I’ve seen some pretty sorry stuff in politics over the years, but this has to be one of the sorriest.

Nick Popaditch is a proud Marine with a Silver Star anda Purple Heart. He’s also the Republican nominee for Congress against incumbent Bob Filner in California’s 51st District, covering portions of South San Diego County and all of Imperial County.In a district with a significant Democratic registration advantage, many would say Popaditch has an uphill battle in November.

His chances of winning office area far different analysis and discussion, however, than whether it’s fair game for a major newspaper in the district to make a mockery of war injuries Popaditch sustained in Iraq, during the battle of Fallujah. (See the editorial cartoon below.)

Free press? Yes. A media embarrassment? That too. You be the judge.

Read the letter below…

Saturday’s… Read More

With a h/t to the Twitter feed of Meg Whitman campaign adviser Mike Murphy, here is a new hard-hitting ad from Whitman that will go up starting tomorrow. Yes, it’s only mid-July… … Read More

Yesterday, a court ruled that the uncounted 12,500 ballots in Riverside County, which arrived late to the Registrar through no fault of the voters, will be tallied. The Riverside Registar of Voters staff immediately started working, doing so throughout the night, posting the lastest update at 6:00 a.m. this morning.

Juan Vargas picked up a net of 10 votes since the ruling, with his lead over Mary Salas "jumping" from 12 to 22 votes.

Of the 12,500 remaining ballots in Riverside, Jim Sills at San Diego Rostra is estimating that approximately 450 of them are Democratic ballots in Senate District 40.

Here’s all the info at Rostra.… Read More

This just in from State Senator (and soon to be Congressman) Jeff Denham… Denham has submitted this ballot argument against the "Porkulus" (as we call it), the massive water bond that is currently scheduled to appear on the November ballot. Advocates of the bond want to push the vote off to 2012 — presumably their internal polling shows that spending such vast amounts of money during a recession is not too popular with taxpayers…

Here what Denham submitted to the Secretary of State: The politicians and the special interests are at it again! Not only have they racked up a $19 billion deficit but now they are trying to con Californians into voting for a phony $11 billion water bond. Proposition 18 is a pork measure that gives billions of dollars to… Read More

MEMORANDUM

TO: Interested Parties FR: Martin Wilson, Campaign Manager, Carly for California RE: Pick up the phone…California is calling __________________________________________________

I guess it’s not a secret anymore; we’ve got ourselves a little old competitive Senate race here in California. The Field Poll shows Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina in a statistical tie, 47 percent to 44 percent. This represents a 30-point improvement for Carly since Field first matched up the two in March 2009. Most importantly, Carly has closed a 15-point gap since January 2010. Trends are stubborn things, and Barbara Boxer has found out that this trend is not her friend. Looks like Barbara Boxer has earned herself a spot on the endangered politicians list.

The political environmental assessment for Barbara Boxer is bleak. Her job performance ratings are 42 percent/48 percent approve/disapprove in this most recent poll. In previous years when she was running for re-election,… Read More

MEMORANDUM

TO: Interested Parties FR: Martin Wilson, Campaign Manager, Carly for California RE: Pick up the phone…California is calling __________________________________________________

I guess it’s not a secret anymore; we’ve got ourselves a little old competitive Senate race here in California. The Field Poll shows Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina in a statistical tie, 47 percent to 44 percent. This represents a 30-point improvement for Carly since Field first matched up the two in March 2009. Most importantly, Carly has closed a 15-point gap since January 2010. Trends are stubborn things, and Barbara Boxer has found out that this trend is not her friend. Looks like Barbara Boxer has earned herself a spot on the endangered politicians list.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More

John Fund in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…… Read More

Today was the first of my weekly appearances on Sacramento conservative talk radio station KTKZ, spending a segment with popular radio talk show host and FR friend Eric Hogue (his columns on his Hogue News website are linked often on our site’s main page — very insightful).

You can listen to the audio of my interview with Eric below — our topics? The Field poll results in the Governor and U.S. Senate races, and a bit on the budget crisis.… Read More