Last night, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay officially retired after 22 years of service in the House of Representatives. He delivered an eloquent farewell speech that reminded all of us still serving in the House why we are here; he defined what in means to be conservative or liberal (the description of which clearly made many liberals uncomfortable); he defended partisanship as being central to the foundations of our republic; and he gave one final plea for action on the issue most important to him – the protection of foster children. I was impressed and so were many of my colleagues, even a few on the other side of the aisle. Here are a few excerpts of his remarks…

Mr. Speaker, Political careers tend to end in one of three ways: defeat, death, or retirement. And despite the fervent and mostly noble exertions of my adversaries over the years, I rise today to bid farewell to this House under the happiest of the

PUBLIC HEALTHCARE FOR THE CHILDREN OF CRIMINALS? There is no doubt that the budget process in Sacramento is all messed up. When I was in Sacramento this week, I expected to find an institution filled with lots of hearings and activity surrounding the important public work of reviewing the Governor’s proposed budget, and making observations, proposing changes, etcetera. Of course, with Democrats controlling both houses, I was sure that my blood would boil at most of their tinkering.

That said, what I found was a lot of NOTHING going on, relative to legislators and the budget. A visit with Senator Tom McClintock was helpful as "Professor Tom" tutored me on how the budget process has really become a streamlined process, that jumps from what was the beginning of a budget process (subcommittee hearings) all of the way to, in essence, a final vote on a ‘conference committee report’ that is really a vote on a package negotiated by the "Big 5" (Governor, and the four top legislative leaders). Of course, this… Read More

In my LA election roundup I touched on the defeat of LA Superior court Judge Dzintra Janavs. See here.Many speculate she was targeted because of her "foreign" sounding name. See here. Others also point to her being trageted by Democrats out to get a LA Judge. See here.Janavs was defeated by a non-practicing attorney who was rated unqualified by the bar, but run a pretty good sandwich shop.

The Governor has announced his intention to reappoint the judge to the Bench. The release isn’t on the website yet, but I pasted below. Maybe he’s sympathetic to the "Foreign Sounding Name" thing. We can add this Republican back to the bench. That’s a good thing!

Statement by Governor Schwarzenegger Announcing his Intention to Reappoint Judge Dzintra Janavs to the L.A. County Superior… Read More

Bilbray won by four percentage points. The real loser was not the DCCC which came close to snatching a safe GOP seat and forced the RNCC to spend millions to keep it. If we have to spend that much to keep safe seats in November, we will be in trouble.(I don’t think we wil have to spend as much)l. Of course all the Busby voters are generally ant-Bush. 5% of the vote went to a hardliner independent candidate running on immigration- Anti-Bush.

Does anyone think that if Bilbray had embraced Bush-McCain style amnesty that vote wouldn’t have gone up. Bilbray’s saving grace was he was Anti-Bush on immigration. That is why I told people to vote for him. See here. Busby’s gaffe played right into Bilbray’s strongest issue.

Bush needs to understand and GOP nominees have to be Anti- Bush on immigration or the other anti-Bush candidates will squeak out victories.… Read More

I written a few pieces on Jim Leford, the Mayor of palmdale that challenged Sharon Runner. He hid his donors. See here. He supports Deomcrats for office. See here .He supported tripling the car tax. See here. He attacked Sharon , the co-author of Jessica’s Law of being soft on sex offenders See here. The Good news he he lost and even lost Palmdale. See article here.Just wait until 2008.… Read More

Fellow FR contributor Adam Probolsky and I will be looking to see if there is extra protection on our Southwest Airlines flight home from Sacramento to “The OC” – some ‘people of interest’ who obviously rushed to the airport to be on our flight include Assemblymembers Lynn Daucher,Todd Spitzer, Van Tran, and Tom Umberg. Also State Senator Dave Cox and his wife. The “retired legislator caucus” is represented by former Senators Marian Berguson and Ross Johnson, as well as former Assemblyman Tom Mays.

Johnson, Berguson and Mays went to the back of the plane with Umberg. Probably letting him know the membership fees for the retired legislators club, which he will join later this year.… Read More

The results of all three contested GOP state races – 66 Jeffries (JohnsonClark), 74 Garrick (Coronado Communications), 77 Anderson (Nygren) – bodes well for the increasing ‘organization’ of San Diego Republicans. Each of the three winners was the most active candidate within their local Republican Party. None of the winners will go to Sacramento with the common ‘deer in the headlights’ look that doom half of incoming Republican legislators, particularly local government types, to years of confusion as to the role of the minority. The new San Diego delegation (Wyland, Hollingsworth, Jeffries, Walters, Garrick, Plescia, Anderson, and Horton) is probably the strongest delegation we’ve had in decades: sophisticated without the chronic divisive personal issues or deadwood that have weakened past delegations.

Interestingly, the winning Assembly campaigns also had the best ground campaigns. Winning managers, each of whom look to already be slated for their next opportunity, were:

Steve Puetz (Garrick). Puetz is the former Chairman of the College Republicans. He ran the San Diego Republican Party membership… Read More

[UPDATED – SEE THE E-MAIL FROM LANCASTER’S CAMPAIGN MANGER SENT TO ADAMS ON THE FRIDAY BEFORE THE ELECTION – IT’S AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST.]

Apparently, years ago, Anthony Adams delivered pizza for a living. Whom among us hasn’t worked in a similar job when young? I actually remember my stint at Straw Hat Pizza, my memories of which are mostly washing dishes, and making free pizza to take home after work.

Adams just won the GOP nomination for the State Assembly where Dennis Mountjoy is retiring, a victim of California’s three term limit. In the spirited primary, another significant candidate in the race was Chris Lancaster, the son of former moderate GOP legislator Bill Lancaster.

Part of this story has to do with the fact that allegedly, many years ago, some senior citizen wrote a very strongly worded letter to a newspaper taking then-City Councilman Chris Lancaster to task for voting for a local tax increase. Apparently Lancaster sued the woman for her public criticism, and he served her with court documents by wrapping them in Christmas paper and delivering… Read More