Over the weekend, was saw and read the tragic news of the airplane crash that took the lives of many of Poland’s political leaders, including that country’s President and First Lady. I received this statement from FR friends Michael Reagan and Larry Greenfield, who traveled recently to Poland and who called President and Mrs. Kozcynski friends (in the photo below are Reagan, Greenfield and Poland’s First Lady, taken last year) … This is as good an occasion as any, I suppose, for me to extend congratulations to Greenfield for his new position as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Meg Whitman for Governor campaign. She will be well served.

Michael Reagan, President of the Reagan Legacy Foundation, and Larry Greenfield, Executive Director, were friends of the Polish President and first lady, Lech and Maria Kozcynski. They have issued a statement on the Foundation’s website… Read More

For those unfamiliar with the California Republican Assembly endorsement process, it is bottom up. This means that local units endorse locally not the state. Any unit that has ANY part of the district in their boundaries can participate. Gerrymandered districts make this interesting. As a past president I know this makes things interesting. Sometimes the locals defy prevailing wisdom. I have seen a great conservative do something to enrage local delegates and lose the endorsement and I have seen local units find a gem that no one in Sacramento is talking about. And as always it takes a 2/3rds vote of the delegates to be endorsed. CRA held their Los Angeles endorsing convention Saturday in Pasadena. CRA President Celeste Greig presided. Below is the list of endorsements. There were some good presentations. Star Parker running against Laura Richardson for Congress is always awesome to hear. She was of course endorsed. The one surprising race was the 59th AD. The San Bernardino County part of the district was invited. And the Hesperia unit I’m told decided not to send delegates. Anthony Riley, Ken Hunter and Corey Calaycay didn’t show. I… Read More

Assembly Republican Leader Martin Garrick’s radio address this week focuses on Tax Freedom Day. Listen below…… Read More

There are two items of California interest in today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail. A "Quote Of The Day" item, and John Fund writes on the broohaha on the CalChamber’s television advertisement taking on Jerry Brown, which they have now taken off the air… … Read More

A pot-pourri from around the region…

Poway Schools’ big fuss on our dime… In the North County Times, Sunana Batra skewers the Poway Unified School District for continuing to pursue a legal battle against a teacher’s display of phrases such as "In God We Trust" on classroom banners. I have to wonder if the math teacher had used dollar bills in lessons and his students accidentally read the phrase, would he be in as much trouble. Just asking.

From Batra’s piece:

U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez ruled that (the teacher) did in fact have the right to display banners in his classroom which promoted specific phrases from our founding documents.

The questionable phrases would seem benign to most: they included "In God We Trust," "God Bless America" and "All men are created equal, they are endowed by their creator."

One would expect the Poway administrators to take some time after this resounding defeat to lick their wounds and move… Read More

I have spent four years on the Woodland City Council and three on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. This time of year I always get to be the lone "No" vote on taking positions on several ballot propositions.

On Tuesday one of my colleagues has put a resolution to oppose Prop 16 on our agenda. I oppose Prop 16 too. I also hate PG&E. I just don’t think local governments should be endorsing political candidates or measures.

Some of you will clearly be saying to yourself that "But this impacts local government. Cities and counties need to take a position." Nope.

I would argue that Jerry Brown is bad for local government. So why don’t we just have cities and counties all over the state endorse for Governor too? We can just take a position that we want "Anyone but Jerry Brown". That is good for local government yet almost everyone would say that is inappropriate.

It is wrong for local governments to get involved in the political process. I personally don’t see the distinction between ballot measures and candidates. Thus, I will be voting no regarding Yolo… Read More

In the upcoming election for Orange County Tax Assessor, of course I support Claude Parrish. I’m his "ex officio" appointee to the Orange County Republican Central Committee. Parrish is a long-time Republican activist, who moved to Orange County a few years ago and is doing the right thing in challenging incumbent Webster Guillory, one of just two Democrat elected officials in Orange County government. Parrish is endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the National Tax Limitation Committee, and former Republican Governor George Dukemejian. Parrish has been a prodigious vote getter in Orange County, having won six times in the county for his two successful races for Board of Equalization (primary and general) and his race as the California State Treasurer four years ago (winning primary and general in Orange County but losing general statewide to Bill Lockyer).

It is puzzling to me, therefore, that Parrish has not been endorsed by peripatetic taxpayer crusader, Supervisor John Moorlach, who appears instead quite preoccupied with whether a 32 year old candidate for county Treasurer is qualified to serve. The… Read More

This morning the Sacramento Bee had this piece about Sacramento City Councilman Ray Tretheway’s staff tearing down the signs of an opponent. Read/watch it here. This seems to happen every cycle somewhere.

Many of the readers of this blog remember the incident in May 1998 when Rich Sybert was caught tearing down Tony Strickland’s signs. Read here if you don’t remember.

Some people might say that this is the same thing. It is not. The amazing thing about the incident in 1998 is that it was not the signs being torn down that made it so bad for Sybert. It was the lie.

Sybert had told the LA Times that he was in bed when the signs were torn down. If I remember correctly he even encouraged people to ask his wife who was in bed with her at that time of night.

The opponent for Tretheway got this video yesterday. It is in the paper today and they are probably giddy. The reality is that the people involved will apologize, Tretheway will win and life will go on. If the… Read More