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CAGOP Elects Platform Drafting Committee

Feature Article: Keep California Safe Act

UPCOMING GOP EVENTS

View more details for events on the Calendar of Upcoming Events or view the Monthly Calendar of Events.

CAGOP Elects Platform Drafting Committee

In June, members of the CAGOP Platform Committee elected 54 of their members to serve on the Platform Drafting Committee. The drafting committee will be chaired by Northern Regional Vice President Deborah Wilder and will meet on July 27 in Los Angeles.

At that meeting, the drafting committee will consider adopting an initial draft platform from among the numerous proposals submitted by CAGOP delegates. Then they will consider amendments to that draft. In total there are 40 platform proposals and amendments listed on the Delegates Only website of the California Republican Party.

The draft platform recommended by the drafting committee will be considered by the full platform committee and then all CAGOP delegates at the September convention in Indian Wells.

You can see a list of the Bay Area members of both the Platform and Drafting Committees on the Platform Committee page. You will also find a link to the convention registration form on the Convention page. We look forward to seeing you in Indian Wells.

 

Keep California Safe Act

Nina Salarno Besselman visited the Bay Area recently and gave a powerful explanation of the importance of supporting the upcoming Keep California Safe Initiative.  The initiative measure will stop early release of violent criminals, reform theft laws, and expand DNA collection from convicts.  It will be on the statewide ballot in November of 2020.
 
Assembly Bill 109, the “realignment” bill which was enacted in 2011, and Propositions 47 and 57, which were passed in 2014 and 2016, all released “non-violent” prisoners from state prison or reduced their sentences.  While some of these changes may be appropriate, Besselman believes that they went too far.  Two examples cited in the campaign to qualify the Initiative are assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence.
 
Proposition 47 classified some “non-serious, nonviolent crimes” as misdemeanors rather than felonies and allowed early release, which helped reduce the state prison population.  However, some crimes, such as sex trafficking of children, rape of an unconscious person, felony assault with a deadly weapon, and battery on a police officer were considered nonviolent.  The Keep Cal Safe (KCS) initiative will prohibit early release for these crimes.
 
Proposition 47 also increased the limit for theft and shoplifting to $950 before being considered a felony.  An Independent Institute report says that, “One of the most notable changes ushered in by Prop 47 was a sudden increase in the rate of motor vehicle break-in thefts. Informally known as “smash-and-grab” burglaries, these offenses became especially more likely in densely populated cities throughout the state.”  The KCS initiative will add a new felony for Serial Theft, when a person is caught for the third time stealing with a value of $250.
 
KCS also reinstates DNA collection for certain crimes.  Besselman pointed out that the Golden State Killer cold case was finally solved with DNA evidence.  She says that more crimes can be solved with more DNA information in the database, and persons convicted of minor crimes are sometimes also guilty of a major crime.
 
There is a large coalition supporting the KCS initiative, including the California District Attorneys Association, the California Peace Officers’ Association, and the California Police Chiefs Association.
 
There’s a reason Nina Salarno Besselman is intense in her drive for justice.  Her involvement with criminal justice began when she was eleven years old, and her older sister Catina Rose was murdered execution style on her first day of college.  After Nina’s family learned that crime victims had few rights, her mother Harriet Salerno co-founded Crime Victims United, a victims advocacy organization.  Nina became a lawyer and a prosecutor and today serves as president of Crime Victims United.
 
You can learn more about the Keep California Safe initiative and donate to it at their website, keepcalsafe.org.

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GOP IN THE NEWS

Another legislative attack on transparency

By Jon Coupal and Jay Obernolte
Opinion for Los Angeles Daily News
July 7, 2019

Just two weeks ago, this column exposed the abject lack of transparency in the state budget process. But the way the Legislature enacts its spending plan is just one of many ways Sacramento politicians attack transparency.

