As many FR readers already know, I am a candidate for Vice-Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. The election will be on February 12th in Sacramento, and I will be campaigning hard all of the way until ‘election day’ at the GOP Convention. I am humbled to enjoy a tremendous amount of support from throughout the Southern Region (Riverside, Orange, San Diego, and Imperial Counties). I thought I would highlight three prominent endorsers of my campaign who are more ‘statewide’ than regional figures in California Republican politics:

"Jon’s acumen and understanding of the business of politics makes him my choice for Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party." – State Senator Tom McClintock… Read More

If you are wondering what the difference will be between the official Christmas Tree outside of the State Capitol this year, versus the tree from last year (pictured) — the office of First Lady Maria Shriver has announced that this year’s white fir tree will be the, "First-Ever Energy-Efficient Christmas Tree is Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cell."

According to the release from Shriver’s office, "The 55-foot white fir tree donated by the U.S. Forest Service, Institute of Forest Genetics features more than 6,500 LED lights. The one-kilowatt fuel cell system has been provided by the California Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative and was manufactured by Altergy Systems of Folsom. Fuel cell technology was originally invented for NASA to power Gemini space craft."

For any Capitol denizens who are not already planning to run out to the tree lighting ceremony to see the fuel cell system in action (it’s in… Read More

Buried in the business section of the Sacramento Bee (and again in the opinion page) was a story about what should be one of the biggest political scandals of the year: Sacramento Councilman Steve Cohn, in an brazen attempt to curry favor with labor unions, is secretly attempting to force a private company to unionize – even though employees already voted against unionizing.

One of the regions oldest businesses – the venerable Blue Diamond Growers, which is really a co-operative of 3500 small growers — learned of the move by the City of Sacramento when the item appeared on the agenda for this Friday’s council meeting.

Councilman Steve Cohn — who really wants to be mayor — is trying to eliminate the standard secret ballot, which would leave employees open to intimidation for their ballot choice (no matter which side they pick, they would be subject to possible intimidation).

Cohn once tried to block expansion of Sutter Hospital… Read More

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2007-2008 legislative session. The Assembly once again installed Assembly member Fabian Nunez as Speaker of the Assembly yesterday and the Senate re-elected Senator Don Perata as Senate Majority Leader. Most of the action was in the Assembly, as the governor sat through the whole swearing-in ceremony and got up to saw a few words when Nunez introduced him.

Nunez gave a speech about wanting to work with members of both parties on issues such as health care, education and the environment. When Assembly member Mike Villines was elected as Republican leader in November, Nunez issued a statement saying, “I congratulate Assembly member Mike Villines on his election today as Republican leader. If there is any lesson to be learned from the election, it is that California voters want us to be partners, not partisans…I look forward to working with him to continue the bipartisan progress we made with Governor Schwarzenegger.”… Read More

Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2007-2008 legislative session. The Assembly once again installed Assembly member Fabian Nunez as Speaker of the Assembly yesterday and the Senate re-elected Senator Don Perata as Senate Majority Leader. Most of the action was in the Assembly, as the governor sat through the whole swearing-in ceremony and got up to saw a few words when Nunez introduced him.

Nunez gave a speech about wanting to work with members of both parties on issues such as health care, education and the environment. When Assembly member Mike Villines was elected as Republican leader in November, Nunez issued a statement saying, “I congratulate Assembly member Mike Villines on his election today as Republican leader. If there is any lesson to be learned from the election, it is that California voters want us to be partners, not partisans…I look forward to working with him to continue the bipartisan progress we made with Governor Schwarzenegger.”… Read More

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines introduced a redistricting reform measure today. Good for him. I hope that the Governor picks this as an issue of importance to help usher through. Maybe he can prevail on the Democrats to sign on and make California’s legislative races more competitive (and therefore, more democratic). From Villines’ office:

REPUBLICAN LEADER VILLINES INTRODUCES REDISTRICTING REFORM MEASURE Legislation Strips Powers from Politicians, Returns Them to the People SACRAMENTO – Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines, of Clovis, today introduced legislation that will take away the power to draw legislative… Read More

Even though he’s away lolling on a tropical beach, I wanted to take the time to wish FR Big Daddy Jon Fleischman a happy birthday.

Without his vision and drive, I wouldn’t be able to say this, or anything else, in this venue.

I think he’s about 37 now (?)

Please join me in wishing Jon a great day!… Read More

Hats off to Capitol Weekly’s Anthony York for being first out of the gate with the news that Senate Republicans this morning re-elected Dick Ackerman as their leader. According to the story, it was a razor-close vote between Ackerman and challenger Jim Battin.

There were several votes, and that among other issues discussed, according to Battin, there was the relationship between Senate Republicans and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Specifically, Battin told York, "And we had a long discussion on how the leaders should act with the governor."

You can read Capitol Weekly’s piece here. Congratulations to Senator Ackerman.

(We understand that the ultimate ‘swing’ vote was an undecided Senator Abel Maldonado. Maldonado went with Ackerman, and sealed the deal for the Leader’s re-election. )… Read More