Today we feature columns from the two candidates who are running to head up the organization of California’s 58 Republican County Chairmen, aptly called the Republican County Chairman’s Association. I asked the current President of the CCA, Tom Del Becarro of Contra Costa County, to give FR readers a quick description of the group. In Tom’s own style, he penned this:

Today we feature columns from the two candidates who are running to head up the organization of California’s 58 Republican County Chairmen, aptly called the Republican County Chairman’s Association. I asked the current President of the CCA, Tom Del Becarro of Contra Costa County, to give FR readers a quick description of the group. In Tom’s own style, he penned this:

The County Chairman’s Association (“CCA”) is the association of all of our County Chairs. At its best, it provides ongoing training to incoming Chairs and communicates our successes and areas for opportunities to each Chair so that they may benefit from the collective wisdom of its… Read More

Just a few minutes ago, I got off of the phone with a very excited Julie Soderlund. Those in the media, and anyone who followed the Gubernatorial Campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger know that Julie (pictured to the right) served as the Governor’s Press Secretary for his re-election effort. In that capacity, I got to deal with Julie quite a bit. I can assure all FR readers that she is a really great communicator, and a consumate professional. Julie was sharing the news that she has decided to take the leap into the private sector, becoming the managing director of Wilson-Miller Communications. The "Wilson" is Marty Wilson, who is a chief political advisor and fundraising coordinator for Governor Schwarzenegger (he played a similar role with former Governor Pete Wilson), and the "Miller" is Beth Miller, whom I have know for many years, and who has a long history of working for GOP candidates and causus.… Read More

He may be considered a longshot by many, Quixotic by some, but that doesn’t make his effort any less interesting to those of us living in the San Diego area…and especially those of us who have called him our representative for the last 26 years. Duncan Hunter will announce for Pres from South Carolina this morning. See Tuesday’s blurb in CQPolitics.com

A missive from Larry Cutting at the campaign:

YOUR CHANCE TO BE A PART OF HISTORYDuncan Hunter for President

Duncan is moving closer to the White House and we’re doing everything possible to help make it happen. He will be making his historic official announcement Thursday morning in South Carolina , and we are going to be there vicariously to inject our energy and support.… Read More

The California Republican Party, in conjunction with the Governor’s campaign embarked on a bold experimental Registration campaign in 2006.

All professional vendors were paid $13.00 an hour whether they produced or not. This effort was led by a Nathan Sproul of Arizona with his dba California Grass Roots Mobilization.Sproulwas paid over $2,100,000 last year.

This bold initiative was designed for threereasons: a ] to go to places where GOPers generally don’t , such as San Francisco. [ Sproul’s team never made it there ] and make it worthwhile to go door to door ,b] to avoid the nasty publicity two criminal investigations in San Bernardino and Orange County DA’s were conduction against fraudulent registrations, and c ] a new state law required, adding a considerableburden, that all registrations contain either a social security number or a driver license number. Who knew? . At $13,00 a hour how could this not work.

The Governor’s people, from the Bush 2004 campaign, insisted on the services of Mr. Sproul.

Sproul’s method of hiring was no different than anyone else in the registration business.… Read More

If it looks like a tax, and sounds like a tax, well, then it must be a tax, right? Check out this new commercial going up on the airwaves today from our friends at the Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy: … Read More

I’d like to mine to collective expertise and experience of FR Blog readers to answer the question: what is "absentee ballot harvesting."

The reason I ask is the OC Democratic Party is having an "absentee ballot harvesting precinct walk" this Saturday to boost former Democratic Assemblyman Tom Umberg‘s candidacy for the Feb. 6 OC Board of Supervisors special election.

As I wrote on Red County/OC Blog, I’m not sure what an "absentee ballot harvesting precinct walk" is, but it sounds like Democratic Party volunteers and operatives going to the homes of absentee voters and asking them for their completed absentee ballots, i.e. "harvesting" their absentee ballots.

If that is what "absentee ballot harvesting" is, it would violate the California Election… Read More

I ran across a bit from John Myers Capitol Notes about the Speakers’ trip to Switzerlandfor the World Economic Forum in Davos. He will speak on the subject of AB32, passed last year,and all the wonderful things it will do to reduce those pesky greenhouse gasses. Because he will have to fly over in a fossil fuel burning aircraft, the Speaker will pay $136 to the Davos Climate Alliance for carbon offsets to mitigate the impacts of the trip. No word on whether the Davos C. A.will split that with the Climate Alliances of North America, the Azores, or Atlantis…… Read More