Legal blogger and former Riverside GOP Vice-Chair Ken Minesinger already posted on this article, but I thought it was good to rehash for Riverside readers.

Even as independent thinkers and leaders in their own right, Assemblymen Kevin Jeffries and Paul Cook (pictured here with San Jacinto Mayor Jim Ayres and Riverside Supervisor Jeff Stone) understand that politics is a team sport.  The Democrats vote to expand government.  We vote to limit government.

Jeffries and Cook voted with the GOP 96% and 93% of the time respectively.

...(Assemblyman Paul Cook) voted yes more than 1,400 times on the floor in 2007, with 428 no votes, including on this year's state budget. Of his yes votes, he parted ways with GOP leaders more than 100 times.
 
"I think I'm a very loyal member of my caucus. But my priority is to the people of my district," said Cook, who ended the year in a much larger office than when he started.

Party Experience

Jeffries was well aware of Sacramento's partisan divisions because of his years as chairman of the Riverside County Republican Party...

...Jeffries voted yes on 1,244 bills and resolutions and no on 617, parting ways with GOP leadership half as often as Cook...

Jeffries and Cook also ruled out any tax increases to help make up for the Democrats decade of overspending.  I wish I could say the same for lifelong Democratic hack Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina "I think we need to bite the bullet and make those (tax increase) adjustments." Carter, D-Rialto.

On everything from water and prisons to health care and transportation, Carter and the Inland area's two other legislative freshmen, Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, and Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, faced a gusher of first-year policy and political issues in 2007.

Their sophomore year may be just as intense.

When the three campaigned last year, the state seemed to have moved beyond its budget problems. But now officials forecast major shortfalls between spending and revenue through June 2009.

Cook and Jeffries, echoing their Republican colleagues, ruled out any tax increases to help close the gap.

Carter, like some other Democrats, said higher taxes should be considered along with spending cuts.

"I've lived long enough to have gone through cycles in my own life of having money and not having money," Carter, 66, said. "I think we need to bite the bullet and make those adjustments."

Former Brown Aide

A Democrat was the prohibitive favorite to win last year's election in the 62nd Assembly District. It just wasn't supposed to be Carter, a former aide to the late Rep. George Brown...