The AG Race Gets Interesting
With the announcement that Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley is exploring a run for Attorney General, the Republican field is starting to look more like the Democratic field as an interesting, wide-open race.
For the longest time only State Senator Tom Harman announced for the seat on the Republican side. In the last couple of weeks, legal scholar John Eastman, Dean of the Chapman University Law School, and now Cooley said they are looking at the office.
Harman’s campaign immediately attacked Cooley with a press release from Harman supporter Mike Reynolds, chief proponent of the three-strikes-go-to-jail-for-life law. The release called Cooley “the most prominent opponent” of the law. Cooley backed a 2006 measure to add flexibility to the three-strikes law by giving judges more discretion in sentencing three-timers depending on the seriousness of the third offense.
Campbell MIA in State Budget Debate
If you’re looking for a clue about whether Republican Tom Campbell is giving up his long-shot run for governor to switch to the Senate race, it may be what Sherlock Holmes called “the dog that didn’t bark.”
It’s been four days since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his new budget and Campbell has been MIA, with nary a speech, blog post or white board presentation. That’s not like the economics professor who takes pride in being a government finance geek.
Campbell hasn’t said a word about any change in plans, but there’s lots of evidence out there for a political CSI team.
On Campbell’s campaign web site, you’ll find plenty on “Tom Campbell in the News,” but not a single piece speculating about the possible political switcheroo. It’s not that they’re hard to find, since you can see them here, here and here, just for starters.
Robin Hood and His Band of Green Thieves
Remember the basic premise of Robin Hood? The rich king and his fellow nobles were exploiting the poor through excessive taxation and oppressive application of the laws of the land.
Robin Hood and his merry men embarked on a novel scheme to steal from the rich and redistribute the loot to the poor through a variety of clever means. Their outlaw hideouts were deep in the forests of England and their “uniform” was green in order to mask themselves most effectively.
Green is certainly the in vogue color, and many in the environmental movement would love to have the general public believe that the Robin Hood philosophy of redistributing income from rich to poor is their modus operandi too.
Perhaps some simple comparing and contrasting would allow us to determine whether this claim stands up to any scrutiny.
Green-Hyping the Building Codes
California is on the verge of adopting CALGREEN, the nation’s first set of mandatory green building standards. And oddly enough, the green building lobby is leading an effort to scuttle this proposal.
They are not opposed because they think CALGREEN standards are weak. Their materials show they are opposing this effort because it would challenge their bottom line and the monopoly they hold on labeling buildings.
When you follow the money and examine the actions of these advocates, led by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC) – a private organization – it becomes obvious that the control of who can label a building has taken precedent over a broad statewide policy that would make every building in this state greener.
This provincial perspective and fight over handing out pretty plaques is at the expense of reducing emissions, saving energy and water, and easily applying cost-effective sustainable practices statewide.