig Alexander is a Dana Point resident, property owner and an attorney. For more information go to http://www.NoCUSDBonds.com and http://www.CapoKidsFirst.com.

Posted in Capistrano Unified School District, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

What’s at Stake For Orange County Voters This November 6th?

Posted by Craig P Alexander on October 1, 2018

What’s at Stake For Orange County Voters This November 6th? Control of the U.S. Congress! Or why you need to vote and get your family and friends to vote!

This year’s election is giving us a stark contrast between the two major political parties Democrat and Republican.  In the two years since Donald Trump’s election to the Presidency we have witnessed a “resistance” movement by Democrats and their allies that has thrown out all sense of bi-partisanship, compassion, respect for differing opinions or compromise on important policy decisions.  The Democratic Party at its highest levels has embraced the following:

 

  1. “Medicare for all” which is government run health care at both the federal and state levels. This would increase your tax burden by at least twice (double) and maybe even three times what you currently pay now. (Fact Check Article &  Bloomberg Article ) All of the local Democratic candidates for Congress support this. Gavin Newsom (the Democratic candidate for Governor) has made it a main goal of his campaign promises to institute this in California, including medical coverage for illegal aliens.     (NY Times Article &  LA Times Article)

 

  1. The abolition of ICE (the federal agency that enforces our immigration laws). Democrats are committed to this dangerous proposal and they have offered no real plan for a replacement for ICE. Locally Democrats have passed laws to restrict our police and local authorities from cooperating with ICE and other federal immigration agencies.  This Sanctuary Law also protects criminal illegal aliens who commit violent crimes against our citizens.

 

  1. Reversal of the Trump Tax Cuts and De-Regulation. After eight years of slow or no growth under Former President Obama (who called it the “new normal”), President Trump and the Republicans in Congress have passed historic tax cuts and abolished reams of business killing regulations. Result: across the board almost all Americans have more money in their pockets, have more opportunities for employment or starting their own businesses and unemployment is down – WAY down.  Unemployment among African Americans and Hispanics is at its lowest levels since those statistics have been gathered.   Democrats say these tax cuts are bad for the economy and for workers their tax cut bonuses are “crumbs” (per Nancy Pelosi).  The facts prove the Democrats are wrong.

 

  1. Judicial Nominations of Constitutionally minded judges stopped. As I write this we are seeing the unfolding of the debacle of the confirmation of Judge Bret Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Democrats want courts to impose their policy preferences on us via the Court’s (since they can’t do most of them via the legislative process in Washington, D.C.). In addition, one of the main things that caused conservatives (like me) to vote for Donald Trump for President was his promise to appoint only conservative judges to the federal bench – and he has kept that promise.  Democrats want to stop that by blocking those judicial candidates (including smear campaigns by our own Diane Feinstein) not to mention blocking President Trump’s administration appointees.

 

  1. Continued Taxpayer Funding for Planned Parenthood. All of the local Democratic Congressional Candidates believe you should help Planned Parenthood continue abortion practices on your tax dollar.

 

  1. Continued Attitude that anyone who votes Republican and especially for President Donald Trump is a racist “deplorable” or “dregs of society” person. I don’t think I need say more about that. Washington Times – Biden Article

 

  1. Impeach Trump! (then Pence, then Kavanaugh, then anyone else Nancy Pelosi & Maxine Waters dislike). This seems to be the Democrats main rant every time they get the microphone. If the Democrats get control of the House of Representatives, the next two years will be nothing but votes to impeach the President and anyone some Democratic Party leaders don’t like. Maxine Waters Video

8. Keeping Your Gas Taxes (and vehicle registrations) High! They support the irresponsible increase in your gas and registration taxes. (Please Vote YES on Proposition 6 to lower repeal  the Gas Taxes – Yes On Prop. 6 link).  Not only do the Democrats want you to pay more to the Federal government in taxes, they want you to pay more at the pump for gas with a large part of those funds going to the failed high speed rail project.

There are other policy issues and other differences between the Republicans and the Democrats, but with this overview I hope gives you an idea of what is at stake this election.  Move forward with a pro-America and pro-growth agenda or a return to a poor economy and grid lock government. Also, in my opinion, staying at home (and not voting) is a vote for Democrats.

