Earlier this week, I was the speaker at a meeting of the Tustin Area Republican Assembly, a chapter of the California Republican Assembly, located in the heart of conservative Orange County. As part of my presentation, I took the opportunity to survey the audience of around fifty people as to whom they were supporting for President. I ran through the names — Giuliani, Romney, McCain, Paul, Huckabee. It was easy to see that the vast majority of the folks in the room did not raise their hands for any of the candidates. So I asked the group about that. From the feedback I received, it was clear that to the overwhelming majority of this group of core Republican activists, none of the candidates were conservative enough. Fault was found with each one.

But while I think that the activists in this club are representative of many conservatives, they certainly are not representative of all conservatives. So, of those conservative activists who have endorsed candidates, who are they supporting? To be honest with you, as I talk and e-mail with people all around California (and I do a lot of that), it literally runs the gamut. Which is to say that there is no one… Read More

In politics especially, it is said that timing is everything. It is clear after spending time on 80+ news websites this morning that the big issue going into the Florida primaries and into Super Tuesday, short of a major terrorist attack, is the economy. That seems to me that it plays to the advantage, to the candidacy of Mitt Romney. After all, he’s the guy with all of the business experience. But more importantly for Romney, the shift to the economy is a move away from his area of weakness – foreign policy gravitas. And his gain is a loss of sorts for McCain and Giuliani. Of course, these are just pieces in a much bigger puzzle. But as this race closes down to the wire… It all matters…… Read More

This morning after my wife Valerie popped in and said that she thought it might be nice for someone other than an ‘insider’ to grade the mail each day. She clearly indicated that she would be that ‘outsider’ (It was not in my interest to argue with her assertion that she is an outsider… but I would point out that before the kids came along she worked as an account executive for Ralph Reed at Century Strategies in Atlanta, for a campaign fundraising operation in LA, and for a builders’ association in Sacramento).So she’ll be grading the February 5th mail with me each day.

Anyway…. this all being the case, the only political mail I got today was a letter from former CRP Chairmen Visco, Schroeder, and Antonovich endorsing Shawn Steel for National Committeeman. Good piece, and came with a vast endorsement list, but we feel no obligation to grade the piece because it does not deal with a race to be decided on the 5th.… Read More

The sprawling Fourth Congressional District in North Eastern California (well, Doug LaMalfa would probably call is South Eastern) east of Sacramento has been in the news a lot because of the controversies with John Doolittle that have been the source of much fodder by the press. Doolittle’s recent decision to retire has created an "open" seat that is overwhelmingly Republican.

As we’ve written about before, former state legislator and conservative Rico Oller has put his hat into the ring, and is running hard. The only other significant candidate who has been running is Eric Egland, a military veteran who starts out at a big disadvantage to the well known and well liked Oller. We keep hearing that former moderate GOP Congressman Doug Ose may jump into this primary, but he hasn’t made any such announcement yet.

For the last few months, popular local Assemblyman Ted Gaines had been making active noises about running for the House seat (perhaps even if Doolittle was still in). Shortly after Doolittle… Read More

Some polling shows that Romney is gaining ground in Florida and nationally because Thompson voters are now voting for Mitt. Some might think it’s just wishful thinking, but the Romney campaign has nonetheless created some banner ads to try to attract the Thompson voter.

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In what California’s own Rep. Nancy Pelosi describes as help for the “middle class and those who aspire to be in the middle class,” the Bush Administration and House leaders have agreed to an economic stimulus plan. Granted, when you have to negotiate with the likes of Nancy Pelosi, you are not going to get everything you want, but I was shocked to see the plan includes a tax “rebate” for Americans who do not even pay taxes. Workers who make just $3000 a year and do not pay taxes will receive a $300 "tax rebate." These folks are below the poverty level and qualify for loads of federal and state assistance. This supposedly temporary and emergency stimulus deal is supposed to be providing relief for taxpayers and stimulating the economy. Instead, the Democrats have made sure to load it up with handouts masked as “tax rebates.” The Republicans did get the Democrats to give in on extending unemployment benefits and increasing food stamp payments in exchange for this Earned Income Tax Credit-type payment. The Democrats may be calling these payments “tax rebates,” but the GOP should be clear that these payments are special welfare payments, not… Read More

You no doubt have heard about the Stimulus Package agreement between Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader Boehner and Treasury Secretary Paulson that was announced today and is supported by the President. I won’t go through all the specifics of it directly because you will hear and see that almost everywhere over the next 24 hours. But I would like to give you what I see as the pros and cons of the thing. First of all, the good stuff:

•Raises FHA loan limits to $750,000 and also raises the "conforming" or "jumbo" home limits on loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack to the higher of $625,000 or 150% of the median house price in a market. This will help to free up more and cheaper home loan money in high cost areas like Orange County. This should help ease the housing crisis.

•Gives some taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes of less than $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (joint) some of their tax money from 2007 back.

As far as I can tell, that’s it on the good side. On the bad side, here goes:

•Gives roughly 35 million people who paid NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES AT ALL a check for $300 per person in their… Read More

The goal is $7.5 million and Issa leads the charge…Calvert and Herger California captains…

Chairman Cole Announces Rep. Darrell Issa to Chair NRCC’s March Dinner

Washington – NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) announced today that Representative Darrell Issa (CA-49) will chair the annual NRCC March Dinner that will be held on March 12, 2008 at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

“I am very pleased to have Darrell Issa taking the lead on this year’s NRCC March Dinner,” NRCC Chairman Tom Cole said. “This is going to be a very exciting election year and we need to work together to make sure we have the resources in place to be successful.”

Chairman Cole and Representative Issa announced a goal of raising $7.5 million at the dinner, headlined by President George W. Bush.

“It is an honor to chair this… Read More