If there was ever an argument for hiring a political consultant, the really sorry excuses for ballot statements that pop up every election is one of them.

I will hight light several glaring examples of how candidates do the unthinkable…feel free to send me your own examples.

In today’s example, my favorite so far this year, Mr. Che Hill, in the FIRST LINE of his ballot statement, proclaims: "My name is Che Hill. I was named after the Cuban Revolutionary Che Guevara." [See the full ballot statement attached below.]

I prefer Guevara’s Bolivian work myself but something tells me the people of Perris where Che was planning on running for city council would not have appreciated the distinction.

Luckily they won’t have to. You see Che did not qualify for the ballot. I am not sure why and I am unclear as to whether he paid for the ballot statement anyway, but I am too embarrassed for him to even ask.

More from the ballot statements of… Read More

I know from recent experiences in the academy that the Left is prone to rewriting history to fit their worldview. I can’t rememberall the times I heard from professors that socialism didn’t fail with the fall of the Soviet Union because socialism was never fully realized (like the tactic children use when they feel they’re about to lose a game: "You didn’t beat me because I quit or I wasn’t trying my hardest!"). Well, Chris Lehane from the California Majority Report (sic) carries on that tendency with his post today titled "Time for a Game Changing Play."

In his seventh paragraph down, before introducing remedies for the Angelides campaign, Lehane casually wrote:

"For Angelides to pull off what has not happened in California since WWII–unseating an incumbent governor–he must do significantly more than continue to engage in a debate on taxes…" (emphasis mine)

But… Read More

Early this morning, at midnight, a group of ultra-liberal California Democrat operatives – Steve Maviglio, Jason Kinney, and Roger Salazar – launched a new blogsite that is supposed to be the left’s answer to… well, this website! They have amassed an impressive array of Donkey operatives (see the attachment) and should be producing quite a bit of content… You can be sure that we (that would be me and the FR blog team) will be keeping an eye on them! This site has been up for nearly a year now, and has been starving for some company. A clear contrast between the failed liberal policies of the Democrat Party and the solid, sound principles of conservatism will show that, by and large, Republicans are right and Democrats are wrong! I have actually had a few chats over some months with the development team of their new site, the California Majority Report (CMR), in terms of giving them some logistical advice. I would have tried to offer some policy advice as… Read More

Early this morning, at midnight, a group of ultra-liberal California Democrat operatives – Steve Maviglio, Jason Kinney, and Roger Salazar – launched a new blogsite that is supposed to be the left’s answer to… well, this website! They have amassed an impressive array of Donkey operatives (see the attachment) and should be producing quite a bit of content… You can be sure that we (that would be me and the FR blog team) will be keeping an eye on them! This site has been up for nearly a year now, and has been starving for some company. A clear contrast between the failed liberal policies of the Democrat Party and the solid, sound principles of conservatism will show that, by and large, Republicans are right and Democrats are wrong! I have actually had a few chats over some months with the development team of their new site, the California Majority Report (CMR), in terms of giving them some logistical advice. I… Read More

Chris Mowrer is State Senator Abel Maldonado’s Chief of Staff, and a Republican. I wonder how he is feeling as we sit here in the back row of the Governor’s Press Conference Room (1190) where the Governor and Democrat leaders are going to announce an increase in the state’s wage mandate on employers.

Waiting for this press conference is like waiting for somone to speak at a funeral. As a believer in the free markey system, a mandated wage hike on employers is like pouring kerosine on a burning building. Legislation that is designed to “help” people in fact is going to put people out of work.

Republican Abel “glutton for punishment” Maldonado is here and is going to be co-authoring this bad legislation, which makes me wonder if he needs to read Hayek’s Road to Surfdom or Bastiat’s The Law.

I also see Republican Bonny Garcia waiting in the wings. She looks pretty uncomfortable – unclear if it is guilt, being around too many Democrats, or the warm tempurature. Presumably she is supporting this bill as well.

There is a pretty yellow and blue sign above the podium with the catchy slogan… Read More

I will be hosting for Fresno based Ray Appleton today from 12:00 – 2:00 pm on Newstalk 580. Topics will include the Governor’s race, Political Misery and more. Tune in.

Also, I had the following letter published in the Wall Street Journal today:

LETTERS The Lamont Wing Is a Threat to Security

Gen. Wesley Clark could not be more mistaken in his argument that "The truth is that Democrats are as patriotic as Republicans, want a strong and secure America, and like every other American, want to trust the president and his team on national security issues" ("A Judgment on Iraq," editorial page, Aug. 10). The result wasn’t a judgment on Iraq. I have seen absolutely no evidence that the left wing of the Democratic Party remotely approaches anything patriotic, or that it wants a secure America, or that it will trust the president on national security issues. The left, seething with hatred, is breathtakingly weak on national security matters and hides behind feckless organizations like the U.N. at every turn. Leftists openly root for our defeat in international affairs and mockingly criticize our… Read More

The California Republican Party Chairman, Duf Sundheim, has his own blog, and here is his official post-convention ‘pep-talk’ to the troops: Shortly after the Recall, I was asked whether the Recall marked a turning point in California politics. I said it was either a turning point or an aberration, depending upon where we went from here. By reelecting Governor Schwarzenegger and winning down ballot races in 2006, we will demonstrate that the Recall election of 2003 was The turning point. That is why… Read More

Vacationing in Newport Beach this week (where else would a Republican stuck living in Ron Dellums-Barbara Lee’s backyard go on vacation?), we had dinner last night with some SoCal friends when one of them asked what we thought of the governor. This friend was no fan of the governator when I was cheering on Schwarzenegger’s candidacy in the recall election. To my "I’m in the anyone-but-Phil-so-I’m-going-to-hold-my-nose-and-vote camp," I got a big (and deserved) "I told you so." I said that while I knew that the governor was no Ronald Reagan, I thought he was more of a Chamber-of-Commerce Republican. And he was–the first two years in office. But this morning’s news on the minimum wage rate increase convinces me that the California Republicans are going to help re-elect Schwarzenegger to office and spend the next four years wondering what we did to ourselves.

I don’t really blame the governor. He is a product of Hollywood and, it seems to me, values making a deal and keeping the press and Maria happy over sticking to GOP values. But since this is his first elected office, we had no idea how… Read More