The purpose of a political party is not electing its own party members to a majority of public policymaking positions. The purpose of a political party is to see the policies that are espoused by that party enacted at the various levels of government. In the case of the Republican Party, it means that there is a serious challenge ahead of the GOP where Washington, D.C. is concerned. With a Republican President and GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, we have seen unprecedented growth in the size and scope of the federal government. So while the electoral mission of the Republican Party has been a success, Republicans are failing in the most important area — bringing our core vision of limited government and individual responsibility into public policy. On the contrary, while the Republican Party continues to wrap itself in the messaging that elected Ronald Reagan, the cold, hard reality is that the GOP has presided over largesse.

What is the solution? Well, one solution is for the Republican Party and its ancillary committees… Read More

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FR friend Mike MeCey just fired this our way — the California Broadcasters Association and Sacramento State Unviersity are hosting the Debate on October 7th, a Saturday, from 6pm – 7pm.

Here is the release from the CA Broadasters:

SACRAMENTO, CA – Treasurer Angelides today accepted the California Broadcasters Association (CBA) offer to produce a live statewide debate, which follows Governor Schwarzenegger’s acceptance last week. The event will take… Read More

The latest shockwave (?) in the campaign for Governor, the release of a four minute audiotape of Schwarzenegger making immature ethnological analyses and derogatory statements about legislators of his own party, is being looked upon by some pundits as the death rattle of the Angelides campaign. Its being talked of as the moment when Angelides staffers and supporters stop putting extra time into the campaign, when they lose hope and look elsewhere, when donors and others really stop taking the campaign seriously. Let me tell you why they think this and then tell you why I’m intrigued.

The Angelides campaign, from what we’ve read so far, are guilty of little more than cunning and hard work and they still lost the public debate. When they could have been on the high road, righteously going on offense, citing audio recordings stored on government… Read More

A little leak can ruin a house when it becomes a gusher. The Angelides campaign is living that maxim. You really gotta be careful when hiring plumbers. (Did anybody catch G. Gordon Liddy on Fear Factor last night? Not a great plumber, but at eighty years old he kicked some serious butt on people half his age.)

Excellent job of response by the Schwarzenegger folks – apologize profusely and credibly, then turn the fire hose on your opponent. We’ll see that as a case study in a campaign textbook sometime.

My two cents to Phil: "The Buck Stops Here."

Thanks, Jon, for having me as the new Riverside County correspondent. I’ve used the Flashreport since it was a daily selection of practical news clips, and have known Jon for many years and through many causes. It’s great to be here.

Riverside County is one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Depending on the criteria used for selection, it is usually ranked in the top three fastest. We are an incredibly diverse county – from farmland to cities, from rich to poor, from all ethnicities, from mountain towns with snow to golf… Read More

In case our Guest Editor and Los Angeles County Correspondent (along with Mike Spence) Brandon Powers needed some positive affirmation that he picked a good opinion-piece to feature as the Golden Pen Award Winner today on the main page, today’s Wall Street Journal Political Dairy selects a quote from the piece to feature in its daily e-mail:

Quote of the Day II

"Democrats are poised to take back the House. If that happens, however, conservatives will find several silver linings in the outcome…. The Congressional wing of the [GOP] lost its reformist zeal years ago and has been trying to win elections based on pork and incumbency. An election victory would reward that strategy, leaving the congressmen even less interested in restraining… Read More

Republican Assemblyman John Benoit, who hails from Riverside County, is a pilot and actually commutes back and forth from his district to Sacramento in his own Cessna plane. Today the Riverside Press Enterprise has a pretty cool story about it, and how he will sometimes take other legislators to and from work, who happen to "live on the way."

Benoit is pictured here in this photo from the PE helping Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy onto his plane (I guess as the crow flies, Bakersfield is somewhere in between Sacramento and Riverside County). Anyways, you can check out the full story here, including an actual video of the Assemblyman coming in for a landing at Sacramento’s Executive Field (don’t get too excited about the video, though it is novel).… Read More

PROP. 90 – HAYNES AND ACKERMAN HAVE TWO DIFFERENT POSITIONS ON THIS MEASURE This November, there are a host of measures on the ballot. As you will hear from the contributors to this site over the next six or so weeks, most of them are worthy of a heave-ho, and a a "vote no" — but there are a few items on the ballot that we’ll be encouraging you to vote FOR. One of these is Proposition 90, the Save Our Homes Initiative. We’ve covered it on these pages before, and we will do so again. It is a measure that is about property rights, and about curbing the current system of abuse that is rampant — where government agencies trample the rights of private home owners. Is the measure perfect? Most aren’t? And legislating from the ballot … Read More