Great news from the office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – former San Bernardino Republican Party Chair Elia Pirozzi has been appointed to serve on the Superior Court. Pirozzi served as party chair from 2000-03 and stood for election to Congress and State Assembly in recent election cycles.

Many of us remember when Elia Pirozzi was the Republican Party nominee against 42nd Congressional District liberal incumbent Congressman George Brown in 1998, and subsequent races for the same post in 1999 and 2000 against Democrat Joe Baca. Pirozzi was the GOP standard-bearer in a tough district for Republican candidates, and all three times he came close to prevailing against his Democratic opponents despite difficult party registration numbers.

More recently, in 2004, Pirozzi stood for election to the California State Assembly, where he had a nail-bitingly close 157-vote loss to fellow Republican Bill… Read More

Many of today’s state legislators received their start after the mid 1990s when California’s term limit law took effect and representatives who had been in the legislature for years were being forced to retire. This was around the same time as the dot-com boom that brought thousands of entrepreneurs and startup companies into California.

The cultures of both the political and business generation that received their starts in the 1990s are very similar. A few comparisons will help illustrate the point:

Resilience – failed companies in the 90s prepared CEOs for the next big opportunity. We see this quite often now – candidate loses one election only to run for another seat and win in the next election cycle. How quickly you can dust yourself off and get back in the game after a loss is important now days and nobody’s career is ever over. Think Lt. Governor John Garamendi – lose primary for Governor in 1998 and then run and win Lt. Governor in 2006. Or Assemblyman Nakanishi – run for Assembly and lose, run for State Senate and lose, then run for state Assembly and win. … Read More

Many of today’s state legislators received their start after the mid 1990s when California’s term limit law took effect and representatives who had been in the legislature for years were being forced to retire. This was around the same time as the dot-com boom that brought thousands of entrepreneurs and startup companies into California.

The cultures of both the political and business generation that received their starts in the 1990s are very similar. A few comparisons will help illustrate the point:

Resilience – failed companies in the 90s prepared CEOs for the next big opportunity. We see this quite often now – candidate loses one election only to run for another seat and win in the next election cycle. How quickly you can dust yourself off and get back in the game after a loss is important now days and nobody’s career is ever over. Think Lt. Governor John Garamendi – lose primary for Governor in 1998 and then run and win Lt. Governor in 2006. Or Assemblyman Nakanishi – run for Assembly and lose, run for State Senate and lose, then run for state Assembly and win. … Read More

When I was running for state assembly, I had to fill out a questionnaire for the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce in order to receive their endorsement. One of the questions dealt with education; this was my answer:

Strong schools are essential to a vibrant community. In order to attract and retain the most productive citizens, our public schools must be top-notch. Pleasanton schools are known statewide and nationally as exemplary educational institutions, and that does not happen by accident. The partnerships between the schools, chamber, city government and the parent community are critical…and must be constantly nourished with vigilant work to keep all stakeholders in communication about what our schools need for the short term and the long term.

I would add this sentence to the Chamber’s Education Vision Statement: “Then, bring them home!”

It’s not just that I am a mother of three kids in Pleasanton schools who wants to see her kids come home from college and… Read More

From the way that Tony Strickland’s campaign for California State Senate is gearing up, you would almost think that that he is listed as "incumbent" on the ballot. But, of course, he is not. The incumbent, Senator Tom McClintock, is retiring next year as term limits prevents him from seeking a third Senate term. Today the ENTIRE 15-member State Senate Republican Caucus endorsed former Assemblyman Strickland in his bid to succeed McClintock.

[You can see all of the signatures by clicking on the link at the bottom of this blog post.]

"All of our Senators are committed to helping Tony win his election to the State Senator next November," Senate Republican Dick Ackerman told me tonight. If that wasn’t enough, earlier tonight, the Ventura County Republican Party weighed in with a rare (and overwhelming) pre-primary endorsement for Strickland as… Read More

Greg Pettis is a city council member in Cathedral City (Riverside County, Palm Springs area) and he is running for the State Assembly in the 80th Assembly District. Greg is a nice guy, but classically liberal. He is in a battle with at least four other Democrats for the nomination and there there are two GOP candidates battling it out to eventually succeed Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia.

I am not sure of Pettis’ chances but I did get a fund raising letter from him recently.

His letter touches on the usual ‘I got money for parks’, ‘I got money for sewers’. But my favorite part is when he proclaims having "…stood up to Wal-Mart’s unfair labor practices."

I understand why many Democrats hate Wal-Mart. They see economics as a zero-sum game where Wal-Mart gets richer and the rest of us get poorer. I am not saying that is Greg Pettis’ position, he is a businessman.

But no matter his motivation, I don’t think that the most likely donors to a campaign for State Assembly would respond well to any anti-Wal-Mart message.

Greg, for the… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: We try NOT to reprint press releases in this space verbatim, but since I am post from my vacation, I hope that FR readers will be forgiving. This is exciting news, and I am pleased that many are already registering online for Western CPAC. If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s no time like now! – Flash] Senator Tom McClintock named Co-Chairman of Conservative Conference One of California’s most respected and admired state legislators–California State Senator Tom McClintock (R-19th District)–has been named a co-chairman of the Western Conservative Political Action Conference.

“Tom McClintock is the most highly-regarded statewide conservative leader since Ronald Reagan was Governor,” said James… Read More

Two weeks ago, a few Capital insiders were telling me that Governor Schwarzenegger’s health care reform proposal was not going to happen this year. The governor’s staff said otherwise. If I were a betting woman, I’d put my money on the governor–he put his stake in the ground to achieve major reform on health care in 2007 and that’s what he’s going to do.

But I know that I’m not going to like it.

First off, the governor is intent on putting a mandate on businesses to pay a 4 percent payroll tax (yes, it is a tax, not a fee) if they don’t provide insurance to their employees. Last week at a town hall in San Diego, the chairman of the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce questioned how small businesses could afford such a tax. According to the San Diego Tribune, Schwarzenegger… Read More