Folks, those of you who are politically in the know probably already know that San Diego is, by and large, a Republican enclave; however, they happen to have an ACORN office in San Diego County. And like the other ACORN offices who got “caught in the act” elsewhere, the San Diego branch got taped. And guess what else? The California Attorney General, former California governor Jerry Brown, may be involved to at least a small degree.

To recap, on October 1, Brown announced that announced that an investigation hyad been opened into ACORN’s activities in the state of California, which were a result of undercover videos showing the organization’s employees offering to assist the two undercover filmmakers with human smuggling, child prostitution and even tax advice (no different than the other tapes). as per custom, ACORN denied any wrongdoing, some of their employees were terminated and ACORN even pledged to cooperate with any investigations that followed.

That’s interesting, considering that the local head ACORN organizer in California, David Langstein, was caught on tape earlier this month, speaking to an East County (San Diego County) Democratic Club. Both audio clips can be heard by clicking here.

In addition to the audio clips, the National City (San Diego suburb) ACORN office engaged in a massive “document dump” on the evening of October 9, which contained thousands of sensitive documents – just a few days before the Attorney General’s visit. While the “document dump” is kind of newsworthy, what is interesting is the manner in which the dump occurred; the documents in question were dumped in a public dumpster, without considering laws and regulations in to how sensitive information should be treated. That’s irresponsibility at its finest, folks.

Some of the “dumped” documents include not only the inner workings of ACORN within the state of California, but also personal, sensitive information belonging to ACORN employees, organization members and clients of ACORN. Of course, I’d be remiss in not including some San Diego ACORN shenanigans on video.

ACORN, as deep in doo-doo as they already are, are about to get in it even deeper. By the way, below are the “Dumped” documents in question.

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Document1 –

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Document2 –

SanDiegoACORNDocumentDumpScandal-100909-Document3 –

A big thanks to Big Goverment.com!

Republicans are taking advantage of a scandal that involves the former and future Democratic candidate for governor of California, Jerry Brown.

A former aide of current Attorney General Brown admitted that he illegally secretly recorded phone calls with journalists. The aide in question, Scott Gerber, recorded six interviews before he was forced to resign.

In damage control mode following the resignation of the staffer, Brown pledged to fully investigate the matter.

One problem, though, is that the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in the Golden State is investigating himself as he gears up for a run for gov.

Dane Gillette, Brown’s chief assistant attorney general, wrote a report that found the taping didn’t require a criminal investigation because the conversations were “on the record” with a journalist.

State law prohibits the recording of telephone conversations without the consent of all parties.

A Republican online ad is running, which begins with the phrase, “Jerry Brown is at it again.”

The ad points out the conflict and states, “We just can’t trust you [Brown] on this one.”

As those of you who have been following the progress of Proposition 8 already know, this Thursday is a day of reckoning, so to speak as the California state Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the measure; in the meantime, the state Legislature approved a resolution on Monday  declaring that voters alone did not have the right to adopt the gay marriage ban.  Fortunately, the resolution is non-binding.  At the hearing, the court will hear oral arguments on the measure; State Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office will argue that this measure violates an “inalienable right of liberty” in the state constitution.

Specifically, the resolution contends that Proposition 8 – which defines marriage as only between a man and woman – was an improper revision of the state constitution; the resolution also states that the measure – which voters approves in November 2008 – oversteps the authority of the courts to enforce equal protection and prevent government discrimination.  The resolution was sponsored by Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), an openly gay member of the Legislature.

I predict that on Thursday, the court will find that the measure is valid in its current form; just know that the voters approved the measure not once, but twice.

Well folks, it certainly didn’t take long for former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to come to a decision as according to Shane Goldmacher of The Sacramento Bee, Whitman has officially submitted her bid to run for governor on Monday.

Some things to know about Whitman:

• She is a political novice; she has never in her life held political office.  Assuming she is elected, she would be the first female governor in the state’s history.
• She was an adviser to Mitt Romney’s campaign, then John McCain’s.
• She hasn’t made public her positions on many issues, including stem-cell research all the way to balancing the state’s budget.  The only position to date that I know of is that she does support Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage.
• She registered as a Republican in 2007 and according to reports, she didn’t vote in half of the elections that have taken place since 2002.

So what does all of this mean?  In my humble opinion, not a heck of a lot – for right now.  There’s not a whole lot of info on Whitman, other than what I’ve posted already, so for the moment, I’m going to keep an open mind about Whitman until more facts come out.

Whitman will have a lot of competition – including some Democrats – in the bid for the state governorship; below are the current participants in the gubernatorial race:

• State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner
• Tom Campbell.  He was a former congressman, U.S. Senate candidate and state budget director.
• Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi
• San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom (I just cannot see that happening)
• State Attorney General Jerry Brown (God, I hope not!!)
• U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
• Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (tentative)
• Former state controller Steve Westly
• State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell (Who?!?!)

When this list becomes a bit more transparent and definitive, The Republican Temple will keep you posted.