Attached is former GOP COO Michael Kamburowski’s 2005 lawsuit filed in United States District Court (New York) against U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement.… Read More

I am participating in a national conference call right now with election lawyers and professors, and am concluding that the consensus view is that the Supreme Court’s decision today in Wisconsin Right to Life does gut McCain-Feingold, but also establishes a new standard for regulated electorial speech: express advocacy of a candidate PLUS words about candidate character/qualifications/fitness for office. And interestingly this is anEXPANSION of the old Buckley v. Valeo case. Nevertheless, the sum is less regulation of speech in elections. If a policy-oriented communication from a nonprofit, corporation or union avoids the types of words mentioned above,it can mention candidates and be outside the realm of FEC/FPPC regulation. This is a big win for the First Amendment, because McCain-Feingold banned such communications based on timing, regardless of content. Thus, the new analysis is content-based, ad-by-ad, so political consultants: careful review of text is critical.… Read More

Jubal at the Red County/OC Blog has the news. This is a great move by the CRP to aggressively and quickly address yesterday’s fallout:

Bill Christiansen To Be Interim COO of the CRP

I’ve learned Bill Christiansen, former long-time executive director of the Republican Party of Orange County, will be tapped as the interim COO of the California Republican Party.Read it all here. … Read More

From the SDUT News Blog…..

Note as well that Cal-PERS, Cal-STRS and the CTA continue to argue that the legislation infringes on their fiduciary responsibility to invest in terrorist states.

Senate Committee Approves Iran Divestment Bill

A key Senate panel approved a bill on Monday afternoon that would require the state’s huge pension funds for teachers and government workers to divest from companies that do business in Iran.

Assembly Bill 221, sponsored by Assemblyman Joel Anderson, R-El Cajon, won unanimous bipartisan support from the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee. The bill would require the funds… Read More

I admit it. I was and am embarrassed about revelations yesterday that Michael Kamburowksi, the now-former Chief Operating Officer of the California Republican Party, apparently failed to disclose some rather significant items about his past when applying for the State GOP’s top staff job. Especially since I learned of these items on a visit to the San Francisco Chronicle early yesterday morning, while preparing yesterday’s FR main page. It led to me immediately asking, "Is our COO suing America?" A few months ago, I had a chance, along with CRP Treasurer Keith Carlson, to meet this potential new COO before he was hired, and I think it would be fair to say that we both found him to be a smart, engaged and savvy person. He was brought to us by CRP Chairman Ron Nehring as the person that he would like to have as his right hand, handling day-to-day operations. Having served as Executive… Read More

Let me make sure I have it straight. After I posted the other day on the CRP’s hiring of Chris Matthews as reported in the SF Chron, I get a PEED OFF phone call from a high-up in the State GOP (one that does not write for the FR), essentially ticked that I would repeat anything in that paper, and asking why I would purposely extend a prior week’s story into a second week.

My answer: Many were talking about it, but few were writing about it. It deserved to be vetted and debated. And, I believed I had provided both sides … and would let the commenters drive the debate. They did.

As well, I indicated to the caller that I would try to verify the story with them in the future.

Then, I get attacked on other blogs for a perceived defense of the CRP, when in actuality many wouldn’t have even known of the hirings without my FR posts.

Then, I put myself out there more by suggesting Ron Nehring wouldn’t hire anyone unqualified — citizen or not — and saying it looked like the CRP had followed the rules — like it or not about the non-citizens (which is also a legitimate debate).

Of course,… Read More

9:45 pm Update: Check out the NY Sun article, including this:

"The California Republican Party Operations Committee held a teleconference tonight with Mike Kamburowski where he offered his resignation, which has been accepted," the state party chairman, Ronald Nehring, said in a terse statement e-mailed to The New York Sun. "We thank him for his service."———————————- Brandon has it below and Red County SB has it as well. I’ll assume that’s good as gold. I’ll look forward to an official statement from the CRP.

That said, Kamburowski’s resignation was not the noble thing to do. In this case, it is largely irrelevant whether the feds were wrong in any arrest or deportation procedure, even if thenow former COO was 100% in the right. From a PR standpoint, what is relevant is that it happened and that it wasn’t fully disclosed by the job applicant, thus calling into question his judgment.

The noble thing… Read More

How the NYSun got it first, who knows. The Chronicle circles back from this morning and may have it first in CA:

Monday Update…as noted to me by Chron reporter Carla Marinucci, they did have it first. The NYSun was using the Chronicle as its source. State GOP’s finance chief resigns Top Republicans shocked by Aussie’s immigration troubles Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party’s chief operating officer, abruptly resigned Sunday — less than 24 hours after The Chronicle reported he had been ordered deported in 2001, jailed in connection with the order, and now has a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit pending against U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.

The move was reported in a terse statement late Sunday by state party chair Ron Nehring, who said the state GOP’s Operations Committee accepted Kamburowski’s resignation during a teleconference with him.

"We thank… Read More