State Senator Tom Harman has rolled out some endorsements in his campaign for the GOP nomination for Attorney General. Predictably, Harman has the support of many of his colleagues in the State Senate — Dennis Hollingsworth, Tony Strickland, Mark Wyland, Mimi Walters, Dave Cox, Roy Ashburn, John Benoit, Bob Dutton, George Runner, Jeff Denham, and Bob Huff.
We’re happy for the Senator — no doubt all of those endorsements will be helpful.
That said, we would be the FlashReport if we didn’t take the opportunity (when given) to point out an "oops" — so here it is!
The release from Harman heralded that "Conservative Senate Leaders" have endorsed Harman. That said, it took us about two seconds to pick out the liberal Republican among those listed. Did you catch it?
If you didn’t, it’s State Senator Roy Ashburn. For years, Ashburn was a conservative stalwart. But in what may be a defense of term limits, the last couple of years, Ashburn has taken a left hand turn away from a commitment to free-market economics and the idea that government is too big and spends too much. Last summer he flirted with supporting a state-wide sales tax increase proposed by the Governor (refusing to call it a tax increase) — then in February Ashburn rather famously voted to smack California with over $30 billion in state sales, income and car taxes (as well as cutting the child tax credit by $200). At least voters can undo $16 billion of these taxes by rejecting Proposition 1A.
Anyways, our input to Senator Harman if he gains the endorsements of Senator Cogdill or Senator Maldonado (the other two GOP Senators that voted to smack Californians with all of these taxes), why not just put out a release that says, "Tax Increasing Senators Back Harman."
Then again, perhaps he could just return Ashburn’s endorsement card and call it a day!
May 1st, 2009 at 12:00 am
Jon,
I just do not understand the wisdom your constant attacks against Republican officeholders.
Our Party’s registration numbers are plummeting. We are badly losing among young voters, Latinos and Independents. In short, we are in serious jeopardy of losing all political relevance in California.
As a CRP Board Member, shouldn’t you be focusing on attacking Democrats in Sacramento and Washington? Should you be focused on developing new strategies to register Republicans and bolster our appeal with Latino voters?
You need to stop engaging in political self-destruction and stop being proactive in rebuilding our party. We need a Reaganesque, not a Buchanan-like, approach to salvage the GOP’s future in California.
I’d be most interested to hear your ideas on our party’s future.
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:00 am
Chris,
You do have a point, and admittedly for many years now I have thought about re-registering Independent. The reason being that when Republicans had control of the White House, Senate and House, all they did was expand the size, the cost the scope and the burden of government. I noticed this with my Congressman John Doolittle. His ACU rating starting falling and his CFG RePork Card was identical to the average Democrat. When I asked him about this (a number of times) he said he was in leadership and he had to vote that way… as a big government spender. Other times he tried to justify his outrageous votes for pork. Principles became inconvenient, and using taxpayer’s money to buy votes with the purpose of re-election became #1 priority.
At that point the Democrat and Republican Party was indistinguishable… we cold sit on the sidelines and root for the Red Team or the identical Blue Team. At that point one has to ask why even be a Republican?
There is no doubt that the Democrats have hit the accelerator and is heading off the cliff at 100 mph. Our Governor and the 6 Republicans are not that bad… they are driving off the cliff at 75 mph. Why not, as the Republican Party, caucus around the idea that we do not want to drive off the cliff at all? Chris, why not as a Republican Party believe in limited, Constitutional government and low taxes? Why not reject the soft tyranny of legions of regulations, overburdening and overbearing government, and punitive taxes? In short Chris, if someone claims to be a Republican, if they promise to not raise taxes… why not have the integrity to actually be a Republican that keeps their word? Why not be different from Democrats?
Someone needs to stand up, take a stand on principle and say enough is enough. Thank you Jon for speaking the truth!