Saturday, February 20, 2010

Candidate Filing: Week 1 Update

It was a slow start to the first official week of candidate filing for state and federal offices. Only three candidates from the Three Corners region have started the nomination filing process. The process involves paying the filing fee, gathering enough nomination signatures and filling forms that officially place a candidate on the ballot.

Those beginning the nomination process are Assemblyman Chris Norby (72nd Assembly seat), Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod (32nd Senate Seat) and Michael Williamson (42nd Congressional).

Signatures gathered on Signatures in-lieu forms apply to the nomination signatures required. Our most recent signatures in-lieu update provides the names of those that gathered signatures in-lieu. It is not necessary to gather these signatures but most candidates do. So far, Assemblyman Norby is the only candidate that did not.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Liberatore Campaign Kick Off this Sunday

Congressional candidate Philip Liberatore will be hosting his campaign Kick-Off Reception this Sunday, February 21, at 2pm. Contact the campaign at (714) 310-3062 for more information.

Liberatore is challenging Rep. Gary Miller for the Republican nomination in the 42nd Congressional district.

Orange County Group offers Scorecard on Local Officials

Liberty First has created a scorecard for city councilmembers and County Supervisors in Orange County. Officials are rated on three categories; freedoms/good governance, fiscal issues, and property rights.

H/T to Chris Emami at Red County.

Note: When looking at the scores remember that we don't know the motive behind the scorecard, who is paying for it or why certain votes were scored.

Monday, February 15, 2010

A Ban on a College Tuition Break for Illegal Immigrants?

Yesterday we posted a story about the Daily Bulletin's article on legislation co-sponsored by Rep. Gary Miller and Buck McKeon to ban automatic citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants. We also posted a story on the positions of the 42nd Republican Congressional candidates on the issue.

The Daily Bulletin has another article on another piece of pending legislation in Congress dealing with illegal immigration. The bill, supported by Rep. Buck McKeon and Gary Miller, would ban illegal immigrants from receiving in-state college tuition. California allows illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition.

Rep. Miller told the Daily Bulletin,"You're telling me somebody who is an American citizen, was born here and parents pay taxes has to pay more than somebody here illegally. That's not right. We have a shortage of space for many students and you have limited dollars. With the dollars available, they should first be applied to people that are legally in this country and are citizens."

As I did for yesterday's post I will list the position of the other candidates for the 42nd Congressional race.

Rep. Gary Miller opposes in-state tuition for illegals, as is noted above.

David Su does not have a website or way to find out his position.

Lee McGroarty does not specifically address the issue in his immigration section. However in discussing what to do with the illegal immigrants already here, he proposes a program that would allow them to stay in the country. While in the program they would have to adhere to certain standards including, "No welfare programs or government assistance available while in program."

Philip Liberatore does not mention the issue of illegal immigration on his site.

Michael Williamson does not state a specific position but does mention the issue on his site under the immigration section. "Michael Williamson, a front line criminal justice professional has seen the streets of Los Angeles invaded by illegal aliens who have enjoyed the sanctuary protection of Special Order 40, taxpayer paid in-state school tuition for illegal migrants, and government acceptance of the sham matricula consular identification cards from Mexico."

Louie Contreras does not currently have a campaign web site.

Most Read Stories: Week of Feb 8-14

1. More on Liberatore Jumping into 42nd Race
2. Liberatore Uses Book Endorsements for Campaign?
3. Daily Bulletin forgets about Phil Liberatore, David Su and Michael Bryant?
4. Orange County Register: Running for Congress costs a million
5. McGroarty campaign website runs false support list?

Sunday, February 14, 2010

42nd Candidates on Birthright Citizenship

As we posted earlier, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin wrote an article on the position of local Member of Congress on Birthright Citizenship when it comes to illegal immigration.

I thought I would see if any of the 42nd Congressional candidates have a position on this important.

Obviously Rep. Gary Miller opposes automatic citizenship for children of illegal immigrants since he is a co-sponsor of the bill that would clarify the 14th Amendment. That clarification would ban automatic citizenship for children born to parents illegally in the United States.

David Su does not have a web site yet, so we can't find out his position.

Philip Liberatore does not address his positions on illegal immigration on his web site.

Lee McGroarty's section on immigration says,"Children born in the United States are citizens under the Constitution. However, those not born here and are under this program will not benefit from any public assistance." (The second sentence seems to be missing a word, but I copied the quote just like it is on the web site).

Local Members of Congress on Birthright Citizenship

The Daily Bulletin has an article written by Stephen Wall about efforts by two local Congressman to clarify the 14th Amendment when it comes to immigration, effectively banning automatic citizenship for children of illegal aliens. It allows us to see where our elected officials stand on this important issue.

Rep. Gary Miller, a co-sponsor, addressing the costs of automatic citizenship says, "You have many people coming to this country illegally. They come to this country and have babies. The children are citizens. The children are eligible to go to school. They receive food stamps and social programs. The American taxpayers are paying for it."

Rep. Joe Baca calls the bill "unconstitutional."

Rep. Grace Napolitano declined comment on the bill.

Rep. Buck McKeon, a co-sponsor who represents portions of San Bernardino County, addressing the need for the bill says, "There's an incentive for people to come here and quickly have a baby. Since the baby is a citizen, it's harder to send the family back to where they came from if they came illegally. Now you have a citizen and it would split up the family."

Rep. Jerry Lewis, according to the article, has not yet taken a position on the bill.

Read the article for more comments including comment from Rep. David Dreier's office, and more from Rep. Baca, Miller and McKeon.