Much more will be wrtten here about businessman Bill Mundell (pictured with Prop. 77 initiator Ted Costa) as he gears up a campaign to challenge Dianne Feinstein in her bid for re-election. Mundell, who hails out of the Westside of Los Angeles, is a successful businessman, son of a nobel-prize winner in economics, self-styled libertarian Republican who has played a key role in Proposition 77, the Redistricting Reform measure. You can read Mundell’s bio here.

It is actually safe to say that without Mundell’s early financial support, it is dubious whether 77 would be on the ballot AT ALL right now – in a state as large as California, you must have a paid effort to gather the requisate signatures. In late 1997, I worked for Ron Unz on the successful Prop. 227 campaign (to end bilingual education) – a popular issue – and still it took a substantial paid effort augmenting a volunteer effort to get onto the ballot).… Read More

In recent weeks, the conservative Republican Study Committee, the conservative caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, has ratcheted up the pressure on GOP leadership to deal with the growing budget deficit in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Iraq. When RSC leaders held a press conference announcing "Operation Offset" House GOP leadership aides lurked about the conference belittling RSC to the assembled media and Houseleaders subsequently criticized RSC members for "undermining the unity of the GOP conference," being "unrealistic about the Senate’s willingnessto go along," and creating negative publicity for House Republicans."

In the weeks following the launch of Operation Offset, the House leadership incrementally embraced the proposals of the RSC. First, they committed to find additional savings from a process called "reconciliation," which forces committee chairman to find a specified amount of savings within their committees. The following week, they embraced a 2% across the board spending cut and what do you know, they started to get positive responses from the RSC, the… Read More

Wille Brownleft the State Assembly to become Mayor of San Francisco.

What happened there?Brown was a deal maker ,attacked from the hard left, that tried to make big business and developers happy.

NowLA has a Willie Brown style Mayor in Antonio Villaraigosa. He just completed a deal that makes developers of a hotel at Stapels center and the owner of Bonaventure Hotelvery happy. Read it here.

This comes on the heels of a transportation plan for the 405 that utilizes non-union engineers. And his efforts to alleviate rush hour traffic.

He is acting more like Willie Brown every day.… Read More

There is a lot to love about the Bay Area: the variety of outdoor activities, major league baseball, great food and the drop-dead gorgeous view from the Oakland hills on a sunny October afternoon. But the overwhelming liberalness of the area drives me nuts.

Take the Grand Lake Theater for example. In 2000, Allen Michaan, the owner of this old, beautiful theater, began using his marquee to advertise his political viewpoint. He’s not just promoting liberal causes on his marquee. He is one of these angry liberals who are so full of hate for President Bush that they can’t see straight. He’s never gotten over losing the 2000 election. In 2004, he announced that he wouldn’t enforce the "R" rating for Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit… Read More

For many years, the League of Women Voters sponsored debates for statewide office in California. The fact that those debates are now sponsored by other organizations is a direct result of the widespread belief among Republicans that the League long ago forfeited its claim to non-partisan status because of the increasingly one-sided partisan activity of its members. To their credit, some of the League’s leaders have begun the process of trying to move their organization back. But they’ve got a big job ahead of them.

Last year, I gave a speech to the League on the question of money in politics. Although I was identified as a Republican, I made it clear at the outset that I had not come to the group with a partisan agenda. I talked about fundraising, campaign spending and about the declining interest in politics and government among young voters. On my way out, one of the members stopped me to thank me for my speech. “I was very upset when I heard a Republican had been invited to speak and I was going to boycott the lunch. But you’re not like the rest of them.”

The woman probably thought she was giving me a compliment.… Read More

Prop. 77 Politics – Ohio and Common Cause There is a ton of stuff in the news today – expect this to only escalate until we get to the Special Election. The most interesting articles surround the Redistricting Measure, Proposition 77. I’m sure FR Beltway Correspondent Jason Roe sighed heavily when he saw today’s Featured Story — that Governor Schwarzenegger has come out in support of a similar redistricting measure in Ohio. Why Ohio? There the tables are turned and it is the GOP that wrote themselves an ‘incumbent protection plan’ – the Governor is trying to make a point – that redistricting should be taken out of the hands of the politicans – everywhere.

Yesterday in San Jose, the Governor paraded out the "yesterday’s news" politicans – former San Francisco Mayor Jordan and… Read More

Poochigian will need to prove his mettle…twice…

Up until this point, Republicans have been able to sit back and enjoy the beginning volleys in the battle between former Governor-turned-Oakland-Mayor-wanna-be- Attorney-General Jerry Brown and up-and-coming-Demo-Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, as they duke it out to become the Democrat nominee for State Attorney General.

Well respected State Senator Chuck Poochigian from Fresno has been enjoying a clear field, raising over $2 million dollars in a show of strength as a candidate. He has been traveling up and down the state, working hard to court grassroots activists and donors alike.

Today in an interview on KPCC radio, Pierre Prosper, who has been serving since 2001 as a war-crimes prosecutor in… Read More

I won’t pretend to have as much background as Mr. Roe on the national ramifications of California’s redistricting initiative. I have found him to be a reliable indicator of national impacts and trends. I’m actually more concerned, though, with the potential ramifications of the redistricting initiative right here in California.

One unpleasant scenario is the passage of redistricting and the failure of paycheck protection. In that case, the number of real legislative targets increases from, say for example, between 3 and 6 to between 10 and 15. GOP resources would probably stay about the same or increase a bit – enough for Republican Leadership to fully fund give or take half a dozen legislative targets. However, Democrat/Union resources, already grossly superior, could always be increased with additional member assessments which would allow them to compete with superior cash in all of the expanded target seats. The result of this uneven fight might well be to eliminate the Republican Assembly delegation’s “veto” power of budgets and other 2/3 votes.

My argument is not that we should not try to pass the redistricting… Read More