The top story in the Washington Post today is about how support for the President and Congress are losing support from conservatives in a big way. Two of the main reasons are out-of-control spending, and failure to deal with the illegal immigration issue. If you figure that any Republican, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, needs conservatives to turn out in November, what is the GOP campaign going to be to conservatives who want SPENDING cuts (note, that is different than tax cuts) and strong action on the illegal immigration issue? It is no surprise that the House Appropriations Committee yesterday passed out language ending the legislative prohibition on offshore drilling for natural gas (not for petroleum). With gas prices rising, and with increasing concern about dependence on gas from the middle-east, constituents of Members of Congress from all around are calling on Congress to do something. The $100 tax credit … Read More

Democratic candidate for Long Beach mayor says he’s an expert on the Roman Empire and Long Beach is having the same problems. See article here.He doesn’t nean the Huns, or the corruption of government and morals. He means the middle class is leaving. Really? What can he really do about, when is supported by the people that call more government programs? At least the Huns won’t come a knocking.… Read More

I was recently talking to seasoned Orange County political consultant Matt Holder, and he shared with me a theory concerning the recent, narrow loss of Diane Harkey to Assemblyman Tom Harman in the special election in the 35th State Senate election.

Harkey’s consultant, Scott Hart, had pointed out that Tom Harman had seen an unusually high margin of victory from asian foreign-language voters in the district — primarily Vietnamese voters — by a a very dramatic margin.

Holder’s theory is this — Harkey was depriving of an opportunity to purchase an official ballot statement for the voter guide produced and distributed by the Registrar of Voters because she was spending too much of her personal money (dumb law). Harman did have a statement, however, and it was sent to these households translated into the language of choice preferred by each voter.

Did that make the difference? It was a factor said well-respected pollster Adam Probolsky (who writes for this site). Probolsky suggested as well not to underestimate the impact of Harman’s ballot title — and that his being an elected State Legislature would have had a… Read More

House chairman disputes report of probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Republican lawmaker disputed a report on Thursday that identified him as the latest target in a series of federal investigations of members of Congress.

The Los Angeles Times quoted sources as saying authorities had begun an investigation of California Rep. Jerry Lewis’ relationship with a lobbyist linked to convicted former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Lewis said he had no knowledge of an investigation and denied wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts as the powerful chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriations… Read More

Things are getting ugly in Orange County lately.

In the 5th Supervisor District, former Assemblywoman Pat Bates (full disclosure: I do some consulting work for Pat) and Laguna Niguel Mayor Cassie DeYoung are squaring off for this open seat. DeYoung has access to a ship-load of personal wealth, and has probably spent $1.5 million thus far.

DeYoung has hit Pat with a series of negative mailers focusing on her sponsorship of a matricula consular bill — which Pat wound up being on of only 7 Republicans to vote against due to Democrat machinations. The mailers — here, here and here — depict Pat’s image on a matricula consular card.

Pat responded by taking the DeYoung campaign to court, and yesterday the judge agreed to slap a… Read More

Well, this shoe took so long to drop I’m not sure anyone will take note. But while Assemblyman Van Tran ‘effectively’ endorsed his colleague Lynn Daucher for State Senate in the 34th District some time ago by dropping out of the race, today the Daucher campaign made it official, sending out a release proclaiming that Tran has officially supporting Daucher’s candidacy.

Tran, who is riding high today because of this favorably press, is a hard-nosed campaigner. So the question was and is not whether he would endorse Daucher, but whether he will ‘turn on’ his considerable campaign operation to support her.

Tran’s number one political operative in Orange County, Barrett Tetlow, is currently heading up the State GOP/Join Arnold Victory 06… Read More

One of my favorite Eagles songs is on their Hell Freezes Over album, “Get Over It.” There are days when I just want to hook a loudspeaker to the roof of my car and ride through the streets of California blaring that song.

The song came to mind the other day when Diane Schachterle of the American Civil Rights Institute (Ward Connerly’s 501(c)3) sent me a notice about an event happening in San Francisco this afternoon. While I would have liked to attend, it would have to be with three kids in tow so I won’t, but frankly, I’m not sure I’d have the stomach for it anyway. See, the “Discrimination… Read More

"Bullet Voting" is when a candidate in a multi-candidateelection tries to get people to just vote for one candidate. The ballots normally come with an instruction toVote for no more thantwo or three. In the case of LA Central Committees 7. If you can do thisbeyond you and your family, it can make the difference in close elections. The reality is most normal non-activist types think they are wasting a vote if they don’t use it.

The County recently mailed ballots in theTorrance Municipal elections that toldvoters to vote for no more than one. Hope this trend continues. We all know there can’t ever be three really good council candidates at the same time! If youlive in Torrance "Bullet Vote" for Rod Guyton, a former CRA VP.

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