If you are in a hurry and you don’t have the time to spend hours going through google links that lead you to a dead end, then you’ve come to the right place…The Juice.  Bookmark this page and you will have EVERYTHING you need to know about California and California Politics right here.  It will be updated often.  We hope that it saves you time!

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“State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has bolstered his gubernatorial campaign team by hiring three campaign veterans who worked for GOP presidential candidates John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

Let’s put this in some perspective.  Poizner just hired three people (Audrey Perry, Lanhee Chen, and Jarrod Agen) with experience in failed Republican presidential campaigns.  That’s not terribly impressive, is it?

And Poizner has become quite the gay hater.  “For the second year in a row, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has refused to issue a letter welcoming people to the state’s numerous Pride events,” according to the Bay Area Reporter. Read more…

How should we solve our budget crisis?  Vote for up to three of the choices below, in our survey:

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“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the leaders of the Assembly and Senate on Wednesday to scrap their plan to raise taxes to help close the state’s budget deficit, but the two Democrats insisted they would move ahead next week with a vote of the full Legislature,” according to the L.A. Times.

Wow!  It would appear that Arnold has finally grown some huevos.

In fact Arnold actually sent “a metal sculpture of bull testicles” to Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, this week, which “came with a note suggesting the lawmaker would need them to make some tough budget choices,” according to the L.A. Times. Read more…

Former Santa Ana Councilman Mike Garcia knew that shady Santa Ana developer Mike Harrah would try to move government offices into his proposed One Broadway Plaza building, so Garcia added a clause that forced Harrah to have to lease out half the building before the City of Santa Ana would allow him to build his monstrosity.

This week, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido told an audience at a fundraiser that “he may have found a way to meet the letter of that requirement, and quickly: Sign up the County of Orange as the tower’s major tenant. He said he had spoken with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week about using federal stimulus funds to move at least some county offices into the proposed tower,” according to the O.C. Register.

You read that correctly.  Pulido wants to waste federal money to move County of Orange offices to One Broadway Plaza.  Don’t forget that he has some allies over at the County.  Former Santa Ana Councilman Rob Richardson, who Pulido helped to get reelected last year to the SAUSD School Board, is the Assistant County CEO, and current lame Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante works as some kind of middle manager in the County Planning Department. Read more…

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Carrie Prejean’s “Miss California” crown has been taken away as she has been fired by Donald Trump and company.  Apparently she was in breach of contract for not doing her job - but a lot of folks are happy to see her go, given her hateful comments against gay marriage.

“Prejean, who insists she has been consistently cooperative, calls this whole firing thing “a political debate.” “They don’t agree with the stance that I took [on gay marriage]. Shanna [Moakler] is trying to bash me. They don’t like me. From Day One they wanted me out, and they got what they wanted,” according to the L.A. Times.

Good riddance!  Now Prejean can run around slamming gay marriage - and get paid for it by her Talibani Republican friends.

Prejean will be “replaced by runner-up Miss Malibu Tami Farrell, who has been standing by in the wings waiting to go onstage.”

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The only thing we know for sure about L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is that he knows how to score with female reporters.  I suppose if he was running for President of Viagra he would win in a landslide.  But seriously, how can anyone look at this guy as a legitimate gubernatorial candidate, in a state as troubled as California?  He is nothing more than a horn dog masquerading as a politician.

So what about his counterpart in San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom?  Sigh.  He is best known for sleeping with his campaign manager’s wife, while she was in a drug induced stupor, and of course those obnoxious Prop. 8 radio ads, where he was cast as the ultimate liberal bad guy.  He is a walking “no se puede.”

So can any other Democrats take out former and perhaps future Governor Jerry Brown, who is currently our State Attorney General? Read more…

Mike Richman was a GOP blogger, and a partisan hack, now he is busted!

Surprise, surprise.  More Republican corruption.  “Mike Richman, a top aide to Board of Equalization member Michelle Steel and the target of a San Bernardino County lawsuit alleging that he and others engaged in political work on government time, has resigned,” according to the Riverside Press Enterprise.

