As I write this, I'm enjoying a late breakfast at Jeannine's in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, before I head over to to wedding of this site's former Managing Editor, Nick, to the love of his life, Lisa.

As I perused the print edition of the Los Angeles Times, I came across an article explaining how Apple Computer has donated $100,000 to defeat Proposition 8, the Protect Marriage Act. That's unfortunate — I think that Apple's Board of Directors (whom I assume would authorize such a donation) should stay focused on their core mission as a supplier of cool electronics to consumers.

That said, I draw a pretty sharp distinction between Apple's donation, and the even larger contribution against 8 that came from Pacific Gas and Electric, the Bay Area's largest electric utility company.

Apple is a company that sells products in a market with vibrant competition. This means that if you disagree with the political donations of Apple, Inc., you can stop buying their products (or buy more if you “like” their politics). Apple has to weigh potential impact on their sales when they do this kind of thing.… Read More

Today Governor Schwarzenegger made a slew of appointments to various state posts. A few of them, in particular, are worthy of mention. Congratulations to business developer and GOP financier Hadi Makarechian for received what is probably the most prestigious appointment available to a Governor, to a twelve year terms on the Board of Regents of the University of California. Other FR friends appointed by the Governor today include longtime criminal justice leader Tom Gede to the Board of Regents of Hastings College of Law, Rex Hime of the California Business Roundtable to the California State Fair Leasing Authority, Steve Spernak to the California Council on Criminal Justice, and John Peschong of Meridian Pacific has been appointed to his local fair board (which means that if you make it to the Central Coast at the right time, you might get a deal on carnival food).

Nice to see some solid GOPers being appointed. (Out of this batch, 16 of 23 are Republicans — better than usual!.)… Read More

A MEMO TO INTERESTED PARTIES FROM JON FLEISCHMAN, VICE CHAIRMAN, SOUTH, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY

The California Republican Party has raised, since February 2007, over $36 million dollars. I would like to congratulate CRP Chairman Ron Nehring, Team California Chairman Tony Russo, and the thousands of donors around California that have been responsible for such an outstanding financial turn-around for the State GOP. The days of being mired in nearly $5 million dollars in debt and loans from the overspending that took place during former Chairman Duf Sundheim’s administration are long over.

Today the California Republican Party announced that it has transferred $3 million dollars from its very full coffers to help boost the efforts of the Republican Parties of Colorado and Nevada, as they work to win electoral… Read More

New Rule:

If you are running for anything, post a high-resolution photo of yourself on the Internet. Preferably several of them and on your own web page.

There are hundreds of independent efforts going on right now to support (and certainly some to oppose) candidates all over the state from water board to U. S. Representative. And many of these independent expenditure committees are scrambling to find photos of their favorite candidate for the direct mail.

Mail is much or effective with photos of the candidates.

While I am not a lawyer, I do believe it is legal to ask a candidate for a photo of themselves. Asking for a photo is not considered coordination. [Perhaps Dana Reed can comment and confirm my assertion]

However it is not always easy to reach the candidates and life would be a lot easier for everyone if you would all just get a high quality photo on the web.

You might be surprised by a positive piece of mail sometime soon if you do.… Read More

There are a host of initiatives on the November ballot. I would submit that there is none that is more important than Proposition 4, which would require parental notification before a minor could obtain an abortion. As we move into the final home stretch, I am pleased to offer this guest commentary from the Campaign Manager for Prop. 4, Charles Gallagher…

PROP. 4 – CALIFORNIANS AND THEIR GOVERNMENT by Charles Gallagher Prop 4 is ahead in the polls. The undecided vote is large enough that if we win 1 out of every 3 undecided voter, Prop 4 wins. Our focus is to communicate and reach out to those undecideds. Turnout will be higher amongst undecideds than in either 2005 or 2006 (when a similar measure appeared on the… Read More

There are a host of initiatives on the November ballot. I would submit that there is none that is more important than Proposition 4, which would require parental notification before a minor could obtain an abortion. As we move into the final home stretch, I am pleased to offer this guest commentary from the Campaign Manager for Prop. 4, Charles Gallagher…

PROP. 4 – CALIFORNIANS AND THEIR GOVERNMENT by Charles Gallagher

Prop 4 is ahead in the polls. The undecided vote is large enough that if we win 1 out of every 3 undecided voter, Prop 4 wins. Our focus is to communicate and reach out to those undecideds. Turnout will be higher amongst undecideds than in either 2005 or 2006 (when a similar measure appeared on the ballot) because of the presidential election. Our GOTV efforts… Read More

There is no doubt that Democrats are poised to have a good year. Nobody that reads this blog regularly would deny that. We are political junkies.

Here is the problem. Some of the Democrats are making lots of noise about seats they have no chance of securing. We have heard rumors of them coming after seats like AD 36 (Runner/Knight) and AD 38 (Smyth).

Both of these campaigns have done checks in the last few days and found comfortable double digit leads.

In 2006 Smyth won by almost 20 points. Sharon Runner won by 24 points.

Will Smyth and Knight win by that much this year? No. Will they win by double digits? Absolutely — and I am happy to put some money on it.… Read More

Once again the folks at Saturday Night Live filet their favorite victim – President Bush. It’s a great seven minute video… … Read More