Tony Quinn argued here yesterday that Steve Poizner‘s campaign was wrong in tying itself to Congressman Tom McClintock because McClintock’s philosophy has failed to win him a statewide race in four attempts.

The Steve Poizner of today is not the same Steve Poizner of yesterday. That may not necessarily be a bad thing depending on why Poizner changed directions. As Benjamin Franklin said after the Constitutional Convention, he changed opinions even on important subjects with “better information and fuller consideration.” However, the Tom McClintock of today is the Tom McClintock of yesterday and that consistency throughout his public life and has set him up as a measuring stick for others to stand by.

McClintock’s conservative line may not move the majority or be enough to capture statewide elections from an electorate that may not want to take bitter medicine, but his analysis of fiscal issues very often has been right on the mark. Remember too, that a couple of his statewide electoral efforts went into overtime, with the final count declaring his opponent victorious coming days after all the other elections on the ballot were decided.

Today, in an open letter to the Legislature, more than 300 companies will support a campaign to expand the Legislature’s oversight of California’s government agencies and make the state more attractive to new investment and jobs. The employer community will announce a bipartisan agenda to ensure lawmakers have the independent economic analysis they need to make job creation a priority. Senators Rod Wright and Bob Dutton will join with representatives of the coalition in the Capitol at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the regulatory and economic development proposals.

We must understand the impact new rules and regulations will have on job creation. Recent trends, resulting in unaccecptable job and wage loss for California workers are alarming and unsustainable. Site Selection magazine has released new research showing, over the last three years, California averaged only 3.7 new or expanded industrial facilities per 1 million people, while the national average was 28.7. These results coupled with the fourth worst unemployment rate in the nation and an eroding manufacturing base requires a new perspective on California’s regulatory and economic development priorities.

It was shocking enough late last week to hear that the California Chamber of Commerce pulled their TV ad off the air after a complaint from Jerry Brown.

More shocking still in the new Ad they’ve put up in its place.

The new Ad, which began running over the weekend, is a completely neutered ad which tells you to “Get the facts and decide for yourself” in the California gubernatorial race.

CalChamber still doesn’t get it. Voters want to know that business leaders in Sacramento are in tune with what’s happening on the ground, and they are thirsting more than ever for trustworthy leaders who can provide straight talk and trusted recommendations on who should lead the future of our state.

Cross-posted on NewGeography.com.

Greece and Los Angeles are up against a financial wall. Los Angeles had its bond rating cut on April 7. Greece managed to hold out until April 9. Greece has endured public employee strikes as it has attempted to reign in bloated public payrolls. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa drew the ire of the city’s unions and city council opposition in proposing two-day a week furloughs for city employees.

A Bankrupt Los Angeles?

Most recently, the context of discussions has been an expected $73 million payment to the city from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP). Mayor Villaraigosa raised the possibility of a city bankruptcy if the payment was not received.

The Mayor attempted to encourage the city council to approve an electricity rate increase, which was sought by DWP. In support of the rate increase, Villaraigosa submitted a report to the city council saying that "Council rejection of the DWP board’s action [to increase rates] would be the most immediate and direct route to bankruptcy the city could pursue."

In the annals of California political history, very few campaigns have been worse than that which Steve Poizner has run for governor. But his keystone kops effort also underscores how very close the California Republican Party is to disappearing as a political force in this state.

Consider his latest. In an effort to brand himself the “true conservative” in the race, Poizner has evoked Tom McClintock in a new radio ad and web posting. It encourages California Republicans to support him because McClintock does.

Tom McClintock may be the single biggest loser in California political history. No other major party candidate has lost so regularly every time he has presented himself to the voters in a statewide election. Look at the record: in 1994, a grand GOP landslide year, McClintock was defeated for state controller. In 2002, a good GOP year nationally, McClintock again was defeated for controller. In 2003, he garnered exactly 14 percent running for governor in the Davis recall. And in 2006, he managed a fourth loss, running for lieutenant governor. With this record Poizner thinks voters should let McClintock pick the GOP gubernatorial contender.

Last week I conducted an interview for Reason Television, Is California Too Big To Fail, in which I talk about the pension tsunami facing California. I review Republican and Democrat resolve relative to our state budget crisis. And I make it clear that, in retrospect, Arnold Schwarzenegger should have received an Academy Award for Best Dramatic Performance in a Recall Election. Check out the Reason.tv interview to here.

Joel Fox asked me to follow up on that interview with a column for Fox & Hounds. I thought hard about it, and decided that I would treat readers to a review of the five upcoming June ballot measures – in rhyme! Enjoy…

The measures before the voters this June are only a few;
Compared with November when we will be facing a slew.
Thirteen through seventeen, the numbers assigned by Bowen;
To explain them all by rhyme, I had best get going…

Here’s something beer and politics have in common — an endless debate over what’s most important in their product. For those of you who remember the two decade long advertising campaign for Miller Lite beer, the question argued was the beer was good because of “Great Taste” or because the brew was “Less Filling!” In politics you hear the debate centered around whether a candidate must be faithful to a party’s perceived principles or be centrist enough to get elected.

What brings this to mind was a couple of questions from the recent USC/L.A. Times poll that caught my attention. The questions dealt with which kind of candidate the Republican Party should put forward. Should the standard bearer be a conservative who can rally the base? Or should he or she be more centrist to capture crossover voters from the Democrats and Independents?

The pollsters found that registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters who said they would vote Republican were fairly evenly divided on the question. These voters were asked whether it was important that the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator or Governor be a “true conservative.”

The news lately has been filled with strange and disturbing events occurring behind what we used to call the Iron Curtain. Kyrgyzstan (the Kyrgyz Republic), that little dirt-poor, Central Asian country with the unpronounceable name that seems to lack important vowels, fell recently to protesters, amid charges that we backed the wrong horse (some would sarcastically say: again!) and reportedly drowning in corruption – all of which would not matter much to us 10,000+ miles away, except that the US maintains a critical military base there that supplies our stepped-up war efforts today in Afghanistan, and has had the immediate effect of halting our military flights out of there of late..

Then, terrorists blew up Moscow subways, striking terror into the hearts of rapid transit commuters the world over. But, last weekend’s news was the strangest of all – like something out of a ‘B’ movie script, dripping with irony and stamping a big “Huh?!?” on the sometimes frail distinction between reality and imagination.

It seems that the topmost echelons of the Polish government and military, all crowded aboard a creaky, notoriously unreliable, Russian-built commercial plane, were flying to Smolensk, in Russia, to commemorate, and most importantly, to finally (after so many decades) come to modern terms with, and understanding of, the horrific massacre of some 20,000 Polish military officers by Russian forces that happened 70-odd years ago.

While the Jerry Brown campaign was successful in pressuring the California Chamber of Commerce to pull the Issue Advocacy ad off the air, one thing the campaign won’t be able to do is have the issues raised by the Chamber go away.

A Brown campaign spokesman called the ad “misleading,” but the facts are clear that Jerry Brown campaigned against Proposition 13 and left the state in deficit. Those issues will come back via other vehicles.

Brown’s position on Prop 13 now is: I was against it before I was for it and now I don’t want to talk about it.

Can he maintain that position through Election Day in November?