While I often (or at least sometimes) agree with Fleischman’s posts, I’m going to have to take issue with the last one on former Congressman Brian Bilbray. Sometimes the Orange Curtain is pretty thick. First: disclosure on the table. I work for Bilbray. He was also MY Congressman for years when I lived in the City of San Diego. These comments are from my second role, rather than my first.

Congressman Bilbray was a consistent voice – often a voice in the wilderness – against illegal immigration throughout the 1990’s. Note that Bilbray represented a Democrat seat when he was defeated in the 2000 bloodbath. His ongoing crusade was not always an easy one.

After the 2000 elections Bilbray did not stop talking about illegal immigration. On the contrary, if any thing he upped the ante. He not only became a consultant and legislative advocate for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), he served on their Board of Advisors and helped them craft their national policy agenda. There is a reason the National Border Patrol Council (10,000 Border agents) choose to endorse Bilbray in the 50th district – his credentials… Read More

I’ve wriiten about how Los Angeles Mayor AntonioVillaraigosawants to take over the world– at least LA and it’s surrounding areas. He failed at the MWD. See post hereHe is making the grade at LAUSD. In a special election to fill a vacancy his candidate Monica Garcia received 47% of the vote and will face UTLA backed Christopher Arellano in a run-off. Arellano received only 19% of the vote as his condecade old shoplifting charges and his that his graduate degree from USC wasn’t really awarded. (I guess the check bounced.) Garcia is open to the Emperor taking over LAUSD.

Can the unions rally enough to stop Garcia? Does it matter?… Read More

In an amazing confession of weakness Orange County Democrat Party Chairman Frank Barbaro and Democratic Foundation of OC chairman Wylie Aitken sent a letter to Supervisor Lou Correa back in January, urging him to stay in his current job rather than run for the 34th Senate District.

The letter that just surfaced, says, "As you know voter registration [meaning Democrat voter registration] has severely declined during the last few years and the Republican Party of Orange County and Senate Republican Minority Leader plan to mount a very aggressive race against us this fall. Now more than ever, we need to stand together to unite behind Tom Umberg and work hard to elect him to the 34th State Senate seat. (To see the full letter, click on the link below.)

Certain Republican leaders over the years have been accused of strong arming candidates or being less than supportive of nominees but I have never seen a letter like this come out on official GOP letterhead.

From supervisor Correa’s perspective, this must have been an unwelcome letter, but also one that was… Read More

When I heard about the Judge’s ruling today about whether lobbyist and former Congressman Brian Bilbray can list himself as an Immigration Reform Consultant as his ballot title in his bid to succeed the disgraced criminal Duke Cunningham in the House of Representatives, I was reminded of an old skit from the hay days of Saturday Night Live. The skit was a faux commercial for a product called Shimmer. In the commercial Chevy Chase and Jane Curtain argue about whether or not a new aerosol product was a floor a floor wax or a desert topping. Dan Ackward, the huckster selling the product, was quick to point out that Shimmer was actually both – a floor wax and a desert topping. Apparently, according… Read More

Just a few minutes ago, I got off of the phone with a very excited Assembly George Plescia. Although perhaps I should now use his more "formal" title – Assembly Republican Leader Elect! That’s right, today, at a lunchtime meeting of Assembly Republicans, Plescia was unanimously elected to succeed current Leader Kevin McCarthy, who yesterday announced that he was stepping away from his leadership post to focus on his efforts to run for Congress. McCarthy hopes to fill the seat currently occupied by his old boss, Representative Bill Thomas, who after 14 terms in Congress has decided to retire. Let me say this – I’ve known Assemblyman Plescia for many, many years now — and couldn’t be more excited and thrilled that he has been elected by his colleagues to this post. Plescia shared with me that he looks forward to spending a lot of time with McCarthy over the next month,… Read More

I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to have lunch with Rich Wagner, the President of the Orange County Lincoln Club. Instead of a smoke-filled back room, we enjoyed our meal on the smoke-filled patio of Zov’s Bistro in Tustin, as ashes from the nearby wildfires on the east end of the country rained down upon us.

The uptick of the meeting was that Rich was very excited and enthusiastic about the coming elections, and shared with me that the Lincoln Club, by all objective standards (number of members, level of involvement, etc.) was doing better than it has in years. This is a good thing because the Lincoln Club for decades has played a key role in making sure that it is Republicans that govern Orange County, and that we elect a delegation of solid GOPers to represent "The OC" in Washington, D.C. and in Sacramento.

Rich was in the final stages of negotiating an appearance by Governor Schwarzenegger at an event for the Lincoln Club. I was… Read More

DO THE RIGHT THING All eyes are on the State Capitol this week as discussions and negotiations take place about placing a major general obligation bond measure on the June ballot, dealing with infrastucture investment. In our featured column today, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal nails it when he says, " For the sake of all Californians, we hope this distraction [McCarthy’s run for Congress] will not divert the members from their first priority: ensuring that the infrastructure package is linked inextricably to meaningful reforms. As we have said many times on this page, infrastructure investment is an important responsibility of state government (though some of the things that state Democrats want to roll into an ‘infrastructure’ plan are hardly ‘brick and morter’ issues, but rather more attempts to socially engineer the lives of… Read More

DO THE RIGHT THING All eyes are on the State Capitol this week as discussions and negotiations take place about placing a major general obligation bond measure on the June ballot, dealing with infrastucture investment. In our featured column today, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal nails it when he says, " For the sake of all Californians, we hope this distraction [McCarthy’s run for Congress] will not divert the members from their first priority: ensuring that the infrastructure package is linked inextricably to meaningful reforms. As we have said many times on this page, infrastructure investment is an important responsibility of state government (though some of the things that state Democrats want to roll into an ‘infrastructure’ plan are hardly ‘brick and morter’ issues, but rather more attempts to socially engineer the lives of… Read More