David Drucker pens an outstanding analysis today of some of the impacts of the California Republican Winner-Take-All-By-District Presidential Primary:

By David M. Drucker, Roll Call Staff

California House Republicans could wield unprecedented influence over the outcome of their state’s Feb. 5 presidential primary, thanks to a move by the state GOP to scrap the traditional winner-take-all system in favor of awarding delegates by Congressional district. Member endorsements generally have limited utility in White House primaries. But in the race for California’s 173 Republican… Read More

War Funding Bill: So, the Democrats in the House have passed their “Defeat with Pork” resolution. The Senate is unlikely to support a final version of this critical war funding legislation that has the withdrawal provisions or the pork included in the House version. Even if they do, and it comes out of a conference committee and is passed again by both houses, the President will veto it.

So now what? The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reportedly be running out of money in mid-April. That means our troops will run out of supplies, replacements, and be placed in a very precarious position. The military commanders will probably do whatever they can to keep things moving forward. They may defer purchase of new ships or planes or whatever to get the money to keep the effort moving forward in the war.

But they will run out eventually. The $95.5 billion for the war that was in the supplemental appropriations bill is roughly 17% of this year’s military budget. So, they are unlikely to be able to work around this.

What we may have is a very consequential game of chicken like the one between President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich in the… Read More

"I’m concerned about not building into the general election a whole block of voters, that by that rule, we’ve isolated," said Tim Morgan, National committeeman.

Currently our rules provide that only the votes of registered Republican will be used to determine the outcome of the Republican Presidential Primary in California. A change to this rule may be debated and voted on this September 9th at the CRP fall convention in Palm Desert. The Party may be asked to permit some 3,000,000 Decline-To-State [DTS] voters to be able to vote in the Republican primary to select the GOP nominee for President.

While its true we permit DTS to vote in our legislative primaries presently, changes our current rule would erode the very function of our national Republican identity. Essentially, we would be following Arnold’s mistaken and hilariousvision of… Read More

"I’m concerned about not building into the general election a whole block of voters, that by that rule, we’ve isolated," said Tim Morgan, National committeeman.

Currently our rules provide that only the votes of registered Republican will be used to determine the outcome of the Republican Presidential Primary in California. A change to this rule may be debated and voted on this September 9th at the CRP fall convention in Palm Desert. The Party may be asked to permit some 3,000,000 Decline-To-State [DTS] voters to be able to vote in the Republican primary to select the GOP nominee for President.

While its true we permit DTS to vote in our legislative primaries presently, changes our current rule would erode the very function of our national Republican identity. Essentially, we would be following Arnold’s mistaken and hilariousvision of… Read More

Dana Point Mayor Diane Harkey kicked off her campaign for the 73rd Assembly District with a fund raiser at the beautiful home of Assemblywoman Mimi Walters last Thursday evening – Walters is serving as Honorary Chairman of Harkey’s campaign.

It was quite the who’s who of Orange County. There were over 150 in attendance. Besides Assemblywoman Walters, also on hand were Supervisor Pat Bates, County Treasurer Chriss Street, Councilmembers Lisa Bartlett, Joe Soto, Elizabeth Schneider, Tom Hribar, Lon Uso, and Jack Feller (who came up from Oceanside) just to name a few. Former Assembly Republican Leader Scott Baugh was the Master of Ceremonies and announced that State Senator Tom Harman (who narrowly defeated Diane in a special election last year) is supporting her bid for the Assembly.

Perhaps the most notable attendee at the event was FR friend Paul Glaab, who serves on the Laguna Niguel City Council. For some time, it was being talked about that Glaab himself might run for this seat, and his… Read More

I said it in February on Election Night and once again now after a recount and an election contest before a judge…It’s good to Nguyen.

Almost two months after the election was held Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen has prevailed in a legal challenge of her rightful victory for Orange County Board of Supervisors.

The judge ruled moments ago and she will be sworn in tomorrow.

Once again, congratulations to Gilliard, Blanning Wysocki & Assoc. for running a great campaign (Janet won by three, yes three votes once the judge got done reviewing the ballots). Also deserving of great props is Jimmy Camp who lead the recount team on the inside and attorneys Phil Greer and Andrew Do who argued the case before the judge.

This election is historic for several reasons: Janet Nguyen is now the highest ranking Vietnamese-American elected official in the nation AND this is the first time an election for an office this high-profile has ever been won in a recount. … Read More

FR Beltway Correspondent Congressman John Campbell has written about the current efforts by Democrats in Congress to pass the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN HISTORY. Thanks to the Americans for Tax Reform, you can now consult this chart and see how much the increase would mean for us here in the Golden State (as well as every other state)…

By the way, that dollar amount listed is the per taxpayer amount annually… (and I bolded the one you’ll be most interested in…) *The formatting on this chart is wider than we have — but it should work okay (the ads don’t cover the numbers on my computer screen, anyways. … Read More

The idea of banning legislators from fund raising during any give period of time for any given reason is so very very stupid.

It has already been suggested that fund raising for favorite non-profits might also be banned but I was thinking about what other stupid ideas the legislation might need to address…

…can checks be written during the ‘black-out period’ but delivered afterwards?

…can checks be received during the ‘black-out period’ but not deposited until afterwards?

…can a fund raising invitation be distributed during the ‘black-out period’ but for an event afterwards?

…what if funds are donated to the campaign, unsolicited during the ‘black-out period’?

…does having a web page with an on-line donation option constitute fund raising?

…would on-line contribution pages need to be ‘taken down’ during this ‘black-out period’?

…can I as an individual not connected with any campaign collect checks on behalf of a legislator during the ‘black-out period’ and deliver it… Read More