In two short months Republicans will lose their party leader when President Bush leaves 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The race is now on to fill the leadership void and provide direction for the GOP heading into the 2010 midterm elections. The contest to take over the Republican National Committee chairmanship is the most apparent test to determine the party’s direction. Several names have been floated, including Newt Gingrich, Michael Steele and other prominent Republicans. But one name being floated is better known to California Republicans: the CRP’s own chairman, Ron Nehring.

Most conservative leaders agree that the chairmanship of the RNC is a key position for rebuilding the party and they are keen on electing a true conservative who will welcome the conservative base back into the party. As possible candidates for the RNC chairmanship are discussed, Gingrich, Steele and other Republican luminaries are being mentioned, but Ron Nehring’s name is also being brought up. Could the CRP lose its party chairman to the national party? As Matt Drudge and his eponymous report would say, developing…

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House Republicans have some big decisions to make this week with Dan Lungren’s decision to challenge John Boehner for leader of the embattled minority. And amongst the incoming freshman class making such important directional decisions will be California’s Tom McClintock. The United States House of Representatives has recognized the inevitable fact that Tom McClintock won the 4th CD seat. It’s just a matter of days before McClintock will be declared the next representative for Congressman John Doolittle’s district. McClintock will arrive in Washington, D.C., tomorrow to begin freshman orientation and participate in House Republican strategizing.

After losing Congress and the White House, Republicans nationwide are considering the party’s future. This is a time of rebuilding the Republican brand by embracing conservative principles, not denouncing them. Congressman Tom McClintock will certainly be one of the most important leaders for the conservative movement on the national scene. Conservatives need his vision and voice not just in deciding new House leadership, but to re-earn voters’ trust. Look out, Washington Establishment!… Read More

[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

Same-sex advocates, sore over their failure to defeat Proposition 8, are waging a campaign of intimidation against supporters of the winning initiative.

The latest target is Scott Anderson, business owner and a board member of the Lincoln Club of Orange County.

Scott was on Dennis Prager this morning talking about a threatening voice mail from "Kevin" Andrews received yesterday.

Click here to listen to the voice mail.

Two days ago, the artistic director of the California Musical Theatre lost his job for donating to Prop. 8. Now we have this "Kevin" threatening someone’s business for exercising his political speech.

Kevin’s boycott threat may just be empty, angry bluster, but should… Read More

The latest from the Tony Strickland Campaign (as of last night):

Tony Strickland is leading Hanna Beth Jackson by 1,560 votes.

There are still over 42,000 absentee ballots to be counted…

1) As far as we can tell Santa Barbara County is done with absentee ballots (favors HBJ) 2) 40,000 in Ventura County (favors Strickland) 3) 2,775 in Los Angeles County (favors Strickland)

There are also over 18,000 provisional ballots to be counted (normally 30-50% of these are disqualified due to voter error).

1) 6,800 in Santa Barbara County (favors HBJ) 2) 10,000 in Ventura County (favors Strickland) 3) 2,000 in Los Angeles County (favors Strickland)… Read More

Today Congressman Dan Lungren of California entered the race for House GOP Leader, the first to openly challenge the re-election of incumbent Leader John Boehner. Here on this site, we have devoted a lot of column "ink" to the idea that Boehner, while a nice guy, is not made of the kind of stern stuff that is needed to lead the GOP out of the wilderness. When Boehner became leader, the same "team" that overspent us into the minority under former Speaker Dennis Hastert stayed put — included infamous porkers like Jerry Lewis and Dan Young.

Lungren’s entrance into the race is a welcome change from what seemed to be like a coronation (you had a vision of everyone drinking at the bar voting for the guy who tells the best stories to be "King of the bar" — so to speak).

It will be interesting to see if Lungren’s just into the fray causes others to get into the race. Either way, his entry will cause people to have to stop, and think about the job… Read More

I have penned the following commentary, which appears today in the print and online version of Capitol Weekly newspaper. Its intended reading audience is our State Supreme Court Justices…

When considering Proposition 8, remember Rose Bird Jon Fleischman

On May 15 of this year, four Supreme Court Justices – Chief Justice Ron George and Associate Justices Joyce Kennard, Carlos Moreno, and Kathryn Werdegar– put on their “judicial activist” hats and tossed out Proposition 22, which had been passed by California voters by a healthy majority, placing into California law that marriage shall only be between a man and a woman.

The decision by these four individuals set into motion the… Read More

They are calling it "Obama 2.0." It is an"ambitious effort to transform the president elect’s vast Web operation and database into a modern tool to accomplish his goals in the White House."

Are you listening?

Obama claims 3.1 million contributors and over 10 million supporters, most of whose email addresses are captured on his fundraising list.

"He can do a half-hour YouTube address every Saturday, addressing millions " said Joe Trippi recently, a Democrat consultant knowledgable about the Web.

Should we be surprised that Obama’s largest single sources of financial support from a single company for his presidential campaign was tied between Google and Microsoft? ($727,000 and $729,00 respectively, Los Angeles Times, 11/4/08, p. B6.)

Our work is cut-out for us.

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[Publisher’s Note: After the defeats suffered by the Republican Party in the General Election, we have reached out to some California leaders to ask them to reflect on this question, "What must the GOP do to once again be the majority party?" We are pleased to bring you this column from one of our own FR correspondents, Dan Schnur – Flash] After last Tuesday’s elections, there are twenty-one Republican governors in the country. Because of constitutional restrictions, only twenty of them are thinking about running for president in 2012. But it’s always better to be a mile outside of hell heading out, and as the GOP looks to rebuild itself, as it did after the 1976 and 1992 elections, the political, policy and intellectual firepower for that effort will come from the states.

The Republican leadership on Capitol Hill seems resigned to fighting a series of rear-guard actions to watch for likely Democratic overreaches. John Boehner is one of the best political minds in the party. Mitch McConnell is one of the ablest legislative tacticians in either… Read More