Yes, it’s only a straw poll, but not many folks thought anyone but the supposed big three would be faring well, even at this early juncture. All of a sudden Duncan Hunter’s picture is being shown alongside McCain’s and Giuliani’s. Check out Fox News. The latest from the AP on the South Carolina contest:

John McCain Pulls Even With Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter in South Carolina Straw Poll

Sen. John McCain pulled even with two of his Republican rivals when counting resumed Friday morning in a presidential straw poll in conservative Spartanburg County.

Though most of the roughly 800 votes were counted on Thursday night, ballots tallied Friday morning weighed heavily in McCain’s favor, said GOP county chairman Rick Beltram.

The updated count put McCain in a dead heat with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and California Rep. Duncan Hunter. Beltram would not release any specific numbers and said a final tally would be known Friday afternoon.

The count was suspended because of severe weather that… Read More

Bad Bill Alert! (well, actually, silly bill alert)

Sometimes good intentions lead to really terrible laws. Everyone wants people to be responsible and save for the future. But making a law that gives $500 to every baby born in California (regardless of their parent’s legal residency status) in hopes they will save it is just plain silly.

SB 752 authored by Democrat Senator Darrel Steinberg and co-authored by Republican Senator Bob Dutton will give every newborn $500 – which will cost taxpayers a whooping $283 million per year – in hopes that their parents will be encouraged to save for their children’s future. Another nanny-state bill that believes that people aren’t capable of taking care of themselves, so the government should.

Notwithstanding this literally pays illegal immigrants $500 to come to California and have a baby, it also fails the math test. In an article in the… Read More

Rudy Guiliani received a very warm welcome today from the delegates at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., as he recounted his record of reducing crime and taxes whileMayor of New York City, and his support for the war on terrorism. And there was a Californian in Rudy’s entourage — Bill Simon, who joined Rudy in the walk to the podium of the CPAC speech.

Mitt Romney is scheduled to speak this afternoon at 2:45 pm Eastern Time, and that speech will be covered by C-SPAN. Romney is holding a special reception later in the day, at 5:45 pm, and he snagged popular Conservative leader Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform to speak at that event.

I had a chance to talk to Guiliani for awhile in the Green Room before his speech. I asked Rudy about his record on taxes. He told me he was successfulin cutting23 taxes while Mayor of New York City and tried to get more taxes cut, but wasn’t able to get all the cuts he wanted from a Democrat City Council.… Read More

What does premiere conservative political consultant Wayne Johnson have in common with famed-Clinton supporter Dick Morris?

What ‘special bond’ does former Reagan senior advisor Ken Khachigian share with Mary Matalin? Campaigns and Elections Magazine, one of the nation’s top publications on all-things related to campaigns, has revamped their editorial board, bringing onto it a lot of notables from around the country, clearly reaching to both sides of the political aisle to amasse quite a bit of talent.

Johnson and Khachigian, both good friends of this website, will serve on the editorial board along with Benjamin Ginsberg, Donald Green, Mary Matalin, Dick Morris, James Pindell, David Rebovich, Jeanne Shaheen, James Thurber, David Yepsen and John Zogby. While I could tell you what I think of Johnson and Khachigian, I’m sure they will agree they would rather have me tell you what Campaigns and Elections… Read More

Last week I blogged on Duncan Hunter’s new "A Team" in South Carolina.

Well, one week later, Hunter has dismissed the "A Team" – "Why," you ask?

Check out this short AP story, and read it for yourself. In the meantime, if you know someone in South Carolina who would like to head up Congressman Hunter’s efforts in that important battleground state, and they have the ability to think BEFORE they speak, then send them to the Hunter Campaign to sign up!

The story… Hunter drops two S.C. advisers… Read More

Sen. Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga) announced today that he is no longer co-authoring Senate Bill 752. Here is the statement that he issued: “I have decided to remove my support for Senate Bill 752. In light of the state’s deteriorating fiscal situation I cannot support the bill as currently written. I will continue to work to assist California’s families by looking into tax breaks and other opportunities. Over the last 48 hours, thousands of Californians have asked me what I was thinking so I thought I would take this opportunity to share my thoughts. … Read More

The California Republican Assembly sponsored a Tele-Townhall with State Seneator Tom McClintock last night. What is a Tele-Townhall?? Basically it is a new way to communicate and get your message out. Instantly thousand of autodials can go out to a phone list and then patch through all the individuals to a conference call type event. Then our star, in this Tom McClintock” can discuss ideas and get feedback from the listeners. The listeners can ask questions. It has a radio talk show kind of feel. It is much more personal than a “live chat”. Last night’s call was for CRA members past and present. We had around 1500 connections. Those that weren’t home got a message referring them to the website. Tom was in Saramento; I was in West Covina then later driving to Fullerton as the call progressed. While at home on the computer, the hosts could see a panel that included who wanted to ask questions and how many people were on the call at any given moment. It was pretty cool. … Read More

What about ex-wives? I couldn’t help but think of the pain given to Doolittleover the hiring of his wife when I ran across this blog entry from LAObserved.Assemblyman Richard Alarcon spent over $400,000 running for Assembly and of course he DIDN’T have an opponent. Payments went to an ex-wife, a girlfirend and a fiancee. And Mitt Romney gets picked on about Polygamy. See it here.… Read More