Jon Fleischman, FR’s publisher, has asked me to do a recap of some of the goings on at the CRA convention. The first thing one notices about the CRA Convention in Bakersfield was how successful it was. We had a great turnout out all three days. The Salute to Don Rogers, the McClintock Lunch and the Tom Tancredo Dinner all required more tables to be put up. The Bakersfield Republican Assembly did a great job. The funniest thing to me was the a news report in the Bakersfield area talking about the convention, then shifted to Kern County/ Bill Thomas political consultant Cathy Abernathy talking about how the CRA was irrelevant. I had to laugh. Every local official from State Senator Ashburn, Assemblyman Bill Maize, The Sheriff, the Mayor, Several City council members, Former Assemblyman Wyman and Harvey all came by. As did…drum roll please..Assembly GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. Not too bad … Read More

This just in courtesy of FR friend Chris Reed who is on the editorial team down at the San Diego Union-Tribune — Reed spoke today with the esteemed Nathan Barankin (another friend), Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s spokesman, who confirmed that the Attorney General has punted the investigation into Rob Reiner (you know, where he used his official state commission post to launch a multi-million dollar spending spree on pro-preschool ads at the same time that he was collecting signatures for a universal preschool ballot measure).

Where did he punt it to? That’s the GOOD NEWS. He has referred the case over to his colleague,… Read More

We’ve been following attempts by federal lobbyist, and former Member of Congress Brian Bilbray (pictured) to characterize himself as something other than a lobbyist in his ballot title. Bilbray, who has taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in feels over the last six plus years lobbying for many interest filed a ballot title of Immigration Reform Advocate because one of his client (about 1/3 of his business) is a federal immigration reform group. The Secretary of State balked at this, and settled on Immigration Reform Consultant.

The matter has been taken to court by a voter in the district who believes that this settled-upon language still hides Bilbray’s profession as a lobbyist… Read More

The leaders and delegates of the state’s most influential conservative Republican volunteer organization, the California Republican Assembly, met in Bakersfield over the weekend. Bakersfield, of course, is in the center of Bill Thomas’ Congressional District.

In light of the news late last week that the Congressman was going to hold a press conference this morning to announce plans for his future (which have turned out to be welcome news of his retirement), the delegates to the CRA’s annual convention passed a resolution concerning Bill Thomas which is attached for your perusal.

** An an important note – disdain and dislike for Bill Thomas is widespread. It is notable that this particular resolution was authored by Brandon Powers, who in… Read More

I have tried for several weeks to obtain a comment from the Governor’s office regarding his appointment of Teresa Snodgrass to the San Bernardino County Superior Court.

After initially being promised a comment that was never given, my subsequent attempts have been met with the sounds of silence.

But since the Governor will be meeting with members of The New Majority and the Lincoln Club in Orange County this week, I was hoping one of them might take the opportunity to raise the topic with Gov. Schwarzenegger.

For those who don’t remember Teresa Snodgrass (who was sworn in February 23 and has decided to use her married name of Bennett now that she’s a judge), she is a Democrat. who has pledged to bring "compassion" to the bench.

Where did she acquire this compassion she will now aplly from the judiciary? As a San Bernardino County public defender. Before donning the black robes, Snodgrass most recently defended convicted child rapist/killer Dean… Read More

Oakland had its 24th homicide yesterday–triple the number of murders at this time last year. The big question is: what is Mayor Jerry Brown going to do about it? These are not the headlines or stats you want when you’re running for attorney general. It’s time for Jerry to stop campaigning for AG and to start getting a handle on the city’s violent crime problem.… Read More

At San Francisco’s big gala Oscar Party/AIDS fundraiser last night, the crowd was horrified when “Crash” beat out “Brokeback Mountain” for Best Picture last night (here’s the full story in the San Francisco Chronicle). I’m sorry, but I am so glad that the Oscars are over, just so we can be done with the whole “Brokeback” hoopla.

If you listen to the folks at the SF party last night, “Brokeback Mountain” all at once “brought Americans together over issues of homophobia” and yet when it didn’t win, it was “an… Read More

My first encounter with the "Thomas Machine" was in 1995 as the newly elected Vice Chair Central of the State Party. I travelled to Kern County to meet with Mark Abernathy, who I had never met previously, and Kevin McCarthy, then a young staffer whom I HAD met previously and liked. My mission: get the Thomas endorsement for my Vice Chair campaign.

After exchanging pleasantries and such, the first question from Abernathy was: "are you supporting Phil Wyman for Senate?" At the time, Wyman was running against Democrat Jim Costa. Of course I was supporting him. But, when I said yes, that was pretty much it. Meeting over. That kind of vindictive politics has been experienced hundreds of times over and over again in Kern.

I would win the race with the endorsement of every elected official in Central California except Bill Thomas. And I found out what kind of organization he did indeed run. And over the years, I took them on often.

There is a chance for peace now in the County, which was our own little "Middle East" in the Central Valley, with non stop factional… Read More