Last weekend at the GOP convention, just 72 hours after casting the deciding vote to pass a massive tax increase out of the State Senate, Senator Abel Maldonado actually had the moxie to show up. I ran into him in a hallway there, and we shared some words — the kind of "street theater" reminds me of the "old days" when I was an activist with Young Americans for Freedom…

I had told a few people about it — but now everyone can see it, as Carla Marinucci from the San Francisco Chronicle apparently had her handy-dandy video camera on at the time. You can read more of her observations on the convention here. I’ve reposted the video below… … Read More

There have been many voices heard since the state budget was passed with the help of a handful of GOP legislators last week. I waited to digest the news, listen to the debate coming out of the Republican convention and think about the future of the Republican Party in our great state. It’s crystal clear to me now what change we need for the California Republican Party. We need a divorce from our governor.

There is great outrage—and much deserved—at the GOP legislators that voted for the budget. But we need to also put ourselves in their shoes. They are members of the minority party (and a minority party that is significantly shrunken in size). There was incredible pressure for them to vote for a budget. Democrat legislators, members of the press, educators and others from their local districts and—let’s not forget—the governor, were all pressuring them to “do the right thing.”

So I find it interesting that we, as a party, took action against the handful of legislators who voted for the budget but didn’t take any action to remove Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from the CRP board.

The legislators would not have been in the… Read More

[Cross-posted from OC Blog]

Sen. Abel Maldonado, basking in the adoration of the California Left — not to mention that of Governor Hollow Man — declared this weekend that "We need a change."

By "we," Maldonado means Republicans, and he uttered that profound insight in response to my f friend Jon Fleischman calling him on his role as the enabler of the largest state tax increase in American history. Kudos to Jon, by the way — wish I could have been there.

By the way, if you haven’t joined my FaceBook group — "Never Elect Abel Maldonado To Anything, Ever Again" — please do so. It figured in a San Francisco Chronicle story on Friday, and in the… Read More

Despite all the angst among Republican legislators and activists from earlier in the week, this weekend’s Republican organizing convention was remarkably upbeat. I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the party volunteers to take a look at the candidates who are already campaigning for office in 2010. With the knowledge that the controversial Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations will not be on the voters’ minds in 2010, there is renewed hope for Republican gains. There is also an understanding that voters will turn quickly on new officials who do not deliver on their campaign promises, and there is ample evidence that this will hit the new Obama administration by the 2010 elections.… Read More

This last weekend’s California Republican Party Biennial Organizational Convention in Sacramento was a busy one, and so it will take me a few blog posts to really talk about all of the aspects of it, and ultimately provide a comprehensive recap. As conventions go, it was a tremendously successful one. It was a extremely well attended by delegates and guests (this is especially notable due to the absence of hotly contested races for statewide party office) and the lineup of speakers was top notch.

Speakers at the convention included South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Chairman of the National Republican Governors Association, former United National Ambassador John Bolton, gubernatorial hopefuls Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, Lieutenant Governor candidate State Senator Jeff Denham and talked about potential candidate Bill Simon, U.S. Senate candidate Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and rumored potential candidates Carly Fiorina and Larry Elder, Congressmen Darrell Issa and Tom McClintock and also national conservative leader Bill Bennett. As I pen more from the… Read More

In case you missed the detailed links from today’s FR homepage, an excerpt from the SF Chron piece on the State GOP Convention:

The bad blood in the party was evident at the convention. On Saturday, state party vice chair Jon Fleischman angrily confronted state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County), who made his name last week by providing the critical vote needed to pass the state budget.

"You voted for the largest tax increase in the country when you could have stopped it," said Fleischman, publisher of the GOP Web site Flashreport.com, which had publicly pressured Republicans to stand united against the package of $15 billion in spending cuts and $12.5 billion in new taxes. "Good call."

As an open-mouthed crowd of Republicans looked on, Maldonado – viewed as a turncoat by some Republicans, and a hero by others – coolly shot back: "We need a… Read More

This last weekend’s California Republican Party Biennial Organizational Convention in Sacramento was a busy one, and so it will take me a few blog posts to really talk about all of the aspects of it, and ultimately provide a comprehensive recap. As conventions go, it was a tremendously successful one. It was a extremely well attended by delegates and guests (this is especially notable due to the absence of hotly contested races for statewide party office) and the lineup of speakers was top notch.

Speakers at the convention included South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, Chairman of the National Republican Governors Association, former United National Ambassador John Bolton, gubernatorial hopefuls Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, Lieutenant Governor candidate State Senator Jeff Denham and talked about potential candidate Bill Simon, U.S. Senate candidate Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and rumored potential candidates Carly Fiorina and Larry Elder, Congressmen Darrell Issa and Tom McClintock and also national conservative leader Bill Bennett. As I pen… Read More

I was in attendance at the CRP Convention this weekend and, going in,I wasn’t sure what to expect…in terms of turnout or in the moodof the membership. Despite the November election results, the hundreds of billions being frittered away in DC, and the great frustration overCalifonia’s deplorable budget disaster, Republican energy was way up and ready to engage the next battle.

Most all agreed that the battle starts with the soul of what the party is to be about, that there isn’t anything wrong with the "Republican Brand" or its platform, but instead with the vision to adhere to it by those we elect.

The elections for the party posts went smoothly and infighting amongst Republicans seems to be at a minimum on a party level…again the anger is aimed "primarily"at the elected officials at all levels, withvery stinging repeated rebukes by many of the speakers toward those that voted for new taxes or spending in Sacramento and DC.

2010 is in very clear focus for party activists as well as the 2009 Special Election that will soon be spelled out as the public comesto understand the issues on… Read More