A new poll released from my friends over at Wilson Research Strategies have both Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman up.

The survey, taken last week on the 13th and 14th of 800 Likely Voters, shows Carly over Boxer 46%-43%, and Whitman up over Brown 45%-44%.

As public polls get tossed around almost daily now, it is worth noting than an independent analysis earlier this year showed Wilson Research as the second most accurate polling firm in the country, and just a hair out of the top spot. So, as publicly available numbers go – these might be pretty good ones to pay attention to.… Read More

Thought I was done? Nahhh, just thought I’d give you the last 10 days to implement my previous advice. Your campaign should be humming along by now.

So, are you disappointed by the small turnout for your precinct walk over the weekend? I thought so. You know, it probably doesn’t help to be calling volunteers on Thursday and Friday to ask them to come out on Saturday. Poor advance planning on the part of the campaign doesn’t make your crisis a crisis for anyone else, especially when they’ve already made plans.

You (or, hopefully, your campaign staff) should be calling volunteers as much as two to three weeks in advance, then following up with them as it gets closer.The pitch should be about options, not an opportunity to say yes or no: "We’re walking this Saturday at 10 am and 2 pm, and next Saturday at both those times. Which is best for you?"

Two weekends left. Better start calling.

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All of Barry’s enlightening advice…and other posts.… Read More

The ongoing legal saga regarding California Young Republicans has taken a significant legal turn. YR dissidents led by Andy Stanley and affiliated with Congressman Kevin McCarthy, lost in court yesterday. Jenniffer Rodriguez was elected President and Rohit Joy was elected as Secretary of the California Young Republicans at the February, 2010 California Young Republican Convention. Mr. Stanley’s group did not accept this result and appealed it first to the parent organization, the Young Republicans National Federation (YRNF). The YRNF rejected their election challenge. The dissidents then filed a second challenge, this time before the California Republican Party volunteer organization’s committee. The dissidents lost this hearing as well. The YR dissidents filed an arbitration action against Rodriguez and Joy, burdening both of them with potentially ruinous legal fees and arbitration costs.

The arbitration was scheduled to commence on Monday, October 18, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. The arbitrator already indicated that he was going to require the losing party to pay the arbitrator’s fees, which added up to… Read More

Every cycle there is a race or twothat confounds the “experts”. Last week in Sacramento I was telling people to watch the South Bay part of Los Angeles for such a race. In particular I would tell anyone that would listen to look at the 53rd Assembly District.

The 53rd assembly District is made of many of the Beach Cities including El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, and Torrance. The seat is an open seat with term limits forcing out Assemblyman Ted Lieu.

The Democratic nominee after a bruising primary is trial attorney association fundraiser Betsy Butler. The GOP nominee is radar systems engineer and South Bay Tea Partyleader Nathan Mintz. Mintz has raised over a hundred grand and secured endorsements of former Mayor Richard Riordan, Supervisor Don Knabe and the Mayors of several cities in the District. He has a good ground operation well.

With all that comes some polling from Stephen Kinney and Public Opinion Strategies.

The survey was conducted of 300 likely voters in the 53rd Assembly District from October 16th through October 17th, 2010. The margin of error of this survey… Read More

Last night I had the opportunity to appear on KCAL9 news in Los Angeles for what was about an eight-minute segment of myself and Democrat activist Kerman Maddox in a debate over a myriad of California political issues. Our appearance was moderated by KCAL’s longtime political reporter Dave Bryan…

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This just in — below is a video of a signing ceremony that just took place locally in the 1st Senate District where conservative Assemblyman Ted Gaines signed the Americans for Tax Reform No New Taxes Pledge. On hand to speak at the press conference, and to sign the pledge as witnesses, were David Wolfe from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Lew Uhler, head of the National Tax Limitation Committee. We just checked in with Americans for Tax Reform, and Gaines is the only candidate running who has signed the pledge. Roger Niello rather infamously would not signed the pledge as an Assemblyman and perhaps no so coincidentally ended up being the deciding vote in support of the largest tax increase in the history of any American state. Former Assemblywoman Barbara Alby did sign the pledge in her campaigns for the Assembly, and we presume she will do the same in her Senate run, though she has not done so yet. (according to the ATR website, which is kept up to date).

Here is the video:

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This election cycle voters will be treated to a lot of pieces of political mail — but it is safe to assume that the most memorable mailing this cycle will be a piece by Axiom Strategies on behalf of Van Tran for Congress, printed by the Monaco Group.

Entitled "Scent of Washington" the mail piece (see below) actually has a "scratch and sniff" feature that, when scratched, smells like terrible, putrid trash. The substance is so noxious that Vince Monaco (yes, the guy who gave me the nickname "Flash") said some of his employees got physically ill applying it to the mailer. No doubt it took some convincing to get the post office to even deliver it. "If you look at Sanchez’s record of greed, corruption and failure there is no doubt she stinks as a politican," said FR friend Ryan Clumpner of Axiom. "This mail piece will help emphasize to voters exactly how bad the stinks…".

It must’ve been the music.

Conservatives from across California crowded into a ballroom in Anaheim Saturday afternoon, entertained by a rousing rock band, a stirring patriotic anthem in the middle of the program, and even an original song from Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, but the sweetest sound for the gathered faithful was hearing Sarah Palin predict “soon, we’ll all be dancing.”

The former vice presidential candidate was greeted with a cheer that was heard as far away as Nancy Pelosi’s house and she responded with another stemwinder of a speech in front of more than 2,000 supporters at a Republican National Committee rally at the Anaheim Marriott, one of two “Sprint to the Finish” events scheduled with Ms. Palin in the final weeks of the 2010 midterm campaign.

As if she weren’t already beloved by the thousands present, Ms. Palin opened her speech by referring to a familiar image on California’s state flag. “There’s no way… Read More