It’s early, but not too early to chew on some fodder. The San Diego Police Officers Association has released a citywide poll (conducted by Dresner, Wickers & Associates) showing Mayor Jerry Sanders leading Steve Francis by 20 points and Jan Goldsmith ahead of City Attorney Mike Aguirre by 13 points in respective one-on-one scenarios. The 400-large sampling was taken the second week in January and mirrors the voter reg. throughout the city.

In the city attorney’s contest, the poll was done prior to Councilman Brian Maienschein’s announced candidacy, but lends significant credence to the contention that his entree would impact Goldsmith’s potential chance of winning a primary outright in a straight-up shot against Aguirre. Add to that the likelihood that Aguirre — if forced into a runoff — would much rather face an incumbent SD councilmember (and all the SEC and pension debacle baggage that goes with the title) than Goldsmith.

If Aguirre’s numbers show a runoff situation, watch him do anything to keep Goldsmith from making it into the final. On the other hand, if potential also-rans stay out, Goldsmith’s… Read More

For a solid day now, I keep hearing from different sources that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and his "people" have been trying to buck up some of their insider supporters of his term-limits weakening measure, Proposition 93. Over and over I keep hearing that they are saying that "internal polls" show the measure ahead with 58% of the vote. What is the polite was to say this? I don’t believe him. Unless he has a totally biased pollster who is being paid to conduct a survey designed to give artifially high positives for his measure (perhaps to encourage more potential donors). From what I hear (from reliable sources), the measure is running neck and neck, with the numbers FAR below 50%. Normally we would just have to make this a "he said, she said" situation, and shrug. But I have learned that the latest Field Poll survey data on Proposition 93 will be publicly released tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what it says. Hey, if the numbers… Read More

This morning, I wrote about Steve Poizner being "all in" relative to his aggresive leadership role in working to defeat the Fabian Nunez Term Limits Weakening Measure, Proposition 93.

Well, apparently I was wrong.

Apparently Poizner, who already had made a personal contribution of $1.5 million to the effort to defend our state’s legislative term-limits, was a million bucks shy of being "all in"…

How do we know this?

Because NOW he is ALL IN.

Today Poizner opened up his checkbook and wrote another MILLION dollar contribution (FR readers will recall that Steve Poizner, before his involvement in politics, was very successful in the Silicon Valley hi-tech field, and is not hurting for cash).

I caught up with Poizner, who has this to say about his additional, sizable contribution:

When Governor Schwarzenegger unveiled his proposed state budget earlier this month, it caused quite a stir. Instead of shrinking, the state deficit had increased to $14.5 billion, and it may end up higher than that by the June budget deadline. The state now faces a genuine fiscal emergency, and, like a broken record, many of my Democrat colleagues are calling for new taxes and fees to balance the books. I believe taxpayers are already doing their part with revenues up almost seven percent this year, but there is clearly a stark imbalance between spending and revenues. The state’s chronic budget problems are beginning to add up. This year the state must scramble to simply meet its cash flow needs, as lenders downgrade our debt and demand a budget in better financial shape. … Read More

I read an article in the Oakland Tribune today. I know Oakland, I’ve been to church there, and, trust me, there aren’t many Republicans in Oakland. The article said that Republican party candidates were campaigning in Oakland for the delegates available there.

When I visited there, and visited a church in South Central, I heard the same complaint from both pastors, both of whom were Republicans. Both of them said, how can you expect us to stand up for Republicans. When we do, they said, the local political operation turned against them, and made their life difficult. One fellow had a Bush sign up in his store window in the 1992 election, and someone broke his store window. The Republicans response? Nothing. No help, no defense, no response, no nothing. The pastor said we couldn’t expect any help from people if we didn’t stand with them when they were standing with us.

That got me thinking. How are we going to get Republicans interested in places in California that are dominated by Democrats? Legislators won’t do it, there is nothing in it for them. Local candidates won’t do it. They are lost causes, and… Read More

Full Disclosure: Like many in my home county of San Bernardino, I am a supporter of Mitt Romney’s candidacy. San Bernardino County – a county which solidly went for then-Governor George W. Bush over US Senator John McCain in the 2000 GOP presidential primary – is today fast becoming unshakable territory for Mitt Romney. As news broke that Fred Dalton Thompson has ended his bid for the White House, San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Gary Ovitt – an early Thompson backer – announced he is now enthusiastically supporting Mitt Romney. Ovitt, who also serves as chair of the county’s Republican Party Central Committee, is joining all three of his Republican supervisorial colleagues (Chairman Paul Biane, Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, and Supervisor Dennis Hansberger) in backing the former Massachusetts governor. In … Read More

Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson this afternoon pulled the proverbial plug on his candidacy for the White House.

He issued a brief statement.

"Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people." I know few Thompson supporters who did not share with me, privately in most cases, on how underwhelmed they were with Thompson’s performance.

One the the challenges about being an actor by profession, is that there is a high expectation that you will act… Presidential.

In the end, emulating his character from Law & Order, D.A. Arthur Branch, did him in.

As to where his supporters, especially, in the key battleground state of Florida end up? We’ll see!

I’m sure our two Thompsonites here in FR-land, Senator Jim Battin and former Managing Editor Nicholas Romero, will add… Read More

This morning Congressman Dana Rohrabacher announced his endorsement of the Presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney. He’s penning something for FR readers that goes into his reasons why, but we want to let you know asap.

Wonder if any more of the Congressional delegation (many of whom are on the sidelines) will endorse in the final days?… Read More