SB 113, the bill to move up California’s Presidential Primary from June to February, flies through the Senate today, 31-5.All "no" votes were by Republicans. The billwasthen hurried to the Assembly Rules Committee today, where they met off our floor during session. It then passed out of the Rules Committee[over Republican objections on process, the bill hasn’t been in print 30 days] I half-expected a bunch of rule waivers to bring it to our floor today but that didn’t happen, it would take 60 floor votes to waive the "30 days in print" rule. We’ll see what they try Friday. Amazing how quick a bill can move sometimes, when the Legislature is "motivated"….… Read More

According to The Hill newspaper, right now California Congressman Duncan Hunter has more Congressional endorsements in his bid for the Presidency than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Of course, maybe that actually helps The Mayor, since Congress isn’t so popular these days. Congratulations to Hoover Institution Fellow and FR friend Williamson "Bill" Evers who was tapped by W. to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Perhaps while there he can advise that "federalizing" education through programs like No Child Left Behind is a bad thing. In his Silicon Valley appearance yesterday, GOP Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani talked a lot about global warming. I don’t remember it being a big part of his talk to Republican leaders at the State GOP Convention last weekend… If Joel Stein’s column today in the Los Angeles Times where he describes the cloistered work of fellows at the Hoover Institute at Stanford is even close to accurate, we should all be lining up to spend time there. If you buy into the argument that all … Read More

Congressman Brian Bilbray (disclosure: Bilbray is a Coronado Communications client) announced that he is succeeding Congressman Tom Tancredo as chairman of the 91 memberImmigration Reform Caucus in the House of Representatives.

"The federal government’s refusal to act has only exacerbated the problems associated with illegal immigration," Bilbray said. "As Chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus, I am calling on both the House and Senate to take action now. Republicans, Democrats, and the White House can agree that we need real employer enforcement and border security. Let’s at least take action on the things we agree on."

Building the fence would be a good start.… Read More

This past weekend, 1500 Republican leaders from all around the Golden State gathered for the biennial organization convention of the California Republican Party. Despite the rainy weather outside of the Capitol Hyatt Hotel and the Convention Center, inside Republicans were excited to be able to elect new Party leaders, and they selected some great ones. Lots has been and will be written about the weekend, and frankly I am ready to take some time off after spending months on the campaign trail myself. But I will take a few minutes to pen some brief observations from the weekend. My first one — our Republican Party remains 100% committed to our core Republican values. It was clear our new Chairman, Ron Nehring, and our new Vice Chairman, Tom Del Becarro, are committed to seeing the GOP win in elected by pushing our winning issues with the voters, not capitulating and adopting the positions of the liberal Democrat Party. As a matter of fact, there was a strong, vibrant campaign for Vice Chairman waged all weekend long at the convention, and both of the candidates were equally as conservative, both emphasizing the need for our Party to strike a… Read More

This past weekend, 1500 Republican leaders from all around the Golden State gathered for the biennial organization convention of the California Republican Party. Despite the rainy weather outside of the Capitol Hyatt Hotel and the Convention Center, inside Republicans were excited to be able to elect new Party leaders, and they selected some great ones. Lots has been and will be written about the weekend, and frankly I am ready to take some time off after spending months on the campaign trail myself. But I will take a few minutes to pen some brief observations from the weekend. My first one — our Republican Party remains 100% committed to our core Republican values. It was clear our new Chairman, Ron Nehring, and our new Vice Chairman, Tom Del Becarro, are committed to seeing the GOP win in elected by pushing our winning issues with the voters, not capitulating and adopting the positions of the liberal Democrat Party. As a matter of fact, there was a strong, vibrant campaign for Vice Chairman waged all weekend long at the convention, and both of the candidates were equally as conservative, both emphasizing the need for our Party to strike a… Read More

Here’s the SDUT coverage this morning of the CRP convention:

S.D.’s GOP leader elected state chief

SACRAMENTO – Ron Nehring, a conservative from San Diego County, was elected chairman of the California Republican Party yesterday at the close of its state convention in Sacramento.

Nehring, who works with the national conservative activist Grover Norquist, succeeds chairman George Sundheim, a Silicon Valley attorney. Tom Del Beccaro, a conservative attorney from Contra Costa County, was elected vice chairman. That’s not an excerpt, that’s all of it. A guy searched out for quotes regularly in the local media as SD GOP chairman gets elevated to state chair, and it warrants a couple of sentences.

Exactly why we need to read the blogs.

Oh….and congratulations to Ron, and Tom!… Read More

On Saturday morning, Senator Tom McClintock spoke as a breakfast event for my campaign for Vice Chairman, South of the State GOP (I won!). You can read his remarks here (I was very humbled by them, needless to say). California State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner also spoke as well. Below is a photo of the contingent of Orange County Young Republicans who attended (I’m an OCYR member myself) — nestled into the photo are also Senator McClintock, and Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh (h/t to Anahita for the photo). That HUGE banner in the background is courtesy of FR friend Vince Monaco. … Read More

The Board of Trustees of the Capistrano Unified School District has agendized for tonight consideration of a potential settlement in Lackey v. Kochendorfer, a Brown Act open meeting law enforcement case brought by private citizen Ron Lackey. Claims in the Lackey case stem from actions of the Board alleged to violate the open meeting law during the troubled administration of former Superintendent James Fleming.… Read More