With that introduction I recommendation your and your family vote for U.S. Congress in Orange County:

  

U.S. Congress by District (Orange County):
38th Ryan Downing (https://sites.google.com/site/electryandowning/home)
39th Young Kim (https://www.kimforcongress2018.com/)
45th Mimi Walters  (https://www.mimiwalters.com/)
46th Russell Lambert (https://russlambertforcongress.com/)
47th John Briscoe
48th Dana Rohrabacher   (http://www.rohrabacher.com/)      
49th Diane Harkey (https://www.harkeyforcongress.com/) – Note Diane has my utmost recommendation.  She has a great record of helping taxpayers!

 

Craig P. Alexander is an attorney located in Dana Point, California.  His law practice includes office and commercial leasing, insurance coverage, HOA law and the California Public Records Act.  The opinions expressed herein are his own.

Posted in 38th Congressional District, 39th Congressional District, 45th Congressional District, 46th Congressional District, 47th Congressional District, 48th Congressional District, 49th Congressional District, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

For Poll Voters There are still Voter Guides Available At Robyn Nordell’s Web Site and Another Response to Brenda Higgins

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on June 2, 2018

Its T-minus 4 days to Election Day June 5th! Starting June 6th we all get a short reprieve from endless TV political ads, Facebook arguments and mailers in our mail box from politicians and their friends and enemies over who we should vote for.

By now the vast majority of vote by mail voters have sent in their ballots.  Its now time for those who vote at their polling places to start reviewing their sample ballots.  If you need some well done recommendations by people like myself and Robyn Nordell (and Nancy Sandoval and Kathy Dittner) who do not receive any money for our recommendations for any candidate or proposition those are offered online (for free).

Here is a link to my recommendations: Craig’s Pics June 2018 – Final.

Here is a link to Robyn Nordell’s Orange County page on her web site: Robyn’s Orange County Page.  You can find a link to my recommendations along with Nancy Sandoval’s and Kathy Dittner’s at this page. Here is a link to her main web page: Robyn Nordell’s web page.

I have written about the Governor’s race on this blog before mostly about Travis Allen’s poor voting record on the life (abortion) issue: Travis Allen – Not So Pro-Life.  This was after my friend Gina Gleason researched and put together her memo on Mr. Allen’s many, many abstentions on bills and resolutions about the abortion issue.  Here is the memo if you wish to see it yourself (it is also in my voter recommendations): Travis Allen 2018.

I hope you find the voter recommendations helpful.

Brenda Higgins (who supports Travis Allen) has also commented twice now on this blog of her reasons for her support of Mr. Allen.  Once again I appreciate that Brenda is taking the high road and not attacking people like myself with personal character attacks. Brenda is a class act!  This is in contrast to some people on Facebook whose response to our concerns are “You are evil for saying these things!” Thank you Brenda!

However as I said in my original response on this blog to Brenda (Voter Recommendations Still Available…), Mr. Allen himself has been completely silent in explaining his abstentions to these bills and resolutions.  He knows of these concerns but he has said nothing.  Silence is still not golden Mr. Allen!

The fact remains that if Mr. Allen is such a fighter for the causes he believes in and he says he is pro-life, his abstentions are not evidence of a fighter for the pro-life cause but of someone running away from the issue.  An abstention is not a no vote.  It is saying “I choose to be neutral” and to do so consistently on this issue overall!  Folks World War II was not won by Switzerland who remained neutral.  It was won by Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other allies who put their treasure and lives on the line.  One abstention may be forgiven but a sting of them is a pattern and a conscious choice to duck the issue!

As I said in my prior post: “Finally one of the criticisms of John Cox has been that he voted for Gary Johnson for President in 2016.  A bad decision but Mr. Cox has publicly admitted this was a mistake.  The other argument against Mr. Cox is he has no voting record on the life issue.  True – but I do for Mr. Allen and it is not good.  So I am going to cast my vote for John Cox for the June 5th primary top two election.  But if Mr. Allen and not Mr. Cox advances to the top two I will support his candidacy in November.  Either Mr. Allen or Mr. Cox will be better than Gavin Newsom.”

I will add that I would like to see a Republican Governor’s race in the November run off.  Mr. Cox is the best chance of that happening especially after his being endorsed by President Donald J. Trump.  Otherwise we split the vote and it will be Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa – two very leftist Democrats as our choices come November.

As an aside today I read that Arnold Schwarzenegger will not back either Mr. Cox or Mr. Allen (Schwarzenegger won’t vote for…).  Given that Arnold Schwarzenegger did terrible damage to the Republican brand in California and continues to support ultra liberal causes like fake news climate change (a.k.a. government take over) legislation – I consider this a back handed endorsement of both of them.

