For anyone following the current debate in Washington with the President, Teddy Kennedy and others trying to push through a terrible amnesty bill, this video below is a "must see" — Ronald Reagan’s former Attorney General and close friend Ed Meese contemplates on what the Gipper would think of this current proposal… ALERT: AP is reporting that the amnesty bill wen’t down – 14 votes short of what it needed. YEAH!… Read More

Former State Senator Republican Leader Jim Nielson, who retired from the Senate back in 1990, has decided that he is ready, once again, to serve the residents of the "North State" (as FR blogger Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa likes to refer to his sprawling 2nd District). This morning Nielson (pictured to the right, with Tom McClintock in the background), the youngest Senate GOP Leader in California history, is currently serving as a Deputy Commissioner of the California Board of Prison Terms. The Second Assembly District is ‘safe’ GOP territory, and LaMalfa is currently in his third and final term (though gearing up for a State Senate run himself in 2010).

As someone who served many years in the State Senate, we’ll be looking more at Nielson’s record as a Republican. That said, I do remember that Nielson co-authored (with Paul Gann) the Victims Bill of Rights. And in recent years, we’ve… Read More

CRP hired the wrong guy to be COO. Plain and simple. As many of you know the CRP has hired Bill Christiansen as the new temporary COO. First, we hear Billis an American, although I haven’t seen proof. Second, Bill is an accomplished political operative, former ED in Orange County and Arizona,a graduate of UCLA and of course his last gig was as the statewide coordinater for Victory ’06. For those of you new to the Victory ’06 saga, it was the statewide arm of the CAGOP that spent massively on behalf of the Governor (I would argue and the evidence indicates at the expense of everyone else on the ticket.) See here, its just not me. … Read More

Who Runs California?

Special elections for the House in one-party districts are often very low-turnout affairs, with victory going to whichever special interest group cranks up the most supporters on behalf of its preferred candidate. That was certainly the case in Long Beach, Calif. this week when voters selected a replacement for Democratic Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald who died in April of cancer.

The two major competing special interests, I mean candidates, were State Assemblywoman Laura Richardson, who like Ms. Millender-McDonald is from a long-powerful African-American machine, and State Senator Jenny Oropeza, with her own base in the district’s strong Hispanic population. Ms. Richardson wound up winning the first round by 38% to 31% over Ms. Oropeza, positioning herself for a certain victory over a hapless Republican in the August runoff.

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maintaing his position as King of the Nanny State, The Governor signed AB 951. AB 951 bans allalochol on rafts on certain holidays on the American River. See press release here.There is no word on whether you can set up a tent in the middle of the river and declare yourself free from such laws.

You can see my take on the ill-advised law here.You can see a defense of the law by the Sheriff of Sacramento here. You will notice that out of 10,000 people average compalints involving 1% of the people. Now they will spend more sources targeting the others AND force some people to drink on other nights while there is no law enforcement around. Arrest law breakers don’t make more people break the law!… Read More

The 37th CD Primary is over. Richardson won the Dem primary. Earlier, Iposted about the GOP field. See here. Turns out that among GOP voters. The cop John Kanaly came in first and the convicted kidnapper came in last. … Read More

Steve Cooley is the two-time District Attorney from Los Angeles County. Most Republicans like him. He was a stand up guy in the Tookie Williams case. See here.He has been hardcore on the illegal immigration issue. I have personally heard him call for the Pardoning of the imprisoned borsed guards and he is relentless in tracking down illegal alien murderers. He opened a public integrity unit that got a guilty plea from a member of my school board.

However, some question his view on three strikes. Cooley wants to change the three strike law and that is drawing alot of controversy. See here.He is also drawing an opponent, Steve Ipsen, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys.Ipsen is aRepublican, he needs to raise some $$ to be competitive, but 3 strikes will be an issue. See article here.… Read More

The last few days there has been quite a bit of discussion about the sudden circumstances surrounding the abrupt departure of the California Republican Party’s Chief Operating Officer. To those who are still interesting in rehashing this matter… Get over it. It’s time to move on. The guy omitted key information when he applied for the job. When it was revealed, he quit. The CRP has hired a new, well qualified, intirim COO. The Chairman has expressed his regret over the situation. A higher degree of scrutiny will be given to future applicants. End of story. We’re now at the point where people who do not have the best interests of the California Republican Party at heart want to make a long, drawn out issue (like our "friends" at the San Francisco Chronicle). If any readers of this website still have any real lingering questions or concerns about this matter, go ahead and drop me an e-mail and I will be happy to speak with you about it.

I am making this post deliberately short to emphasize my point. … Read More