The ever informative Target Book justsent one of their “Hot Sheet” emails to subscribers. In it, a fascinating bit that seems to dovetail nicely on Mike Spence’s CRP Reform piece this morning…

The Target Book segmented the results in absentee voting versus Election Day voting. With our $20 million GOTV “juggernaut” in place, let’s take a look at how the votes went down.

In the LG Race:

Among Absentee/Mail voters: McClintock: 49.5 Garamendi: 44.6

(A 4.9% edge)

As I reported at the time, Tom was up before Election Day hit.

But amongElection Dayvoters: McClintock: 41.1 Garamendi: 53.1

(A 12% deficit)

16.9% in the LG Race (it was 16.8 in the Gov race). That’s the swing. Something went wrong, and we’d be foolish if serious efforts weren’t made to figure out what did.… Read More

This morning’s Commentary from Mike Spence concerning the California Republican Party has already spurred a few e-mails to me — so I just wanted to let any stakeholders in the CRP know that if you would like to weigh in with your thoughts about the CRP, feel free to contact me. I’m happy to arrange to post your thoughts up on the site!… Read More

In the late nineties some GOP leaders pushed to take over the CRP and local GOP county committees with a simple mantra: Ideology doesn’t matter, what matters is the “nuts and bolts” of party building. Basically, the goods they sold said the party should focus on registering voters, GOTV etc…. Of course most were moderates (who would lose part campaigns if ideology was a factor) and their successful campaign culminated in the much-heralded CRP Parsky Commission reforms of 2001. Below are some thoughts I have about improving the CRP. I never bought the complete abandonment of ideology from the party machinery. That’s how we get GOP endorsements of bonds and other follies I come to them though my 20+ years of GOP involvement in politics, my 15 on the CRP Executive committee, including six years on the CRP Board. I also come from the perspective that 2006 was not a good year for the CA GOP. The Governor won and so did Steve Poizner. McPherson, McClintock and Strickland didn’t. … Read More

In the late nineties some GOP leaders pushed to take over the CRP and local GOP county committees with a simple mantra: Ideology doesn’t matter, what matters is the "nuts and bolts" of party building. Basically, the goods they sold said the party should focus on registering voters, GOTV etc…. Of course most were moderates (who would lose campaigns if ideology was a factor) and their successful campaign culminated in the much-heralded CRP Parsky Commission reforms of 2001. … Read More

Stephen Moore is one of the more gifted editorial writers out there — over at the Wall Street Journal, has penned an outstanding piece, entitled, The Market and Its Medicine: Solving the health-care "crisis" means not more government involvement but less.

It begins:

As many FR readers already know, I am a candidate for Vice-Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party. The election will be on February 12th in Sacramento, and I will be campaigning hard all of the way until ‘election day’ at the GOP Convention. I am humbled to enjoy a tremendous amount of support from throughout the Southern Region (Riverside, Orange, San Diego, and Imperial Counties). I thought I would highlight three prominent endorsers of my campaign who are more ‘statewide’ than regional figures in California Republican politics:

"Jon’s acumen and understanding of the business of politics makes him my choice for Vice Chairman, South, of the California Republican Party." – State Senator Tom McClintock… Read More

If you are wondering what the difference will be between the official Christmas Tree outside of the State Capitol this year, versus the tree from last year (pictured) — the office of First Lady Maria Shriver has announced that this year’s white fir tree will be the, "First-Ever Energy-Efficient Christmas Tree is Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cell."

According to the release from Shriver’s office, "The 55-foot white fir tree donated by the U.S. Forest Service, Institute of Forest Genetics features more than 6,500 LED lights. The one-kilowatt fuel cell system has been provided by the California Stationary Fuel Cell Collaborative and was manufactured by Altergy Systems of Folsom. Fuel cell technology was originally invented for NASA to power Gemini space craft."

For any Capitol denizens who are not already planning to run out to the tree lighting ceremony to see the fuel cell system in action (it’s in… Read More

Buried in the business section of the Sacramento Bee (and again in the opinion page) was a story about what should be one of the biggest political scandals of the year: Sacramento Councilman Steve Cohn, in an brazen attempt to curry favor with labor unions, is secretly attempting to force a private company to unionize – even though employees already voted against unionizing.

One of the regions oldest businesses – the venerable Blue Diamond Growers, which is really a co-operative of 3500 small growers — learned of the move by the City of Sacramento when the item appeared on the agenda for this Friday’s council meeting.

Councilman Steve Cohn — who really wants to be mayor — is trying to eliminate the standard secret ballot, which would leave employees open to intimidation for their ballot choice (no matter which side they pick, they would be subject to possible intimidation).

Cohn once tried to block expansion of Sutter Hospital… Read More