You’ve probably seen the gubernatorial campaign ad of Steve Poizner pulling a car back from going over a cliff like George Reeves as Superman in the 1950s TV show.

Poizner’s campaign calls the ad “Liberal Failure” and in the first eight seconds of the 30-second spot a quote from Washington Post columnist and TV pundit, George Will, appears on the screen: “…Liberalism has Tarnished California Gold.”

The quote is actually the title of a Will piece published January 10.

I found the article among my papers in cleaning up my desk the other day. I had saved it and marked some of Will’s observations.

Will was writing about the student and union-member protests at UC Berkeley over the 32-percent student fee increase. Certainly, an increase of that magnitude was a shock to the budget of the students, although as Will pointed out, the new tuition was “still 70 percent below student costs at Stanford and other private institutions in California that Berkeley considers no better than it is.”

What are we to make of the California Labor Federation’s decision to put a prominent Bay Area Democratic political consultant on a banned list that includes Wal-Mart, union-busting hotels, and a major donor to Prop 8?

In case, you missed it, consultant Jude Barry was placed on the fed’s “Do Not Patronize” list, a dishonor reserved for who “have been identified as unfair employers and adversaries of the labor movement.”

What was Barry’s sin? Did he work for a strikebreaking firm? No. Did he become a Republican?

No.

Barry’s sin was his involvement in a controversial electronic signature technology.

Ah, politics. The clash of ideas, the roar of the crowds and the whining of the candidates.

There’s nothing like calling a press conference and tossing out some angry accusations to brighten a slow news day and maybe grab some free publicity.

And if nothing comes of the charges, hey, at least the name gets spelled right.

For years, the accepted way to end one of those table-pounding news conferences was to hand out a copy of a letter that was being sent to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, demanding that the other side stop its terrible and illegal TV ad/fund-raising letter/hidden arrangement/dirty trick/mean talk.

There was absolutely no down side to that letter, either, since the FPPC was typically so far behind in its watchdog duties that the election would be over long before anyone even looked at the letter, much less took action.

Taxpayers are sick and tired of being used, abused, and forced to pay for government programs and services they don’t want at prices they can’t afford. They are irate at having to bail out politicians, most of whom have no notion of what true public service is all about and who run for office only because they can’t get real jobs and have egos that require constant maintenance.

In the immortal words of Howard Jarvis, “We’re mad as hell!”

California taxpayers are carrying an unsustainable tax burden. They don’t need to see the new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures to tell them that last year’s tax increase was the highest percentage increase – more than 10% — of any of the twenty-four states that raised taxes in 2009. They feel it in their bones. They also don’t need to hear that unemployment is at 12.5 percent — without counting the marginally employed and those who have given up looking for work — and home foreclosures are at record highs, to know that they are struggling just to get by.

States are considering new taxes on virtually everything to close their budget gaps according to a New York Times article. The focus of these efforts is taxing services. The big test states are Michigan and Pennsylvania, with governors of both states pushing service tax measures. Where voters stand may be reflected in a June ballot measure in Maine.

Will an effort to tax services in California be far behind?

Recall that the Commission on the 21st Century Economy, often referred to as the Parsky Commission after its chairman Gerald Parsky, toyed with the idea of a tax on services before settling on a Business Net Receipts Tax as the major reform of the state tax structure.

Like the top-heavy, grand 17th Century Swedish Warship, Vasa, the commission’s proposal sank as soon as it was launched. However, individual members of the commission, along with others seeking more revenue for California treasuries, insist that service taxes must be employed to help balance the budget. The idea that California is now a service-oriented economy is echoed by the proponents of service taxes in other states.

If there is such a strategy, it is a very closely held secret.

From what I can discern from examining the party’s efforts in legislative elections, Republicans have no plan for winning back the legislature. Yes, the party and legislative leaders have plans for winning a few seats this year, but that’s not the same as winning back control. Heck, it’s not even clear that winning back the legislature is a strategic objective.

Why? Well, the answer one gets when posing that question to Republicans is the obvious one: the districts as now drawn put winning the majority out of reach. That answer should be unsatisfying if you’re a Republican, because it reveals the mentality of a permanent minority. It’s hard to see, given how Californians have sorted themselves geographically into communities of the like-minded, how redistricting reform is going to produce a legislative map that will permit the GOP to recover the majority.

What’s required is a change of mindset – and the embrace of change that Republicans have too long resisted.

2010 could be the year of Citizen Power.  This could be the year when we begin to
fight back against the bitter partisan politics of organized political parties
in California.

Californians are angry because we recognize the winds of
partisan self-interest have eroded Citizen Power.  Not since the days of Governor Hiram Johnson, who in 1911
successfully championed Citizen Power through enactment of referendum, recall
and initiative to overcome the power of the special-interests of the day — the
railroads – have the people been as angry. Our frustration with partisan
politics is evident as the ranks of "Decline-to-State" registered voters have
swelled to almost twenty-one percent of all voters.

Citizen Power is not supposed to be just a catchphrase or a
mere truism. The California Constitution says "All political power is inherent
in the people."  There is no
equivalent phrase in the Federal Constitution. The hardy pioneers intended for
California to be more populist than the Federal Government. But the political
parties have managed to wrest power from us in spite of the guarantee of this
"Popular Sovereignty Provision."

With a career emphasis of many years delivering energy efficiency programs to customers and developing renewable energy sources as part of Sacramento’s power mix, I was excited to see international policymakers considering climate change issues back in December at the Copenhagen “Conference of the Parties” sponsored by the UN.

While subsequent news coverage highlighted the disappointment of many of the participants, I came away energized and hopeful as a result of what I learned.

There is a strong, international consensus that climate change is real and must be addressed. The United States was the key player in development of the draft Copenhagen Accord, which for the first time brings major emitters China, India, Brazil and South Africa to the climate change solutions table.

Some of the financial moves surrounding the Prop. 14 open primary measure make it clear that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign reform efforts haven’t touched the money side of politics.

A flood of cash has been pouring into the Prop. 14 campaign ever since a financial report released last Monday showed that the effort was beyond broke, with about $90,000 more in bills than it had cash in the kitty.

No sooner had the Los Angeles Times mentioned that the campaign was on the shorts than Reed Hastings, the Netflix CEO, dropped $257,000 into the effort. The very next day, the governor’s political piggy bank, better known as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Dream Team, pumped another $500,000 into the campaign.

A deeper look at those financial records, however, shows why there’s a continuing concern about how money is used – and reported — in political campaigns.