Last night, I enjoyed watching a forum, put on by ABC television, on the ballot propostions that will appear on tomorrow’s ballot. The participants in the forum were Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi (D), Controller Steve Westly (D), Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D), LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo (D), State Senator Tom McClintock (R), State Assemblyman Keith Richman ("R), and State Finance Director (on leave) Tom Campbell (R). Four Democrats and three Republicans (if you include Richman, who is iffy).

Hats off to ABC for putting on the program. Their moderators, Pete Wilson (no relation) and Marc Brown did a fine job. As someone who is actually pretty familiar with the measures (nothing like going out and speaking on these measures as an incentive to really understand them), I was more looking for interesting dynamics from the panelists. Boy did I get what I was NOT looking for, towards the end of the show.

STARK CONTRAST: CAMPBELL vs. MCCLINTOCK Moderator Pete Wilson, when talking about Proposition 73, the Parental Notification… Read More

Christopher Walken’s egotistical record producer role in the SNL spoof of the recording of Blue Oyster Cult’s hit Don’t Fear the Reaper makes me laugh to this day. Walken’s admonishment to the band that he wanted “More cowbell….I want MORE cowbell!!) struck the funny bone of those of us whohad grown up listening tothat song and it’s incessant cowbell banging in time.

Walken’s character was funny because we all had heard what the real song sounded like because it had matured in our mind. So the more Walken told Will Farrell he wanted “More Cowbell!”, the more we laughed…it’s a pretty close analogy of a theory Arthur Finkelstein once told me – the Set Stage Theory and how the outcomes of elections may be set regardless of our efforts calling for the Cowbell to be louder. Here’s my nexus to the election tomorrow. Although we may win passage of the reform propositions, we must prepare ourselves for… Read More

The good news for the Governor is that Southwest Riverside will deliver big for him come Tuesday. As more and more former Orange County and San Diego types come to South Riverside County to get more house (and less beach) for their money (full discloser – my wife and I moved here two years ago from Laguna Niguel) the more Republican this area becomes. The Riverside County Party is growing and being lead by the more the able Kevin Jeffries – pictured to the left (additional full discloser Jeffries is running for Assembly and a client of my wife’s, who is doing fundraising for him). The Party has a great volunteer army that was out delivering door knob hangers this weekend. As the farm land here quickly turns into homes with large backyards and we keep seeing the GOP numbers grow. Will it be enough to help push the Governor’s Reforms over the top Tuesday?? I guess we will have to stay… Read More

Santa Ana Councilman Jose Solorio recently announced his intension to run for the 69th Assembly District at the Laborers’ Union Hall. His campaign says they raised $50,000 that night. His council campaign was able to transfer another $50,000 into the Assembly account putting Solorio over the 100k make.

Solorio sent out a release today including the statement that "…the people will win and Schwarzenegger will lose!" in Tuesday’s election. If you hadn’t known or guessed, the 69th is a solidly Dem seat (for now) held by Tom Umberg.

Solorio, a well liked elected official, serves as his city’s representative on the Orange County Water District and works full-time for the Orange County Transportation Authority. Solorio’s Latino background is a plus in the district, but doesn’t guarantee anything (white-bread Umberg beat Claudia… Read More

If you are in Orange County Tuesday night and want to party down with fellow Republicans, come to the Republican Party of Orange County Election Night Party at the OC GOP HQ.

The party is for Republican volunteers and activists and donors–people who actually did something this election cycle. Hopefully, actually walked a precinct or at least wrote a check to the party or one of the initiatives. There is no litmus test, but if you just show up to events like this and never do any of the heavy lifting (and you know who you are) it shows.

WHAT: OC GOP Election Night Party

WHEN: Tuesday, November 8 8pm – Midnight

WHERE: Republican Party HQ 1800 W Katalla Avenune – Suite 210 … Read More

I will be working election night on Newstalk 580, KMJ from 8:00 pm until we find out the definitive results for all the major ballot initiative. Former Democrat Congressman Rick Lehman will be opposite me on this highly rated, Fresno based program. Newstalk 580 reaches from Red Bluff to the North out to Bakersfield and Santa Maria on the Central Coast. Although I hope the contrary is true, Tuesday could be a long night for the conservative team in California, and could also be the start of some important new strategies to consider against the evil empire in California, namely the public employee unions and their wholly owned subsidiary, California Democrats, Inc. Stay tuned.… Read More

This morning in my Commentary, you can take a few minutes to read how my opportunity to see Annette Benning and Warren Beatty yesterday, and reading an article about Alan Alda (well, his West Wing character), took me on an fun trip through Hollywood, and some amazingly liberal entertainment types and their donation histories and more…

See this Commentary here. Also, remember that EVERY DAY, I post a Commentary on this site, that is separate from this blog. It is easily accessable from the main page.… Read More

Bening, Alda, Beatty, Dreyfuss, Douglas, Sheen, Sorkin and Meathead…in Fantasyland Yesterday afternoon, I had the fortune to see Annette Bening. I was leaving the Governor’s Anaheim Hills rally (read about that here and here) and holding court outside was the CTA bus, captained by Union-Thug-In-Chief Barbara Kerr. Aboard the "S.S. Dues Extraction" (my name for their bus) was also the Hollywood dynamic duo, Annette Bening and her ersatz-politican husband, Warren Beatty.

It was only later that I connected some very odd dots (this post demonstrates the strange way that my mind works). I recalled when… Read More