Free Republic

All of the congressional Republicans with viable 2016 presidential ambitions voted against the bill enacted overnight to reopen the government and increase federal borrowing. So did two members of the Senate GOP leadership and three members of the party’s House leadership. The opponents also included a majority of the Republicans who are chairmen of House committees and most of the members of the House GOP caucus who aspire to election to the Senate next year. While the Democrats were unified in their support for the legislation, a review of Wednesday night’s back-to-back roll calls in Congress reveals just how divided...

First and foremost, it's obvious on the face of it to be able to say that the six Republican legislators (Senators Ashburn, Cogdill and Maldonado and Assemblymen Adams, Niello and Villines) who actually voted for the bill that imposed over $14 billion in new taxes were critical to its passage. Shame on them. But in taking some time to contemplate the politics of the final hours of this Big 5/Big Taxes deal passing out of the legislature, you have to say, how did it happen? You needed three Republicans to support the actual tax increase legislation, and they were one...

U.S. Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, today announced his endorsement of state Sen. Jeff Denham for lieutenant governor of California. "He has a proven record of independence, integrity and fiscal responsibility as a state senator," McCain said in a release from Denham's office. "He also offers valuable life experiences as a successful businessman and veteran who has served his country admirably. "As a farmer, business owner and legislator, Jeff Denham has worked hard to create and save jobs in California. He is a committed reformer who has aggressively promoted innovative ideas to restructure and modernize state government...

He denounced it as a political stunt and power play, but was the recall campaign against state Sen. Jeff Denham the best thing to ever happen to his political career? The upside for the Atwater Republican grew immensely this week when Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, called off the campaign. Denham, who has raised considerable funds to fight the effort, vowed Thursday to continue his defense because his name will still be on the ballot June 3. Indeed, some local Democrats intend to keep campaigning against the senator on a grass-roots level. Ads against him have already run. But Denham...

State Senate leader Don Perata on Thursday said the recall drive he is backing against a Central Valley Republican will help Democrats pass a budget with tax increases if it succeeds. If Sen. Jeff Denham of Merced is replaced by the lone Democrat on the recall ballot, it would leave Democrats just one vote short of the two-thirds majority they need to pass the budget in the Senate. "If I have an opportunity of picking up a Democrat who would support a balanced approach to solving the budget problem, I'm going to do that," Perata, the Senate's president pro tem,...

Jeff Denham is a corageous Republican from a democrat leaning district. He refused to vote for an unbalanced budget last summer. As a result, he is being targeted in a Recall of Revenge funded by democratic leadership. Register your support for Jeff in this poll (Right sidebar)

Ted Costa isn't one to take government tomfoolery lying down. Costa, who heads the People's Advocate political watchdog group and was a leading architect of the 2003 recall campaign that toppled Gov. Gray Davis, is incensed that Democrats are trying to recall Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater. Chief among Denham's alleged crimes is that he opposed the state budget last year. But Costa says he's thinking about launching a recall against Senate-leader-to-be Darrell Steinberg, unless Steinberg repudiates the Denham recall effort. Costa's grounds: Steinberg helped get the state in its current fiscal mess by supporting last year's budget. "The budget is...

When Mike Genest's appointment as state finance director came before the Senate last year, I voted against his confirmation. Although I had supported both of his predecessors, Genest had already demonstrated a willingness to cook the state's books in a manner that we hadn't seen since the Davis years. In the time since his confirmation, he has produced the biggest single-year general fund deficit in California's history and employed accounting gimmickry that would make an Enron accountant blush. These qualities are on full display in his recent attack (Aug. 10, Page B-7) on Sen. Jeff Denham's courageous stand for a...

He accused GOP lawmakers of continuing to withhold their votes, even after all their demands related to the budget had been met, in hopes of extracting other policy concessions. "All of a sudden, now we've got to work on this, we've got to work on that," Schwarzenegger said. "So they are adding things. We say today, don't keep adding things. You are hurting people. People in California are suffering. Lay off. Pass the budget." Though Schwarzenegger didn't mention Cogdill by name, he did single out Cogdill's fellow GOP holdout, Sen. Jeff Denham, a Republican whose district includes nearby Merced. Denham,...

The fate of the overdue state budget hangs on one vote, but Jeff Denham says this time it won't be his. The Atwater Republican senator, who used to be one of the Democrats' go-to guys for votes, vows he will not cave on the budget this year. He says he's determined despite enduring several political punches, the latest of which involves a recall effort in his competitive Central Valley district. "I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated or pressured into voting for anything," said the almond farmer and business owner. "I think it's the right thing to do." Denham's...

Three state senators called Wednesday for the ouster of University of California President Robert Dynes over a pay-perk controversy that has roiled the prestigious public research institution. Sens. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, and Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, called on Dynes to resign at a news conference in Sacramento. In a related move, Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, called UC Regents Chairman Gerald Parsky and asked him to fire Dynes. ``Dynes still doesn't get it,'' Denham said in a statement. ``While at times, he has been a good cheerleader for the UC, he has been a horrible manager. He seems to think...

Denham attacks secret pay for top UC administratorsBEE STAFF REPORTS Last Updated: January 5, 2006, 08:48:50 AM PST -snip- The San Francisco Chronicle late last year revealed that last fiscal year the UC system gave out $871 million in hidden compensation over and above salaries and overtime for top UC employees. -snip- The Chronicle reports indicate that about 2,300 UC employees earn more than $200,000 a year, and nearly 500 make more than $300,000, and many of them get housing and car allowances, bonuses and administrative stipends in addition to their base pay.

SAN QUENTIN – Maligning San Quentin State Prison as "an expensive mistake," two state politicians this week urged officials to shutter the aging facility to save cash-strapped California millions of dollars. They also urged the state to back away from a plan to spend $220 million to improve the prison's death row facility. The California Department of Corrections is scheduled to break ground on a new death row this fall on 40 acres west of the existing prison on the San Francisco Bay in scenic Marin County. The legislators support a bill set to go before the Assembly Appropriations Committee...