Craig Alexander is an attorney at law and a resident of South Orange County.  He practices law in the areas of the California Public Records Act, Office / Commercial Leasing, Insurance Law,  HOA law, Business Law and Litigation.  He can be reached at Craig@craigalexanderlaw.com

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Senator John Moorlach Says it May be Time For Travis Allen to Step Aside and Endorse John Cox

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on May 24, 2018

Today I received an e-mail from Senator John Moorlach in which he called upon Assemblyman and Gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen to withdraw from the race and endorse John Cox.  Rather than me giving you a point by point description of Senator Moorlach’s statement here it is:

Governor –

The fifth is the race for Governor. I have stayed neutral. I enjoy a relationship with both of the two main Republican candidates. I have always advised that, in a top-two system, only one Republican should be running in this field. The polling has consistently shown John Cox obtaining double the support of that garnered by Assemblyman Travis Allen. And President Trump has endorsed Cox.

For the sake of the Republican Party, it may be time for the Assemblyman to bow out and endorse John Cox. If this is not done, I believe that we will see Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as the top two.

Here is a link to Senator Moorlach’s web page: John Moorlach’s Postings.

I also received in the mail today an “Independent Expenditure” mailer that bashed John Cox and advocated voting for Travis Allen.  Only problem – it was from the same committee who have been putting out mailers and TV ads in favor of former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa a Democrat also running for Governor (at the bottom of the mailer it says: Paid for by “Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018”).  Now you may ask why would they do that?  Easy – if Republicans split the vote between Mr. Allen and Mr. Cox, only Mr. Villaraigosa and Gavin Newsom will be in the top two runoff in November.  To put it more plainly – no Republican will be on the ballot for Governor this November which is exactly Senator Moorlach’s point in his appeal to Mr. Allen to withdraw.

Update: California Republican Party’s National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon (a San Francisco attorney) also has called on Travis Allen to drop out and endorse John Cox.  She wrote in a post on Facebook:

“Since it is not numerically possible for Travis to make it into the top two — something that we Republicans really need for the down-ballot — it’s time for all Republicans to support the Republican front-runner, including Travis Allen,” “He can be a spoiler, or he can be a gracious future candidate and a hero. #Unite.”

Craig Alexander is an attorney at law and a resident of South Orange County.  He practices law in the areas of the California Public Records Act, Office / Commercial Leasing, Insurance Law,  HOA law, Business Law and Litigation.  He can be reached at Craig@craigalexanderlaw.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Voter Recommendations Still Available at Robyn Nordell’s Web Site and a Response to Brenda Higgins

Posted by Craig P. Alexander on May 22, 2018

Here at Casa Alexander we have received our mail in ballots.  We will vote soon and end the string of political mail we have been getting every day.

As I noted before, if you are looking for help in voting Robyn Nordell has a very comprehensive web site with voter guides by people who are not paid a penny for their “endorsements” of any candidate or proposition.  Here is my prior post on this: Looking for Voter Recommendations? Here are some?

Robyn has been kind enough to put my own voter recommendations there in her Orange County section of her web site.  Here are my recommendations for those who would like to check them out: Craig’s Pics June 2018 – Final.

I have already written about one race – the race for Governor: Travis Allen – Not So Pro Life!  

Here is a link to Robyn’s web site:  Robyn Nordell.

Today I read Brenda Higgins’ post on this site about why she is voting for Travis Allen and her criticism of the analysis by persons like myself who have concluded that Mr. Allen’s many and consistent abstentions on bills, etc. on the life issue are incorrect.  First I wish to say I appreciate her tone as she is not attacking anyone’s character – too many times in this campaign season I have seen the reaction to these facts has not been to refute the facts but to cry out “You are evil for saying these things!”  Thank you Brenda for being civil about this.  I have said this consistently (on Facebook and here) that either Travis Allen or John Cox would be a better Governor than any of the Democratic candidates and I will support Mr. Allen if he is one of the two candidates running in November (I believe the chances of both of them being the “top two” candidates is very slim indeed).  Ms. Higgins respectful tone helps towards that end and I wish more people in both camps would take that route so we can unite behind one of the two after June 5th.

