I just came from the morning breakfast meeting of the San Gabriel Valley Chapter of the Los Angeles Lincoln Club. I am a member.

The speakers were founders of the Minutemen Project Chris Simcox and Jim Gilchrist.

This is big news for two reasons.

1. Jim Gilchrist is a candidates for Congress in Orange County’s 48th Congressional District. The election is in a couple weeksand willdecide the successor to Chris Cox. And oh yes Gilchrist isn’t a Republican!!! Yikes, he is an American Independent Party member. The San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club Chapter head honcho, the esteemed Dr. Barbara Stone made it clear that she supported John Campbell (She claims to have known him since he was in diapers—- but that is a different story.) and that Gilchrist was going to lose as most third party candidates do.

Gilchristsays he is a Reagan Republican and a better Republican than Campbell.

2. Traditionally, the Lincoln Club is the center of more moneyed folks in the Republican Party. To have two founders of a group that Bush called "vigilantes" at such a meeting is a recognition that illegal immigration is still… Read More

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is getting married on November 26th — to his ex-wife! Apparently the two of them have been divorced for the past decade, but have been close as the parents of three children AP reports.

Guess who will be flying out to Maui to "give away the groom"? None other than former Assembly Speaker-turned-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

I don’t know what the wedding colors will be, or the song that the happy re-newlyweds will pick for their first dance — but I tell you one thing is for sure — wherever they hold that reception will be a union shop!… Read More

Former GOP Assemblyman Steve Samuelian was back in the news today, although I think unfairly so. Those of you who follow State politics know that Samuelian was a long time GOP political operative, District Director for Congressman Radanovich, and then served one term in the Assembly before electing to not run for re-election. I will not go into the issues which led to Samuelian’s decision to not seek re-election. They are widely known and if you don’t know do a Google search and learn for yourself. Although he was one of my very good friends and political allies for several years, I have not seen or spoken to him for almost three years.

Since his decision to leave the Assembly he has started a lobbying firm and has been hired by many of the Central Valley’s top companies to represent their interests to State and local government. This isn’t surprising to me. For all of his previous difficulties, he is one of the hardest workers I have ever met, and he deserves a chance to make a living and support his family. The… Read More

Here is how Orange County’s legislators stack up as rated by the various Sacramento interests groups. A special thanks to Chuck DeVore for compiling these results and for being a conservative superstar. Mimi, way to go!

California Chamber of Commerce Ratings – this is a basic measure of how pro-business a lawmaker is, defined here as against higher taxes and more regulations. A higher percentage should be considered an indication of votes for free-enterprise.

State Assembly R- Bob Huff: 100% R- Chuck DeVore: 100% R- Mimi Walters: 100% R- Lynn Daucher: 92% R- Todd Spitzer: 92% R- Van Tran: 92% R- Tom Harman: 91% D- Tom Umberg: 33% D- Rudy Bermudez: 17%… Read More

I was inspired by Adam Probolsky’s post this morning and did a little comparison of our San Diego legislators. If Chuck DeVore has the time to compile the results, then I can find the time. With no reference to my public school upbringing, thanks to most of the rating organizations for already having figured the percentages.

San Diego shares Mimi Walters and Bill Morrow with The OC, in case you noted them on Adam’s list already. (Denise Ducheny, Ray Haynes and Dennis Hollingsworth have also been sighted in other counties at times.)

If these limited numbers mean anything other than fodder, Haynes scored the highest overall from a conservative standpoint, with Hollingsworth a close second. Although she was a strong contender as a freshman, Lori Saldaña did not quite dethrone Chris Kehoe for liberal dominance in San Diego. And, what’s up with Shirley Horton’s rather high 46% rating from Lambda? Must be the district.

By the way, Orange County has more legislators – and Republicans, for that matter – than does San… Read More

So Carly Fiorina wants to be Lieutenant Governor. Or more accurately, somebody wants the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard to be LG. Whether that person is someone who knows Fiorina, advises Fiorina, or is Fiorina is unknown. But since we like unsubstantiated gossip just as much as any group of self-respecting political bloggers, let’s think this through.

First of all, she’d be running against Senator Tom McClintock, who is almost certainly the most respected conservative officeholder in California. It’s hard to imagine the amount of money it would take Fiorina to win a closed primary. In fact, that sum probably does not exist. So she’d lose and tear the party into pieces in the process. Since nobody actually ever wants to be LG unless it’s a stepping stone to another office, this wouldn’t be the best way for Fiorina to begin her political career.

But Fiorina also represents exactly the type of candidate Republicans need to recruit and run to become a majority on California. She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s articulate, and she brings a solid set of private sector and communit service credentials to… Read More

Rob Reiner was in the Bay Area today promoting his latest nanny government initiative, Preschool for All. According to the Oakland Tribune, he is scheduled to submit 1 million signatures today to put his initiative on the June 2006 ballot. The initiative proposes to increase the income tax of individual making more than $400,000 a year, and couples making $800,000 a year, by 1.7 percent.

Reiner fielded questions about his proposal on the Ronn Owens show, a top-rated moderate radio talk show host here in the Bay Area. While I will admit to having a knee-jerk reaction to any political that comes out of Reiner’s mouth, it was interesting to hear him try to sell his universal pre-school ideas—particularly, when the calls coming in were predominantly against him.

… Read More

Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley is one tough guy. Now in the midst of Hollywood’s and the Nation of Islam’s campaign to spare the life of Crips gang founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams, Cooley has issued a 57 page response to suggestions that "Tookie" is as innocent as a little lamb.

Graphic details about the four murders he was convicted of, the witnesses, the evidence etc… Much better than Law & Order. At the same time a chilling look at some who doesn’t deserve clemency.

You can read the whole report by clicking here.… Read More