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

UPDATE: The 2nd of these pieceshitour rural Nor-Cal mailbox this morning. Still has same positions that the Republican Party opposes, including multiple Prop 20 and 27 placements again. see below… Oct. 13. CA Voter Guide in today’s mailbox, has a "Voting Guide For Republicans" that lists several NON-Republican recommendations to watch out for. Top of the list is State Treasurer which lists BILL LOCKYER for treasurer over our own Senator Mimi Walters…how is this a guide for Republicans?

On the Propositions, it recommends the Democrat backed gerrymandering return that Prop 27 advocates, [basically repealing Prop 11], and seeks a NO on 20 which adds the Congressional seats to Prop 11’s redistricting responsibities. [The panel to do the work of Prop 11 is in the process of being seated right now. Prop 27 seeks to toss out the voters will before it’s even tried once]

CA Voter Guide asks Republicans to vote for a park tax on DMV fees via Prop 21, which is also against the state CA Republican Party… Read More

Yesterday and today is the annual Western Conservative Political Action Conference in Newport Beach, California. Hundreds of people have gathered from the western states to hear from panelists on a myriad of great topics. Last night the main speakers were Congressman Tom McClintock and reknown pollster Scott Rasmussen. As I write this blog post, Bruce Herschensohn is addressing the Western CPAC luncheon. Since I want to get back to hearing his remarks, I’ll end this short blog post with some video — a short interview I conducted with McClintock last evening…

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From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail… … Read More