Calvert: “In this bill, trial lawyers win big”

Dem Health Care Plan? There’s an App for That

Calvert: Too much spending, too little return

Calvert to Dems: Where are the Jobs?

Ranking Member Issa’s Opening Statement: AIG Is Just The First Political Bankruptcy We’ll See

Join Congressman Issa at the upcoming Liberty Dinner on October 24th at Morongo Casino Resort and Spa. Don’t miss this oppurtunity! Tickets are selling out fast.

For details, click here.

Time for California to Make Reforms in Education

By Assemblyman Brian Nestande, As Published in the Desert Sun

I am honored to serve as the vice chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, and I look forward to working with the governor and my colleagues in the Legislature to enact meaningful reforms that will improve the delivery of education for our children.

While there will be many issues that emerge in the special session. I am focused on making changes in several areas:

Using test results in evaluating teachers
Remove barriers in state law that prohibit using student achievement on state testing in the formal evaluation of teachers. This is necessary because it is a requirement in the proposed federal “Race to the Top” grants. While I am in support of this concept, I also believe that student test data should be only one factor in evaluating teacher performance.

There are several conditions that impact students’ standardized test scores, including parental involvement, public safety (such as gangs in the community and on school campuses) and language barriers. Ultimately, a “value-added” analysis, such as evaluating a teacher’s success at making progress with a pupil, is the most logical way to incorporate pupil performance into formal teacher evaluations.

Enhancing accountability
I favor crafting reforms that promote innovative approaches that properly distribute accountability, while granting the necessary decision-making authority to those who are held accountable.

For example, there is evidence of success in educational models that allow a principal to be in complete control of his or her school, and then hold that principal accountable for results. To promote such models, it would be necessary to enact changes in law that will allow the principal to hire and fire whomever they think will do the best job.

Also, incentives could be enacted to encourage school districts to allow the principal to spend monies wherever they deem necessary. Furthermore, the state should do away with or minimize “categorical funding” which dictates to school districts how funds must be spent rather than allowing local decisions to be made based upon the unique circumstances of each local school.

Charter schools
The proposed “Race to the Top” regulations favor fewer restrictions on charter schools. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has suggested that California should lift the current cap on the number of charter schools allowed. I favor educational choice and welcome this change in state law.

I propose, in addition, that we focus on which charter schools work best and why, and then initiate incentives to duplicate that success in the lowest-performing schools across the state.

School vouchers for special education
Funding for special education is overwhelming school budgets, yet special needs children are not always getting adequate attention. Rather than forcing parents to fight with school districts over appropriate levels of care, why not give them the option of purchasing those services from a private vendor or a school that has excelled in that area of service.

The bottom line for my approach in achieving educational reform is to experiment and promote innovation. The best way to approach reform is to encourage innovation at the local level, while maintaining high standards and enforcing accountability by empowering parents through greater choice and flexibility.

We should exchange the “command and control” model that favors mandates from Sacramento and Washington, D.C., for a model that promotes local innovation and grants local authority.

New CRP Video “Hypocrisy”

CRP Statement Concerning the U.S. Senate Race in California

SACRAMENTO – California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring issued the following statement today:
 
“The Field Poll confirms that Barbara Boxer remains one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats seeking re-election.  Despite being very well known to the California electorate, or perhaps because of it, she barely clings to 50% support today against challengers who have yet to fully introduce themselves to the voters this early in the cycle. 
 
“Barbara Boxer has had almost 18 years to convince Californians she can effectively represent them – in all those years in the Senate she has authored just three laws, one of which was to name a river in Virginia.  No wonder she can’t close the deal with California voters.
 
“What should further concern Barbara Boxer is that this poll relies on the responses of registered voters as opposed to likely voters, which significantly discounts Republican turnout strength.  The voting electorate next November will be more heavily Republican than the Field Poll’s sample, making Boxer even more vulnerable to defeat, which is good news not only for Republicans, but for the people of California who deserve better representation in Washington, DC.”

BOXER FULL OF “PURE RACE.”  National Black Chamber of Commerce President takes deep offense at Boxer’s interruptions and comments during this hearing on global warming legislation.

CALL ME SENATOR.  Barbara Boxer takes offense at being called “Ma’am” by a Brigadier General during a senate hearing.

DRESSED TO PROTEST.  Barbara Boxer has issues with how health care protesters are dressed.

Issa on NBC’s Today Show: “Should Rangel Still Be The Tax Man?”

Join Congressman Darrell Issa at the 2009 Liberty Dinner on October 24th at Morongo Casino Resort and spa.

For details, click here.

Pelosi Leads Congress to 72% Disapproval

Only 1 in 5 independents approve of Democrat-controlled Congress, majority of Democrats disapprove too
 
SACRAMENTO – While Barack Obama’s public approval continues to plummet, down at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue California’s Nancy Pelosi has led the Democrat-controlled Congress to the point where 72% of Americans now disapprove of the job Congress is doing.
 
Significantly, only 16% of independent voters approve of Congress today, and even a majority of Democrats now disapprove, according to the latest Gallup survey.

According to Gallup, “Approval of Congress today is significantly below the average 36% rating found across the past two decades.”

The steep decline in Congressional approval is only the latest indicator pointing to increasing public rejection of the job Democrats are doing in Washington.

Republican Party self-identification has climbed from 35% to 40%.  Partisan affiliation is one of the strongest predictors of voting behavior.  Over 80%, and often over 90%, of voters will cast ballots for the candidate of the party in which they are registered.  Higher party self-identification rates mean a larger base of likely support for candidates of that party.

The number of Americans identifying themselves as Republicans has risen substantially while Democrat self-identification has fallen, according to Gallup. Democrats enjoyed a 52% to 35% lead in party identification in January.  Today, their lead is only 5%, 45% to 40%.

Generic ballot strength now reflects Republican advantage.  Asking likely voters to indicate which party’s candidate for Congress they intend to support in the next election is a key indicator of how voters view each party, and can serve as a valuable predictor of voting behavior.

At no point in 2008 did Republicans lead Democrats in this key test, serving as a predictor of the further gains the party would enjoy in the November election.  That dynamic, however, has now reversed.
 
Republicans now lead in the generic ballot test by single digits, and have held that lead since June, according to Rasmussen Reports.  

Big drop in presidential approval rating.  Although Barack Obama will not appear on the November 2010 ballot, his public approval rating will have a direct correlation with his party’s performance in the mid-term election.

In 10 of the the last 12 mid-term elections, the party in control of the White House has experienced a net loss of seats in Congress, as well as total state legislative seats held.  There is also a direct correlation between the incumbent President’s approval rating on Election Day, and the number of seats his party has lost.  This is because the President is the single largest defining factor for his party in the minds of voters. 
 
Barack Obama’s public approval rating has plummeted since he took office, according to all major polling firms.  Rasmussen Reports shows Obama’s approval rating has dropped from a high of 65% upon his taking office, to 48% today, a decline of 17% in eight months.  On average, Presidents whose approval rating was under 50% on the day of their mid-term elections have experienced an average loss of 41 House seats.