From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail (thanks John for the F/R ‘shout-out’):

California Goes Its Own Way

Washington D.C.’s conservative community is acting as if an invasion of barbarian liberals is at the city’s gates. But out in the nation, the picture is a bit more mixed. California conservatives aren’t depressed at all, despite their state’s reputation as a pure blue stronghold. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t a traditional conservative but his lengthy coattails may bring along some top-flight conservative candidates who are running for lesser statewide offices. Should State Senator Tom McClintock be elected lieutenant governor, for instance,… Read More

Much has been made about the strength of the GOP team of statewide candidates this year.

Arnold has the star power. Tom and Tony and Pooch bring out the base. Poizner and McPherson give us strength and balance.

But as these last days approach, I’ve come to believe that the rest of the team brings significant benefit to the ticket as well, but in an unusual way…

About a year ago now if you recall, businessman and Redistricting Reform advocate Bill Mundell was talking about putting his millions up against Senator Feinstein. Bill Simon too was talking about making a run for the Treasurer’s post.

Neither ultimately decided to run, and in some ways, it’s a blessing.

Instead of the popular Senator and the deep-pocketed AG adding to the clutter on the airwaves and giving Democrats actual reasons to go vote, both are opting to sit comfortably atop their warchests, secure in the knowledge that their races don’t require vast expenditures.

An unintended consequence of those decisions though is the removal of a competative race for either post that could possibly pull the Democrats out of the downward spiral of… Read More

Tan Nguyen, the newly minted Republican who is running for Congress in central Orange County fresh on the heels of running for Congress as a Democrat in the neighboring House seat is having a bad day — actually — a bad few days. As a general rule you probably never want to be linked to the DrudgeReport – that is usually bad news. Looks like the Feds are all over him…Nguyen is, and the links are below…

GOP Calls for Withdrawal of Candidate After Letter...

Agents Search Office...… Read More

We can’t keep up with the cancellations fast enough. Here are more television stations where Cruz Bustamante has pulled his television ads. These are in additions to the ones listed below.

The crack investigative team at the FlashReport has uncovered documents (attached below for your perusal) showing that political upstart and congressional candidate, Terrance J. (“T.J.”) Cox, was sued for fraud in Texas before moving to California four years ago. Cox is the latest Democrat to challenge popular Republican Congressman George Radanovich in the Central Valley. However, unlike previous challengers, Cox has already lent his campaign more than $500,000. According to court records filed by Atkins Production Services, Inc. in Tarrant County, Texas, Cox “manipulated and cooked the books of his companies to fraudulently sell the businesses and fraudulently obtain an inflated price for the businesses.”

In addition to Cox, others named in the August 1, 2002 suit were T.J. Cox, Inc. and The Framing Solution, two companies owned by Cox while living in Texas. The suit was filed shortly after Cox moved to California and charged that Cox falsified records when he told the new owner his businesses were… Read More

Thanks to a heads-up with some stats courtesy of the Office of the Governor, we can compare some judicial appointment statistics based on party registration of the appointees:

Here are numbers on appointments for the past three years — of course the Governor served only part of 2004 and 2006 is not yet over. While there is still a long way to go for our Republican Governor, his 2006 GOP % of 61 beats 2005’s dismal 52% We’ll be hoping for even more GOP judges for 2007, but even under the watchful eye of Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy (former Executive Director of the California Democratic Party, Naral, Feinstein, blah blah) we are seeing an improvement!

2004 Republican – 2 (33.3%) Democrat – 2 (33.3%) DTS – 2… Read More

For those of you who have not been following it, there has been a controversy brewing in Central Orange County where a letter had apparently been sent out to around 14,000 hispanic voters geared towards suppressing hispanic turnout.

The letter, written in Spanish, apprently say in it, "You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time…"

The letter has set off a formal investigation by the Attorney General’s office, and it is looking very much like the responsible party looks to be Tan Nguyen (to right). Nguyen is the long-shot Republican challenger to Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez in the 46th Congressional District.

I will draw the attention of FR readers to three blog posts on the Red County/OC Blog website (the definitive source for political news in "The OC") — the… Read More

by FR State Capitol Correspondent Dan Schnur

[WELCOME BRITONS!]

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. So if you’re a California Democrat contemplating electoral apocalypse and you’ve already reconciled yourself to the idea that Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be re-elected next month, you’re probably just beginning to confront a downticket dilemma that’s almost as frustrating:

McClintock or Strickland.

If you’re a California Democrat and you’re still mad about the special election, but you’ve come to term with the idea that another four years of Arnold won’t be that bad as long as he continues to compromise with the legislature on everything but taxes and illegal immigration, and you were never that wild about Phil Angelides anyway so it’s time to start thinking about Villaraigosa or Newsom or O’Connell (or Obama or Gore or Hillary), you’ve still got an unpleasant decision to face in the meantime:

Strickland or McClintock.

Of course you’ll vote against both Tom McClintock for… Read More