The Race to 270 by Daron R. Shaw was written several years ago but is perfectly relevant in the political discussions occurring today.

Shaw is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, he helped craft some of the techniques to be able to get then-Governor Bush to the magic number of 270 electoral college votes. He was also involved in the 2004 re-election campaign.

The subtitle of the book is "The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004." That is what this book is all about. The reading text is only 170 pages that are a quick read.

**There is more – click the link**

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These Members of the California State Assembly have now also endorsed McCain (some had announced before, but this is a comprehensive list, apparently):

Michael N. Villines Assembly Republican Leader, 29th District

George Plescia Assemblyman, 75th District

Van Tran Assemblyman, 68th District

Greg Aghazarian Assemblyman, 26th District

John Benoit Assemblyman, 64th District

Tom Berryhill Assemblyman, 26th District… Read More

Today the Presidential campaign of Senator John McCain announced the endorsements of California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, and California’s Republican National Committeeman, Tim Morgan. McCain’s campaign announced the endorsement last week of California’s Republican National Comiitteewoman Barbara Alby.

These three are California’s three "Superdelegates" at the RNC Convention.… Read More

A Chino company was slapped with a huge recall of meat, (reportedly thelargest in history)some 143 million pounds–the company’s entire lot from the last two years. The Washington Post has the story, here. This follows a story in the Post broken a day or two before the So Cal papers, noted in my blog at RedCounty, here.

The recall and Post coverage were sparked by undercover video and sleuthing by the Humane Society. It originally seemed the society gave the story to the Post before the Times or PE, the Humame Society top communicator’s alma mater.

Quiet day in DC otherwise. Happy President’s Day!… Read More

Former California Republican Party Chairman Shawn Steel was endorsed by the Orange County Republican Party tonight for National Committeeman.

The vote was overwhelmingly for Shawn.… Read More

The Race to 270 by Daron R. Shaw was written several years ago but is perfectly relevant in the political discussions occurring today.

Shaw is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, he helped craft some of the techniques to be able to get then-Governor Bush to the magic number of 270 electoral college votes. He was also involved in the 2004 re-election campaign.

The subtitle of the book is "The Electoral College and the Campaign Strategies of 2000 and 2004." That is what this book is all about. The reading text is only 170 pages that are a quick read.

We all know that states like Texas, Utah, and Idaho were going to vote Republican. We also know that Massachusetts and New York were going Democrat. This book provides some good information on the way that the Bush, Gore, and Kerry campaigns determined the battleground states and what they did in them and why.

What Shaw does better than any other analysis I have read is to look at the… Read More

The race for San Diego City Attorney is shaping up to be one of the biggest donnybrooks in years, all due to the actions and self-absorption of incumbent Mike Aguirre himself, and the field is fleshing out.

The local GOP has endorsed former Assemblyman and on-leave Judge Jan Goldsmith. A couple of days ago, both Sheriff Bill Kolender and D.A. Bonnie Dumanis threw their significant support to Goldsmith (read the Red County SD post).

The "downtown establishment," including in this case both Democrats and a few business-oriented GOPers caring nada about the party’s preference, are scrambling to narrow their portion of the field. Wednesday’s Alex Roth/Jennifer Vigil U-T story on last Saturday’s by-invite-only meeting to decide between Councilman Scott Peters and former SD Unified Schools Supe Alan Bersin (both Democrats) as the "coalition candidate," referred to poll results that assisted in the reported jointly-agreed selection of… Read More

Next weekend the Republican faithful of California will descend upon San Francisco for our spring convention. In the last few weeks, delegates have been treated to a deluge of emails and letters encouraging us to vote on leadership positions and various issues coming before the convention. All the matters we will consider are very important not only to the future of our party, but our state. However, the most important matter we will debate is the content of our party platform.

A party’s platform is its heart and soul. It is what unites a diverse group with various interests towards a common goal. Based on a platform’s content, and the adherents’ fidelity to its content, voters are drawn to political parties. The ability to clearly and succinctly communicate our Republican platform is what made President Reagan our finest spokesperson.

When it comes to governance, debates over ideology and political philosophy will inevitably produce heated arguments. Consider the founding of our nation. While all of our Founding Fathers shared the common vision of free and united states, the debates over the document that would bind the nascent republic were incredibly… Read More