* Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Dunmoyer (pictured), attended the meeting of the California Republican Lawyers Association last weekend at the State GOP confab in San Jose. Dunmoyer spent over a half hour talking to the group, and to its leaders, both publicly and privately. He made it clear that the Governor’s administration would like to appoint more Republicans, and specifically would like to work with the CRLA towards that goal. He said that he looked forward to working with CRLA to set up a specific process to engage them in the process of making suggestions for potential nominees, and would work with the group to get them information ahead-of-time on locations of vacancies. In response to this, the (very excited) CRLA members, according to their Los Angeles County Chairman Adam Abrahms, have already set up a new program, forming their own "Mini-JENY" Commission – aimed at being able to give the administration the names of Republicans to consider for… Read More

* Governor Schwarzenegger’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Dan Dunmoyer (pictured), attended the meeting of the California Republican Lawyers Association last weekend at the State GOP confab in San Jose. Dunmoyer spent over a half hour talking to the group, and to its leaders, both publicly and privately. He made it clear that the Governor’s administration would like to appoint more Republicans, and specifically would like to work with the CRLA towards that goal. He said that he looked forward to working with CRLA to set up a specific process to engage them in the process of making suggestions for potential nominees, and would work with the group to get them information ahead-of-time on locations of vacancies. In response to this, the (very excited) CRLA members, according to their Los Angeles County Chairman Adam Abrahms, have already set up a new program, forming their own "Mini-JENY" Commission – aimed at being able to give the administration the names of Republicans to consider for… Read More

Eons ago I asked if Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca could be beat and promised to revisit the issue. See it here.

Since that time Baca’s run jail system has seen a week worth of riots and now they have spread to the youth facilities. See a sample here.

Baca has never been popular among most Republicans. While he nominally a registered Republican, he supports Democrats all the time, likes grabbing guns and sponsored a tax increase that failed last year.

His administration has bungled more than just the jail riots, there have been escapes and killings of witnesses while in Sheriff custody. There are whispers of corruption and clearly mismanagement is a big issue. Deputies are leaving. The early release progarms is a tragedy. Some LA papers may want Baca gone as well.

Usually, that is bad news for an… Read More

[Editor’s note: Probolsky, a regular contributor to this page, is the president of Probolsky Research, a prominent and respected political polling firm. – Flash] The Governor makes me proud every once in a while. Like a father that cries while spanking his son, it pains me to criticize the Governor when he all to often does something that upsets my conservative, limited government, pro-border security sensibilities.

But today’s Field Poll demonstrates a phenomenon that I have always claimed existed. That is that this governor will always, in the final stretch, win re-election. You can never count him out. He will raise the money he needs and his ability to develop a personal connection with the voters means he will win enough of them over to put him over the top.

Today’s Field Poll release shows the Governor about even with his Dem rivals Angelides… Read More

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown wants to be California’s next top cop. Yet, after two terms in office, Brown has not done much to fundamentally change Oakland’s crime problems. Today, he finally announced that he was putting 115 more cops on the streets after a rash of violent crime, which City Council President and mayoral candidate Ignacio de la Fuente calls a “crisis.” (We have already ha… Read More

Since his forced-retirement from Congress in the ’90s, Brian Bilbray has been a federal lobbyist representing at least seven different clients since 1998 – including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, the County of Los Angeles, San Diego Gas & Electric and more. According to the Center for Public Integrity, who publish information on registered lobbyists on the internet, Bilbray took in just over $700,000 in fees from his clients from 1998 to 2004 — last year’s numbers aren’t posted yet. Of these fees, a little over one-third has come from his immigration reform client, which becomes signficant as you read on. Answers.com defines a lobbyist as a person who solicits members of a legislature for the purpose of influencing legislation. Of course, the… Read More

Since his forced-retirement from Congress in the ’90s, Brian Bilbray has been a federal lobbyist representing at least seven different clients since 1998 – including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, the County of Los Angeles, San Diego Gas & Electric and more. According to the Center for Public Integrity, who publish information on registered lobbyists on the internet, Bilbray took in just over $700,000 in fees from his clients from 1998 to 2004 — last year’s numbers aren’t posted yet. Of these fees, a little over one-third has come from his immigration reform client, which becomes signficant as you read on. Answers.com defines a lobbyist as a person who solicits members of a legislature for the purpose of influencing legislation. Of course, the… Read More

Matthew Dowd, senior strategist for the Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign sent around the attached memo to Team Arnold folks, in which he discusses the current political environment surrounding the Governor’s race, especially with the release of the latest Field Poll data. It’s worth a read. Don’t worry, unlike many of these ‘insider memos’ this one is actually short and to the point.… Read More