The California Republican Assembly, the state’s largest and most active conservative GOP volunteer organization has just released its 2009 legislative scorecard.

As always, this particular scorecard of the many out there, is the most significant and the most telling in terms of really figuring out how our elected officials are voting on the spectrum, with those endorsing a bigger, fatter and more intrusive state government scoring lower (all of the "zeroes" belong to Democrats) and those who believe in freedom, liberty and individual responsibility scoring higher (all of the "100’s" are Republicans).

Below is the release put out my CRA President Ken Mettler framing this year’s ratings, and a link to check them out online. As always, the scorecard is easy to read and well documented, with all of the bills that made up the ratings being listed and a spreadsheet being created so you can see how your representative voted. I was very pleased to see that a great many of the bills highlighted in FR’s "Top Twenty Bills To Veto" (co-authored by Senator Mimi Walters and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who both got… Read More

The California Republican Assembly, the state’s largest and most active conservative GOP volunteer organization has just released its 2009 legislative scorecard.

As always, this particular scorecard of the many out there, is the most significant and the most telling in terms of really figuring out how our elected officials are voting on the spectrum, with those endorsing a bigger, fatter and more intrusive state government scoring lower (all of the "zeroes" belong to Democrats) and those who believe in freedom, liberty and individual responsibility scoring higher (all of the "100’s" are Republicans).

Below is the release put out my CRA President Ken Mettler framing this year’s ratings, and a link to check them out online. As always, the scorecard is easy to read and well documented, with all of the bills that made up the ratings being listed and a spreadsheet being created so you can see how your representative voted. I was very pleased to see that a great many of the bills highlighted in FR’s "Top Twenty Bills To Veto" (co-authored by Senator Mimi Walters and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, who both got… Read More

Our Governor made a good decision for Republicans and our state in appointing Abel Maldonado Lt. Governor. First, Abel is a capable politician, who routinely garners huge votes, way above Republican registration, in his elections. At a time when our party can’t even muster enough votes to beat Barack Obama in John Campbell’s Orange County Congressional district. This is a smart move. An even smarter move for conservatives, and Abel and Arnold, would now be to rally around one really conservative, rooted State Senate candidate to fill the open seat created by Arnold’s appointment. A Tom Bordanaro would be great, not sure if he is in the district, but a rooted conservative like Tom would be a great pick-up in the state senate. As for Abel’s budget vote, I didn’t like it. To be successful with Republicans and in California in future, Abel needs to stick to our basics: lower taxes and less government spending. He has a chance to help our party reach out to Hispanics, who are traditionally conservative, and potentially a gold mine for our party if handled correctly. I’d like Sheila Kuehl much less as Lt. Governor! Good job, Arnold!… Read More

"You know you’re in trouble when you’re being lectured by communists about the size and scope of government. That’s never a good day." – Stephen Hayes, from The Weekly Standard commenting on China’s concern regarding the mounting public debt in America. "Who knows, man, who really knows." – Ed Pound, Director of Communications for Recovery.gov when asked why stimulus fund recipients would pluck random numbers to fill in for their congressional district.

There are lots of sources for news these days. That’s a good thing since we are no longer captive to the messages espoused by a single local newspaper or 3 TV network anchors. But, with such media diversity, it is hard to know all that is going on.

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One of my better "insider sources" tells me that the Governor is going to appoint State Senator Abel Maldonado (? – Santa Maria) to be the state’s next Lt. Governor.

Somebody get me a barf bag.

Talk about exactly what California, and the Republican Party don’t need.

Abel Maldonado, while I pleasant enough guy in the right circumstances, is what we call a "Xenomorph" — that which changes shape due to external influence.

At a time when our state and my party need leaders who are willing to stand tall against the advance of progressivism and the rise of the (very expensive) administrative state — Maldonado doesn’t stand tall for anything. In fact, he may be the perfect pick for this Governor as both continually demonstrate positioning on issues in the most erratic manner. Which is to say that they have no consistency.

If Maldo’s name is put forward by the Governor, I guess we can look for the silver lining. The first of which is that Maldonado could be rejected by the Senate (if I were in the Senate, I wouldn’t be inclined to vote to confirm him — except maybe just… Read More

Apparently the Governor just announced on the taping of tonight’s Jay Leno Show his announcement that he is nominating State Senator Abel Maldonado to be Lt. Governor. We extend congratulations to the Senator.

We are now commencing a 24 hour "nice nice" period where we shall say nothing critical.

(Of course, the blog post below this one was penned and posted BEFORE the breaking news.)

That said, the smarter people out there will write about timelines and such for confirmation votes. But it does immediately create a new political dynamic in the lower chamber where (presumably) Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee will now be focusing his energies into a forthcoming special election for the State Senate — which likely starts a countdown clock to his stepping aside from his Assembly Leadership position.

We’ll reach out to him to find out what he’s doing.… Read More

… Read More