There is no doubt that much of the success of Governor Schwarzenegger’s re-election triumph last November can be laid at the feet of Steve Schmidt and Katie Levinson. Schmidt was famously tapped by the Governor to come out from D.C. to take the reigns as Manager of his campaign. Steve came from the reknowned Bush communications team, bringing with him, among others, Katie Levinson (Katie was actually named Arnold’s “MVP” by this website for her role in the re-elect).

With the Governor’s campaign all done – a triumph for Schmidt, Levinson and many others – those responsible for shepparding the GOP Governor to a landslide victory in a year that was terrible for Republicans nationally – are in high demand.

It was not unexpected when, a few weeks ago, it was announced that Schmidt had signed on as a Senior Advisor to the Presidential campaign of Arizona Senator John McCain. A number of significant Bush players have jumped onboard with the maverick Senator’s effort, including as campaign manager, Terry Nelson. Schmidt and Nelson are friends. Billionairre Irvine Company owner Donald Bren is McCain’s… Read More

All the excitement is building up this morning for the Governor’s inauguration starting at about 11AM over at the Memorial Auditorium. We go into session at 9AM, for just a bit of housekeeping, mainly to distribute our tickets to the show today, before we get shuttled overto the festivities.We will alsoadopt a set of Joint Rules of the Assembly and Senate, something that hasn’t been done formally for a decade I’m told. The interaction between the 2 houses has been done under a less formal set of agreements. Hopefullynew ruleswill help us operate more efficiently and straight up, with less games and power struggles between the houses….OK, we can be optimistic, it’s still only 5 days into the new year, right? "I’ll be back" with more on how the ceremonies and other stuff goes today.… Read More

ARNOLD’S INAUGURATION DAY Today the 38th Governor of the State of California will be sworn in to a full four-year term in office. It is pretty clear that this will be a bitter-sweet day for Republicans as Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to make it clear in his inaugural address that he will be Governing as a centrist, which by my definition means that he will be hanging up any set of defining GOP principles and instead he will attempt to govern by finding ‘middle ground’ and ‘compromise’ on a host of issues that, from a conservative point of view, are issues that aren’t gray at all, but are black and white. Chief among these is the notion that California government is too large, and that it taxes to much, spends too much and regulates too much. Along with most Californians and the overwhelming number of Republican voters, I supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for re-election. Not simply because he would be an infinitely better Governor than Phil Angelides — as we saw on the campaign train, Homer Simpson… Read More

ARNOLD’S INAUGURATION DAY Today the 38th Governor of the State of California will be sworn in to a full four-year term in office. It is pretty clear that this will be a bitter-sweet day for Republicans as Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to make it clear in his inaugural address that he will be Governing as a centrist, which by my definition means that he will be hanging up any set of defining GOP principles and instead he will attempt to govern by finding ‘middle ground’ and ‘compromise’ on a host of issues that, from a conservative point of view, are issues that aren’t gray at all, but are black and white. Chief among these is the notion that California government is too large, and that it taxes to much, spends too much and regulates too much. Along with most Californians and the overwhelming number of Republican voters, I supported Arnold Schwarzenegger for re-election. Not simply because he would be an infinitely better Governor than Phil Angelides — as we saw on the campaign train, Homer Simpson… Read More

Sacramento Bee Columnist Daniel Weintraub reportsthat during the Big Health Care the Gov.will be"surrounded on stage by a dozen or so representatives from various interest groups with a stake in the debate, including employers, providers, consumers and others." They will then say what they won’t like or like about the program. Since the plan includes coverage forillegal aliens, was one invited to be on the stage?… Read More

Last night Iflew a red-eye from Florida with three colossally airsick kids, and I could hardly wait to post today. I spent a week and half exhausting every ride, every show and every parade Disney World has to offer, and all around me were metaphors for the coming legislative session…weird, huh?

As we floated through the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ride (newly refurbished with no less than four Jack Sparrow scenes!), one of the first sets is the bombardment of a village by a pirate ship. The villagers stand firm, fight back against superior fire power, while the pirate captain yells, “Raise yer white flags, ye scurvy scum!” If they had…would that have been considered a bipartisan move by California standards?

In the next scene of the ride, the shops and stores of the village are on fire. I wonder if I was the only Disney-phile thinking, “Wow, this is like all those Job Killer bills the… Read More

The following is an exclusive piece from Joel Fox, President of the Small Business Action Committee, who shares some very important perspective in response to the main stream media’s blow out coverage of the recent poll conducted by Field, on behalf of their client, the New America Foundation, an organization that supports universal health care coverage, starting with all children. They promote this "shared responsibility" doctrine which is a shift away from individual responsibility towards some sort of collective group responsibility, where the government plays a significant role in providing for health insurance for the people. Scary stuff. – Flash

FROM JOEL FOX… … Read More

Kudos to Jon Fleishman for his commentary on Joe Nunez. I had told him pre-Christmas that I was planning on posting about this appointment, but the holidays and President Ford’s passing away sidetracked me. Jon detailed the curious nature of this appointment. I just want to add a little more on reasons why my caucus needs to unanimously vote against this one.

As Jon reported, Joe Nunez is Chairman of the Alliance for a Better California (ABC), which ran the campaign to defeat the Governor’s initiatives in November 2005. ABC spent $80 million to kill the initiatives.

The LA Times reported (4/14/06): "Few people worked harder than Joe Nunez to sabotage Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political fortunes. A high ranking teacher’s union official, he helped engineer the Governor’s embarrassing defeat in the special election last year"

ABC, under Nunez, also filed a complaint against the Governor’s campaign with the FPPC for campaign… Read More