What am I missing here?

As I watch the Sunday television political pundits, they say that Ohio Representative John Boehner, currently the House Majority Leader (pictured to the right), is set to ascend into the top position for Republicans in the House, with the only higher ranking Republican, Speaker Dennis Hastert, "taking the bullet" for the team," stepping away from Leadership. But apparently his fellow leader, Boehner, doesn’t feel that he has the same obligation.

Well, with every offense intended, Republicans lost Congress not because the Democrats suddenly discovered some sort of great plan for America – but because voters, and especially the Republican base, lost any faith in the Republican majorities in the United States Senate and in the House of Representatives.

The… Read More

Lynn Daucher’s election to the California State Senate matters. Right now she and her Democrat opponent, Supervisor (and former Assemblyman) Lou Correa probably both feel a great deal of empathy for both President Bush and former Senator Al Gore — as election day for Daucher (pictured to the right) and Correa continues to go on and on. You see, in this Central Orange County Senate District, represented by term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn for the past eight years, the votes are too close to call. When all of the election-day ballots were counted, Daucher held onto a razor thin lead — but that was with over 20,000 votes yet to be counted (late absentee ballots, those who brought their AB’s to their polling place, and provisional ballots cast by those who had some issues at the polling place). After several days of counting ballots (with several more days to go), today Daucher sits with an 833 vote margin over… Read More

Lynn Daucher’s election to the California State Senate matters. Right now she and her Democrat opponent, Supervisor (and former Assemblyman) Lou Correa probably both feel a great deal of empathy for both President Bush and former Senator Al Gore — as election day for Daucher (pictured to the right) and Correa continues to go on and on. You see, in this Central Orange County Senate District, represented by term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn for the past eight years, the votes are too close to call. When all of the election-day ballots were counted, Daucher held onto a razor thin lead — but that was with over 20,000 votes yet to be counted (late absentee ballots, those who brought their AB’s to their polling place, and provisional ballots cast by those who had some issues at the polling place). **There is more – click the… Read More

Below is an email I received by up and coming conservative activist and tommy girl t-shirt model Meredith Turney.

CRP Needs New Leadership In the months following the primary election, I have sat in countless meetings with the Schwarzenegger campaign and CRP leadership. During these meetings, the campaign hierarchy assured conservatives that the Victory ’06 program would help down ticket candidates. The "CRP leadership", including Duf Sundheim, addressed conservatives’ concerns by stating that Tom McClintock, Tony Strickland, Chuck Poochigian and others would all benefit from the governor’s campaign. Around midnight on November 7 th, we realized that we had been lied to, not just once, but repeatedly.

In the days and weeks leading up to the election, conservatives expressed our frustration that Victory ’06 and the governor were not in fact focused on "the team" but on re-electing a man who continues to search for his core values. I can’t tell you how many fellow Republicans I talked to who said that… Read More

In one week, House Republicans will hold internal elections to determine their new leadership, after the dismal results of last Tuesday’s elections. Because of so much interest by FR readers, I reached out to longtime FR friend Rick Dykema, who is Chief of Staff to California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and asked him if he would give us an overvue of the process, and a roundup of who is running for what. Also, look for something soon on these elections from FR’s Beltway Correspondent, Congressman John Campbell…

The Upcoming Republican Leadership Elections An overview penned by Rick Dykema The House Republican leadership elections scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, next Friday, November 17, are shaping up to be the most completely contested elections in history. The shift from majority to minority status has stirred the ambitions of several Republican… Read More

ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS RE-ORGANIZE; VILLINES OF FRESNO IS NEW LEADER It is traditional that within a couple of days of each General Election, the legislative caucuses in the State Assembly gather to formally elect their leadership for the coming session. The Democrats gathered and re-elected Speaker Fabian Nunez to lead the Assembly Democrats, and the institution as they are the majority Party. Assembly Republicans gathered yesterday afternoon for many hours, debating amongst themselves the future of California, and how to make Assembly Republicans most relevant in the process. Based on my understanding here is my 30,000 foot summary. Discussion centered around the best strategies to deal with the new paradigm in Sacramento, the change in political direction taken by Governor Schwarzenegger, and the challenges that Assembly Republicans had last year in being relevant… Read More

In California Political News, Steve Frank writes, "What wasn’t expected was the record low turnout of voters, mostly the GOP leaning counties. No wonder we lost so big. Where were the volunteers? How did we do so poorly in Republican Counties?" That question was preceded by Steve’s comment that Assembly Republicans were upset after being asked by leadership to "back a budget badly in deficit and bonds that were tributes to special interests." That just about answers the questions Steve poses.

I’ve never known deficit spending, big bonds and special interest commitments to be things that particularly excite the GOP base.… Read More

The state prison guard union is running TV spots jumping the Governor. (h/t to Cap. Weekly) You can see the spot below. The Governor will be addressing prison reform in the upcoming legislative session. … Read More