Back on October 30 of last year, Duncan Hunter announced his intent to explore a presidential bid. Even before his morning press conference that day, the FlashReport was up with a first-in-the-nation analysis of the prospects for Duncan’s successor in CD 52. By the time Roll Call picked up the FR story three days later, another name was in the mix — Duncan’s son Duncan, a First Lieutenant in the Marines who was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and since honorably discharged. And, Duncan D. Hunter seemed solidly in the mix since the Congressman himself told FR that his son was a name that shouldn’t be left out of any analysis.

For the record here, despite other blog sites saying over a month later"You heard it here first" about Duncan’s son possibly running, in actuality, Roll Call was the first to have it, after FR provided RC reporter… Read More

Californian Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan, yesterday, was elected Treasurer of the Republican National Committee. He penned this commentary from his hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C., and we feature it today…

This has been a bittersweet meeting of the Republican National Committee. On the one hand, we lost the election last fall and Democrats now control Congress just up the street from where we’ve been meeting. House Minority Leader, John Boehner of Ohio, on behalf of his colleagues in Republican leadership, said during the Thursday luncheon that he apologized for the Republican apostasy in forgetting the small government principles that secured our control of Congress in 1994. I was sitting with the Ohio Party Chairman and his staff who concur with Mr. Boehner’s assessment of the political situation here. … Read More

There are a number of stories today about a likely scenario where a truly bi-partisan agreement* in Sacramento may lead to the California Presidential Primary being moved up to the first Tuesday in February in 2008, clearly increasing the relevance of Californians in influencing the selection of Party nominees for President and Vice President. I’ll be weighing in on this issue later in the week. Unspoken of in these stories, however, is a subtext that I have heard bantered around that by having a statewide Presidential election in February, 2008, separate from legislative elections that would still take place in June, legislators hope to take a crack at loosening California’s term limits laws, passed by the voters, which say that a legislator can serve only three terms in the Assembly, and two terms in the Senate. I can only say that the legislative placing a measure on the ballot to relax their own terms is a fools errand. Term limits are popular with the electorate, and there is simply no practical way voters are not going to see a move such as this to be anything but self serving. I guess language could be placed in the measure that says that relaxed… Read More

There are a number of stories today about a likely scenario where a truly bi-partisan agreement* in Sacramento may lead to the California Presidential Primary being moved up to the first Tuesday in February in 2008, clearly increasing the relevance of Californians in influencing the selection of Party nominees for President and Vice President. I’ll be weighing in on this issue later in the week. Unspoken of in these stories, however, is a subtext that I have heard bantered around that by having a statewide Presidential election in February, 2008, separate from legislative elections that would still take place in June, legislators hope to take a crack at loosening California’s term limits laws, passed by the voters, which say that a legislator can serve only three terms in the Assembly, and two terms in the Senate. I can only say that the legislative placing a measure on the ballot to relax their own terms is a fools errand. Term limits are popular with the electorate, and there is simply no practical way voters are not going to see a move such as this to be anything but self serving. I guess language could be placed in the measure that says that relaxed… Read More

For several years now after each gubernatorial election, the UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies hosts a post mortem seminar featuring members of the winning and losing campaign teams. This afternoon, members of the Westly, Angelides and Schwarzenegger campaign teams gathered on the Cal campus to discuss their perspectives on the ’06 primary. While there was nothing earth shattering said, there were some highlights worth sharing:

* The Wesley and Angelides staffers couldn’t make enough jokes about California’s new Democratic governor. Jude Barry, Wesley’s campaign manager, cracked, “This past year proved that it was a good year to be a Democrat. Two people proved that…Phil Angelides and Arnold Schwarzenegger."

* The animosity between the Westly and Angelides campaign teams was apparent, especially between Gary South (Westly) and Paul Maslin and Katie Merrill (Angelides). Gary South… Read More

My friend Grover Norquist passes this on from the White House office of Public Liaison:

Please join a special White House Conference Call on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 4:30 P.M.

We are pleased to announce that Monday’s call will feature Karl Rove who will give a preview of the President’s State of the Union Address. The call-in information is as follows:

Phone Number: 888-552-8613

Participant Code: 7759471

Leader Name: Tim Phelps… Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court has just announced it has decided to accept the appeal in Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC and John McCain this term and it has established a briefing schedule. The case involves review of a lower Federal Court case that emasculates regulation of issue-oriented speech during pre-election periods in Federal elections that mentions candidate’s names, but does not contain "express advocacy." If the Supreme Court upholds the lower Federal court decision, the so-called "McCain-Feingold" law regulating Section 527 political committees will largely be gutted.… Read More

According to a survey commissioned by CBS 5 in San Francisco interviewed 500 Bay Area adults,57% of Bay Area adults oppose a ban on spanking; only 23% support a ban. Actually, depending on how many of those asked were in San Francisco, there probably would be more support for the ban if they had only clarified that this is a ban on parents spanking children. Lieber’s bill doesn’t ban adult-on-adult spanking, a popular past-time in parts of San Francisco…… Read More