This morning after my wife Valerie popped in and said that she thought it might be nice for someone other than an ‘insider’ to grade the mail each day. She clearly indicated that she would be that ‘outsider’ (It was not in my interest to argue with her assertion that she is an outsider… but I would point out that before the kids came along she worked as an account executive for Ralph Reed at Century Strategies in Atlanta, for a campaign fundraising operation in LA, and for a builders’ association in Sacramento).So she’ll be grading the February 5th mail with me each day.

Anyway…. this all being the case, the only political mail I got today was a letter from former CRP Chairmen Visco, Schroeder, and Antonovich endorsing Shawn Steel for National Committeeman. Good piece, and came with a vast endorsement list, but we feel no obligation to grade the piece because it does not deal with a race to be decided on the 5th.… Read More

The Secretary of State has assigned the 2 eminent domain measures their designated proposition numbers for the June 2008 primary ballot. [you know, the "other" primary]

Proposition 98 is the one qualified by the good guys, California Farm Bureau, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights.

The League of Cities flim flam fig leaf special that doesn’t reform EmDo at all will be known as No On Prop 99…I mean Prop 99.

This’ll be tough going as the goal for the 99 crowd is to confuse voters with 2 measures and get ’em to vote no on both or pass 99 and take the whole debate off the table. They will try to convince votersto believe thatthey’ve ‘done something’ to fix abusive eminent domain takingsfor future elections as they continue to steal property. You can bet on the rhetoric flying about the rent control aspectof 98 being the central issue to scare voters. 98 will pass when the truth gets out, 99 will be a lot like how Prop 93 is doing right now.… Read More

The Consumer Alliance for a Strong Economy has released a new ad, banging Schwarzenegger, Nunez and company over the health care tax plan being pushed through the legislature. It also raps the Guv for his plan to release 22,000 inmates early as a budget savings measure.

The ad will be up in the Los Angeles, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara media markets. … Read More

The sprawling Fourth Congressional District in North Eastern California (well, Doug LaMalfa would probably call is South Eastern) east of Sacramento has been in the news a lot because of the controversies with John Doolittle that have been the source of much fodder by the press. Doolittle’s recent decision to retire has created an "open" seat that is overwhelmingly Republican.

As we’ve written about before, former state legislator and conservative Rico Oller has put his hat into the ring, and is running hard. The only other significant candidate who has been running is Eric Egland, a military veteran who starts out at a big disadvantage to the well known and well liked Oller. We keep hearing that former moderate GOP Congressman Doug Ose may jump into this primary, but he hasn’t made any such announcement yet.

For the last few months, popular local Assemblyman Ted Gaines had been making active noises about running for the House seat (perhaps even if Doolittle was still in). Shortly after Doolittle… Read More

Obvoiusly McClintock and Paul have a lot in common on idues.Obvoiusly McClintock and Paul have a lot in common on issues. Is Tom going to join the campaign now that Thompson is out? Actually, McClinctock says if he was to vote today he would support Paul, but points out the election isn’t today.… Read More

The No On Prop 93 Trojan Horse visited Palm Springs yesterday. As far as I’m concerned, every election needs a big wooden horse traveling the highways and byways of California. We’ll know this election is over when the bear in the leotardappearsriding the unicycle carrying an umbrella.

FR’s own Brandon Powers is jockeying the steed, and was joined by 80th Assembly District candidate Indio Mayor Lupe Ramos Watson to talk to the press gathered about the flawed Prop 93 measure. The horse is touring the state to draw attention to the No side of Prop. 93.… Read More

In politics especially, it is said that timing is everything. It is clear after spending time on 80+ news websites this morning that the big issue going into the Florida primaries and into Super Tuesday, short of a major terrorist attack, is the economy. That seems to me that it plays to the advantage, to the candidacy of Mitt Romney. After all, he’s the guy with all of the business experience. But more importantly for Romney, the shift to the economy is a move away from his area of weakness – foreign policy gravitas. And his gain is a loss of sorts for McCain and Giuliani. Of course, these are just pieces in a much bigger puzzle. But as this race closes down to the wire… It all matters…… Read More

Earlier this week, I was the speaker at a meeting of the Tustin Area Republican Assembly, a chapter of the California Republican Assembly, located in the heart of conservative Orange County. As part of my presentation, I took the opportunity to survey the audience of around fifty people as to whom they were supporting for President. I ran through the names — Giuliani, Romney, McCain, Paul, Huckabee. It was easy to see that the vast majority of the folks in the room did not raise their hands for any of the candidates. So I asked the group about that. From the feedback I received, it was clear that to the overwhelming majority of this group of core Republican activists, none of the candidates were conservative enough. Fault was found with each one.

But while I think that the activists in this club are representative of many conservatives, they certainly are not representative of all conservatives. So, of those conservative activists who have endorsed candidates, who are they supporting? To be honest with you, as I talk and e-mail with people all around California (and I do a lot of that), it literally runs the gamut. Which is to say that there is no one… Read More