With all of that said I disagree with Ms. Higgins analysis.  First if anyone needs to step up and explain Travis Allen’s votes it is Travis Allen himself.  Yet he is very, very quiet on this issue and I am sure he knows of the criticism and position of people like myself.  Why doesn’t he contact people like Gina Gleason who was one of the people who researched all of these votes and put out the memo I linked to in my prior post? Here is that memo again: Travis Allen 2018.  Mr. Allen – silence is not golden!

In addition, while Ms. Higgins’ review of one of the pieces of legislation brings up good points about that specific bill, that does not explain at all why he abstained for so many bills and resolutions on the life issue.  Why he did not join his fellow Republicans in voting no?  Ms. Higgins states that Mr. Allen’s vote would not have mattered given the huge majority the Democrats have in the Assembly.  By that logic none of the Assembly Republicans should have voted yes or no on any of the bills.  Hum…we elected members of the Assembly to vote on bills even if they lose the votes.  Otherwise why are they there? In fact, by this logic none of the Republicans in the Assembly should ever vote on any bill where they know their position will not win the day.

In my opinion the statement on behalf of Mr. Allen that “my vote doesn’t matter” does not square with the claim that Travis Allen is a fighter – a fighter for the pro-life cause or any other cause does not stand down and not register a vote of No to bad legislation!

What this string of abstentions (until 2018 as a candidate for Governor) tells me is either he was ducking the issue or he is “Not so Pro-Life” as he claims.

Finally one of the criticisms of John Cox has been that he voted for Gary Johnson for President in 2016.  A bad decision but Mr. Cox has publicly admitted this was a mistake.  The other argument against Mr. Cox is he has no voting record on the life issue.  True – but I do for Mr. Allen and it is not good.  So I am going to cast my vote for John Cox for the June 5th primary top two election.  But if Mr. Allen and not Mr. Cox advances to the top two I will support his candidacy in November.  Either Mr. Allen or Mr. Cox will be better than Gavin Newsom.

Craig Alexander is an attorney at law and a resident of South Orange County.  He practices law in the areas of the California Public Records Act, Office / Commercial Leasing, Insurance Law,  HOA law, Business Law and Litigation.  He can be reached at Craig@craigalexanderlaw.com

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

June 2014 Post-Election Analysis: Lieutenant Governor

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on June 16, 2014

We now move on to the race for Lieutenant Governor which will see former California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring take on sitting Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom in the November run-off.

The June election was between eight candidates and unfortunately for Republicans Gavin Newsom is teetering close to 50% of the vote despite having one other Democrat on the ballot (ballots are not completely finished being counted).

california_flag

Nehring advances to November after easily finishing ahead of Republicans David Fennell & George Yang. Here are the statewide results on the race:

Candidate Votes Percent
Eric Korevaar (Party Preference: DEM) 224,800
5.5%
* Gavin Newsom (Party Preference: DEM) 2,022,663
49.9%
David Fennell (Party Preference: REP) 348,390
8.6%
Ron Nehring (Party Preference: REP) 949,328
23.4%
George Yang (Party Preference: REP) 324,446
8.0%
Jena F. Goodman (Party Preference: GRN) 94,224
2.3%
Amos Johnson (Party Preference: P&F) 38,307
0.9%
Alan Reynolds (Party Preference: AE) 54,157
1.3%

Turnout in Orange County is slightly concerning if you look at the fact that Newsom finished in first place, However, the vote total for all Republicans in OC totals 56% of the vote and Nehring finished 20% ahead of the closest Republican challenger:

Lieutenant Governor
Completed Precincts: 1856 of 1856
Vote Count Percentage
* GAVIN NEWSOM 110,859 34.7%
RON NEHRING 107,447 33.6%
DAVID FENNELL 41,474 13.0%
GEORGE YANG 31,409 9.8%
ERIC KOREVAAR 15,161 4.7%
JENA F. GOODMAN 5,589 1.7%
ALAN REYNOLDS 5,319 1.7%
AMOS JOHNSON 2,369 0.7%

Despite having multiple Republican opponents Nehring still managed to finish ahead of Newsom in a majority of Orange County cities including Brea, Dana Point, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Los Alamitos, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Villa Park, and Yorba Linda

Statewide though Newsom had a very large advantage geographically. The most shocking thing for me was noticing that Nehring did not come in first in his home county of San Diego:

June_LG_Map_Fixed

The most shocking thing of all though is that Nehring did as well as he did raising only $23,000 for a statewide race and spending even less than that (expenditures are through 5-17-2014):

