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

In one of the most breathtakingly stupid political moves of all time, the Fresno Police Officers Association has endorsed Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown for Attorney General over our own State Senator Chuck Poochigian. The Board vote, as reported in the Fresno Bee, was 12-2.

This is idiocy for a number of reasons, to wit:

Senator Poochigian, throughout his entire service in government, has been a reliable law and order vote in the State Assembly and Senate;

Poochigian is from Fresno and has represented Fresno in the legislature for 12 years;

Pooch will outpoll Brown at least 60-40 in Fresno County if not by more;

85 percent of the Fresno Cops will vote for Poochigian.

What is the real issue here? Real simple. The cops hate, I mean HATE the Workers’ Comp reform bill written by Senator Poochigian and signed into law by the Governor in 2004. Workers’ Comp is no longer easy street, and unions are madder than a hornets nest about it.

No doubt, the FPOA vote was stupid, and I look forward to saying that to Union President Jackie Parks next time I see him. He can’t defend their actions with any logic… Read More

FYI – I just got a release from the State GOP Victory Program announcing the Governor’s endorsement of the entire GOP ticket. Even the awkward Claude Parrish.… Read More

All in all, it was a pretty good election night. In California, we held the threatened Congressional seat. Both big spending initiatives lost and moderates beat liberals in a number of Democratic primaries around the state. Turnout was exceptionally low in spite of millions spent by statewide Democrats in contentious primaries. Seven other states also held primaries on Tuesday and in all cases the predictions of Republican demise were premature.

So, what happened? We Republicans have been worried about our base and with good reason. But it appears that the Democratic base did not turn out on Tuesday. That is also with good reason. They can’t figure out what their party stands for anymore. Neither can I.

In Washington, we in the majority still have to deliver more spending and border control because it’s the right thing to do and togive the voters what they expect from us. But let’s remember that the other side has a challenge too. Being the party of "no" and the party for nothing is not going to motivate their voters any more than it would motivate ours.

Are they really for nothing or are they for higher taxes, open borders,… Read More

One of my pet peeves with this business is that everybody’s an expert. The truth of the matter is that that having a bunch of money will always make you brilliant politically….1000 points ofTVbeatscable and 12 pieces of mail beats 5any day….but that alone doesn’t qualify anyone as an expert. I’ve railed on the so-called-revolutionaires who lost their way, but one guy never lost his way and truly deserves to be called an expert….Newt Gingrich. … Read More

Last night, Phil Angelides won his party’s nomination to face-off against the Governator this November. But typical of Steve Westly, he couldn’t quite find it in himself to concede defeat, and congratulate his primary opponent. Instead, Westly had this to say in his statement last night: "My friends, we’ve run a terrific campaign, and we’re going to be running a good campaign for another day or two it looks like. I’m here to tell you the LA Times has announced the race is too close to call. With roughly 30% of the vote in, bouncing back between three and three and a half percent, most of the counties we believe will be strongest remain – have yet to be counted."

I found this to be a hypocritical position as you need not look back too long ago to remember when Westly was singing a different tune. Westly narrowly defeated Tom McClintock for his current… Read More