With the recent passing of GOP luminary and football great Jack Kemp, FR reader Allen Payton penned a few thoughts…

MEMORIES OF JACK KEMP By Allen Payton Jack Kemp was my political hero and an example of the kind of leader we need, today.

He wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he believed, in spite of strong opposition. He successfully offered a new direction to not only the Republican Party, but the nation, as well.… Read More

Peter Hechthas a write up over at the SacBee’s Capitol Alert about the petitions being issued in the recall effort against tax-hiking GOPer Anthony Adams.

I have attached a petition below for your perusal.… Read More

Earlier today Steve Maviglio blogged about the possibility of Tom McClintock jumping into the governor race. A few hours later Sacramento-area radio talk show host Eric Hogue took to the airwaves and reported that there is polling being done regarding McClintock running. It’s still early in the race, but McClintock jumping in would definitely change the dynamics in a competition where there is no true conservative running right now.

However, considering the initial source of the McClintock gubernatorial rumors, Republicans should be wary. Mr. Maviglio has an interest in wreaking havoc in the 4th CD—especially if another Democrat challenges McClintock. According to my sources, McClintock has no plans to run for governor and is very happy representing the people in his new congressional district. Like my fellow voters in the 4th CD, I am grateful for Congressman McClintock’s outstanding leadership and feel so privileged to call him my own congressman. As this governor race heats up, there will… Read More

After six years of Mike Spence’s outstanding leadership, the California Republican Assembly has a new president.

This weekend the CRA met in Bakersfield to select their leadership, including a new president: Ken Mettler from Bakersfield. The new CRA national committeeman and committeewoman are Sergio Picchio (a CRA past president) and Karen England. Six vice president were elected: Ben Lopez, Scott Voigts, Celeste Greg, Cliff Wagner, Karl Heft and me (thank you to the CRA delegates for your votes!).

Congratulations to the Kern County Republican Assembly for putting together a fantastic convention. The entire weekend was packed with informative, engaging speakers. Coming on the heels of the extremely successful tea party rallies (most CRA delegates had participated in them), CRA members were excited about voters taking action against an elitist government bureaucracy—something the CRA has battled since its inception.

All of the GOP gubernatorial hopefuls visited the convention. Friday evening Steve Poizner spoke at the dinner, delivering his stump speech about California’s obtrusive government… Read More

Chrysler: Given my 25 years in the car dealership business, of which most of you are aware, I can’t let this week go by without commenting on last week’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Chrysler Corporation. What the Obama Administration is doing with the American car industry saddens me. No, it actually angers me. In fact, I am fired up big time. It has become abundantly clear that the only objective of the Obama task force is to put control of GM and Chrysler in the hands of the UAW union and wipe out anyone who had invested any capital in either of these companies. What’s more, he is using taxpayer money to subsidize the union’s takeover of these companies. Here are some of my observations on what it going on:

Under the Obama plan; the government, UAW, and government-controlled banks will own 95% of GM. They will own 80% of Chrysler. The existing stockholders get 1% of GM and 0% of Chrysler. The bondholders (who are not government controlled banks) get 4% of GM and 0% of Chrysler. The remaining 20% of Chrysler will be owned by Fiat (more on that later).

So, in the Chrysler plan, the… Read More

I voted for one budget in my time in the Legislature. It was the first Schwarzenegger budget (’04-’05), the one constructed by Donna Arduin (who is, by the way, a true fiscal conservative), back when Schwarzenegger was still the Terminator, and not the Capitulator. I thought long and hard before I voted for that budget, studied its implications, its assumptions, and came to the conclusion that the Governor deserved my support. It started out, in the January budget as a $1.1 billion spending cut. It ended up, after negotiations with the spending addicts in the Democrat Legislature, and the advocates of the status quo in the Governor’s administration, as a $100 million spending increase. As I recall, it was a $78.3 billion general fund budget.

The next year (’05-’06), the finance director was Tom Campbell, and the final budget proposal was $92 billion, the largest spending increase in the history of the state (larger than the largest Gray Davis increase). A serious dilemma was facing Legislative Republicans. The Governor had worked hard to put his initiatives on the ballot, which included a real spending limit, removing mandatory… Read More

Very few obituaries in the mainstream media may emphasize the real impact of this man, not only on conservative political ideology, but also on the nation as a whole. The news reports will undoubtedly refer to the greatness of Jack Kemp as a quarterback, his stellar Congressional career and stint as housing secretary, his selection as a 1996 vice presidential candidate, and maybe even his successful record of outreach to minorities and the poor.

What may be missed is that Kemp is among only a very small group of individuals that successfully carried free market principles and conservative political thought forward in this nation in the years between the 1950s of William F. Buckley’s “God and Man at Yale” and the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s.

Kemp was not just an inspiration to many in the “lean conservative years” of the 1970s, ultimately he was a principle architect of the Reagan presidency itself and the economic cornerstone of the conservative movement. The unparalleled success of supply-side economics would only be overshadowed by an unrestrained Congress spending more than the increased… Read More

California voters (at least some of them) are poised to go to the polls in a special election in just under three weeks to decide the fate of five propositions put on the ballot by Governor Schwarzenegger and the Legislature. The key props – 1A through 1E – are said to be essential to resolving California’s critical budget shortfall.

According to a new survey by the Field Institute, voters aren’t buying it.

First, let me say that I have not changed my opinion of the Field Poll as a historically unreliable source of information on how voters view pending ballot measures. They have been so far off on so many issues I have been involved in that I always take their data with a slab – not a grain – of salt. That said, the trend that Field is reporting (all of the above measures are trailing badly) is almost certainly correct and reflects the results of other recent polling.

That 1A thru 1E appear headed for the trashcan is not the most interesting finding of the Field Poll. The most interesting finding is that 72 percent of voters agree that voting down the measures “will send a message to the governor and state Legislature that voters are tired of… Read More