The Republican National Committee is made up of about 165 or so members (a rough estimate), which includes the 50 State Republican Party Chairmen, and a Committeeman and a Committeewoman from each of the 50 states and the U.S. Territories. So California’s three representatives to this body are CRP Chairman Duf Sundheim, Tim Morgan, and Barbara Alby. As a practical matter, when there is a Republican in the White House, the RNC members, in practice, defer the running of the National Committee to the President, who exercises this faith by naming the Chairman of the Party (in this case, Ken Mehlman), who goes through a ratification vote by the full committee (but I don’t think the committee has ever turned down the pick of a President). The Chairman runs the day-to-day operations of the party. The Republican National Committee meets from time-to-time as the policy-setting body of the RNC. Under party rules, they are involved with budgetary issues, matters concerning party rules, the… Read More

The Republican National Committee is made up of about 165 or so members (a rough estimate), which includes the 50 State Republican Party Chairmen, and a Committeeman and a Committeewoman from each of the 50 states and the U.S. Territories. So California’s three representatives to this body are CRP Chairman Duf Sundheim, Tim Morgan, and Barbara Alby. As a practical matter, when there is a Republican in the White House, the RNC members, in practice, defer the running of the National Committee to the President, who exercises this faith by naming the Chairman of the Party (in this case, Ken Mehlman), who goes through a ratification vote by the full committee (but I don’t think the committee has ever turned down the pick of a President). The Chairman runs the day-to-day operations of the party. The Republican National Committee meets from time-to-time as the policy-setting body of the RNC. Under party rules, they are involved with budgetary issues, matters concerning party rules, the… Read More

Throughout the day, I’d been hearing rumors that there may be a new chief strategist coming to Schwarzenegger-land — that the venerable Mike Murphy was out, and that Matthew Dowd was in. I have my little "Rule of 6" that I use, where if I can’t get something on the record, I wait or seek out six sources that can at least tell me that they have heard what I have heard. Well, if I was really interested in ‘breaking’ news, I should have a "Rule of 5" — in this instance, my 6th source was none other than columnist Bill Bradley, who posted on his blog about the Dowd rumor ("Chief Strategist Dowd?" he writes, with the question mark.).

Who is Matthew Dowd, you might ask? Here is the first couple of paragraphs of his biography from a speaker’s bureau website (if you want him to talk to you personally about his background, a $10,000… Read More

The Governor has officially denied the clemency request of convicted murderer Clarence Ray Allen. Allen was sentenced to life in prison for commissioning the murder of his son’s girlfriend in 1974. Then, in 1980, he was convicted and sentenced to death for ordering the murders of eight witnesses of the first murder from his cell. While killing the first of these targets, his hit man also killed two unconnected teenagers on the scene.

Somehow it is notable that Clarence Allen is the oldest inmate on death row, and is quite ill. I am not sure why either of these things would be reasons to commute a death sentence. If anything, his age is a living mockery of what the court system has done to the ability for justice to be carried out in anything remotely close to swiftness.

Pity not Allen, but the innocent victims of his cruel and calculated actions. To quote the Governor:… Read More

Arizona Rep. John Shadegg, former chairman of the Republican Study Committee and currently chairman of the House Policy Committee, announced today that he will be seeking the post of Majority Leader. A product of the class of ’94, Shadegg has been an effective and respected conservative voice within the GOP Conference and his entry will certainly shake things up immediately.

Shadegg will pull together an interesting coalition that can make him very viable in the contest, even with the late entry. As an active and trusted conservative, he will get significant support from the RSC but since he has been an honest broker with the moderates, he can appeal to them without compromising on principle. Further, many members have refrained from endorsing either Roy Blunt or John Boehner waiting for a "clean break" or "fresh face" candidate. Amazingly, given the impact of the class of ’94 on the Congress, no ’94 member sits in the leadership. Shadegg might also appeal to his colleagues… Read More

With the revelation that Governor Schwarzenegger’s Chief of Staff would be splitting her time between her official state duties, and working on the Governor’s campaign, this really blurs the lines. Since Susan Kennedy’s appointment, there has been growing unrest and unhappiness statewide among GOP leaders and activists, because of her ‘unique’ background. You see, Kennedy served as Deputy Chief of Staff to none other than disgraced and recalled Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat. She was a senior staff member and Communications Director for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat. She served stints as Executive Director of both the California Democrat Party, and the California Abortion Rights Action League. She cut her teeth as an activist working with Tom Hayden, and idolized Jane Fonda so much as a child she had a scrapbook of… Read More

Special elections are fun because they take place ‘away’ from all of the other noise going on in the state. We have two of them going on right now — the 50th Congressional District race in San Diego County (the "Duke Cunningham" seat) and the 35th State Senate District in Orange County (the "John Campbell" seat).

It would be impossible, nor would we want to delve into much detail on every legislative race in the state. There are other folks that do that. But, on special elections, we try to get into more of the nitty gritty. With two candidates running in the "OC" Senate race, Assemblyman Tom Harmon and Councilwoman Diane Harkey, it shouldn’t be too complicated to follow this race. The Congressional donnybrook has about 2000 candidates, so that one will be a bit more complicated.

That said, Harkey, in the Senate race, has dropped her first mailer, which is attached below. The classic ‘intro’ piece.… Read More

A flurry of budget related news pieces and op-eds in the Union-Tribune the last two days. Yesterday’s U-T editorial shouldn’t get lost in the mix:

Arnold the spender Governor’s budget makes dicey assumptions

For all of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s boundless confidence in his ability to "restore, reform, rebuild" California, the governor’s execution of his big plans has often been lacking. That was evident last year when most of the reform initiatives he endorsed were poorly drafted. With the measures already a tough sell, their flaws were compounded by Schwarzenegger’s confrontational campaign style, which made the reforms seem more of a power grab than a noble attempt to end Sacramento’s dysfunction.

Unfortunately, it’s beginning to look as if the 2006 model Schwarzenegger also isn’t going to live up to his grand rhetoric. The 2006-07 budget the governor unveiled yesterday – a $97.9 billion fiscal plan that increases spending by 8 percent – is a disappointment. The plan has a few… Read More