Orange County doesn’t seem to have the best of luck when it comes to electing good treasurers. According to OC historian (and former OCBC CEO) Stan Oftelie, two of the county’s earliest treasurers, William B. Wall of Tustin, and Josiah C. Joplin of Trabuco Canyon, were Southern Democrats and Confederate soldiers. Joplin, who fought at Gettysburg for the Old South, was elected seven times despite political charges that his son, John Booth Joplin, was named after John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln’s assassin. Joplin denied the charges.

In the 1950s, Treasurer Henry Gardner, a conservative Republican, was criticized by the Orange County Grand Jury for spending most of his work day at a Santa Ana cocktail lounge rather than investing county tax dollars. The Grand Jury said Gardner worked about 15 minutes a day, signed a few papers, then was busy getting soused by 10 a.m.

And who doesn’t know the story behind disgraced OC Treasurer-Tax Collector Bob Citron, Democrat,ending in the notorious 1994 county bankruptcy? Citron pled guilty to six felony counts and three special enhancements. Charges also included filing a false and misleading financial summary to participants purchasing securities in the Orange County Treasury Investment Pool. His successor, Republican John Moorlach, was elected saying, “Chicken Little was right. The sky IS falling!”

The approval rating for the state Legislature is hovering in single-digits. Voter confidence is at a historic low. And 80 percent of voters believe that California is on the wrong track. Partisan legislative solutions have created paralysis in Sacramento. That is why the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is supporting Proposition 14 to create a new, non-partisan primary in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

A recent statewide USC College/Los Angeles Times poll confirmed that 20 percent of all voters choose not to affiliate with a political party and their ranks are the fastest-growing segment of California’s electorate. That reality is one of the reasons why California should encourage all of its registered voters to participate in open primary elections by passing Proposition 14 on the June 8 statewide ballot.

A closed primary system combined with an incumbent-controlled redistricting process and term limits that beg for reform has created a wobbly and broken three-legged political stool that fails to represent a broad cross-section of state voters who consider themselves “centrists.”

Yesterday, a study issued by Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research declared that California faces a state pension liability of a half-a-trillion dollars. The study’s title, “Going for Broke,” tells you all you need to know about the dire situation the state faces with unfunded pension obligations.

David Crane, the governor’s special advisor on jobs and the economy spelled out the pressure the pension problem will put on general fund spending in today’s Los Angeles Times. Crane argues the lack of reform on pensions rests with a legislature that is controlled by public employee unions. As Crane puts it, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, “Instead of a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we have become a government of its employees, by its employees and for its employees.”

Crane traces the political takeover by the unions to the Dill Act signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 1978 giving the public unions collective bargaining. As the unions power over the legislature has grown the concern is reform on the pension front will be more and more difficult to accomplish.

We all know California is over its head in budget troubles. The budget deficit is at least a $20 billion, state debt levels are unsustainable, we have racked up overwhelming pension obligations, and no agreement on how to tackle these problems. There is no silver bullet solution-a great many things are going to have to change in California to solve these problems.

Let me suggest two things to start.

First, “Reinventing Government” author and Clinton administration management expert David Osborne provides part of the solution in a new Reason study on how California can build a better budget. The Next California Budget urges the governor and legislature to start from scratch. Rank education versus transportation versus state prisons and evaluate specific programs within these areas. Not everything can be funded, so what are the state’s specific goals and top priorities? What are citizens demanding and what are they willing to live without? Do taxpayers want to reduce spending or raise taxes to achieve the goals they set?

Our nation is struggling with the worst economy of our lifetime. Across the state, some 2.3 million Californians are out of work, and Fresno County’s unemployment rate was a staggering 18.2 percent in January.

Given these difficult times, it’s critically important that our representatives in Washington fight for our state by championing fiscally responsible legislation that promotes economic growth, creates jobs and pays down our debt.

Carly Fiorina is a true fiscal conservative who understands that Californians are very concerned about the state of our economy. She has the real-world experience and grit to stand up and fight for us. I know Carly will be a staunch advocate for the people of California in Washington, and that’s why I am so pleased to endorse her candidacy for U.S. Senate.

In a recent article that appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent, Nick Welch, the paper’s executive editor, let the cat out of the bag as it relates to Pedro Nava’s true motive for pushing AB1604, which if passed would impose a 10% severance tax on California domestic oil production. In the article, Nick points out that Nava’s reason for pushing this new tax legislation is to gain favor with environmentalists who he hopes will help him in his race for Attorney General.

In other words, the Nava oil tax scheme isn’t about good fiscal policy, sound economic policy, or even smart environmental policy…it is about politics and Pedro’s personal ambition. And that is of course bad enough. But it’s even worse when you consider the impacts on our state’s families if Nava’s oil tax scheme were to become law.

Indeed, if passed, Nava’s oil tax scheme would be imposed on all of California’s oil and gas operators’ gross oil production. Nava and his bill’s proponents claim this is justified in light of the fact that Texas and Alaska impose a similar tax. They suggest, therefore, that California is giving oil companies that do business in this state a "free ride".

Notice to our Readers: Fox and Hounds Daily regular contributor John Wildermuth will be absent from our site for at least several months. John has accepted a temporary reporter’s position at his former home, the San Francisco Chronicle. We will miss him at F&HD and are grateful for the time he spent with us. –Editor

Great quotes never die, especially in politics, where they tend to reappear in opposition research reports and in 30-second TV spots. Here are a few of the comments most likely to echo through the remainder of the 2010 campaign.

1. “Can you say ‘senator’ instead of ‘ma’am’? It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title.”

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer to Army Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh.

An instant favorite with Republicans already convinced of Boxer’s arrogance and disrespect for the military. A guaranteed part of the fall campaign, regardless of who wins the GOP primary.

2. “I was focused on raising a family, on my husband’s career, and we moved many, many times.”

Meg Whitman on why she almost never voted until she was 46 years old.

This isn’t an explanation that will go over well with the millions of California women who raised families, helped their husbands and still managed to vote, all without the nannies, household help and jumbo paychecks Whitman and her neurosurgeon husband cashed.

Leading California politicians and unions are fighting electronic signature gathering here. This week, the European Union embraced it.

The occasion was the announcement of legislation to implement a new citizen’s initiative process for the 27 members states of the EU. The ECI, or European Citizen’s Initiative, was part of the new European constitution approved last December. This isn’t a ballot initiative, though it may be a precursor to one. This initiative process allows citizens, by gathering 1 million signature across 9 different states of the EU, to introduce legislation for the continent. That puts the people on par with the member state governments and the European Commission (the EU’s executive body), which currently are the only two entities that can introduce legislation.

The news here are the choices the Europeans appear to be making about how to structure the new signature gathering process. In almost every way, their process represents a vast improvement on what we have in California. Consider just two features:

The USC/L.A. Times health care poll released over the weekend could prove the oft-stated observation that a poll represents only a “snapshot in time.” The poll indicates that, unlike other regions of the country, Californians are in favor of the health care reforms recently signed into law by the president. By a 46%-29% margin poll respondents said they would vote for a congress member who voted for the bill.

However, from comments made by those polled it appears people like the “idea” of health care reform, even if they don’t know how this particular reform package will play out.

One respondent told the Times that he did not understand the mechanics of the bill but was positive toward it because: “I just know we have an issue with healthcare. To see something being done about it makes me happy.”

Some who have taken a closer look at the reform package have come to a different conclusion, but the question we are exploring here is will the favorable attitude represented in the poll hold?