From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail:

A Long Wait for Absentee California

Don’t expect to get results from California’s crucial primary anytime tonight. In fact, if the GOP or Democratic race is close, it may be well into tomorrow before results are known and shape conventional wisdom about who "won" Super Tuesday.

The reason for the delay is twofold: absentee voting and paper ballots. Something like 45% of Californians now vote absentee and many will wait to drop off their mail-in ballots at their polling places today. Each mail-in ballot must be opened by hand, the signature compared with the signature on file, and then tabulated manually. That takes time.… Read More

Tomorrow is a big day, as the mice-uber-alles crowd swarms tomorrow’s California Coastal Commission meeting, where the Commission will vote on whether the proposed 241 completion route complies with the California Coastal Act.

The enviros will be all over the hearing, which will be held at the Del Mar fairground in San Diego County, falsely claiming completing the 241 will ruin Trestles beach, wipe out a mouse no one has been able to catch and a trout no one has seen, and "destroy" San Onofre State Beach.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies encourages those who are interested in standing up for traffic relief and common sense over hysteria to attend the commission meeting. TCA can arrange transportation, etc — so those interested should click here for more information.… Read More

Speaking for the Republican side of things, I found this chart in today’s Sacramento Bee on the delegate selection process to be accurate and informative. So if you are confused about how it works, check it out.

While I thought our GOP system was a tad confusing, wait until you see how the Dems do things…

I do note that the "D" in Democrat Party must not be a small "d" — as nearly 20% of Democrat delegates to their convention are "Super Delegates" who are delegates by virtue of a position they hold, and are not bound by the vote of the primary. Less than 2% of California’s Republican delegates are "Super Delegates" — by comparison.… Read More

For our political junkie readers: 4 PM Pacific time, the polls close in the Georgia primaries. 5 PM Pacific time, the polls close in the Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee primaries. 5:30 PM Pacific time, the polls close in the Arkansas primaries. 6 PM Pacific time, the polls close in the Kansas Democratic caucuses and the New Mexico Democratic primary, as well as the Colorado caucuses for both parties and the primaries for both parties in Arizona, Minnesota, and New York. … Read More

Going into Super Tuesday, everyone (including our own analyst, John Lewis), hadWest Virginia favoring Mitt Romney. I knew that McCain had a strong force there, but not quite at Romney’s level. So I just about came out of my chair when I read that Mike Huckabee won the state’s delegates.

Get this – it’s a "convention" state, so the GOP delegates are elected in a very political environment. On the first ballot, Romney fell shy of what he needed to clinch the delegates. Behind him. But not too far, was McCain. Huckabee got only a handful of votes.

So what happened? Apparenlty, in order to deprive Romney of an eventual win, the McCain folks through their support, en masse, to the Huckster.

Now THAT is hardball politics.… Read More

If you checked out the Romney ad a few posts below. This ad just went up from the McCain campaign in response. You know the addage — the best defense is a good offense… … Read More

We’ll have plenty of time, after the fact, to write a pithy column on the Republican weenies who endorsed Proposition 93. We’ll also be able to talk about the patriots who helped to finance the campaign taking on the mighty Speaker of the Assembly.

But I wanted to get one "shout out" on the record before election day. The New Majority and its members made a significant (six figure) donation to the No on 93 campaign, and given their historical love-bond with Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was extremely notable that they stood their ground when the Governor flip-flopped on his support for our state’s existing legislative term-limits.

So to the New Majority folks, we say THANK YOU!… Read More

Today Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Bill Jones will be in Gardena (yes, Gardena) making some GOTV calls for Senator John McCain (it’s a media event). McCain’s campaign this weekend touted the endorsements of some former California Governors — Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian. Of course, while Arnold is campaigning for John McCain, his wife, Maria Shriver is supporting a different candidate. San Diego County legislators are weighing in — Congressman Brian Bilbray and State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth endorsed Mitt Romney. Congressman Darrell Issa endorsed John McCain. Senator John McCain will be in California on election day, this Tuesday, and is holding a public rally at 12:30 p.m. by San Diego’s airport. See the attached flyer for details. … Read More