In recent years, taxpayer advocacy groups have pushed for greater disclosures in local bond and tax measures. These efforts received bipartisan support as they were simply good government bills. Assembly Bill 809 and AB 195 were authored by Assemblyman Jay Obernolte in 2015 and 2016.  Taken together, these bills require that the tax rate, duration and amount of revenue to be raised by a tax or bond measure must be revealed on the 75-word ballot label, as opposed to being buried deep in the pages of the sample ballot booklet. This places the most critical information about a tax proposal in a place where voters will actually see it.

But tax-and-spend interests, mostly public-sector labor organizations, have never liked transparency and now, with their influence in the legislature greater than ever, seek to keep voters in the dark on local fiscal measures on the ballot.

Read More

Does Spending More on Schools Pay Off?

By Dan Walters
Fox & Hounds
June 24, 2019

As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget was being wrought, the perennial issue of spending on K-12 education was thrashed out once again.

The education establishment – professional educators, their unions, their political allies and sympathetic academicians  – complained anew that California schools are being shorted the money they need to raise achievement levels of the state’s nearly 6 million elementary and secondary students.

The newly elected state schools superintendent, former Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, has postulated that California needs to be spending another $30 billion a year – roughly $5,000 more per pupil – to adequately educate its youngsters.

Read More

Healthcare tax for citizens, free healthcare for noncitizens

By Jon Coupal
Opinion for Daily Breeze
June 16, 2019

If there was any question whatsoever as to whether California has gone completely off the rails, proposals in the new state budget should remove all doubt.  Perhaps the most egregious of these involve changes in state law as they relate to health care.

As of this writing, those proposals have yet to be adopted by both houses of the legislature – which is constitutionally required to pass the budget bill by June 15th every year – but statements by legislative leaders have caused a great deal of angst among the taxpayer public.

Read More

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Publisher’s Message: Train. Campaign. Win. At CAGOP Convention

Feature Article: Keep California Safe Act

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LIST OF UPCOMING GOP EVENTS

View more details for events on the Calendar of Upcoming Events or view the Monthly Calendar of Events.

GOP In the News

Another legislative attack on transparency

By Jon Coupal and Jay Obernolte
Opinion for Los Angeles Daily News
July 7, 2019

Just two weeks ago, this column exposed the abject lack of transparency in the state budget process. But the way the Legislature enacts its spending plan is just one of many ways Sacramento politicians attack transparency.

In recent years, taxpayer advocacy groups have pushed for greater disclosures in local bond and tax measures. These efforts received bipartisan support as they were simply good government bills. Assembly Bill 809 and AB 195 were authored by Assemblyman Jay Obernolte in 2015 and 2016.  Taken together, these bills require that the tax rate, duration and amount of revenue to be raised by a tax or bond measure must be revealed on the 75-word ballot label, as opposed to being buried deep in the pages of the sample ballot booklet. This places the most critical information about a tax proposal in a place where voters will actually see it.

But tax-and-spend interests, mostly public-sector labor organizations, have never liked transparency and now, with their influence in the legislature greater than ever, seek to keep voters in the dark on local fiscal measures on the ballot.

Read More

Nina Salarno Besselman takes the lead for the Keep California Safe Act

CAGOP Elects Platform Drafting Committee

In June, members of the CAGOP Platform Committee elected 54 of their members to serve on the Platform Drafting Committee. The drafting committee will be chaired by Northern Regional Vice President Deborah Wilder and will meet on July 27 in Los Angeles.

At that meeting, the drafting committee will consider adopting an initial draft platform from among the numerous proposals submitted by CAGOP delegates. Then they will consider amendments to that draft. In total there are 40 platform proposals and amendments listed on the Delegates Only website of the California Republican Party.

The draft platform recommended by the drafting committee will be considered by the full platform committee and then all CAGOP delegates at the September convention in Indian Wells.

You can see a list of the Bay Area members of both the Platform and Drafting Committees on the Platform Committee page. You will also find a link to the convention registration form on the Convention page. We look forward to seeing you in Indian Wells.

 


Keep California Safe Act

Nina Salarno Besselman visited the Bay Area recently and gave a powerful explanation of the importance of supporting the upcoming Keep California Safe Initiative.  The initiative measure will stop early release of violent criminals, reform theft laws, and expand DNA collection from convicts.  It will be on the statewide ballot in November of 2020.

Assembly Bill 109, the “realignment” bill which was enacted in 2011, and Propositions 47 and 57, which were passed in 2014 and 2016, all released “non-violent” prisoners from state prison or reduced their sentences.  While some of these changes may be appropriate, Besselman believes that they went too far.  Two examples cited in the campaign to qualify the Initiative are assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence.

Proposition 47 classified some “non-serious, nonviolent crimes” as misdemeanors rather than felonies and allowed early release, which helped reduce the state prison population.  However, some crimes, such as sex trafficking of children, rape of an unconscious person, felony assault with a deadly weapon, and battery on a police officer were considered nonviolent.  The Keep Cal Safe (KCS) initiative will prohibit early release for these crimes.

Proposition 47 also increased the limit for theft and shoplifting to $950 before being considered a felony.  An Independent Institute report says that, “One of the most notable changes ushered in by Prop 47 was a sudden increase in the rate of motor vehicle break-in thefts. Informally known as “smash-and-grab” burglaries, these offenses became especially more likely in densely populated cities throughout the state.”  The KCS initiative will add a new felony for Serial Theft, when a person is caught for the third time stealing with a value of $250.

KCS also reinstates DNA collection for certain crimes.  Besselman pointed out that the Golden State Killer cold case was finally solved with DNA evidence.  She says that more crimes can be solved with more DNA information in the database, and persons convicted of minor crimes are sometimes also guilty of a major crime.

There is a large coalition supporting the KCS initiative, including the California District Attorneys Association, the California Peace Officers’ Association, and the California Police Chiefs Association.

There’s a reason Nina Salarno Besselman is intense in her drive for justice.  Her involvement with criminal justice began when she was eleven years old, and her older sister Catina Rose was murdered execution style on her first day of college.  After Nina’s family learned that crime victims had few rights, her mother Harriet Salerno co-founded Crime Victims United, a victims advocacy organization.  Nina became a lawyer and a prosecutor and today serves as president of Crime Victims United.

You can learn more about the Keep California Safe initiative and donate to it at their website, keepcalsafe.org.

GOP IN THE NEWS 

 

Does Spending More on Schools Pay Off?

By Dan Walters
Fox & Hounds
June 24, 2019

As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first budget was being wrought, the perennial issue of spending on K-12 education was thrashed out once again.

The education establishment – professional educators, their unions, their political allies and sympathetic academicians  – complained anew that California schools are being shorted the money they need to raise achievement levels of the state’s nearly 6 million elementary and secondary students.

The newly elected state schools superintendent, former Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, has postulated that California needs to be spending another $30 billion a year – roughly $5,000 more per pupil – to adequately educate its youngsters.

Read More

Healthcare tax for citizens, free healthcare for noncitizens

By Jon Coupal
Opinion for Daily Breeze
June 16, 2019

If there was any question whatsoever as to whether California has gone completely off the rails, proposals in the new state budget should remove all doubt.  Perhaps the most egregious of these involve changes in state law as they relate to health care.

As of this writing, those proposals have yet to be adopted by both houses of the legislature – which is constitutionally required to pass the budget bill by June 15th every year – but statements by legislative leaders have caused a great deal of angst among the taxpayer public.

Read More

Budget expediency overwhelms logic

By Dan Walters
CALmatters
June 13, 2019

Many factors go into making political deals – ideology, self-interest, expediency and emotion to mention just a few.

Logic rarely enters the equation, and if it does, it usually dwells at the bottom in importance.

Two cases in point are to be found in the final deal on a $213 billion state budget that was hammered out last weekend, just a few days before the June 15 deadline, by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders.

Read More

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