OK, so we thought we knew how far to the left Phil Angelides is. We knew he was hanging out over there in the nosebleed seats high above left field with Mark Leno and Howard Dean. But now we see he’s barely in the ballpark at all.

Angelides has a bona fide, unabashed socialist working on his behalf. He’s making TV appearances on Angelides’ behalf and writing blog posts at a pro-Phil website.

And guess what else? He’s a union organizer, and he used to be a national official for the Young Democratic Socialists.

**There is more – click the link**

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Today, in a sharp step away from the free-market principles of Ronald Reagan and Milton Friedman, Govenor Schwarzenegger has entered into an alliance with the most liberal elements of our State Legislature to impose government price-controls on prescription drugs.

THIS IS HORRIBLE PUBLIC POLICY.

I cannot say it any better than Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia in the following statement just released from his office:

“Republicans agree that expanding access to prescription drugs is an important priority, but we have many serious concerns about this prescription drug plan.

“By forcing companies to cut drug prices through price controls, which is the practical effect of this measure, we will jeopardize the development of life-saving drugs for all 35 million people in our state, drive up health insurance costs for all insured Californians, and threaten the jobs of thousands of highly skilled workers in this critical industry.

“Using a heavy-handed approach to force drug companies to participate may have the unintended and dangerous consequence of taking away critical medications for vulnerable Californians… Read More

THANK YOU!!

Below you will find my picks for Winners and Loser from last weekend’s GOP convention — but before I get into that, I wanted to take a quick moment to express my appreciation to the many legislators, volunteer leaders, and CRP delegates who endorsed my candidacy for Vice Chairman, South of the California Republican Party (read more here). The election will not be held until February, but time invested into the campaign last weekend was well worth the time!

I would like especially thank the four Statewide Republican Volunteer Organizations that have voted to give me an early endorsement in this race…

I am fascinated by what people choose as their ballot designations, those three words you get to describe yourself. Unless you are an incumbent, you have more liberal ability to use more text.

But so far this year I have two favorites…

CITY OF TUSTIN – Nekoda Mae Mattox…Retail employee This doesn’t exactly instill any confidence of leadership ability. Although his/her (I am not really sure what it is) probably has a better handle on finance knowing how to make change from a $20, than most candidates for local office.

OCEANVIEW SCHOOL DISTRICT – Les Tait…Industrial Firefighter I am unsure what that means. Perhaps since my brother has an industrial warehouse and a fire extinguisher could he be an industrial firefighter?

More soon…… Read More

If there was ever an argument for hiring a political consultant, the really sorry excuses for ballot statements that pop up every election is one of them.

I will hight light several glaring examples of how candidates do the unthinkable…feel free to send me your own examples.

In today’s example, my favorite so far this year, Mr. Che Hill, in the FIRST LINE of his ballot statement, proclaims: "My name is Che Hill. I was named after the Cuban Revolutionary Che Guevara." [See the full ballot statement attached below.]

I prefer Guevara’s Bolivian work myself but something tells me the people of Perris where Che was planning on running for city council would not have appreciated the distinction.

Luckily they won’t have to. You see Che did not qualify for the ballot. I am not sure why and I am unclear as to whether he paid for the ballot statement anyway, but I am too embarrassed for him to even ask.

More from the ballot statements of… Read More

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