Day: May 28, 2009

Meg Whitman: First Impressions

The last time I found myself in a hotel with a political novice running for governor, it was September 2003 and Arnold Schwarzenegger and I were in a penthouse suite of the Mission Inn in Riverside. He teased me about my shorts (it was 104 degrees outside), and he spent most of our 20-minute conversation filibustering and not saying anything specific about policy. (The one thing he did say – that he would protect the Prop 98 funding guarantee with his life – turned out to be a mistake.)

Older if not wiser, I wore a tie to meet Meg Whitman (and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, who was in town to endorse her) in an outdoor patio at the Century Plaza Thursday morning. And she was nothing if not specific. In 25 minutes, she dived eagerly into the weeds of policy – individual and insurer mandates on health care, collective bargaining with public employees, charter school policy, and procurement.

Carly Fiorina Talks Business

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina spoke to the California Republican Party Convention in February and has since told the San Jose Mercury News that she is “seriously considering” a run for the U.S. Senate against Barbara Boxer. As a journal interested in the confluence of business and politics, Fox and Hounds Daily submitted to her a series of questions about her brilliant but controversial business reputation. Here are the questions and Fiorina’s responses:

1. You were fired by the Board of HP. Why?

To answer why I was fired, it is important to understand why I was hired. I was hired as a reformer, a leader who would challenge the status quo and transform HP from a company stuck in the past to an innovative industry leader. HP’s transformation required tough choices about performance measurement, accountability for competitive performance, streamlining the organization, as well as, the merger with Compaq. While overcoming these challenges and pushing through the changes ultimately positioned HP to become the largest technology company in the world, in the short term they negatively impacted the stock price.

Ultimately, I was fired because I disagreed with some members of the board on management prerogatives, called for an examination of board performance and accountability; and challenged leaks on the board which were undermining the company’s interests. All of the Board’s decisions during my almost six year tenure were unanimous except the decision to fire me. In this case, the Board was bitterly divided, with two Board members resigning over the issue. The three Board members who fought most vigorously for my removal were themselves fired 15 months later for leaking confidential information and conducting electronic spying on both current and former Board members.

State boards are a starting point for the budget ax

As the philosopher Lao-Tzu put it, “The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Or, if you prefer folk wisdom, “Great oaks from little acorns grow.”

Either way, the message is the same: You gotta start somewhere.

Which brings us to the state Legislature and the efforts to close a gaping hole in next year’s budget that’s currently estimated at $24 billion and counting.

To get an idea of what a chunk of change that is, the general fund budget for this year is a TOTAL of $103 billion, so the state is looking at slashing about 25 percent of its spending for the budget year that starts July 1 (that’s just five weeks away, folks).

Are Republicans Really Fading, or are President Obama and the Democratic Brand Just More Popular Right Now?

(The article was co-authored by Matthew Jason.)

This is the second in a series of blog entries regarding specific voter demographics in California based on a merge of all the statewide interviews conducted by the California Office of Public Opinion Strategies going back to the beginning on 2004. This merge includes a total of over 31,000 statewide interviews.

You may have seen the numerous media reports this year about how Republican Registration is plummeting in California and how the Grand Old Party will soon no longer be a viable alternative in the state. If you read it in the paper or see it on the internet, it must be true, right? Wrong. There was a slight decrease in Republican Registration in California between the 2006 general election and the 2008 general election. According to the official Secretary of State reports of registration, there were 8,292 less Republican Voters at election time in 2008.

Protect Small Businesses Against Litigation

At one point in history, every business was a small business. However, small businesses are being tested in these economic and legislative times more than ever. Just last week President Obama touted the "Courage and Honor" of small businesses. Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger and other legislative leaders in California talked about promoting policies that would encourage the growth of small businesses in California during California Small Business Day 2009.

This all sounds great and I am sure the 3.5 million small businesses in California appreciate it. However, in this economy talk is cheap and small business people need answers. In a survey California CALA did with the National Federation of Independent Business in California among small business owners, 95 percent of the businesses surveyed believe current laws favor those who sue. Additionally, 98 percent said they believe new laws are needed to protect businesses against lawsuit abuse.

Recover, Reform and Rebuild California

Like an alcoholic facedown in the gutter, California’s fiscal system may have finally hit rock bottom after last week’s special election defeat. Lawmakers now face two choices — confront our broken system once and for all or continue politics as usual until there is forced intervention in the form of statewide default or bankruptcy.

As a leading political strategist and Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, Dan Schnur perfectly summarized in a recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, conservatives and liberals began to “construct lessons that precisely fit their ideology and worldview” as soon as the polls closed. The right declared a victory for anti-tax crusaders and the left called the election a backlash against budget cuts. Both sides continued to cling to the same arguments that delayed the enactment of a state budget last year.