The geographic boundaries of a redrawn 74th Assembly District are yet to be determined, but a buzz is quietly building amongpolitical watchers regarding the likely field of Republican candidates next year, as Assemblyman Martin Garrick leaves the seat due to term limits. The buzz may quickly become full blown, as longtime conservative GOP activist Sherry Hodges will soon make her candidacy official. An open Assembly district would typically have a host of "for sure" candidates at least talking themselves up at this point, but with redistricting looming many are hesitant to say anything about a seat they’re not sure will include their homes, nor even guaranteed the number "74." The exception is Hodges, who on Friday confirmed for the FlashReport that she will announce her campaign on February 17. The movemayresult in some othercurrently cautiouspotential candidates toget more aggressive about their… Read More

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Before people get too carried away on Congressional District 36 (Harman) and how this is a potential pick up district for Republicans please consider the following —

2010 November

Jane Harman (Democrat) — 59.7% Mattie Fein (Republican) — 34.7% Herb Peters (Libertarian) – 5.6%

The registration in this coastal district is pretty tough.

Democrat registration is high at 45.33% with Republicans at 27.57%. I can’t remember the last time a Republican in California won a partisan seat where Republican registration has been below 30% but I think it was Bruce McPherson in a special election against a flawed candidate in 1993.

This is a district that will need to have the right match up for us to have any chance.

The timing for this seat is not good. When the seat gets redrawn later this year by the commission this is a seat that could end up being one that Republicans have a shot at. There are plenty of Republicans in this area of the state… they are just split up among several districts.… Read More

I had the opportunity to attend the formal 100th birthday celebration as an invitee to the Reagan Presidential Foundation’s lovely events at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley last night.

Readers may know I was a young delegate for Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention in 1976, and served all eight years of his administration in Washington, D.C., completing those years as General Counsel of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, where we implemented Reagan’s policy of deregulation and forcing cost/benefit analysis in government rulemaking.

After this service, I also had the opportunity through Young America’s Foundation to actually be the first person to open, and then participate in, the negotiations that lead to that Foundation’s purchase of the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara County for historic purposes.

More recently I have gotten involved as a supporter of the Reagan Presidential Foundation and have developed over the last few years a nice friendship with one of that Foundation’s biggest donors, Arizona… Read More

A strong rumor jumped out from the open house party for the Republican Party of San Diego in Rancho Bernardo last night, namely, that conservative Republican State Senator Mark Wyland had filed an FPPC Form 410 "Candidate Intention Statement" to run for the Board of Equalization to fill the southern California seat currently held by Michelle Steel, which will be open in 2014.

The Board of Equalization is an important department of California government that hears tax appeals and administers many tax related programs in the state.

I double-checked the Secretary of State’s website today and can confirm State Senator Mark Wyland is indeed a candidate for BOE District 3. Since the election is over three years away, one can understand the quiet launch of the effort, but such early starts are critical to ultimate success in these large-district BOE races. Claude Parrish, who held this seat for two terms before he was term-limited, and has run for BOE several times, told me that the other most important factor in these races are securing all the best slate… Read More

San Diego Rostra, a great politics blog, reported yesterday that Sherry Hodges, "[t]he only declared candidate for the Republican nomination in the 74th Assembly District" to succeed termed-limited Martin Garrick, has not only been making calls rounding up support, but also has a new state government job, and will start today as a neighboring Assemblymember’s chief of staff. Hodges will need to be very careful in her new role working for taxpayers in a different Assembly district, because her campaigning for the 74th while on the state payroll is subject to a myriad of ethics and conflict-of-interest rules, and fouling up on them is a civil offense and can be a crime, and can expose not only her to liability, but also her new boss, Assemblymember Diane Harkey. For this reason, Hodges work on the state payroll will not only be regulated by ethics officials, it will also be subject to microscopic inspection by potential opponents in the Assembly race.

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Last week three Assemblymen spoke at a rally against proposed cuts in the state’s In Home Supportive Services program. This wouldn’t be unusual, as members of the legislature often speak at such rallies, except that in this case, the three legislators were Republicans Brian Nestande, Paul Cook and Jim Silva. It is not a frequent occurrence that GOPers speak at such events, and of course it is especially notable when the state is in the middle of fiscal crisis, with a projected gap between tax income and state government spending upwards of $20 billion in the next 18 months.

Governor Brown’s proposed budget includes plugging a big part of that mega-difference with a five-year extension of massive tax increases that took place in 2009, and were billed as "temporary" at the time. In 2009, the legislature (or to be more specific, every Democrat and six Republicans) voted as part of a budget deal with former Governor Schwarzenegger to pass increases in the state sales, income and car taxes. Because of a campaign promise made by Brown to take any proposed tax increases to the public for a vote, which takes a 2/3… Read More