Democrat Santa Ana City Councilwoman and OC Deputy District Attorney Claudia Alvarez is running for the 69th Assembly District. Her campaign just released the results of a new poll conducted Feb. 22-26 among 402 likely Democratic Primary voters. The survey conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research shows Alvarez leading opponent (council colleague) Jose Solorio by a margin of 50% to 25%. The other potential rival de la Libertad fails to break the 10% mark according to the poll.

The poll memo says: Alvarez’s support in the district is broad-based. Her support transcends geographic and ethnic lines as she leads among every ethnic group, and she attracts solid support throughout the district. In fact she is even in a statistical tie with Solorio in his own city council district (Santa Ana’s 1st City Council District).

BALLOT TEST

We’ve been following attempts by federal lobbyist, and former Member of Congress Brian Bilbray (pictured) to characterize himself as something other than a lobbyist in his ballot title. Bilbray, who has taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in feels over the last six plus years lobbying for many interest filed a ballot title of Immigration Reform Advocate because one of his client (about 1/3 of his business) is a federal immigration reform group. The Secretary of State balked at this, and settled on Immigration Reform Consultant.

The matter has been taken to court by a voter in the district who believes that this settled-upon language still hides Bilbray’s profession as a lobbyist… Read More

This just in courtesy of FR friend Chris Reed who is on the editorial team down at the San Diego Union-Tribune — Reed spoke today with the esteemed Nathan Barankin (another friend), Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s spokesman, who confirmed that the Attorney General has punted the investigation into Rob Reiner (you know, where he used his official state commission post to launch a multi-million dollar spending spree on pro-preschool ads at the same time that he was collecting signatures for a universal preschool ballot measure).

Where did he punt it to? That’s the GOOD NEWS. He has referred the case over to his colleague,… Read More

At San Francisco’s big gala Oscar Party/AIDS fundraiser last night, the crowd was horrified when “Crash” beat out “Brokeback Mountain” for Best Picture last night (here’s the full story in the San Francisco Chronicle). I’m sorry, but I am so glad that the Oscars are over, just so we can be done with the whole “Brokeback” hoopla.

If you listen to the folks at the SF party last night, “Brokeback Mountain” all at once “brought Americans together over issues of homophobia” and yet when it didn’t win, it was “an… Read More

Oakland had its 24th homicide yesterday–triple the number of murders at this time last year. The big question is: what is Mayor Jerry Brown going to do about it? These are not the headlines or stats you want when you’re running for attorney general. It’s time for Jerry to stop campaigning for AG and to start getting a handle on the city’s violent crime problem.… Read More

The campaign for the 59th Assembly District continues to heat up with the endorsement of Chris Lancaster by Senator Bob Margett, the previous Assemblyman from the old pre-gerrymandered 59th District. See my past link on this race starting hereand fellow FR poster Brad Mitzelfelt’s start here. See the press release below.… Read More

It took the British publication “The Economist” to finally point out the fact that “The Daily Show” has replaced “Saturday Night Live” as the standard of American political satire. I was cooking dinner for Valerie, Ella and I when I read this in the column “Lexington” and sort of skimmed past this comment. But since the Simpsons were replaced by the dreary Oscars my mind kept sort of going back to this point. For most of us, for most of our ‘adult’ lives, Saturday Night Live has set the pace. In my memory, that usually revolved around Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton… after which I sort of dropped out of the club. Thinking about why I rarely watch SNL anymore tonight I first attributed it to age (“never trust anyone over 30”) but that didn’t really work the more I mulled it over.

I’m going to cross the Rubicon here: I don’t watch SNL very often any more because their skits drag. Particularly their political skits. They repeat the same joke over and over for like 10 minutes. They beat the point into your skull until you just want to throw a brick at the screen. Horatio and his… Read More

This weekend, a couple hundred delegates are gathered at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield for the biennial endorsing convention of the California Republican Assembly. The CRA is California’s oldest and most conservative Republican volunteer organization, with traditions that go back to its founding in the 1930’s. The CRA has been a pivotal force in California politics, a key player because of its direct influence on politics as well as the training grounds it provides for many who go on to seek elective office or otherwise get involved in the process. Speaking in the first-person, I spent a decade of ‘intense’ involvement with the CRA starting from being a club member and rising through the ranks to an eventual two-year term as State President from 1995-1997. Being elected CRA President was one of the greatest honors of my life. The things I learned, the perspective gained, the challenges met and overcome continue to provide me with guidance in the things I do today. I am… Read More