Okay, Schnur, Steinberg, Khachigian, Hewitt. Listen up. I’ve read all of your analysis. I respect your opinions, your knowledge, and your insight.

How do we get 500,000 voters in California to change their mind by next November? Arnold doesn’t get re-elected unless this happens. The same “highly regarded” teachers, firefighters, police officers, and nurses will all be carpet bombing the Governor next year. Does LA County and the cluster of Bay Counties suddenly retreat and vote for the Governor? And if so, exactly why? You say that the boyish Westly and stiff Angelides will be putty in Arnolds hand? Really. We elected a stiff in 1998 named Davis. And do we have the poltical creative talent to pull this off? If so, can you all give me a recent example of a big win that didn’t involve beating the worst Governor in California history with a charismatic celebrity? Let’s try to keep the example within, lets say, the past 15 years.

Do I resign us to defeat? No. But the suggestions and advice I’ve been reading all week don’t add up to 500,000 votes changing their minds, and I don’t have the answer. I… Read More

I guess I don’t make Mike D’s cut as an expert, and that’s just fine for me. I’ve worked together with Mike on of some of the valley races I’ve worked on, and I certainly respect his opinion and his take on things. And I certainly do not question his commitment to the cause.

Unfortunately, I think his admonishment to the so called experts (Schnur and I shared many of the political godfathers growing up in DC before we came out West…and I’m sure his Midwestern values don’t allow him to consider himself an expert) is a bit to emotionally driven.

In fact, I would argue that rather than digging deeper, we need to simply look at the surface to find a way to get those 500,000 voters he speaks of. Unanswered charges had their intended consequence: A Demonized Governor. Poorly chosen initiatives resulted in uniting the bad guys and uninspiring our base. And lastly, Republican’s in general are demoralized.

We need to… Read More

Greetings once again from the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii. I am here for a week of R&R with my mom and dad, and enjoying every minute of it. Today by the pool, I ran into some folks from San Francisco, who had been here almost a week. I asked them if they had voted in the special election. Their response was a very cynical, "We didn’t think our vote would matter." We all agreed that it was a good thing for all of those darned political tv commericals to be off of the air…

Tonight we had drinks at the beautiful Mauna Kea Hotel before enjoying a nice dinner. Here is a photo of the three of us! "FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE, SOCIALLY MODERATE" IS A MYTH I keep hearing over and over again from folks that the GOP, especially in California, can only win if we present a fiscally conservative, but socially moderate face to the… Read More

Dana Point Councilwoman Diane Harkey lead the effort for her city to endorse the Cal Board Patrol Initiative. On a 5-0 vote last night it passed.

Harkey a co-chair of the initiative, is also a top contender for the 35th Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. John Campbell just after his Dec. 6 Special Election win for Congress.

The number one issue among GOP voters in the 35th is illegal immigration–Harkey has a pretty good head start on capturing the credibility on that important issue.

Assemblyman Tom Harman, also in the race for the 35th has endorsed the initiative.… Read More

This from the Riverside Press Enterprise . Is this is what happens when the unions take control of the election process ?

This just in this afternoon….resigned Councilman Michael Zucchet acquitted by Judge of "stripper-gate" charges….retrial ordered on two counts only. Read it here.

Interestingly enough, if Zucchet is found not guilty in a new trial, he never needed to resign from the council in the first place. As trial sentencing was pending, the resignation was by his choice.

As noted this morning in SD Winners & Losers, Republican Kevin Faulconer led the field on Tuesday in the primary to fill Democrat Zucchet’s vacancy. Irony of ironies, Zucchet beat out Faulconer in the run-off when originally winning the seat.

Now it’s Faulconer’s for the taking, pending a huge battle in the January run-off election. If you wait by the river long enough, the body of your enemy will float by.… Read More

O.K., time to stick a fork in this one. Tuesday’s results in San Bernardino County were a mixed grill of (mostly) road-kill. The GOP performed on par with other counties in terms of support for the propositions compared with Republican registration. The County supported Prop. 73 (58%) and Prop. 75 (50.37%). The rest of the initiatives were defeated. Low turnout didn’t work in the GOP’s favor this time around, with a 36% total turnout and an unusually low 9.97% absentee voter turnout. In local races, with the notable exception of the City of San Bernardino (where Republican Chas Kelley missed getting into the runoff), a majority of the Party’s local endorsed candidates won.

Perspective? Well, you know how sometimes you see a carcass on the highway that’s been so thoroughly flattened you can’t even tell what it was when it walked the earth? If it’s deader than dead, what’s the point of asking what killed it? In a way, that’s how I feel about putting this election into perspective. But I’ll give it a try. We all know that if the people of California… Read More

Commentary from Paradise: Day 2 on the Big Island (note photo!)

One of my favorite columnists to read is former Reagan speechwriter, Peggy Noonan. She has a regularly featured column in the Wall Street Journal each Thursday (which you can always access under the ‘Columns’ menu at the top of the FlashReport).

In her column, entitled "To Boldly Go…A peppery peep at the postelection players," Noonan references California’s elections (as part of a very lengthy column):