At last night’s County Republican Party meeting in Los Angeles, both Steve Baric (candidate for CRP Secretary) and Shawn Steel (candidate for CRP’s National Committeeman) came away with the endorsements.

For Baric, it was just the latest endorsement in what has continued to be a campaign that shows no signs of slowing down. While rumors initially existed of certain folks attempting to recruit a candidate to challenge Steve, with his continued momentum that also recently includes endorsements from Keen Butcher, honcho of the County Chairmen’s Association, and Mindy Fletcher, former Deputy Campaign Manager for the Gov’s Re-elect, Steve clearly is planning on pushing hard all the way through the Convention next month.

The more interesting of the endorsements last night was forNational Committeeman – one of the CRP’s representatives (along with theNationalCommitteewoman and the CRP Chairman)to the Republican National Committee. Incumbent Tim Morgan took the time to fly down from Monterey to speak to the Central Committee meeting and to try to shake enough hands and twist enough arms to either get the endorsement outright for… Read More

The recent unfavorable audit of the Department of Insurance under the direction of former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi must have sent aftershocks throughout California state agencies. Among the strange effects, a state board has asked to be audited.

Audits are generally not something agencies want. They are expensive and result in lost jobs, funding, and autonomy. So why would an agency inflict such scrutiny upon itself? According to The Sacramento Bee (December 12, 2007), "The California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board [asked for an] audit to get to the bottom of allegations of criminal wrongdoing and possible favoritism and nepotism." The board-commissioned investigator and attorney "found that familial connections were common at the board. All but one of the board’s four or five senior staff, for example, had relatives working at the board." The new Appeals Board chairman told the Bee "that one senior staff member… has five family members who have been… Read More

In this post and the one below it, legislative Republicans express their initial thoughts on the Governor’s budget proposal, with its across-the-board 10% cuts. Not every legislator is represented. These quotes came from the two leaders’ offices — if a GOPer isn’t here, they probably didn’t supply comment (shame on you!)…

Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, Fresno — “The budget unveiled today by Governor Schwarzenegger is only the first of many steps that must be taken to get the deficit under control. Assembly Republicans share the Governor’s commitment to budget reform and no tax increases, and will introduce proposals to help fix the system.

“We believe the only responsible way to solve our budget problem is to cut wasteful spending and start living within our means. While the choices before us are difficult ones, across-the-board cuts, including the Legislature’s budget, are a good way to start the discussion about how to cut spending because they avoid picking winners and losers. One thing is clear – higher taxes will do nothing to solve the problem and Republicans will stand united in… Read More

I got back from New Hampshire last night and I am already planning my trips to Michigan and Nevada. There is a special sense of excitement over the politics of other states, probably because CA politics are so familiar to me.

After Romney’s second place finish in New Hampshire on Tuesday, about 500 volunteers (mostly ‘maxed’ out donors and friends of Mitt who have raised big bucks for the campaign) gathered at the Boston Convention Center to try to bring in some needed campaign cash. And we performed very well.

Yesterday the Romney Campaign announced that we raised about $5,000,000!

As usual we had a great time. The campaign has volunteers catering to our every need, plenty of coffee and breakfast when we get there in the AM and lunch at Noon. There are phones and laptop computers available and wireless Internet. Photos of previous National Call Days flashing on big screens around the room. It’s inspiring to see a photo of yourself and Mitt on the screen while you’re calling a friend and asking for a credit card number.

I… Read More

At 10:30 am this morning, Congress John Doolittle announced that he would not be seeking re-election in 2008. We wish him well. Representative John T. Doolittle Remarks January 10, 2008

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you very much for being with Julie and me this morning. I am honored to represent such a great state and district in the 110th Session of the US House of Representatives. I plan to complete my term and finish my congressional service at the conclusion of this Congress. This circumstance reminds me of a passage in the 2nd letter of St. Paul to Timothy; “The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”

My wife, Julie, and I have made this decision after much prayer and deliberation. It was not my initial intent to retire, and I fully expected and planned to run again right up until very recently. But it distilled upon us that we were ready for a change after spending almost our entire married lives with me in public… Read More

The Governor has just left the stage from introducing the ’08-09 budget. He was very clear that spending needed to be reined in and brought under control.

just a couple quick highlights:

-He said we cannot tax our way out of this problem -pointing to the charts, he noted thathad previous budget reforms been in place, we would be in balance, instead the current chart shows a wide gap of $10B or more. -this is a budget that doesn’t please many people

No doubt, this will be difficult. Let the frenzy begin.… Read More

With the announcement of John Doolittle’s retirement comes more bad news for Nancy Pelosi and House democrats. Dean Andal, challenger to vulnerable democrat Jerry McNerney has received the endorsement of the Club for Growth which will guarantee an even heavier flow of financial resources into the 11th Congressional District.

Andal, in his time in the State Assembly and on the Board of Equalization, has crafted a strong pro-taxpayer record in favor of lower taxes and cutting wasteful government spending. Just this week, Andal revealed at a meeting of the South San Joaquin Republican Club that he had raised over a half million dollars already for this race and is running hard on the economic issues of taxes and cutting wasteful spending.

Club for Growth President Pat Toomey had this to say about the race in his release announcing the Club’s support for Andal:

"Dean Andal has an impressive record on economic issues with the potential to be a superstar if elected to Congress. His principled fight against wasteful government spending and his tireless work on behalf of taxpayers will be a vast improvement over Rep. McNerney. While this… Read More

I came to the conclusion John & Ken were intellectual frauds during the 35th Senate special election back in 2005, when they viciously and dishonestly turned on then-state Sen. John Campbell and propped up Jim Gilchrist like puppeteers.

So it was interesting to read this website posted by former KFI talk show host John Ziegler called TheRealKFI.com.

In it, Ziegler chronicles his career at KFI, the key role John & Ken played in his forced exit and his opinion, based on observing them for four years, that J & K are entertainers pretending to be a couple of Howard Beals.

A friend e-mailed the link to me, and the site must be getting overwhelmed with traffic because when I clicked the next page it usually wouldn’t load until after several attempts.… Read More