I was really convinced that Dan Lungren would beat Gray Davis. Thus, I now know that predictions are not my forte. But here are five"no brainers", at least in my mind:

1. The State’s budget problems will be far worse under the current Administration than under the Davis administration, unless the Governor finds a blue pen somewhere;

2. Assembly Republican Leader Villines is damn determined to keep his caucus united on spending and taxation, and may save California from even more fiscal ruin with his focused, CENTRIST leadership – he’ll be successful if he engagesfiscally conservative activistsaround the state to help him.;

3. Republican voters are still very, very pissed about the direction of the Party and 2007 will be a very, very slow healing time – we may not even be ready for 2008 unless we get some "red meat" issues somewhere;

4. Ron Nehring and Tom Del Beccaro will be the new leadership tandem at the top of the State’s GOP… Read More

Should California expand the power of recall to include our Congressional delegation?

This could make an interesting prospect for a new ballot initiative. An amendment to the California Constitution that expanded the current law to include "all" elected officials, and which, as a safety value legally, encouraged candidates for Congress to voluntarily submit to the recall process by printing "Voluntarily Agrees to Recall Process" next to their names on the ballot, might make the 2008 election season even more interesting!

California has played a leading historical role in the empowerment of the people through the direct-democracy devices of initiative, referendum, and recall. It was California that was among the first state to enact these tools in 1911. While until the 1980s, California was best known for the initiative process, the use of the recall tool made a big jump forward in the aftermath of the Prop. 13 landslide, and became more than just a local device, when California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird was successfully recalled. Yet there continued to be many other unsuccessful recall efforts of statewide officers —… Read More

In case you missed it, Time magazine’s annual "Person of the Year" was bestowed on YOU, "citizens of the new digital democracy." According to the Associated Press, "the winners this year were anyone using or creating content on the World Wide Web."

Of all the YOUs in this fair land, I can’t think of anyone better thanJon Fleischman and FR, the stable of bloggers and the many readers…the onesinstrumental in the last year for using and creating content on the WWW that helped drive the digital democracy in California.

Congratulations to all of YOU, but especially to Jon and the FlashReport. Next stop for FR….the cover of The Nation and Mother Jones. That’s when we’ll know we’ve really gone legit.

In the meantime, directly from AP online:

NEW YORK (AP)… Read More

As Presidential politics heads up nationally, of course it means that all of the candidates will be looking to California as they put together their national plans — especially on the financial side of things. For the Republican candidates especially, California has traditionally been considered an "ATM Stop" as there is a lot of fertile ground here for raising political funds — that they are traditionally spend in other states. FR Los Angeles County Correspondent Shawn Steel already posted about how some of the fundraising consultants are lining up in the GOP primary, but it is also notable to see that three California major finance players are taking the lead roles in the fundraising operations of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Who are they? Stepping up early for retiring Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s California efforts is highly… Read More

As Presidential politics heads up nationally, of course it means that all of the candidates will be looking to California as they put together their national plans — especially on the financial side of things. For the Republican candidates especially, California has traditionally been considered an "ATM Stop" as there is a lot of fertile ground here for raising political funds — that they are traditionally spend in other states. FR Los Angeles County Correspondent Shawn Steel already posted about how some of the fundraising consultants are lining up in the GOP primary, but it is also notable to see that three California major finance players are taking the lead roles in the fundraising operations of Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Who are they? Stepping up early for retiring Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s California efforts is highly… Read More

It looks like our own California Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan is going to be elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee!

The primary governing body of the national Republican Party is the Republican National Committee. This body is made up of around 170 or so people — three from each state and also representation from some United States territories. Each state has on the RNC its Chairman, as well as a Committeeman and a Committeewoman. Each individual state decides how it elects these important offices. In California, since a change in the Party Rules that was in effect in 1996, the State Republican Party Central Committee has elected our Committeeman and Committeewoman, Tim Morgan and Barbara Alby, respectively. Of course the same CRP delegates elect our Chairman, currently Duf Sundheim and come February, Ron Nehring (Ron is unopposed in his ascendancy into the Chairmanship – he is currently Vice Chairman of the State GOP). As you can tell, the RNC is a… Read More

It looks like our own California Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan is going to be elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee!

The primary governing body of the national Republican Party is the Republican National Committee. This body is made up of around 170 or so people — three from each state and also representation from some United States territories. Each state has on the RNC its Chairman, as well as a Committeeman and a Committeewoman. Each individual state decides how it elects these important offices. In California, since a change in the Party Rules that was in effect in 1996, the State Republican Party Central Committee has elected our Committeeman and Committeewoman, Tim Morgan and Barbara Alby, respectively. Of course the same CRP delegates elect our Chairman, currently Duf Sundheim and come February, Ron Nehring (Ron is unopposed in his ascendancy into the Chairmanship – he is currently Vice Chairman of the State GOP). As you can tell, the RNC is a… Read More

Republican Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard has been fostering an ongoing discussion about the California Republican Party’s Victory Program (Get-Out-The-Vote). He posts over on his blog here, but gives me leave to post his stuff over here, too. So his latest thoughts are below, and a few blog posts down, Brandon Powers has posted a memo from the CRP Board of Directors on some of these issues… FROM BILL LEONARD In my November 20th newsletter I asked for a financial and performance audit of the California Republican Party’s 2006 campaign effort. While I have learned a lot since then thanks to conversations with key party and Schwarzenegger campaign officials, it is still important that we look at what happened, what worked, and what did not work and why. … Read More