It is going to take some time to properly digest all of the results from yesterday’s elections and figure out what it all means. That having been said, I will share some general thoughts about the evening. Let’s see – on the the "good news" side of the ledger for the GOP: The healthy re-election of Governor Schwarzenegger, the election of Steve Poizner as Insurance Commissioner, and over on the State Legislative side of things, the fact GOP didn’t lose any seats, and looks poized to actually pick-up the 34th State Senate seat in Central Orange County with the election of Lynn Daucher. I suppose Republicans can take some satisfaction out of the defeat of the tax measure (86, 87, 88, 89) on the ballot, too. On the "bad news" side of things: the loss of Congress and the probable loss of the U.S. Senate, with the exception of Poizner the defeat of all down-ticket GOP candidates, the passage of 40 billion plus plus in ill-advised bond measures, and the defeat of Propositions 85 and 90. You’ll have to wait a day to get a more comprehensive analysis from me on what I think this all… Read More

Senate District 34 – DAUCHER is leading Correa by 13 votes. Stay tuned for the frenzy…

5th Supervisorial District – BATES won over DeYoung’s money 53% over 48%

Anaheim Mayor – PRINGLE easily wins re-election

Anaheim Council – Balance of power in question with Kring (a former councilmember) winning and Chavez an incumbent losing.

Costa Mesa Council – MANSOOR and LEECE win to solidify a conservative majority with Beaver who was not up for re-election.

Dana Point Council – Diane Harkey is the big winner without being on the ballot. She is on the council but was not up for re-election this year. Two of her candidates (BARTLETT and BISHOP) won giving her a governing majority. Incumbent Lacy lost.

Fullerton Council – Incumbent Wilson lost to to ultra-liberal KELLER shifting the balance of power in that city.

Garden Grove Council – BROADWATER easily won back a seat on the council after being termed out as mayor two years ago. KREBS also won re-election

Huntington Beach Council – Status quo as three endorsed… Read More

Tuesday was a good day locally for San Bernardino County GOP and Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus. First, he personally managed to unseat three-term incumbent County Assessor Don Williamson by a five-point margin in their runoff election contest. The Assessor’s is the second consecutive office Postmus has won by defeating an incumbent (he ousted Supervisor Kathy Davis in the year 2000).

The second reason Postmus is smiling today is because his Republican Central Committee’s endorsed local candidates and causes enjoyed a 73% win rate Tuesday night.

While the County only turned out 37 percent of its voters, which even though that number will rise somewhat is pretty dismal, it is similar to the turnout in neighboring Riverside County.

All of the state bonds were approved by the County’s voters, while Tom McClintock, Bruce McPherson, Tony Strickland and Steve Poizner all carried the County, along with Michelle Steele for Board of Equalization. Gov. Schwarzenegger carried the County with 61 percent.

Countywide in San Bernardino, parental notification was… Read More

This morning, newly re-elected California Republican Congressman John Doolittle already sent out a press release announcing his candidacy for re-election to House Leadership, to the position of Conference Secretary.

John Doolittle’s release is long in terms of listing all kinds of administrative things he has done to make the life of Republican Members of Congress easier — but is completely silent in the area where it counts: an analysis of the GOP defeat, what the role of the House Leadership (of which is a part) was in that defeat (or conversely if he feels that the House Leadership was not to blame, then what was to blame).

In light of the drubbing that we just took in the last elections, John Doolittle (Californian or not) and every member of the House Leadership team that wants to keep their job need to articulate publicly what went wrong, and what they think needs to happen in the next Congress to regain the majority, and what they would do if they had it.

The launching of helpful… Read More

Ward Connerly and his team have won the hotly contested campaign to end racial preferences in Michigan. With the help of our own FR alum, Joe Justin, Proposal 2 passed by a huge margin, 58%-42% Despite the pile-on opposition by politicians, labor unions, businesses and the education establishment, the voters saw clearly that the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative was a straightforward, fair measure that simply called on government to treat people equally, without regard to their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Ten years after California voters passed the California Civil Rights Initiative, Prop. 209, Michigan voters got it right and passed their own ban on racial and gender preferences. Congratulations, Ward,… Read More

Contesting an election that you have apparently lost by a handful of votes is one thing, but apparently former Assemblyman Steve Clute, who just lost his attempt to take out incumbent Republican Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia by a couple of percentage points, is apparently making the motions to start contesting the results of the election.

The outcome of this pouting-session is preordained — or is it? I have no clue about what the ‘politics’ are down at the Imperial County Registrar of Voters. Hopefully Secretary of State McPherson will dispatch some of his folks out to AD 80 to make sure that everything is handled on the up and up.… Read More

In a virtually improbable turn of events, Republican Cal Minor appears to have lost the Fresno County Sheriff’s race to Democrat Margaret Mims. Despite having the endorsements of Congressman Radanovich and Nunes, Assemblyman Villines, the Lincoln Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Deputy Sheriffs and Fresno Police Officers Association, Mims finished the evening with a slim 155 vote lead over Minor.

North Fresno precincts were a ghost town yesterday, with brutally low turnout fueled by: disgust with the Republican led Congress, last week’s Field Poll showing Chuck Poochigian losing by 21 points, and no real contested races for the Legislative seats. This low turnout is what evidently cost Cal Minor an election he should have won handily.

There will likely be a recount, but this one shouldn’t have been close. It appears Cal Minor has become yet another Republican election night casualty.… Read More

Tomorrow, the Assembly Republican class of ’07-’08 will be gathering for what I understand is a traditional post-election lunch. Some years, this meal ends up being a ‘last supper’ for an Assembly Leader who loses seats — other years it is has been a triumphant feast. There has been some ‘chatter’ and ‘behind the scenes’ swirling about whether or not the current Assembly Republican Leader, George Plescia, is going to be dealing with a potential challenge to his post tomorrow. Maybe he will or maybe he will not. But I am firing this post onto the FR Blog because I have gotten so many e-mails from people asking me about it, and also because of the taunting, baiting posts over at the CMR (Democrat) website, where they have a vested interest in throwing stink-bombs into the GOP tent. I made a specific decision of my own NOT to blog about any of these goings-on before the election, and have decided that I really have no desire to talk about it now. I have spoken with over a dozen Assemblymembers or Assemblymembers-elect over the past few days on a myriad of issues, including those pertaining to caucus… Read More