Several days ago I learned Steve Greenhut would be leaving the editorial pages of the Orange County Register to take a job with the Pacific Research Institute, a venerable conservative think tank in San Francsico. I didn’t write anything because I thought Steve deserve the opportunity to announce it on his own schedule.

However, the news is already leaking out in the blogosphere, so with Steve’s blessing I’ve decided to let Red County readers know (Steve is going to talk about it in his columkn  this Sunday).

I’m excited for Steve — this is a great opportunity for him with a great organization where he’ll be able to work with some first-rate minds (such as Steven Hayward, whose sequel to the must-read The Age of Reagan, 1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, comes out today). According to Navel Gazing, Steve will be "opening a news bureau and investigative journalism program in the state capital" — a prospect sure to discomfiture the powers-that-be in Sacto.

We here on Red County have had some tussle with Steve, but he’s been a long-time friend with whom I agree much more than I disagree. He’s been walking to locall governmeent beat for the OCR editorial pages since 1998, and his departure leaves an awful hole. It will be interesting to see how and if that hole is filled — especially as the bankruptcy re-structuring presumably diminishes the influence of the Hoiles family.

There’s a certain symmetry to Steve’s decamping northward to a conservative non-profit organization. His predecessor at the OC Register, Harold Johnson, left the OCR to become an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento.