When I learned of the passing of Nao Takasugi, my first reaction was “no way” – to me Nao was the forever man, a unchanged rock of calmness and integrity. He was nearly always cheerful: a rare man who would pat you on the shoulder, say “good to see you” – and truly mean it every time.

For those who knew Nao, they will remember his enthusiastic smile, warm handshake and genuine goodness. I was a brash young politico when he took me under his wing. He taught me that humility in politics was more important than bravado, he showed me that we could hold on to our beliefs, fight hard for them while still respecting and genuinely liking those who oppose us. He showed me that nice guys don’t finish last.

Nao was a humble man who treated everyone with dignity. He… Read More

When I learned of the passing of Nao Takasugi, my first reaction was “no way” – to me Nao was the forever man, an unchanged rock of calmness and integrity. He was nearly always cheerful: a rare man who would pat you on the shoulder, say “good to see you” – and truly mean it every time.

For those who knew Nao, they will remember his enthusiastic smile, warm handshake and genuine goodness. I was a brash young politico when he took me under his wing. He taught me that humility in politics was more important than bravado, he showed me that we could hold on to our beliefs, fight hard for them while still respecting and genuinely liking those who oppose us. He showed me that nice guys don’t finish last.

Nao was a humble man who treated everyone with… Read More

I am a hard core conservative. But I never liked this recall effort on Anthony Adams from the beginning. I wrote so here. I don’t like the idea of commercial radio personalities who have no history in the trenches, and a profit motive, calling shots for the Republican party. While Adams voted the wrong way on the budget, in my view, a primary challenge would have been the better way to make the point. And I am sure that by now, Adams regrets his vote and has learned a huge lesson in politics. Let’s hear from Adams now: vote conservative all the way, or else! That is enough for me. Let us stop wasting resources on this stuff and start using resources fighting Democrats!!!… Read More

This campaign memo has been buzzing around Team Whitman, and has made its way to the public square (clever technique, mentioning "prominent bloggers" by name in the memo — nice — it was forwarded to me many times over by FR friends on Meg’s campaign team)! TO: Campaign Leadership FROM: Jeff Randle, Senior Advisor, Henry Gomez, Senior Advisor DATE: November 20, 2009 RE: State of the Race Update With less than a year until Californians vote to elect the… Read More

The latest from FR correspondent Bradley Benbrook, who is keeping a close eye on the redistricting process as we move closer to the redrawing of legislative lines… One Step Closer To The Prop 11 Redistricting Commission Bradley Benbrook

California’s new redistricting process took another step forward this week with the selection of a three-member “applicant review panel,” comprised of three CPA’s from the Bureau of State Audits (one Republican, one Democrat, and one decline-to-state) who will review a mountain of applications for Proposition 11’s Citizen’s Redistricting Commission. Next year this panel will publicly interview applicants and ultimately narrow the field to three… Read More

The latest from FR correspondent Bradley Benbrook, who is keeping a close eye on the redistricting process as we move closer to the redrawing of legislative lines…

One Step Closer To The Prop 11 Redistricting Commission Bradley Benbrook

California’s new redistricting process took another step forward this week with the selection of a three-member “applicant review panel,” comprised of three CPA’s from the Bureau of State Audits (one Republican, one Democrat, and one decline-to-state) who will review a mountain of applications for Proposition 11’s Citizen’s Redistricting Commission. Next year this panel will publicly interview applicants and ultimately narrow the field to three groups of 20 Republicans, 20 Democrats, and 20 unaffiliated applicants they… Read More

The Secretary of State has determined that the random sample of signatures for the recall of Assemblyman Anthony Adams indicates that 24,579 are valid.

The proponents of the recall needed 35,825.

Recall fails to qualify.… Read More

Like most of the California political community that has heard that the Secretary of State has said that the proponents of the Adams Recall did not have a high enough percentage of valid signatures in the random count to move forward with the election, or even to move forward with a manual count, I am shocked.

My initial thought was, "How could this happen?"

It seems like there are only three obvious possibilities, all of them extraordinarily lucky for Anthony Adams, who should by rights be facing a recall over his taking of the no new taxes pledge only to turn around and vote for the largest tax increase in the history of any state.

1) A really unlucky pull of random signatures. It’s not likely that all of the "bad apples" (invalid signatures) in the bunch would be all stuck together — but it is not impossible. Probably more likely that the Governor’s veto letter to Tom Ammiano was a coincidence.

2) Fraud by one of both Registrars of Voters. This isn’t likely. From what I’ve heard, the ROV in San Bernardino is as honest as the day is long. While I have little faith in the LA County ROV… Read More