It is being reporting in the Washington Times today by FR friend and veteran reporter Ralph Hallow that the McCain for President Campaign, through former California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim, is advocating (behind the scenes) for the California Republican Party to change its existing Rules, which currently require that you must be a registered Republican to vote in the upcoming Presidential primary. According to the Times’ story, Sundheim supports allowing non-GOPers (specifically independent voters) to be able to cast ballots in the GOP primary.

Such a change is not supported by Sundheim’s successor, newly elected California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, who told me this morning, “We just completed our last state convention before the RNC’s June deadline for states to submit their delegate selection rules. Those rules are set as far as I’m concerned. Candidates should focus their efforts on persuading California Republicans they are the most qualified to provide the vision and leadership to carry the party’s banner in 2008.”

This morning I had a chat with a senior official with the McCain campaign back East,… Read More

Yesterday, Covina voters elected well-known Republican and former Schwarzenegger appointee to head the California Youth Authority Walt Allen to the Cit Council. Walt had served before his appointment and is 1st Vice Chair of the Los Angeles County Republican Party.

In Very Big News Voters also rejected the utility tax. What is interesting here is that this tax has been in place since 1992. When it was first voted in, the entire city council was recalled. (I was a consultant on that campaign) Then the new guys kept the tax and it was later approved in a city vote.

So Congrats Walt, now you get to make some budget cuts! See article here… Read More

“To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed…"

"Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Too fun to pass up, a pro-Obama video posted on YouTube combines the classic "Nineteen Eighty Four" Apple ad with Big Sister.

See it here on Talking Points Memo. [Publisher’s note: We just added the You Tube video at the bottom of Barry’s post – Flash]

Note: I just got an e-slap from Jon who says the FR bloggers are supposed to at least try to tie our posts to CA politics in some regard. OK, I think if Hillary gets elected, it will impact… Read More

Last night, the Bay Area Chapter of CWLA (California Women’s Leadership Association) hosted Assembly Leader Mike Villines at their annual meeting in the posh Banker’s Club of San Francisco. As the sun set over the Bay, audience members were treated to a panoramic view of the most gorgeous city in the world (no bias on my part), and the Leader’s speech entitled “Straight Talk from the Capitol.” Last year, Assemblyman Villines authored the workplace flexibility bill, which would give non-union workers the same right to a four day, ten hour day work week that union members can currently negotiate. Several CWLA members, including yours truly, testified in committee alongside Cal Chamber, but not surprisingly, the Democratic legislators whose bread and butter comes from unions did not allow the bill onto the floor.

This was the Leader’s first Bay Area appearance, and from start to finish, he had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. Just before he came onstage, the annual officer election took place for… Read More

Inanother suspense filledvote, SB 113-Calderon, passes off our floor tonight on a straight party line vote, 46-29, Dems aye, Reeps no. This of course was the bill that moves up the Presidential primary in California to February, 2008…and becomes the vehicle for the term limit extension initiative to be "in time" for those who would be termed out in 2008. The cost to California counties and, ultimately taxpayers, could range as high as $88 million according to county representatives I spoke with. All for a shot at term limit extensions that have virtually no chance with fed-up voters. This without the promised redistricting reform as even a measure of balance. The Governor has indicated early on he would sign this if there was a bi-partisan effort at redistricting reform. There has not been a good faith effort at that by the majority Dems.The bill will soon be on his desk,he has 30 days to sign or veto it. Ihope heuses his leverage to extract true reforms in redistricting now that, if he chooses to sign it, we willget stuck with this multi-million dollar bill.… Read More

I would imagine that Generals fighting wars have to occasionally ‘step back’ from the individual battles they are fighting, to check on the overall progress of the total campaign against the enemy. Of course, for fiscal conservatives, the ‘enemy’ is growth in size and scope of spending of government at every level — or put another way, the goal of the war is to preserve, and in fact ‘win back’ freedom and liberty for the people. When California voters stepped up in 2003 to ceremoniously recall now-disgraced Governor Gray Davis, that effort was led by a strong coalition of people that felt that Davis and his administration were failing the people — the taxpayers. An important part of that effort were fiscal conservatives, such as myself, who were concerned that our State Budget had climbed to a record $78 billion. We were outraged that the annual growth of state spending was at an alarming 7%, and that Californian’s were saddled with a state deficit that was $6.6 billion dollars. As Tom McClintock points out in our "Golden Pen" column today, debt-service costs when Gray Davis was Governor… Read More

I would imagine that Generals fighting wars have to occasionally ‘step back’ from the individual battles they are fighting, to check on the overall progress of the total campaign against the enemy. Of course, for fiscal conservatives, the ‘enemy’ is growth in size and scope of spending of government at every level — or put another way, the goal of the war is to preserve, and in fact ‘win back’ freedom and liberty for the people. When California voters stepped up in 2003 to ceremoniously recall now-disgraced Governor Gray Davis, that effort was led by a strong coalition of people that felt that Davis and his administration were failing the people — the taxpayers. An important part of that effort were fiscal conservatives, such as myself, who were concerned that our State Budget had climbed to a record $78 billion. We were outraged that the annual growth of state spending was at an alarming 7%, and that Californian’s were saddled with a state deficit that was $6.6 billion dollars. As Tom McClintock points out in our "Golden Pen" column today, debt-service costs when Gray Davis was Governor… Read More

Our website development team is working on some upgrades for the main page. In doing so, it has caused some technical issues with the tool that we use behind the scenes to post up the links for news stories. Because of this, look for today’s main page to be updated by 10 a.m. Our apologies for the inconvenience.… Read More