Steel is married to Shawn Steel, the former Chairman of the California Republican Party.  He has been trying to turn her into the next big thing for years.  It looks like the wheels are falling off their little red wagon now!

“Richman, a political consultant, oversaw Steel’s Republican primary campaign in 2006. He became Steel’s chief of staff Nov. 1 and earned $122,424 a year.”

Why would some political hack be qualified to serve as a Chief of Staff for a member of the Board of Equalization?

I found this information about Richman over at the awful Republican blog, the Flash Report, where, of course, Richman was a blogger: Read more…

New Assembly Republican leader Sam Blakeslee announced his new leadership team, according to the Sacramento Bee…and it is incredibly lame.

Here is the new GOP lineup, with mostly unknown legislators from every backwater you can imagine:

• The new whips, responsible for helping to coordinate floor operations, are Tom Berryhill of Modesto, Connie Conway of Tulare, Steve Knight of Palmdale, and Brian Nestande of Palm Desert.
• Blakeslee, of San Luis Obispo, previously announced the selections of Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita as caucus chairman; Ted Gaines, Roseville, caucus floor leader; and two deputy floor managers — Mike Duvall, of Yorba Linda, and Curt Hagman, of Chino Hills. Read more…

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A new poll released today by Capitol Weekly and Orange County GOP consultant Adam Probolosky has some bad news for California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is vying to be the Republican gubernatorial candidate to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Poizner apparently is not cutting it with Republican voters.

Over ten percent of Republican voters prefer Meg Whitman, a businesswoman  with little political experience, when you include the two percent who lean her way.  The real surprise is former Congressman Tom Campbell, who also worked as Budget Director for Schwarzenegger, who is coming in with 13% of the voters, including those who lean his way.  Poizner is coming in at less than 8%, plus .3% who lean his way.  No bueno for Poizner! Read more…

The California League of Cities has launched a new website, called “Save Your City,” in order to better communicate to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Legislators that “city governments are in no place to bail out the state. Cities have already made drastic cuts including employee layoffs and furloughs and cuts to critical services including those for public safety, seniors and youth.”

This innovative website features testimonials from city officials and concerned coalition partners and members of the public, telling state lawmakers about current fiscal conditions and potential devastation to cities should the state take local property taxes as has been done in the past. Each video uploaded is sent directly to the governor and appropriate legislator. Visitors to the site can conduct city, regional or legislative district-specific searches to find what’s being said about specific communities.

You can do a search to find your local elected on the site.  The site is constantly being updated with new videos - if your elected isn’t up now they may be very soon. Read more…

Mike Madrid, public affairs director of the California League of Cities, speaking about blogging

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Are blogs something that city managers and city politicians should be using to communicate with their constituents?  Increasingly the answer is yes - but for many local elected officials and city administrators this is still a thorny issue.

I spoke about blogging yesterday, in San Diego, at a conference of the California League of Cities.  The session was moderated by Mike Madrid, the public affairs director of the California League of Cities.  The panel included Rick Cole, the City Manager in Ventura.  Rick actually is a pioneer in the world of city blogging.  Click here to read the article he wrote about yesterday’s session, on his city manager’s blog.

Here is an excerpt from Rick’s post: Read more…

The good news is that gay couples that are already married get to stay married…

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Well, it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but our state’s top court did rule that the gay couples who got married last year can stay married - however Prop. 8 will stand.

I think that John Burton, the Chair of the California Democratic Party, got it right in his statement on the California Supreme Court ruling on Proposition 8:

Today’s decision, while heartbreaking, doesn’t end the historic struggle for marriage equality. It renews our dedication to making sure all California families can again enjoy the dignity, commitment and responsibility of marriage.

I commend the California Supreme Court for validating the rights of the 18,000 lesbian and gay couples who married last year before Proposition 8 passed. These couples and their children will continue to enjoy the full security and legal protection of marriage. Read more…