When a candidate runs for office with the right motives sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. But more often than not, candidates who run with the worst of intentions fail.

This was the case in the city of Orange where Newport Beach real estate agent Carol Rudat ran for city council in a city in which she did not live. Her motivation was to seek revenge on several of the council members (one of them who is now deceased) for firing her husband as city manager.

Rudat lost, badly.

Her chief opponent Denis Bilodeau (who won) by contrast is as planning commissioner in town, long time resident. His children go to local schools. He genuinely cares about the city and its residents.

Rudat, it has been suggested, actually ran the air conditioner in her Orange ‘residences’ all summer long–24/7 so that she could one day, if need be, show a judgethat she and her husband really ‘lived’ there–"just look, we used this much power." How obnoxious. The funny thing is that I’ve her water bill in the Orange home she supposedly lived in only showed gallons in water use over the same several month… Read More

FR friend Bill Bradley interviewed Matthew Dowd, Chief Strategist for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s re-election, last Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton hotel. The interview is below. Of course, lots of talk about the Governor’s success with his new ‘bipartisan’ approach to governing and campaigning. There is no doubt that this strategy has brought about electoral success – very much so. But becoming elected to office is a means to and end. Other than his firm commitment not to raise taxes, it is really hard for me to discern what is on, and what is off of the table in terms of public policy proposals for the Governor.

Part of the problem is that I thought I had a clearer picture of where the Governor wanted to take this state right after the recall of Gray Davis. I am hoping that the Governor will start to make it more clear where he is coming from so that we can all understand it. In the absence of specificity, I get very nervous.

There are a lot of very bad things that can happen to California at the hands of Don Perata… Read More

This race was going to be a no brainer. Margaret Mims, Democrat, Assistant Sheriff, against retired CHP and gang task force leader Cal Minor, aRepublican. Republicans have a 25,000 voter registration advantage in the County. Minor is endorsed by the Fresno Bee, the Lincoln Club of Fresno County, Congressman Radanovich and Nunes, Senator Chuck Poochigian and Assemblyman Mike Villines, Fresno Chamber of Commerce,Deputy Sheriff’s Association and Fresno Police Officers Association, the Republican Central Committee, and countless others.

It appears as if Minor has lost the race – and Mims might have scored the biggest upset win in decades in Fresno County. How did she overcome all the assets of Cal Minor?

She mostly benefited from the GOP implosion.

Minor’s apparent loss, by 770 votes out of over 140,000 cast, was driven by several factors, as… Read More

Did I misunderstand him or did the governor just compare Mexican immigrants to children?

His point is exactly right–just because people yell for something doesn’t mean the rest of us have to give in. But I can’t imagine that Univision or La Opinion is going to be happy about his comparison of Mexican immigrants to his children. Probably about as happy as California Republicans are about his comments that it was time for "new blood" in Washington, D.C.

Here’s what the governor said, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle:

Asked what would be his message to the Mexican people, Schwarzenegger noted his visits to date from his movie and bodybuilding days… Read More

As a member of the leadership team for our caucus, I must honor that our internal workings and decisions of our caucus must remain internal with the outcome being the aspect that we may or may not go public with. Obviously, with the new term and our organizational meeting on the horizon, the discussions turned to the leadership of our caucus. Controversy surrounded as to how that discussion would be carried out and when. Our unity being one of our most important assets in my 4 years in the legislature, I had great concern as to how this was going toplay out.

Our leader, George Plescia, inherited a situation not to be envied in terms of the transition. He jumped into the fire during the bond ‘negotiations’ and counter to what some may say, was not twisting arms of members to vote for any bonds. Nor during the budget, when more than the usual 6 Republicans usually needed to pass a budget were there. Members complaining about these issues and voting for them, look in the mirror.

It was a 2nd year of the session, an election year, where the leader’s job is to protect our targets and wage the battle on new seats that we… Read More

Preamble The position of the Republican Party is that state government is too big, and spends too much. That taxes should be cut, and many government-funded programs be eliminated. Families should be able to keep more of their tax dollars, to spend as they would see fit, not shipping them to Sacramento through high taxes and onerous fees, to be redistributed by politicians to their various causes. If everyone would ingrain that into their thinking on policy debates, then there would a better understanding about why Republicans in the legislature are not hip on drinking the ‘bipartisan’ Kool-aid being poured by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Perata and Speaker Nunez right now. You see, the Democrats are only willing to jump on… Read More

Larry McCarthy is the President of the California Taxpayers Association, and he has penned his thoughts on Tuesday’s election, and the message sent by California voters about tax increases…

(Published November 9th, 2006 in Capitol Weekly) When I offered to write this column for Capitol Weekly, I must admit I was hoping for a much different outcome on this Election Day, which clearly was a big day for the party of Hilary Clinton–especially when you look at the results of the midterm elections around the country. The GOP loss of the House, and most likely the Senate, is bad news for all of those who believe that our federal government is too fat and spends too much. Republican leaders need to make the case to voters in 2008 as to why the GOP should be given back the reigns of leadership. The impact of the national GOP losses in Congress was given an emphatic exclamation point with the defeat of House Resources Committee Chairman Richard… Read More