As I said in my commentary this morning, I invite all of my colleagues on the CRP Board to send in their thoughts on our vote to oppose any change in CRP Rules to allow non-Republicans to vote in our Presidential primary. I have input from two others so far, Vice Chairman Tom Del Becarro who co-authored the resolution with me, and National Committeeman Tim Morgan who voted against the motion:

TOM DEL BECARRO It would seem a rather obvious point. Registered Republicans should choose their party nominee for the upcoming Presidential election. However, there are some in the California Republican Party that favor changing our current rules to allow those registered as “decline to states” to vote in our primary to choose our… Read More

One of the most remarkable women today is former Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Her biography is an unrelenting page turner.Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali 2007, Free Press.

Ali is one courageous author, witness and political leader to confront the Cancer within Islam.

All great religions and ideologies always contain seeds of its own destruction. Islam is no exception. Given that America is one of the most tolerant societies is recorded history, many of our citizens still cannot understand the violent and extreme phenomena called Radical Islam.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali tells the story of the growth of the Radical Cancer in her homeland Somalia. Her father was a revolutionary working against the Marxists who seized Somalia in the early 80’s. American’s most unsuccessful President, the fall of Somalia waspart of Carter’s legacy when the last gasps of the Soviet conquests extended from Afghanistan, Angola, Cuba, Nicaragua, Grenada and many… Read More

Earlier, I posted a report on the entrance of wealthy magazine publishing baron Russ Warner into the 2008 race for the 26th Congressional District Democratic Party primary, a seat held by veteran Republican Congressman David Dreier. Read it here.Armed with endorsements from prominent DC Democrats, it seemed as if this once-failed Congressional candidate was in better shape heading into the upcoming election cycle. (In 2006, Warner was the heavily-favored candidate leading up to Primary Election Day, yet he saw his Congressional hopes shattered after a shock defeat to an under-funded perennial candidate, Cynthia Matthews. Well, it seems as if another failed 2006 Democratic primary candidate will be running. Meet Hoyt Hilsman, a … Read More

Earlier, I posted a report on the entrance of wealthy magazine publishing baron Russ Warner into the 2008 race for the 26th Congressional District Democratic Party primary, a seat held by veteran Republican Congressman David Dreier. Read it here.Armed with endorsements from prominent DC Democrats, it seemed as if this once-failed Congressional candidate was in better shape heading into the upcoming election cycle. (In 2006, Warner was the heavily-favored candidate leading up to Primary Election Day, yet he saw his Congressional hopes shattered after a shock defeat to an under-funded perennial candidate, Cynthia Matthews. Well, it seems as if another failed 2006 Democratic primary candidate will be running. Meet Hoyt Hilsman, a … Read More

Our Governor (pictured with Florida Governor Charlie Crist) is off making headlines in the Sunshine State today:

Associated Press: Schwarzenegger, Crist say people not politics should come first Schwarzenegger: States need to push Washington on climate change Florida News Press: Schwarzenegger adds muscle to Crist cause Orlando Sentinal: Schwarzenegger steals show at climate summit… Read More

Rich Hasen of Loyola Law School reports that yesterday, Wisconsin Right to Life ("WRTL"), the recent winner of a U.S. Supreme Court victory gutting the "soft money" prohibitions of the McCain-Feingold law regulating late campaign issue ads, asked the district court in the same case (still alive because of outstanding issues to be cleared up after the Supreme Court’s ruling), to reconsider its earlier decision to allow Sen. McCain and fellow campaign finance "reform" activists to formally intervene in the case. As background, when the Supreme Court ruled,it also set down some strict guidelines on the conduct of such cases in the future to assure that they are not burdensome to First Amendment rights. WRTL now argues it not only wants those rules applied to some other ads that they did in 2006, but also that it wants the district court to apply the new Supreme Court guidelines to kick McCain out of the rest of the case. – and all future such cases.

According to Hasen, Jim Bopp, lead counsel for WRTL, stated: "The Supreme Court has said there can be no more of the burdensome, complex, intrusive, litigation that WRTL… Read More

I received two emails today. One forwarded from the RNC legal department, the other from the person who created the website. They say they are taking down the logo and didn’t realize it wasn’y allowed. See previous post here. I may get to speak to "S.L. Reeves" soon.… Read More

Here it is, July 13th, and the Legislature still has not approved a state budget. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez says he’s cancelled his vacation plans and told his colleagues that they may have a long summer in front of them. But it is not only the members who pay the price of a late budget—legislative staff, governor’s office and agency staff and lobbyists also pay the price for a late budget.

But a late budget is better than a bad budget. Given the fact that the state continues to have an ongoing operating deficit of $2 billion, the annual budget process is an opportunity to, at the least, not continue to add to our fiscal problems.

But that’s not the Democrats’ take on the budget. As usual, they are pushing for more and more spending. The governor proposed total spending of $103.8 billion in spending, while the Democrats are promoting a budget of $104.4 billion. This week, the Assembly GOP proposed $2.2 billion in cuts to… Read More