11 days ago, I posted that Mike Vallante, the chief operating officer of the California Republican Party, would be leaving to join the Rudy Giuliani for President campaign. The "rumor" was labeled as untrue.

Today, according to my sources, Vallante told the CRP staff he would be leaving to join the Rudy Giuliani for President campaign.

I’m shocked!… Read More

Border Patrol Agents: My office gets many calls about what action are being taken in Congress to secure the pardon or relocation of the two border patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean. They were convicted last year and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in jail for acts they committed while shooting a drug smuggling illegal alien. This case has become symbolic of our twisted immigration enforcement system, which allows thousands of illegal alien felons to roam our streets and millions of other aliens to be here illegally while enforcement agents have the proverbial book thrown at them for "violations of policy" while trying to apprehend one of those felons. Pardons are being sought, but at the very least the sentence received is way out of proportion to any crime committed. Here is a list of the actions I have been taking to help resolve this miscarriage of justice: •September 14, 2006 – Along with 22 colleagues, I sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting that he investigate the questionable tactics used to prosecute Agents Ramos and Compean. •December 1, 2006 – Along with 15 colleagues,… Read More

Over at the new Inside the Beltway newspaper Politico’s website, former House Majority Leader Tom "The Hammer" DeLay (pictured to the right) has a column in which is rightly draws a lot of concern about the big money that is being spread all around the left of America starting with hundreds of millions being lavished by billionaire George Soros. In his piece, DeLay blames this sizable and well financed liberal coalition of groups with the loss of Richard Pombo in California’s 11th District. In his column, DeLay says:

Last night the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees in south Orange County approved a settlement of claims of violation of the Brown Act open meeting law that occurred during the troubled administration of controversial former Superintendent James Fleming. Under the terms of the settlement, CUSD must audio-tape closed session meetings for one year, provide for Brown Act training for Trustees and staff, and pay attorneys fees in the amount of $16,000 to Plaintiff Ron Lackey.

According to the original lawsuit filed by frequent CUSD critic Lackey, the Trustrees and Fleming met in closed session on July 30, 2005 to purportedly discuss Fleming’s performance appraisal. However, during the meeting, the Trustees covered over 30 different topics of discussion, including an illegal discussion about limiting the time available to Lackey to address the Board during their public sessions. In settling the case, CUSD made no admission of violation of the Brown Act, but agreed to a series of remedial actions similar to what a Judge could impose if a violation were found as a result of a trial.

I was pleased to have served as counsel to Lackey in this… Read More

Brand New Trivia Question: Who is the only head coach to lead their team to the best regular season record of any NFL team in a particular year, only to be fired at season’s end?

Answer: Marty Schottenheimer (14-2 record last year with the San Diego Chargers), yesterday.

And, this has to do with politics why?

Simple. If a political consultant consistently won hard fought primaries for their candidates, but couldn’t get any of them a win in the run-off, they wouldn’t be political consultants very long.

Life does parallel sports.… Read More

Ron Nehring having been elected to the Chairmanship of the California Republican Party, the Chairman’s seat for the San Diego Republican Party has opened. In past weeks in various meetings and over the weekend at the GOP Convention, the whispers and commitments began in full force between potential candidates, committeemembers, and elected officials.

As of yesterday there were two strong candidates: Tony Krvaric (pictured to the left) and Mike McSweeney. Both are Party stalwarts with a commitment to the organization that has been built over the last several years. Both have the confidence of donors, officials, and activists.

At last night’s committee meeting (like the weekend wasn’t enough) however, Mr. McSweeney… Read More

I just received my California Republican Assembly Newspaper, and this is the issue that contains the CRA’s annual ranking of State Legislators. CRA President Mike Spence says the info on this will be online soon, but this is a good chance to give a ‘shout out’ to the legislators who scored a perfect 100% on the rating: Chuck DeVore, Bob Huff, Doug LaMalfa, Dennis Mountjoy, and Mimi Walters! Congratulations!

We’ll delve more into these ratings in the coming weeks. Some of the scores will surprise you!

It should come as a surprise, and a foreshadowing of the 2007 rated CRA bills, that all four of the major bond measures last year (1B, 1C, 1D, 1E) and the bloated state budget were all scored.… Read More

According to The Hill newspaper, right now California Congressman Duncan Hunter has more Congressional endorsements in his bid for the Presidency than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Of course, maybe that actually helps The Mayor, since Congress isn’t so popular these days. Congratulations to Hoover Institution Fellow and FR friend Williamson "Bill" Evers who was tapped by W. to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Perhaps while there he can advise that "federalizing" education through programs like No Child Left Behind is a bad thing. In his Silicon Valley appearance yesterday, GOP Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani talked a lot about global warming. I don’t remember it being a big part of his talk to Republican leaders at the State GOP Convention last weekend… If Joel Stein’s column today in the Los Angeles Times where he describes the cloistered work of fellows at the Hoover Institute at Stanford is even close to accurate, we should all be lining up to spend time there. If you buy into the argument that all … Read More