Consultants $0
Campaign Literature/Mailings $800
Campaign Paraphernalia/Miscellaneous $0
Television/Cable $0

Newsom raised almost ten times as much as Nehring in this period and spent substantially more (expenditures are through 5-17-2014):

Consultants $122,000
Campaign Literature/Mailings $700
Campaign Paraphernalia/Miscellaneous $9,000
Television/Cable $0

Nehring is not one of the Republican candidates that I would say is in great position going forward. Newsom is likely going to campaign extremely hard in order to show strength for 2018 where it is rumored that he might take on Attorney General Kamala Harris for Governor. Newsom did not come anywhere close to the numbers that Jerry Brown had in spite of the fact that Brown faced more opponents and had two better funded challengers.

I am going to vote for Ron Nehring for the good of the Republican Party and because I think he would make a much better Lieutenant Governor than Gavin Newsom. However, this particular seat will be an uphill battle unless Nehring can raise a lot of money going forward.

Posted in California | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Lt. Gov. Newsom Urges UC to Abandon Hideous New Logo

Posted by Chris Nguyen on December 13, 2012

Symbols of the University of California: the traditional seal (left) and the new logo (right)

You may have heard about the controversy over the new logo of the University of California.    Conceptually the logo’s supposed to be a yellow “C” inside a blue “U.”  However, the logo has been repeatedly been compared to a loading symbol on a computer or smartphone.  Some people have even compared it to a child’s drawing, a toilet, or the rear end and tail of an animal.

I, for one, am willing to declare it the most hideous logo in the history of higher education. Here.  I even spent 5 minutes creating a superior new logo for the UC system:

Nguyen Proposal for New UC Logo

My proposal for the new UC logo instead of that abomination they produced.

This week, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom wrote a letter to UC President Mark Yudof urging the university system “to return to the use of the old logo and allow the University community a cooling off period to concentrate on the long-term health of the University.”

Some of you may find it a ridiculous waste of the Lieutenant Governor’s time to delve into a controversy involving a logo.  Others may be applauding the Lieutenant Governor for finding something to do other than check on the Governor’s health.

(Now, in fairness, the Lieutenant Governor is an ex officio Regent of the University of California, so this does fall into his purview.)

Newsom notes, “tuition at the University of California has more than doubled in recent years, access is being limited and students are incurring more debt than any other time in history…Instead of being creative with the University of California logo, we should be searching for creative solutions for funding the University of California.”

I don’t agree with Gavin Newsom on much, but a broken clock is right twice a day.  With the UC screaming about budget cuts, tuition increases, and enrollment cuts, is it really the best time to be working on graphic design?

Did the passage of the Prop 30 income tax and sales tax increases leave the UC rolling in so much dough that they can waste staff time and money on graphic design? Or maybe all that money is lying around after the firing of the highest-paid state employee?  (Actually, neither of those is possible since this logo was created before November when Prop 30 passed and that employee got fired.)

How exactly does UC justify this boondoggle?

Here is Newsom's letter regarding the UC logo. (Click to enlarge.)

Here is Newsom’s letter regarding the UC logo. (Click to enlarge.)

Posted in California | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Travis Allen: Too Squishy for the Assembly

Posted by OC Insider on July 23, 2012

Travis Allen’s contributions to Democrats are well-documented, as reported by Jon Fleischman at the Flash Report, Roxana Kopetman at the OC Register, and even Art Pedroza at OC Politics Blog.

Allen’s explanation to Kopetman is that he has “some friends on the other side of the aisle and a family member on the other side of the aisle” who twisted his arm into going to fundraisers for Democrats.  The family member he references is his uncle, Frank Barbaro, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County.  Barbaro told the OC Register’s Frank Mickadeit that he convinced Allen to make donations to Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown.

The question Republicans voters should be asking is, “If Travis Allen’s arm can be twisted to donate money to liberal Democrats, can his arm be twisted to vote for tax increases, higher spending, more business regulations, anti-gun laws, pro-illegal immigration policies, and high-speed rail?”

If his friends and uncle tell him to vote for liberal policies, will he fold like he has before?

In case anyone forgot, here’s the list of Allen’s donations to Democrats:

If Travis Allen can be persuaded to give thousands of his own dollars to Democrats, will it be that hard for him to give away taxpayer dollars to liberal spending programs?

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