Yesterday I sat in the back of the Governor’s press conference room in the State Capitol, and listened to the Governor talk about the current status of budget negotiations. He basically said that Democrat and Republican legislators were putting more energy into disagreeing that in trying to negotiate a solution to the current fiscal crisis. He summarily announced that he would be inviting the “Big 5” to meet tomorrow to kick-start negotiations.

I have some strong advice for the Governor, relative to improving his ability to bring Republicans to the table in a meaningful way. First and foremost, the Governor KNOWS how passionate and outraged all of the Republican legislators were over the end-run on Proposition 13 when the Democrats orchestrated passing billions of dollars in new taxes in both houses on a majority vote, making some bizarre case that because of the circuitous route they took to raise the revenues, they had avoided the 2/3rds vote requirement. In fact, the Governor went into yesterday’s press… Read More

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, a leader in California’s conservative movement, continues to charge ahead in his bid for the GOP nomination to challenge ultra-liberal Senator Barbara Boxer’s re-election next year.

The Devore for Senate campaign has rolled out an impressive augmentation to its already weighty list of GOP officials. 26 new endorsements from Republican elected officials include: State Senators Jeff Denham, Bob Dutton, Bob Huff and Mimi Walters and Assemblymembers Anthony Adams, Joel Anderson, Bill Berryhill, Tom Berryhill, Sam Blakeslee, Connie Conway, Paul Cook, Mike Duvall, Bill Emmerson, Jean Fuller, Ted Gaines, Danny Gilmore, Curt Hagman, Kevin Jeffries, Stephen Knight, Jeff Miller, Brian Nestande, Jim Nielsen, Cameron Smyth, Audra Strickland, Van Tran, and Mike Villines, the Assembly Republican Leader.

The campaign had previously announced the endorsements of 16 Republicans, including Congressman Tom McClintock and State Board of… Read More

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner has brought onboard one of the nation’s most successful political strategy and media firms to help guide his campaign. Stuart Stevens and Russ Shriefer (Stevens is pictured below left, Shriefer below right) have amassed a pretty impressive record of taking Republican Gubernatorial candidates successfully through primaries and then into Governor’s mansions across the country. Some of their wins included the election (and re-election) of Governor George Bush in Texas, Florida Governor Charie Crist, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich, and Massachussets Governors Bill Weld and Paul… Read More

Yesterday I sat in the back of the Governor’s press conference room in the State Capitol, and listened to the Governor talk about the current status of budget negotiations. He basically said that Democrat and Republican legislators were putting more energy into disagreeing that in trying to negotiate a solution to the current fiscal crisis. He summarily announced that he would be inviting the “Big 5” to meet tomorrow to kick-start negotiations.

I have some strong advice for the Governor, relative to improving his ability to bring Republicans to the table in a meaningful way. First and foremost, the Governor KNOWS how passionate and outraged all of the Republican legislators were over the end-run on Proposition 13 when the Democrats orchestrated passing billions of dollars in new taxes in both houses on a majority vote, making some bizarre case that because of the circuitous route they took to raise the revenues, they had avoided the 2/3rds vote requirement. In fact, the Governor went into yesterday’s press… Read More

As the elected Republican National Committeeman from California, I plan on sharing information over the next few weeks on the race for the Chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Who wins the RNC chairmanship will help propel Republicans or get us sidetracked intoa ditch.

The RNC Chair is only the official face and public opposition to the Democrat Hegemony.

Every time Obama, Reid and Pelosi speak, only the RNC chair was be the Republican voice. Not our guysin the House or Senate. The January 28 election for the new RNC chair is the most important vote for all 168 (3 per state plus 6 territories) RNC members. The vote will take place one week after the Obama Inaugural in Washington DC… and it’s getting mighty hot for all 168 members.

There aresix candidates. The guy who was in charge of the lastthrashingis running for re-election. He is the Bush holdover, having been hand-selected for the job by the President.Chances are you… Read More

Yesterday’s commentary by Dan Schnur regarding the budget situation seemed to suggest that a tax increase as a solution to the current budget crisis isa foregone conclusion. I guess my question is this: why?

The present budget disaster, which isn’t fixable anyway, is as a result of five years Republican compromise with clueless, and very liberal, Democrats. Why, after a 100% increase in spending, we should go back to hard working small business and other taxpayers with a tax increase is beyond my comprehension. Any tax increase will send this economy, already headed over a cliff, into the depths of depression. Even Obama delayed a tax increase – admitting in the process that there is an inverse relationship between taxes and the strenght of the economy.

Let me lay it on the table, for all to see: taxes are our last issue. We’ve thrown away ever other issue wehave. We’ve caved, compromised and been railroaded by absolute morons on the left and look where the GOP is at as a result.

I don’t know whether my friend, Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines, is going to take this budget fight but I can assure… Read More

Now that the rescue/bail out of the big 3 automakers has been completed by President Bush, the Fed and the Treasury Department (with the support of President-Elect Obama), I would like to give you all some of my views on what has been said and is still being said, about this industry, it’s problems and it’s prospects. Because of my 25 years experience in this industry, I know a few things that many of those talking heads on TV don’t. It drives me crazy when someone pontificates with such surety about what went wrong and what is needed to go right, while their only experience with the car business is that they bought a car once. Please find my observations and comments below.

First, the Myths:

Myth #1: Domestic automakers are in trouble because they build poor quality cars – They used to. But so did the Japanese manufacturers in the 60s. But now quality in the car business is a price of admission and there is near quality parity among all manufacturers selling cars in the US market. While JD Power always ranks a first place and a last place, the difference between that first and last is much less than it used to be and in… Read More

I have known George Plescia and Bonnie Garcia (pictured below to the right, with the Governor) for many years. Both are great people and both are very capable. Both of them, during their six years in the State Assembly, were quite articulate about the need to cut state spending (rather prescient given our current woes, don’t you think?). I recall Plescia (pictured below, left), when he was Assembly Republican Leader, calling for the Governor to "dust off" the recommendations of the California Performance Review and to start implementing them.

Earlier this week I read on the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert blog that George and Bonnie had taken appointments from the Governor to serve as members of the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. This is one of those low-profile commissions where the appointees (hand picked by the Governor, Speaker and Senate… Read More