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Katy Grimes

Election 2014: Democrats Spent Political Capital Without Reinvesting

Democrats lost big in the November 2014 midterm elections. And their money folks lost even bigger. The country’s largest teachers unions spent nearly $60 million of their members’ money on the failed 2014 midterms elections.

What the 2014 results suggest is the significance of electing the first black president no longer applies. And it will not apply again in 2016.

The hysterical racial appeals to cultivate black voters failed. The “War on Women” failed. And that’s all they have. There are no back-benchers for the Democrats right now; they have been spending their capital without reinvesting.

Dems’ AgingRead More

Ron Nehring

25 years ago, Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall

Twenty five years ago today the Berlin Wall came down, and the man most responsible was Ronald Reagan.

Eric Honecker, the dictator of East Germany, predicted that the wall would stand for “100 years.” The inherent contradictions embedded in Soviet-style communism, combined with relentless pressure applied by America’s 40th president, ensured that never happened.

Reagan’s 1980 victory over Jimmy Carter produced a profound change in America’s policies toward the Soviet bloc. Asked by his new National Security Adviser, Richard Allen, about his approach to the Cold War, Reagan replied with this: “We win. They lose.” The vision was simple, and fundamentally different than any of Reagan’s predecessors, all of whom sought instead to reach some form of peaceful accommodation with the Communists

Reagan would have none of it.

Liberal historians have taken to painting… Read More

Barry Jantz

Count update nails down win for Peters in CA 52

Update: 5:00 p.m. Friday:

Scott Peters’ 50.27 percent yesterday increased to 51.25 percent today. Raw votes are now at Peters with 92,410 and DeMaio with 87,919. Peters’ 861 vote lead yesterday increased to a lead of 4,491. Total ballots counted increased from 156,813 to 180,329. Thus, that’s 23,516 additional ballots counted. Peters added 13,573 votes to his total. DeMaio added 9,943 votes to his. That means Peters took over 57.7 percent of the additional ballots counted. It’s estimated that between 10,000 and 18,000 votes remain to be counted in the district.

If it wasn’t clear yesterday, it clearly is now. Congressman Scott Peters wins.

# # #

See also at SD Rostra.Read More

Barry Jantz

Assessing the changing DeMaio-Peters vote count

Update: 6:00 p.m. Thursday:In the time since I posted the column below late this afternoon, the Registrardid indeed update the results:

Carl DeMaio’s lead with 50.26 percent changed to Scott Peters now leading with 50.27 percent. Raw votes are now at Peters with 78,837 and DeMaio with 77,976. DeMaio’s vote margin of 752 votes disappeared, with Peters now leading by 861 votes. That’s a 1,613 vote swing in Peters’ favor. Total ballots counted increased from 144,110 to 156,813. Thus, with 12,703 additional ballots in the mix, Peters added 7,158 votes to his total. DeMaio added 5,545 votes to his. That means Peters took over 56.3 percent of the additional ballots counted.

Those numbers do not in any way reflect good news for the DeMaio campaign. Tomorrow’s update, if the vote trends additionally in Peters’ direction, will mean we have answers to the questions posedRead More

Katy Grimes

FLOTUS: Black Voters Should Be ‘Rewarded With Some Fried Chicken’

On the campaign trail recently, First Lady Michelle Obama and News One Host television Roland Martinsaid if Democrats were successful at getting “souls to the polls,” that they could celebrate with some “soul food.”

“I give everyone full permission to eat some fried chicken after they vote,” Michelle Obama said during an interview with News One Host Roland Martin on TV One, a network that plays largely to black adults.

“Only after, if you haven’t voted… You make a good point. Because I am, I do talk about health. But I think that a good victory for Democrats on Tuesday, you know, should be rewarded with some fried chicken.”

Michelle Obama… Read More

Edward Ring

California’s Emerging Good Government Coalition

The 2014 mid-term elections will be remembered for many things – pioneering use of information technology to comprehensively profile and micro-target voters, escalating use of polarizing rhetoric, historically low levels of voter turnout, and historic records in total spending. In California, in spite of all this money and technology – or perhaps because of it – the political landscape is probably not going to change very much this time around. But appearances can be deceiving. While Democrats will still control California’s state legislature and nearly all of California’s large cities and urban counties, new fault lines are forming within California’s electorate that defy conventional definitions of Republican and Democrat, or conservative and liberal.

Because as it is,California’s schools are failing, businesses and middle-income residents are fleeing, and the cost of living is the highest in America.Three powerful groups benefit from and perpetuate this arrangement with their money and their votes: Wealthy individuals and crony capitalists, unionized public sector workers, and low-income residents who have become entirely dependent on government… Read More

Katy Grimes

Election 2014: ‘Hope’ Finally Makes A Comeback For Reps, Strong Mayor Loses

Wow, what an election night. Hope makes a comeback… but not entirely in California.

As exciting as the nationwide races were, my favorite race was local: Mayor Kevin Johnson’s Strong Mayor initiative, Measure L, went down in defeat, 57-43 percent. Slam Dunk.

Despite the Sacramento media running months of constant free advertising for the measure, Measure L, which would have concentrated power in the Mayor, Chicago-style, and dramatically reduce the other council members’ powers, Sacramento voters voted “no.”

By midnight when I finally gave up and went to bed, the measure appeared to be defeated 57.31 percent to 42.69 percent. Unless more ballots magically appear, the fourth Strong Mayor initiative should be cooked… until Mayor Johnson resurrects it again for a fifth time.

GOP Takes US Senate

But… Read More

Katy Grimes

Statist CA Needs Leaders, Not Legacy-Seekers

Are you better off today than you were two, four or six years ago when progressive Democrats took over and expanded more of government? Of course not: As government grows, liberty decreases.

It was Thomas Jefferson who warned, “The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”

But elections are changing. Voters are changing. America is changing. California has been leading much of that change, and not in a good way. This election is a potential… Read More

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