For a number of years now the San Diego Republicans and the Orange Republicans have argued good-naturedly which organization was most capable of doing the basic jobs of a county party: registering voters, recruiting candidates, turning out the vote, and raising money. The record has been back and forth, with surges in activity from either county that thinks it’s visibly slipping.

So as a San Diego partisan who lived and worked in Orange for a couple years in the Fuentes era, I was interested in an email that come through the pipes today describing what sounds like a little competition between the two counties. I like competition. Competition is usually pretty good in determining winners and losers. Looks like Orange County Young Republicans and San Diego Young Republicans have a little wager over which club can recruit the most volunteers for the Republican Party during the dog days of summer. I hear the winner gets bragging rights and BBQ – and that the losers are humiliated in a manner not befitting description for the gentle readers of this blog.

I also hear the Orange County Young Republicans are getting lapped like I did when I ran the Three… Read More

Moxie is defined in the dictionary as, "Aggressive energy; initiative."

Moxie is a word that I would use to describe the Schwarzenegger Campaign. In their latest television advertisement, the Governor’s Campaign charges straight into the anemic gun-barrel of Phil Angelides.

You can see the ad here as long as it is on the front of the Join Arnold website. The Angelides Campaign, has completely failed to define their own candidate at all. After having their candidate defined by Team Arnold as the man who wants to tax anything that moves to the tune of $18 billion, Angelides has been trying to shrink Schwarzenegger’s popular support by trying him to the currently-unpopular President George W. Bush. "Where does Phil Angelides live? All he talks about is President Bush…" opens the ad. It goes on to talk about how the… Read More

Over on the new Democrat site, two of the contributors are Gale Kaufman and Alan Arkatov. I probably would have been prepared to proclaim Kaufman to be the bigger union-hack of the two, just because she has a much higher profile, and has been so engaged on the front-side of pro-union causes. But I have now got some actual empirical evidence that officially gives the "Tip of the Cesar Chavez Grape Basket" to Kaufman…

Yesterday at the big lefty website kickoff event, I spoke with both Gale and Alan, and they both gave me their business cards… Only Gale’s was printed with the official union bug. Alan, does this mean you are ready to embrace paycheck protection? Maybe even become a GOPer?… Read More

Here are some thoughts, in no particular order, on the passing scene…

– At the CA Majority Report kickoff event, I was surprised how many Democrats I was meeting for the first time were quite candid in their expectation that Phil Angelides would lose. Some were senior Dem strategists.

– I know Ben Lopez. Ben Lopez is a friend of mine. Ben Lopez is not Lou Sheldon.

– I got irked that someone from the Governor’s Team tried to console me on the minimum wage increase by saying that at least we didn’t get stuck with indexing the minimum wage to inflation. Given that there zero GOP votes in the legislature to override a veto of ANY hike in the wage mandate, it wasn’t too much comfort.

– The most surreal moment of my week came when I saw the words “Flash Report” come out of the mouth of Gray Davis.

– The big education bond measure on the ballot should be called the “Blue County Bond” – a local school district has to put up matching funds to get the bond funds, but only liberal areas will pass local tax increases to create the matching funds.

– The OC Board… Read More

Talk about taking the wind out of my sails. I came home on Sunday from the State GOP Convention all pumped up for the Fall elections. The Governor’s speech was great, and really fired me up. The Governor asked the audience, "What do we say to more government control?" The audience answered with a resounding "NO!" Well, by agreeing to hike the mandated wage that California businesses, large and small, must pay employees, the Governor has said a resounding "YES" to more government control. And that is exactly what has happenned – as Arnold Scharzenegger, without the support of our GOP legislative caucuses, has cut a deal with legislative Democrats to impose more government control on all California employers. His support for hiking the minimum wage (to the highest in the nation) strikes right at the heart of those who believe that the size and scope and regulatory authority of government is too vast, and that at risk is the liberty of all Californians. This… Read More

The California Republican Party Chairman, Duf Sundheim, has his own blog, and here is his official post-convention ‘pep-talk’ to the troops: Shortly after the Recall, I was asked whether the Recall marked a turning point in California politics. I said it was either a turning point or an aberration, depending upon where we went from here. By reelecting Governor Schwarzenegger and winning down ballot races in 2006, we will demonstrate that the Recall election of 2003 was The turning point. That is why… Read More

Chris Mowrer is State Senator Abel Maldonado’s Chief of Staff, and a Republican. I wonder how he is feeling as we sit here in the back row of the Governor’s Press Conference Room (1190) where the Governor and Democrat leaders are going to announce an increase in the state’s wage mandate on employers.

Waiting for this press conference is like waiting for somone to speak at a funeral. As a believer in the free markey system, a mandated wage hike on employers is like pouring kerosine on a burning building. Legislation that is designed to “help” people in fact is going to put people out of work.

Republican Abel “glutton for punishment” Maldonado is here and is going to be co-authoring this bad legislation, which makes me wonder if he needs to read Hayek’s Road to Surfdom or Bastiat’s The Law.

I also see Republican Bonny Garcia waiting in the wings. She looks pretty uncomfortable – unclear if it is guilt, being around too many Democrats, or the warm tempurature. Presumably she is supporting this bill as well.

There is a pretty yellow and blue sign above the podium with the catchy slogan… Read More

Early this morning, at midnight, a group of ultra-liberal California Democrat operatives – Steve Maviglio, Jason Kinney, and Roger Salazar – launched a new blogsite that is supposed to be the left’s answer to… well, this website! They have amassed an impressive array of Donkey operatives (see the attachment) and should be producing quite a bit of content… You can be sure that we (that would be me and the FR blog team) will be keeping an eye on them! This site has been up for nearly a year now, and has been starving for some company. A clear contrast between the failed liberal policies of the Democrat Party and the solid, sound principles of conservatism will show that, by and large, Republicans are right and Democrats are wrong! I have actually had a few chats over some months with the development team of their new site, the California Majority Report (CMR), in terms of giving them some logistical advice. I… Read More